Quote Originally Posted by Greystache View Post
But Smith didn't come into the team in 2016 until late in the season, at which point we were pushing for top 4. Dickson didn't play until round 5 and we'd already won several games by 10+ goals. Sure if you told me those 3 wouldn't be playing much (or at all) I'd be doubting how we'd go during finals against the best teams, particularly as all 3 played exceptionally well in finals, but we're challenging for bottom 4 with a disgraceful %. Picken was the only one of those players to play all games in 2016 and we had a percentage of 115%.

I've heard people say losing Hamling was also a big loss we hadn't counted on. But again he only played 2 games between round 4 and round 19 and we were pushing for top 4 during that time. There's something far more serious going on than missing a few players, especially when 2 years ago we had no trouble covering for them.
You'll have no arguments from me that all is not well at the kennel 'stache. I was just making the observation that our forward line, both offensively and in particular defensively, has really suffered with the continued absence of these three. Of course recurring injuries have caused two of these players to miss extended games - just unlucky I guess.