Adam wrote on Mon, 06 December 2021 09:41

Mike wrote on Mon, 06 December 2021 09:09 Adam wrote on Mon, 06 December 2021 02:26 Source - https://twitter.com/NHL_Sid/status/1467675067244900354 Ryan's in his mid-30s, so it's possible he's just fallen off the cliff but our depth is sinking in to an abyss despite an apparent airlift of skill upgrades this summer. To me, at some point I'm blaming that on Tippett rather than Derek Ryan and the others. [ That has to be approaching historically bad numbers doesn't it? Imagine how good this team could be if we were even close tp 50% without McDrai, let alone over. There has to be something systemic - not ALL those guys can always be that bad can they? We bring in guys that we're pretty happy with and then they just get cratered. I don't get it. We were at the bottom of the league last year, and we're much much worse this year. Most of the best teams would at least be near 50%. I mean, it's not like these are the guys you're putting out against the other teams stars. Derek Ryan is getting slaughtered by third and fourth liners. Warren Foegele's now -9 too playing mostly against depth, after being a + player in three of four seasons with Carolina. He's gone from scoring 10 goals in 53 games last year to just 2 in the first 23 this year. His assists are on pace, but his shots per game are way way down too (1.72 to 1.26). I believe that Tippett is stressing defence only on those bottom lines, and asking them to take no risks. That leads to more time in the defensive zone, and worse performance generally. Couple that with a couple weak defence pairings, and it's a recipe for ruin. Although, while I am blaming this mostly on Tippett at this point, it's pretty hard for anyone to see the Bear/Foegele trade as anything but an unmitigated disaster as Bear plays tough minutes on the top pairing, while Foegele's getting lit up by third liners.

Does it soften the pain a bit that we paid Barrie double what Bear makes to be a 40% corsi/fenwick guy on a 3rd pair?

"We need to get better immediately. That starts today"
- Lowe, 2013

"Next year I would forecast as another developmental year"
- MacT, 2015

5 x $5,000,000