Another season is set to kick off and, personally, it feels as if it’s starting off with a whimper.
Another 1st round exit, followed by another off-season without any meaningful change, has found me withdrawn and despondent. The General Manager, Kyle Dubas, is still at the helm. The teams Head Coach, Sheldon Keefe, is still behind the bench. The teams main core is still intact and much of the leadership group is still here as well.
The biggest change comes between the pipes, but that’s enough to make some believe that the team will make a deep playoff run. Forgive me for not believing in the group as a whole, I’ve been fooled before.
Theres little reason to get behind Matt Murray as the savior in Toronto. His cumulative GAA over the past 5 seasons is 2.98, while his save percentage over that span is around 0.905. Those aren’t exactly the numbers you want from your starter. I’d be a little more forgiving if he spent the duration of that time on a bottom dwelling team, but there were far more games played in Pittsburgh during that span than in Ottawa, who were horrendous during his stay there. If theres a silver lining, its that his playoff numbers are still solid overall.
That has me grasping at a modicum of hope, for whatever that’s worth.