2023-24 San Diego Gulls/Tulsa Oilers

[DuckDuckGetz]

If the big club were healthy a few decent guys in Anaheim would be down there. But it'd still be weak overall.

The reason a lot of NHL contenders have strong minor league teams is that there's no room for a lot of pretty talented kids to crack the NHL roster. Most strong teams won't have had 3 rookie dmen out there on opening night, or 18 and 20 year old guys centering their top lines.

On a top team each year there might only be room for a single top 9 forward, and one D spot open. So they have guys who could easily contribute as at least 3rd liners in the NHL playing on the farm club instead.

Rebuilding is often initially a trickle up from juniors/college/etc. direct to a weak NHL roster, but a trickle back down to the minors as the big club solidifies.

That and most of them have guys that can't crack an NHL line-up but absolutely crush the AHL. When the Ducks were good the Gulls seemed to be full of guys like that, but now the only one I can think of would be De Leo?

Our team is mostly guys who will hopefully at least get a shot in the NHL one day, not career AHLers.

 

[FiveTacos]

That and most of them have guys that can't crack an NHL line-up but absolutely crush the AHL. When the Ducks were good the Gulls seemed to be full of guys like that, but now the only one I can think of would be De Leo?

Well once you get the logjam going you tend to pile up guys in the AHL who are like that, because on bad teams they get forced into the NHL, yet leave you wanting more. On good teams they're only injury call ups and they're perfectly fine for that.

Obviously the real impact guys tend to find an NHL home regardless of who they play for.

 

[The Midnight Burrito]

Obviously I need to watch the games to get a sense of what the problems are (particularly defensively), but I'm still willing to give McIlvane some benefit of the doubt for now anyway. Pedigree is there (he's won everywhere he's gone and he's highly spoken of in all circles that I've seen) and I'm basically convinced that outside of very long shots for Pastujov and Perreault, there is not a single impact NHL-caliber forward on the entire roster

Yeah I'm not writing him off, I'm just puzzled at how little difference there is between this year and last year in terms of how they look on the ice. They're not talented, fine, but they still don't seem to be playing much of a system.

 

[MMC]

 

[All Mighty]

Nesterenko scores 1 minute in. King and White get the assists.

 

[All Mighty]

Charlotte answers with a PP goal, but Regenda gets it right back. Assists to Agozzino and Perreault.

 

[MMC]

 

[All Mighty]

Perreault scores on a penalty shot to tie the game at 3.

 

[All Mighty]

Lopina scores near the end of the 2nd period to give the Gulls a 4-3 lead. Assists to Helleson and Nesterenko.

 

[MMC]

Lopina in 8 games already has as many points as he did in 59 games last year

 

[MMC]

 

[Static]

Lopina in 8 games already has as many points as he did in 59 games last year

Here he comes!!

 

[MMC]

 

[DuckDuckGetz]

The Regenda Agenda is in full effect

 

[TheGoodShepard1]

I figured bad things happened with no further updates here, and they did. Lucky to get a point after being caved in in the 3rd and lost 5-4 in OT.

Poorly officiated game by all accounts. Perreault and Lopina both hit with misconducts for abuse of referees after Charlotte got the winner

 

[The Midnight Burrito]

I figured bad things happened with no further updates here, and they did. Lucky to get a point after being caved in in the 3rd and lost 5-4 in OT.

Poorly officiated game by all accounts. Perreault and Lopina both hit with misconducts for abuse of referees after Charlotte got the winner

It sucked. They're not fun.

edit - As for the misconducts, Charlotte had scored on a 5-on-3 which featured two cross checks called where I didn't see any cross checks. It was weird. And then Regenda threw it over the glass while they were down 2 men. Agozzino got knocked down behind the play, no call, and then Charlotte scored.

Later after Charlotte won it in OT the refs were standing at the spot where the Gulls exited the rink and they must have heard some words that hurt their feelings.

