HardCoreBlue

And this from a man who uses George Orwell as his avatar. Very passe'- 1984 is long gone. But one trusts....that intelligence, clarity and articulation are not.... The day that I read "all animals are created equally, but some are more equal than others" I knew I would always fight against socialism. That sums up that horrible philosophy perfectly. And capitalism works so much better. :-) Now back to your regularly scheduled program. Keep pushing to upgrade our DT's for sure.

You need new friends :-)

Not that anything Sask does interests me, but I am curious in how they will use Glenn this year behind Durant. For example, outside of injury, what's the mindset with Durant's play that would tell Chamblin to call Glenn's number?

I'd be okay with that. His time to shine.

Love... There's way more talent in the league now (Gretzky & Lemieux excluded) than there was in the 80s with 21 teams. There were 3rd pairing dmen back then who struggled doing crosscuts in both directions. Scoring is down b/c teams play defense now, the goalies are no longer terrible, and the salary cap doesn't let great teams stay together. Scoring is also down because players on average are bigger limiting the lanes to get the puck threw. On the one end, it's frustrating to watch, but on the other end, it actually involves more skill and puck movement to score a goal.

Its been said before but deserves repeating: Bettman doesnt run the NHL, the owners do. Bettman serves at their pleasure. They want more teams, more money and a wider TV deal. Its Bettman's job to go out and do it. He does a very, very good job. Just no reason for him to lie. It's not the point of him lying or not and who he serves. He's not just some robot who serves his masters. He holds his own opinions articulated by his own style that may or may not influence what his bosses want. Regardless, his approach to dealing with professional issues while reporting to his bosses can and continues to rub some people the wrong way. It happens to all of us, some more than others.

I'm hoping we get a full season out of Moore.

Cup or no cup, they've always sucked.

I'm looking forward to Feoli-Gudino's break out year this year.

Usually, but not always, that turns out to mean squat when predicting the future success of a player compared to another player's existing success.

I agree. The however part for me sometimes is not WHAT one says , it's HOW one says it can be an issue for some. I guess it comes down to respect.

More correctly said would be that's an opinion that it's not true. I live in Edmonton and I hear a variety of perspectives, some from experts, some from informed fans and some from armchair quarterbacks. There is no one single truth about what the Oilers need to do based on what the 'experts' and 'informed fans' are saying. All I'm personally saying is, this new regime will look at every possible scenario, minimizing any previous bias's that may have been in place influencing the direction of this club.

what did the isles give up for leddy and boychuck?don't need to move the big pieces to fill holes, only to land other big pieces With new bosses in town, my guess is that no one, outside of McDavid, will be left out of conversations of possible scenarios of change. They will want to put their own mark on this team and give a sense of direction this team is taking in quite short order.

A reasonable expectation for this season I think is making the playoffs. Anything less, regress. Anything more, gravy.

Hopefully she didn't drop as many F-bombs at church the next day. What a loser. She's allowing the idea of the wine to stand as a potential excuse while then giving excuses as to why it probably wasnt. Either you were drunk or not. But this isnt like some mind control took over her mouth. Sleep deprivation? My goodness. What a clown. But it really illustrates the lefts ideals though right? No one is responsible for their actions, there's always something else to blame. Left, right, center doesn't matter. Some of us reserve judgment until all the available facts are in.

No McTavish bro'ed out with Eakins and gave him the job and refused to fire him when everyone in the world knew he was a terrible choice. Bob Nicholson even had to step in and force McTavish to fire Eakins. rookie GM got taken for a ride by the interview he did with Eakins and he's stubborn enough he wasn't going to admit his mistake. Cost him his job. You've posted this a couple of times now. Do we know that for a fact?

Hervey's mo is size/strength on both sides of the ball. I think he'll hang on to Watson.

How exactly do you put dicks in a bag? Do you have to cut them off first? If you have to ask . . .

And whether people like it or not, having Conner McDavid in the fold (i.e., winning the lottery) will cause instant fan and media pressure to show immediate and significant improvements. Statements like trending upwards will have to take on a whole new meaning.

That's actually a great point. The one thing I've come to appreciate about Toby Enstrom is his stick work, especially in the corners, and his ability to change directions on a dime. Was never a fan but now I'm sold on him.

I'm not an ex-Winnipegger, I'm a transplanted Winnipegger (or Manitoban whatever your preference).

