I know I'll take heat for this but I think this has gotten us all so pissed off.... Last night the goals were scored by Peeke off a direct faceoff win from... wait for it... A college signee 2 weeks ago - Hunter McKown. And the second goal was a PP goal by our 15th PP unit with the seasoned Stanislav Svozil and Mikael Pyyhtia getting the assists on a goal by Emil the killer Bemstrom...
I mean we can't make this up. Now if I hear how Johnny and KJ were these defensive stalwarts that shut down the Pens.... I'll just move on to being a whoever gets Bedard fan now.
We're pissed off. I get it. I am too. but the what I see us pointing to has become non-sensical. Maybe I'm just not connecting the same dots. For once it was the "good" team that took the stupid penalties and march to the box in the 3rd. We saw this in the last couple Anaheim games except they took the dumb penalties that cost them. Maybe that is what they did wrong. Didn't take dumb penalties to salt the game away for the other team.
Folks...I think we're going to be OK. Let's see how it all plays out but just take a step back for a few minutes and breath.
I think the great Irony is that most had already given up on Bedard. Even if we came in last place I had no expectation that the League would actually let us win the lottery (Honestly, if it's anyone besides one of the top 10 most valuable teams I'll be shocked). The real pain is that we can't even get the consolation prize because we refused to do what the other teams at the bottom did game in and game out. Finishing last meant we got one of Bedard, Fantilli, Carllson now we are looking down the barrel of Michkov, Benson, Smith if this game against Buffalo goes the way I expect it to.
I know the anti-tank folks believe that there is too much focus on a savior but at some point, you need to draft a Superstar and the best way to find that is to draft at the top. The Jackets have never been lucky to be bad at the right time and even the times when we were close we screwed up our chances at guys like McDavid, Mackinnon, and Matthews. This was a clear opportunity to fill a giant void that has been there since the start of the team and last night was just emblematic of the failure to do what is necessary to improve. We could have shut down every significant piece we have 6 weeks ago but instead, we chose to let the players play so they could develop which will likely cost us our top 3 slot at best.