TomasHertlsRooster
Don’t say eye test when you mean points
If the team has better team defense then they spend less time in the defensive zone. If they spend less time in the defensive zone, then they spend more time in the offensive zone. More time in the offensive zone leads to less goals against AND more goals scored.
If the team has leave average goaltending then they are able to take more risks because they trust the goalie to stop shots from far out. If they take more risks then that leads to more scoring chances. More scoring chances leads to more goals.
This is just extremely wishful thinking on all parts. You could just as easily make the counter-argument that in order to tighten up defensively, the team would need to tighten up, and sacrifice a little more of their already pathetic offense. Neither argument is really substantiated in any way.
Again, this team is clearly not one or two pieces away. They're one of the worst teams in the NHL. Just look at their top players. Both Burns and Vlasic have fallen off a cliff, and they're each going on their 2nd season out of the past 3 where their even strength impact has been near the bottom of the league. Kane's strong performance on the power play this season has distracted everybody from the fact that he's been largely mediocre at 5-on-5, where Barclay Goodrow and Patrick Marleau have both equaled him in primary assists and passed him in goals. Couture's strong performance in the playoffs last year has distracted everybody from his mediocre play in the past two regular seasons. These are supposed to be the leaders of the team, they're being paid like elite players, and they all range somewhere between mediocre and bad this season.
Even our good players who are still having good seasons, like Meier and Karlsson, are playing well below the standard that they set for themselves in the past, and well below the level they need to play at if this team wants to win. Hertl was playing excellent before his injury, but most good teams have at least one player who is clearly better than Hertl.
And this is only looking at the top-6 forwards on the team. Honestly, when comparing them to a league average forward group, I'm not sure if it's the top-6 or the bottom-6 that stands out more. Our bottom-6 has been filled with absolutely atrocious players like Sorensen, Melker, and a revolving door of rookies and journeymen who are all below replacement level. We claimed Stefan Noesen off waivers - which essentially makes him a replacement level player - and while he's absolutely nothing special, the difference between he and the rest of our bottom-6 has been night and day, which tells you just how terrible they are.
In order to look at this roster and convince yourself that they're a few tweaks away, you have to do some major mental gymnastics. If you want to convince yourself that Burns and Vlasic suddenly wouldn't be replacement level if we had a good goalie in net, and ignore that we have had a good goalie in net for the 26 games that Dell has started and they have still sucked, go ahead. If you want to ignore the extensive research that shows that NHL players tend to peak around the ages of 22-26, and that our top paid players are mostly past that peak age and due for inflection points in their aging curve, go ahead.
Bottom line, this is not a small leak. We are not looking at one or two holes that can be patched up with a new coach, or a new goalie. This team is f***ing trash and they will be lucky to be a playoff team with this core.