yeah def not MAD about that one--they did what they were supposed to do to a reeling team. that's a good response to the foot-off-the-pedal vs. Chi and SJS.
A lot of it is quality of comp but considering the million miles away from home to start the season and no Drew this is a solid record no matter how they got there. Obviously helps that the Pacific sucks.
As others have mentioned there are some troubling starts on the team and we're approaching 20% thru the season so you don't get the benefit of the doubt anymore....Byfield, Moore REALLY need to wake up. Fiala has responded well since the benching and Danault is coming around. Hopefully Turcotte is healthy. Jeanotte is just f***in Kelly Buchberger though. I wish for once we could get toughness that can actually play or, if they can't play, can at least win a fight. Jeanotte is neither, just an absolutely worthless player so far. That's going to be hard to work around since all the toughness on D is terrible too.
RJ, there's just less toughness in general in hockey and all of sports and the world, so you're almost never going to get the skilled toughness that everyone wants.
The world has softened and with hockey being even more expensive than it once was, the majority of players who make it to high level minor hockey let alone pro are from wealthy families, and those kids basically never grow up with elements that would naturally give them that "bite" or "edge".
Additionally, fewer hockey players are playing football growing up, which would naturally make them tougher mentally and physically. I think a lot of hockey players are still playing lacrosse, which would toughen them up, but even that crossover might be far less than it was 10 years ago.
The emphasis on skill (overall very good thing) has led to it being over emphasized (not good thing), meaning strength and intangible mentality based aspects of the game are less emphasized. Just my $0.02, you can agree to disagree or nitpick my point, but just some observations.
