It's a relevant discussion to be having. It's great when we go on 9 or 10 game win streaks and beat up on lower seed teams but we are nearly a night and day team against the playoff teams. We just got thrashed by Toronto. We played Carolina pretty well and it was a winnable game.
But I think both games really exposed the belly of the beast, so to speak. Both games really highlighted just how sloppy we really are and what a joke our system is. These last two games look like a rec league team who plays 1x a week with each other, not a professional team who skates, plays, and practices 6-7x a week. The chemistry is just not there. There's little cohesion. Every now and then, they rev up and make it work, but the problem is, it's extremely inconsistent and not sustainable. I would gladly give up those pretty plays for consistent structured play. We don't have the assets to run and gun the way we have been. Sid and Geno are 34 and 35, not 24/25. They MUST change their approach.
This team rocked the structured play approach when Sid and Geno were out. They continued it pretty well once Sid got back. Now, with Geno back and both him and Sid back up to speed, the systematic approach has gone by the wayside. I just cannot overemphasize what a red flag this is and what it means for our playoff chances. We've seen "this" team before - 2018-2021. Three brutal 1st round losses. It's not a matter of talent or line combos or 5v5 adv stats...it's a matter of structure and discipline. We know it exists...we've seen it. And we all know what makes it go away.
One of two things needs to happen - Sullivan needs to brute force jam the system back into place, possibly creating major riffs between him, Sid, Geno, and Letang...or Sid, Geno, and/or Letang themselves need to recognize the downward trend and start speaking up about it while recommitting to structured play.
Sullivan needs to pull a Byslma in the tapes session. He needs to highlight Malkin's play in the last 2-3 min of the game yesterday. Replay over and over the absolute shit passing and puck management. Nice pass to Erod be damned. It's actually ERod nailing that shot and that extremely low percentage play working that will make Malkin continue to do it. Except it will not work far more than it will work, to the absolute detriment of the powerplay and general 5v5 play.