Rookies who had a taste of the big time last season will start putting things together. Dallas Eakins will prove that he has learned from his time with the Edmonton Oilers and have the added benefit of culture and system buy-in from the very first night. Shooting percentages will rebound and Ryan Getzlaf will turn the clock back four years.
However, this team isn’t solid enough defensively and while Eakins’ high-flying rush-oriented offensive systems will give the team a nice boost in scoring, his deficiencies with tactics in his own zone and questionable personnel will cause John Gibson to bail out the team for several nights, yet still let in a decent amount of goals.