There's a lot of problems with the team, so I'll list them in order of importance:
- Lots of injuries: Bozak, Bolland, Lupul. As a result of this, we now have only one true top 9 NHL C in Kadri. He has been promoted to Kessel's line, so we have one true scoring line now. If that line doesn't score 2-3 goals in a game, we tend to lose. Before, Lupul and Bolland were huge for secondary scoring. Clarkson is a good player, but he really needs a good quality forward to make him score pts.
- Slumping PK: We were #2 in the league in PK last year, and top 5 through the first 2 months. Remember me saying PK is a big reasons why we win despite being outshot? Yea, we have gone to #26 now in PK. That and being a top 5 penalized team is usually a recipe for failure
- Bad possession numbers. Not having much zone time in the other end means you will have trouble scoring, and give up a lot of shots, which is exactly what has been happening over the last 10 games. We have given up 50 50 40 shots in the last 3 games. With an average of 37 shots against per game. Just think about those numbers for a second.
- Bad dmen: Aside from Phaneuf, Gardiner and Gunnarsson our D sucks - plain and simple. When half of your D is trash, you will have defensive lapses on a nightly basis. Liles looks rejuvenated in his last 3 games (was sent to AHL to help bring up his confidence). Hopefully he can help.
-Bad 4th line: Puts more pressure on the top 3 lines as they have to play a lot more. We have a couple youngsters up though, who show promise in that role.
Those are the main reasons I can think of. RC needs to get his **** together, as I continue to say.
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"A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be." - Albert Einstein
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