travel_dude

This was supposed to be a fun post.

If things were ever that obvious as they are after the fact, we wouldn't need to have discussion. Are we not talking about drafting? Goalies talked about, passing on a certain Russian goalie, overrated picks to compare to. It's all in scope. BTW, if you can show me, how is it you can't show me? Do you remember me specifically saying something? Pretty random memory, must have the synapses firing today. I'm not gonna claim to remember every opinion I had. As a mod, I have to sometimes use two different parts of the brain. One for my fan opinion, one to keep the peace. They conflict at times.....

I wasn't taking anything away from the defensive play, just pointing to the number of shots. A lot of goals scored against on a few shots. In the VAN series, he had one game where his SA% was over 900. And that was with 15 shots.

18 passed on him. That #1 overall in nowhere to be found yet Janko played in the playoff this year. 4 overall played 37 games. Funny how the draft results look different a decade later.

LOL. The only part that seemed sarcastic was the Connie snipe.

Overall, EDM has faced surprisingly few shots. More in round one, but against VAN, the Nucks were lucky to get more than 18 shots. Skinner's shot totals against Dallas may look good, but the quality of the shots is suspect. I'm not sure if they burned out against LA and VAN with tons of minutes and play, but they seem to be having trouble maintaining that against Dallas. A real playoff team. Had the Oilers played Vegas or Colorado in the previous round, we might not have any Canadian teams in the playoffs. Two teams that play very hard on the puck.

You should highlight your sarcasm, since it makes it harder to follow without it. I thought Okho might bring some of the meanness we lost from losing Gudbranson. He played 9 of 20, but he wasn't that good in what I saw. I'm not sure what logic was being used to evaluate him. Throwaway games and he eats popcorn? Perhaps he wasn't good enough to bother with? I don't think trades always preview what the draft strategy will be. One of the advantages of trading for a D "prospect" is that they are in their development. Less raw than an 18 year old in junior or whatever. Like getting Bzrust. He's not 100% raw. Yah, I know another RHS RD. So, I don't think it impacts this year's draft.

When Connor Brown is the only Oiler to score, you know they were struggling. Connor Brown. Worth his bonuses. That's something like $3M per playoff goal. EDM complain about missed calls, but my oh my do they play dirty. You could probably call Kane once per game and be conservative. Their version of "the pick" would make the one called on Petey in the VAN series look like a joke. Holding sticks under the arm. DAL is somewhat dirty, but plays within the rules. They have all season. EDM complains about anything they see as woo is me. Complain to the NHL about the Green Guys in VAN, to the point where they were banned. Complain to the media about not getting power plays. What's next? Cpmplaini that the defense are covering McD too closely and he is not allowed a free path to the net?

Not a big loss at all. I thought he helped us lose a few games. Maybe a 3rd pair in SJS, but should not be in CGY. He loses his IIHF eligiblity as a result of the signing. Like most Flames that are in Russia, we doubtfully ever see him back.

The 1st period didn't turn into a solid 2nd and 3rd. Someone made reference that twice there were stretches in the game where EDM went 10+ minutes without a shot on goal. I figured, after watching period 1, that EDM would get up a goal and DAL would struggle to tie it up. DAL did struggle to get a goal, but it was the go ahead goal. Several players and the coach all pointed to standards of penalty calls. In other words, why they were not getting calls. It's the 3rd round. They are no free ones. You are licky to get a call. I find that there is normally one call each way early that is questionable. After that you need to use an axe to get called. Or a pretty obvious scoring chance taken away. DAL needs to do what they did to McD and Drai this last game, and that is not let them attack the middle. Sticks in lanes. Get position. Not let them cycle. Beyond that, the Stars are not getting a ton of quality shots. The first goal on the first shot should have given them a clue. Keep the shots between the pad and the blocker/trapper, but mainly away from the glove. How is Little Joe not able to deflect shots? That was his greatest strength.

Otter was sick the day before, so there may have been lingering issues. I didn't see any in his play. Maybe some of the goals were suspect, but he made other saves that were really good. Hintz is missed for sure. I thought Dallas took over the game when they finally got back into it. First OT was all Dallas and should have been the end of the game. Some rookie play choices by Stankoven, I thought. Wasted possession. It seems that Dallas goes for dump and recover. I think some of their shot choices were suspect; always from the outside, very little point shots direct from the middle.

