In the interest of fairness, my quoting your post is almost solely about Carrick and co. being sold as the ticket to the playoffs. I don't think management expects any more out of Carrick than to play a couple games, enjoy himself, and come back hungry and with a good sense of what's next to work on. I don't think that Hillen factors in to the team plan as anything but a 7th defenseman come playoff time. The rest is a general address about a few repeating themes that have been weighing the discourse of the board down a lot, in my personal opinion (Erat and the 4th line, positioning, etc.). Some people, and not you in particular, but some people are becoming so consumed by smaller details that they can't see improvement when it's staring them in the face, or getting so far ahead of themselves that they forget that some of these things will resolve themselves with plenty of time to spare. I usually don't throw out quote bait, but when it comes to things like Erat, I'll eat crow if he's still toiling around with the dregs of the lineup being worthless by the Olympic break, and that's playing it safe. Ambitiously, I give it maybe a month before he's getting regular scoring line time. Don't get me wrong here, either, because some of them are valid (like your cap management point), but not all, and some are mountains out of molehills.
As for Carrick's size, well, I don't expect any growth in height, maybe, but I also don't expect him to continue the rest of his NHL career with a teenager's body and muscle mass. Carrick's number one flaw in my eyes, through preseason and last night, is his strength on and off the puck relative to NHL competition. Against marginal players in the preseason it was less glaring, but still evident. Against Bollig, a certified man-mountain that was being used heavily against the Hillen-Carrick pairing, there was no chance. Even if he never grows to floor those guys (which he won't), a year or two of aging and gaining that strength as he grows NHL ready will put him in a better position to make plays against guys that you would expect him to handle with more regularity, and that's why I say it's fixable. If his actual skill level never takes another step forward, he'll still be a better (and probably serviceable) player for getting his strength and conditioning to the NHL level.
In any case, this whole board has this weird post-deadline mentality when there's an entire season left to play, like the playoffs are looming and the team is still figuring out how to tie its skate laces, and apparently drawing on recent coaching mistakes to make the assumption that not a single aspect of this team will be making any improvement throughout the year. Believe me, I have my own reservations about management and roster composition when it comes to this board's talking points, and that's not even getting started on things that haven't been mentioned in a while (I don't think Hillen should be on this team as anything but a 7), but some of this is either exaggerated or jumping the gun by a mile.
Fair enough.
Look, to me it's simple. The defense is not good. It's bad enough, that it will make our young/impetuous/mercurial playing goaltenders look worse than they really are. Last night is example #1. Most people on this board want to blame Holtby for the loss, and that is simply unfair. Yes, he directly blew goal #5, which in turn lost the game, but man....the defense was giving up a TON of ice to the Hawks forwards, all night long. As I quoted earlier, were any G in the league playing behind our team, I don't see less than 4 goals against. I don't care who they were. And assuredly Neuvirth wasn't shutting them down, and that is not a slight to MN.
George has failed us with the defense, he just has. Playing Connor Carrick, a 19yr old, long shot pick (do not pretend 5th is assured of anything) who is from the good ol North AmericA -- read, highly seen and scouted-- was an indictment of the rest if the defense. Olesky, Orlov,
Kundratek, Schmidt, Schilling, Wey, etc etc. None of them could play their way onto the team. We also have an FA dude named Cvajovsky or whatever, almost making the team.
Who in the hell are these guys? Where is the actual NHL talent on the blue line? Not AHL fodder, NHL journeymen, or young not yet ready defenseman! We all know dmen take longer to mature... So let's actually get YOUNGER on the back end. Brilliant!!! It's another incarnation of George just not giving a **** about the back end. It's stupid.
And frankly, the trade deadline....I'm not sure what's the expectations are there? We have zero cap space. Like nada. So any dman coming in will need to be exactly matched up with salary going out. That is a lot harder to fix during the season. "Pure Hockey Trades" like that are not exactly George's wheelhouse, either. Sure, send out picks/prospects for a fringey add on? George is your man. Player for player? Not so much. He's had the Flash/Hannan trade. He's had.....ahhhh.....ummmm.....I don't know. Do we have to go as far back as his ill fated Linden/Zubrus for Zednik/Bulis deal? So 2 such trades?
Ouch.
We also need to realize that any dman that will truly make a difference here will need to be a top 4. Those are not cheap in salary cap monies. So yes, we are looking at a higher priced F going out. George has *never* done a high priced forward for high priced defenseman trade. As in Not Ever. 16 years and counting.
So pardon me if I think the seasons Cup chances are bleak. Sure, we can aspire to the "get in and get lucky" thought process that's some espouse. However, we've seen that never actually leads to a cup. Least, not in the last 20 years.
So this year, while possibly fun for the offensive fireworks ahead, will probably be another wasted year of Ovechkins prime. And that pisses me off.
End venting.