Detroit's offense was 5th from bottom by goals per game, sixth from bottom by shots per game, PP 4th worst (despite having the 7th most PP time in the league), bottom third in shots against, and could only be bothered to score first in a game 27 times. Yeah, Mrazek shares some blame but no Detroit goaltender was getting much help from the 18 guys in front of him (they weren't winning much even when Howard was healthy and playing lights out). This team is a dumpster fire inside a tire fire underneath a giant radioactive turd Godzilla left at the center of the ruins of Tokyo. Pointing out the tire fire in this scenario as the root cause of the team's miserable performance is pretty silly.
As for AA, sure, why not flip him for whichever ineffective, over-the-hill dman that Kenny has had a hard-on for for six or seven years. What's the value of having a gifted, exciting player capable of scoring goals if you're just gonna staple him to the bench for minor infractions while letting non-contributing but "hard-working" plugs rack up 20 minutes of ice time a night killing penalties and chasing the puck around their own zone for the majority of their shifts. I know I sure tune in to watch our skill-less drones meet coach's low standards for "playing the game right," which is infinitely more rewarding than watching creative players score goals, even though the games are boring as hell and we lose anyways. I mean it's not like the point of professional sports is to entertain us or anything, right?
