Before the hockey season started almost everyone was making fun of the Leafs and Canucks for their lack of depth and scoring. However, I was one of the few people who respectfully disagreed with those assumptions and predictions of the Canucks and Leafs being basement dwellers. Infact, I remember telling my friend Chris, whose a Canuck fan, that I didn't think Gillis did a terrible job in his first summer as a GM.
He brought in Demitra, Bernier, and Wellwood after the departure of Morrison and Naslund. Demitra is an offensive player who was playing in a defensive system in Minnesota, his offensive skills were dormant and that's why most fans had the impression that Demitra had lost a step in his game. Bernier is from the 2003 draft class. An avid hockey fan, heck, even a casual fan should know how many blue chip franchise players were taken in that draft. It was one of the deepest drafts in 10 years (in case you need your memory refreshed here's an inside look http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/nhl2003e.html). Bernier was taken 16th overall by San Jose, 6'2 -225 pound, powerforward. Now if you've watched San Jose, you'll notice that most of their talent is "home grown" in the sense that they build through the draft and they dont draft crap. Bernier is not crap, he's just taking a little bit more time to develop. Wait until the kid can figure out how to put the whole package, of size, speed and skill together, he's going to be a force. Wellwood was let go by the Leaf's organization because they were fed up with his lack of conditioning. He had two hernia operations and they let him go? I know his work ethic off the ice isnt the greatest but his skill on the ice belongs in the NHL.
So, Gillis brought in 3 offensive players; one that's proven (Demitra) who bearing any injuries will make up for Naslunds production and more; another with massive amounts of potential (Bernier) and another who maybe needed a change of scenery and a fresh start (Wellwood). Add this combo with the Sedins and you have a decent top 5. Throw in the players who are improving every season like Raymond, Kesler and Burrows and now you have a pretty decent top 3 lines.
On the backend Ohlund and Mitchell take up monstrous minutes on the PK and against opposing top lines. Edler is looking more comfortable every game and Biexsa is steady at both ends of the ice. Salo is another offensive dman and a good one when he's healthy. O'Brien is a beast on the back end that alleviates some of the physical play from Ohlund, Biexsa, and Mitchell. It's pretty tough to play against that backend because there are four physical players back there.
And of course in goal...Luongo...nothing else needs to be said.
The skilled forwards upfront are complimented by players who work hard and pitch in on both ends of the ice. The D has a nice mixture of physical players added in with the offensive type.
So do the Canucks have a deep offense? No, not when you compare them to Detroit or San Jose. But do they have enough offense to compete and win games? Yes. Can they play physical, work hard, and contribute at both ends of the ice? They certainly can. They dont have a lot, but they have enough to compete every night and Vigneault is using the tools that he's been given and has created a structured team. The team has a lot of character and they show it most nights.
Now the Maple Leafs. Sundin was the face of the franchise...was. Once he left, the team needed a new identity. Well since Fletcher couldn't acquire a player of super stardom over the summer, (which was against his plan in the first place cause he wanted to rebuild) he moved players like Tucker and McCabe to free up even more salary to build a younger team. Well instead of Sundin being the teams identity, he decided to build a "team identity" for the team rather than having a single identity. He brought in Ron Wilson, who knows how to make a team work; a perfect coach to build a team and identity around. He wants his players to work hard and doesnt like to put up with "locker room divas". Players like, Hagman, Mayers, Hollweg, and Schenn (who was drafted) were brought in to give the team some character...some of that blue collar vibe that lets other teams know that they wont be walked over and will continue to work hard even if the scoreboard isnt always in their favor. Well that character rubs off in the locker room because the Leafs seem to be the comeback kids of the NHL and they continue to work game in and game out.
They don't have all the tools to be a cup contender but they have the tools and coach to compete most nights. Both of these teams have one key that you need to succeed...structure.
The comparison I want to make here is to the Oilers. They're a team with too many pieces that are out of place in all areas of the organization. There is no structure.
