The NHL Thread

Kelly Moore was at one time the radio voice of the Jets, when Curt Keilbach had a falling out with the radio station management. It was very hard to be the guy who followed Keilbach. Moore's catch-phrase was, "OOOO."

There was an opening to do the Bombers, I think Moore has a great voice for football, but I guess it's too late to start a new job?

Anyways, he's the host for the hockey broadcasts, and some of the football broadcasts.

I just saw this article, it says something about the Jets and the teams in the SCF.

I'm not sure if it's just mental strength, maybe something about simplifying systems, well I'm not sure, but he's thinking right.

https://globalnews.ca/news/10541130/winn...

This is correct from what I know,could not tell ya about every single team but this is what happens if a player has an emergency at home or childbirth, but can confirm billionaires (even millionaires) have their own planes and all the toys or at least charter, they don't mingle on planes with us peasants!

Edit:

Looks like more charter flights but some Owners do have their own plane. It looks like Edmonton uses Air Canada Jetz as does the Maple Leafs.

Thanks, 72off, now you got my head spinning and thinking about the travel subject,lol.

Another thing, co-worker was telling me today a betting site he was on got a 50% parlay boost offer/promo and was wondering if Malucci still around if the sites he is on offers that?

But Adam Fox of NYR screwed that up for him and he is so pissed, LOL.

My sites offer nothing but despair, and I’m getting 100% despair boosts.

I know people in Germany root for Draisaitl..

Being Canadian and rooting against the Oilers is like being American and rooting against freedom. You just don't!

Going that good is it? :(

Also more talk of Marner staying to do the last year of the contract at the moment.

numbers: score and venue adjusted 5v5 xg in the playoffs

i sorted them by 5v5 playoff minutes because it sort of occurred to me that i don't know either lineup that well; mostly in the middle, because the top and bottom are obvious innit. and i wanted a better understanding of the usage here, so here we go...

edmonton oilers
mcdavid 58%, hyman 58%, draisaitl 52%
kane 49%, nugent-hopkins 42%, holloway 51%
mcleod 56%, janmark 49%, foegele 54%
perry 56%, henrique 41%, brown 38%
ryan 40%, carrick 47%

- ok so first off nuge probably needs a big final if they're gonna win, but here's the thing: he's almost certainly playing injured right now. we know this because he's been one of the worst oilers at 5v5 in the playoffs, when during the season he was 3rd best at 61% xg, 3 points ahead of draisaitl even. so given that i'd probably bury him on the 3rd or 4th line at 5v5, keep him on the powerplay because he's been good there and the powerplay has been good.
- looking at this i'd also play carrick over any of henrique/brown/ryan. probably ryan since he's also the worst penalty killer of the bunch. i'd also be tempted to try whoever the next best guy on the depth chart is, especially if the oilers fall behind in the series, like how the stars tried bourque in game 6. more reward than risk. why not?

bouchard 62%, ekholm 58%
ceci 37%, nurse 47%
kulak 46%, desharnais 54%
broberg 36%

- ok so today i learned that cody ceci is 3rd among oilers dmen in 5v5 ice time in the playoffs. we could be mere weeks away from the reality that we live in a world where cody ceci is the #3 dman on a stanley cup champion. cody ceci, the 37% xg dman, who in his long and storied nhl career not once not ever been a positive player to his team, not even close. i don't even know what to say anymore. anyway, if the oilers insist on playing him that much and the panthers can't take advantage of it, it's just further proof that we are indeed living in hell i guess. enjoy arbys
- broberg also sucks, so i'd be tempted to find out who the oilers 8th best dman is if i were them. or just cut your d rotation to 5.
- i know what i have against desharnais, but not sure what edm's coach does. he's obviously better than ceci, and he's also better than nurse. desharnais should play more, but nobody tell him that, ok?
- evan bouchard should be get serious conn smythe consideration if the oilers manage to win this thing. he's played 30 more minutes than anyone else, and he has the best xg% of the team. he has been their best player. very likely that mcdavid gets the trophy if they win, but with a strong final i could see this +900 bet get there.

