I think a few things are working against us
- The recent Marner injury
- Barrie hasn't panned out, although I will say it seems Babcock is trying to make him something he isn't
- Hutchinson hasn't been remotely close to being "acceptable" as an NHL back up
- Ceci is an awful fit with Rielly (the experiment should end)
- Almost no toughness to speak of
Some of these, we can't do anything about like the Marner injury.
Barrie could maybe get back on track with PP1 minutes and I think that might benefit Rielly too by lowering his minutes. He's been hurt since first game against Boston
Hutchinson....maybe try Kaskisuo or go external
Ceci hasn't worked, likely need to swap him out and bring in something else (I've famously suggested moving Ceci out to bring Pysyk in)
The toughness I doubt gets addressed just because of Dubas' philosophy in how he runs a team.
This doesn't include the lack of effort on a night to night basis which is a combination of the players needing to be more accountable and maybe our coaching going stale.
In conclusion; there are multiple issues here that I am not sure can be addressed super quickly.