This explains and confirms what many of us suspected regarding Pastrnak's play. However, that doesn't explain the poor play and disorganization of so many of the other's. I still believe there are problems here beyond the recoveries of Pastrnak and Marchand from off season injuries. But maybe that's just me.
Yep. It seems they (meaning a large group of players) came to camp out of shape. Monty said 'conditioning was a problem in camp but is not anymore.' That's a problem.
He also said the pace and intensity at practice increased dramatically when Marchand came back. That's another way of saying the pace and intensity sucked before Marchand got out there... That's another problem.
Maybe the excuse is that the captains set the pace but there are supposed to be more leaders on this team than just Marchand and Pasta.
Last year they were terrified of being bad. They came to camp determined to pick up the slack and keep the tradition going. This year, they came in feeling comfortable, relaxed, over confident...