travel_dude

He signs, don't know why there is so much doubt.

I think you can get away with 10x8 for Johnny. He hates having to live up to some number. The last deal he under performed except for two seasons. Tkachuk offer sheet is difficult to construct. It needs to be attractive enough to Tkachuk to get him to possibly risk a letdown. Jersey signs him to 5 years and he averages out as a 60 point player. In 5 years has the cap gone up enough to warrant $10m+ for a 60 point player? Doubt it. That his risk. He want 7 or 8 years now. I think. Or 1 and get another career year with Gaudreau. Then it's UFA time.

I am okay losing this game to bad play, but not to bad calls. We had enough bad calls over the 5 games for this to be the cherry. What makes this so much worse is having to put up with the constant barrage of "best....." and how this was so easily kicking it's not close. SN was all over it from retired hockey players that have not played since the rule changed. They were already moving past this series to talk about Nate vs Connor. And yet, they seldom talk about the quality of calls through the series. This was just another game of it. SN wants to say the name over and over again. They want him awarded the Conn Smythe now. The Oilers best run to date was one win less. Anaheim with the comeback and gloved puck. Somehow this is different in their minds because the visual is skate touching the puck. No understanding of how the rule has been called all year, nor even an understanding of what the rule says. Only people like Button and Friedman seem to understand the subtle differences. We are likely to see some change out of this. Much like the COL goal that changed the off-side on a goal rule, this will change to remove doubt. Or at least similar change from the last version of the rule.

The only saving grace is that the zebra team will be cut in half by the end of this round. Can't imaging McCauley/Furlatt or Kozari/Lee will be back. They normally are gone after they have bad series.

Time to shift attention to the Calder Cup playoffs. Heat can clinch their spot in the Western Conference Final with a win tonight. Won't be watching live unless I can find a stream. 7:05 MDT I believe. Maybe I watch COL try to nail down their spot in the WCF to face the Oilstains.

I don't think we ever played this year to that kind of speed. Any time we tried against this team in particular, was a barn burner. You don't win with speed alone and you don't lose by being a slower team. What was it we won? 55 games? What we have been good at is quick strike. Scoring first, scoring 2 in a row. We did that in Game 1 and 5, but we sure didn't do anything after we get the strike. It's happened this year in other games. But nowhere like this. Something had to be off with Marky. The final BOA regular season game was a B2B, so I won't use that. He looked different between game 7 and game 1. I don't know if he was fighting an injury there or what. He didn't face a ton in the OT against Dallas, so there may have been something in game 1 of BOA. Maybe someone fell on his glove hand? Somebody pointed that out in the GDT thread, so it's very possible. 3 goals to the glove side after that? Too coincidental.

Arizona doesn't have a real direction. They have zero name brands there. Might have interest in names like Monahan and Tkachuk. We would need back a Chychrun and Crouse. They have the money and roster space. Send Shilly or Valimaki if it gets the deal done. I think Tkachuk is easier to replace than Gaudreau. Not the full package but the scoring. We have to be careful not to strip down too much and improve the places we were exposed. 4th line. Top pairing D. Down the middle. We have depth at LW and in some respects RW. Jarnkrok would be better suited on RW with a big C. Toffoli would be better suited with a playmaker. I think we can leave the Backlund line alone. I would be inclined to use Jarnkrok as a 4th line RW and have a decent line with a big C. Top line, if you lose Tkachuk, needs a N/S finisher.

As far as Pelletier, I think he's a slightly different version of Gaudreau. Passer, yes, but 100% compete level or that's what I have heard. It makes us a little smaller on the wings, but being big up the middle is probably more important.

You never let your franchise player walk. He wasn't the most dynamic player in the playoffs, but he was one of the best. You don't take him out and expect to be close to a playoff team. That's why he was a Hart consideration. MVP to the team. You want Tarasenko? Sure, but he replaces Tkachuk for a shorter period of time. And you would need to get another player with him.

I'm up and down on Zaddy. Not worth the deal he signed, but that was circumstance. Had no control. If we traded Kylington, then we need someone to play bottom 2. Really, our depth was exposed after the Dallas series. Valimaki should have subbed in, but he wasn't close to Kylington's level at that point. We had 5 healthy guys and some spot guys available. If we could get a #1 LD, then keep Hanifin with Tanev. Trade Kylington at his highest value.

