If I told you that in year 6 of the Yzerplan this is where we would be NO ONE WOULD BE HAPPY!
Funnily enough, this is precisely where Yzerman said we'd be. He said be patient, it takes time.
A million things could have happened to speed up the rebuild (better lotto results, more luck on drafting a ready kid) but for all of the belly-aching everyone is doing... we actually have a future down on the farm to give a damn about.
It'll be a lot like the Tigers this year. As recently as the TDL, the main call for them was "TRADE SKUBAL, YOU'RE NOT ANY GOOD ANYWAY!" And then they went on the magical run to the postseason and now there is optimism about that team.
Had the Wings made the playoffs by that one point last year, so much of this bullshit being spewed right now is all gone. The team is on an upward track. Not as fast as we'd like, obviously, but if you can seriously look at 19-20 and now and not see that the team is light-years better top to bottom, I think you need your eyes checked.
Further, I really don't think that you can just completely discount the lost years that were COVID for some of these young guys when they were caught in the limbo of not being able to play in the A or overseas or that. It pulled the drop chute on one year of development so they were further behind after that.
The team needs to pick it up, the first two games against the Rangers have been really bad, (The Rangers are one of the better teams in the league, so a little bit of understanding of that too) but it is unacceptable to get boatraced.
I'd say how about everyone hold off the horses of "this team is garbage and I feel like garbage and I wanna jump off the Renaissance Building" until we get a quarter of the way into the year.