travel_dude

Francis goes back into the draft. Not sure what makes the difference.

Yeah, I wasn't making any juidgements. A NY-COL finals would be fun. Had we gotten our Satoshi Nakamoto together in the 2nd round, we would be facing the AVS with something to prove. Instead we hear the nonsense that since the Oilers are down 2-0 that we would have been run out of the building. I'm not taking anything away from the Oilers beating us, but they beat a team not playing like the Flames. After game 1, it should have been 4-1 games for us. Nothing in the games had me believing that McD was at another level. The team exploited the problems that started late in game 1 for us. If we could somehow put together the same team next season, maybe subbing in Monahan for Lucic's contract, we would be ready again. Some possible tinkering with the prospects. Some growth from the youngins.

I know that records mean nothing other than something people might bet on. Vas is 17-0 following a loss. Maybe that's not important of the team struggles.

Missed that part. As much as I like high end draft picks, I would need to be 100% sure about who is #2 in the list and how soon he is a NHL player.

Tkachuk for just a pick? Steal for NJ. We use the equivalent money to sign a soon to be 32 year old. I like Bread, but the reason why the top line was able to do everything was a big body on the wing. Mange probably gets 40 goals there, but the rest of the line suffers. If I am trading Tkachuk there, I want Hischier or Bratt and Ty Smith.

I tend to think that Sutter wants the farm to start running itself better. If we go backwards, then yeah he wants out. He wants to achieve what we missed out on this year. A 25% chance at the cup. I don't think BT goes after JT. The cost within division is too costly. They don't have JB as the GM. Personally, the biggest need is a 1D. If Monahan recovers, we have a 2C. If Rozie is good enough, we have a 3C. If both of those are true, we have 1-4 set. Pelletier-Rozie-Toffoli could be the next big thing. Need improvement on line 4. Can't just be big and tough.

If they want to move on from IP, then a lesser trade to reduce the cap might make more sense. I get the need for scoring, but Hanifin makes sense for them. A career year for him. Almost $2M cheaper. More of a mover than IP. IP also has the big final contract year actual salary. From a Flyers perspective, I don't know if this helps them. It doesn't hurt. Maybe they get a better offer, maybe not.

1st in the Pacific and career years for every D plus 4 forwards. The only downside to the season was the playoffs. The two key failings in the playoffs were Tanev and Marky. Don't need to replace those two. Bold moves would be trading Hanifin, Tkachuk and Kylington. That assumes he has no faith they will be part of the future. Maybe Backlund, but that would be a 180 from where we were headed. Improve on the D. Get an upgrade at C. Figure out what the 4th line needs to be.

The timing was all wrong. TDL almost. You don't get the offers you want. Other teams with assets or space don't want to change during a potential lotto season.

A lot of "I" in your response, much like mine. LOL. ARI seems to want to trade Chychrun for some reason. A trade for just picks and former first rounders doesn't help unless there is salary to reach the cap floor. They might overpay for some 2nd rate talent in FA (who wants to play in a 5000 seat arena), but that's no better than trading for a former 30 goal scorer. I truly have no idea of what ARI wants to do. BT may still have some backchannels with them. Perhaps you take Hanifin off the trade and use Kylington instead. Add Zary and a 2nd rounder. Or you take Ghost in the trade and include Hanifin. Who knows. The reason I say Lucic may retire is that he's a proud guy. He knows his play is declining. He has a role and it only works half the time. Taking the bonus gives him 75% of his final year money. He turns 34 this month.

To think that we were on Panarin's shortlist. Unfortunately, he had no concept of where Calgary even was, and the Hawks were a very good team then. We could have had two slices of bread. NY totally hosed Ottawa in that Zib for Brassard trade. He's been a killer ever since. Take a lesson Calgary; he's signed for 8 years at age 29. COL is for sure a beast. EDM exposed as the pretenders they are. Had we showed up, the refs might have called the games a little more evenly. The AVS series is showing how dirty the Oils play. Refs are calling them out for their BS. No worse play than they did against us, but they got away with so much. Now, not so much. I didn't even think the refs were being generous or one sided last night. Doesn't matter if it's game 2 or 7, you have to call that crap. Kane showing the classless attitude he normally does. Must have bet the over. Makar vs Nurse. LOL One makes $9M, the other will make more. Is it even close? Nurse isn't as good as Ras, and that's a huge drop from Makar. AVS went all-in this year, which makes sense since they can't afford to ice the same team. Too many RFA and UFA. Only thing helping them is Kadri is 31. If we could swoop in and sign Nichushkin, that would be nice. Gives us some options at wing and we ice at least 3 lines with size.

