What are you talking about? I am, or a should say WAS, 1 of the people who thought we were/are ready to "contend". And to me if you are a playoff team, you HAVE a chance to win the cup. The only thing's that I was worried about that could have a negative impact on the team from last year all pretty much stem from the ANISIMOV TRADE. Yes, I will refer to it as the Anisimov trade. May the lord strike me down now. Losing an extra strong(literally and figuratively) defensive/faceoff center was big. And you cannot say Anisimov is WORSE offensively than Saad. While both Wennberg and Karlsson haven't looked "bad" this year, I think a lot of people's "expectations" for a 3rd line center have gone down quite a bit. Letestu might literally be a better option than them. Not in 5 years, but NOW. This is without mentioning what I think EVERYBODY was a little worried about. Having Campbell coming in with the expectations to be a stabilizing 4th line/PK option, and then bring the game he has, has also been a hit. But really, we lost the Anisimov trade. The fans on here and the general manager(s) underestimated the impact Arty had on this team and overestimated the impact "The Answer" had in Chicago. We doubled down on Wennberg/Karlsson/Campbell as our "bottom 6" center situation. You can only blame Jared Boll for so long for why 6-7 players never score.
The negative impact Bob has had on the team this year can not be put into words unfortunately.
This has been IMO without question Foligno's most disappointing stretch so far with the Jackets. Joey plays like this every year. 4 games ago he was still PPG player, a "top 20" player, and to MANY, no issue. Talk about sample size. And if we're gonna "bash" Foligno and Jojo than we also should be bashing Brandon "the Answer" Saad. He has hardly ANY impact on the games also. Nearly all his goals have been tap ins, or wide open rebounds.
But he won a cup. Hooray.
