His whole game has improved. He even looks a little faster. It might be short lived but enjoy it while it's happenening.
Probably confirmation bias but he now seems to be winning board battles and gaining possession in those situations. First couple of years it felt like he just lost the puck every time there was a small skirmish around the boards.
I still think they are going to regress pretty hard this season or next especially when the goalies slump.
There’s no way they don’t regress.
A) the goaltending has been good - it hasn’t been THAT good.
B) They’re a $70M team with no star rookie skaters - they need ace level netminding or they don’t stand a chance against a team with an extra $18M worth of players.
I recall Dougie Hamilton after the Hurricanes lost to the Lightning in the playoffs saying “we lost to team $20M over the cap”.
That’s 2-4 extra studs throughout your lineup. It makes a huge difference
__________________ ”All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you.”
That may happen, but one of the things the team does have going for them is...everyone is fighting for jobs. Jobs that are there for the taking.
Thats pretty good motivation.
This is very true and IMHO is an advantage over a bad team is through its window and saddled with a group of aging stars on large contracts that have to play and eat a lot of minutes to justify their salary.
There's only one huge contract here and not much top end, so lines are rolled pretty evenly and a lot of guys can be moved around and displaced by youth pushing for jobs. So you have a pretty fluid roster where guys have to fight to keep jobs and young players are fighting to take them.
The result is a greater effort output most nights than say a former contender that's in its twilight and stomaching the back years of long contracts.
That may happen, but one of the things the team does have going for them is...everyone is fighting for jobs. Jobs that are there for the taking.
Thats pretty good motivation.
It’s good motivation, but motivation can only do so much.
A guy’s ceiling is what it is in a lot of cases, and no amount of conditioning and weights will help him think the game faster or turn his hands from stone to silk.
But sufficiently motivated men do interesting things, if Breaking Bad is any indication. And for a rebuilding team, all we can ask is that they try hard and be interesting.
Losing happens.
Boring is the true enemy.
__________________ ”All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you.”
I will also add that if the team is REALLY going to bottom out, it is more important next year and the year after, because of the top end talent available in those drafts.
There's some appealing guys at the top of this draft, including a number of centers, but it is a more average draft at the top end.
Could be, but no one really knows. There are future Hall of Famers in every draft.
It's December. The league gets tougher every month. Check out their schedule after the 4 Nations Cup - it's murder for 6 straight weeks.
Also, since the 4-0-0 start, they have been on an 82 point pace, which is usually the cutoff line for 10th last.
One small losing skid of 3 or 4 games, and playoff talk is over. They would slide right into the 6-13 from the bottom group.
Instead of saying "it's never come", I would be more inclined to say they continue to walk along the precipice.
They'll straddle the line but won't go over it. Just as they came back to earth after the start, they'll push back and win a few just as it looks like they're entering the lottery group discussion.
'Tis the way of this club, regardless of the roster it ices.
As for these 'murderer's row' stretches, when have they not risen to the occasion? If I recall correctly one of their best stretches last season was when they had the 13 games of death in november or whatever it was labelled.
A stretch against terrible teams would concern me more. They get up for the good ones.
They'll straddle the line but won't go over it. Just as they came back to earth after the start, they'll push back and win a few just as it looks like they're entering the lottery group discussion.
'Tis the way of this club, regardless of the roster it ices.
As for these 'murderer's row' stretches, when have they not risen to the occasion? If I recall correctly one of their best stretches last season was when they had the 13 games of death in november or whatever it was labelled.
A stretch against terrible teams would concern me more. They get up for the good ones.
Probably, but what’re you gonna do, leave?
__________________ ”All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you.”
