I wish that Paajarvi was still up here. He was creating offence over his last 8-9 games and was displaying nice chemistry with Hemsky. Whoops, we're getting too many points, can't have that. Stay in OKC, Maggie.
There was a game a while ago when Ray Ferraro was talking and started to bugger up what he was saying and just started to mumble "Uh..uh...um..wha...am...uh.." and Quinner seeing Ray was in trouble tried to help him out and immediately had no idea what he was saying and started to mumble "Ah...uh...uh...um...ah...uh.." so they were both mumbling incoherently for a good 5-8 seconds. It was one of the most incredible things I have ever witnessed on television. I wish someone would have put it on youtube. Man I'll never forget that as long as I live.
I'm not a Quinn fan by any means but imo Debrusk is worse. The guy mentions a certain player and makes his point about said player but then he keeps rambling on even if there's a play going on in the off/def zone. And it's even more annoying when Quinn and Debrusk have their little casual chats and chuckles about stuff completely unrelated to the game while the game is going on.
DeBrusk only annoys me because he usually glosses over the officiating crew's idiocy over the course of a game. Occasionally, he lets it slip that he's annoyed but he makes excuses for them far too often.
Props to Bryan Murray. That's how a real general manager operates. They already have highly touted young goaltender in Lehner and he still goes out and acquires Bishop to push him.
Yeah, we'll have another high 2nd rounder this year, but acquiring a Ben Bishop is exactly like drafting high 2nd round.
Plus the fact that St Louis had expense and spent 5 years to develop Bishop. Now the Sens just gave up a 2nd rounder to grab him when he's just ripe for the picking.
I was saying couple weeks before the deadline that we should take that risk on Bishop. Oh my goodness, how good would Bishop looked in the Oilers uniform!?
If I was the GM, I'd sign Gags to a one year deal worth 3.24 M. If we draft Grigerenko, I'd still keep Gagner, it never hurts to add depth down the middle (RNH, Grigerenko, Gagner, Belanger, Hocoff = pretty deep).
But I'm definitely not opposed to trading Gagner if it means getting a proven top 2 defenseman in return: Yandle, Weber, Suter, Ekman-Larsson.
Add Lander, who the Oil are obviously high on. You can only develop so many young players at a time, while Gagner is a veteran he is young and continues to make young player mistakes. He may be a quality player in a few years when he finds consistency but right now he is very inconsistent. Management is going to have to make a hard decision on if Gagner is worth the wait, if he finds it at all. He is one of a few players the Oilers can move who has value and may not be seen as part of the core long term. I see Jones, Omark and picks 2nd round+ this year and next being available also.
The Sharks played uptight and weren't sharp the other night but they were trying and the Oilers responded in kind. It's pretty upsetting that the Oilers can display the battle level that they had the other night and follow it up with this.
Its all about the way teams matchup. SJ play a slow as molasses game and have trouble with our speed. Always plays out that way.
Habs play a speedy game and gave us fits with blowing around the D all night long. We blew contain so often and led to GA. Every D on this club was beat tonight and of course Pecham was a special agent of suck.
Montreal gained a lot of puck control tonight due to quickly and agressively converging on the puck. Nowhere was this more evident then on PK.
Habs were very aggressive with taking time and space away and we were unable to make the plays to make them pay. Pretty poor offensive execution tonight. No cohesion and nobody really going.
When Schultz is your best looking player in the offensive end you wonder whats going on.
Hemsky was playing his best hockey of the season by far with Hall on his wing, he also played well with Paajarvi and the team was playing its best hockey with those guys on his line.
If you give Hemsky a speedy winger that can keep up with him, it'll do wonders for the whole line and give the team so much needed secondary scoring.
Placing Omark, Smyth or whoever else on his line negates his ability to create offense.
Plus the fact that St Louis had expense and spent 5 years to develop Bishop. Now the Sens just gave up a 2nd rounder to grab him when he's just ripe for the picking.
I was saying couple weeks before the deadline that we should take that risk on Bishop. Oh my goodness, how good would Bishop looked in the Oilers uniform!?
Yeah, it would have been a nice fit but the Oilers are content with old Khabi and Dubby going into next year. Hell, there was a nice propaganda piece in the SUN last week about it. They're fine with the netminding.
Hemsky was playing his best hockey of the season by far with Hall on his wing, he also played well with Paajarvi and the team was playing its best hockey with those guys on his line.
If you give Hemsky a speedy winger that can keep up with him, it'll do wonders for the whole line and give the team so much needed secondary scoring.
Placing Omark, Smyth or whoever else on his line negates his ability to create offense.
He has something like five goals and twenty points on the season. Playing with anyone and everyone. Its not other people's fault Hemsky isnt scoring. The guy is one more year like this from being in Jonathan Cheechoo territory.
I'm not convinced you've paid attention at all this year. Low GA this season, very good +/- on a horrible club. One of only two players on the team that is plus, has been jumping back to cover the pinching D all year (tonight was bad)
Much better on faceoffs, looking better in puck battles. Overall one can't say that he's had a poor defensive year. Well you can say it, but good luck defending that proposition this season.
