If you think we could play this way 2 years ago, you were imagining players whom we hadn't acquired or whom hadn't developed into what they are yet.
The truth is that most of HF habs just wanted Flynn, DSP, DD, Emelin and Gilbert off the team and Therrien fired which would have simply just weakened the team for no reason.
Instead of pathetically and predictably trying to spin the situation into a "see, we were right all long" moment, this would be a good time to show a little humility and admit that MB/MT know better than us 99% of the time. I get that this is a hockey board and wild predictions for fun and outrageous claims are part of the norm, but one shouldn't believe too hard into the BS they're trying to sell.
EDIT : Just this post here... you say DD gets too much ice time. He's 14th out of 18th. Only Weise and the 4th line have played less than him ? He's 10th in PP ice time and #1 in PPP tied with AG and Petry. We have had great success playing that way. In fact, the ice time being spread out is one of the reason why we're playing with this much energy and are this relentless since no one is playing too much. It's hard to believe in your claim that you have been right for 2 years when the first thing you say after that is that DD's line is playing like a 2nd line. The concept of #1-2-3-4 lines is a bit outdated anyway in the way that you meant it.
Of course we could have. It doesn't mean we would be as good and have a 6-0-0 start, but we certainly could play a more aggressive and possessive style, as we did in 12-13.
We were never a grinding team. Plekanec-Patches-Gallagher-Galch-Bourque-Briere-DD-Gionta-Eller backed up by Pk-Markov, I mean, there's only Gallagher that is truly fit for that style. Even Eller who's great at board battles, he still is better carrying the puck and protecting it.
We most definitely could have kept playing an aggressive style.
At the end of the day though, it's all subjective. You can say we didn't have the players for it, that's highly debatable (and I don't think you'd win that debate), maybe maybe not. What is however factual is that people have been saying we should change to a more possessive game since he put in that grinding style. We've been saying Galchenyuk should move to center as he'd naturally be more involved in the plays and get to carry the puck/pick up speed more. We've been saying DD should be out of the top 6. We've been asking for better offensive opportunities for Eller. Some also asked for more offensive involvement from Dmen. I know I have asked for Plek and Patches to be together for years, which started last season but I'm glad he stuck to it this year.
Nobody ever said that those changes would lead to a better record or more points in the standings because so many things can influence that (injuries, opponents injuries, schedule, opposition roster) that it's impossible to know. But structurely, we'd be better.
In the same sense, would we be 6-0-0 if we played like last year?? Maybe..Impossible to know. That's partly why people brought up the ''regular season Champs'', because we kept being fed the ''110pt season!!'' argument, which was quite frankly ridiculous.
You can believe that we didn't have the team to play a more upbeat style, but the facts are we did play such a style in 12-13, and many of the things people wanted have happened, leading to a historical start. Those are the actual facts.