Same is true of Forsberg, but not to the same extent. Another winger.

If it's possible to get Lucic to retire after paying his bonus, then they should talk to him. I'm not sure if that negates his full cap hit or not, but if it does, then explore the option. I can't imagine this was a fun playoffs for him. Not being a difference make, not fighting, not playing much. More of an emotional leader than a player. The only way we have enough cap to upgrade is moving Monahan, Kylington, Lucic retiring, and using Dube in a trade. Guddy can stay and Zaddy should go. Jarnkrok back as a RW. If Hanifin + Dube gets you a 1/2D, then you have to consider it. But, I have no idea of a target, just suggesting what we can possibly offer. I tend to think Rozie is ready. Perhaps Pelletier is too. That doesn't help size, but helps up the middle. Will take a genious coach to put lines and pairs should we change dramatically.

According to Kadri, he blocked a trade to stay in Toronto. He only had a few cards he could play. He was strategic in where he blocked. Maybe he was okay in going to COL, but you have to think he picked teams he thought would be most likely to trade for him. Or it was him and Gio.

Yeah, I am kind of leaning that way with Kyler. But, I think his perceived value in the market is higher than it is here. He would be fine on a young team with sound defensive structure. Mostly because they would take time to break his game down and build it up. We are not in that mode. I also think we make a play to bring back Jarnkrok. His battle level is high. He gives you options at C or RW. I would be guessing $1.5M with some term. I think the Swedish Mafia will help him decide. We have to move on from Lucic. Great guy to have, but his game is gone. Offer him a coaching or front office gig and he can take his bonus in July and stop having to fight. Toffoli lost value this year, but I am inclined to find a fit with him. Maybe if Monahan can get back, Pelletier as a playmaker helps both finish. Maybe a line of Pelletier-Rozie-Toffoli becomes a new scoring line. I'm starting to think we suffer the most from not having a playmaker past the top line. 4th line of grit and meanness was fine, but I think we need a bit more skill. Maybe keep Lewis for RW and use Rozie there, if he's not taking the 3C role. Or we get a big tough younger player there.

Here's the problem with your login. Hanifin has 7 full years in the NHL. No injuries of more a 12 games in a season. Kylington had zero playoff time and got stuck trying to adapt to playing with guys he was not used to. And he has just one complete season after sitting out all but 8 games. Hanifin is what you see and will never be any better. Kylington is an unfinished product. I'm not saying don't use him in a trade with his value high, but what are you getting for him? Hanifin + Kylington ++ for Chychrun. We fill the bottom pair with young cheap LD and Guddy. We give Valimaki the Tanev treatment. If you trade Tkachuk, then we have lost a regular season impact player. And we best not have to play him much. I'm on the fence about trading him. His salary may kill us, but we would need a Forsberg to replace his minutes and scoring. Not sure what happened in the playoffs with him, he sure didn't help his line much. I said this in another thread. Convince Lucic to retire, after you pay his bonus. There's not much left for him to accomplish if anything. Move Hanifin. Re-sign Guddy. Get Reaves instead of needing to rely on Zaddy. Tough team maintained. Sign Gaudreau and Tkachuk and Bread. Depending on the target, move Kylington. Move Dube. We need a balance of playmakers and finishers. Tkachuk was a bit of both, but playing with a playmaker. We don't really have a fit for Dube and he didn't take off this year. Monahan will likely need to go, but not because of his salary, if we make other moves. He might get the magic back, but I'm not holding my breath. If he could C a line with Pelletier, that might just get him back to scoring. Bring back Jarnkrok and play him on RW.

I may have lost three players but still have the pride of not having any stinking Oilers players. Soon to lose three from STL or COL. Whichever team goes on, the McAdvantage will soon be gone. For now the ploy is working. Whether it's recoverable in 2 rounds is anyone's guess. Please sweep them hard.

I think a lot of the favorable calls for EDM resulted from the media blitz on McDavid not getting calls last playoffs and not drawing the most penalties of any player, because he must have been fouled every shift. We saw a lot of marginal calls get the nod, because it was him. It's tough to watch the NHL these days with the refs picking one team and deciding things that way. If this call of no goal was the league, then it's a total reversal of the way they have called it since the rule was "redefined". I'm not even sure what it means anymore. You can't really kick it with your skate on the ice. You are allow to direct it with your skate. Back to the drawing board NHL; you blew it. It won't happen again this year because we are down to the chosen 4. Well soon enough. Wonder if NY gets a favorable call to change the series. Bettman kind of tipped his hand by saying the NHL will not host anything important in Calgary until they get a new barn. You could suggest they didn't want the SCF played in Calgary.

