MS
1%er
Do you see no issue in using a sample where they literally had nothing on the line?
Dead team. New coach bounce. Any time the games got close to mattering they cratered. Even under Bruce there starts sucked.
I get it’s 60 games but largely the same exact lineup had 150+ games of mediocrity at best.
Also did you really think they played well in the first last night? If so, I think you’ve gone way too far in this “just wanna cheer” thing you’re doing.
They’re 0-3 because they can’t hold a lead and the opposition can turn a switch and win….going on about samples and breaks is weird to me.
That missing the #5 Dman from the bubble season crippled this team is not a positive imo.
Did they have something on the line in 20-21 when they played terribly? Or do we only ignore good play when the team is out of the playoffs?
Also the team did get surprisingly close last year and they were playing for something in their minds. That wasn't a post-deadline Brandon Sutter run when the team was 20 points out of the playoffs.
I'm trying to use 82 games from last year as a barometer. Yes, they may have gotten a Bruce bump. But this team was also a miserable mess under Benning and I'd been saying for years that everyone underachieves when you're on a rudderless ship with no direction. So I've never taken those results as the 'true measure' of the team either. We were clearly a far better team on paper than our record between the bubble and the firings.
I thought the first period last night was generally a solid low-event road period, and that the team actually responded pretty well after the dumb early penalty by Boeser and PP goal.
Myers was the teams ES TOI leader in the bubble season. Wasn't even remotely the #5 defender except in a couple playoff games coming back from injury when they left the Stecher-Edler pairing which was doing well together. RHD was clearly by far the team's biggest weakness coming into this season and they promptly had 3 of the top 4 RHD on the depth chart get hurt.