Lame Lambert
Fire Lou
- Mar 5, 2015
- 21,243
- 15,683
I never said this game should be treated as a regular season game. For 2 seasons we’ve watched this same group of players with 2 different coaches. They can’t score, they give up way too many high danger chances, and they are utterly incompetent on the PP. Now we’re going on year 3 and we see a team that can’t score, gives up a ton of chances, and is incompetent on the PP.Isn't ignoring the fact that it's a pre-season game ignoring part of the context?
I don't think anyone would suggest losing to the Devils B squad during pre-season is an indicator of a successful season but I do think putting too much stock into pre-season games is a mistake.
I've often said it takes around ten games for teams to settle in and expect that to continue to be true. The pre-season is a very different animal for veterans and B squads. Veterans can phone it in to a degree, especially when the game starts to slip away from them. That's not an excuse and I'm not saying that is exactly what happened, it's just a reality of the pre-season sometimes and we should be aware of that. Why expend tons of energy and effort for a game that is meaningless?
There are fans who are unhappy with the off-season and I get that, I'm not thrilled with what was done (or wasn't done) but this team is better on paper to start the year than the team that started last year. We'll see if it's enough to improve on A) the regular season and B) the playoffs, if we get there. The cap is finally going to rise and this is Lamoriello's final chance to show an improvement for me.
The fact that it’s preseason is irrelevant; this group has largely remained the same for the past 5 years and does not need to “work out the kinks”. Any optimism surrounding the team at this point is rooted in impaired pattern recognition or delusion.