I think what he is saying is that this was just the ending thud in a series of kicks to the groin. How many games do the Oilers win in this series without one sided officiating. The talk of the SN crew was McD at a different level. I must have missed that. He scored more goals and assists than any Flames player. But a fair bit of that was from games turned into a circus. Not always a PP that turns a game. You call a dive in what should result in a 2 man advantage, then call another guy to negate the PP. That turns into a PP after the Flames original man advantage expires. You call a 4 minute PP when the guy in on his knees. Whatever, maybe justified. Wasn't bleeding when he was on the ice. Call a bunch of penaties for one team through the 1st two periods, then even it up after it's to late. It's not a clean team that was getting the benefit. You saw as many picks as I did. You saw spears and hacks. The least penalized game of the series and it was as dirty as the PP fest games. The one time they give an advantage, it's to negate a potential GWG. To be clear, I am not picking on you. I don't buy into the best team won. The team with the best player won with other things creating the wins. EDM got jobbed by the refs against ANA. A team that Bieksa played for. Him suggesting anything about the goal being kicked in is just dumb. He hasn't played under the new rules, neither has Jen. The league seems to have decided a certain way to call this one goal that is different. I'm still raw, so it might not be coming out right.

Twitter blowing up over the non goal. Here's one that counted....

I think we actually had a better chance with the AVS. But losing Tanev probably killed that chance. The Oilers are one Smith melt down from a sweep. I'm sure Kadri will drill McD into the net at some point.

I think we didn't change that aspect from the regular season. It's not about looking for the pretty play, it's about spreading out the ice. Dump and chase is fine if you send in two guys. Passing off on an odd man rush is great, if that guy is open. The Johnny to Stone goal was what it's supposed to look like. We are a much better team when we don't burn the candle in the D-zone. No gas left for that odd man rush. The guy with the puck has a decent chance and just drills it. No a bad play, but the other guy is too raf back to attack the rebound. I'm not here to argue perceptions of a game or series, but boiling it down to one thing is not the best idea. You could probably find 10 reasons we lost 4 games.

I think that players like Ras and Hanifin don't have the resume of playoff wins to really be a top pair. Both of them have been past the 1st round once. 27 games of expreince and 10 of those included the play-in and playoff where we also went out in the first actual round. When your top pair is -10 and -11, then you have a problem. Tanev didn't have much more, but then again, he was gone or injured for this series. When he was there, he was a calming influence. Kyl played his best beside him, since he had confidence in his partner. I have zero problem with Coleman. They called bush league stiff on him. He played the ay I wanted him to, not a top goal scorer. I do agree that some others with a ton of playoff experience didn't contribute enough. Lewis got burned for costly penalties, but they were bush. Toffoli did a lot of things right, but was on the worng line to help in other ways. Lucic was a black hole after game 1.

I'm saying that we allowed them to do the things we weren't allowed to do. In a lot of ways, their D played better down low. But too many times we shot ourselves in the foot. When we did go through the middle, we passed to the point. We actually had quite a few ten bell chances from the slot that turned into easy saves. Sticks in hands, sticks on pucks. They got a lot from the side of the net, while we too far away. Not from lack of trying, but from lack of Backlund type plays. The goal that was called back was the way you get pucks in. Take it hard to the net and pounce on the puck. Tkachuk never seemed to be close and Gaudreau is not that player.

The depth wasn't so much the problem in this series. Power vs power didn't work out well for us. McD was 7-0 against our top line in line scoring. Tonight he was pushed down to 7-1. Then made it 8-1. The 4th line was caved in this series too. Look how many goals were scored with Lucic out there. Regular season you can fford a tough line. But playoffs, if they aren't pounding the Satoshi Nakamoto out of players, they are non factors. On the plus side that is. You need a scoring line all through the lineup. 4th line has to score. They did it in Dallas but were minus many in this one. Would have been better to bring in Pelletier-Rozie-Pospicil. Or something like that. For this series at least. Pillow fighting.

We were one and the Oilers were two. It was something like one point difference. Not sure of the timing of Kane, but Woody saw an equal record as us.