alkurtz
Registered User
I think that its pretty significant that younger, faster, and hungrier teams seem to cause us the most problems. I am never one to condemn effort by which I mean conditioning, dedication at practice, and competitiveness. I feel what we are seeing is not effort but essentially an aging core. With aging comes a loss of speed, reaction time and quickness. Players I put in this category are Zibanejad, Kreider, Trouba, Trocheck (although not quite there with him yet) and Lindgren (based more on his style of play contributing to premature aging). I am worried about Fox, who although still youngish may have already peaked and lost just a tiny bit of reaction time. Players age at different rates and it is hard to predict. In a player who never relied on "speed" this is an issue. I'm not ready to blow it up just yet: it's still early and the season is long although my internal alarm bells are bringing. I'm also concerned with diminishing returns from Laviolette who seems, like many coaches, to have an immediate impact in year one but less so in subsequent years. If we want to get younger, faster, and hungrier, we need to look at internal options. Pure hockey trades are rare. That would mean, at some point, promoting Berard and Othmann. Giving Chytil, Cuyle, KK, and Laf more important icetime, including on PP 1. This is not enough to take us to an elite level but it might increase our energy level on ice. So many teams around the league face similar issues. Everyone, to some extent, is underachieving (at least to their fanbase). Every GM wrestles with this or similar problems. I don't think Drury is any better or worse than any others. It's complicated building a competitive roster. Right now, I prefer staying to course until the new year: by then we should have some idea if what are seeing is just a phase and the ship will eventually be righted, or whether this team is decidedly on the downturn and needs major adjustments.