I would love to work for you. Are you in a hiring capacity by any chance?
"We haven't heard or seen of Replacement for sometime. He must be working hard doing something."
Sounds like George Costanza type of logic.
Back to the drawing board Chia.
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Sounds like George Costanza type of logic.
Frank the Tank
The Godfather
I think the logic is flawed both ways. In reality none of us around here (unless one is connected to the situation) knows how hard Chiarelli works. I would imagine he probably didn't assemble a Cup winning team in Boston by being lazy.
SaskOilers
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Sending Scrivens and Nikitin packing and PB'ing Ference seem like things the old regime would not be willing to do. These moves alone raised my faith in Chia.
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Unfortunately failing to recruit one Center to help shore up the roster in lieu of the longterm McDavid injury "seems like something the old regime would also do" i.e. nothing.
In the absence of McDavid we're ridden Nuge silly, to the degree where he looks to lack even coordination on the ice. Where he's slow, lacking energy, and last night playing 25mins.
We played Lander 7mins. Essentially what this is saying is the situation has veered heavily into Lander not even being an option the coach wants to use. This being a predictable situation that it would come to this. Lander has been an awful player for 2months now.
Chia doing nothing to address this. Is it all that hard in the hockey world to find somebody that could be a better option than Lander?
This club continues to lack that kind of due diligence and effort. McDavid goes down longterm, "oh well, suck it up guys..."
What type of org continues to do nothing when events like that occur.
At least as insurance policy the team needed to be calling in or auditioning some fill Centers. With this org its just " that sucks, lets wait till McDavid is back in half a season."
This orgs lack of diligence drives me nuts.
KeithIsActuallyBad
You thrust your pelvis, huh!
I'm pretty sure calling up Draisatl was the option to replacing McDavid... Was that a bad idea?
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No, if you've followed my discussion on this that Drai has been such a spectacular addition, and so helpful, and that we are still lacking at the Center spot spells out what complete disasters Letestu and Lander (Chias decisions) have been on the dot this season.
Not even Drai, in entirely heroic fashion, has been enough to counter the deficit that we had going into this season. Injuries are not an improbability in todays NHL. You need some vet insurance in the org.
This same org that is absolutely hurting at Center depth right now has let Roy, Gordon, Gagner, Arcobello go for nothing. Regardless of what one thinks about those players they are better options than Lander/letestu.
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Wait, what? Chia is the GM who dealt Gordon. Chia is the GM who let Roy walk. Chia is the GM who felt Lander would be an NHL starting Center this year and banked on it. Those are Chia decisions.
I don't want to trade Nuge. Unfortunately in 1-2 yrs the contract might be out of sync with what the players role is here. McDavid of course will surpass Nuge in every way on this team. Drai looks like he will do that as well. Which leaves us paying a lot for a 3rd line Center. Again I'm not talking right now, but in time that becomes a potential concern.The answer, obviously is to trade RNH.
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Faelko
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I'm on board with the Gordon vs Letestu debate, but those other 3? I'm glad they're gone, if I could find a way to ship Lander with them I would. Even as erratic as Letestu has been, we'd be better off with both him and Gordon right now instead of Korpikoski and Lander, although I do understand why Lander was brought back, he was on fire at the end of last season.
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^Landers good play in the NHL was very short term, was Nelson based, and was outlier in what he has otherwise displayed here.
What that and a combination of reasonable preseason play (preseason means next to nothing usually) should result in Lander STARTING with the team.
What it shouldn't mean is Lander starting with the team with no other vet fallback option. That's the key right there. Good clubs have competent players within org that are ready to jump up when injuries or unsatisfactory play occur.
With this org we have very little depth buffer and we moved out a guy like Roy who was willing to be that. Roy is no great player at this point, but he's at least a valid NHL veteran to have in the fold. Glen Sather would have found any way possible to keep a backup like Roy in the fold.
What that and a combination of reasonable preseason play (preseason means next to nothing usually) should result in Lander STARTING with the team.
What it shouldn't mean is Lander starting with the team with no other vet fallback option. That's the key right there. Good clubs have competent players within org that are ready to jump up when injuries or unsatisfactory play occur.
With this org we have very little depth buffer and we moved out a guy like Roy who was willing to be that. Roy is no great player at this point, but he's at least a valid NHL veteran to have in the fold. Glen Sather would have found any way possible to keep a backup like Roy in the fold.
I agree another vet would of been good. I just don't agree with Roy. When 29 other teams pass on him a vet would of been good. Ideally a bottom 6 guy. Roy is the type of player that can look decent in top 6 but awful in bottom six. We needed a bottom six vet. Korpi has been awful after a decent start and it seems like injuries are bars for him to recover from.
Moving Gordon was a mistake which makes me stronger believe that Gordon wanted out. And for his 2 years of good service moved to a team he loved so he could retire at the end of his contract there. I firmly believe now that's what happened.
We got hosed on Lander, we had no choice but to basically give him that spot after his strong play to end the season last year.
It sucks, but it is what it is. Otherwise Roy would have been resigned.
I still don't think it's smart that McLellan plays RNH so much. It's not like we're winning a ton of games here, play Lander an extra 3-4 minutes a game likely isn't going to make much of a difference.
You can play Hendricks at center too.
There's no reason for RNH to be playing those minutes even as is.
It sucks, but it is what it is. Otherwise Roy would have been resigned.
