Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
Your position is extreme in the sense that it is pretty much the worst case of every scenario: The players overachieved last year; the record is inflated this year; the roster is at best average; the coaching has held the team back. The thing is, all of these things cannot possibly be true.
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I think it is possible that all those things can happen at the same time if you subscribe to the belief that 18/19 was totally unsustainable in every way and one of the biggest 3 month overacheiving stretches in recent history by any team. An extended hot streak that cannot be maintained in a million years. Did people not think it was too good to be true when we had 5 ppg players 3 months in? I think people are letting 18/19 skew expectations when none of the players except tkachuk seem capable of playing to that level in any given year. I mean Gaudreau got 36 goals ffs and was on a 120 point pace at one point if I remember correctly and more likely to be 20-25 goals than 36 ever again with his shot and shot selection. He's a ppg player every other year. Monahan nearly 50 apples. He's closer to a 50 point player than a 50 assist player in my eyes. Lindholm's assist production tanked in year two with the team thanks to Johnny and Monahan going back to normal. Giordano summoning his inner Bobby Orr for 70+ points. Yeah... thats repeatable. Luckily we have Matthew Tkachuk. Too bad he was signed to a bridge, that will burn us big time in a couple years.
The coach can hold the team back if he's just there, a warm body on the bench not adding extra value, which is what ward is imo.
The roster is 85-95 point level which is indicated by 3 out of the last 4 years playing at that pace. 18/19 the outlier. The coaching added zero wins to the baseline imo. The difference in opinion comes from analyzing what 18/19 truly was: overacheiving on steroids.