The more I think about it, the more it makes sense to trade with ARI. There is no leadership on their team, very little experience or big names. All of the older guys that came in on cap dumps will be gone. Kessel is done there. Seeing as Chychrum is still inexperienced, we should entice them with Hanifin and Monahan. Send Dube and another player/prospect. Add a pick if necessary. Part of this is sending a quality player for a quality player. Part is giving them a player that could rebound in a good environment. Dube gives them a player that can move around. We send 3 for 1, but we can replace some of it internally. We can also perhaps convince Lucic to retire and move into a Flames office position, after he gets his bonus. These few moves saves us about $13M. Slight downgrade in losing Dube. Allows us to change some of the imbalance of the lines. The other alternative is dump to Detroit. Wouldn't expect much in return.

Think you missed a couple points last night. Anyone with Makar, Rantanen and MacKinnon would have gone up 4 points. I'm still 9 points back of the top 2, but they should be 226 and me 217. I think that makes Robrob 225. I believe Saymzies is 207, but that might be an old error.

If I wasn't specific enough, suck it Oilers.

If I end up beating you (inlikely considering how I have mostly the same players), it will be sweet.

Love it

They haven't played CHI at all this season. I believe that Kirkland played against them previously on the Admirals. Big test

The Oilers were exposed by the refs as to how dirty they really are. Kane with multiple head shots. McD slashes a players stick out of his hands (no call). Picks let go (of course). Just a lot of cheap shots and they earned every penalty. Suck it.

And so it seems to continue each year. Having true starter, that is also feeling it. Shesty has been a top goalie all year. Vas have been pretty consistent in the playoofs. Smith is a joke and only made it this far with teams struggling to get quality chances. Kuemper was average this season and gets lit up too easily. He looked no better than Markstrom in game 1. Francouz is a backup and if you are relying on a backup, you are in trouble.

Hold your head up high. You had zero Oilers stinking up your roster.

There is a big difference between West and East hockey. Big punishing team from the West get to the cup. Fast, skilled teams from the East that have great goaltending get to the cup. The last two season TBL won because of the format. MTL playing for the cup against TBL? Would never happen any other time; not possible. DAL playing for the cup in a short season; anyone's chance with the delay. This is the first season in 3 years that is normal. Injuries impacted us only in the playoffs. Tampa lost their best playoff player. The experience helps, since you need to know what it takes to win. But there is always going to be a guy that takes it to the next level at the right time. Experience in that case means nothing.

That's good to know. I am offically shelving my comments about the Flames playoffs. We will get there next year and be better. On the other hand, go AVS. Would have liked the chance to play you. Would have been one for the ages. NHL was robbed of that chance. Nobody wants to see the Oilers move on.

Woody thinks he's a smart coach. He took cues from Sutter. He's not going to say anything ahead of the game because he thinks it's some smart tactic. There's no benefit to do it in advance. He doesn't name Smith, people freak out. He names Smith and people groan and think another 6 goals or 0 goals. He had it easy in two seies so far. He's doing the same things he did for us against COL. IN other words, it will be a loss. As far as who he goes with? Kosko has defected and reportedly already signed a deal in Europe. It would be fitting for him to play in the elimination game because then they can blame him, save Smitty for next season and nobody around to answer to the blame. I'm way ahead here. I got no problem with him as a coach. Smug little troll, but nothing personal.

NY is a fun team to watch on offense. They are pretty decent in all aspects of the game. I think we could have beaten them, but had my doubts about beating TBag. If the AVS get to the finals against TBag, then who knows. Average goalie vs Vas. Both are pretty deep teams. Too far ahead. I want to see the AVS stomp the Oilstains. Put old Smith out to pasture.

I have already started signing players to extensions, talked to the pending UFA's, and reached out to gauge interest in some trades. Nothing left in this season. Cheer on the Heat. Bring in some of that winning attitude to the Flames next season.