Quote:
Originally Posted by TrentCrimmIndependent
I feel like we would've seen signs if they were going to fade into the bottom 10.
I thought the trip through Vegas and SLC was the start of it (like every one else), but it turned out to be the outlier. Now I'm not sure I'm seeing it. There's too much fight in the group. But maybe the talent level will catch up with them around the 40-60 game mark and they'll find their way there.
Given that the PP and PK can't get much worse and they're still picking up points, it throws more doubt on the bottom 10 finish for me. Guys like Kuzmenko, Sharangovich and Kadri won't stay cold.
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Right now, they’re 9th in Goals against and 24th in Goals For.
If they’re going to be a bottom-10 offensive team, they’d better be comfortably in the top-10 for goals against, probably top-5, if they’re gonna make the playoffs.
Yes, the PP and PK can’t get much worse.
But they can stay this bad. Unless Kuzmenko and Sharangovich figure something out in a hurry, the powerplay is going to remain lost, because there remains no true offensive catalyst on this team.
They’ll still need to play Vladar every 4th night to showcase him until the deadline. He’s probably not giving up one goal a night.
They will sell Kuzmenko + whoever else, and those spots will be filled with AHL callups who will probably score more but won’t be experienced enough defensively to overcome veteran teams who are gearing up for playoffs.
Wolf’s gonna win them games this year they shouldn’t. Tonight, for one.
But they give up the 7th most shots per game. I don’t see them improving much in this area because it’s so hard for them to carry the play. So few of the guys on this team are comfortable with the puck on their sticks for more than a second.
Backlund, Kadri, Zary… that’s basically it. I don’t understand why nobody knows how to protect the puck or box a defender out, or why they all stop skating as soon as the puck lands on their stick.
If they can hold it together, cool. I’m not rooting for them to fail, I just don’t think a roster that drafted 9th overall last year can run it all back + Dustin Wolf and achieve a vastly different result.