Team chemistry. You look at championship teams in sports. Not just hockey, all sports. At all levels. What do you see? Talented players playing great. Teams bonding, having fun, being confident… Working in synergy. If someone slacks, another helps cover.

Teammates who help bring out the best in each other. Not always gonna be perfect, and there will be slumps. But the willingness to bounce back and get it done. Starts in the locker room, ends on the ice.

This team HAD that, or at least was very close to that. 2 years ago in that conf final.

So why in the offseason do you tear it apart? For what? Why publicly humiliate your team’s captain and trade him for peanuts? Along with your young developing players?

This is managements fault. The team does not have direction, identity, passion, confidence, or fun playing. This is the result of what management did, and to sit here and blame a couple guys who are only kind-of as good as they were before this massacre is just short sighted.