This is the last thing I'll say on the matter, because if I've learned nothing else in life, it's that people love being mad online. I got my second championship as a fan last season, so everything else is just gravy. If people want to light their hair on fire and run around the yard stepping on every rake in sight when the team loses, then have at it. Life is too short.
Seriously, spare me with this "well oiled machine" nonsense in comparison to last year. Things didn't take off until mid March last season, and even then, I'll once again invite people to look at the post game thread when they were shut out at home against Jersey where the earth was collapsing in on itself.
Hell, look at the GDT's during that crazy run after the win in Columbus (where Geno was hurt) when they were routinely coming back from 2 and 3 goal deficits. People were losing their ****ing minds. "THEY'RE GOING NOWHERE IN THE PLAYOFFS!!!" If you want some comic relief, just going off memory, take a gander at the GDT's when they came back from 0-3 against Buffalo and (I think) the Sens in Ottawa.
If you want real belly laughs, look at the hysteria after:
Game 2 loss vs. Rags
Game 5 loss vs. Caps
Every loss vs. Tampa and San Jose.
In a cap league where they PURPOSELY try to limit your success to make it "fair" for others, winning the Cup these days is more about catching lighting in a bottle and the stars aligning for two months in ADDITION to actual skill and ability.
This team won last year because H-B-K was dominant, a couple of d-men played way over their heads, and the stars were stars. End of story. For as many reasons as we won last year, I can find just as many for why we were lucky to do so, starting wit the benefiting twice from that abhorrent off-sides challenge rule.
This whining about lines and where Phil is playing is ****ing nauseating. The efficacy of the top two lines will be about as valuable as a single turd if Bonino and his linemates, regardless of who they are, don't pick things up. Cullen isn't last year's Cullen right now either, which only makes matters worse. Any combination you come up with for the third line that doesn't involve Phil Kessel will be nothing more than a glorified checking line, and that's not how you win anymore.
Coaching and line combinations aren't worth **** when certain players are not carrying their weight, and even they can't rightfully be judged when you consider how scrambled things are because of injuries to key players.
"SULLY IS A ****ING IDIOT OMG!!!"
Just...stop.
Phil and Bonino are notorious regular season floaters and have a history of picking things up when it really starts to count. I suspect Sid and Geno aren't killing themselves lately because they understand it's wasted energy in February. This isn't to say history will repeat itself, but it's something to consider. There are way too many variables that come into play for championship teams these days, and that's the reason we've gone two decades without a team repeating.
The problems this year are more or less the same problems they had last year until things inexplicably clicked. This is the case for every Cup run of championship teams since the cap was implemented, but people are too enamored with what happened last year to see it.
