Suppose a team hadn't made the playoffs in the last 13 tries and the team that does gets within a game of the Stanley Cup Finals. Absent any other analysis, explanation or models to follow, you might pin your dreams on repeating that arguable fluke of a run and thinking -- hey, why not us?

(Subsequent results. Subsequent results is why not us.)

Antti Saarela, erstwhile a feisty rookie with impeccable timing, followed up his impressive 41 point debut season with a less-than-desired 17, bounced over to Arizona in free agency and then was traded to Ottawa mid-season where he now heads up the squad in Binghamton. Or Belleville? Parts unknown. Sentimentality will get you nowhere.

One-time stalwart Captain Roland McKeown didn't fall on his face in 2025 but he did become a cap casualty, we have only to consider the tale of Dominik Bokk to understand how that goes. This is a mercenary league, only the very best are worth the money to lock down, the rest can beg for scraps in free agency and tend to go team-to-team on 1 or 2 year deals. Flexibility is everything.

Graham Knott (still here!) scored a league-leading 16 powerplay goals in 23/24. He hasn't scored one since, but he doesn't see much powerplay time whatsoever. Last year's absolute casserole of a powerplay wouldn't have kicked 16 powerplay goals out of bed on account of a few crumbs but did begin to fear an event horizon of futility was a distinct possibility so arms and other limbs were to be held inside the capsule until the risk of spaghettification had passed. Cause and effect are increasingly the same thing.

That brings us back to now, or rather it brings us back to the possibility of now. Do we wonder about having won that game seven and what garden of forking paths is unreachable from this square to the point that we attempt to ride that snake back to square 1 or do we think perhaps the gate is somewhere up ahead?

This is the world as it is. It'll all burn eventually. Until then, Alexis Lafreni??re remains under contract.