That's not that bad a record when 5 of those games were missing Karlsson, and the other was his first game back with zero training camp.
The reality is the team was playing fundamentally different prior to the slump, and the stats bare that out, here's a few key metrics, and our league wide rank for games up to the 2nd game in sweden, vs games after the trip:
Metric | Pre slump | Post Sweden |
FA/60 | 42.74 (10th) | 46.49 (27th) |
FF% | 50.29% (11th) | 46.75% (27th) |
GA/60 | 2.72 (23rd) | 3.02 (30th) |
GF% | 52.17% (11th) | 39.17% (30th) |
SCA/60 | 26.85 (7th) | 31.26 (28th) |
SCF% | 50% (14th) | 44.36% (31st) |
HDCA/60 | 9.31 (3rd) | 11.8 (25th) |
HDCF% | 51.08% (13th) | 42.89% (31st) |
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I used the trip to break things up, but going through the game log, I'd argue that a little later in November is when they really fell off.
The team started playing the season well, buying into Boucher's system, albeit with some hiccups here and there, but something changed shortly after the trade, and our scoring chances and high danger chances allowed per 60 really shot up.
Maybe the trade disrupted the locker room, maybe they just gave up hope after a prolonged scoring drought, maybe a losing streak caused the coach to lose the room, but for whatever reason, the defensive metrics went out the window.
We deserved to be where we were coming home from Sweden, on course for around a 100+ pts season, and we deserve to be where we are now, on course for last in the league.