The players honestly believed that this season was not going to be like last year..They did not come into camp with a dreary attitude carried over from last season. (not this again...)....Although in the last 2-3 weeks, as the heat gets turned up.. I agree, they (along with the rest of the squad) must be questioning themselves.
Both Boeser and Pettersson are just not physically able to play up their standards..Boeser was flying in the the first preseason game against the Kraken (I remember commenting in the GDT, about how his skating had dramatically improved)..He was absent after that game for the whole pre season..He's been a half step behind all season..I say he's currently got a bum groin.
I dont think they should move on from Pettersson...As to whats affecting his game, its both physical, and mental...Being a physical fitness/and health and nutrition nut, he has his own personal trainers in Sweden..He's an intelligent guy..Most top end players hire people outside their organizations to assist them in their hockey development skills...So,I dont see how the team fouled up his development in any way, and I bet if you asked him about it....you'd get a confused look..
I don’t think any player really comes in with doom and gloom on their minds no matter the team they are on. But reality starts to set in pretty quick. I think by the time camp broke there were the same questions that affected the team to start last season starting to pop up. There were curious decisions being made and you knew pressure was going to come immediately given the lack of success.
I won’t even say it’s a lack of effort or anything. It’s just a poorly constructed roster…never really had a fighting chance to be successful. Models etc can certainly be ignored but they’ve been pretty darn accurate which is why they get used and refined further.
Since the Avs-Knights-Ducks fiasco it’s hard to judge anything because quite frankly that should have been the straw the broke the camels back. All it showed was that ownership is MIA. I’m not shocked things got worse.
Boeser…i agree that something happened. It wasn’t just pre-season he started well but the season itself. His skating looked good. Now it’s back to the labored skating like when he came back from the back injury. That concerns me very much to tell you the truth. His confidence is also shot. Normally on that 2-on-1 he’s roofing it and it’s a foregone conclusion the red light is turning on. Instead he gives a terrible 2 foot pass to Pettersson.
Pettersson I don’t know what the issue is but while everyone wants to discount the wrist injury as being healed it may not be or it may really have messed with him in addition to the other stuff.
Horvat…he has his once a game individual effort and face offs and pretty much nothing else.
You can go down the list even more. Garland had a good start and then went MIA for 10 games. Came back for a few and was invisible last night as well.
I honestly think a large chunk of it is the problems for a lot of the forwards stems from the back end. You pretty much have 4 wastes of space on any given night back there.
