I don't think they viewed it as such. Drouin came in instead of Radulov and expectations were high around him, with a couple new guys on defense too. I don't think they knew what to expect but all in all, i see no reason why they couldn't seet themselves as at least a PO bound team.No matter how we called it, at the beginning of the training camp, players looked at the team and saw a bottom tier team. Starting the season with 9M in cap space was seen as an insult to them. Did they intentionnaly or not decide to not give 100% is debatable but they weren't commited 100% that's for sure.
Our problems had nothing to do with commitment. When people say that, it takes away the spotlight from the real problem, lack of talent.
Bergevin mentioned the attitude was bad right from camp. That if we had a better win, we don't have 40 losses. Yes, he specifically said "we don't have 40 losses" because there is no way he'd get away stating "we'd be in the POs". I mean, sure, maybe with a better attitude, we are at 39 losses or 38, but we aren't much better. When he repeats attitude a million times, it's to shift more blame onto the players in order to downplay the massively inadequate and untalent team he has assembled.
The man is just trying to manipulate and talk his way out, and some people like yourself bought into it.
Petry-Alzner is the top pair if Weber gets hurt...Danault is our top center, but I hear more about commitment than this obvious lack of talent..