C’mon... I said last year that it was bad and likely to be worse this year. Sadly, it’s coming true.
All of us had our rose colored glasses on at the start of the season, but the 0-7 was a killer. The next dozen games breathed hope into us again, but EVERYTHING was going our way.
Remember the “experts” had us pegged to miss the playoffs, and it’s looking like they’re right.
Remember the big picture here - this team had virtually no “2000’s” at the start of the year. Yeah some trades were made, but no team is gonna give up a top shelf 2000; they’re gonna give us their spare parts. You really need good 19 yr olds to compete.
On top of that, our #1 draft pick was an obvious play for the future; certainly not this year. Most teams’ #1 is giving them real production every game. Gaudreau has played in 12 of 42 games, some in relief. Nobody was expecting him to take the number one goalie job.
On top of that, the injury situation has been ridiculous. The makeshift lines for the first 3 weeks of the season meant that nobody was playing with the linemates they were slated to have. It took the team a whole month to even get some reasonable lines together.
Finally, the import draft was a sh** show. Took a risk on a defenseman who had sustained a major injury. He may be the real deal next year, but has not been a major contributor to-date. Ya, the points look good, but lots of those on the power play. The Berka draft was a total mess. So we really haven’t seen studly play from the imports.
The boys needed 4 or 5 points last weekend, but couldn’t get it done... close, but just made enough mistakes to lose. Beating Erie could give a flicker of hope, but anything less than a 4 point weekend will likely be the end.
