travel_dude

EDM has less coaching issues than WPG. I may not like Gully, but he's served his purpose. Woodcroft's record behind the bench is as good or better than Bruce Boudreau. He actually instilled a defensive structure in EDM and cut back the stars minutes to get the team to buy in.

They certainly didn't do enough for the refs to give them more PP's. They lost their cool in dustups, so the refs didn't really have a choice. Kane and Nurse were hotheads. Nurse headbutted an LA player, so he may be gone for a game. Didn't actually watch the sequence, but Louie talked about it.

Hope for the first part and hope not to the 2nd part. They will probably make permanent Woodcroft as head coach. Had a good regular season record. And the players are responsible for their showing in the playoffs. The GM is responsible for the players he had available. Can't believe Guddy is still the A/coach there.

Smart pick in the 1st. I think we made a good choice, but he was in a good program.

This may be the closest we get to a BOA. BOC, just doesn't sound as good. Oiler top prospects on the team.

Since draft day. Fans have given up on the season. Screams to fire Holland. I get the situation, but I have never seen a team so flat for game starts. Smith was solid but doesn't make the svaes they needed. Lucky to get it to OT, thanks to tefs. I saw a lot of picks uncalled. I thought the Oilers fixed the D problems. Guess they forgot to fix the F. And the G. And for that matter the D wasn't able to contain the cycle. What a mess.

Look, I get what you are both saying about PP and shot selection.but Vas isn't even playing close to the level as Ott. The PP setup works for they types of players you have. W don't have big C's that fight for the ice. Lindy is great, but not at the Matthws level. We have a small winger that has to be the QB, even though he's got one of the best shot placements. Dallas is a hard 4 man box to get past. Other teams our looks would be different.

Yeah, and I wasn't singling out Willie as the only one. They all were playing soft. But scoring goals is one thing. If you let a softie go, then it's the same as not scoring a goal. For context though, if you consider him to play like Gaudreau, then you accept the lack of a sacrifice. You use the less skill guys and the bigger F to go into those corners. Saying that, it was a bad look. Gaudreau probably doesn't engage in that situation, but he doesn't peal off the way Willie did. He would get his stick on stick.

Different results, but they might be stating some different things. The fancy stats people can probably interpret better tahn me. Dube with Backs and Coles was better than Mange there, but just shorter time.

Gaudreau – Lindholm – Tkachuk (7:21 / 73.2 xGF%) Lucic – Lewis – Jarnkrok (3:42 / 35.9 xGF%) Mangiapane – Backlund – Coleman (3:15 / 75.0 xGF%) Lucic – Lewis – Toffoli (2:43 / 63.3 xGF%) Lucic – Jarnkrok – Toffoli (1:43 / 46.6 xGF%) Dube – Backlund – Coleman (1:31 / 100 xGF%) Dube – Jarnkrok – Toffoli (1:16 / 60.3 xGF%) Lucic – Backlund – Toffoli (1:00 / n/a xGF%)

Mangi-Backlund-Coleman only played 3:15 yesterday, but managed a CF of 14 and a CA of 3. That's a CF% of 82%. I can't stress this enough, if you wanna win the series, that line CANNOT be broken up. They are control freaks.

Agreed you can't run it too often. It was designed to give the D a break after the game 1 overuse. If and when we get to the next round, we won't need to do it. Then again, we would be more likely to be called for 5 an a game by Zaddy or Guddy than the other team we face.

He's rangey. Needs to tighten up a few loose screws. His edges need work, which will happen in the summer. He's a fluid skater when he get a good first stride. Count this as the first time where he's had to play top 4, 200 foot, and ddfend some of the best of the NHL. He's not physical because of his rangeness. But he has a good awareness and is constantly reading the play. His attack speed is very good. If he could cut in at the last second, he would be a bigger threat. Kinda does the Hanifin skate around the net thing.

No need to shout. Even if he didn't have one of the worst contracts on the Leafs, he is half the player Kapanen is. He's a guy you use to get to the playoff, not get you deep.

A couple of us Flames fans originated in NS, so add an hour on. Games starting at 11pm AST or ADT. Even being in MDT, it's till hard to cycle down from a big win.

