Easy. In 08 we won the cup and then added Hossa, on paper becoming even better. Ever since then it's become almost an annual tradition of losing good players, one way or another. Hossa, Rafalski, Lidstrom, Hudler, Filppula, ...
Even the apparently much maligned 2012-13 team was better on paper than this group. The forwards were a deeper, veteran bunch. Dekeyser makes the D improved now, but it is largely unchanged. And in net, Mrazek still has a lot to prove and Howard has imploded. I'd rather be going into the season with the 12-13 team than the current one.
Weird logic, comparing teams on paper and then stating Howard has imploded and that makes our current team worse? Just because he had a weak end to the last season? If we're looking at the actual performance of the players, remember that Filppula was nearly useless in 2013, Samuelsson was completely useless, Abdelkader sucked at C, Quincey and Smith played much, much worse than they're doing now.. and so on.
12-13
Zetterberg- Datsyuk - Brunner
Franzen - Filppula - Samuelsson
Cleary - Abdelkdaer - Mursak
Miller - Emmerton - Tootoo
Kronwall - Ericsson
Quincey - Smith
Colaiacovo - White
13-14
Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Abdelkader
Franzen-Weiss-Alfredsson
Cleary-Andersson-Bertuzzi
Miller-Emmerton-Samuelsson
Kronwall-Ericsson
Dekeyser-Kindl
Quincey-Smith
Defense alone kills the 12-13 team. Bottom 6 was an awful mess on both these squads.