Well, I wasn't really singling out Bonose (even though his post was the one I quoted)... I don't really "get" actively cheering for a tank or being excessively negative about the team myself. There's just as much evidence for a full-blown rebuild throwing teams into hockey purgatory as there is for it being the road to NHL success. For every Pittsburgh or Chicago, you have an Edmonton (or until recently, NY Islanders and Florida), who suck for years and apparently get locked into a cycle of mediocrity and foster a losing culture.
Where my opinion seems to diverge from the talking heads in management is that I'd like to see a less aggressive retool. I'd hoard my picks, I'd use cap space to take on bad expiring contracts (i.e. Tervainanen/Bickell, the Datsyuk trade, etc etc). I'd bide my time and try to bring in as many picks, prospects and youth as possible in the hope of getting lucky. If you cast a net wide enough, you just might manage to net some good talent. There's no guarantees obviously though... and I'm not sure ownership would ever sign off on a management style that is admittedly rather "laissez faire" about where we finish in the standings
Anyhow, I get off on that rabbit trail only so people *get* where I'm coming from and I don't come off as some wannabe dictator attempting to hijack the conversation
Back on point, to some extent I *get* the negativity... when you consider the quality and talent of the team back when we were contenders, it's difficult to be as upbeat about this squad. Throw in the lack of high end talent as obvious successors when the Sedins retire/decline and the iffy management and coaching and it becomes easy to see how there's so much negativity. Teams like Toronto and Edmonton have a lonnnnnnnnng ways to go yet but they have some pretty exciting young talent that makes them fun to watch.
We have *some*, but it's gonna be quite a leap for them to become as good as a McDavid/Matthews type, or even Sedin replacement level caliber. I really like guys like Bo and Sven, but as the saying goes "It is what it is".
So yeah. Maybe you're right and it balances out... maybe it doesn't though. Like I said, I understand the feelings of malaise, given we don't seem to have much to look forward to.
Like I said above, even though I was quoting your post, I was kinda picking a fight with both camps (both the excessively negative and the excessively positive). My apologies if it felt I was targetting you explicitly.
I haven't seen too many projections of people here but MS literally just posted how he anticipates us to finish significantly higher than the mid-sixties in points. Honestly, other than a few publications, I'm not sure anyone is *that* down on this team. And it's pretty hard to get that low of a total when there's points for OT/shootout losses and every game is decided (one way or another). But maybe I should just shaddup and clarify who exactly you're trying to address here...?
Oh, I agree it was a fairly entertaining game for sure! And it IS encouraging for sure... but I think it's also fair to wonder how many times we'll be able to climb out of that kind of hole with our iffy offense and facing stiffer competition. We'll see I guess
Ugh, given that a guy like Hamhuis signed for a tiny bit more (3.75M) I'm not too sure about that... my phone is low batt and I'm too lazy to dig up more applicable comparables but I think most would agree that $3.6M is pricey for a bottom pairing defenseman. Heck, Braydon Coburn gets something like that and he can play up in the lineup if necessary... don't think Sbisa can, really
Agreed. I never said otherwise!
Sure, but star players and good players tend to slump less often and have slumps shorter in duration. I think it's a pretty valid concern. And again, just because I'm more modest in my praise of the players doesn't mean I don't mostly agree with what you said.
Fair enough. We'll have to agree to disagree then. But hey, I'll be around too and look forward to a few more good arguments before I keel over or get banned (I speak in jest)
