Comments on Black Dog Hates Skunks: Its Scary Out There

At the Wings game the other night, Lowe reminded m...

2009-11-02T13:24:30.229-05:00

At the Wings game the other night, Lowe reminded me of an alcoholic irish uncle, the way he sat there looking stupefied. He probably is still pissed that he's no longer the GM.

Quinn probably intimidates him, too.

Halfwise - that has really been my argument about ...

2009-11-02T10:27:54.335-05:00

Halfwise - that has really been my argument about Lowe's work for the past few seasons as well as MacT's last season, taken bit by bit you can argue for what he did but the overall effect is/was a mess

You pick best player available so you have smaller players, that's fine, but you have to know you need some size in there. You move out guys like Torres, Stoll, Reasoner, Dvorak, Smyth, Glencross, Kotalik and so on, hey I don't like a lot of those contracts or some of the negatives for those guys but you need to replace what they brought.

And they haven't. For four summers now.

Shedding a couple of contracts, net, on a trade wo...

2009-11-01T18:21:55.337-05:00

Shedding a couple of contracts, net, on a trade would make supreme sense. I could see Nilsson, Cogliano and Grebs going out for, say, whoever is a 7 year younger version of Jason Arnott out there and a 2nd round pick.

The lack of a bell curve of forwards must make Quinn crazy.

Today's roster is the product of yesterday's decisions, and while any one of those decisions might have been reasonable on its own, collectively what was Lowe thinking? Lack of size and grit?

It is not as if he was acquiring players in his own image. I suppose at least we can declare him healthy from a pyschological standpoint...

Halfwise - yeah they miss Souray a lot. And we saw...

2009-11-01T14:53:29.466-05:00

Halfwise - yeah they miss Souray a lot. And we saw last season how important Lubo is.

As for the forwards well we could see it coming a mile away. Too small, too soft, not enough two way players. My guess is they move some of these guys and a Dman for some big bodies up front who can play both ways. Other than Vande Velde and Nash they haven't anyone coming up who fits that description. Maybe the Finn?

macaotim - MacT isn't completely blameless but if Penner had started his Oiler career as he did this season I would bet that MacT would have never had a problem with him.

spOILer - yeah you've hit the nail on the head in ...

2009-11-01T14:49:56.874-05:00

spOILer - yeah you've hit the nail on the head in a lot of ways, I think the D is struggling right now, which hurts the offence, but its all about health and once these guys come back the D will actually be in far better shape than even imagined before.

Smid has emerged. Chorney looks to be able to handle bottom pairing minutes with a better partner.

Good times on the blue.

But up front, well, its a two line team. A nice # 1 line and a nice # 4 line. Then the rest of the guys are either too small, too inexperienced, too ld, lacking in defensive acumen or offensive finish.

Gagner is not ready for top line duty. Even if he were there are no wingers to build a nice line around Horcoff.

So it seems anyhow.

If Fernando can play then he will have a spot just because he does things that nearly nobody else can. Same as Stone. That game against the Wings showed pretty clearly that they lack their shit up front.

Stone has been missed, for sure. Small sample size...

2009-11-01T14:03:55.320-05:00

Stone has been missed, for sure. Small sample size, but check out his rate of Shots Against ON/60 compared to other Oiler forwards.

Pat, We can see Quinn struggling with the exact ...

2009-11-01T13:07:30.651-05:00

Pat,

We can see Quinn struggling with the exact same problems MacT struggled with...

How to distribute the forwards over the four lines so we don't bleed goals against and so we can create a goal or two every third or fourth game.?

Now granted the flu hasn't helped that distribution much.

And I think the aspect of the flu that is driving Quinn the most nuts is--lack of practice.

He's not happy with how his system is being performed and they've lost some serious practice time to the flu.

I just don't see the scoring depth though and with the injuries, kids, size issues etc, we're going to need 4 goals a game to have a chance to win.

...I'm really liking Stone too, and miss him in the line-up.

What does that mean for Pisani?

Watching the Bruins today it was clear that Coglia...

2009-10-31T23:49:25.834-04:00

Watching the Bruins today it was clear that Cogliano and Nilsson bring talent but were quickly neutralized by size. And Peckham has taken a step back from last year.

I felt sorry for Pisani. He looked like I feel when I am at what passes for peak conditioning, watching everyone else's jersey number getting smaller pretty much all over the ice. At least we know he has more to bring.

Brule and Gagner should be the smallest regulars on this team. There is room for POS after that. On D, Vis is so smooth and quick that it doesn't matter what size he is, but past him we really miss Souray, don't we, for handling the baggage in front of the net.

After the flu clears out and a couple of bigger bodies get back in this team will compete better.

You nailed it. My dad said the other day that McT...

2009-10-31T23:04:39.962-04:00

You nailed it. My dad said the other day that McT should have treated Penner better. I said I thought Penner should have treated Penner better!?