travel_dude

Of any sports, this has been the least impacted by COVID. Even though guys were "unfit" to play, there was zero positives in the past month.

Please excuse reaction to his coaching of one game and some of his questionable choices. There are things to like for sure. I don't know what the future of the team is, so I can't say he is the right fit. How much blames does Huska deserve? Sigalet? Gelinas? My first reaction to an epic fail is to throw blame where it is deserving. Top line, top D, shakey goaltendiong in relief. Some of it was a byproduct of the reset. BSD was not what he was and should never have played a game without tuneup. In any other year, we could have been riding two goalies. We had one that ended the season without know it was the end. The other guys was battling back. Ward used what he was given but made some poor choices in those decisions. Forbort never showed in regular season that he was a good choice. Gus was a QB specialist that didn't look good in the season. We had Kylington and a few other players that might have fit better. Rinaldo was not the worst decision but he is by far the worst player on the roster this summer. Janko didn't play bad enough to deserve being sat.

Probably not ready for that quite yet. The next 3 months would be telling, and I can probably safely predict BT will be here during that. In general, we crashed and burned in one game. That happens. That's not the real story of the playoffs or season though. Career years followed by a complete downturn top to bottom. Drafting has been good except for the Smith and MacDonald picks in particular. Ras and Dube. Wolf. Some yet to be determined, but I don't consider them bad drafting. I would agree that I didn't like a lot of his trades or UFA work. Lazar, Bolig, Brouwer, Hamonic (quality of picks given up), Neal. Elliott, Smith, Forbort. Not a lot to love there. Overall, the body of work shows good and bad. Nothing soul crushing. Nothing over the top. Maybe another GM does better, but there are so many worse ones I don't know where you get a better one. Dubas? Laughable. JR? Chokes. Let's revisit after the FA day and trades are done. May be too late, but it's hard to judge since we have not define the direction for next season. Gaudreau, Gio, Bennett, Lucic, Hanifin, Monahan, Backlund, Ryan, Forbort, Gus, Brodie.... Should get a clearer picture after draft then afetr UFA day. May eve see some trades this summer.

Outcoached is the problem for me. I think he is a good teacher. I don't know that I like the defensive systems in place. Is that on Huska? The baby Flames were good under him, but I don't know if he is the right guy for this group.Is he just outlining the systems and guys like Gio revert to their own system? Is he unable to get them all to buy in and they follow Gio? Or is he just not understanding the game at the NHL level. I dunno. Something isn't right from the planning to execution. I can't see a passive system as being a direction. We have seen a different looking team. Maybe the personnel changes impacted the game in the playoffs. I wouldn't be keeping Forbort. Gus I may have a use for, but only with a solid D-man beside him. Gio had as bad a playoffs this year as last. We need a combination of good coaching and good execution. Can Ward drag the team there? Probably not unless there is a turnover of some players.

I would not trade both JH and Monahan. We went too long without anything resembling a top C. Yeah, Gaudreau may not be the best fit anymore, so that's where we need to start. He used to be a game breaker, but has lost that. I'm actually okay with trading him and signing Hall. It doesn't make us better, but it at least gives us someone that could be looked to give more. Johnny had a good game, but he can't defend at all. He was on for too many goals against. This wasn't a rare occasion either. Hall may not be elite, but he is also a bit more even a player. He has speed and does things. I'm okay in trading Backlund if we have a potential top 6 C coming in via trade. Not for Backlund obviously, but in another move. That signals that we are going in a different direction, and will be prioritizing offense from the F and defense from the D. Move Bennett to a full time role at C and get him decent wingers. Tkachuk and Mangiapane or Lindholm. Use him to his ability. I know I had soured a bit on Sammy this season, but I think he might be on the brink of a breakout. If you are trading Backlund, then Bennett takes some of the defensive responsibility, but it is shared from 1 to 3. Lastly, I think it is time to move on from Gio. I think he still has miles, but he had such a poor year and playoffs, there is no coming back. Moving him allows you to make business decisions and improve the team. What I mean is he's the guy that the team is supposed to be following into war, and yet Tkachuk is the guy that drags you there. It's been his team for too many years without success. Time to make that change. I would be seeking to move him to a team that lacks any cohesive leaders. TO comes to mind. Not that he makes them that much better, but they need something other than AM. I think he might be able to resurrect his career a bit there. Agree or disagree, it's time to make some changes. Not for sake of change but to change some of the culture. I know the players all care for each other and went through a lot, but sometimes you just have to lose a good player to move forward.

