The team is winning ugly on the back of a goalie that has played the last few seasons out of his friggin mind. Do you think Bob is a 2 time Vezina trophy winner because his team has played great in front of him? He has carried this team and we will only go as as far as his stamina and mental acuity can take us. The hope is that some of the fowards stop gripping the stick so frickin hard and begin to develop some sustainable offense. Wenny, Bjork, Jenner, but more importantly Cam, Foligno, Dubi are shells of their past performance. They are not building on their output they are in crisis mode.
How far can they go? It really depends on how offensive minded we can get from the blueline, without paying the price in the back end. If we constantly pinch to support the lack of offense can Bob continue to erase these breakdowns that allow higher probabilities of being scored against. So far so good. Then look & ask yourself when we get in the playoffs and things take off at a frenetic pace, will we maintain our composure and be able to hang with teams whose scorers really put the pressure on? It has been done before, but I am not sure that we are those teams. I would say that we are nearing a point in time where some of these guys that are holding on too tight are going to cleared out for players that can provide some scoring punch. When that happens a lot of what could have been likely will not be because we were counting not just Wenny being a little better, but on Dubi planying like he did two years ago not he shell that he has become.
Getting better starts by scoring more rebounds. What is the first line doing that the others are not? Two things, crashing the net & shooting the puck. I would tell Jenns and figs and Dub's.. if you cannot carry the puck and stick handle for the shot, get your ass between the dots and screen - take up space make the defenders work and I would have Atkinson, Calvert, Milano and Bjork take every shot they see, and everyone they don't. Put the rubber on net and we will start getting some gritty goals - otherwise wear some extra padding because you are still going to the net and Jones and Savard and Johnson & Murray are going to be green lighted to gain the zone and blast away from the point. Z and Nutti already have the green light to shoot at will. I recognized a long time ago that the emphasis to score is going to go more towards the blue line, simply because the forwards are being shut down.
Things changed a little bit wih Bread Luc and Andy. they have caught a little bit of chemistry. Luc is playing great up the middle, Josh is learning how to use all his tools, and Bread is the best skilled player we have ever had. As the team begins to look and act more on his feeds he is going to become more of a magician out there.