GDT: Preseason Game #3 - Edmonton vs Vancouver - The Brown Arrival 7pm MST - SN

[McAsuno]

Pretty rusty game to watch live. Never gets old to watch a McDavid GWG on a breakaway.
Liked Gleason's game tonight. Don't think Sutter's skating is at NHL standards anymore, unfortunately for the guy. Still liking Lavoie more compared to any of the PTO's.

On to the next preseason. Regular season can't start soon enough.

PS: Pettersson is beyond soft again (What a surprise). Went down like a baby after a 'crosscheck' from Bouchard.

 

[OILFAN FOREVER]

It's pre-season. Just hoping for no injuries and the top guys to get some games in before the games matter. This team will be clicking at the beginning of the regular season. I hope Campbell gets at least 2 of the 5 remaining preseason games.

 

[Cloned]

its a stupid argument to make 3 games into the preseason. Are you wanting Mcdavid and Co to play all 8 games of the preseason?

Chill out lol.

This was my argument in the last GDT:

Woodcroft ran a crappy training camp last season where he wasted like 6 out of the 8 games by playing almost entire scrub lineups. The vets ended up being slow out of the gate AND no one really knew how good the prospects were because they were playing with AHLers and 4th line fillers in most of their preseason games.

They didn’t start the season well last year. And the poor training camp was a part of the reason why. You could literally see the rust in their first ten games. You can say that it didn’t really matter in the end because we still made the playoffs, but it might’ve cost us the division title. And who knows, maybe LA would’ve beaten Vegas in Round One instead.

It’s only been two games so far so hopefully Woody learned from his mistake last year.

All I’m saying tonight is the players looked rusty and that’s a reason why they need to play more than the 3 games Woodcroft gave them last preseason.

Far too early to lose sleep over it. I’d wait until November at least to write him off for good

No Sleep November doesn’t have the same ring to it

 

[Cloned]

He looked great to me the first game. He was wiring shots

Hopefully he starts picking corners again.

 

[Cloned]

Soucy goes flying backwards from that kane shot. They all go down easy


Ya poor guy cannot baseball bat a puck in out of mid air

He done boys

Pre injury his hand eye was near elite. I think it’s at least plausible to suggest he’s lost some of that at least temporarily.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Still in Europe visiting my son and his family and watched only a handful of highlights so far.

How does Sutter look? It sounds like he has a heads up on the last roster spot.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Not sure why some are down on Kane's game? Seems to me like his hands are better now than they were before his injury early last season. He is passing better now IMO. Maybe not back to where he was when he came here the season before but I saw promising signs compared to the end of last season.

 

[brentashton]

Apologies if this has been beat to death as I haven’t read through the thread, AND I will give them the benefit of the doubt but for a group that had 2 weeks of captains skates, the top 6 looked like they were all just playing together for the first time after a long break. Passes not on tape, passes not caught, timing missing…but it was their first game back against competition so I won’t totally come off the top rope.

Applause to Brown and Erne though. Played well I thought. Sutters skating looked off, almost plodding to me.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Pretty rusty game to watch live. Never gets old to watch a McDavid GWG on a breakaway.
Liked Gleason's game tonight. Don't think Sutter's skating is at NHL standards anymore, unfortunately for the guy. Still liking Lavoie more compared to any of the PTO's.

On to the next preseason. Regular season can't start soon enough.

PS: Pettersson is beyond soft again (What a surprise). Went down like a baby after a 'crosscheck' from Bouchard.

What a pass by Bouchard on the McD goal. No small point but 9M buck Nurse must be crying a little that he's going to be seeing less toi in OT with generational superstars than he sometimes saw in the past. That pass and vision by Bouchard was sublime and the pass was pretty perfect, and most importantly not at all by accident. Thats a pass Coffey would make to break out Gretz and Kurri. My lord.

A counterpoint though is its time for NHL clubs to reconsider the moribund pass back to the puck mover on the PP. I don't mind doing this occasionally if nothing else is open but for teams to be doing this every time, or nearly everytime is inane because the last thing you should want is to be predictable. So that last night yet again a breakaway and near GA is caused by our penchant for passing the puck back to McD. So that we lost 20secs of PP doing that and nearly gave up the shorty. All because a defender, (think it was Garland) knew the play anticipated it, and jumped it. In the same way DB's in football can jump a pattern route if they know what that route is and see it so many times.

Lastly the pass back on PP or on rushes is a Euro design, or Russian design that has seen its day. Its a wrinkle that works at times. But its also an inefficiency, and it was seen as such when the Russians were doing it 50yrs ago. Inefficient because the Russians avoided rushing the puck. They would forego the natural rush and counter to try to create a controlled team breakout and keep passing the puck back till they had one. Painful to watch but it pre-empted use of speed rushes which Team Canada would counter them with.

