I put this up in the post-game thread a minute ago, but this might be a better place for it:
The team just seems totally disconnected on the ice.
Even looking back to last season, I think a lot of the team's issues were hidden by some heroic 29 and 97 efforts. Too often I see a complete fire-drill out there in all zones. Players for the most part don't seem to know where to go or where to put the puck in d-zone coverages or to facilitate d-zone breakouts.
I think it has to be a combination of coaching, talent level and leadership. I refuse to believe that Turris is truly as bad as he has looked so far, or that Barrie and Kahun are complete nothings like they are currently showing to be.
There are some bad players on this team yes, and we are lacking players in a few key roles that would help our depth chart, particularly in the first D pairing and bottom 6 forwards, but it seems like more than just a talent thing. McDavid and Draisaitl are amazing and I can tell that they are working their asses off to try to drag this team behind them, but particularly in McDavid's case, being the last forward back and circling in the neutral zone, cheating ahead for a break-out pass isn't what a great player should be doing. I understand why he does it, but I think that is the kind of thing that will limit him from becoming a great player in all areas of the ice and is kind of detrimental to team buy-in.
I won't go into the coaching decisions in tonight's game much because I don't see a point in beating a dead horse. Not calling a timeout after the 5-4 goal was a mistake, but the team shouldn't have to be in the position of coming back from 5-3 after having a 3-1 lead. They weren't dominating or anything when they had the lead, but it's unacceptable to blow a game the way they did tonight.
We have some bad players, but we should be able to get more out of this roster. This franchise 20 years ago was fielding competitive (not great, but playoff calibre) teams without a fraction of the top end talent and draft pedigree that this one has. And I'm hesitant to put it all on coaching because we have been through an endless stream of coaches in the last decade, a few of whom have had reasonable success for other franchises. It just seems like this franchise is lacking overall cohesiveness, as well as a R.Smyth/J.Smith type of leadership group. I feel like some good veterans would go a long way, because for pretty much the entire decade, this team hasn't had many key players over age 25.