Post-Game Talk: #52: 4 Oilers at FLYERS 5 (OT), Saturday, Feb. 2, 2019, 1:00 pm ET

[CapnZin]

I want to let all of you know something:

I am genuinely excited to watch this game tomorrow. Literally excited. This team is fun to watch again. It’s been a long time!


That’s all.

 

[Foggy14]

Can't wait for the Manning tribute video.

Can't wait for Manning to take out McDavid.

 

[TheKingPin]

Can't wait for Manning to take out McDavid.

I bet manning scores for us.

 

[OzFlyers]

Can't wait for Manning to take out McDavid.

I hope he doesn't take out Hart!

 

[Harhis]

Uh, the PK turned around 3 weeks before Hakstol was fired.
Lindblom was on the 4th line under Gordon for a couple weeks.
TK should be playing with Patrick and Lindblom, that should be our second line for the next five years.

Since the team hasn't played any better under Gordon, Hart would have the same record, as would the team.
Hart was only called up out of desperation, because they were out of options and Fletcher didn't want to pull another "Mrazek."
And you can't run Hart into the ground, he's Provorov's bionic brother.

The only time this team has looked good the last 7 years, other than the second half of last season, has been when a goalie plays at a level above league average, Mason twice, Elliott for a month or two, and now Hart.

I think we should give Hart his choice of Philly virgins if he continues to play well.

Again, it had better results for few games, it still looked like same old shit it did for years. It really changed for better after Hak got fired.

 

[GapToothedWonder]

If they did a Manning tribute video and includes the McDavid injury play it would be the greatest troll job ever

But then again McDavid would probably put up like 8 points if they did.

 

[boxcar65]

The Return of Mandog, Part 2

Brandon Manning makes another triumphant return to the city where he started his career. Chicago was not a good fit for him, and he has improved his play the past 7 or 8 games. I predict old friendships will be put aside when the Dog drops the gloves with Washed Up Wayne Simmonds. It will be a scrap for the ages.

I just hope he has a solid game and receives several thunderous cheers from the fans who remember he gave everything he had whenever he stepped on the ice. Unfortunately I am refereeing basketball as I do every Saturday, so I would appreciate all of you pulling for him in my absence.

Let’s Go Manning!! Make them regret not resigning you.

 

[Hextallent63]

There's a 100% chance Hakstol would've let Hart play tomorrow. And every game before and after as his still developing 20 year old body gets ravaged night after night in the quest to get this bubble team into the almost bubble playoffs to keep his job for another miserable bubble year.

This is the man who Hakstol learned his goalie usage philosophies from:

Provorov looks like Ivan Drago and RoboCop had a baby. Russian robo man baby. Wtf I need to go back to sleep.

 

[kudymen]

Let’s Go Manning!!

Let’s Go AWAY Manning!!

Fixed that for you

 

[FlyerFaithful17]

Id go Stolie here with the short rest for Hart.

This probably isn’t a terrible take, but this is probably the only game I’m going to this year - so actually, yes, it’s a terrible take.

 

[Outlaw Samurai]

Have to work, which blows. Looking forward to the highlight of G making Manning his bitch and scoring.

Let's go FLYERS!

 

[Travat]

Uh, the PK turned around 3 weeks before Hakstol was fired.
Lindblom was on the 4th line under Gordon for a couple weeks.
TK should be playing with Patrick and Lindblom, that should be our second line for the next five years.

Since the team hasn't played any better under Gordon, Hart would have the same record, as would the team.
Hart was only called up out of desperation, because they were out of options and Fletcher didn't want to pull another "Mrazek."
And you can't run Hart into the ground, he's Provorov's bionic brother.

The only time this team has looked good the last 7 years, other than the second half of last season, has been when a goalie plays at a level above league average, Mason twice, Elliott for a month or two, and now Hart.

I think we should give Hart his choice of Philly virgins if he continues to play well.

The fancy stats may not say they are any better than with Hak but I think as big a factor of having Hart in net is actually having someone on the bench that has a pulse and has breathed some life into the team! The attitude of the dressing room seems much more alive than when Hak was here.

 

[Rebels57]

2 years ago today, Hak healthy scratched both Konecny and Ghost in a game against Montreal.

 

[BiggE]

The goalies were another big winner with Hakstol’s firing.

We were all winners the day Hak got the axe.

 

[Fire Tortorella]

2 years ago today, Hak healthy scratched both Konecny and Ghost in a game against Montreal.

#Accountability

 

[gertbfrobe16]

The Return of Mandog, Part 2

Brandon Manning makes another triumphant return to the city where he started his career. Chicago was not a good fit for him, and he has improved his play the past 7 or 8 games. I predict old friendships will be put aside when the Dog drops the gloves with Washed Up Wayne Simmonds. It will be a scrap for the ages.

I just hope he has a solid game and receives several thunderous cheers from the fans who remember he gave everything he had whenever he stepped on the ice. Unfortunately I am refereeing basketball as I do every Saturday, so I would appreciate all of you pulling for him in my absence.

Let’s Go Manning!! Make them regret not resigning you.

as i predicted earlier lol

 

[hatcher]

Let's hope we can finally start a game on time. Hart is the reason we won these games which ois awesome buit we shouldn't rely on the goalie every game.

 

[Rebels57]

The Return of Mandog, Part 2

Brandon Manning makes another triumphant return to the city where he started his career. Chicago was not a good fit for him, and he has improved his play the past 7 or 8 games. I predict old friendships will be put aside when the Dog drops the gloves with Washed Up Wayne Simmonds. It will be a scrap for the ages.

