This is my cherrypicked 2 picture story of the year so far in a nutshell. We've won 3 games this year out of 9 thus far, and if it weren't for an insane win against the Canadiens, and Stamkos' last second tying goal against the Sharks, this 3-3-3 start could look much worse (3 wins out of 9 for a .500 start also is lackluster). Much of our success has come off the backs of Stammer, Fil, Josi, ROR, and most importantly, Juice. I know we have good prospects, but I feel this back-to-back weekend is going to be very telling for how the near-term future of this franchise is going to look.
CMAC has talked about not shying away from the idea that "the players will dictate our path forward." The last few years I remember hearing similar things from Trotz. I personally don't like this approach, and I'm never going to hear from anyone in this organization the phrase "we are entering a rebuild", but deciding the future choices based on play from five 32+ yr olds in a 15 game span is scary. If we exit this weekend 2-0, I don't want our front office to fall into the delusional trap of thinking this team has a chance to compete or sneak in. That said, if we go 0-2, I expect there to be forthcoming changes based on how this front office has communicated thus far.
I don't want to piss away our upcoming youth wave that we've been hearing about for years because a few vets are playing out of their mind in a 5 game stretch. I know some of yall will agree, and some will vehemently disagree. But this is how I feel with another poor start to a season.
PS as an aside regarding Brunette, I held off on witch hunting for a long time because this team was just only so good, his impact was whatever to me. However, I've constantly seen him give less ice time, scratch, and bench our youth in favor of the vets clinging on to giving him the best chance to keep his job while he's been on the hot seat. If this is how he has consistently operated, then at this stage I would prefer him being gone. Because he's clearly not doing a good enough job to lead this group into any notion of "success" or "contending", and he's also not embracing our youth because he obviously wants to keep his job, so he is very much responsible for towing the line and leading us into more mushy middle territory. I'd rather an inexperienced coach come in and have fun with the team, embrace the youth, and coach in a stress-free environment and have fun.
To all those who oppose my mindset and wish to downvote, I want you to know I've followed this franchise since the inaugural season, and I only want the best for us. I want to hoist the Cup just as much as any of you. Just note, that there is a harsh reality of "if you aint winning, you're losing," and right now being mediocre mushy middle maaaaaaybe sneaking into the playoffs is, in my book, losing, and we've now been doing that for the past 8 years. /endrant