florida panthers
verhaeghe 59%, reinhart 59%, barkov 60%
tkachuk 60%, lundell 55%, rodrigues 56%
luostarinen 49%, tarasenko 52%, stenlund 42%
bennett 62%, cousins 43%, okposo 45%
lorentz 42%, lomberg 60%

- stenlund sucks. he sucked in the regular season, and he's sucked in the playoffs. leave him on the 4th line if you insist on playing him.
- obviously move sam bennett into the top-9 rotation. he was 5th on the team in points during the season, he's been your most effective player at 5v5 in the playoffs; what are you doing?
- i'd play lomberg until his effectiveness drops. he's not a 60% xg player, but it does seem like he's better than these other bottom of the roster options.
- also maurice could just cut his rotation down to 9 forwards, for the most part. he kind of did that at the end of the east final. just cut the 4th line down to 0-5 minutes at 5v5. it'll be fine.

forsling 54%, ekblad 51%
montour 57%, mikkola 54%
ekman-larsson 60%, kulikov 56%

- yeah no extremes here. their blueline certainly doesn't try to do too much, and they get the job done. all of them.
- ekblad's a little overrated, mcdrai could get some offense going on him.
- they hide ekman-larsson, and he responds with 60% xg, you love to see it.

Anyone seen the footage of the Oilers gal that flashed the crowd. It’s a huge story going around

titties!

Mcdavid tried to go for a beer run and some fans got a little too close and personal,lol

Lane Lambert has been hired as associate coach for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Checking to see if CowboyCold is o.k., have not seen him since Dallas lost.

Whomst?

start the finals already ffs. this delay SUCKS!

my biggest question is are the panthers going to try the same wannabe bully crap again that they tried with VGK last SCF OR have they learned anything. edmonton doesn't seem like a team that can be pushed around either. they have some big physical dudes behind mcdrai.

as 72off already illustrated, the oilers biggest apparent weakness is at the back. we'll see if the panthers try to center there strategy more along the lines of grinding down the defense deep instead of trying to get in oilers faces coming thru the neutral zone and instigate stupid stuff.

Glad I am not the only one that asked that,whew LOL.

He worked beside Berube already supposedly.

Yeah I saw it with his girlfriend. He handled it well I am not sure I would

Don't have much to say about Florida but I think it's well known I follow the Oilers very closely. A few points:

Kane is definitely hurt - it's been widely reported in Edmonton media that he has a sports hernia.

For the Oilers bottom six, I think the focus has been they don't want to make big changes because the bottom six is handling the PK, and it's been an absolute weapon. They aren't giving up enough 5v5 to risk sacrificing that. I do think the guys in the bottom six are on leashes, and if you have a bad game or games or you're banged up, you're being replaced - this is basically the situation among the group of McLeod, Foegele, Ryan, Henrique, Carrick, Brown, Perry. Would say Jannmark is safe from this.

The defense is just a mystery. I liked the inclusion of Broberg; he's a better skater and puck mover than Desharnais, and Desharnais really struggled with the forecheck of Dallas. I wouldn't weigh too heavily on those stats as Broberg only played a couple of games and one of them was the 35-10 shot game.

If I said what I think will decide the series from the Oiler perspective:

1) Will Skinner play well
2) Will the refs call penalties to the point that each team has 3-4 PP/game
3) Will Nurse-Ceci pairing hold up

If 3/3 are "yes", I am confident the Oilers will win.
If 2/3 are "yes", I think the Oilers have a good shot at winning.
If 1/3 are "yes", it'll take a supernova McDavid/Draisaitl series for us to win
If 0/3 are "yes", we almost certainly lose

How do you qualify this?

Can they maintain a 50% xG (or close to it) share in their minutes on the ice

EEEEK! It's Lozen, can I have your autograph and hug you?

yeah he's eyetested like **** lately, i think his xg has been bad in many games, he left that game recently after taking a big hit, etc; i buy that he's injured. and like i said earlier, i think nuge is injured. i think that draisaitl and mcdavid have minor issues, but they're still performing well enough, so whatever. it's the final, lots of guys are injured.

yeah the oilers can win, but they'll have to play well and also continue to run super hot. almost everything will have to continue to go right for them

Keep in mind all those things were said about the Dallas series as well .