There is no structure on any of the lines because the roles of the players have been lost in the shuffle. Sure the Oilers look good on paper but that's not the reality of the current situation. MacTavish is really a simple coach; get him his type of players and let him run with the roster. Lowe has done the opposite. He let Marty Reasoner walk as a ufa and traded Stoll and Greene for Visnovsky and now everyone thinks the reason our pk sucks is because we cant win faceoffs.That's not what I or the Oilers miss most about those two…what's missed is Stoll and Reasoner's ability to block shots on the PK. Right now the Oilers pk is ranked 26th! There are way too many shots allowed to come through the middle. Smith and Greene were also vital parts to the pk because they were tough to play against on the backend.Where has that physicality gone?Lowe got rid of those players what did he replace it with? He replaced it with pieces that don’t fit in with the mold of MacT’s team.When you hire a chef you have to let him cook with his ingredients and right now MacT hasn’t been given the right ingredients.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love Erik Cole and Lubomir Visnovsky.Cole looks, plays, and skates like an Oiler but his role on the team has been misguided and it’s not all MacTs fault.Throughout the season we’ve seen Cole being put in various positions throughout the line-up and so far nothing has complimented his strength.Hemsky would be a great play maker for Cole but, Hemsky, like Cole is also a right winger.There are offensive weapons on the Oilers that can’t be utilized to their full potential because the pieces don’t fit.
Visnovsky is a world class puck moving dman, but at times he’s a defensive liability.He’s paired with Souray who is also a defensive liability at times.There needs to be a shutdown dman back their, who can let the offensive dmen free wheel…and no Staios or Strudwick are not the kind of shutdown dmen I’m talking about.There defense as it stands right now doesn’t compliment each other that well.There is no structure up front or on the back end.
Players are playing out of position, which leads to turnovers, frustration for the players, coaches and fans, more line shuffling (like most I gave my line-up predictions in the previous blog), lack of structure and an overall lack of chemistry.Right now MacT has been forced to move at least 4 players out of their regular positions of strength to try and accommodate the roster for what they are missing. Well it’s quite evident that it’s not working.
It’s a simple philosophy a hockey fan should be able to recognize when it comes to a successful franchise.Take a look at the Red Wings.They draft or trade for players that resemble the players they have on their current roster in order to keep the winning formula (ie. Darren Helm = Kris Draper).They add to the formula of their success by bringing in players like Hossa.His skill and style mesh well with their system and he compliments their group of forwards and vice versa.They’re structured.Ken Holland brings in pieces that fit and make sense.When Schneider left the Red Wings he signed Brian Rafalski, not only did he fit, but many considered Rafalski an upgrade (as did I).When Lowe makes a move, it seems like he believes he has to sacrifice one aspect of the Oilers game in order to achieve another.It is evident that Lowe has traded and let go of players who were great at doing the little things right in order to trade to get more of an offensive game.
Right now the boat is tipping, and it has been the individual skill of some players that have saved the boat from sinking all together.It’s going to take a team effort to get the ship balanced and on course to make up the ground that it has lost but I don’t know if it will be able to.It pains me to say that but like I said before, there are two sides to my views on hockey, one being the insane Oiler crazed fan…and the realist.Until the current piece’s get put back into their places of strength and the holes that were carved out of the Oilers by Lowe are replaced, I don’t see the sail setting in the near future for the Oilers.
Maybe the change will have to come through a trade, a firing, a benching or an injury.Maybe Lowe needs to trade some of this depth upfront that he acquired in order to improve the team where players are being forced to play out of position. Maybe he can trade some of that skill for some of players who compliment the rest of the forwards and defense.There would be less of a cluster upfront if he did and maybe with the moves (if any) players can get back to their positions of strength and Chef MacT can finally have the proper ingredients that he needs to make a masterpiece and create the structure on the ice thats needed to succeed.Now going back to my original point…Less is More.
After watching the Oilers lose in game 7 of the Stanley Cup final in 06 I was crushed, devastated and didn't want to face the reality of what happened. That being said, I had reason for optimism for next season...after all the years of being considered the underdog with a small market budget, the Oilers were on an even playing field with the Rangers and Red Wings in the new salary cap NHL. At the trade deadline, Craig MacTavish was finally given a roster that would compliment his style of coaching...and it took right until the end of the season to build that chemistry and squeak into the playoffs but he got the team to peak right when it counted most.
