Vegas fans are living in an alternate reality where they were a contending team, but their 6 game loss to the Habs had more to do with what they didn't do than what the Habs *did* do. Vegas would have gotten stomped in the finals, had they advanced. With their situation at center, they are so far, far away from winning a cup. They couldn't beat the Habs 2-1-2 neutral zone slog because they didn't have a puck distributor for their wingers. You can't just have your wingers break in alone all the time and expect success.
Tampa has picked apart the Habs and made Price look average.
I think it's a combination of;
- the coach being out for so long, screwing up their system
- the players playing above their heads and returning to Earth in this series
- Price running out of fuel and having brain farts and not stealing any games
- Forwards, especially Toffoli, having an awful series
- Frustration leading to lack of discipline combined with a lack of knowing the refs threshold after the Chris Lee debacle
Do we really need to cry about not locking Toffoli up now? He was a supporting piece, that's it. He hasn't done anything in this series. They played their best period in Game 2 in the 2nd and still gave up a goal and failed to score. I knew the series was over right there.
As for the Canucks comment, hey, at least we have 2 good centers, a goalie and 3 good top 6 wingers and an offensive d-man. Our issues have to do with dead cap, lacking one top 6, lacking a bottom 6 aside from Motte and needing D. This is fixable. I truly believe this franchise is, on paper, closer to contending than Vegas is just because of how hard it is to acquire a #1C. We have that piece and they don't. Give the Sedins time to correct this.
