Pre-Game Talk: Final Game 3. Best of 5. 1 new Pole.

[Lay Z Boy GM]

D pairings make little sense. Least they know there’s a problem. Hopefully Nurse can pick it up and not be a liability.

Right? I’m trying to make sense of these pairings too. One thing this tells me is maybe Ekholm can’t handle the top pairing duties right now.

But Nurse with Bouchard is a proven disaster.. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Nurse with Klingberg? If they’re not gonna put Stecher in to play with Nurse, I hope they avoid pairing him with either Bouchard or Kulak.

 

[CrazyJoeDavola]

Yup, it really is that yearly recognition that nobody can play with Nurse really. Stecher is the only guy that can seemingly make Nurse any good, but they don't want to bring Stecher in because he isn't as good as the guy he would be replacing. In all honesty, the guy they should be sitting down is likely Nurse. It's not a coincidence that pretty much everybody gets worse when they play with him.

I would sit stecher for klingberg. Klinger has looked like a pylon all series long

 

[FlameChampion]

Right? I’m trying to make sense of these pairings too. One thing this tells me is maybe Ekholm can’t handle the top pairing duties right now.

But Nurse with Bouchard is a proven disaster.. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Nurse with Klingberg? If they’re not gonna put Stecher in to play with Nurse, I hope they avoid pairing him with either Bouchard or Kulak.

I am guessing they want a puck moving guy on each pairing or something. But Nurse just doesn’t seem to work with anyone except Stetcher who might be too small for this series.

I do wonder if they think Ekholm can’t quite cut it on top pairing.

Probably makes more sense to try Walman with Nurse if they are really against bringing in Stetcher.

Hopefully Nurse doesn’t start costing us games like he has in other years.

 

[LiseL]

I can't believe the doomsayers. We have been a dominant 13 and 3 if you take out the first two awful games where Knob made his adjustments.

I'm hopeful one good thing to come from a loss is some tinkering with the lineup.

This is a team that gets better as series goes on, had the two best players in the game and are facing a team only comfortable rolling 3 lines and 2 pairs of d.

Hit Bob hard and their one advantage is gone. We have the better tandem of goalies. They don't.

If they start to consistently aim top shelf on Bob, more goals will go in. They also need to stop looking for the perfect play on the PP, crash the net more to get the greasy goal. I also hope Knobs doesn't keep making McDrai play 30 minutes per game. They'll run out of gas as the series goes on. It also makes the rest of the line-up go cold, something many players have a hard time with. Knobs rolled 4 lines the 1st 40 minutes of game 1 which allowed him to use McDrai more effectively in the 3rd period and OT. However, in Game 2, he went to them much earlier. McD is also on the PK and for some reason, their ice-time per shift is much longer than the Cats which results in more mental mistakes and getting hemmed in their own zone. It's one thing to shorten the bench, it's quite another to lengthen the shifts. That will catch up with them also. Also, with Fla having last change, I don't think it'll be beneficial to keep McDrai together. Need to spread the wealth. I'm curious to see if Knobs makes any adjustments for Game 3.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Brown has turned back into a pumpkin

1G in last 10GP. Isn't getting to much, has slowed down. I never thought he could do more than two rounds. Last postseason he saved his best for last. This postseason he had it going first two rounds. He's being worked. Nailed. Hasn't been the same player since getting smoked in Dallas series.

Really at forward we're out Hyman, Brown, Pods has cooled off. It was both interesting and perhaps alarming that Kapanen got over 20mins in game one. I say that as I like the player, but its indication how threadbare we are at going forwards right now. Kapanen is here last 9 games because we needed his gas in the tank.

We'll probably see J Skinner as well coming up. Not sure how we can keep going with same forward lineup.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Beyond the Nurse issue, wonder what’s up with RNH. Hopefully nothing significant.

He had a cold. So its significant.

 

[MessierThanThou]

If they start to consistently aim top shelf on Bob, more goals will go in. They also need to stop looking for the perfect play on the PP, crash the net more to get the greasy goal.

Exactly this. They look a bit too fancy at times when they should just be lobbing pucks at the net and going for deflections. I mean McDrai and Bouch are already putting up legendary numbers but can you imagine if they got greasier in their scoring attempts? McDavid would be on Gretzky's heels record-wise.

 

[soothsayer]

This team gets better as series go on. Florida is a worse home team than they are on the road. Edmonton hasn't played their A game yet.

It's crazy that this series could be 2-0 or 0-2, and so 1-1 seems appropriate. But I am sticking with my prediction that the Oilers win this in 5. They are going to engage their next gear as they always do.

