Skookum Jim wrote on Sun, 16 March 2025 14:24

From McCurdy .. Whatta off-season we had.. Pro-scouting.. same as it ever was.. Quote: Even strength (NOT: 5v5 but surely close) scoring this season: Draisaitl 34-36-70 McDavid 15-41-56 —- Holloway 16-22-38 Foegele 19-18-37 McLeod 14-20-34 — Hyman 16-10-26 RNH 10-12-22 Brown 7-15-22 Podkolzin 6-15-21 Perry 13-6-19 Skinner 11-8-19 Arvidsson 8-10-18 Henrique 7-8-15 Janmark 2-12-14 Kapanen 5-5-10

It's weird how we keep seeing the same thing on this team year after year. No matter the coach, no matter the players it seems.

Foegele and Holloway had a heck of a time looking useful last year for extended stretches. Foegele seemed to put in short bursts of games here and there just to make it to his 20 goals, then totally vanished. Both guys look reborn on their new teams.

McLeod, I still don't get why we traded him. His speed, PKing and 5v5 stats were all very good. Fans singled him out as a scapegoat, but that was just typical fan emotional stuff. Seems our org bought into that as well and tossed away a young player we developed from the draft that was just starting to fully mature. Hate this org sometimes, more than usual I mean. We throw all our cash at 2 borderline washed up guys and thing the job is all done.


Is it just the curse of having 2 extremely high end players? Anyone that comes here just falls into this mode where they can't help but just wait for McDrai to do everything? There is obviously a difference in ice time and offensive opportunity that the top guys hog up, but there are still 4 players that can play along side them 5v5, and many guys have wasted their shot there.

Hyman and Nuge taking huge steps back this year in helping out 5v5 is very concerning. I don't think there is any injury excuse for Nuge, he's just consistently Nuge, but getting a bit slower every year. Maybe there is for Hyman, he really declined last playoffs after that Canucks series and getting run all night by that big D group. I wonder if he's been deal with some lingering issue all year now.

If this all keeps up, we probably change coaches again, probably another mid-season firing next season. No coach in the McDrai era has figured out how to keep our depth guys consistently engaged. Maybe it's time to try a hardass one instead of the ultra calm analytical type. Don't mean hardass just in media interviews like McLellan, dropping underhanded comments about his players that they have to catch on TV or repeated back by media in their own interviews. Someone that is actually kicking some butts in practice and on the bench. They're usually short shelf life, but whatever, we fire a coach every 2-3 years anyways :)

[Updated on: Tue, 18 March 2025 09:11]

"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