I could care less about the standings, what I see is the fact that we can't beat top 20 teams or compete with them so far. What bothers me is that we have 9 nhl forwards and 5 D. What I see is the times are changing in 2003-2004 the nhl changed...drafting bigger and wayyyy more skilled hybrid type of players. We are now seeing the old guard retiring or in twilight years & the new generation of way more skilled players peak (Crosby, Ovechkin, Malkin, Giroux, Stamkos, Taveres, Kane, Getzlaf, Hall, Benn, etc....) we currently have no youth in the line-up of this style, although we have shink, horvat and Gaunce coming up. I think Shroeder & Jensen could have played well in the old nhl, but they will fail in this better-skill/speed era. It is only a matter of time before it is exposed that we missed the curve. Project players and failure to do a proper reset will have this team struggling for years. Shink,Bo-Ho or Gaunce should have been in the lineup this year, however they missed the boat and will only be on the squad when we have accepted a culture of losing, furthermore delaying their development(see Edmonton; accepting a losing culture).
Sorry to admit it, but this Cores glory days are done, we have 2-4 years maybe of even fighting for a playoff spot. Time to trade off Kes, Twins, Edler, Bieksa while we can still get something lets not Calgary, Toronto or Edmonton this to the point where we rebuild for 10 years without a sniff of the playoffs.