Vegas mortgaging away depth to keep Lehner and bring in Pietro punched us in the face last night. This wasn't your run of the mill poor effort game in my opinion. The team tried their best.
Kolesar's best is turning over the puck until they get the right 2 on 1 to get one past Fleury. Tuch's best is less without a playmaker on his line. Glass's best is less without an elite power forward to make plays for. I honestly wish DeBore would have played Cody between Patches and Tuch and let one line languish because they were missing Stone instead of two. Stephie works centering that line because he has Stone to be the playmaker.
I mentioned last night that they were better defensively than I expected, and they were, but the fact is you lose an important defenseman and not only does every pairing get scrambled, but you are trying to ice a legitimate cup contender with now-stable but un-special Holden, hot and cold spectacular play then gets the puck and summarily dishes it right to opponents Hague, and "why is he even playing at an NHL level?" Coghlan. When we didn't offer Merrill, I was elated and didn't think it would be possible to bring in a dman that makes me miss Merrill. I was wrong. Coghlan will be an NHL player someday, but man does he need more seasoning at AHL level and not at the expense of VGK turnovers.
The truth is that if we can stay somewhat healthy, the team is good enough to make the playoffs, then you can bring some players up without concern over cap. Having Brown, Dugan, even the ability to see if O-Regan and Sikura have games that can translate to VGK success, will be nice, not to mention Dorofeyev with his offensive aggressiveness. But I want this team to be the best in the league today, and with zero depth, they aren't.
