Groin..like it was mentioned. Obvious it would affect him throughout since he sat the rest of the regular season and came back game 1. Nothing else to do but play thru it. And thats why we didnt get much from him.
Brassard, Malkin, Hagelin, and yes Kessel(Sully) ... no 3peat.
Its a shame thats how this run ended...wanted to at least see if a team could have stopped them if healthy.
Guentzel and Crosby (and Hornqvist) did all they could to carry this team, but no way were we winning it all with those injuries. Still should have beaten the caps, but dont even care it ended now. Let them get more rest instead of playing 2 more weeks and losing to Tampa anyways.
Get healthy, make the right moves and have an even better chance at it all next year. With Brassard making an impact this time. Sprong in the lineup. Sheahan, Oleksiak, Simon, ZAR..with more experience.
Only thing Im concerned with is Sullivan. Hes fully comfortable as coach now. And you never know what youre going to get until that happens. Few red flags this postseason. He did a great job the last two years so hes not going anywhere but the FO has to sort this out. Confident we shouldnt have a problem. They already hung onto Bylsma for too long, learned from that. As we saw them move on from Johnston quick.
Also Crosby is getting older..wants to keep winning. Cant see him sitting around and letting a bad situation continue, knowing its costing the team from winning again. So either way...we should be confident in this team.
Again , not saying Sullivan is the problem. Or that he will be. But there were definitely a few red flags and the FO just needs to make sure everyone is on the same page.
If Simon had a thumb injury...and making some bad plays out there(penalties as well) then why was he still in over Sprong? Makes zero sense. Perfect time to play Sprong with Caps having their injuries and playing a bunch of rookies. Sprong could have added that extra "shot" against Holtby.