oobga
Tier 2 Fan
- Aug 1, 2003
- 24,598
- 20,728
I'm pretty confident it won't happen again. As much as I love Ekholm, Janmark, Brown, Nugent Hopkins less so Nurse they are all age 30 and older. What I really fear is a defense injury to a player like Ekholm with reduced depth.
The penalty kill was a major contributor to the type of unreliable, random activities on ice that propel teams through the meat grinder marathon of NHL playoffs. Things like a high goals against average from often interchangeable goaltenders. In the Oilers case to point, they got to the final with a super elite performance for the ages but also a near perfect PK that not only kept goals out in critical situations with games on the balance but outscored opposition power plays.
High speed game, high chaos, and hopefully key functions all align to push one's team forward to win.
Looking forward it's clear this team's defense, which wasn't a strength, is diminished. Expecting top elite talent to outscore and drive success doesn't work if the other end of the ice and special team functions can't deliver theirs.
I'll be mad with everyone else if Bowman doesn't have a greater plan for this D group. Absolutely agree it isn't good enough, but also argue it wasn't last year either, nor would it have been if we just kept all the same guys.
As you point out, there were some absolute miracles that sent us to the finals. Stuff that likely won't happen again. We need to be better than we were and can in no way take that run for granted. We have the best in the world, IMO it's time to actually win our division for the first time in forever. Maybe even consider we should be challenging for a pres trophy. Weaknesses in our depth and D, and goaltending too have kept us away from all that for McDavid's entire time here.
Bowman has cap space and some assets IMO to finally position us to be a team that can actually finish near the top. Hope he pulls a rabbit out of the hat and solidifies the top 4 with a real compliment to Nurse. If not, I guess hope for more miracles, but I don't like the odds for that to repeat.