Me personally, im just worried because the team hasn't actually looked all that good. The game vs. Dallas was their best. Its way too early to make a real evaluation but Im still seeing a bland offense coupled with a turtle defense. Getting Steen back may help, but he hasn't exactly been a stud lately either. I don't see how this team makes any real noise if they are icing the bottom 6 that they are.
I'm going to disagree here a bit, which is odd, because I am usually much more doom and gloom. But I think the season so far has been hopeful. We are operating with a really crappy line-up due to injuries. We were already thin on top 6 talent and heavy on bottom 6. Then we lose 2 top 6 and a 3rd liner who the team was obviously counting on for secondary goals. We were weak on the LHD side and lost our biggest minute guy there. That left us with young guys and 4th liners in the top 9. Yet we've won 80% of our games. 80% of points is 131 points on the season, which would be the President's trophy by 10+ points any year since the lockout.
We have positives: Petro is looking his best yet. Edmundson is settling into the #2 role nicely. Further they seem to compliment each other nicely. This will allow us to break up the JBo-Petro pairing which is probably less than ideal, and utilize JBo to bolster other pairings. We have Schenn looking not just that he can be a center, but that he can be a game-changer from that position, especially given his chemistry with Schwartz. That pairing means we can always run 2 scoring lines and be effective. Tarasenko despite not looking great can always turn it on and be dangerous, even out there by himself. Once Steen comes back, we will be able to add some scoring touch to the third line as well. Our defense is activating really well, and scoring goals because of it. That will really help us. Both goalies have played great for the most part. So plenty of good stuff.
On the downside, our injuries aren't all going away and we could potentially have more (knock on wood). Our youth is not making the impact on the scoreboard we might have hoped. So we will always be running thin on scoring depth until someone steps up their offensive game. Our tendency to turtle and consequently blow the lead is troubling. Its good we have the lead, but you have to be able to maintain those easy wins when you get out early rather than turning what should have been a blow-out into a nail biter (I totally agree with Brian that it is a consequence of playing safe with the lead and not a complete strategy, as we've struggled with it for years). So we will need to make some improvements and get lucky with injuries to go deep in the playoffs, but for 5 games in without Fabbri, I am more confident than I'd ever have expected.
