I agree with you on Drury, not a huge fan and think he is in over his head.
As for Laf, he has 3 goals, including one from a dirty area last night. That is a good start, and his line has been very good. Sure, it is largely due to Panarin, but Laf has been okay, and Chytil has looked good. I totally agree Laf needs to shoot more, but so far that line has done a good job.
On FO's, Trocheck is at 59%, Bonino is at 58%, and Z is at 52%. That is a great start, and even Chytil is at 47%, which is great for him. Call it a focus of the coaches, Peca's impact, or the players stepping up/helping each other, any way you cut it they have been WAY better on FO's than any 6 game stretch I have seen in years from this team.
And Bonino has been a good FO guy in his career - 58% this year so far, 2023 48.2%, 2022 51.4%, 2021 52.8%, 2020 52.6%. Over 51% on FO's 4 of the past 5 seasons including this season so far. He is a solid FO guy. Not a great dominant one, Trocheck is close to that, but he is solid and way better than anyone they have had outside of Trocheck for a long while.
I actually think Bonino is a good 4th line C. I also think Goodrow is a good 4th line player. They could use an upgrade to a grittier/sandpaper guy over Vesey/Pitlick as the 3rd forward on the 4th line. That is why I still think we could see Wheeler moved to the 4th line, and Othmann called up in a month or so to play on the 3rd line. Wheeler could play a Perry type role on the 4th line. That would be good for all if Othmann is ready after some seasoning in the AHL.
The D has been way better, the FO's have been way better, overall they are shooting more (still have work to do here), and they have scored a number of dirty area goals. Add it up and that is good stuff after 6 games. They have played well overall in 5 of the 6 games, acknowledging they didn't show for the Nashville game.
Even when they won games in the past it was largely due to goaltending, and simply outscoring teams in high scoring games, that is not the case this year so far. They have only allowed 1 goal in each of their 4 wins, and that is good stuff, and shots against are way down. Whether they can sustain that for more than 6 games, we'll see, but I won't take the start away from them.