I honestly don’t see much of an issue with the forward group when healthy. I also would argue they were in control pretty much the whole game last night, definitely not a step behind, even if they aren’t the quickest team themselves.
Hathaway is likely their 10th best forward when healthy, so considering the time missed by the 2nd line, seeing him in 4th isn’t really that concerning. You would like to see Sprong have more goals than he currently does (I would safely assume that he will finish the season with the higher goal total), and would guess that Eller would have more goals than him, but he also has 11 assists and has played at a near 50 point pace.
As for the assists totals, Wilson has 35 assists in his last 79 games. Eller has 26 in his last 73 games which is a near 30 assist pace per 82 games. Again, those really aren’t bad numbers for 3rd and 4th among forwards, especially when Backstrom would 100% be ahead of them when healthy, and there’s a chance that Oshie and/or Mantha could be as well.
Overall, I think the board as a whole is over reacting big time right now. The top line was due to slow down at some point. The team defense has still been pretty solid and I think they’re generally playing pretty good hockey. They’re going to go through ebbs and flows but I’m pretty content with their process right now at 5v5. They’re still playing at a 110 point pace without their whole 2nd line, subpar goaltending, and an atrocious PP. Get healthy and fix the PP, and this is going to be a very tough team to beat with even average goaltending.
I don’t think there’s much need to be concerned unless they start playing like utter shit, like in Reirden’s last season. That was cause for concern. They looked awful and lost games they deserved to, and didn’t even deserve to win many of the games they did. This isn’t that.