travel_dude

Poke the bear you get the claws.

Danger of not putting the boots to a struggling team.

Top line - check 2nd line - ugg 3rd line - check 4th line - okay We have 11/12 of a lineup. Kadri line should be dominating every shift.

Thanks Saymzies, was busy so got got around to seeing if any thread was put up. It's cold here, really cold. Thought it would be a cold day in hell that Lucic would play with Hubey and Kadri.

Different era, n'est pas?

When MAF was a star, he won the games he needed to and kept them in the ones that were high scoring. Make that next save. Don't let in a goal when the other team gets scored on. Whether it's on the goalie or not, he has one job. Make that next save.

DeSimone is 2nd in D scoring, just behind Poirier, who could have grabbed a roster spot out of camp. He was probably equal to Stone and better than Mackey and Meloche. As far as what he did then. But Sutter does not want to make decisions like we keep up a waiver exempt player and waive someone. Even though he says that. Anyway, it's not like AHL scoring means anything to Sutter. Make more sense in his mind to play a NHL player that scored kast in March over one that lead the AHL. Sarcasm off

So, some roster moves.... Gilbert moved to IR. Tanev activated off IR. DeSimone recalled (was prior to activating Tanev). Zohorna sent to AHL. Phillips remains, but scratched for 4th game in a row, It appears that Zadorov is okay for tonight.

Yeah, that's a pretty good description. I would boil it down to the Oiler can only win when they get at least 2 PP's in a game and almost always lose when the whistles are put away.

I can't honestly remember. As it is, I see 3 players out there in a game and wonder if it's part of a line change, Sutter going nuts, or something messed up because of too many special teams play. I do agree that PP1 is messed up with too many RHS's, and Toffoli is the obvious guy to go. I differ on the issue though. I think he is best in one of two situations; one the rush middle third of the ice, and onetimer from the off wing. He's not built to move the puck and play in a dynamic PP. The PP looks like they refuse to skate, must stay in one spot and pass to guys on their proper wing.

Two of the last 5 teams were not ever in rebuids as such. WAS and STL. COL was in a cycle of rebuild over the years and got it timed right for player costs. TBL is a study in cap loopholes that aided in them winning. Winning in two short seasons. DO you need to flush some players and make smart trades and picks? Of course. The sad fact is we look fondly too long on players with former glories. Lucic is past done. Lewis is a journeyman type that you can use, but not what a winner does. We aren't that far off from having a really good team. And possibly a winner. Just can't continue to ice bad players just because they did something once. And if your starter is not playing as good as the backup, simple answer. PLay the hot hand and get both up to the right level. If some of the play makes it look worse, then mitigate that type of play.

Asking a guy that cements a spot with Backs and Coleman to move to a new line is odd. He never really found chemistry with Dube and he's trying to get used to Kadri. Use one consistent line if you need to shake up the others. One consistent from last year that is.

I could have sworn we had done this. But I would also follow it up with Ruzicka-Kadri-Toffoli. And Mange-Backlund-Coleman. And Zohorna-Lewis-Phillips. In no real universe is Lucic a top 9 player. Barely a 4th liner at this point. He's on the aisle of the Jumbo jet and the flight attendants are giving him cookies and nuts.

Bwahahaha Perhaps we would have gotten that 1st overall and not trade a couple of times for goalies. But then we wouldn't have drafted Wolf.

We struggle to score, so rather than have 12F and be able to shorten the bench, we had to use Lucic with multiple lines because he's a scoring threat on any line he plays.

I think this is exactly what Sutter said he didn't want to do. Play Phillips on the 4th line. It's fine if you play him and Ruzie 12+ minutes, but don't tell me you think Lucic can. It's a joke. Lucic is at best a platoon player, mayber 60 games at most. Assuminig you want a guy to hit and fight most nights. His out there against 3/4 of the players in the NHL is a loss.

That would be fine, but other than 3 minutes to Gilbert, they played the top 4 almost as many minutes as usual. The plan may have been different, but we ended up down another D by the end of the game. Mostly due to a firedrill backchecking after a soft entry.

Not sure what you refer to but I think sometimes (not you specifically) people look for holes in a team game that happens to every team. THere is no perfect team. There are ones you see winning, but how often do people watch the losses or the holes in their games. Toronto is pretty easy to pick apart and they are a winning team. The Oiler rs score a ton but also give up a ton and play like they don't know how to defend. ANyway, keep up the posting, not everyone agrees. Some may sound like they are trashing you but they just don't agree.

If it wasn't for the quick two goals we probably would have shut down the offense and tried to win a 2-1 game. It seems to be Sutter's belief that we can only score two, so shut it down when we do. As far as the player usage goes, I don't follow it one bit. Lucic has a game where a puck bounces off another player and he should get top 6 minutes? Lewis was probably more the reason that a goal happened. Or Lindholm. But we push a fairly unskilled grinder for more minutes because he's playing like a 4th liner?

I like what the prospects are doing so far. Markie is picking up, but still allowing too many for the number of shots. Vladar is always showing a string game, whether he wins or not. Very seldom are the goal what I would call "shoulda haves".

How did we get a penalty by Hiberdeau?

Even in a 5-2 lead, we melt down.

Don't go anywhere for the next 30 seconds.

This was the 2nd of a B2B