Its always been sort of ironic but Pavel Bure, one of the Russian greats, his game wouldn't have existed if Russian clubs kept foregoing the breakout rush. Pavel Datsyuk, another Russian great, his game would not have been formulated had Russian hockey not started to adopt the value of the pick and counter rush.

 

[Drivesaitl]

People asked me to take a deeper look at Browns game so I'm trying to iso. Some of his plays were interesting. The kind of stop ups occasionally that a Euro player might do. Rushing, then stopping, ala Drai and then looking to see if he can find somebody open. With McD of course being somebody that so often is open. Kane as well being a good target.

Wondering if Brown will defer a lot on that line and seems so. This wouldn't be bad as McD and Kane are consummate scorers and primary weapons. So it will be interesting to see what vision Brown has playing with such talent at this level, and whether he can consistently rise to it. Not to be negative but a player as talented as Eberle found the task overwhelming. He would fret over every pass he missed or every quality feed he got that he didn't convert. For Eberle he felt he was failing to play at the McD level, and frankly who wouldn't from time to time?

Brown pace looked Ok but expectedly feeling his way back into the game. He had some moments. If he could be another possession player on that line then thats good.

looks like Drai will be getting Nuge and probably Hyman. I prefer Kane with Drai but it doesn't seem in the cards.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Drai looks like he's in better shape

Did he look like he wasn't in shape before? If you did his dry land training you would die of exhaustion. Most mortals would. Drai is a supremely conditioned athlete. But he's moving a ton of powerforward might all over the ice and it takes more energy to move that frame, and move it quickly. Drai is a power forward who is a power skater with enormous stride and push off and who plays inordinate minutes and almost all of it heavy hockey.

Frank Mahovlich wasn't playing this kind of minutes and Frank would play maybe one period a game with any jump, while still being one of the greatest power forwards of his time. Drai would put him to shame. I don't think its always considered how much Drai has to leave on the ice in sweat and blood.

 

[Anarchism]

Not sure why some are down on Kane's game? Seems to me like his hands are better now than they were before his injury early last season. He is passing better now IMO. Maybe not back to where he was when he came here the season before but I saw promising signs compared to the end of last season.

The crest is not a target. See in your mind the space outside and try to predict where its going to be.

 

[Bobieque]

Still in Europe visiting my son and his family and watched only a handful of highlights so far.

How does Sutter look? It sounds like he has a heads up on the last roster spot.

In my opinion Sutter looked much better than the first game. His pace was much better. Still slower than other guys, but not as stand out "yikes" as before. Thought he was well positioned on Penalty Killing and looked comfortable there.

No chemistry yet with linemates but very encouraging difference between pre-season games 1 and 2. If he keeps improving it might actually work. That will be the question is how quickly can he get up to game speed. I was surprised at the difference tonight, would be awesome (but maybe hopeful) that he can continue to improve.

 

[Gregsky99]

Did he look like he wasn't in shape before? If you did his dry land training you would die of exhaustion. Most mortals would. Drai is a supremely conditioned athlete. But he's moving a ton of powerforward might all over the ice and it takes more energy to move that frame, and move it quickly. Drai is a power forward who is a power skater with enormous stride and push off and who plays inordinate minutes and almost all of it heavy hockey.

Frank Mahovlich wasn't playing this kind of minutes and Frank would play maybe one period a game with any jump, while still being one of the greatest power forwards of his time. Drai would put him to shame. I don't think its always considered how much Drai has to leave on the ice in sweat and blood.

Drai looked leaner to me as well (agreed with previous poster). He looked a bit faster as well. Not sure how that will translate with his game on the boards though as he may be a bit lighter. I haven't checked his physicL stats this year though. Not disagreeing one bit about the power forward stuff. He's definitely top in league there.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

In my opinion Sutter looked much better than the first game. His pace was much better. Still slower than other guys, but not as stand out "yikes" as before. Thought he was well positioned on Penalty Killing and looked comfortable there.

No chemistry yet with linemates but very encouraging difference between pre-season games 1 and 2. If he keeps improving it might actually work. That will be the question is how quickly can he get up to game speed. I was surprised at the difference tonight, would be awesome (but maybe hopeful) that he can continue to improve.

Thx! I’m hoping he pulls through as if he’s 80% of what he was he’d be the perfect RH 4C PK specialist who can play the D side of the game without too much worry.

 

[snipes]

Watched some of the game highlights with my son this morning while getting ready for school and work.

