GDT: Game 61: Avalanche @ Oilers | February 20th, 8PM MT/5AM Finnish | Save Ferris

[Nzap]

A wild McDavid is on the loose!!
He must be contained immediately before he causes a trail of destruction.
Let's save everything important, starting with Ferris wheels.

Oh No!
McDavid is moving much faster than anticipated.
Let's save Ferris Bueller before he gets influenced by McDavid.....

Damn!
Already influenced him! This guy is way too fast. Only one thing left to save. Surely we have time to save Save Ferris. No way he can get there before we can.....

PROJECTED LINE-UPS

PROJECTED STARTING GOALTENDERS

POINTS LEADERS

INJURIES and HEALTHY SCRATCHES

Avalanche
Winchester - Concussion
Stuart - Back
Street - Chest
Berra - Conditioning
Wagner - Healthy
Redmond - Healthy

Oilers
Klefbom - Finger
Ference - Hip
Nugent-Hopkins - Hand
Gryba - Knee
Kassian - Illness (might play)
Nikitin - Healthy

The Music



JUST GO AND GRAB A WIN!

​

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[WarriorOfGandhi]

we laugh at the Oilers' futility now, but in a few years their star players like Cogliano, Schremp, Hemsky, Brule, and Gagner are going to own this league

 

[The Kingslayer]

9-2 Oilers. Goals from Mcdavid(3), Hall(2), Eberle(1), Draisatl(1), Yakupov(1) and Korpikoski(1)...both our goals come from Comeau.

 

[freeboy]

all playing for ?
lol

Go Avs

 

[McMetal]

The Oilers do have a lot of power on offense to go against our weaker defense, not to mention they've played well against us lately (and they're not in the playoffs, so double jeapordy for the Avs). I just don't have a good feeling about this one unless MacKinnon and Landy rediscover some chemistry together.

 

[tigervixxxen]

It is gut check time, they've got to find a way to win these two this weekend.

 

[RockLobster]

So, what are we saving Ferris from?

 

[NothingLikeAnEJ]

Terrible matchup for the Avs. McDavid will own EJ and Beauch with his skating and then Hall will have his way with Holden and Barrie. Avs will have to score 5 to have a chance.

Just never feel good about games in Edmonton.

 

[Nzap]

So, what are we saving Ferris from?

McDavid, but failing.

 

[avsfan09]

Mcdavid is fun to watch and can't wait to see him. That said Im not looking forward to him inevitably making our defenseman look foolish. Hopefully we play a structured game here and beat a team we should really beat but I have a feeling this could be a high scoring defensive mess of a game.

 

[dahrougem2]

I said it in one of the other threads and I'll say it again: If EVER there was a game to give Bigras a bigger test and more minutes, this is the game. He's mobile and knowledgeable enough to be trusted out there against McDavid, especially if he can be paired with either Beauchemin or EJ (Preferable Beauchemin).

However, I'm gonna predict that Roy attempts to match Holden-Barrie against McDavid all night long. If that's the case, I'm prepared for a beatdown from the Oilers and McDavid to get 3-4 points. Holden is back to looking like 6/7 Nick Holden, and if he's out there against McDavid, look out.

I haven't even said anything about Taylor Hall yet, and he has 24 points in 20 games vs the Avalanche, the most he's scored against any team in the league. Not looking forward to this game at all. Please Pickard, stand on your head tonight.

 

[The Kingslayer]

Avs in Edmonton usually is a high scoring affair. Found this dandy. The only thing worse than the quality is Peter Budaj. Such a great person but a horrible goalie.




It was pretty much downhill in Edmonton after that though










Rare Varly win in Edmonton

 

[The Kingslayer]

I said it in one of the other threads and I'll say it again: If EVER there was a game to give Bigras a bigger test and more minutes, this is the game. He's mobile and knowledgeable enough to be trusted out there against McDavid, especially if he can be paired with either Beauchemin or EJ (Preferable Beauchemin).