I always wondered, even though Kevin Lowe and Craig MacTavish were teammates, how would they be able to co-exist with each other as G.M and Head Coach? Correct me if I'm wrong on this but from Kevin Lowes interviews over the past years as a coach and GM of the Oilers I perceived that his ideas and philosophy for the team was to bring back the "old school", fun, fast paced, end to end, skilled hockey to the organization. So why hire Craig MacTavish?
Craig MacTavish was an elite, defensive forward in the NHL who played against the top offensive lines of opposing teams. I always thought to myself two things 1) These two played together but can they work together? and 2) Is Craig MacTavish really going to be able to coach the "run and gun" style that Lowe wants?
MacTavish made a living out of cleaning up the mess that the high octane Oilers of the 80's and early 90's left in their defensive zone...he made a living out of shutting down offensive players, blocking shots and killing penalties. Would he really want to coach that offensive style? I thought about it long and hard and I had an epiphany.."wouldn't a guy who shut down top lines and power plays know a thing or two about how to run an offense after he spent most of his career frustrating them?" I figured that's what Lowe must have been thinking but I always had doubts about my assumption because, well, it is an assumption.
Over the past few seasons, I've ready many articles, blogs, listened to sports talk radio, all wondering how Craig MacTavish still has a job? I'll give you my reasons on why I think he does. Look past his history with Kevin Lowe and the Oilers...look past the loyalties, the friendships and you'll see that MacTavish does have a the qualities to be a great NHL coach. Shitty coaches don't take their team to the Stanley Cup finals, shitty coaches wouldn't have been able to out coach, Mike Babcock, Ron Wilson, Randy Carlyle, and Peter Laviolette. Yes, MacT and the Oilers lost in the Stanley Cup final but not because of him being out coached or because of his bad coaching... it was because of Rolosons injury (that series should have been over in 6 had it not been for Conklins massive brain cramp in game 1...Roloson was a man possessed throughout the playoffs).
When MacTavish was finally granted his roster heading into the 06 playoffs he had a team that could play his style. Look at the names of the forwards, Smyth (66pts), Horcoff (73pts), Stoll (68pts), Torres (41pts), Peca (23pts), Dvorak (28pts), Pisani (37pts), Moreau (27pts) and add in the other role players who were in and out of the line-up like: Todd Harvey, Brad Winchester, Georges Laraque, and Rem Murray. What do most of these forwards have in common? They work hard, get their nose in the dirty areas, most are defensively responsible (some better than others), they're fast, physical, blue collar players who play the game in the high traffic areas and sacrifice their bodies when blocking shots. There wasn't one true bona fied super star up front, they had two very skilled stars in Ales Hemsky (77pts) and Sergi Samsonov (53pts - 16 pts in 19 games as an Oiler) who were surrounded by these work horse players who created space and got them the puck.
Look at the defense now. Pronger (56pts), Spacek (43pts - 19pts in 31 games as an Oiler), Bergeron (35pts), Staios (28pts), Smith (17pts), Tarnstrom (14pts - 4pts as an Oiler) and Greene (2pts - 27 games as a rookie). The one superstar we had was Pronger, MacT's security blanket. All these guys play the game tough, except Tarnstrom. All these guys were physical, some young, but a very good looking top 4 defense that could play a lot of minutes. Maybe MacTavish would have liked one more veteran Dman to play in the 5-6 position with Greene or Beregeron.
Goaltending was rotated all year and it wasn't until the Oilers acquired Roloson, that MacT had a true number one goaltender. Think about how many points the Oilers lost that season because of poor goaltending.
These players played into MacT's style perfectly and look at what he accomplished, a western conference title and brought the Oilers within one win of the Stanley Cup. There are many MacT critics, me being one of them, and although I don't agree with his "MacTactics" some of the time, he's a smart man when he has the players to play his system. In his system he knows how to capitalize on a players strength and use it on the ice.
