CheersMan

I just checked, 9 teams have won since 04, over a period of 16 yrs. Many of those teams lost for a good many years while picking up guaranteed top draft picks like WAS, CHI, PIT, LA, ANA. Whereas others did it the hard way like DET, BOS, CAR, STL. These few tried to win every year and finally punched through. Underachievement is not what I would call the Flames. Who’s underachieving? Gaudreau, drafted 104 OA? I would argue that he has over-achieved in his time here. 8 pts in the postseason and +/-0. He held his own. Monahan, drafted 6 OA? Not many have scored more goals in this league since he arrived. 7 pts in the post season and a +/- 0, he held his own. Bennet, drafted 4 OA? This guy is a warrior come playoff time. Somewhat of a liability during the regular season. Gio, drafted……opps, found in the dollar store? Gio has been an overachiever his whole career, but certainly showing signs of a depreciating 37yr old now. Hamonic, elected to take summer vacation instead? Tkachuk, who was concussed and missed the last 3 games? Lucic, who turned out to be a true leader for this team? Talbot? I think Talbot was tremendous, minus the last game. We were 11 seconds from going up 3-1 in the DAL series. DAL looks to be having their way with COL now. Fans best be careful what they wish for because if you trade Gaudreau and Monahan now, you may as well have a fire sale and call it “Scorched Earth” because the return for the top two are not going to make us better while the other good players continue to waste or depreciate. Remember the “Young Gun Era”? Flames were close to skipping town for better pastures because there was no support here for losing. If fans are not willing to buy a season ticket (or two) during a “scorched earth” approach, then they have NO SAY on the matter. I’m not saying it’s not the best way to go, simply pointing out another rebuild could put us back 5-6yrs (of losing) with no guarantees. Who is footing the bill in the meantime? With the introduction of the lottery, the old days of losing for the best young prospects are gone. No more reward for losing.

Looks like the old, slow, has-beens DAL team that cant score goals has dropped a grenade on the young, fast, talented, goal machine COL team too. COL should be blowing it up in a few days. Heck, 30 teams will be blowing it up once the SC is awarded. This thread title should be Blown-up!

20 goals in 20 games Real Deal James Neil still has $5.75x3. 😀

Let it grow, Let it grow, Let it grow.

Then what, does Kassian line become the 4th line?

Made me look. Impressive win/loss record but he’s not winning in the NHL with 3.61 GAA and 0.879 SA%.

I think we can give him credit for the BUF win as well.

Logical choice given the circumstances. In 20 games time we will have a good idea how Ward commands the team. I have no reason to believe that he will be the weak link in the event of a failed season. I think Ward is a good hockey man, when he talks hockey I listen because he appears to have an understanding of the game. He either has the tools at his disposal or he doesn’t. With regards to Ward's PP, the zone entries aren’t bad, I find them somewhat refreshing (other than Gio’s predictable and terrible drop pass through coverage to JHG, hate it). Once in the ozone we just get out worked when defending teams apply puck pressure, can’t blame the coach for that. In 20 games time we will also hit 294 cumulative games coached between Gully, Peters and Ward. That happens to match the games coached by none other than the Jack Adams winner prior to them who was fired for dwelling on the positives and throwing the negatives in the trash can...while still having a year on his contract to boot. (save the Hartley insults ppl, we’ve seen them all already. All the best Ward, we are counting on you.

That is a reasonable prediction, but Lucic already has his 3 fights.

That is my thinking as well or something along those lines. There is no iron-man or championship trophy given out in Oct. Lets get Talbot in there (other than back to backs) and feeling good about his game, maybe he is stellar. We need a healthy competition going on and I don't want to see Rittich playing 55-60 games either. I want both goalies fresh, healthy and on their game come playoffs.

Rittich SA% is 22nd best in the league, one position above Smith, and BP feels he needs to ride him 7 of 8 games? Common already lets get Talbot in there and see what he's got. Some pleased with the way Rittich has been stopping the puck but his puck handling skills is a train wreak and he still has some leaning to do. Talbot should get equal opportunity.

Hey, easy there now, don't walk too far out on the plank. One goal every 3-4 games from here on out should get him there. Any other fearless predictions?

Neal is going to get 21 goals this season no problem, hopefully no more than 23. I'd be tickled pink if Lucic got just 10-13. That 3rd rounder we get from EDM is going to make the Oilers remember that trade in a bad way for the next decade plus.

The “Real Deal” James Neil. On pace for 82 goals and ZERO assists this year.

Do we even know who Valimaki is yet? Sitting out this season (or most of it) will be a serious set back for the young player. Lets not raise the bar to high until we see what he is. Maybe we can learn from the Bennett expectations and give Valimaki some breathing room. MT for captaincy is a possibility, first you have to re-sign him, which could be a challenge, plus you are assuming Gio is not returning. Why are we trading our 30 goal #1 center SM? Are you thinking someone is going to give us one back? I'm not seeing another one presently in our organization.

That's good news, BT has done some good work in his time here. He has proven to be a keeper in our current push.

The biggest positive that I have observed this pre-season has to be Rittich. He looks cool and collective back there while maintaining position. The two that got by him this evening...….well not many are stopping those except the dmen doing there job in front of him. The starter position looks to be Ritters to lose.

Norris trophy finalist in 3 of the last 4 years, winning it once. That puts him near the top 5 in my books.

I think we are in fine shape. Ritter looks big and real good, has some confidence and comfort with a two year deal. I think he has a chance of running away with it. Talbot looks good too, proven talented goaltender who will push and maybe pass Ritter, he will steal wins and maybe the starters job as well. I think we will see a 50-50 split unless one guy dominates. Great competition, they'll figure it out.

Great to see our 4 D on the list. Karlsson has arguably his worst season ever last year due to injury and yet he is top dog on the list? Where is Burns? Is Burns that bad in the transition game that he doesn't make the top 30? Burns looked his usual self last evening with 4pts again.

I see you have 60 new members this week, if web forums are a dying breed then yours is alive and well. Again, nice work on giving your fan base an avenue to express them selves after the organization let it die.

Bingo! and Cheers man!

Just my 2 cents worth. Had nothing to do with the $1500, and more to do about censorship. Oiler brass were likely tired of reading the (justified) criticism that passionate fans were expressing and were opportunistic in just letting it die. Good to see you never let it die because there is a huge fan base up there as can be seen on your message boards (past and present). I'd be very unhappy to see ours die but yours is proof in the pudding that it would just resurface elsewhere. I'm very happy with how our management group respects the fan here, the first thing that comes out or there mouth when they meet us is "thank you for supporting us" , they say it often and they're genuine. Your new site looks great, nice work! Maybe time for another DT bill board? One that says "Oilers Ownership group lets message board die where 1000's of fans gathered due to an equivalent cost of 100 draft beer".

It has been a week and they are still not sure it is broken. Lets give them the summer to figure it out.

I'm fine with any order so long as Edmonton is not included