bigfaninlethbridge

most of the shots in both games were perimeter muffins.

We are drafting and developing a 70's team in the 2020's. We are hooped.

we are in good hands, Sutter gets the reigns. Prepare for an old school team in new age NHL. We are hooped for the better part of a decade.

Bedard is ridiculous. That kid is going to be one special NHL player

Yes I figured that when I re-read your post. I edited mine to address that. When you turn back and see your team mate surrounded by opposing jerseys you defend him first and ask questions later. This team did nothing of the sort.

Exactly. We THINK our guys are worth more, but they aren't. This is a horribly built team, how Treliving continues getting a free pass is beyond me, because he built a team that is terrible. Had we traded JG 2 years ago before his shortcomings were made blatantly apparent we would have easily won a trade involving him. Monahan too. Giordano should have been traded right after winning the Norris to cash in on him, we all knew he was aging and it was downhill from there... but THEN somebody would have paid. Now, no way.

I wasn't talking specifically about the muzzin incident at all, but yes that is part of it. and nobody left the ice, they sat there and watched him take it with nobody coming to his side. Here's the video... the entire line was right there watching and doing nothing else. Not one of them left the ice. BUT, when you do see your linemate deep into it with four opposing jerseys on top of him you leap in to help them. You don't leisurely skate up there to who wants tea and crumpets. You steamroll the dicks that are pounding on your line mate. This team is not cohesive, they don't like each other, and will not take a punch for one another. The one player who would got blasted by his own team for it. Ridiculous. (OK there are two, Lucic too)

Of course that's true, and it's likely true for every team in the league. As you face the tougher teams that are the top of the divisions your goals for and goal differential goes down. That's how standings work, and Edmonton currently ranks second place in those standings with games in hand. It has nothing to do with over inflating tires, it has to do with their on ice performance. And newsflash, they are performing far better than we are, in fact they are performing better than most of the rest of the division and are biting at the heels of the one in top spot. That tells me they are a good team. Not good enough to win it all, but they are good and trending to be better. The sooner we see this and how they got there so we can fix our problems the better.

Take your foot out of your mouth, and follow along. Maybe you should read the comment before posting chirps about it and erroneously chastising somebody. I said nothing about goals for or goal differential, not even once in that post. What was it you said about letting facts get in the way of opinion? I said "First in the division for goals AGAINST ". and here's your proof:

tkachuk got screwed by his team mates. he wore his heart on his sleeve and everybody else sat back and watched while he was knee deep in the shizz. then his team mates stabbed him in the back telling him that basically he was the problem with stirring crap up. funny that wasn't a problem when the team was winning though was it? i don't blame him for losing interest, his team did long ago.

you don't think that maybe it's because we overvalue our players? we lucked out with bennet but it could very well be our ask for our players was higher than teams that were interested wanted to pay. our problem is we know what these guys have done, but the question that the trade partners are asking is what have they done lately?

they are first in the division for goals against and goals against per game. they are never blown out by any team. after their first handful of games when they put their crap together they have for the entire season been in either second or third in the division, even last night they blew the doors off of winnipeg. They are maddingly consistent in my opinion.

lol well said. Did anybody hear Boomer on the fan this morning? talking to Friedman he says "And the Oilers have been MADDINGLY consistent this year..." that to me puts it all in a nutshell right there.

There are 3 players on this team IMO that are carrying the load in the "heart" department. Tkachuk, Mangiapane, Lucic. Mango is still too young and not established, To me it's between Lucic and Tkachuk. Lucic has the heart of a lion but is aging and slowing and just doesn't have the talent. Tkachuk is IMO the defacto captain anyways. Give him the real leadership and see if this team starts to follow him.

OK well I think we've debated this one to death lol... time will tell if they are actually a good team trending towards great, or a bad team over performing and destined to fall back to the bottom. I think they are the former without question, and I think there are things that we can and should learn from them. I never once claimed them to be a top team, but by the eye test they sure seem to be trending that way.

Yup, Mango is one of our bright lights. He's gonna be good. (already good, gonna be great!) We are lacking his type of tenacity for sure.

Thanks for that. I'm implying that he is pulling the "it's not my fault it's these idiots I'm playing with that are to blame"

To me this looks like somebody trying to shift blame. I find myself wondering if The_Snowbear doesn't have some truth to his posts. Side note, how the heck to I post videos to the forum? https://i.gyazo.com/639e49243288e3dab9f775fd4e351bff.mp4

