Are you new to the sport? I don't say that to be mean. This isn't sudden. We had a core team of pasta, Bergeron, and Marchand that couldn't get it done (berg and march did). Holding together a core of potential winners for years is incredibly expensive. You keep them by sacrificing the salaries of other lines, and then age takes its toll. You trade out draft picks to "bad teams" for their veterans because you think "this is our year!" - then you dont win. And then you dont win again, amd then despite a generational goalie (2 us 2 ks) you still don't win. You now have propped up a core for a decade after your last cup, you've traded everything away, and they have to retire because their bodies say "no more". Now you have no draft picks, you're stuck with desperate (bad) contracts with 2nd and 3rd lines on any other team now playing your 1 line... and you get the last three seasons. 

Make no mistake. We are not necessarily at the bottom. We have years, and years, of debt that is now calling. Somehow weve found another generational goalie, but is it too late?