Exactly people shouldn't read too much into the last 5 or 6 games, all of them until LA were against non-playoff teams just like us. Being able to squeak out a win against teams as bad or worse than you are doesn't mean the team has suddenly stumbled onto something. The team the last two years has basically been good for one 17 game stretch, and outside of that has pretty much been garbage. Anyone thinking next season is going to suddenly be different is getting their hopes up a bit too much, especially if Brunette is still coach.It could happen.
The makeup of the team will change from now to next year. That's guaranteed.
And part of the expectation level coming into this season and the failure "fluke" was a direct result of a similar (though longer and earlier) hot streak last season that vaulted us into a playoff spot. Were we the team before that hot streak? The team that had the hot streak? Or the no-show playoff team?
This season seems to confirm that we were the bumbling team last year before the hot streak. I brief winning streak against some other bad teams that sold at the TDL isn't terribly convincing that we're not still the stumbling, bumbling team we were all season and that we won't return to that game.
Frankly I see more of the same dumb decisions continuing. Willie and Mason are already talking like Evangelista is running out of time, and if they are saying stuff like that publicly its coming from somewhere. The fact they keep trying to pump up guys that just aren't that good tells me Trotz is going to double down on some dime a dozen guys, and probably overpay some 35 year old UFA and we will find ourselves bitching about the exact same things next season.
The young guys are not going to get to play, not as long as Brunette is coach and Trotz is GM. The only reason the guys we currently have are on this roster and getting what time they get is because they don't have a choice. If ZLH and Svechkov are still waiver eligible next season don't be surprised if they start in Milwaukee.