Whatever you want to call it, the fact is that teams like the Leafs can make mistakes left and right and score their way out of their problems. Maybe not in the playoffs but in the regular season at least.
Pens can't do that any more.
So if the Pens don't defend well, they lose. Every once in a great while they dump a sixer on a shit team like Detroit but that's a rarity these days.
Eh, this team's not gonna defend its way to wins. They've got zero chance in games where they try to emulate the Trotz Isles approach or whatever. They're just built like shit for it, their "starter" is a headcase, and their backup atm is a rookie, the forwards--by and large--have at least one bad defensive player per line imo. /shrug
The wins they happen to fall bass ackwards into are, again, most likely just random bursts of skill from like two or three guys.
It's a bad team. It is what it is. The only guy capable of playing defense on the blueline, Petts, has looked f***ing dogshit through three games. Every bit as lost out there as EK in his own zone.
But this is all a buncha bullshit to say we agree. This team cannot regularly expect its near-40 year old franchise guys to carry a bad roster with a terrible coach anymore.
-edit- And for the record; I'd rather they lose every single game from here on out playing a wide open style and getting burned for it than try to play that lame ass, defensive "student of the game", structured bullshit to try and eek out wins. Nothing matters but the entertainment anymore for this team.