The little engine that couldn't. Trust me everybody you're glad he's gone. We wouldn't even be getting the original Yamamoto but the bruised and battered Yams that has pretty much been reduced to mashed Yams. Was probably the worst player in the Kraken lineup. Which is saying a lot.
Nurse, Campbell, Kane and of course we thrown in Skinner and draft picks. lol
Size at least impacts. Even bad injured Kane is better than yams out there. Lets not forget how much Yams had primo minutes with Drai here and rarely got anything done. Two stints in his whole career where he heated up for a bit.
This SCF has been a big reveal for this team in terms of quality of the players and/or their will to win.
Listen again to their interview. Lots of positives for the goaltender and talk of how things like reading the play will improve with experience. Skinner is not an athletic goaltender. The book has always been about getting him moving laterally. The interview also cites the difference between Bob's natural athleticism and Skinner's (and others who don't have it) in terms of the former's wide butterfly stance and ability to push strongly laterally. Skinner should adjust as suggested to a more vertical butterfly to enable strong push. Skinner's tracking is a developmental need and as Fuhr reinforced something that grows with experience. Realizing you have more time than you think to look and survey. Talked also about how he benefited as a small goalie of his learned experience practicing against the best player and team in history. Of course he's too modest to acknowledge he was likely the most athletic goaltender of his generation with cat-like reflexes and an innate mental toughness and resiliency to never give up that final goal. Gretzky considers him the best money goalie in NHL history for a reason. Add that he was an elite pedigree goaltender when drafted.
You seem to want to narrowcast some sort of myopic vision that analytics is a magic bullet. It's a recurring theme you hold to and cherry pick to try to make a point. The credit is much broader than portraying it as Zito and Mehta. Zito's first hires were significantly experienced NHL management types with stellar talent assessment track records and direct experience. The super elite culture building head coach followed. Worth mentioning the priority and full scope of management talent the rookie GM aligned himself with to set his vision in motion. Mehta's been a really good hire to add to this support function and helping this management team as a group find latent talent through all sources.
Lol!! The league must be saying f*** you to someone with that fine. Out of all of the things..
Notable on the Oilers only goal it was McDavid's turn to so call 'school' Barkov on a great quick outlet to spring Ekholm. Barkov caught deep. And in both cases it was mistakes after the two elites play that resulted in goals.
Yamamoto had heart and battle. He just couldn't finish in a top 6 role with Drai, which was his downfall.
No, it was on the PP. The fact a ton of people liked your post despite not realizing we were on the advantage rather than a PK there is very concerning.
Par for the course with the Barkov dick sucking these playoffs. Dude gets praised for that defensive play on Drai in game 1 that conspired of 2 slashes to Drais hands to complete that play.
There's a difference between getting in a guy's grill with clean, hard physicality and leaving your feet with an elbow to the face to commit a penalty in a 2-1 game with about 7 minutes to go with possibilty of being suspended the next game. I don't see how what he did to Barkov was what was needed, can you elaborate?
Which frankly I thought was pretty wise.Just saw a reverse angle on the Foegele hit. In what universe is that a 5 minute major. On the reverse angle you clearly see the initial point of contact was skate to puck and the Florida player turned his leg. I thought it was bad before but this angle was even worse
The optimal window is the next two years but there's no reason to think that, with a rising cap, the team can't be competitive beyond that. And back to the original point, I don't see Drai wanting to go anywhere else.
Ask Ken Holland, he'll tell you there's only one management group a good GM needs:
The Quid pro quo message was clear. If aholes like Bennett think they can run our guys with impunity we can do shit too. Whether you agree with the tactic or not the game was essentially over, The Oilers were getting nothing, and even goalie pulled for over 5mins they were getting nothing. A check is going to do nothing against Barkov, he's built like a tank. Florida have Bennett punching guys in the face and Ekblad performing choke holds. They send this tape to league office. Hypocrites,
He's a really good player. But Florida's team defense has been stellar as a group and they have a rare commodity, a true elite goaltender behind that. Oil are going to have to adapt their strategy and some of their tendencies to overhandle the puck, look for ol' trusty Draisaitl right side one-timer, and forcing cross seam passes against this defense that's bottling up home plate.
Holy hell they still make them?
He is. But he makes plenty of mistakes still. And his defensive prowess is still overrated. Slashes to complete a defensive play isn’t elite defensive play, it’s just cheating and getting away with it. That said he’s still really good.
