Has the Ship Been Righted?

The Red Army began the season 0-2. Soon after they were 2-2. Another string of losses dropped the record to 2-6. Now, with two games remaining in a season filled with ups and downs, the Red Army is 6-6. So, the question we here at the R.A.D. are wondering is this: Has Mother Russia returned to her old, winning ways, or is there another inevitable turn for the worst ahead?

There are two schools of thought.

1) People are cyclical creatures, people play on teams, therefore, teams are cyclical creatures. If anything, this season highlights that line of logic, makes it bold, puts it in italics, underlines it, and makes it size 72 arial black font. This team is cold one week, hot the next, colder the week after that, and hotter the week after that. Is it the mindset? Is it players not showing up? Or is it just natural, that when you win for a while, you get lazy, and you lose. Likewise, when you lose for a while, you get angry, play hard, and win. It happens in all sports, and while we were spoiled the last few seasons with winning streaks of 11 and 8 games, some of us out there at some point did think, "This team is just overachieving, they'll crash soon." Well, one season they crashed. Then there was that other one season that they didn't.

Which leads us to school of thought #2.

2) The Red Army is that good. Things are finally returning to normal. The first 8 games can be thrown out, it's merely a learning curve. The turnover the team saw, losing Ryan Odell while adding Brian Lynch and Jamie Simek, led to a few weeks to sort out the kinks in the system. Players had to adjust to the new styles, lines were juggled again, and leadership responsibilities were put on those players who weren't used to the burden. That and the fact that Andy Schram had been MIA for a few games allowed many teams to feast on an easy two points against the Comrades early in the season. Those teams slated to play the Red Army in the second half of the season though? Not so lucky. It's a different monster. Nay, it's the same monster from last fall, awoken from it's winter hibernation (undoubtedly championship partying related) and ready to return to the postseason. Fear not Comrades, the beast is back, and don't let a misleading playoff seed fool you.

So which one do you buy? Ebb and flow? Or are we back? We won't know until, well, a few weeks. But a win tonight would get the Soviets above .500 for the first time this season. I think that's good, and something we can all agree on.