travel_dude

I think he did a good job of that this year. The Dallas series not withstanding. He was a little wound up. He calmed down as the series went on. We can't stop playing Flames hockey though. That includes crashing and banging on the boards. Play between the whistles though.

Agreed. I will say that the Stars limited shot as best they could. Many times I thought it was wide and actually it was a blocked shot. Even the one where Chucky put the shot over the net, it went off Otter first. Same was true of some of the shots from the D. Slicks got in the way of a lot of our chances as well. We were over 115 shot opportunities last night. That is insane. Who does that. Do that on the Oilers and they would be lucky to generate 20 shots.

These are the shirts Brady was tossing. Matty said "He's been on quite the tear".

Smart coach with a good game plan. Understood from the start that you need to limit the 5v5 offence. Did about as good as they could and Otter did the rest. The Oilers are not a shot blocking team. Russel probably accounted for a lot of it. Kulak gets it. The rest don't want to ruin their golf games.

It's entirely possible that this ride stops only twice in EDM. Let's bury them early and often. Let's see them try to showcase their "depth". Two of their so-called great acquisitions have been benched for some of the games. Foegele was good with the Canes. Brassard was good in the past. Kulak is okay and probably one of their best. Where is the so called depth when they don't play with McD?

Here here. Unfortunately, Woody went back to the Tippy plan. Play McD 24 minutes and load up a line. Kassian can only be dirty for so long. And 40 foot passes only work some of the time. The goto play was put it on McD's stick. Let him wind it up to full speed. Don't see much of that in round 2.

I remember a guy named Smith that scored on his own net. Let the tradition continue.

Cuthbert is annoying. Did you see that? Loves Matthews and McD. I do like Simpson, very analytic. At least we get the attention of the SN brass. Big surprise, with SN owning the naming rights to Oil barn. Bigger reason (of course) is the Leafs are gone. Nothing against Singh. He was okay but is still working on his craft. Ball is fine, but him combined with Millen was painful at times. More with Millen. The panel has turned into a bunch of drivel. I like Bieksa, seems the best guy to talk about defense. Hrudey is a toad. Otter was the best goalie in the series, but the defense made his life easier. Friedman is level but sees things his own way. At last Ron McLean isn't doing anything. Botterill is fine, but a little intense. She does good analysis.

Should be fun for all. Bennett to see if he gets another game losing penalty. Or is the hero. Tampa without Point. Vasilevskiy looking very bland, except when it really mattered. Bob has been all over the map. FLA winning in spite of him most times.

Yeah, I know. Tough to complain about the player just because he didn't score a goal. Replaced everything that Monahan did, except for scoring goals (when he was healthy). Only took 5 games for Sutter to find a line that worked.

I would love to see the Flames target him. Between him and Jarnkrok, I would take have taken Namey. Dallas has a few big name to sign or replace. Robertson, Klingberg, Otter.... Namy should hiot the open market. Probably can afford him (least of the worries). But I would love to see him added.

When it was Benn against 4th line, it wasn't pretty. Benn was the only one able to overpower them. That shift in OT was a beauty to behold. Jarny was the C with them, so they didn't worry about defensive responsibility. Lewis was able to play big boy hockey with Lucic. I have no idea how they play Lucic. Probably try to use McD and Drai with Kane if they get the chance. Dangerous line to play 4th line against, but Kane gets off his game when the rough stuff comes out. McD plays though it, but Drai will back off if he can't dangle with the puck. It will be a fun series. Oilers have to put their money where their mouth is. It's not regular season where the refs call free passes. It's 2nd round where the play gets a little slower. And goaltending has to be better than the first round for the greasy plays. Flames just came out of that type of series. The Oilers were content with run and gun. We didn't look bad, but we have to keep the games to low speed.

Kassian Kaveman may want to and may have to, but he would be stupid to do it. Lucic is there to keep the peace and prevent the other team from taking advantage of us. Kassian is just a plug that looks to justify the overpay. Wouldn't waste much time with him, especially not Guddy or Zaddy. At most Ritchie faces him directly or Lucic challenges him after a cheap shot.

Two games this series where we put 54+ shots on net. Last night was 52 in regulation. Against a tight defensive team. Yes, a lot were perimeter. The Oilers will be a challenge, but more from their speed than anything else. They don't block nearly as much as Dallas.

Realignment is necessay. 5 teams in 1 division out East and 6 in the other. 5 teams in one division out West and Pacific has 7 teams. Seattle not represented yet. At the very least the Pacific needs to lose one team. Possibly 2, if Seattle gets their own team. On a side not, the Baby Flames take on the Baby Avs. We have home ice advantage. Only 5 game series by the looks of it.

Lucic has moved on. He was slighted there. It took some time for him to develop the healthy Oilers hate. He's not about to run a player like McD, but he's not going to avoid contact. You do what you need to. If McD plays dirty the way he did against LA, then he is fair game. Drai will see a lot of the boards, no doubt. The thing about this series is that we need to play physical to draw them off their game, but slow down the speed to a grinding type. Look for the seams and exploit them. Pick off the Nurse passes because he doesn't see the ice, just one player. Backlund needs to continue his stellar play from the last few games. Good to see a full games of Coleman playing with him. Mangiapane was actually playing much better when passes went to him or Coleman for the first strike. Rebounds existed. Get to Smith early. Don't give him shoot-ins to get a chance to play the puck. Put it in diagonal so he gets frustrated. He will then come out at the worst time to get a touch.

And individual awards mean nothing. Team awards like the cup and the Smythe are the ones that matter. One thing I think we have seen though is that Gaudreau has silenced the haters. Can't score in the playoffs. Can't play the big games. Shies away from the contact. Won't go to the net.

I think I was able to sleep probably at the same time you were cracking open a cold one. May we not have another OT, unless it's elimination of the Oils in game 4.

Cuthbert is annoying. Did you see that? Loves Matthews and McD. I do like Simpson, very analytic. At least we get the attention of the SN brass. Big surprise, with SN owning the naming rights to Oil barn. Bigger reason (of course) is the Leafs are gone. Nothing against Singh. He was okay but is still working on his craft. Ball is fine, but him combined with Millen was painful at times. More with Millen. The panel has turned into a bunch of drivel. I like Bieksa, seems the best guy to talk about defense. Hrudey is a toad. Otter was the best goalie in the series, but the defense made his life easier. Friedman is level but sees things his own way. At last Ron McLean isn't doing anything. Botterill is fine, but a little intense. She does good analysis.

For my pool's sake I am glad to be done with the PENS and Laffs. McD is likely to hit a wall playing us, so one can hope that he's done this round. I know it's a pool, but I couldn't sleep nights if I picked an Oiler. COL-STL will be epic. FLA-TBL another for the ages. CGY-Coil will be fun for Flames fans. NYR-CAR is a different beast.

I think the two closest venues in Calgary are 2000 or less. The Dome presents scheduling issues, but some of that would change with a realignment. Just not thrilled with the idea of multiple games played on game days. I understand that Colorado Springs is also an option. While the travel may be one of the reasons given, it's not the biggest problem. Stockton has been negotiating for a few years now for an extension. It should be simple, but obviously the Flames don't like the offers.

Never say bone and Viagra in the same thread. On a side note, let's bring Smith back some memories of the 9-5 beatdown.

Two wrongs = a right? I'm more concerned about who calls round 2. In normal BOA, we get Edwards and Louie in EDM and Ball/Cassie/Hrudey in CGY. We had Ball/Millen round 1. EDM had Singh/Louie in round 1. If we don't get Ball, then by god don't let Louie out of his house.

Oops. Sentiments remain.