I hate to focus on non-hockey aspects of the team, but that appears (to me) to be the source of the problem. This team went into a hole in December (shortly after Reif’s suicide) and they haven’t found a way out. Like many here have said, it appears to be effort related which has most noticeably impacted the defense. Crawford hasn’t helped, as he’s looked average at best.

If there is an ounce of truth to the Patrick Sharp rumors, he simply cannot be on this team. It’s one thing for him to nail a teammates wife, but a team employee killed himself. Regardless of whether Reif had other depression issues, this is just too dark of a cloud. He needs to go. Yesterday. Unfortunately, all we can do is speculate and go off of what we hear.

I like the Vermette deal. I have no idea what to think about Timonen, but hope it pays off. I just fear it’s not enough.