Yeah, um not really sure what you're trying to get at with this. You act like 2 years is enough time to take a laughing stock NHL team and turn them into a Stanley Cup champion. In case you missed it we did make the playoffs last year and give Pitt a run in the first round. And in case you've missed this entire season, the Blue Jackets might have the most injury plagued team in NHL history this year. So yeah as a fan, I'm not disappointed at all with PJD in his TWO seasons. Emphasis on the TWO for you buddy. Seriously this thread is a joke.
Hold on a sec. The 2012-13 team was something like 93% built by Howson, with a small amount of carryover from MacLean (basically Boll, Dorsett, and Mason) and a bit from Kekalainen (Gaborik and Comeau). That team only missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker.
The 2013-14 team was (for Howson)
- Out of 1,476 man-games by skaters, players he acquired skated 1,257 of them (85.2%).
- Of the 231 goals scored (13th in the NHL), his guys accounted for 209 of them (90.5%).
- His goalies accounted for 2,207 of 2,310 saves (95.5%).
- In the playoffs, all 18 of 18 goals scored against Pittsburgh were by players he acquired (100%), 31 of 32 assists (96.9%), and 49/50 overall points (98%).
Here's how the current team looks:
- Out of 1,200 man-games by skaters, players acquired by MacLean account for 4.8% (Boll's 58 games), by Kekalainen 37.4% (449 games), and Howson 57.8% (693 games)
- Out of 153 goals scored, MacLean players account for 0.6% (1), Kekalainen 23.5% (36), Howson 75.8% (116)
- Out of 428 total points by skaters, MacLean players account for 1.2% (5), Kekalainen 23.1% (99), Howson 75.7% (324)
Herein lies the problem. This was a "laughingstock" that missed out on the playoffs only due to a tiebreaker two seasons ago, and one that made the playoffs last year with basically the same roster that was constructed by the previous regime. Yet this team has gotten both further away from that and also further away from the playoffs at the same time. The 2012-13 team allowed the 10th-fewest goals in the NHL. Last year's team was 13th in goals scored and 12th in goals against. This year's team is 24th in goals scored and 26th in goals against. In addition, the team identity that was forged in the last two years of being a brutally physical and relentless team seems to have been completely forgotten.
THAT is the problem.
This was not a rebuilding team. This was a team that had a lot of the pieces in place already and simply needed time to continue to come together. The subtraction of Umberger and the addition of Hartnell (June 20 2014) was adding one more piece to the puzzle and getting one step closer to becoming a contender. Since then it's gone completely backwards. And with the latest move, we've seen a team that had come so far and a franchise that looked to have permanently shed that "laughingstock" label sink right back into it.