 RDOilerfan
Messages: 3908
Registered: January 2016
3 Cups
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I have no issue with Barrie being on the team. Going into the season assuming pretty unproven Bouchard could have just jumped into the spot with Nurse is what the Oilers did for many, many years when all they did was lose. In my opinion, it would have been stupid to do that. I said it all along, I wasn't prepared to sign Barrie if he expected a crazy contract, I said he would have to make it so it was a no brainer to resign him. He did that. 3 yrs at 4.5 mill for a vet, right shooting, puck moving, point producing dman who can play in the top 4 and be OK (he did that last year) is a no brainer contract. If after this season he's expendable, you can trade that contract in a heartbeat and have teams lining up for that.
If they have an injury, you have a vet to replace someone that isn't a 6/7 dman. If Bouchard struggles, you have a vet to replace him. If Bouchard was making big money, to have Barrie in the 3rd pairing doesn't look good. He doesn't, he makes under 900K. So it really doesn't make a damn bit of difference that Barrie for now is in the 3rd pairing. Plus Barrie has looked better in the last few games. He struggled out of the gate last year and picked it up. I LOVE when a team has depth and has really good young guys pushing for spots. I love it because when there is legit competition for spots and ice time, usually plays play better. When there are young guys trying to take vets jobs, usually vets play better. The fact that Bouchard has surpasses Barrie for now, is a good time in my opinion.
For the game. I thought the Oilers played extremely well. Koskinen deserved a shut out, he was excellent when he had to be but I didn't think he had to be that much. Hell of a bounce back. I thought the Oilers didn't give up much for most of the game. My god Demko stood on his head.
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