It’s been, and not sure how it could be getting more so, but this team is excessively predictable. I love watching Dallas’s coach mind-F Dean. He barely does anything and you can tell it just gets in Dean-Oh’s head. I like Dean, but honestly don’t think he has a super high hockey iq.
A little nervous when BG starts kicking arse, when he needs a little arse kicking as well. Some of his moves seemed questionable at the time. And are even raising the eyebrows even farther watching some of those same players on the struggle bus.
Am convinced KK’s hips aren’t fully healed or there was some long term effects from that injury. You can tell his hips and skating has changed drastically from a yr ago.
Jojo and Hartman aren’t perfect and with their contracts don’t expect them to be.
Don’t really have any issues with the play from Ek, Brodin, Spurgeon, Middleton, Faber, the Dewey twins, Vinnie, Maroon has been a solid player, Rossi and Faber have been phenomenal.
Flower has had some rough games, but has also had some solid games. Gus, hard to repeat last yr after signing a good for him contract. I think he’ll figure it out. But overall goal tending needs to be way better.
PK seems like it’s showing some signs of improvement.
PP needs something, and a lot of whatever that something is.
KK, Zuc and Boldy, yuck. The team lives and dies with their offense. When they struggle and the defense has to pinch more and get more involved pressing, the whole team seems to either feed off it or starve to death.
One thing that’s always made my arse itch with this current crew of players has been the center play. That’s seemed to improve greatly from last year. Pleasantly surprised and not totally pissed off every game with that. There’s more of an in front of the net presence. The D is getting a few more pucks through and trying to shoot more. Faber and Brodin have really been pressuring in the offensive zone. My biggest frustration is the neutral zone play and forwards horrendous puck management once the pucks on their sticks. As well as players have zero ability to put a puck on net through long spurts.
Am really wondering how much Spurgeon and this team leaned on Dumba. Probably more so than anyone realized. He’s one of the pieces missing and he might not have been what he once was, or a great defender, but maybe he was a better leader than anyone thought. This team is listless currently.
If this continues, the team will have no choice but to fire Dean, even if it’s not all his fault. At some point the players signed to incredibly questionable contracts, BG will have to take some responsibility for those players. If KK, Zuc and Boldy can’t get things figured out or at least appear to be heading in the right direction, their roles may need to be demoted.
As we head into the next month, a lot will be decided with perception being a bigger factor with the fans than anything. If the team is stuck in this same rut and there’s nothing done other than the same old same old, fans are going to start jumping ship looking for other ways to spend their money and time. Hope they can figure something out, but there’s a pattern that’s stuck on repeat.
