The part I love about all of this, is that with the contrarian set it's the skill players who get **** on when they go through normal growing pains or slumps, but meanwhile the crap players get free passes even when they're 10 year vets.
I don't give anyone free passes, I just don't exaggerate like many of the clowns who post here.
Folin had an awful first period, Voracek had an awful game, Provorov had a bad game.
All three are factual assertions that pass both the eyeball and analytic tests.
But if Folin doesn't get a pass, why should Voracek and Provorov?
The fact that Provorov will bounce back doesn't negate THIS game.
In a game thread, how you play that game is what matters, not whether you're a core player .
Hagg and Lehtera have been solid so far, great players, uh no, but given their roles (Hagg is getting 3rd pair minutes, Lehtera as 4C playing the fewest ES minutes of all the forwards), they've played up to and even exceeded what you'd expect from that role. Maybe it's a fluke, or maybe they've improved from last year.
Silly to jump to conclusions after 2 games, like I've said, 1st quarter of the season is the shakeout cruise in all sports.
We just saw Toronto lose at home to Ottawa, does that mean Ottawa is the better team? Doubtful.
Hextall is going to want all 3 defensemen play for a while, see if MacDonald gets his legs back, whether Gudas gets his mojo back, whether Folin is serviceable - and he's not going to jump to conclusions off one game. Notice Sanheim, despite his struggles, got his minutes, they want him to succeed.
The second and third lines are works in progress, and I doubt the 1st line will look this bad going forward.
Right now the Patrick line looks very shaky, but we saw what they could do last year. No need to panic.
Hakstol needs to rest Raffl at times, he's had injury issues and plays a physical game that starts to wear on a player as he ages. Same with Simmonds. So I expect more "idiot" threads when he does so, even if it's a "smart" long-term move.
We've seen too many marginal players go from solid one season to off the cliff the next year, and the only way to see if a player has NHL legs is to throw him out there. You want to find these things out early in the season when you have time to make moves, instead of having to pick up a Mrazek for a 3rd rd pick out of desperation.