We hurt, we have lost something precious, so we cast about, striking out, looking for blame, pointing fingers where they don’t belong. We even get personal and hurtful by accusing some of lack of effort and of caring. We have suffered for so many years; we had glimpses of something beautiful and now it seems gone.
We’ve been mesmerized by the “poetry in motion” of Matthews in full flight; breathless at the magic spun by Marner, blown away by how easy Nylander could make it look, dazzled by Rielly’s effortless gliding all over the ice, at Gardner’s brilliant foray’s, or Anderson’s octopus like defending.
We forget how far we’ve come in a few short years; we forget that it’s not easy, that management has done its best to fill in the holes as we take time to mature-that while the necessary veteran presence isn’t exactly what we wish for, we forget that there are few Roberts, Tucker’s and Clarke’s out there. And we know that even if those pieces were out there , it’s too early, it comes with a price tag, the refusal to sacrifice our youth and talent and to forego the quick fixes out there because there is a cost -violating the only hope of long term year by year excellence, the patience of drafting and developing internally.
We know we are in dire straits-our Marner, Matthews and Nylander are morphed into our opponent- but they are men, they are 10 years older, they are grizzled and savvy, they are Marchand, Bergeron, Krejci, Nash. They are deadly, poised, efficient, positioned.
But we love them and hope is eternal, we will cheer Monday and pray that our frenzied home environment will raise us up again, that “puck luck” comes full circle our way for a change, that our golden boy Anderson returns to brilliance. We want to see Kapanen’s early brilliance not result in nothing but the ring of a metal post. We notice that our opponent has full rein in the sweet spots in front of our net-yet we have no such freedom at the other end, and we want a solution.
Here’s to a complete reversal because of better execution, nothing else, not some delusion we aren’t physical enough or our defense is useless-Pittsburgh has proven it can be done consistently with a no name defense, and without half our talent back there. Good teams improvise and make adjustments.