The real deal sealed it for himself.

GM not the problem here

Well, I think it would be folly to trade both Backlund and Monahan. Let's face it, we are going to go after Hall, so Monahan makes the most sense to play with. He won't lose puck battles as easily and he can do some things JH could do. I think that we have to gut the D. Starting with Gio, since he has the biggest voice in the room. I'm okay with Ras, Valimaki, Kylington and Hanifin. It's not a great core, but I think they would be less prone to mental errors over time. Gaudreau, Gio, Janko, RInaldo, BSD all should go. None of then other than JG really gets you much, Keep Rieder because I like to spit in Oiler faces. It's not like we don;t have players on the farm, we just never have any idea if their readiness. Bring in a good #3C and find a stude D, maybe Montour. Even Vatanen might be an option. Or Manson. We need at least one tough D-man. I don't see a re-build as a good thing because I think it gets done wrong too often. We are too late to sell of the players that could have given us the most. Norris Gio. Monahan after consecutive good seasons. Gaudreau after a miserable season and playofffs. Playoff Bennett does us nothing in a rebuild. That is all

I could care less about entitled fans thinking they should get a buy into the playoffs or get a different matchup. They got the best possible seeding, and chose to play like whiners. If they had 16 and played according to seeding, they would have played 7th place which was VAN I think. That would have been worse for their mentality. Rebuild 1.0 vs Rebuild 3.0 and counting. They aren't exactly primed to be a better team next season. Kassian, Neal and Nurse's deals are killing them.

It appears that KH's plan was to win now. Worry about the dollars later. He banked on a rising cap. Not the only GM to do it, but he didn't have a contender to work with. He thought he did because he couldn't see part the top 2. He's actully worse off with Neal. A functional player, but not worth the combine payout. Thoughts have to be buying him out, but that's not much of a solution either. Nuge is the one player with value, but how do you make that trade knowing you have zero defensive responsibility left. He was the glue that allowed Draisaitl to score 100 points. Losing that would set them further back. They are more screwed than they think. They can't improve without trading one of their best players. They don't have a competetive bottom 6, so they can't afford to do that. They can't sign AA, but they can't walk away. DOD 3.0

And they have Cap Magician Kenny Holland to manage their way out. He seems to be able to swing trades when they wasn't a league wide cap issue, but nobody is going to help him out now. He only has so many choices, and some of them don't mean cap just going out the door: Trading Kassian Trading Russell Trading Nurse Letting AA walk Buying out Neal

The only positive thing Nurse does is being a thug. He doesn;t know how to play defense. Closer to Gustafsson than Hanifin. Maybe an offensive version of Forbort. He really has gone downhill.defensively. I can;t even tell you if his assists are due to McD or Drai scoring. I have no time for Kaveman Kassian. Even their fans turned on him. He's useless now. Got his deal because he played with McD and scored like Chaisson there.

Only 2 buyout left for next year(s). Sekera is 2.5 x 1 and 1.5 x 2. Russell is one year at 4m, but actual salary is 2.5m I can't believe Russell is 33 already. To your point, this year is 3.25m dead cap space. And they are paying Kassian 3.2m and Nurse 5.6m. What a waste. AA is going to need 3m just to qualify him.

DOD 2.0 is it? Or are we in the new decade now.

You should send Holland a note because he seems a bit confused about whether they played good or not. On one hand he said goaltending was good, but then says they didn't make the saves. He said the team played just fine, and had the lead for every game, but couldn't close it out. Not sure he was awake for the games I saw. They missed out on adding to their string of 1st overalls. While they have two elite players, neither of them can play without the puck. Or win faceoffs consistently. Draisaitl nominated for the Hartt is a joke. Without McD, they are not a playoff team. The defense is a work in progress, but they think Bouchard is the next saint. He's like Nurse was 5 years ago; offensive threat with little speed. They will probably blame Klefbom and trade him.

I will just caution everyone that topics of this nature should probably be in the General Discussions forum. We should try to limit NHL talk to NHL topics.

The thing that sets off fans about him is his "laziness". He gets that label because he gives up on plays. For a high scoring forward, he sure doesn't play well without the puck. He's used on the PK to exploit an opening, yet he still hasn't put it together that you need to be on the right side of the scoresheet.