McDavid was quite physical which was noticeable again skimming through highlights. He had a couple big hits including one where he just crushed Blueger.

Timing was off a bit but I thought the team had some jam to their game which you love to see.

That Bouchard pass on the McDavid winner was an absolute beauty, when they showed the reverse angle it was even better. Saucer pass over a defenders stick tape to tape, just perfect placement.

Drai had his legs going much better than he did last preseason which is a good sign, he’s amazing when he’s dialed in.

Skinner was calm and composed, strong positionally.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Hopefully he starts picking corners again.

just like he did in the playoffs, after the surgery

 

[CupofOil]

Also this game is exactly why I keep saying they need to play the vets. The rust and lack of chemistry is evident.

Well duh, it's their 1st game together after how many months?
Like I said to you yesterday, they'll play another 3-4 together before the end of preseason. It's a non-issue.

 

[Oilslick941611]

Did he look like he wasn't in shape before? If you did his dry land training you would die of exhaustion. Most mortals would. Drai is a supremely conditioned athlete. But he's moving a ton of powerforward might all over the ice and it takes more energy to move that frame, and move it quickly. Drai is a power forward who is a power skater with enormous stride and push off and who plays inordinate minutes and almost all of it heavy hockey.

Frank Mahovlich wasn't playing this kind of minutes and Frank would play maybe one period a game with any jump, while still being one of the greatest power forwards of his time. Drai would put him to shame. I don't think its always considered how much Drai has to leave on the ice in sweat and blood.

Drai can look lazy out there, i think everyone knows that. Not that it matters because he can look lazy and uninterested and then pop 3 points by the end of the game. Drai was flying last night though, moving around the ice like a cat stalking a mouse.

 

[guymez]

Not to suggest that last nights game was overly meaningful in any way...it wasnt.
All it provides is a little insight into players as they ramp up to the regular season.

Rusty individual and team play for the most part. Too be expected.

That said I did watch Brown as much as possible. Seems like a smart player. Reads the ice well and I also like that he gets his nose dirty on the forecheck and comes up with the puck most of the time. A player that can win puck battles and find his teammates is a solid fit for McDavid and Kane.

Also thought that Skinner looked calm in the net. Didnt overplay anything. Solid positionally. He also made a couple of nice deflection saves showing some good reflexes.

Sutter looked a little better to me. Hopefully that trend continues because he was the best Oiler in the game on faceoffs (53.8%) and seems to know what he is doing on the PK.
2 things this team needs.

 

[FlameChampion]

Its preseason game #3. Boys were rusty and was a pretty boring game. I didnt watch the entire game but some things that stood out to me.

- Brown hussled good. I think he will be great on the PK at the very least.
- Gleason surprised me in this game. I thought he looked pretty good and better than rest of the AHL dman.
- VD doesnt look great. May need more time to get things calibrated due to his size.
- Nurse still struggles with break out passes and bad decisions (loves going after nothing players). My fear is he is what he is. Wont be able to adjust to a more composed game which I think he needs to if he wants to take it to another level.
- McDavid can fly. Hands arent yet coordinated. But he looked good.
- Saw nothing from Sutter once again (is good at face offs I guess but doesnt seem to be able to keep up with play)
- Saw Pederson a bit better from Sutter. But he just looks like a better Shore to me (which isnt terrible for AHL and call up duty).
- Skinner looked calm and composed in net.
- Love Bouchards passing

 

[Leonardlizard]

Did he look like he wasn't in shape before? If you did his dry land training you would die of exhaustion. Most mortals would. Drai is a supremely conditioned athlete. But he's moving a ton of powerforward might all over the ice and it takes more energy to move that frame, and move it quickly. Drai is a power forward who is a power skater with enormous stride and push off and who plays inordinate minutes and almost all of it heavy hockey.

Frank Mahovlich wasn't playing this kind of minutes and Frank would play maybe one period a game with any jump, while still being one of the greatest power forwards of his time. Drai would put him to shame. I don't think its always considered how much Drai has to leave on the ice in sweat and blood.

He seemed to have more gas in the tank. He had a couple long shifts where he didn't slow down at all. I feel like anyone playing even pre season nhl probably has a fitness regiment that would kill most of us haha

 

[mkatcherin00]

Anybody know how Dakota Joshua is doing today

 

[McTonyBrar]

I never want Desharnais near the team. Make him a #7. It's a complete joke that people like Rishaug and Gregor think this guy can be top 4. If he is top 4, we will never win the Cup

 

[brentashton]

Anybody know how Dakota Joshua is doing today

Tocchet sure singled him out after the Flames game.