Hockey Widow wrote:
MG first tried to build a team with skill, discipline and enough team toughness to be a contender. We got within one game of winning it all. The series against Boston then the 4 and out against LA made him change his focus. He has been chasing the ghosts of 2011 trying to build teams that match that mold and we have no real identity, no swagger. As long as you have the Sedins you can't build a team in the mold of Boston, LA, SJS, Anaheim.
This is not an anti Sedin rant. I love the Sedins and am thrilled they are locked up for four more years. If our identity is built around them then we need to get back into the mold of building like teams like Chicago or Pittsburg or Detroit. Skill and secondary scoring to support their game. Enough team toughness to take care of business. Great goaltending.
We can't play bruise hockey for a whole season and playoffs. We are not built that way.
Pretty sure Gillis has been talking about adding toughness for a few years now (
before 2011).
Yours truly has said for years that if you have the Sedins in your top 6, you must add size/toughness to that 6
(and as much as possible throughout the lineup).
Yours truly has criticized Gillis for years for not being successful in this stated goal.
Of course it's not an easy task to accomplish... every team wants size/toughness + skill.
Assholes.
This past summer many of us were saying this season would hinge of the return of Kesler + Booth to the top 6
... along with Kassian stepping into that role.
Obviously that hasn't happened as far as Kassian and Booth (Burrows being snake-bitten/injured hasn't helped).
I think it's clear to everyone that Gillis is presently trying to trade a top-4 dee for a top-6 physical forward.
Not an easy trade to make in this day & age.
I thought our identity this year was that of a high-energy hard-working defensively-conscious fore-checking team.
A nice blend of skill + "team toughness".
Unfortunately, the failure of Booth, Kassian, and Burrows to perform as top-sixers has been killing us.
Still, it's been a roller-coaster ride thus far (highs and lows).
At this point the goal should be to sneak into the playoffs and hope to get on a roll
... without sacrificing the future in a trade.
Trading a top-4 dee+ for a youngish physical top-6 forward is key.