Ian McIntyre

Do they look like they can defend?

These are all questions that we had this year with an older group and, of course, a coaching staff that's now gone.

So, I mean, yes, I think, especially when you're coming off a 58-point season where you won nine times at home, of course, you want to give fans some hope and you want to keep them engaged in a competitive sense.

But if we're talking about, and certainly they are talking about, standards and culture and how important this is as a foundational piece of

to building whatever the hockey team is going to be on top of this culture, on top of this solid foundation, then I don't think we can suddenly veer away and say, oh my, they've lost four straight.

How terrible are they?

I think we're going to have to get our heads around it a little bit as well, that this is no longer just going to be about what was the record on this homestand or where are they versus the playoff cut line.

those things are always going to be significant.

I mean, it is a bottom line business, but that's not the priorities for these guys anymore.

And so I think, yeah, of course, you want to start well.

You want to offer hope and encouragement to, again, these season ticket holder fans who are the alpha component of this very broad and

and diverse canuck fan bases the people who give them a lot of money every year to go to games and yeah you want to give you want to give those people hope but you also want to you know stick to this plan and and your stated priorities about building building something better than just whatever the record's going to be in in october so yeah it'd be nice if they

They won some games at the start, but I don't think that's the bottom line for them, and I think it's going to be a while before that is the bottom line for them.

Yeah, and I'm not trying to be a doomsayer or a smartass about that, but a lot of people...

have wanted this for a long time.

I hope they have their eyes open as to how long this process takes.

In the seven years I referenced, it's because of San Jose and Anaheim.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, you hope it doesn't take that long.

And I think, personally, I think in hindsight, we'll view the Quinn Hughes trade as maybe carving a year or two off the rebuild.