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Oilers » Gagner up - Erne down

Re: Gagner up - Erne down [message #826445 is a reply to message #826444 ]	Tue, 31 October 2023 16:21

Adam
Messages: 7757
Registered: August 2005
Location: Edmonton, AB

6 Cups

RDOilerfan wrote on Tue, 31 October 2023 15:00

smyth260 wrote on Tue, 31 October 2023 14:45

Lavoie will never play 20 minutes a night on this team. He’s 23 in his 4th AHL year. He’s ready for a look.

Heck, send Janmark down and call up both.

I'm not expecting him to play 20 mins in the NHL, I want him to play 20 mins in the AHL and continue to develop. If a person takes off the blinders and looks at him objectively, he has maybe 3 months of good AHL hockey. He came on and played well in the last 1/4 of last year and has played 5 games so far. People make it sound like he's been dominating the league for years which isn't the case. There is a 4th line spot on the Oilers for him, I don't see how playing 8 mins a night benefits a young developing player.

This is of course the fallacy of bad teams. We need grinders for fourth line roles, because you can't play a skill guy unless he can get 15+ minutes in a top-six role.

The fact is, the best Oilers fourth line in the entire team's history was the 1990 Kid Line of Joe Murphy, Martin Gelinas and Adam Graves. All very talented players who would have much bigger seasons later in their careers, they played a huge role in the Cup win that year. They did not play big minutes, but they were impactful minutes and showed what they were capable of.

When the Blackhawks were winning Cups, they constantly were playing guys like Ladd, Versteeg, Teravainen at the bottom of their roster. They were tasked with outplaying the depth guys on the other teams, which they did regularly, since the depth guys typically were the Adam Ernes and Josh Archibalds of the NHL.

The Oilers, despite the 1990 success, have spent the entire Kevin Lowe era with the belief that the bottom part of the roster needs to be safe, seasoned, and set for a specific role (ie. penalty killing, faceoffs, designated fighter). Like most Oilers decisions in the last couple decades, that's hopelessly behind the times and another reason we lag behind the best teams in the league.

Not to mention, it leads to a huge amount of players withering on the vine - playing so long in the minors that they have no trade value to speak of, because top-six roles don't come available very often and the Oilers generally prefer to try recent top draft picks or UFA signings in those roles.

There is actually limited downside to playing talented players in the bottom part of your lineup - and their minutes aren't really dictated by what line they're on, so much as how you're playing. If they're contributing points and outscoring the opposition, then they get more ice time.

The fact is, the Oilers bottom six went the entire month of October without a goal. Evander Kane's empty net goal was actually the first of the season where none of McDavid, Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins or Hyman didn't have a point on. There's only four goals to date where the big three didn't play a role (two against Calgary Sunday and two more against the Wild). There's a lot of room for improvement from our depth, so I'm willing to try putting a big guy who's a decent skater and has a heavy shot in the lineup and asking him to try to put up some numbers in a depth role.

"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
#FireBobbyNicks

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Gagner up - Erne down	By: Kr55 on Tue, 31 October 2023 13:26
Re: Gagner up - Erne down	By: RDOilerfan on Tue, 31 October 2023 14:10
Re: Gagner up - Erne down	By: smyth260 on Tue, 31 October 2023 14:45
Re: Gagner up - Erne down	By: RDOilerfan on Tue, 31 October 2023 15:00
Re: Gagner up - Erne down	By: Adam on Tue, 31 October 2023 16:21
Re: Gagner up - Erne down	By: CrusaderPi on Tue, 31 October 2023 16:29
Re: Gagner up - Erne down	By: Adam on Tue, 31 October 2023 23:42
Re: Gagner up - Erne down	By: benv on Wed, 01 November 2023 00:47
Re: Gagner up - Erne down	By: Kr55 on Wed, 01 November 2023 08:38
Re: Gagner up - Erne down	By: CrusaderPi on Wed, 01 November 2023 09:12
Re: Gagner up - Erne down	By: Adam on Wed, 01 November 2023 09:23
Re: Gagner up - Erne down	By: Kr55 on Wed, 01 November 2023 09:31
Re: Gagner up - Erne down	By: CrusaderPi on Wed, 01 November 2023 09:39
Re: Gagner up - Erne down	By: benv on Wed, 01 November 2023 10:19
Re: Gagner up - Erne down	By: oilfan94 on Wed, 01 November 2023 08:54
Re: Gagner up - Erne down	By: Adam on Wed, 01 November 2023 09:20
Re: Gagner up - Erne down	By: oilfan94 on Wed, 01 November 2023 09:56
Re: Gagner up - Erne down	By: Dragon_Matt on Thu, 02 November 2023 12:50
Re: Gagner up - Erne down	By: smyth260 on Thu, 02 November 2023 12:55
Re: Gagner up - Erne down	By: Adam on Thu, 02 November 2023 13:33
Re: Gagner up - Erne down	By: benv on Thu, 02 November 2023 13:58
Re: Gagner up - Erne down	By: CrusaderPi on Thu, 02 November 2023 15:34
Re: Gagner up - Erne down	By: oilfan94 on Thu, 02 November 2023 14:02

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