Was going to post this in last night's GDT but it got long so here we go...
"Fire the coach and get someone totally new. Get Backstrom and other vets off the ice. Play CMM and the young players. etc etc."
"WHY ARE WE SO INCONSISTENT???"
What I see is a team held together by a few strands that bond them together and not enough top level talent to win as favorites, but also some missing elements in playing style.
They need to sneak up on the best teams on any given night and someone needs to go into hero mode in order to beat those squads.
When you keep losing like this and you can't score more than 2 goals, and it's not for lack of trying, there likely isn't some scheme switch that will suddenly open the floodgates unless you already have talent that's being restrained (like when Gabby came in with the Young Guns).
You're not going to turn all these 2/3 and 3/4 liners into 1/2 liners by "opening things up" or whatever. You're going to get burned and put more pressure on your goalie and d-men.
I don't watch every minute of every game, or log every shift and line combination in "My Little Caps Diary", but what I see recently is sloppy puckhandling and inability to get the puck out of the zone, which is what leads to tired players and quick transition goals-against.
The lack of shooting isn't the only culprit. The poor possession skills are showing up big time.
This includes all our star players (Wilson, Ovie, Oshie, etc) who often seem content to float and wait for a chance to intercept the puck only to quickly fumble it or fling it into space when pressured.
I don't see inability to cycle among the lower lines, I see inability to convert those into good scoring chances. And the guys with the good shots don't seem to cycle or maintain possession well. Maybe typical of the NHL division of labor, but it seems magnified with this roster.
Do we have any role players anymore, or are we turning everyone into a Swiss Army knife? Maybe that's the problem. Bangers aren't banging and scorers aren't scoring.