You obviously watch more than me. In the few games I watched, Kane was at times useless but at times a game breaker. Same with the Cat. It was like they only wanted each other to be involved in the play. Ghost, I thought, was back to being a difference maker. Again, limited sample size. I had felt we should have taken a run at him. I guess Philly was right in their assessment (their fans called him out a ton). Maybe he just peaked too early and never grew the other parts of his game.

For me it was never about writing him off. His attitude and compete level is tops. It was more about trying to fit him into a role the way the team was set up. We have a couple of guys that need more than a passing look.

Maybe I am one of the few that would like this player. Assuming he can play C. I thought that Sharky was good at C, but he had a bit of a time adjusting to the increased responsibilities. I don't know if we ever had the perfect fit for that line on RW, though. Let's assume for a moment that we could make a deal with CAR using Mangiapane. We could use him on the wing to start with, but transition him to C. Perhaps we use him with the kids and we move Kadri to the Huberdeau line, and move Sharky over to RW on the top line. Huberdeau-Kadri-Sharky Zary-Necas-Kuzmenko Coleman-Backlund-Pospisil Pelletier-Rooney(Klapka)-Coronato I would say that the top 9 has interchangeable parts. Not the ideal lineup, but we can structure the line (if we want) to build up the young guys. Necas gives us an additional C, and leaves Zary to do that voodoo he does, so well.

Kane is a Johnny Hockey type for creativity, but I don't think he has much gas left in the tank. For the Flames, I don't see him as much of a fit now. Yeah, I know you were joking.

We don't have the play drivers and you want to trade support players? I'm fine with Mange being traded because he is not consistent playing with consistent lines. He plays big but is small against big teams. Sharky and Kuz are players we have so few of; snipers. You prefer to have a bunch of Backlund's that can't hit the net? The roster stinks a bit, but mostly because we have too many of the same type of players. Zary and Pospisil are good and you might be able to build around them. You probably need a Backlund/Coleman pair to use for defending and transition. Huberdeau looks lost a lot of nights, but I think he is thinking too much and not playing in the moment. Have set plays where you loft it to the net and a guy goes there. The D are frustrating because they can all shoot but rarely do it on the PP. Anyway, just thinking we need play drivers.

I was younger and stupid, so.....

Well, unless the "reports" were false, NJ seemed to be willing to trade a ton for a goalie you describe. Was it close to 50%? Not sure, as it fizzled out. The retention only moves the needle to take in cap ceiling teams. LA sure could have used JM this playoffs, no? For every post complaining about him, there were posts about being hung out to dry. Anyway, not suggesting he is done here, but I think the writing is on the wall that he will be traded. We didn't get back roster players in trades as such. If anything, we may move out an additional one or two players.

I don't think VAN can sign him, but they won't want to lose the asset for nothing so they will overpay. Assuming Lindy will sign for less. Even though he didn't light it up regular season (injured for some of it), he will still be sought after by teams needing a 200 foot #2C.

Naw, the last time I supported the Oilers was against CAR. That was probably just a Canada thing then. Maybe a hangover from the Iggy cup run. I won't ever cheer again.

I through up a little in my mouth when the final buzzer went off. I have a bigger connection with CGY than EDM. I don't even car that they are the last CDN team standing. Would hope for the Coyotes over EDM.

30 teams will have either lost in the playoffs or have missed it. Some are set in nets, but will still question if they have the right guy. Like I said, not all will want to change. Saying a guy that would have retained salary to be untradeable is kinda odd. At $3M, how many starters are available that have history of playing 50+ games.

I have my biases no doubt, but I don't think the Oilers would even have beaten COL. They are 1 and 2 in the West IMHO. I don't even think they would have beaten VGK, but that would have needed to be round 1. Getting LA then VAN is a pretty sweet path to the WCF. The last 4 games for VAN have to be the most pitiful play of any playoff team this year. Game 7 and you only get 2 shots in the 1st, and that included a double minor PP. The other 3 were nearly as bad. I wouldn't say that the goalie was bad, just that you get what you deserve when you see 27+ shots in 6 of 7 games. The WCF should be interesting. Not sure that they even have as good a team as the 2022 team that got swept by COL. Ekholm is probably the most consistent guy they have. Still a one line team. Good on the PK against a weak PP team.

I would say, if VAN is able to sign him, that it would be between 7 and 8.5M. One would think that Lindy would want a bigger payday from VAN to move there.

Come on 29......