Actually there are 4 in their top 6 with 10 or more. The same goes almost every top 3 team of every division in the league except for a very few. I still fail to see how that is a bad thing. Those teams are scoring, and they are winning.... the goal of a hockey game. Well color me surprised, it's easier to blow out a bad team than it is a good one. This information you put here is true for every team in the league, that's how standings work. Not really, I'm like any other flames fan with my attitude towards them. But blindly saying things like "ZOMG THEY sUcK cuz theY draFTEd first overalzzzz nine timez!!!!" or "THre ONLY good cuz They HaVe Conner and that German guy!!" is ridiculous. They got rid of the bad management, the bad coaches, the bad trainers and the bad scouts, Heck I think they even fired the laundry lady. They now have an organization that is fixing the mess they inherited and they are winning their games. They've hired the right people and have drafted well and they are going to continue to get better. THAT is what we need to learn from. Make fun of them yes, hate them yes... but to blindly keep believing they are a bad team is just plain wrong and goes against anything based in reality. No they are not, thankfully. But, they WILL be, They have the right pieces in place and WAY better people steering the ship and they are going to continue to get better, while we are sitting in the middle of the ocean powerless and rudderless, and that's what you are ignoring. But they are NOT a middle of the pack team. Right now they are top third, and by the looks of it will continue to trend upwards. Yes goaltending needs to be fixed, yes better defensive play and play in their own end... interesting to note, right now they are 14'th overall in fewest goals allowed per game and also middle of the pack in straight goals allowed. How you are not seeing that as better play in their own end vs. previous years is beyond me. But no let's just keep with the "Flames are on the right track, Treliving gets a passing grade, and THANK GOD THEY BROUGHT SUTTER BACK! Our savior has arrived!!" Come on, we can't keep doing this. We have to start looking around the league at what is working, and this season and for the forseeable future it definitely is working for that team to the north. We need to learn from them and other teams that have the cheddar.

Looks like it may not happen anyways. The league is looking at extending the end date of the season for the North division.

This right here. It's completely unfair to all teams. What if our team suddenly gets hot like they are known to do and finish out the season with a bunch of wins, but miss out on the 5 remaining Vancouver games and as a result miss playoffs? If it's based on points percentage for the entire season then we'd be hooped, despite the fact that we would be playing better with a higher chance of coming off with more points had those games been played while the team is playing well.

OK That's a very good point, we have to start somewhere. I still think we should be at least trying for Hall. It would cost a lot and be some fancy fandangling to get it to fit, but that's what we need.

I think it's you who has lost sight. I just looked it up, and frankly you should really actually examine your stats before posting them. Do you know how many teams in the entire league have 4 or more players with more than 10 goals? 10. Not even a third of the league, and yes you are right Edmonton is one of them. As of right now in the league there are exactly 92 players with more than 10 goals this year. That equates to an average of 2.96 players per team with a goal count of more than 10. The Oilers have in fact a HIGHER number of players with more than 10 goals than the league average. You know how many our team has?? 1. Yes, ONE. Now as far as Ottawa, ask any other team in the North if Ottawa is a pushover like you say. Every one of them except Edmonton will say that they had their hands full with Ottawa. If you take away their losses to Edmonton they'd be at 13 and 12 right now, over 500 hockey and good for 5th and challenging for a playoff spot... way above us. I agree you see what you see, but you are seeing it with blinders. You are letting your hate and envy cloud your judgement. Instead of striving to chastise them, we should be looking at ways to improve from them. That's how winning teams are built. This I completely agree with, and they've had that problem for decades, ever since lucking out with Roloson. In fact they don't develop or find goaltenders worth a fiddlers you know what in that organization. Shore is new, but Turris is a dud. Doesn't every team sign duds from time to time? Unless you think we are just plain perfect in that regard? Again you aren't doing your research. Barrie has more ES points than PP points, 18 vs 14. Both Bear and Jones are still VERY young for defenders. I'm sure you know that the overwhelming majority of defenders don't really become their best until late 20's. Besides the only regression they seem to have taken was to start the year. They've certainly cleaned their game up in the last 20 games. JP(won't even bother trying to spell his name) and Yamoto are both top 8 in their scoring so I wouldn't worry about them either. It seems like a team that has figured it out a hell of a lot better than ours has. I proved it above, they spread scoring out better than the league average yet here you sit chastising them for only having two guys who score. It's wrong, and I tell you what they are loving it because while we focus all of our sights on the big two, the other guys are finishing off the dirty work. It's a fallacy that they don't have secondary scoring. Are they as deep as some teams? nope not at all and that is going to show in the playoffs for sure. But it's very shortsighted to discount them completely because as a whole they are better than or keep pace with almost every team in the league for secondary scoring. Winnipeg is probably the deepest team in the league.. everybody should try to model themselves after that team. They are ridiculous. Toronto IMO is playing above their heads, they are not as deep as the peg, or even Montreal in my opinion. While you chastise Edmonton for lack of scoring depth, Toronto has 21 players with 5 or less goals on their roster. And you think THAT should be a model to follow? The only other team in the North division with more is Ottawa. For reference, Calgary has 18 players with 5 or less goals, Edmonton has 17. Again, you should do your research first. We can continue to hate the Oilers all we want, after all it is in our blood. But it's blind partisanship to just discount them and say they are not building their team better than us, because they are. We are falling behind, and not just against them.

Even then, outside of the real home runs like McDavid, Eichel, Hedman etc... it can be a crapshoot anyways. It's getting to be more and more that your GM and his staff REALLY need to do their homework when deciding who to draft.

JP won't ever go lower than second line on their squad IMO. And they have more secondary scoring than they've had since their cup run. I can't see anybody claiming Nygard tbh, and this team needs a heck of a lot more help than him. The Flames have to trade assets to get assets. claiming players like Nygard won't help.