I don't think it would be an issue, but you can have two lines playing almost 20 minutes at even strength and expect a 3rd line to handle all the defensive responsibility playing less than 12. If you said Nuge playing 2C and taking about 18+ minutes a game, and the 3rd line is a possession and supplemental scoring line it would be fine. As it stands, they have two offensive lines and no real defensive 3rd line. Even then, they play 12 minutes. So, load up the scoring line to outscore anyone they face. Have a #2C be more defensively responsible. Look at the Flames 2018/19. 2nd in league scoring with a defensive 2nd line. Positive goal differential. No scoring forward with minus +/-. How is that not the goal in EDM? Sure they need a couple of players that can prevent goals, but I don't think that too much of a coaching/lineup issue. They seem hell-bent on winning scoring titles over lending a hand to the defense. They had a good PP and PK, why can't they get it through their head that other things matter. Tippett came from a team that had to play team defense. Is the leadership the issue or did he try and fail at getting the C's to buy in?

The issue with them is their lack of attention to detail. They didn't lose the series, but they were on the ice for far too many goals against. If they had a Backlund type player taking the majority of tough matchups, then you would see lees exposure by McD and Draisaitl. I think they played better overall when the had Nuge as a #2C. Meant that Drai was playing with McD or Nuge. Archibald actually helped McD, but he's not top 6 material. Lots of issues, but if you have two guys at 100 points annually, then them being minus players is a big problem. It's a shared stat, but often is caused by thinking offense only.

Hard to give it to a guy that was a minus even while leading the NHL in points. Combine that with the fact they had two of the top scorers in the league and still barely managed 5th. The laziest forward on the team. I don't fault the leadership on the team, but the rest of the team is expecting the top 2 to score. They aren't built to win. McD can have highlight reel plays but nobody replays his gaffes. Draisaitl is nothing but a one-trick pony. They actually need a couple of top 6 C to be able to be successful.

I would put Holland down there with Talon as the worst to manage cap. Look at his recent dealings. Re-signing Kassian as if he was a top 6 player. Paying Chaisson more than he was worht (though he's not that bad). The trade for AA with Gagner (last part of the Eberle fiasco) and 2x2nds. Detroit was glad to be done with him. Even with Lafreniere, the team is lost. They would be better off trading the pick and picking up a real C. Ensure who LA is taking. Trade for the 3rd and 5th pick. AT the worst, they have a franchise C who can actually play the position.

And yet, they can't even seem to understand how badly they play on a regular basis. They were only a > 500 team due to the PP and to a lesser extent the PK. Have two of the best players in hockey, yet can't design a modern lineup. They both need help in playing without the puck, and it may just be poor coaching or not buying into a plan. Kassian is a dinosaur. Neal is a PP specialist that bleed more goals then he scores. Nurse is one of the worst D-men in the league. Klefbom is okay. Bear is pretty good. Larsson does nothing but hit. No 3rd and 4th line C's. They don't even have wingers for McD. Looking at their roster signed for next season, they are as bad off as they were before Holland came. AA and Bear need new deals, and the only one worth anything is Bear. I can't believe Nurse is making $5.6m. What a joke. They have no forwards other than Yamamoto that are NHL ready (or capable IMHO). Their biggest hope past Broberg is Bouchard. Another Nurse without the NHL level skating. Lavoie is perfect for their team. Possibly only a 1st and 5th through 7th. The pain will continue until Holland cleans out the trash.

He will no doubt be measured by how well they do in the next series, but we did see a team different from last playoffs. Certainly less fragile. Tough without being (Kassian) dumb. The players that should be contributing are. Maybe the scoring is less where it is expected, but that too will come. I have been more impressed with attention to detail. Taking out guys that have a scoring chance more than lazy penalties. Backchecking to strip the puck or support the D-men. Forcing the will on the other team instead of reacting to it. I look forward to the next round to see what they have learned against the Peg and how they will adjust to a different style of play.

And isn't that part of being a successful coach, your team follows you and plays better as a result. There are still things about him that bother me, but I think sometimes management puts things in his head. Don't give him a Rinaldo and he won't play him. By now, he should know what it takes to have a winner.

Neal was supposedly healthy quite some time before he actually played. Tippett and Holland are pretty close in their discussions about the team, so I'm just guessing that they sat him for more than one reason.