travel_dude

Well, if he was watching last night it was Kylington that laid the best hit. He may well start Stone, but will see the negatives pretty quickly

Some good points, but the coach made his bed with his vision of the team's play. I also suspect that Huska may have to take a backseat for awhile until the team becomes a defensive team again. Not saying we beocme the Wild, just that we don't play a good defensive game. THe skills are there, just lost in executing whatever the game plan was. Interested to see if this spans any trades. Not to get rid of players so much as bringing in missing elements. Grit is not missing, just not used effectively. Speed is missing but it's speed of execution. Leadership on the ice is lacking at times, seems like we are going in different directions at times.

And Ward was 59. Both the owners and GM wwere pbviously frustrated with the team. It doesn't take a great hockey mind to see that Ward was in over his head and the team was suffering. I haven't really digested what it will mean to this team. We have problems that need to be fixed, but coaching may address the issues that were ignored. As a coach, he won't have mixed messages. The players will know where they stand. They will know what is expected. The top 9 players will benefit from being played to their strengths. Sure they will have to work, but faith in a winning coach should be there.

Really positive spin by Button on TSN. Maybe a little boas there, but he spoke about the positive things that Sutter can do, which match the things lacking. Big job ahead, but he's a respected coach. Lucic will have no problem with him. Bennett may just have earned a new lease on life. Hard to say, but I do think some things weren't sitting well with the GM or owners. Interesting dynamic going into the Oilers game. At least we know what the attitude coming out of the dressing room will be.

At the very least, we will have the deadpan interviews and the perfect look of "meh" that he made famous. Interested to see what direction he goes with this team.

I was watching TV after the game ended and just picked up twitter to see what people thought. Would be lying if I said I was 100% shocked GW was fired, but it still was unexpected coming after literally no hint of it. Is it an improvement? Can't say, it's been so long since he was last here. What I do think is he would be a good coach if we ever make the playoffs.

I don't know that it does, The only thing I can say is they played better with that top 9 in the past.

To be fair, the only thing different is the 4th line. We are back to the start of season lines, except Ritchie and maybe Leivo over Simon in the top 6. When I see Buddy or Simon or Nesterov or Rinaldo come in, then I really start to worry. What bugs me the most is I don't understand the reasoning for making any change. Bennett complains, gets bumped to 2nd line. Plays a bad game, gets sat. Kylington plays two solid low event games, he gets sat. We play a good game, time to change something. We lose, keep it the same or swap out a guy that played 5 minutes for a player that will play 5 minutes.

Gawdin on the farm, currently on the road. It's not that I have any problem with your lines, but it's 1st game back for Ryan. If we are in EDM, we will have McD or Draisaitl against the 4th line on any given shift. Honestly, I don't know how to line up the lines for that game. Watching Brodie school McDavid, I am more interested in seeing a change on the D. We lost hard to them, so having 4 NHL capable C's available might be the best thing for us. Our last two losses to EDM, Lucic was -5 and Bennett -4. Only one game was a blowout.

No, I am actually saying that the time to do it isn't during a season. Very few teams have the ability to add $6m. So, you are limiting your return.

If Ward wasn't what he wanted, he bet the farm on it. In theory, this is his last hire so it should have been all or nothing. That is unless he had the caviat from the owners saying he would go cheap now, due to the limited revenues, but he was not going to take the fall if it didn't work. I can see that being possible. If we are seeing spurts of what this team is able to do, maybe it's games where they throw out the book and try to play according to their instincts. I could be wrong, but it may be why we see changes after a win.

What in the world would we do with a player like Phillips that can pass and create chances? He's too small like Gaudreau and Mangiapane to play in the NHL. He's too small to play in the AHL. (sarcasm off)

Haha, I was almost saying that exactly. I was also not criticizing Hanifin-Tanev as much as I was suggesting that Hanifin-Ras looked pretty good before. Gio-Kylington sounds like a demotion, but it's really blending style with style. Overall, I suspect either your or my suggestion would do more for this team than leaving it as is. I think Ras tends to take a backseat to Gio, which is not his best look. Gio-Kylington would force quicker decisions from that pair and probably some better breakouts. At least you know that Kylington is more like to skate with some speed. His decision making is sometimes questionable, but his ability to recover is good.

