Positives:
1.Darryl Sutter run team has some big players finally playing to their potential and has allowed for the emergence of Kylington. Having both special teams performing in the top 10 to this point has been incredible.
2.Road warriors and a road warrior in Mangiapane. Incredible performances in some tough buildings and gruelling eastern swings has been huge in setting the team up for success as they march into the meat of the schedule.
3.Goaltending and the shutouts have been truly amazing to watch. It’s funny what great goaltending can accomplish for a team and it’s been sorely lacking stability for so long here.
Frustrations:
1.Slow starts offensively for Backlund, Monahan and Coleman have held this team up from being truly elite this year up until this point.
2.Handling of Valimaki is becoming puzzling and is reminding me of Baertschi to a degree. It’s disappointing from both sides, hate to see Valimaki pouting and at the same time I feel like he should have drawn in a few more games up until now.
3.Tkachuk, Gaudreau, Mangiapane all not being figured out contract wise heading into the season. I could understand two but to have all three of those players long term contracts not cemented and now all having paces of either career years or best year in a while is going to prove to be costly for GM Treliving. Adding in Kylington to that mix just further complicates things, it’s the 3rd frustration I’ve noted of the 3 asked but it’s by far the most annoying frustration of the bunch for me.
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