Boom Boom Apathy
I am the Professor. Deal with it!
- Sep 6, 2006
- 49,093
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Ok. You're justifying this by arguing what "could have" happened vs. what actually DID happen. I'll stick with the reality of the final results. I'm fine with that and if you don't agree, no problem.You remember the Nino trade was made in January, right?
Yes it is warranted and not at all premature to freak out when the team bleeds talent in July/August leading to a weakened roster and poor first half of the season. Correcting that with improvements in the second half is great but not guaranteed.
To make it as simple as possible — if Nino doesn’t play some of the best hockey of his career for a few weeks after that trade, the Canes likely miss the playoffs and none of this narrative exists. Are we seriously counting on that kind of lucky break right now, to explain why it’s fine that we just lost an entire 5-man unit from our top 6?
The Canes were a much better team in 2024 than in 2018, sure. Nobody’s saying otherwise. Of course we’re loaded with more proven players now.
But “more proven” isn’t the measure of quality. Jordan Staal in 2018 was a much, much better player than he will be in 2025. Kuzy is a proven commodity and that is exactly the problem, we know what he is and it isn’t great. Kotkaniemi is becoming an anchor and his continued presence in the organization will be a head scratcher unless he shows up as a new man. Most importantly, Aho may not have been a proven center but he was in reality a #1C in the making. Barring an absolute miracle of player development, we do not have anything like that in our lineup right now.
Long story short, in 2018 we were hoping a handful of unproven Cs might come together and be a solid group. In 2024, we already know they won’t. We have Aho and that’s it. And it gets a whole lot worse when injuries and slumps hit.
At the end of the day, the problem we’re facing is that the 2024 team was heavily bolstered by depth which gave us some really nice matchup dynamics and allowed guys like Jarvis and Necas to thrive up and down the lineup. That depth no longer exists. Now we have a much less impressive defensive group, we’re weak down the middle, our goaltending is inconsistent at its very best. So we’re looking to wingers like Svech and Necas, who have never carried much, to suddenly step up and be the kinds of studs who carry a team.
It’s just not a good formula. If they make the playoffs, and I’d give them about an 80% chance on that, this is not a group that’s going to go anywhere. We don’t have Brock McGinns and Warren Foegeles all over the lineup. The one thing that might bail us out is improved goaltending, but again that’s just another “if” on a really large pile of “ifs”.
I've already explained 3 or 4 times why I personally think it's premature to freak out so I won't repeat it and won't get into a long drawn out argument with you. If you want to freak-out, have at it.
Like I said a bunch of times already, I do think they'll take a step back this year, and how much of a step still depends on a lot of factors, so I'm not going to over-react about it right now. I'll reserve judgement until later on when the roster is complete and we see what some of the young guys can bring. To each their own though.
As I said in another post, I'm excited about the season partially because of the unknown and how it may play out. They could struggle. They could do well. The young guys could be fast and exciting. Heck, they might even miss the playoffs. Still excited to see it play out.