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Shakeup May Be Needed In Edmonton
by Paul on 12/19/08 at 09:01 AM ET
Comments (2)
from Robert Tychkowski of the Edmonton Sun,
Normally it isn’t wise to make a trade for the sake of making a trade, but if the Oilers don’t get it going in the next few days, then Kevin Lowe, or Steve Tambellini, or Daryl Katz, or whoever’s holding the keys to the lemon currently parked near the bottom of the Western Conference standings needs to send somebody packing.
Give them the three games Edmonton plays during the Dec. 20-27 NHL roster freeze and if they aren’t an entirely different team when it’s over, then somebody’s gotta go.
Somebody significant. The core of leaders here isn’t delivering on the ice and doesn’t seem to be leading this young team to anything but mediocrity.
So if the Oilers are still in need of a shakeup on Dec. 28, they should start by shaking loose a veteran, or two.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Edmonton Oilers | KK Hockey | Permalink
Comments
IceColdNews: you have no idea what youre talking about. identity comes when players start to take on roles properly and mature their games. the Oilers have way too much youth who arent ready to step into these roles yet (or frankly might not be talented or physically gifted enough to) and the vet players who should be carrying lines cant do it either other than Hemsky and Souray.
Horcoff - useless without Hemsky
Penner - showed he’s useless without Hemsky
Moreau - cant be depended on and needs better line mates to be a checking line force.
Cole - cannot carry a line and cant play the LW. his options are slim to nil to play with any offensive threat. no Eric Staal to save his butt this time.
everyone else on the team is way too young and cant carry their own weight in the NHL other than Cogliano who has the speed/drive to trump failure.
Gagner - way too slow and way too small. the play converges on him way too fast for him to be “fancy Sam”.
Nilsson - has the skill and the speed but cant make it function consistently due to weak line mates
Pouliot - borderline AHL
Stortini - same thing
Brodziak - same thing.
this team is way too much youth and BAD vets who cant help that youth grow. firing MacTavish would be like using a band-aid on an axe wound. its NOT the right procedure to solving this teams problem.
Posted by Death Metal Burn Out from MKE on 12/19/08 at 12:21 PM ET
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Just because a roster freeze is in effect it doesn’t mean they couldn’t fire the coach. In my opinion it might be best to fire McTavish and hire someone who is going to change the way the team plays and will give them an identity. Currently the team changes the way they play from night to night. Are they a team that crashes the net and gets the garbage goals or are they a skilled team that plays with finesse? An identity needs to be established and McTavish will not be the one to do that.
Posted by IceColdNews on 12/19/08 at 12:10 PM ET