Here’s an idea. The better teams have their top players at the top of the Fantasy rankings. Yes, I acknowledge that Fantasy rankings are not the end all be all, but for the sake of this argument, can we acknowledge that having our top forwards ranked at 51, 78 and 95 is far less than desirable?
Fantasy hockey top 100 forward rankings
In general, I feel that most, if not all of our guys, are playing up one line, and perhaps even up one league. It seems like this franchise has always had below average players, all things being equal (comparing apples to apples with other teams…fighters, first lines, top defensive pair, etc.)
If we are going to be that effort / energy / grind-it-out team, why not take advantage of this league getting softer and softer. Let’s go the other way from the league trend. We are already playing 3 or 4 guys who would not even be on the roster of the top 8 teams in the league, so why not put 2 or 3 or 4 players out there that keep other teams scared of getting hit on every shift. IDK who those players would be, and yes, I know most of the other teams have only have one loose cannon / guy who people fear at least a little, but we have none.
If we are going to have 4 guys in the lineup every night who should not be on an NHL roster, then let’s go get 4 SOBs from wherever and put one on each of the 3 lines and one D-man. Who cares if they average a point every 10 games because that's the production we get from the bottom of our lineup anyway. We don’t need to have goons / fighters necessarily, but do you think Bjorkstrand and Laine would be floating around with Tom Wilson on the ice? Nope.
Teams play us at full speed because they have no fear playing against us. Plus, their talent levels are often such that they can play a 90 to 95% effort game and beat us. We need every player to play at 100% to have a chance. And it’s been that way for 20 years.