He's been a good allround EV player this year.
Gagner is a talented playmaker, and he's getting better, but he's not good enough to compensate for the woeful lack of size in the top 6 on this club (and who else are they going to dump from there? Who can you justify?). Honestly, I'm a fan of Gagner, and I think he'd be an even better player on a different team, and if they get Grigs, I think he should be shopped for both the team's and his sake.
Bad hockey game tonight. The kid line didn't seem to click and despite generating 2 goals (one on the PP and the Hall goal) they seemed off. The Omark-Gagner-Hemsky line didn't really work. Omark played a really smart game, I was genuinely impressed, but Hemsky was off and Gagner just plain bad.
Peckham had an especially bad effort. Doesn't matter what you do on the ice when you take three bad penalties.
Schultz is impressing me. I'm surprised by his willingness and ability to jump into the play in the offensive zone and he can move the puck quickly out of the defensive zone. He almost scored (and drew a penalty in the process) and later fed a great pass cross ice to Smyth which I think hit Jones' stick preventing it from getting there clean.
Why he plays 15 minutes... I have no idea. I don't know how the Oilers can't do Smid-Petry and Whitney-Schultz in their top 4. Corey Potter is not a top 4 defenseman. This is terrifyingly obvious. If he was used effectively he could be a good contributer on this team. He is effective on the powerplay and should be getting minimal 5v5 time.
Its all about the way teams matchup. SJ play a slow as molasses game and have trouble with our speed. Always plays out that way.
Habs play a speedy game and gave us fits with blowing around the D all night long. We blew contain so often and led to GA. Every D on this club was beat tonight and of course Pecham was a special agent of suck.
Montreal gained a lot of puck control tonight due to quickly and agressively converging on the puck. Nowhere was this more evident then on PK.
Habs were very aggressive with taking time and space away and we were unable to make the plays to make them pay. Pretty poor offensive execution tonight. No cohesion and nobody really going.
When Schultz is your best looking player in the offensive end you wonder whats going on.
Good point about the Sharks being slow. The Habs have a lot of flaws but they're a speedy team and the Oilers, despite being a speedy team themselves didn't look like they wanted to skate with them.
He has something like five goals and twenty points on the season. Playing with anyone and everyone. Its not other people's fault Hemsky isnt scoring. The guy is one more year like this from being in Jonathan Cheechoo territory.
You know very well that he's not a goal scorer, he also hit like 4-5 posts in that span of games that he was playing with Hall and Paajarvi.
You can't deny that Hemsky was playing some pretty darn good hockey with Hall and then with Paajarvi on his line. The team was also playing better.
Why he plays 15 minutes... I have no idea. I don't know how the Oilers can't do Smid-Petry and Whitney-Schultz in their top 4. Corey Potter is not a top 4 defenseman. This is terrifyingly obvious. If he was used effectively he could be a good contributer on this team. He is effective on the powerplay and should be getting minimal 5v5 time.
Again not to beat the Renney horse to death but here's yet another example of his ineptitude. Why he thinks that Whitney-Potter is a good pair is beyond me.
Yeah, lets pair 2 slow skating defensively inadequate defensemen on the same pairing and give them a ton of minutes while Schultz who is light years better than both defensively and apparently not too much worse offensively rots on the bottom pairing.
How anybody defends Renney is beyond my comprehension, he's a huge problem with his management of the team and the sooner people realize it the better.
Yeah, he was brutal for most of the season so his stats are skewed pretty badly.
Can you honestly say that he wasn't playing much better going into the deadline and even the few games after before Paajarvi got inexplicably sent down again?
Again not to beat the Renney horse to death but here's yet another example of his ineptitude. Why he thinks that Whitney-Potter is a good pair is beyond me.
Yeah, lets pair 2 slow skating defensively inadequate defensemen on the same pairing and give them a ton of minutes while Schultz who is light years better than both defensively and apparently not too much worse offensively rots on the bottom pairing.
How anybody defends Renney is beyond my comprehension, he's a huge problem with his management of the team and the sooner people realize it the better.
Sutton was what? +5 over his previous 6 games played but hey, lets sit him in favor of Barker. No wait, Peckham.
Sutton was what? +5 over his previous 6 games played but hey, lets sit him in favor of Barker. No wait, Peckham.
Renney playing the tank like a bawse. Though to be fair they do have to evaluate Peckham before they let him go for nothing, if he ***** the bed, then that's on him. Can't say we didn't give him a chance here.
Renney playing the tank like a bawse. Though to be fair they do have to evaluate Peckham before they let him go for nothing, if he ***** the bed, then that's on him. Can't say we didn't give him a chance here.
Judging from the comments before the Sharks game Peckham's been good to go for a while so this decision to just... throw him in there when Sutton's playing some of his best hockey of the year is just inexplicable.
But hey, like you said, the tank is on. The fans should be pissed that they're paying to watch the Oilers throw away hockey games.
