I'm wrestling with this too - it's been a nice season, certainly better than I expected by replacing Giordano with Zadorov and Gudbrandson, hoping that Monahan's off season surgery improved him, and watching more "depth and experience" free agent signings..... I wasn't looking forward to this season, and Sutter and the players proved me wrong.
That said, something is clearly missing. They just barely managed to get by a not very good Dallas team. And now on the ropes against an honestly not all that well built Edmonton team. Like, the Flames are okay, but they aren't great. And we want them to be great, a juggernaut, but it's really really hard (elsewise every team would just... do it at will, or take turns or something).
So even if they lose tonight, to me the season isn't a failure and the team isn't garbage. But I don't feel as strongly as I was hoping to about keeping either Gaudreau or Tkachuk at this point. They're nice players, but not game breakers, not when it counts. Hopefully they prove me wrong tonight.
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