Quoting: Jah1722
Here’s the problem with that roadmap, Verbeek added what he thought were solid UFAs and they’ve fallen off the map. They took what should have been the first step in getting back last season with a solid half season and now they’ve seemed to have taken 3 steps backwards.
There should have been no expectation of recreating last season this year. We came out of the gate screaming and were near the top of the pacific at the allstar break, then we gutted our D core because Verbeek was not comfortable giving guys max extensions, and I agree with him on that decision, it was time to rip the bandaid off and stop trying to extend that window.
Yes, we got off to a frustratingly bad start to the season, but there are positives to look at. We have a lot more scoring across the team now, that hasn't been the case in the past. A few seasons back, the Ducks I swear had a 70% to win the game if they started the 3rd period down by 2 or less, because they would go ape for 20 minutes and end up winning the game, and that was maddening to watch night in and night out, 40 minutes of dump and chase, and then 20 minutes of showing us what the team could actually do.
We're not as bad as the team was at the start of the season. We didn't look like a last place team against the Jets and the Redwings, and in our rematch with the blues, we showed that we can dominate the play for stretches of time. Of our last 5 games, the only one that really got away from us was round 1 against the Blues. It's going to be a slow build, and all the injuries on the blue line haven't helped, but we are getting better as the season goes on.