I think all the hand-wringing over Thomas and Kyrou is a little overblown. I think both of them have shown better then what we've seen in the past 4-5 games. No one was complaining about them when we came out of the all-star break and we were putting up 5+ goals a game while going 3-0. During those three games Thomas went 1g 5a for 6p and Kyrou went 2g 4a for 6p. Both played well defensively, with a +3 each in those games.
The team went into a massive funk once ROR/Accari were traded (Kinda shows how important ROR and Accari were compared to Tarasenko). I think the players all felt that they still had a chance to push after the AS break and going 3-0 gave them a lot of confidence - until Army (Rightfully) pulled the rug out from under them.
If this team could win a Cup with Tarasenko, it sure can win a Cup with Kyrou, who is a far more dynamic player then Tarasenko has ever shown. Tarasenko was a one trick pony, (But it was a great trick!) and Kyrou can actually elevate others on his line offensively.
The thing that bugs me about this team is that while I believe Kyrou and Thomas have the ability to play an up-tempo, rushing style of game....the rest of the roster doesn't....yet they still try and play that way. We never seem to generate much of anything of a forecheck anymore, we rarely grind the puck down low, and we never -ever- seem to have second chance attempts. The thing that made us great last season was the ability and confidence to hold the puck in the offensive zone for long stretches at a time - then find a guy who was cutting and open, or once we had suitable traffic towards the middle getting the puck to the net and sniffing for rebounds.
When I watch Boston play, they play a lot the same way as we did last year. We don't play that way anymore, infact, I don't really understand what our plan is at all. I'd like to see lines 2-4 play a harder, chip and chase forechecking/grinding style - and then let the Thomas/Kyrou/whomever line play with a lot more freedom.
And all this goes without saying - but the D is still a mess. I'd like to see Krug AND Faulk moved out - personally I think Faulk is one of the more overrated players we have, and finding a guy who can do what Parayko does is almost impossible in this day and age. But the main issue we keep having is asking Parayko and player X to play literally the hardest defensive minutes in the league. MAYBE Parayko can do that, but he sure can't do it himself, and no one should expect him to. When we were at our best, he had Jay-Bo, a bonafide stud in his own right playing alongside him. Asking Scandella/Mikkola/Leddy/Tucker/whomever to do the same is stupid and has been causing us massive problems. We need far more balance to our defensive pairings in terms of QOC and deployment. This is why I keep banging the drum from Chychrun - a top pairing of him and Parayko would work well imo - we keep giving them the top QOC that Parayko already sees, but we fix the deployment so that Parayko isn't starting every shift trying to defend. Then our second pairing is Leddy/??? (If it's Faulk that's fine I suppose, but I'd rather find a lower cap hit here). I think that pairing will work wonders for Leddy, who's fine as a #4, but being used currently as a #2. The reason I go back to moving Faulk is that imo if we do get Chychrun, that pushes him down to our #3, and I don't think we need to spend 6.5M on our #3 (But if we remove Krug and replace him with Chychrun it becomes reasonable to handle Faulk's caphit until Chychrun needs a raise).
Lots to digest there, bunch of stuff has been banging around in my head these last couple of games.
Oh and one last thing - can we all please dial down the snark around here? I know that's like asking the sun not to rise on an internet board, but let's just try this once. This franchise hasn't been in a position of being legit terrible in almost a decade+. I know it's a new thing for us to lose, but let's do it with some dignity
Cheers.
