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Adam Messages: 6842
Registered: August 2005
Location: Edmonton, AB
6 Cups
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PlusOne wrote on Thu, 02 January 2020 10:00 |
Oscargasm wrote on Thu, 02 January 2020 10:38 | It’s a 2020 miracle! Klef is on the ice.
Via Jonathan Willis on the Twitter;
Oilers lines appear to be:
18 - 97 - 44
29 - 93 - 56
10 - 91 - 39
16 - 23 - 15
77 - 74
25 - 4
84 - 6
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Translation to names VS numbers VIA Leavins ;
KOSKINEN
NEAL – McDAVID – KASSIAN
DRAISAITL – NUGENT-HOPKINS – YAMAMOTO
NYGARD – HASS – CHIASSON
KHAIRA – SHEAHAN – ARCHIBALD
LAGESSON – LARSSON
KLEFBOM – BEAR
NURSE – RUSSELL
SCRATCHES – Smith, Gagner, Jones, Benning (IR).
Interesting that it is Gagner coming out but it makes snse. I thought he had an AWFUL last two periods. The whole team was bad but he stood out as worse which took some serious suckage.
Given all the excitement last game not much was said of Yamamoto. I thought he had a pretty good game. Didnt look out of place. Wasnt dominated on the boards. Had a couple of good chances.
Capped that off with earning trust in the dying moments with the Rags goalie pulled, and scoring on an empty net.
I am still not sure if Tippett is the coaching savior of this team, but I am glad to see him give opportunity as it is earned. Coaches in the past would have written in stone who would be in certain situations and ride that out until death.
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Yamamoto played the least minutes of anyone, but he had a good chance on Lundqvist (the only good chance on Lundqvist), and he made a nice play at the end. I was wondering whether Tippett expected the goalie to be pulled that early, as I don't think Yamamoto and Khaira would have normally been the first choice of late defenders, and they weren't playing on the same line for most of the game - Nygard was playing with Draisaitl and Yamamoto. I don't think Draisaitl was on the ice for the EN either.
Lagesson was used very sparingly on defence (11:51) - much less than Jones has been, so I'm a little surprised he's back in for a second game. Hopefully he's earned some additional trust from his coach. Klefbom was on pace for a HUGE game for time on ice - he was at 20:22 before he left, and I don't think he saw much third period ice time at all.
Generally, I think Tippett's been okay. I think he's been dealt a tough hand - the GM gave him a lineup that's decidedly inferior. Multiple pieces added, but almost none of them looks NHL quality with the sole exception perhaps of Haas. The goaltending, despite an early hot start, is below average with a backup who's among the league's worst. I've been hard on the decision to sit Gagner so much, but he hasn't grabbed the ball when he has been given a shot...maybe he's really past his prime now - he definitely can't drive a line when his linemates are scrubs. It's truly hard to believe that this is a salary cap team. That might be the most damning thing about the Oilers over the last dozen years. I saw a stat the other day that they had taken the least amount of points over the entire decade...but at least if you were a fan of the other teams close - Arizona, Buffalo - you could blame ownership refusing to spend on the team. The Oilers, other than a couple years back, were cap teams all the way, and just frivolously spent the money without any results from it.
Anyhow, with Tippett, I do think a big piece of it is goaltending. Good goalies make a coach look brilliant (see Nolan, Ted) and bad goalies can ruin even the best preparation and planning. If we can't get a save, we're going to be hard-pressed to make a playoff push no matter what the coach does.
"Thinking that a bad team's best players are the reason the team is bad is the "Tambellini re-signing Lennart Petrell" of sports opinions." @Woodguy55
#FireLowe #FireBobbyNicks #FireKenHolland #FireKeithGretzky
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