Your Assessment of the 2023-2024 CBJ season

[koteka]

Lol you say this like it is some brave truth telling. He's 19 and hasn't started learning how to defend yet. Of course he's not a 1C now.

Most clubs do not have a better answer about their centers of the future.

Well, half of the clubs are in the playoffs and care more about the present than the future. So that is no surprise.

If he hits his sophomore slump next year like Sillinger or KJ, people are going to lose their minds.

People act like we have some sort of fantastic pipeline of great can’t miss prospects. We don’t really. We have some good prospects. We have some prospects who have expressed displeasure with the organization. We have some prospects whose development paths many (including you) have questioned. Hopefully a couple guys turn out to be elite and a few others turn out to be good supporting pieces.

 

[Cujorulesdtown9]

It was worse than I thought it was going to be.

I know defense jumping into offense is important, but we get burned so much by just not defending, at some point defenders need to defend. Thats the major negative that sticks out to me, is the defense.

Goaltending is once again a question, Tarasov and Greaves both look pretty good, Elvis had a small stretch of good but still the same issues, on top of this new mystery illness and injuries.

Offense is just dead, we have guys who get chances, but dont convert enough for it to matter, especially on the powerplay. There are a few promising bright spots, but there isnt enough fight out there, its discombobulated at every turn.

I know theres promise in the future, and the prospects, rookies.
Im not saying with a new GM that it wont work out, but ive been hit in the head with the "believe in the future" hammer for 20+ years and its doing some serious damage.

We cant live off of "we swept tampa" forever.

 

[VT]

Vincent had no one to learn from. Larsen has Torts. That was the problem.

About the youngsters, Voronkov and Fantilli had to get used to the pace of the NHL. I know the KHL. Its pace and the pace of the NHL are completely different. Remember Marchenko. In his first season you were angry that he had little game, but he himself said he had trouble adjusting to the pace of the NHL, only succeeded later. On the contrary, he gave Chinakhov a chance on the PK. Sillinger has improved his game, he's becoming an excellent two-way center. Johnson needs to gain strength, many have said he needs to play in the AHL.

If to the defensemen, look at how Boqvist has improved his game.

Vincent is a good coach. What we need are assistants who are capable of improving the PP and PK.

Still to Jenner's time. He has played a lot of PP and PK in addition to 5x5. That's why he had such high ice-time. And rest assured that under any coach give him so much time.

 

[cbjthrowaway]

Vincent had no one to learn from. Larsen has Torts. That was the problem.

pascal was paul maurice's right hand man for three years and worked as the AHL head coach in the same building as maurice for another five years after that.

he's also 52 years old and has been a coach in the AHL/NHL in some capacity since 2011.

lack of experience/mentorship is not an excuse!

Vincent is a good coach. What we need are assistants who are capable of improving the PP and PK.

he was the head coach of winnipeg's AHL team for five years. they made the playoffs one time in that span. and this year the jackets are finishing 29th out of 32 teams in the NHL.

he's not a good coach!

 

[Viqsi]

I haven't been posting here as often as I normally do because while rationally I know there's lots of reasons for hope and improvement - arguably more than other past years in which I've been pretty optimistic - emotionally right now I don't feel any at all.

Granted, that's probably getting exaggerated and amplified by a number of life-related issues going on at the moment (most of which are either private or off-topic). But I'm just not feeling it right now.

If I seem more prone to pouncing on folks than usual of late, that's partly why - I'm also feeling that lack of hope, but it's pretty obviously blatantly non-rational, and I've got even less patience than I normally do w/r/t poor attempts to rationalize it as though it's sensible. I get feeling that way, but that's no reason to pretend it's a nuanced and objective analysis. Sometimes you just feel like crap. Own it.

So I'm not sure how to vote - how I feel, or what rational analysis would dictate. The former is pretty clearly option #4, and the latter doesn't seem to exist as a poll option.

 

[koteka]

I guess if I were to add a choice to the poll:

I expected bad, and it turned out worse than expected. If the right new leadership is brought in, there are pieces to work with, and I will have hope. I just hope better choices are made in the off-season than have been made by this team in the last few years. A total disaster of a hire is a possibility and we could be the new Buffalo Sabres.

 

[KCbus]

 

[DarkandStormy]

This team improved 7 points over last season. Added (for parts of the season) Fantilli, Voronkov, Severson, and Provorov.

Maybe it wasn't just the injuries, eh?

 

[CharlotteJacket]

Not much to add except I go this every season. I watch other teams in cities no better or worse than Columbus make the playoffs regularly and we're usually out by November. I'm ready to throw in the towel and move on with my life. But one of the great things about being a CBJ fan is you're almost guaranteed a high pick in the draft and with that comes hope that the new kid once and for all will lead us to the promised land and by the time October rolls around, I'm ready to get back on the band wagon. The same thing is happening now with my disgust, but it will slowly turn around.