I know it pays to look at the positives sometimes, but is that enough for you? As a long-time in-depth fan of this hockey club, is a nice rookie camp and tournament enough to justify the complete ineptitude in every other category that we've witnessed this season? Perhaps I'm being short-sighted but I don't see what anyone on our management is bringing to the table at this point.
It's a valid question. For me, I choose to look at things a certain way but I totally understand if and when people don't see things the same way as I do and I won't judge them for being impatient or fed-up.
I was questioning certain decisions that were being made with this team like 10 games ago until Frenchy posted what was said by Quebec reporter François Gagnon basically confirmed my suspicions:
The management group decided this off-season that this season wasn't going to be a playoff year
no matter if we miss by 6 points or by 18 points and made decisions according to that. Too much deadweight, not enough depth.
1) That's likely a HUGE reason behind Roy quitting instead of coming back as coach. He likely wanted to keep adding and try to make the playoffs, flawed roster or not.
2) That's why we signed a bunch of cast-offs and buy-outs as warm bodies to fill our NHL roster : Tyutin, Weircioch, R.Bourque, etc. It wasn't because they truly thought these guys were going to be the difference (thank God!) and help us get over the hump.
3) When they promoted AJ Greer to the Avs and played him for 5 games and during those 5 games, he looked much better than 3-4 of the guys we have on this roster on a nightly basis and then they demoted him...I thought to myself..."what the hell? this is exactly the kind of guy we need, who forechecks & competes hard...don't the Avs want to win???".
Having John Mitchell center Duchene and Rantanen was just ridiculous. This is not the way you lineup an NHL roster. Mitchell has 1 goal zero assists in 26 NHL games, there is ZERO reason to give him 2nd line minutes. There's another 'questionable' decision that really left me wondering what the hell was going on.
So for me, having the notion confirmed by a reputable reporter really helped me come to terms with this year's Avs and allowed me to see things for what they are. When you take a step back and analyze everything, this is just SO much more preferable of a mindset than the old 'hey, let's keep what we have and make a run at the playoffs anyways'. Because that 'going for it' mindset when you don't have the pieces to compete means that you truly DON'T KNOW where you are at and you don't know what to do and you're just content spinning your wheels. Sakic & Co. know where this team is truly at and they know they've got a lot of work to do to overhaul this team.
I watched the game last night and I had a smile on my face. Particularly because of the play of one Nikita Zadorov. No he's not perfect and yes, he'll make mistakes but I just love his game, what it's become and what is still there to come.