I just hope he has a solid game and receives several thunderous cheers from the fans who remember he gave everything he had whenever he stepped on the ice. Unfortunately I am refereeing basketball as I do every Saturday, so I would appreciate all of you pulling for him in my absence.

Let’s Go Manning!! Make them regret not resigning you.

I hope he gets the shit kicked out of him and then never plays another game in the NHL because he is both a terrible player, and I assume, a terrible person.

I'm only half-joking

 

[deadhead]

The fancy stats may not say they are any better than with Hak but I think as big a factor of having Hart in net is actually having someone on the bench that has a pulse and has breathed some life into the team! The attitude of the dressing room seems much more alive than when Hak was here.

I think that's more a reflection of Hart's impact than anything else.

The Flyers played hard under Hakstol, but it's deflating to push and get back into a game then watch your goalie give up a "softie," and when that happens again and again, it kills team morale. The team perked up when Elliott was on a roll, then when he went down and the parade of scrub goalies began, they went flat as a pancake. The only personnel change was moving Sanheim with Provorov instead of Ghost. Lindblom was in Gordon's dog house for the same reason as under Hakstol, he had a stretch where he wasn't playing well.

With Hart, the players can be looser, because every mistake will not end up at the back of the net.
In fact, sometimes they may be too loose (Gordon has complained about, sloppy defense), they giving up a lot more scoring chances and high danger scoring chances than they did under Hakstol (from top 5 to middle of the pack).

A lot of the complaints about Hakstol are really wishful thinking, if everything was his fault, a "magic" coach will solve all the problems of this team. People ignore that the Blackhawks had 76 points under Q last year with players like Kane and Toews and Keith on the roster and goalies putting up a .911 S%. The Flyers, with horrible goaltending, were on a 74 point pace under Hakstol.

Hart has solved the biggest problem (at least for now), the maturation of young players on the roster and the addition of a few more will solve other problems, and a couple judicious moves by Fletcher (more than just dumping scrubs) will finish the job.

A better coach will help, but as the Oilers have shown, it's not a panacea.

 

[BiggE]

Puljujärvi on the 4th line according to Meltzer. So, as someone who doesn't see a lot of Oilers games though in the few I've seen the kid had flashes where he looked pretty good, I have to ask the following question. Is he quickly trending towards being a huge bust, or did Edmonton really f*** this kid up by rushing him to the NHL before he was ready? My money is on the latter.

 

[deadhead]

You mean you can screw up a prospect by rushing them to the NHL?
Really?

 

[JojoTheWhale]

Puljujärvi on the 4th line according to Meltzer. So, as someone who doesn't see a lot of Oilers games though in the few I've seen the kid had flashes where he looked pretty good, I have to ask the following question. Is he quickly trending towards being a huge bust, or did Edmonton really **** this kid up by rushing him to the NHL before he was ready? My money is on the latter.

I think it can be both.

Confidence is a fragile thing, as we're currently experiencing with Sanheim, Patrick, etc. I am completely on board with the idea that he would be in a much better mental place scoring at a high clip in the AHL where the path ahead still looks straight.

At the same time, the archetypes that have to score Points at a rapid clip to be worth putting on the ice are always going to be super high risk. The ones that truly succeed are the exceptions to the rules and while I know that he was thought to be one of them, I don't think that was a reasonable expectation. We saw the natural degradation of his draft stock as the year went along, especially as we got to see what looked more like an outlier skating with him.

Basically, the guy he was hoped to be likely isn't in there, but there still might be something to salvage. If he came back in a trade for a reasonable amount that would be one thing, but Edmonton has no motivation to move him at that cost and I don't want to pay for the idea of Puljujarvi. That's someone else's problem unless we make it ours.

 

[BiggE]

You mean you can screw up a prospect by rushing them to the NHL?
Really?

When you rush them right in at 18, absolutely. It's not like the kid was a can't miss generational talent ala Crosby or McDavid. It's not even comparable to Patrick, who spent his entire life living and playing in north America and was already 19 at the start of his rookie season. One full, uninterrupted season in the AHL probably would have helped this kid, but oh well.

OTOH, you can certainly err the other way. A guy like Myers has spent enough time in the minors and should be in the NHL now. Even more so, a guy like Bailey, who is quickly approaching his 24th birthday and has both good size and wheels and is playing very well at LHV, should be on this roster instead of a P.O.S. like Lehtera, and in this lineup over a guy like Varone. Hell, I'd even be happy if he replaced Misha in the lineup since the kid is only a 2nd year pro and I'm not sure playing 7-8 minutes a game on the Flyer's 4th line is really doing him any favors.

 

[BobbyClarkeFan16]

...and yet Barry Trotz is doing a fantastic job in Long Island. A good coach goes a LONG way in helping a team compete. And if you think the Oilers are bad under Hitch, just imagine how much worse they'd be if MacLellan wasn't fired. The problem of replacing a coach mid-season is that the new coach doesn't get a training camp to implement new systems. Hitch and Gordon are basically running on the fly so to speak.

 

[Larry44]

... Even more so, a guy like Bailey, who is quickly approaching his 24th birthday and has both good size and wheels and is playing very well at LHV, should be on this roster instead of a P.O.S. like Lehtera, and in this lineup over a guy like Varone. Hell, I'd even be happy if he replaced Misha in the lineup since the kid is only a 2nd year pro and I'm not sure playing 7-8 minutes a game on the Flyer's 4th line is really doing him any favors.

I would rather have Aube-Kubel at RW, now that Vorobyev is playing 4C, but he's hurt. Instead, let's see Bailey at RW with Voro and Raffl. THAT would be a big, physical, fast energy line.