IMO our biggest issues are (and they should be easy to fix with COMPETENT!!! coaching)
1-We are slow through the neutral zone
Watched the second half of Toronto Edmonton last night and just for kicks:
-Both teams attacked the neutral zone with speed. Neither team turned the puck over much in the neutral zone. All the passing took place in the D zone, but the puck was given to someone who had speed, who skated up the ice quickly with at least one other player nearby as a passing option if he came under pressure in the neutral zone who matched the puck carrier's speed. Dzone D to F passes were made quickly and crisply. Even on set breakouts, such as after both teams change, this style was a constant for both teams and very few neutral zone turnovers from either side.
2-We don't move properly away from the puck in the offensive zone to get open and generate shots
-Watch Draisaitl move in the offensive zone without the puck. He is constantly moving without the puck to create a passing lane in a scoring area. Sometimes that means he's moving away from the net when a player on the strong side is moving towards the net. But it creates an outlet for the puck carrier to send the puck across net (so all the royal road fellaters are happy) and he shoots the puck immediately. ALL the good scorers do this. Who on our team other than sometimes Zibeanejad, and Tarasenko (though someone getting him the puck is another story), actually does that? They all go to the side of the net, behind the net, or set up to support the cycle and pass the puck around the perimeter. OK, Panarin does it sometimes, but when the puck comes to him he almost never just fires it off the pass. He handles it, fakes to the boards, cuts back to the middle, looks for a pass for a full second, then maybe wrists it at the net from a standstill if there's no pass. Skill aside, that's the difference between a 20 goal scorer and a 50 goal scorer. And he's not even the worst culprit.
-The offense is too uncreative. Why don't we see fake shots at even strength more? Subtle, shoulder faked shots before passes that freeze the D and goalie before the puck is moved? In the playoffs they will need to be more dynamic without the puck to create confusion, open passing lanes, and give defenders fits. As of right now they're not doing it.
So unless this is 4D chess where the team just plays rope-a-dope until the playoffs so they can trick other teams into thinking they suck and trick Igor into remembering how to play like a Vezina winner - and the'yre secretly lighting it up in practice to keep their skills sharp so they can still flip that switch come playoffs, they need to change their structure. They are too skilled and too weak defensively in a scoring era to try to play a defensive trapping style and try to consistently win games 2-1. BEST case scenario, that's how you go 7 games against lower seeds and burn yourself out in the playoffs. WORST case scenario you lose in the first round to a less skilled team.