Yeah they are clearly in "Let's get this month over with" mode. I'm fine with it as long as they CAN flip the switch. The team looks bored and not interested. Nobody cares about the details. They just want to skate around and get to the playoffs.
But will those bad habits really come back to haunt us?
I don't like the idea of a team cruising and letting bad habits enter their game at any point in the season.
It's one thing to maybe not be going 100% every shift; you know, bail out of blocking a Shea Weber slapshot here or there, avoid a puck battle where you're likely going to get smoked. That kind of situation, I can sort of see them holding back. But overall general effort?
If they were losing games because they were playing average hockey -- not great, but not bad -- then I'd be more inclined to think they're holding something back for the playoffs. But it seems like when they lose, they collective do not show up.
I wonder how much of that is complacency. This is the exact same roster (barring 1 or 2 guys) who won the Cup last year. I think JR should have moved some of the dead weight out and switched up about a quarter of the roster (so about 4 to 5 players) so there'd be guys on the roster who haven't won yet and are hungry to show up every game.