 

[sepHF]

RNH is definitely banged up. He didn’t take any faceoffs after the 1st period and now he’s not skating

I hate the idea of Nurse-Bouchard

I’d rather play Kulak with Bouch if they’re moving Ekholm to another pair

 

[BlackDogg]

Team is made of glass. f***

 

[MessierThanThou]

RNH is definitely banged up. He didn’t take any faceoffs after the 1st period and now he’s not skating

I hate the idea of Nurse-Bouchard

I’d rather play Kulak with Bouch if they’re moving Ekholm to another pair

Yeah, we've already seen that Nurse-Bouchard is a terrible idea. Not sure why they're going back to that well, especially when Kulak-Bouchard was so effective.

Skinner with McDavid makes sense.

 

[Oilhawks]

Probably too much panic about RNH.

He’s banged up, but it’s the Finals. He’ll be in tomorrow

 

[redgrant]

He had a cold. So its significant.

Fml what a time for this

 

[brentashton]

*poll

No.

We don’t have polls on HFOil. They are officially, Poles.

It’s a thing here.

 

[McJadeddog]

Fml what a time for this

I wonder if its actually a cold or something else. A cold doesn't force RNH to not take faceoffs for the back half of the last game.

 

[MessierThanThou]

 

[LemmyUlanov55]

Good for a laugh or two, especially from 3:10 on..

 

[McJadeddog]

Nurse/Walman and Kulak/Bouchard are certainly better options than the Nurse/Bouchard and Kulak/Walman pairs that were put together in practice. No idea what Knobs is thinking here.

 

[CycloneSweep]

No Nuge and Nurse with Bouchard is as close to an auto loss as you will get. Nurse with Bouch makes te team substantially worse.
What the f*** are they thinking.
Nurse completely negates all of Bouchards positive so all you are left with is a pairing that just gets scored on.
Together they are a -3 (8 ga) in 91 minutes of ice time. So they are good for basically a goal against a game guarenteed. Without Nurse in 256 minutes of ice time Bouchard has 8 goals against.
They are purely shit together and it’s baffling that it’s obvious to everyone but the coaching staff.
They also don’t shake up the third line that has been pure garbage in this series.

So seems like Knoblauch isn’t actually making any adjustments (at least positively), so I guess enjoy the free win Florida? Maybe he will smarten up early in game or at least for game 4.

 

[McShogun99]

If they start to consistently aim top shelf on Bob, more goals will go in. They also need to stop looking for the perfect play on the PP, crash the net more to get the greasy goal. I also hope Knobs doesn't keep making McDrai play 30 minutes per game. They'll run out of gas as the series goes on. It also makes the rest of the line-up go cold, something many players have a hard time with. Knobs rolled 4 lines the 1st 40 minutes of game 1 which allowed him to use McDrai more effectively in the 3rd period and OT. However, in Game 2, he went to them much earlier. McD is also on the PK and for some reason, their ice-time per shift is much longer than the Cats which results in more mental mistakes and getting hemmed in their own zone. It's one thing to shorten the bench, it's quite another to lengthen the shifts. That will catch up with them also. Also, with Fla having last change, I don't think it'll be beneficial to keep McDrai together. Need to spread the wealth. I'm curious to see if Knobs makes any adjustments for Game 3.

I think the main reason we're seeing so much of McDrai together is we've been down each game going into the 3rd. If we have the lead then you won't see them play as many minutes.

 

[frag2]

The disaster of a Nurse and Bouchard pairing again? Is Knob trying to forfeit the series? Hope RNH is OK and ready to go Monday.

Nurse is worse than Stu. Like he’s basically unplayable in the playoffs

The fact our 9M Dman needs a f***ing babysitter …

 

[McShogun99]

Wasn't the main reason they traded for Walman was because he could play both sides and wanted to pair him with Nurse?

 

[CycloneSweep]

Wasn't the main reason they traded for Walman was because he could play both sides and wanted to pair him with Nurse?

A big one yes. Instead they are going to completely shut down their best defender.

 

[MessierThanThou]

I have a question here: if Nuge is healthy should we keep Skinner with McDavid and give Nuge that third line to center? Who needs to go? Frederic's size keeps that line from getting bulldozed but he's useless offensively as we saw with Nuge trying everything he could to gift Freddy a perfect chance and failing miserably.

 

[CycloneSweep]

I have a question here: if Nuge is healthy should we keep Skinner with McDavid and give Nuge that third line to center? Who needs to go? Frederic's size keeps that line from getting bulldozed but he's useless offensively as we saw with Nuge trying everything he could to gift Freddy a perfect chance and failing miserably.

You know the answer to what coach will do.
That third line got absolutely shit on all game and they are being kept together. If Nuge is healthy Skinner is in.
Knoblauch rather guys who hit and bring nothing than a guy who hits a little bit less and scores.
It is what it is.