I vocally advocated for patience through the early games and said I’d withhold judgement until the 10 game mark.
10 games in we have a pretty good PK and team identity and a quality 4th line for a change. Unfortunately, even though most of our D has been decent or better, it’s hard to really say we’ve had good defense as much as we’ve had stellar goaltending. Shesterkin and Fox have been on a different planet to start the season.
But overall, despite having a more cohesive sort of team identity and concept, we do look worse than we did the past couple of years while complaining about Quinn. It’s nice to see some of the complaints that existed under Quinn addressed - namely identity, push back and an actual useful 4th line - but not at the expense of all offensive potency whatsoever and being unable to un-hem ourselves from within our own zone this regularly.
I get it’s 10 games under a new coach, so perhaps you could argue more patience is warranted, but for the most part the “system” doesn’t look that different and most of the players are the same. There’s not a really good excuse for the total impotence on offense right now. Zib and Strome both are “off” and Chytil, despite being given some opportunity, is showing nothing. Which in turn is showing that our center depth is a glaring weakness. If this is what to expect from Zib going forward, thats bad news for this club. Sure he potted the tap in from Panarin tonight, but this is the least engaged Zbad we’ve witnessed to date. Doesn’t bode well.
Panarin is heating up. Hopefully we’re realizing, organizationally, that Strome isn’t a long term solution nor someone we should be committing to. Kreider has been good. The kids are becoming a big concern. Kakko is in year 3, has zero points, and at some point looking good has to translate into something tangible. You’re only the next Hossa if you produce like Hossa. Otherwise you’re like… Mikael Frolik? Chytil is settling into dangerous territory. Definitely isn’t making a case for himself as a top six option but isn’t showing much as a center or type of player that’s fit for a third line role. Laf just looks so unsensational most of the time. But he also seems very comfortable and confident with himself and I wonder if the pre draft hype and WJC success, coupled with being drafted in a huge market and immediately heavily marketed due to his personality has made him a little more comfortable than he should be. When he played hungry in Montreal he looked good. The hunger he had to score in front of his family? He should have that hunger to be an actual NHLer player rather than taking it for granted that as the 1OA with the affable personality, the NHL is guaranteed for him.