Which brings me now to Kevin Lowe. I question him more than I question MacT. Here's why; when he hired Craig MacTavish he had to have known what vision MacT had for the team. If it wasn't the style he was looking for then he should have kept MacT as an assistant. I remember watching the 2003 draft...I was sitting on my couch waiting in anticipation for the Oilers to draft one of Parise, Richards, or Getzlaf. Three legitimate, number one line center men who all have traits MacT loves in his players: Tough. Physical. Character, among others things. Instead Lowe traded his pick to New Jersey and stepped up to the podium and drafted Marc Poliout. No offense to Poliout but he's not a MacT player. When Lowe was asked about his reason for taking Poliout he said (paraphrased)...we're looking to draft bigger skilled forwards. I wonder what he thought of Parise, Richards, Getzlaf and Perry? So far Poliout hasn't played a full season in the NHL and he hopes to do so this year.
Over that past few seasons since that memorable cup run, I've seen Smyth, Pronger, Peca, Spacek, Stoll, Torres, Greene, Reasoner, Samsonov, Laraque, Sykora, Lupul, and Pitkanen be dealt or leave via free agency. That's an awful lot of skill, heart, and character gone. Peca, Stoll and Reasoner were some of the best faceoff winning center men in the game and that was only a portion to their game and what they contributed on the ice. Smyth, Pronger, Peca, Stoll, Torres, Greene, Reasoner, Laraque...that's a terrible amount of grit, skill, and passion to lose in a lineup.
In return, Lowe brought in players through drafts, free agency, offer sheets and trades such as: Gagner, Nilsson, Garon, Penner, Cole, Brule (playing in Springfield), MacIntyre, Souray, Visnovsky, Grebeshkov, Smid, and Strudwick and some others. He has seen his previous draft picks, Gilbert (Salo trade), Brodziak, Cogliano, Poliout, Schremp develop and contend for a regular spot on the roster and contribute most notably, Gilbert, Cogliano and Brodziak.
So in essence of all this, instead of replacing these traits MacT needed and wanted in the lineup, he took a bit of a different route. Now I know Lowes hands were tied when it came to trading certain players...that's shit and it happens. The thing I don't get is he seems to be changing a bit of his philosophy. He said he was looking for bigger skilled forwards, well he got that when he signed Penner and traded for Cole, but he traded for a small Nilsson and drafted other small forwards like, Gagner, Schremp, Cogliano and now the latest...Eberle. I'm not knocking any of these players, if they got Oiler silks on I will support them whether they play on the first line or the 4th line. I remember hearing MacT during training camp this year saying something about the amount of small forwards the Oilers have. It almost seemed like a relayed response to Lowe by MacT about what to do with all of them, rather than a response to the reporters question. I just wish Lowe would have come out and said "we're drafting the best player available at our position" rather than addressing a need like he thought he was doing by drafting Poliout, because to me that makes Lowe look bad. It seems like the two different philosophys between the GM and coach are becoming more and more evident.
I'm a huge fan of the Edmonton Oilers and this season I had the pleasure of attending the Oilers training camp and for me, it was a big deal. After seeing aforementioned players leave Edmonton and the new Oilers brought in I was excited. I've never seen the Oilers have such a deep, skilled roster that even leaks down into the Springfield farm system. I was in awe that our roster not only had a top 6 but a top 9 that can contribute on the score sheet. I liked what I saw and read on paper...my only real concern was that, this team is skilled enough to dominate some teams game in and game out, but this isn't a roster like MacT had during the 06 cup run...this roster could be a contender but its not his style of team...is MacT the right coach to be leading this team? My guess was no and so far this season I am right.
Lowe has built a fast, skilled, puck possession team. But he's missing some key elements 1) There is no real threat in the faceoff circle other than Horcoff. Brodziak, Cogliano, Poliout, Gagner, and converted center, Pisani, are struggling down the middle. The pressure cant be put on the kids to win the key draws yet, they have enough expectation on them already. Pisani isn't a natural center and he's trying his best but winning faceoffs is an art, he's not going to turn it around over night. He's been taken from his position of strength and forced into a position of failure. 2) There needs to be a top 4 shut down defensemen back there. Staios is getting older and hes not the same player he was a few years ago, hes been caught out of position because hes been asked to do more than hes able to handle. 3) This 3 goalie system is rough on all 3 net minders...goalies need to feel comfortable but yet challenged. If you have one bad game you don't know if you're going to be in the pressbox or on the bench.