I still don't think it's smart that McLellan plays RNH so much. It's not like we're winning a ton of games here, play Lander an extra 3-4 minutes a game likely isn't going to make much of a difference.
You can play Hendricks at center too.
There's no reason for RNH to be playing those minutes even as is.
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I'm just using Roy as an example because we had him in the fold. Chia specifically didn't extend.
But recruiting any Vet D as backup insurance would probably have been an astute move. Nor is this hindsight on my part. I often talked in the offseason that starting 3 noob Centers in the NHL was going to be fraught with difficulty. I even cited how little NHL GP experience our Center group had. These were predictable problems from an org that has made these same mistakes for a decade at the same position.
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In the GDT I made a point of questioning why we had 72MINS of Center play last night in a 65min game which means our centers were double clutched for at least 7mins. We were for instance having Drai and Nuge doubled at Center on PP's in a game where both were overplayed to the tune of a combined 47mins. An insane number for two top D in a hockey game.
I specifically pointed out that rather than doubling up Centers we could put any of Klef, Sekera, Nurse, Schultz, Davidson out more on PP's and go back to a 2 D configured PP instead of the 1 D PP we are mostly employing.
This would not only help limit some of the minutes our centers are getting but many of our goals on PP have come from D anyway and we have several D that are skilled on the PP.
oljimmy
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Just to toss one thing into the mix: I love Hall and no-one should talk about getting rid of him, but he is not as offensively potent as many of us think he is. He is 302nd in the league in shooting percentage and ...wait for it... 3RD in the league in shots taken. That is a horrendous combination of statistics. You can see it watching the games: he's taking a ton of the team's shots and not scoring, and the shots aren't generating second chances. That said, I agree that defense is the Oilers' #1 problem, but it's worth keeping in mind that if Hall even had Nuge's or Korpikoski's shooting percentage, the Oilers would be cracking top ten in league scoring right now and a lot of these one-goal games could very easily have gone their way. No way they would be last in the league.
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This though is inaccurate. Some of the shots have resulted in rebound goals, specifically by Draisaitl.
Additionally theres been a fair share of either miffing rebound chances or other players not getting in dirty areas to get those. This is one reason why Hall and Drai work so well together is neither is reluctant to get in the paint on a very peripheral club.
Blaming Hall for the club not cashing in on more rebound chances is unfair.
Hall's numbers don't lie. He's the main producer on this club sans McDavid. Hall is also the player that has been the stabilizing force for either Nuge or Eberle in times they have struggled. Indeed even last night Nuge and Eberle were rotated on the much better Hall/Drai line to try to get Nuge, Eberle kickstarted. I suspect people will forget that and how many times in the past its also occurred when the team has broken up Hall, Nuge, Eberle. Theres this lol myth that Nuge and Eberle play BETTER without Hall.
This post...
The statistics you cite actually suggest that Hall is more offensively potent than the basic boxcars say he is. Some people's children, man...
KeithIsActuallyBad
You thrust your pelvis, huh!
Lander's play in the pre-season prevented him from going anywhere else. What happened between that time and now is anyone's guess.
Injuries were bound to happen, but McDavid's injury was just the kind of stupid luck the Oilers have had of late.
The Oilers are hurting at center but I don't think patchwork helps all that much in this case. Gagner's time was up, Arcobello is.... well, barely an AHLer, Roy was a nice add but not a long term solution, and my dad could put up more offense than Boyd Gordon (who probably didn't want to be here).
Also technically the only guy that was let go for nothing was Roy. Gordon become Korpse, Gagner became Purcell, and Arcobello become Roy.
SaskOilers
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I certainly wasn't suggesting that Chia has worked magic here, just pointing out a few moves that haven't been mentioned often. I will also say it remains to be seen if he will readily cut ties with his own acquisitions if needed.
Riding Nuge is nothing new here either, he's been ground down to a pulp since he got here. I think about 18 minutes per night as a teenager, and 20+ minutes a night each year since. When McDavid is healthy and going, IF we decide to run Leon at centre I think we'll get to see Nuge with a little more gas in the tank.
3+ of RNH's minutes last night were in OT if I'm counting right, so not all that different from his average TOI. I'm not making excuses for him, it's pretty obvious that he's not playing nearly at the level he needs to. An aside, it's nice to see him having some more face off success in the last few games.
After seeing the Lander finish off the year so strong, why wouldn't the organization believe in him? The guy has proven he can score at the AHL level and finally started looking like a good bottom 6 NHL C last year. I know I didn't expect him to nosedive like he has this year.
Letestu sucks, I can't critique that move too much as I didn't have a lot of viewings of him beforehand, but what other options did we really have? I like Gordon but many have said he wanted out. Roy really shouldn't have got much consideration in IMO.
oljimmy
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I am not *blaming* Hall at all. He's been great, as I said. I've watched every game and haven't seen Drai getting those rebound chances: the big Hall-Drai goals I can remember have come from passes, not from rebounds. Hall's shooting will improve. Ovi's career shooting % is 12.3 and this year it's 10, so yes he is also somewhat of a drain on the Caps offense right now (though 10% is respectable, 8% for a forward is not). Ovi is having a bad shooting year so far, but like Hall, he will improve. My point is that if Hall were having the shooting year he is capable of having we wouldn't be panicking nearly as much because we might be 23rd in the league instead of 30th. Hall is, as I said, awesome. But in watching the games this one thing about him has stuck out at me, and I look forward to the improvement.