If I was a conspiracy person, I would think that Bettman wants McD to get a bunch of PP goals and play in the second round. It's helped the Oilers in some games, but cost them in others. LA isn't a threat to score much on the PP, but it takes time off McD's TOI. What I really don't like is the penalties all called in first two period to decide the game early. Then you can basically mug someone in the 3rd. You probably see the losing team get a PP if it's within a goal or two. There are a couple of series with way more penalties call. TOR for one. NYR has the least of any series. But we have the most 4v4 situations of any teams. That doesn't even make sense. You should typically get 5 a side, not 4v4. Weird. Sutter claims to hate it, but in this series it probably helps open the ice. We just are not scoring on it.

I think Lucic's speed has actually increased. I know Dallas is mostly a slow attack team, but Lucic has been able to do more than just win board battles. He's winning a few odd man rushes with the puck. First shift of the game and he's able to get slight ahead of the defenders and take a decent shot. Makes sense to put a finisher out with him, because he's going to win those puck battles.

I would expect that MIN or STL could take out COL. Wasn't confident in what Minny was doing with MAF, since they had Talbot. But they traded a potential 1st for him and playing him to meet the conditions of the trade. Fiala blows me away. Still so young. Hasn't lit it up yet, but very solid player. On a side note, I hope the Oilers get beaten at home tonight. Wipe that stupid smirk off Smith's face. He said that when he was in CGY, he loved the team and the city. Since we didn't offer him a multi-year deal like Holland, he hates us now. Loves his team now. Hang it up already dude. You've been the goat here and in EDM. If they lose the first round they will blame it on you. Just like last year. Retire and hit them with a cap penalty.

The skating on the 4th line had nothing to do with sending a message. They were rotating players through that spot. But, the penalty seemed to signal the end of his shifts. Cut back in the 2nd due to the penalty, and 2 shifts in the early part of the 3rd. The weak call ended what was a sequence of Dallas players getting hung out for 2-3 minutes and unable to change because of the icing. Mange's penalty allowed the change and the TV time out. It was the type of penalty Bennett used to get called on, but on the scale of this series, it was 1/10 th of the impact compared to others. There was probably something in his overall game Sutter wasn't liking. Effort or assignment. He got but a single shot, which is unusual for the player. Sutter benching him is a way of getting him hungry. It's dog eat dog to get those minutes. He's like Toffoli, should be scoring once every 3 or 4 games. Neither is, but Toffee is getting it on net.

The McBaby whine irked me. It resonated with the analysts, because how can the "best player on the planet" not draw penalties? He plays the same cheating style as Draisaddle and is also sometimes getting called on it. First round has been a circus of calls/non-calls. I suppose I am grateful the refs haven't decided that they just call one of the crowd out and pick one each side. But they tend to ignore the instigator. If it's a choice of Stone vs Ritchie, go with the extra D. Stone is solid enough to not make you regret it. He plays about 10 minutes and it leaves a vacant spot to rotate players through. I wouldn't say take Kylington out, since he's making about as many mistakes as the rest of the D. He's a safe 13 minute anyway, and he fits with Tanev.

It's almost like he had that line in his pocket, waiting to use it. I've been on Backlund's case for the previous three games, but it's not just him. Mange was passing off because Toffoli is a big game shooter. Now it's the other way, he gets the passes. I think you can use Toffoli on every other line as the game warrants. Backlund raised his level. I saw a bit of him being hesitant, but a little less on the forecheck and more on the D-zone effort is just fine with me. Did Sutter really call on the head ref? That is so Sutter.

Tim & Friends talked about Willie not wanting to take a hit to make a play. They showed Cernak and him going into the boards to get the puck, and Willie didn't even do a flyby. He stopped skating and pulled up about 10 feet short. Forget about the score, what does that tell you.

I was thinking no way PITTS would go far, due to goalie issues. CAR had goalie issues as well. Turns out it's NY that has goalie issues. I only have one from CAR and BOS each and no PITTS. I must have not checked the brackets properly in the East. I will lose TBL or FLA, and will be lucky to have barely any players from the other bracket. West was a crap shoot. Anyone from STL or MIN playing 2nd round against COL.

You are in tough to win that PIT-NY bracket. Oilers-LA bracket not set in stone, though I think EDM prevails. Maybe. LA looked like they solved half of their problems. Who you pick in the Canes series. I figured it would be a cake walk for Canes. Face licker knows how to turn a series.