 

[AngelDuck]

another bad team down there. I mean at least the NHL team is fun this year? It takes a while to get rid of the losing stench we’ve had the last 5 seasons

 

[Hockey Duckie]

another bad team down there. I mean at least the NHL team is fun this year? It takes a while to get rid of the losing stench we’ve had the last 5 seasons

The NHL club has six rookies: G Dostal, C Carlsson, C Groulx, LD LaCombe, LD Mintyukov, and RD Luneau. Only Luneau cannot stay in the AHL full time, just on a conditioning stint. The AHL club doesn't have those talents, save Luneau on a recent conditioning stint.

Speaking of Luneau, how has he looked in the AHL for those who are able to watch the game? Thx in advance!

 

[Giguere27]

I didn’t see the games, so my take is stats-looking.

But to be honest, I’m a little bit suprised, that Zellweger isn‘t dominating the AHL at least offensively as I expected it.

Has somebody seen the full games and has an explanation?

 

[Kalv]

I didn’t see the games, so my take is stats-looking.

But to be honest, I’m a little bit suprised, that Zellweger isn‘t dominating the AHL at least offensively as I expected it.

Has somebody seen the full games and has an explanation?

Without seeing the games, Zell's style was always not pro-game friendly, IMO. So there's some adjustment period required.

But yeah, would love some input from someone who watches the games. I wanted to buy the AHL package but not now when the team sucks so much
Would love to hear also about Luneau and Hinds

 

[AngelDuck]

Zellweger is their best player by a wide margin from what I’ve seen. I think he’d do better in the NHL but the ducks have no need for him right now

That team just stinks. Tough to draw meaningful conclusions at this point. I don’t think Perreault has been terrible even

As @MMC has said, it’s too bad DeLeo went down. I would have liked to see a Nesterenko-De Leo-Perreault line

 

[The Midnight Burrito]

I didn’t see the games, so my take is stats-looking.

But to be honest, I’m a little bit suprised, that Zellweger isn‘t dominating the AHL at least offensively as I expected it.

Has somebody seen the full games and has an explanation?

Zell is an offenseman who prefers to lead the rush. Limited sample so far but it seems to me that his preferred method of zone exit is collecting the dump in, passing the puck quickly to his partner or a back checking forward, and then rushing out of the zone on a give and go. Tbh the Gulls' best entries are when he's attacking from the wing. But he doesn't win a ton of battles and the forwards aren't great at giving him passing options so he's not that effective in the defensive zone and he doesn't get a lot of carries because of that. He's really good on the PP.

As for Luneau, he looks pretty polished but he does hold the puck a lot. He likes to walk the line he also likes to hinge down low and he'll sometimes circle the net entirely a la Fowler before deciding whether to pass or shoot.

Again, limited sample so far. These are talented kids but not ready.

 

[JAHV]

Zell is an offenseman who prefers to lead the rush. Limited sample so far but it seems to me that his preferred method of zone exit is collecting the dump in, passing the puck quickly to his partner or a back checking forward, and then rushing out of the zone on a give and go. Tbh the Gulls' best entries are when he's attacking from the wing. But he doesn't win a ton of battles and the forwards aren't great at giving him passing options so he's not that effective in the defensive zone and he doesn't get a lot of carries because of that. He's really good on the PP.

As for Luneau, he looks pretty polished but he does hold the puck a lot. He likes to walk the line he also likes to hinge down low and he'll sometimes circle the net entirely a la Fowler before deciding whether to pass or shoot.

Again, limited sample so far. These are talented kids but not ready.

Thanks for the information. The follow up question would be: does it seem like McIlvane/the AHL is a good place to get them ready? Is the dearth of forward talent something that will hinder their development? If it's that bad, it might not matter how good of a coach McIlvane is. Or it might be that McIlvane is not actually a great coach.

 

[MMC]

Best thing about this Gulls team is that Clang looks legit

 

[MMC]

Suchanek sent back to Tulsa