MacT doesn't know what to do, or how to use all the skill in this lineup. At one point he had 4 players playing out of their natural positions. He shifted Cole to the LW to play with Horcoff and Hemsky. He had Penner move from LW on the 1st line to RW on the 3rd line with Pisani and Moreau; and as I eluded to earlier, Pisani has moved from the wing to the center position leaving Poliout, a natural centre, playing on the wing, on the 4th line with Brodziak and Stortini/MacIntyre. I got so sick of seeing the forced chemistry, it was hard to watch, it looked like a cluster of madness on the ice...a bunch of pieces thrown together in hopes of something would fit.
That's not proper talent management. Last season the line of Penner-Horcoff-Hemsky were all having career years up until Horcoffs injury during the all-star game. Why not reunite that line and let them build that chemistry back up?
I loved the kid line last year, they were let loose on the ice and not many teams knew about them so called "kids" and they were fun to watch....but now I think it's time to break them up and spread them out throughout the line-up to learn the rest of their game. I have two ideas for lines here 1) Nilsson-Cogliano- Cole or 2) Nilsson-Gagner-Cole. My reasoning here is, Cole gets back to his natural dominating RW position. I think Nilsson ads speed and skill to the LW and his play making ability is unbelievable, plus he has an underrated shot. Gagner excelled in the points department last year when he was moved to the center position, his only weaknesses were faceoffs and his transition speed on both ends. If you put Cogliano in the middle he has the speed to cover both ends and when he takes on dmen one-on-one he can create space and back them up easily and he has a knack for finding the back door seems.
The third line would be my "versatility" line consisting of Moreau-Brodziak-Pisani. This line can hit, pitch in on scoring, and change momentum. I wouldn't even mind Poliout in that center position between Moreau and Pisani. All those players can skate and contribute in anyway MacT needs them to and I'd follow with Macintyre-Brodziak/Poliout-Stortini on the 4th line.
Since I saw them in training camp I never liked the pairing of Souray/Visnovsky. Two very good defensemen, but man they don't work well together. Souray and Visnovsky on the point during a powerplay is too obvious of a game plan. I personally would like to see the pairing of Souray/Gilbert and Visnovsky/Grebs and Smid/Staios or Strudwick. I loved Grebs and Gilbert last year but the two have had issues this year. It's time for them to learn more by being paired with Souray and Visnovsky. Smid needs more minutes in key situations, on the PK put him with Souray, Strudwick, or Staios...let him learn how and when to use that 6'3 225 pound frame of his (I saw him at camp and he's ripped).
I predicted when this season started either it was going to be a train wreck or a complete success. So far, in my eyes and from the expectations I had of this roster its been a mess of things. I've been a loyal Oiler fan through the worst of times and best of times, and I will admit to anyone who reads this that I cried two nights in a row after the Oilers lost game 7 in 06. I've heard former players bash my beloved Oilers, seen free agents use the organization to get better contracts with different teams, watched star player after star player get traded away for financial reason in the past, heard and accepted many reasons and excuses for things not panning out, and I've settled for mediocrity long enough. This is my time, our time as Oiler fans to expect more than the mediocre, its time that we see a winning franchise, a team that runs over its competition because it can and will do it by any means necessary, a team that doesn't have to wait until the last 20 games to make a playoff push, an organization that will reignite the fire in the name "City Of Champions", and a team that will bring home Lord Stanley to "The House That Gretzky Built"
Before I fell in love with the Oilers and their brand of hockey I fell in love with the game of hockey itself and I think that's what separates "homer" fans from the true passionate and realistic fans. That's why I see it as me having two sides to Hockey. The Oiler fan in me says they will win the division and make a deep run in the playoffs. The realistic hockey fan in me tells me that I should prepare for more frustration unless MacT finds a way to coach the team to their strength and style rather than his style or Lowe needs to accommodate MacT more and give him the players he needs.
