A few notes:
- Again, I said that the better teams can overcome the loss of IMPACT (read: top 6 FWs/top 4 DMEN) players. Prior to the season starting there isn't a single player that you listed as additions, outside of Carlsson (and even that is a reach considering he's a rookie) that I'd consider possible impact players.
- "The additional top-6 forwards also pushed down talents like Vatrano and Strome to the third line." I can't call the forward that has the second highest average TOI (and that includes Henrique) a third liner.
- "We had one top-4D last year in Fowler..." And now the Ducks have MAYBE two top 4D in Fowler and Minty (who has played above expectations, missed an extended period of time, AND has not been quite as effective after his great start to the season)? The talent the Ducks added on the blueline this year would/should be considered bottom pairing depth on the better teams around the league.
- There's a lot to be excited about for the future. I honestly think most of the new additions have played relatively well and have exceeded what I was expecting. With that said, anyone expecting a massive jump (hell, even a medium sized jump... think 6-8 spots) had too high of expectations for, both, the incoming rookies and offseason acquisitions.
Let's recall the argument is comparing last year's team to this year's team. Why are you changing/moving the goal post with this logical fallacy of comparing this year's team with the rest of the league or better quality teams? Only you brought that up. Remember that.
1. Last year's team had McTavish as it's 4th leading scorer at 43 points (0.54 ppg rate, 5th best on team last year) and he was a rookie. Kinda obtusely biased to give Carlsson an out because he's a rookie.
Currently, Killorn's ppg rate is 0.57, that's 5th best on the team; Carlsson's scoring rate is at 0.53, 6th best. Guess that stupefies your thought that Killorn isn't an impactful forward.
- Last year's Top-6 scoring forwards (raw points)
This year, we added Carlsson and Killorn to that group. That means this year's team is better than last year's team since we're adding two top-6 talents to the forward group.
2. Vatrano and Strome should have been pushed down to the 3rd line if everyone's healthy. But a lot of things changed between the two seasons. Terry forgot how to score more often (from 0.87 to 0.74 ppg) and Z forgot how to score (from 0.80 to 0.33 ppg). What a revelation to have Vatrano available to play up in the lineup this year! Oh shit... that means the Ducks have actual depth?! That literally blows apart your Point 1 argument with Killorn and Carlsson not being impactful players.
3. Again, why are you comparing this year's defense with the rest of the league when the argument is comparing to last year's team? You're using a logical fallacy to misdirect the argument.
Verbeek was able to admit his mistakes in his d-man collection last year by replacing almost everyone via trade, non-tendering, or demoting to the AHL. Even though the system sucks, we've improved the goal differential. That's a nod to our defense!
4. There you go again with your logical fallacy of expecting a massive or medium jump when the argument is between Last year vs This year. Let's keep that focus.
- Record after 73 games
- This year: 24-45-4 (52 pts)
- GD after 73 games
- Last year
- GF = 189
Short-handed goals = 1
Shutout = 4 times
- This year
- GF = 179
Short-handed goals = 11
Shutout = 10 times
Our GD did improve by 18, but we're scoring less than last year's team by 10 goals. The offense is much worse because 11 of those goals were short-handed goals! Our defense (namely our blue line) gave up 34 fewer goals. This reiterates that our blue line roster is better than last year's blue line roster, AINEC. Now, here's the bad part about our blueline, we've given up 80 goals against on the PK in 73 games. Last year, we gave up 78 goals against on the PK in 82 games.
We can't score at ES nor on the PP; nor can we stop other teams from scoring on the PK because we're an undisciplined bunch (299 TSH in 73 games this year; 280 TSH in 82 games last year). Since we can compare this year's team with last year's team, we can say that coaching staff and their system is woeful.
This year's team regressed at so many aspects from last year's team despite having a much better roster! This was not a successful campaign.
- The positives about this season are
- Gudas makes his d-pairing better (provided he's playing bottom-4 minutes)
- Vaaks looks good playing LD when healthy
- the defensive play at ES improved (thanks to the D-roster, rookies included)
- a lot of first time rookies got experience at the NHL level
Carlsson, Minty, LaCombe, Luneau, and Zellweger
- we traded for Cutter Gauthier
A majority of the positives are individual efforts. That implies either the system or the coaching sucks, or both. Since many of us consigned that Cronin will be retained, we're crossing our fingers that our youths take steps forward from Terry to our early, first round 2024 selection next season. We don't know if the next assistant coaches will be better or just as worse, see Cronin replacing Eakins.