Nah. They definitely said he tweaked something in practice. The team also went to great lengths to declare him fully fit in camp, and this isn't a team that plays a lot of games with player health. I think his sluggish start is more likely down to a summer spent concentrating on rehab more than training. Plus, Freddie's generally been a slow starter in the past. He went nuts early last season but that was outside of his career norm.Maybe he's still just feeling it; he hasn't looked the same yet.
Seems that we got really spoiled by last year's historic early season run.[They] went nuts early last season but that was outside of [team's historic] norm.
Yeah ... I mean, I guess that's natural even though I have no inclinations to hold over-sized expectations in general. What happened to the "I just hope they can hang in and stay in playoff position until Pacioretty comes back" sentiments that perfectly reasonable people were expressing back in the summer?Seems that we got really spoiled by last year's historic early season run.
(Not replying to you specifically JB, just in general since we're experiencing freakouts on this board this early season.)
I'm not taking issue with people noticing bad play. I'm as cold eyed as the next fan when it comes to that. I do continue to take issue with people acting like the season is caving on the Canes when they sit in 3rd in the Division, trailing by 3 points with at least one game in hand. St Louis and Vancouver are in real pain. Carolina? Meh. They're just a bit off.We all know the window for this group to go deep in the playoffs is closing, so when things start going sideways and the team shows flashes of meh from last year's run ... we notice.
I mean, welcome to the party. For what it's worth, accepting that the Canes are a second tier contender is no cause for panic of concern ... at least not in my opinion. It's where a lot of teams peak out in "their window." Life goes on and it's heck of a lot better to be good but not great than it is to suck.I think the reality is that as currently constructed the Canes are not really likely to win the cup.
I mean, take a look at their results from mid-February to mid-April last season and tell me what you see. Because I saw pretty much what they've been doing thus far this season.This team has already shown some flaws that we did not see last year...you had a Jennings winning tandem in net and I think Freddy was way better last year to date than where he has been so far this year.
That’s true. I think we want them to be better than they are and we think this should be a deep playoff team when in reality they’re kind of peaking at the Level they’ve been at. They would need to change out the top line players to improve on that. Or overachieve. They are not overachievers though. So we should be happy with a middle tier playoff team that could catch a hot streak and get some breaks and win it all.I mean, take a look at their results from mid-February to mid-April last season and tell me what you see. Because I saw pretty much what they've been doing thus far this season.