What's more surprising, who lost these two sweeps, or who won? The winners are not teams with great playoff histories.
The Isles sweeping Pittsburgh is a surprise only so far as any sweep is a surprise. I mean, NYI had more points this year, more regulation wins, and gave up far fewer goals. Tampa being swept is more surprising, but I think part of that is due to how Columbus ended the season. If you look at their roster, their roster looks like a team that should do some damage and win some games. The way Columbus played after making all of those trades really pushed them under the radar.
Unpopular question: so while on one hand, it would be great to have Steve back in Detroit, on the other, does the TB collapse pump the breaks a bit?
The Wings laid some stinkers during their glory years, but the 1996 Wings team didn't do what the TBL did.
Not really. To a certain extent, all a GM can do is put the talent on the bench. The players have to show up. This year they didn't, but it's really hard to question the talent. And when there is that much talent in place, there is also the possibility to move some of it to readjust the makeup of the team.
At the same time, I ragged on Holland for a long while. But he's done a real good job the past few years. I really hope that even if we get yzerman, that Holland sticks around as an adviser. I think the Wings would benefit in a huge way if Holland was willing to stick around and take a more active role in scouting amateur players.