It's tough.
It's not just a failure, it's a regression.
You can see from New Jersey how precarious a season can be if you can't get the goaltending that you need.
But it's not as if they're lighting up the lamp with the league leaders. 13th in goals per game.
The team feels massively different with Pinto in the line-up. He's impressing me in terms of his compete level as the team implodes.
So losing him was a blow. I do think that it's 41 games of motivation for him to play his guts out.
Aside from him, the issues were all predictable. Unproven goaltending. Guys with health issues (Chabot, Norris) having health issues. Kubalik floating around.
They give up the first goal so easily and so quickly that it's impossible not to feel the sense of familiar dread.
I mean, what kind of statistic is that? How is a team in a league as competitive as it is right now supposed to overcome that kind of challenge on a nightly basis and not slowly go insane?
"We're going to keep working on our game etc. etc."
They all have the thousand-yard stare. Chabot is finally getting going and Chychrun doesn't have a clue as to what he's doing. He's completely checked out.
This is what Giroux signed up for? Two years of it out of three now? Man.
It reminds me of Alfredsson giving up on the team for an opportunity to play for a squad that presumably had their shit together. (They didn't). I wouldn't blame Claude at all if he bolted. He looks like he has plenty of hockey left.
Sanderson is like Sir Galahad, vainly trying to keep the team afloat. His confidence is impressive - even when he makes mistakes, it doesn't change how he plays. Does he have a Niedermayer type ceiling? That seems unfair to him at this point, but he has that full ice impact that is so rare.
The other guy that deserves mention is Mathieu Joseph. The trajectory of his play this year has been astounding really - to go from tradeable now please! to irreplaceable in the same season just shows the havoc that a guy with wheels who cares as much as he does can do.
Stutzle has never felt so low and it shows. I think he blames himself because he's assumed this role as the #1C and he's finding it hard to replicate last year's magic. Definitely flashes of what used to be a nightly thing. I think he's probably never been hurt this bad before either, and he's having a hard time playing through it.
Martin is patient because there's no alternative. Work on the fundamentals. Brush off mistakes. Keep at it. It's going to take awhile with this bunch.
I'm a proponent of not making emotional moves, and I think you typically get pennies on the dollar when unloading talent, so you have to be careful not to make moves for the sake of making them.
Unfortunately, we may not have a lot of choice with our current drafting situation and the need to rebuild up the prospect cupboard yet again.
This deadline is the first real challenge for our new management crew so it will be interesting to see what transpires.
