I’ll say what I said last November they are deep on D and have elite forward skill
I’m figuring from around November 5 to April 5 they have a top 5 record in the league
That’s 5 months
I’ll bring this back April 5 to see how I did
I’m more worried Tampa lost 7-1 to Arizona
They got serious issues. Not
realistically what are some problems of the team and what aren't problems?
relying on too many kid scorers... has always been a potential problem for any team. the number of teams where the young guys struggle far exceeds the number of teams where the young guys band together like the 1981 oilers. if we expect marchand/Bergeron/pastrnak/krecji to be enough scoring at playoff time... we will need to get very very lucky to have success. it might work for us, but smart money says we need backes to get healthy... and probably need to add a guy like rick nash… and even then we are very dependent on unproven kids for our depth
but... that said... we haven't had torey krug in the lineup for a single game yet. McAvoy was shook up against Edmonton I guess and has mostly missed 3 of our last 4 games we didn't win. that's our 2 best offensive dmen out of the lineup... and yes backes was out too. that's a lot of our vetern scoring depth. our 3rd/4th lines are pretty scary when backes is out of the lineup.
in goal... rask has not been as good the last few years as he was the first few years. hes still better than average, but better than average isn't really good enough. success at playoff time requires a goalie stealing games for you. we haven't seen rask stealing games. maybe hes just a big talented goalie that doesn't have that X factor mentally?
but... now our backup is as good as hes been since the days of moog/lemilen. and if the team performs well in front of rask… gets him a lead... shuts down the defense... weve seen rask post up results better than any goalie in history. rask wont cost us a chance to win. the biggest complaint is he cant carry a team that needs to be carried. hes a bit too expensive for what he gives us. could we finally be at a point we should trade him for a better money goalie? can an older goalie with winning pedigree be good enough to team with halak and give us good enough goaltending until the kids are ready? we have options here.
are we too small a team? are we too slow? speed is more about pace... playing fast hockey is more important than skating fast. the Bergeron/marchand line has eyes on the back of their head. they are clearly fast enough. I think the kids will be faster as they get confidence. we got talent on the blueline. we will be fast enough... but are we too small? do we disappear when the heavy play starts? guys like Bergeron and marchand cant be intimidated but having a lot of kids might make us vulnerable. I do think we could use a couple vets with decent size and team compete levels to help with the size
are we cup favorites if the kids don't come through for us? not a chance... we aren't nearly perfect enough to win without the kids finding their mojo
but are we close enough to make a couple upgrades and become a cup favorite if the kids do find their voice?
what im hoping for at this point...
solve calgarys goaltending woes by dealing rask to them for smith/bennett. bennett joins backes/Heinen on a 3rd line and we get a good upgrade there. meanwhile smith might have the hot streak in him that would do well at playoffs... and even if he doesn't, halak is a competent goalie that would give us competent goaltending if hes not overused. a tandem of smith/halak would be fine as we wait for vlader to hopefully upgrade the net in a couple years.
and then im hoping rick nash does sign on before December 1. let him join krecji/debrusk for a third line... but debrusk doesn't automatically get the spot. let Bjork/donato push him for the spot
a top12 forward group of
pastrnak/Bergeron/marchand
nash/krecji/debrusk {pushed by Bjork and donato}
backes/bennett/Heinen
wagner/kuraly/Nordstrom
would be a deep deep lineup for playoffs
and a defense of
McAvoy/moore
carlo/chara
miller/krug
with grez as the 7th is a deep deep defense
we aren't so far away from making this a reality and this would be a very strong playoff contender