Fridays work day ended for me at 5pm, and holy what a busy last day for months end that was. Ahh well, it didn't really matter...it was Halloween.
One thing that I have noticed is that Halloween has changed a lot since I was a kid. For me Halloween was a big deal, it was tied with my birthdays of awesomeness and only second to Christmas. As a kid, I used to decorate my front window with construction paper cut outs of pumpkins, ghosts, vampires, bats, spiders, and stretched cotton for webbing. It was excessive and it was awesome! Every house down the street, around the block was decorated. I remember pulling out the "guts" of pumpkins in the basement with my Dad and carefully drawing my design on the hard rough surface so I could carve it. The entire month of October was dedicated to Halloween, from picking out costumes, decorations, pumpkin carving, and everything in between.
But now things have changed. It seems there are less and less kids out for Halloween, decorated houses are scarce, and some kids who do go trick-or-treating don't even bother dressing up. What the hell! What happened? Where's the thrill, energy, and passion gone? I know that things have changed in the sense that there are a lot of sick people out there who have deterred parents from taking their kids out but there are still a lot of reason to at least take your kids out around the block, or to your friends houses. And what about the people who still have the same passion that I have for Halloween? The ones who decorate their house, spend a few hours carving pumpkins? Part of the fun there is seeing the look of awe in peoples faces when they see the time and detail put in to decorating.
After work, a few of my friends and I went over to my friend Ashley's house to get ready for our night out. Over the next 2 hours we spent getting ready there were maybe...maybe 5 kids who came to the door and said "trick-or-treat". One kid was just wearing a big winter coat! Now, I know it's Grande Prairie and it's cold here but at least throw a little paint, make-up, or something on the kids face. I've seen the same sorta thing with trick-or-treaters happen back in Vancouver and Kamloops. It sucks, I feel like those kids are missing out on the true Halloween experience.
Anyways, I haven't really done anything special for Halloween for a little while...and since this was my first Halloween in Grande Prairie I thought I should celebrate with my friends here. As I was saying earlier, my friends and I were getting ready for the late night festivities and it was also my good friend, Chris's first Halloween out and about. His costume was that of one very messed up jester and I would have paid him to walk into an old folks home late at night with his getup.
We ended up going to another friends house, who did an amazing job decorating her entire house, for her "spooktacular" party. After her house, the gang consisting of Bill, Ashley, Kristen, Chris, Brit, Matt and myself (all friends and co-workers) went to a bar. It's good to see that most of my generation still loves the whole Halloween theme and everything associated with it. Halloween gives the chance/excuse for good girls to dress slutty and the slutty girls to dress even more skanky. Not all of the ladies were dressed as sluts or skanks...some were classy...some. Oh, and on a random sidenote...there was a girl dressed up as a cop and she looked just phenominal. I noticed most of the guys still dress up as super heros or villans, which is cool...but there were some costumes that made you wonder what was the exact thought going through their head when they were handing over the cash for it.
I dressed up as the Joker (Dark Knight Version) and it was great. One girl dressed as a hooker or maybe she was a pirate hooker came up to me and said: ------- Pirate Hooker: The whole joker thing...not cool. Its not right and it isnt working. Me: Well what about your make up....what are you supposed to be? *she mumbled something* Whats that?...You're not wearing make up? So you're just a slut? Pirate Hooker: I was just kidding Me: Ohhhh ...sorry....I wasnt *Then I made the Joker face...like when he says "hi" to Harvey Dent in the hospital* ------- I love how people go nuts when Thriller gets played...you see people try and mimic the choreography of the video but really they only know that one arm move that everybody does and then go off and do their "white man dance" (I'll explain what I mean by white man dance at a later time). The night was fun though, we all got to look like asses for one night and fit in with everybody else. There were drinks, dancing, pirate hookers, pretty ladies, sweet sweet candy,and some good laughs. And really isn't that the point of Halloween? Having fun? It sure is Yoda...it sure is.
