Freddy Geekie have been atrocious. Every game. No effort. No urgency. Pasta cant score. Zacha is cursed. Marchy looks his age. Im afraid this maybe the year of our downfall. Oh and Mac handles a puck like a grenade
Even for Boston it is going to come sooner or later. Nor saying this is clearly it, but proper bad years happen to all teams eventually and it is possible that this could be our turn.
Big part of the problem so far is you have guys like Frederic and Coyle being asked to play above their talent level. Can make a similar case for Zadorov. They've also tried Geekie, Jones and Brazeau in top 6 roles that again they're really not up for. All that is asking for trouble. Most of the forwards are complimentary players. And that applies to Zacha too, and probably even to Marchand with an aging, high mileage body. Put them around genuine top talent and they will usually do a good job. But ask them to drive lines and do a lot of the heavy lifting themselves and you're usually asking too much. At present you have one legit pivot - Lindholm - and one elite winger in Pasta, and that's just not enough to build around without a lot of work and luck.
So you're looking to find combinations that will work well enough to keep the points ticking over until they can trade in some more proper top 6 talent. That's the challenge, on top of sorting out their currently near non-existent playing style. It's achievable, but far from easy with the roster as it is.