As soon as the Jets got eliminated, Hockey was over for me. Go Blue. So what's been happening? :-)

are you going to actually cite Spector as a guy who knows what the **** he's talking about? He's one of those idiots who thinks grit is one certain thing and it's more important than anything else. Listen to what Chiarelli said about getting tougher as a team in his press conference. It's not about being big or even hitting, it's about a mentality and that starts from buying into the coaching. No one bought into Eakins who came up with such marvellous quotes as "the perfect game you throw 0 hits because you always have the puck" Hall would skate through a wall if it meant scoring, Yakupov plays physical a lot, I don't think people realize how much of a chip on his shoulder RNH actually plays with... he'll take shots at guys regularly. Eberle does most of his scoring in close to the net, that takes grit. The problem isn't grit or work ethic or anything like that. The Oilers problems were in this order: Eakins, poor puck moving defence and goaltending. Check the point totals of the oilers D the past few years, it's embarassing. That's the difference between Calgary and Edmonton. Calgary has 4 guys who are real strong puck movers they get the puck going the right way and out of the zone. The oilers had soft as baby **** Justin Schultz and Jeff Petry as guys who could move the puck and they stupidly ran Petry out of town. The NHL game today is all about puck possession and transition. Defensive hockey doesn't really exist, what exists is gaining control of the puck and getting it out of your zone quickly and efficiently so you don't have to play defense. It's not Spector saying it. It's other coaches saying it. And sorry but yes, my opinion is the Oilers as a whole need work in the area of consistent work ethic, bringing it every shift, finishing every check. We're both basing our opinions on observation, mine's different than yours.

Oh please not this. Hall is 6'1 he's not small, Draisaitl is a big kid, RNH is around 6'1 as well and not the skinny kid he was when he was drafted. Again not huge but not small either. Yakupov is on the short side but he's stocky and while not big, he's not small either. Eberle is on the shorter side but again, he's not exactly a small player just not a big one. McDavid is listed at 6'1 as well so once again, not huge but not small either. Simply put the size issue is over blown in a big big way. Those players all have their own type of grit as well. They're not grinders who run around throwing hits, but they stick their noses into the dirty areas all the time. You know what the Oilers really need? They need some guys on the backend who can generate offense. Full stop that is the biggest problem with the Oilers. They lack a serious amount of puck moving ability from the back end and too often forwards are not getting pucks in full flight and it leads to opposing teams being able to defend them easier. Do they have to trade someone? Not right now. Maybe in the future but for next year no they really don't need to trade anyone unless the return is too good to pass up. The biggest thing that will help the Oilers is Klefbom and Marincin continuing to develop and someone like Nurse to be as good as they hope he can be. If they can make a smart free agency signing or get someone in a trade (sort of like the Isles did with Boychuk and Leddy) things look a hell of a lot different. It is quite frankly sickening to listen to people continually harp on the lack of size and grit arguments which have no basis in reality yet keep getting perpetuated. Hmmm, don't know about that. I get a heavy dose of the Oilers living here and, as Spector pointed out , apposing coaches regularly make reference to their skill/youth but not much on their work ethic, lunch box type effort. Big part of work ethic is getting into the dirty areas and finishing checks consistently which size isn't the only requirement.

Paper is one thing. Practice is another. Its about Chemistry. And it's not minus Buff, plus Postma. if you minus Buff, you add others.And why can't Armia make the team better? Last summer people would say gee we better resign Jokinen or what, we're gonna go into the season with Lowry as our 3C?? And look how that turned out. Re-sign Ladd. Re-sign one of Stafford or Frolik and you're a better team than most of the season this year. Ladd-Little-Wheeler Perreault-Scheif-Stafford Ehlers-Lowry-Armia Stemp-Copp(Slater)-Thorburn Sure, that 3rd line looks young. But it has potential to be very fast, exciting, offensive (in a good way). Not to mention, what does trading Buff get you? What does trading Burmi get you? So we're going to trade Buff and Burmi and get better players back? Or are we going to get draft picks and prospects? the future is nice but I'm not interested in taking a step back now that the team is finally making some progress. It's the difference between GM's and fans. Fans always want the next guy NOW NOW NOW, because they have seen the veterans play and seen their flaws. Guess what? The young guys are going to have flaws too, and they are also going to be working through the inexperience. The best way to bring up prospects is naturally. Let them be the organizational depth that get a chance when there is an injury. Sure your 3rd line of Ehlers, Lowry, and Armia could be good. But what happens when one gets injured? All your best prospects are already on the roster so now you have to rush guys in or bring in AHL duds. Too young, too fast, is what kills teams. And the Jets are already walking that line. Burni likely isn't going to get you a better player back because his bolting to KHL hurts his value and any perceived attitude problem does too. That's the only reason I've speculated he might stay here is because Chevy likely won't give him away. It could be another kane scenario where the Jets tell Burmi "sign with us and increase your value and we will try to accommodate your request " Buff will get you better pieces back. Buff is buff. But on this team he's third on the depth chart behind Myers and Trouba. He will get back players that aren't. Totally disagree with this. He's not behind these players in terms of skill, leadership, durability, productivity and team playing. I think for some people, they won't really understand what he brings to this team until he's gone and all of sudden understand the huge gap we now have. Buff's pro's greatly outweigh his cons.