1. With the absence of a viable NHL goalie, all anyone can see is tank mode. I think Stan's comments on the thing, about not being able to find a goalie of the future if we have a goalie, were pretty idiotic. What the hell was Lehner? Vegas got a goalie of the future at 5 mil per. Thats a bargain. Explain that one to me again Stan.
2. So...accepting tank mode. We look very curiously at the defense and wonder why JC's pet Calvin DeHaan is still here. You could cut bait with Murphy, but then Zadorov is more of a lateral move. If both are still here, and Seabs is here, than 2 of Boqvist/Beudin/Mitchell will be blocked, sorta missing the value of the tank in development.
3. We just aren't happy with Stan right now. We don't like the actions. We don't like the words out of his mouth. None of it seems good.
The bigger issue here is I believe the staff is on the verge of losing the team. They may not know it until they are 1-8-2...and wondering how they are going to win any of the next 5 games or something. But they will know it. Combining a historically bad defense with Stan's goalie plan is a great way to completely lose a locker room.
Stan loves him 1 year contracts. This pain will be because he can't give Crow a 2 year. But come-on man. Of course an idiot GM would fall in love with 1 year contracts, you don't have to own your mistakes. You also don't reap the rewards of taking risks and hitting. It really narrows your player pool to a few guys in that situation. Very strange.
My guess would be they are tanking, and trying to get some guys to jump ship with NTC's. They know JC is unpopular, and if a goalie gets hot great, might be part of the future, but they want the Toews bounty and Seabs gone, possibly Keith. So this is a 15 month gear shift, to purge and then maybe punt JC and burn the 1 years as they shift to a new coach, new goalie, and build around with cap and assets.
It would take a miracle for Stan to survive, imo. This is gonna get ugly? Not sure we were even that bad with Crow, I agree with OP we might have gotten better elsewhere.
I hate the lehner loss the most, but without a 5 year solution in house, Crow was not only the answer but the heart of the team.
I wonder how many years of the next decade it takes to find a better goalie "for the next decade." IDIOT!!