Having a team that can out score their issues in games like this is nice to have. The truth is this team has an embarrassment of riches of talent on offense. Looking back at the 2012-2015 era compared to this is insane. If we had the Igor of this season back then we lose in round 1 those years, there was zero margin for error for Lundqvist back then. Giving up more than 2 goals was pretty much not an option.
Leading scorer in the 2014 run to the cup was McDonagh with just 17 points in 25 games. That’s insane. Leading scorer in the regular season was Zuccarello with just 59 points. Panarin has 61 already in 53.5 games and Zibanejad has 57. Hell Fox, a defenseman, has 51 already our leading D scorer in 2014 was McDonagh with 43 points, second was Girardi with just 24. Miller already has 30.
I just can’t stop thinking about those teams from those contending years and how we got so close with that offense. If we just had one of Panarin, Zibanejad or Fox back then we prob win back to back cups and that’s not an exaggeration.