What I don't get is why after scoring a big goal do they immediately play like they have a 5 goal lead and don't care? We see Lucic score a big PP goal and basically his next shift it's a low percentage pass coming out of the zone. We score a goal with the 2nd unit on. First shift after? 11 seconds of top line, a minute of 3M and then Lucic's line. On the surface it looks like they are fragile and can't get out of their own way. But, the coach preaches waiting for opportunity. Maybe it's just me, but how is scoring a PP goal then going back to the lack of urgency shown the rest of the game really a good idea? If anything, we should be preaching put the foot to the floor. Meaning, you just scored a goal, press them harder.

Any interest in Brendan Guhle? Waived by Anaheim. AHL numbers seem decent, but I don't know the player. Worth a roster spot? Any worse than having Stone signed? Means we run with 7D on the active roster, but whatever.

My problem right now is with the current situation. Maybe it's a symbolic trade to wake the players up. Maybe it's a sign from the coach that his present use of players is a problem. All we see is Kylington coming in and Bennett coming out. That speaks more to the coach grasping at straws. Maybe those two moves were demanded by the GM. Bennett, because he is being traded and Kylington because he is being wasted. I tend to believe the coach is just throwing things at the wall. Back to the season starting top 12 with the exception of Ritchie. Depth at C is more important than effective lines.

Not sure what the lines and pairings look like tonight, but Bennett, Nesterov and Simon scratched. Rittich to start the game. Look like the projected lines are: Tkachuk-Lindholm-Dube Gaudreau-Monahan-Leivo Lucic-Backlund-Mangiapane Nordstrom-Ryan-Ritchie Gio-Ras Hanifin-Tanev Valimaki-Kylington Rittich

I would like to know what he saw in the playoffs that leads him to believe we had an identity. What was it? Lack of attention to detail? Poorly coached? There's not a lot of difference between what Gio and Lucic are saying and what BT said. 2004 team. Win because you show up and do what Ottawa did to us. I personally hate that type of hockey. What bothers me about these comments is that he sees the team and not the coach as being the problem. It's both. Not impressed with the execution. Not impressed with whatever you call that style of play. We only can win if we are winning every puck battle, play the system perfectly and get stellar goaltending. I'm not saying it's time to change the GM, just that we should be evaluating the team, the systems, the type of team we should be. Nordstrom fits the present definition, but whoever said he could score hasn't really been watching. Then again, the style of play definitely impacts our ability to generate offense. We are playing for the 1-0, 2-1 scores. But we giving up chances like we are expecting a 5-4 win.

Playoffs not withstanding, this season is the first time that they have not had magic. The 960 boys look at playoffs as being why they should be split up. I am only in favor of it to try some other things, but I don't suspect the lines are the answer at all. When was the last time we saw a Gaudreau breakaway? Forever, since the D won't move the puck with Gaudreau on the ice. Transition consists of a pass to Gaudreau in the D-zone and he skates it up the ice with the little options. Or they fire the pass up the boards with 50/50 chance of it turning into anything. It's frustrating, especially on the no pessure slow breakout. Dump it so we can get past the D, then it's out. Bennett tries to go though 2-3 players without passing. Backlund and Mangiapane are two of the few that can execute passes. Tkachuk is not being hit wth passes very often with speed. But I digress.

I didn't understand why we went away from the Hanifin-Ras pairing just because we got Tanev. Tanev looks slow, but no more than Ras. Or you use Valimaki with Gio. Or Kylington with Gio. Hanifin-Ras Valimaki-Tanev Gio-Kylington It should not matter how you number the pairs. Gio and Tanev get PK minutes. Valimaki and Ras should get the PP minutes. I would actually swap Valimali with Ras for PP units.

I will just say that for all the skill he may have had, he sure hides it. He can't seem to even hit the net unless he's in the blue paint. Compare that to Gaudreau or Lindholm who hit top corners. Perhaps he's foresaken his skills and doesn't even practice shots or stick-handling. Maybe that comes with accepting a role he never wanted. It's gotta be super frustrating for him. He should be on a payday deal.

Watching Brodie own the Oiler forwards reminds me of what we lst and what we kept from that pairing.

I'm assuming Gallant is in BC until he gets the call from Seattle. TBH, I think all the coaching staff have to go, rebuild, re-tool or whatever. You don't want anything that resembles the systems to remain reardless of what players remain.

What is Cali's ability to teach the game? I mean Ruzicka does improve with good coaching.