Let's see how the team reacts against Calgary, if it's another disappointing loss in similar circumstances then I think there's reason to worry. But the boys have been rolling this month and they're missing Fiala, I'll give them and Tmac some leeway. I had my concerns post all star break in February, but they've rounded out a lot of issues this month. If the bad habits start to creep back in or Fiala is out even longer than expected then it will fall on TMac to sort it out before the season ends. Can't go into the playoffs on a bad note.
Again, just to be clear--I'm not even worried about the loss. Sometimes you're gonna get goalied, that's really all that happened. Still only allowed two goals etc.
I'm worried about the behind the bench decision making after getting punched in the mouth because it's showing that TM hasn't learned a single damn thing.
I'm very careful to separate the process from the results here because the medium picture and big picture are right--but if we're looking ahead to playoffs and being honest about our problems, on paper this is a borderline juggernaut, Blake addressed the immediate concerns and the results show it. However, if every time things aren't going well TM is just going to bench anyone under 26 regardless of performance, it's gonna be a short playoff run as guys gas out. Look at how Kopitar died last year.
Going into last playoffs I figured maybe TM just was being saavy, didn't want to show his whole playbook, was treating the regular season like it didn't really matter...but when the same trends continued it became apparent that no, that's just the way it's going to be, stubbornly going down with the Titanic no matter what. We currently have all the ingredients for a deep run except in-game bench competence.
Shit I called AA costing us a playoff series miles and miles before it happened and i'm a complete shit for brains