The one outcome I'm hoping the team avoids is settling into that shitty purgatory of being a borderline playoff team that barely makes the playoffs with zero chance of doing any damage. They make no meaningful progress toward the Cup, and they make no meaningful progress toward the rebuild by landing top-5 picks and restocking the prospect pool with impressive, top flight talent.
I think Sid, Geno and Letang will be good enough to keep them hovering around a playoff spot for several years, even if they've got no real shot at making a run anymore.
That's what I'm least excited about. I get and appreciate the whole legacy thing, and I really do appreciate the Sid/Geno era, I just don't want this team to refuse to close the chapter because of nostalgia. /shrug
I said before; this is like a really good show that I've watched and enjoyed for many seasons finally coming to a close. I'd rather they just finish the story and let it end than to keep pushing out mediocre episodes/seasons in order to continue to milk the cash cow. (I do think that's the main driving point behind these dudes sticking around for another several years. It's not about icing the best lineup, it's gonna be about selling jerseys and putting people in the seats--especially in post-Covid where revenue took a massive hit.)
I don't know. I'm not gonna be bent outta shape either way, I'd just like the team to commit one way or another. Rebuild and sell everything, or go out and land some significant additions to surround this core with a better mix to get one final run, maybe two, out of the era. The status quo of just kind of letting things play out and floating along the lazy river is shitty and boring--though I think it's the runaway favorite for how it'll all play out.
I do think Geno's potentially catastrophic knee situation is gonna go a long way toward figuring out how this team winds down at the end of the era, though. If his knee is cooked, which seems possible at his age and based on the rumors of multiple ligaments being significant damaged, he may well hang 'em up in a year or two after trying to give it a go. I don't think that's a likely outcome, but the situation is definitely one to wait and watch. Letang's aging better than the centers and is playing arguably his best hockey, but the wheels are gonna go sometime and it's gonna get ugly fast. Sid's just kinda cruising, and his PPG season last year saw him feasting on bad/awful teams and racking up a handful of EN points. He looked awful, as did his wingers, against the Isles.
