Pre-Game Talk: Monday vs. Vancouver: Clinch or Clench Day?

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Barrie has 2 assists and 0 goals at 5v5 in his last 14 games.

We know what he can do on the PP but with MTL and TOR as playoff teams that really challenge us at 5v5, I want to see Barrie step it up. Other than a WPG game, he has been fairly weak.

Tippett might be able to help him by optimizing D pairings. I feel like we don't see it as much of a problem because of how good Smith has been.

Barrie has been playing hurt from the sounds of it.

Barrie w Jones has been a disaster. Barrie w Kulikov might work but Kulikov and Larsson appears to be an effective heavy shutdown pair. That leaves Barrie and Nurse who work well as a pair.

There. I Optimized the D pairs for you, your welcome.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Play Bouchard Tipp.

I suspect he'll get in for Barrie tomorrow if they win tonight.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

bump (ahead of all the *#@* polls)

Did you vote in the Too Many Polls poll?

 

[McDrai]

3-1 Oilers (with empty net). McDavid with 2 points and of course Horvat with the goal for the Canucks.

 

[BlackDogg]

Did you vote in the Too Many Polls poll?

Yes, but I understand the motivation of the OP, boredom.....

 

[Paralyzer008]

Barrie has been playing hurt from the sounds of it.

Barrie w Jones has been a disaster. Barrie w Kulikov might work but Kulikov and Larsson appears to be an effective heavy shutdown pair. That leaves Barrie and Nurse who work well as a pair.

There. I Optimized the D pairs for you, your welcome.

Well you acknowledged Kulikov and Barrie might work, which is what I want to see.

I am skeptical Barrie can handle the tough 5v5 minutes Nurse will see in the playoffs, especially vs Auston Matthews if we get there.

Kulikov - Larsson is a pair we would see back in 1999 vs Dallas. There is good and bad to that.

 

[Delicious Pancakes]

Somebody's late with the GDT today...

@ConnorMcMullet

 

[Louis Cypher]

Off topic but it's nice to see Sam Bennett light it up now that he is away from the Lames. LOL.
Too bad we couldn't get him. We need someone like that. Archibald is gritty and can skate, would be nice someone on the left doing that also.

 

[Mr Positive]

I'm guessing Tippett does the same kind of game as last time. Push for a lead and then just sit on it

 

[LevelingSolo]

So if you clinch tonight do you start looking at resting players in back to back situations?

 

[McBooya42]

Hope you guys are taking notes of how Man United fans react when they dislike what ownership and management does

So playoffs two years in a row first off... AND you think storming Rogers during a pandemic is a GOOD idea, because why now?

 

[McBooya42]

Hope you guys are taking notes of how Man United fans react when they dislike what ownership and management does

Nothing against you personally, but this post sure is flunking stupid.

 

[bone]

Not much to clench about now. Literally a single point earned by Edmonton or lost by Vancouver anywhere in the combined remaining 18 games means playoffs for Edmonton so it's all about developing chemistry from here on out to be the best version of the team come May 17th (or whenever the playoffs end up starting).

Even to clinch the 3rd or better seed Edmonton only needs 5 points in the final 7 games to avoid playing Toronto first and likely less as that number assumes both Montreal winning out and Winnipeg only losing one to make Edmonton need the full 5 points.

In terms of their opponent, they don't really have much control of that anyways unless things go really sideways this week for Winnipeg in their three vs. Calgary and Ottawa this week while Montreal beats up on Toronto in their 3 games this week in which case. I can't imagine we don't see the best possible showing by the Jets against Ottawa and Calgary this week (who they are are combined 11-4-1 against this season) and Toronto seems to have the upper hand on Montreal (5-2 so far this year), so I'm thinking 3rd gets decided this week. But if not, then maybe the two games vs. Montreal next week have some meaning to them.

These four games this week against Vancouver are about discovering the best possible combination of lines amongst the top 12 forwards for the playoffs, getting Mikko a couple games and possibly a Bouch sighting. At the end of the week we can decide whether those two vs. Montreal matter for anything other than message sending for a potential second round matchup.

 

[North]

Jeepers, I just thought of something.

Was Kyle Turris abducted by aliens? I have not heard his name spoken about in weeks.

I was thinking about that on Saturday. Where’d he go?

 

[North]

Actually the super league is just the latest thing the owners have done.

My point is. On this board and other oiler sites, I see a lot of whining about when the oiler bosses or owner screws up.

I like follow through on all the whining next time

This post seems like whining because you don’t like the way other people whine.

 

[K1900L]

I went to a riot and a soccer game broke out

Haha, the fact that a what seems to be 10-12 year old boy stole the corner flag had me laughing, though.

@1:25

Scenes like this are impossible in any North American city when it comes to sports, good or bad.

 

[SwedishFire]

I think Tippet will keep McDrai together until Mcdavid hits 100 points.

The fan pleaser. I actually tjink this too

 

[brentashton]

I went to a riot and a soccer game broke out

I went to a riot and found myself on the corner of Robson and Granville with a bunch of soccer, er , hockey hooligans (aka Canuck fans).

 

[TB12]

So playoffs two years in a row first off... AND you think storming Rogers during a pandemic is a GOOD idea, because why now?

Agreed. Super weird idea and the timing of saying it???

 

[LTIR]

Play Bouchard Tipp.

Be a man! Do the right thing!

 

[CupofOil]

This is a weird and unprecedented time for us Oiler fans to have a couple of weeks left in the season with nothing to play for basically playing out the string preparing for the playoffs.

It's good but in the same token, kind of a boring time. This must be what Lightning, Capitals, Penguin, Bruins fans etc. have felt for years.

Thank god for the race between Montreal and Winnipeg to keep things interesting because otherwise, leaguewide not just in the North, most of the races are essentially decided already.

 

[FanOfSadTeam]

4 straight against the Canucks? This is gonna get boring fast

 

[Delicious Pancakes]

4 straight against the Canucks? This is gonna get boring fast

Won't be boring if McDavid and company are lighting them up.

 

[Snipes45]

Vancouver is always annoying to play against. You either better score the first 2 goals or so or it is going to be a low scoring boring game. They don't stop skating.

I would love for McDavid to go off for some goals so shorten the gap between him and Matthews. Less articles shoved down our throats

 

[Nunymare]

4 straight against the Canucks? This is gonna get boring fast

The worst part is the 8pm start times. Zzzzz