travel_dude

Make up call perhaps?

Pretty sad zone entry

Go for the head Johnny

Rolling 3 lines and pairings almost even; Kyl and Val splitting the minutes. Gawdin and Ritchie the only ones to play 2 minutes. Each of the top 9 trios playing almost exact same minutes.

Smith with s shutout? I can't believe he has a shutout so far. It would help if we went to the net and put him off his game. Get in his grill. He's already gifting the puck on his passes.

CBC looking for suspendable stuff already?

Considering he is supposed to skate off once he loses his bucket, he should have gottenn a penalty just for staying in the play.

Refs are blowing the game Never mind, it was holding the puck

Good luck finishing the game Kass.

Blockchain

Kylington is on fire. Excellent so far

Oilers have paid off the refs. Double to Ras, nothing for incidental contacts.

Lines and pairs from today's skate had Valimaki sitting as 7th D with Kylington-Guddy. Valimaki likely to get some PP time. Perhaps. Sutter has used him there before. I'm not really thrilled about the matchup. Smith always plays well against us. The refs love rewatding the Oilers with PP's (they had 9 against VAN). He haven't won a season opener in like 12 years. GO FLAMES GO Make the Oiler fans nuts. Kassian will lose his Satoshi Nakamoto as per usual. Will end up fighting one of Gudbranson, Zadorov, Ritchie, Lewis or Lucic.

Considering how Valimaki has panned out so far, maybe we should have trace him for Stone. Naw, I think the issue was re-signing him.

AT the end of the day, we will just compare the players drafted around where we picked. Zary was a good choice, regardless of people's negative opinion of him. He will be a NHL player. If he gets 40 in his first full season and the others get 45 ot 50, is that a loss for us? Considering where we tend to use these players, that would be huge win for us. The difficult thing for players is a pre-season injury. It derails any plan the team may have had. They will need to play him on the AHL and bting him up the normal way. A goal for Lapierre or Podkolzin doesn't really mean much, They tend to get opportunity that is hard to come by for a lot of teams.

Very possible. Although he's being listed as a LW, he's probably on the game sheet as 7th D. What I do like about the idea of him on LW is that he bring speed to an otherwise plodding 4th line. What would be neat would be to see him get a breakaway. That would give Smith fits. LOL The way he has played in the pre-season, he absolutely deserves to play. I get the idea of committing to Valimaki, and while I agree with it, the expense should not be to the guy that has shown progression. Even if he does well, it's one game. Coleman is back Monday. He has to unseat Lewis or Ritchie, which is tough for a southpaw.

Let's face it, nobody is going to be mistake free. Both Valimaki and Kylington have made bad ones in games that Sutter coached. They both deserve a little rope. All I am suggesting is that more rope should not be given to the so-called vets. Gudbranson and Zadorov both need to come in as skilled vets, not guys that you have to make too many allowances for. If you aren't the 6th best D-man, then you best be doing something that makes us better somehow.

Like Cross, I have been duped too often to believe anything from lines and pairs. The vets have been given the spot before the pre-season started. They didn't really have to prove anything, and in some cases have proved what we least wanted. The only positive (for today) is that Kylington and Gawdin are both still on the roster. Whether they stay there or get waived is anyone's guess. It's Thursday, and we see Kylington as 7th D-man, also considering that Stone was injured a bit. If a spot is required (ie whichever one of Pitlick or Richardson that are on IR come off IR), care to bet on who gets waived? I don't.

I think he recognizes the talent, but can't seem to find a coach that will use them to their strengths. And keep them long enough to get there. Lom is not the only ex-Flame to find success elsewhere.

They have had Kylington available for years, with needs for speedy forwards. They have not yet even had him play wing in practice. I have suggested it before, but Dutter doesn;t return my calls.

I would be okay with them waiving Stone, Ritchie and Gudbranson. Give them the Kylington treatment; we will keep you around for depth, but if needed, you get assigned to Stockton. Would you rather Duehr for a couple of games or Ritchie? I like being able to chose based on the game we would play. But that's me. I have more time for Zadorov, since I think he has more than just a nasty streak. He needs to be better than what he was in TC, but I think he has the tools. Gudbranson is Stone without the slapper. Maybe a bit more physical, but we have other players that can do that. Preventing zone entries and being able to contain is much more important than just a big hit.

Was he that way last year in WPG or this year in TC? I admit I don't always see the positive things people do. I will reserve judgement on the player, but as I said I just didn't see enough from him.

I would be happier with 11F to begin with. At least until Pitlick is ready. I don't have much confidence in Lewis. But that's just me. The 7D is reasonable, though I suspect we see Gudbranson playing a full set of shifts and Valimaki/Kylington being cut in half.