Originally Posted by
Drageuth
Depends how long you've followed the team for.
'83-'90, we were the team to beat. We won the Stanely Cup 5 times in those 7 years. We kind of slumped in the early '90s, then reached middle of the pack in the late '90s (made the Playoffs three or four times, but never advanced further than the 2nd round). We slumped again a bit in the early '00s, then the lockout happened and we lost a season. The '05-'06 season, we snuck into the Playoffs in with the 8th seed (the absolute bare minimum to get into the Playoffs) and managed a Cinderella Story all the way to Game 7 in the Stanley Cup finals, which we lost in overtime to the Carolina Hurricanes. We really slumped after that, and have been one of the worst teams in the league ever since.
I really started watching games around the '96-'97 Playoff runs, and got really into them during the '05-'06 season. I was hoping we would start doing a bit better this year (we are stacked with talent), but we can't seem to find the chemistry.
It doesn't help that the median age for players on our team is ~24. We have a lot of young, talent guys who just need a bit more time to mature in this league. We don't have enough veteran players to take them under their wings right now. About half of our players need at least one more year in the AHL.