Rocket Brock with yet another deadly snipe

They're not really old. 26 and 27.

ya, but both might already be past their prime
Henrique especially

and i thought about it some more and remembered that Vatanen's fall coincided with:
1. injuries
2. playing with Bieksa, apparently
3. RANDY

starting to like the idea of him bouncing back with the Devils

though it's not bad from the Ducks side, they had loads of dmen and needed another center, especially right now

Wilson with the 'accidental' hit on Doughty in the neutral zone. Oshie with the cold shoulder head shot on Pearson.
Kings are due for a donnybrook one of these nights. Way too many people taking cheap shots at them.

price has been back for a week and the habs are already back in a playoff position

the ONE MAN GANG

It really is amazing to watch him basically inspire goals scored. Helluva trick.


Lots of people freaking out in the West as all Canadian channels on Shaw went down. (back up now it seems) This is how most saw Danny Sedini's 1000th point.

can confirm

GOATs

LOLOLOL Russell tyvm


cue a Punker rant

omg that own goal...wow

Kudos to him for finding new ways to give up goals

Can any cat do that?

That Gretzky stat is amazing.

Who did Brent play for?

I'd like to rant but in reality, he had an amazing game. The rest of the team was kind of garbage, and even I can feel bad for the guy. Nurse is the 22 year old amazing skater who gets turned inside out by Grampa Marleau a few seconds earlier.

What's the short version of what's happening with the Oilers? I know Talbot hasn't been as good, but what else? Kind of surprised at their spot in the standings. Can't wait to renew my annual Calgary vs Edmonton bet with Punker. Of course we didn't do it last year and Punker would have shipped

short version: if your 4th-10th best players are 29yo Lucic, Maroon, Letestu, Strome, Russell, Nurse, and Kassian then you probably suck

They traded a lot of talent and depth away and signed injured and not-useful Dmen.
Subscribe to TheAthletic and read DomL's article on what Chia has done to their team.

TBF if you took bets before the season that the Oil would be a bottom 3 team 25 games into the season you'd be a very rich person. I would have backed up the truck against that. (I doubt any preseason Dom model has the Oil anywhere near where they are now) In hindsight relying too much on Talbot and giving up secondary scoring have really bitten them in the ass.

well yeah, you wouldn't expect a team with a 21yo league MVP and a 22yo superstar to be terrible, but Chiapet has done some amazing work

they lack depth
they lack skill
they don't have anyone who can keep up with their top-3 guys
they don't have any offense from the blueline
or much defense from their blueline
they don't have a backup goalie

they literally pissed away a Hall-Barzal-Eberle 2nd line
they pissed away a #1 pick in Yak
they got another good break in landing Puljujarvi and have kinda ****ed that up so far


they might as well just ride this out and limit the damage, collect another #1 pick probably, and play for next year, rather than risking futures like Puljujarvi, Yamamoto & Benson in a desperate attempt to salvage this season

i guess they're "only" 6 points out of the playoffs, but it's a much steeper climb than that sounds
and regardless, they look pretty damn far from real contenders

It's incredible how awful Chiarelli is. And five years ago I thought he was elite.

Btw, five years ago we were in the middle of a lockout- just to prepare everyone for three years from now :/

I read some HFboards recently and while most people seem to think that the Lucic contract is awful, there appears to be a successful counter movement full of people who scream "50 POINT PACE" at anyone who will listen. It's kinda fascinating.

1. i'd probably be on a 40-point pace playing with McBust/Leon/Nuge
2. do they realize that he's signed until 2023?

re: LOiLers

i gots to thinking about how the natural comparison to this McBust, Leon, Nuge + trash situation is the Pens when Sid arrved. i remember the team being absolute garbage, then got better rather quickly when they added other good players. so i went and looked at it, and...

(first 5 seasons w/ Sid)



in year 3 lost in the SCF vs the Wangs.
in year 4 they shipped vs the Wangs.
not really sure how, because even by year 5 they still weren't very good.
Sid & Geno sure.
Staal was a solid 3C similar to Nuge.
Gonchar was a good offensive dman, as was Whitney.
Recchi wasn't quite dead yet.
Letang hadn't hit his stride.
Fleury was an average starter.
but the bulk of that list is fairly pluggish.

this is year 3 for McBust.
their situation would obviously be way better had they kept Hall & Eberle, and drafted Barzal, but it still doesn't seem too far off still.
might help if they had a backup plan for Sekera being out.

they do have a lot of cap room, for this season, so i wonder if they might mix it up in the rental market. there have been rumours about them chasing guys like Rick Nash.

Nash is playing really really well everywhere but finishing. Could be good or bad depending on your perspective but he's like an elite middle 6 winger ATM.

I could see EDM going for Grabner (hat trick tonight with 2 ENGs lol) explicitly for lower line scoring, he doesn't require a center or even really teammates who can play in the offensive zone (hello Edmonton bottom six!) and will singlehandedly make 10 goals a year by himself.

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Kings are good again!
Gaborik coming back has made a world of difference. Speed and playmaking joined with Kempe (who would be playing 4th line with grinders under Sutter) make a pretty good twosome.

In case you missed it, Bieksa made a huge contribution to the cause. Took Andreoff out of the lineup with his Superman punch. Hope he's fine, but thank God he'll be joining Clifford in the pressbox for a good long while.