While ploffs may be a long shot, I don't think it's out of the realm of reality just yet. It's critical, the patient's on life support, but I'm willing to wait until the halfway mark before pulling the plug altogether.
Three things will need to happen:
1. Fix the -31 goal differential. That's on the goalies as much as the defensemen & forwards not making smart defensive zone plays.
2. The lack of scoring from the blue line has really hurt. The entire blue line has ten goals, I think Wideman and Russell had as many last season at this point.
3. Special teams - sigh. Right now they stink out loud - 2nd worst PP, worst PK (by a mile), I would settle for mediocre.
They'll definitely need to string together a few minor winning streaks (2-3 games) to get closer, and it's frustrating because their play is *almost* there - everything is off by half a step, half a second, or get a comeback killed by a muffin goal against.