However, I'm gonna predict that Roy attempts to match Holden-Barrie against McDavid all night long. If that's the case, I'm prepared for a beatdown from the Oilers and McDavid to get 3-4 points. Holden is back to looking like 6/7 Nick Holden, and if he's out there against McDavid, look out.

I haven't even said anything about Taylor Hall yet, and he has 24 points in 20 games vs the Avalanche, the most he's scored against any team in the league. Not looking forward to this game at all. Please Pickard, stand on your head tonight.

Thank Go Gagner aint an Oiler still lol. Eberle also always scores against us. If the game is tied late look for us to lose it with 5 seconds left. Im praying for Picks.

 

[landy92mack29]

Plus Bigras is very familiar with McDavid from the Erie vs Owen Sound matchups.

 

[Tweaky]

Congrats are in order...Holden on his 200th NHL game.

Funny how we rail against him, and nobody (myself included) ever gives him a chance at developing,,despite the relatively low number of games played. We all assume that this years improvements are a fluke, that the recent slump is a permanent regression to his norm. Yet he has fewer NHL games than his partner Barrie, who we all love (and who's slump is seen as a minor bump in the road to greatness). Yes, Holden is almost 4 years older, but looking at total high level games (WHL, Int'l, AHL and NHL), Barrie has 614, Holden has 631. Barrie has elite level offense, so we forgive him his lapses on D, and rightly expect him to continue to improve. Holden is a two way D, is much better on the back end with some limited skill attacking. But any mistake, no matter where, he is lambasted, and we are convinced that he has peaked and is on the decline.

Not saying he should be a lock for top4 or anything, but I do think we need to be a bit more even keeled in our approach to his play. Nobody thinks he is going to be a stud (except maybe Roy), but the way we all treat him like the second coming of Zanon is rather disingenuous. We have seen an even older guy, with more NHL games and much more high-level experience, improve this season. Why is it so hard to conceive that Holden might as well?

 

[BaconNater]

Duchene Hatrick.

Bodnarchuk owns McDavid. Go Avs. 5-1 Final.

 

[Mules]

Just win!

 

[Jayevs]

McJesus vs MacJesus

Also have to say I'm excited to see Nurse vs Bigras at the NHL level, been preaching Bigras is better for a long time now, mainly due to the difference in hockey IQ.

 

[AslanRH]

I first thought it said "Save Farrish" and wasn't sure I wanted to.

 

[ArWKo]

Avs playing the second worst (by record) team in the league. Always worrisome since they still seem to struggle when they play "bad" teams.

With Nashille and Minny winning recently this is about as much of a "must win because they should win" type of game as it gets. Avs won't make the playoffs if they're dropping games like this one.

Just want them to beat up on a team they should be able to beat up on.

 

[Avsboy]

Bring on the McWrath

Kinda want a chicken mcwrap from mcdonalds now

 

[Freudian]

Congrats are in order...Holden on his 200th NHL game.

Funny how we rail against him, and nobody (myself included) ever gives him a chance at developing,,despite the relatively low number of games played. We all assume that this years improvements are a fluke, that the recent slump is a permanent regression to his norm. Yet he has fewer NHL games than his partner Barrie, who we all love (and who's slump is seen as a minor bump in the road to greatness). Yes, Holden is almost 4 years older, but looking at total high level games (WHL, Int'l, AHL and NHL), Barrie has 614, Holden has 631. Barrie has elite level offense, so we forgive him his lapses on D, and rightly expect him to continue to improve. Holden is a two way D, is much better on the back end with some limited skill attacking. But any mistake, no matter where, he is lambasted, and we are convinced that he has peaked and is on the decline.

Not saying he should be a lock for top4 or anything, but I do think we need to be a bit more even keeled in our approach to his play. Nobody thinks he is going to be a stud (except maybe Roy), but the way we all treat him like the second coming of Zanon is rather disingenuous. We have seen an even older guy, with more NHL games and much more high-level experience, improve this season. Why is it so hard to conceive that Holden might as well?

He's 28 years old with 500 professional games. WYSIWYG.

He'll never develop into something where his inability to skate or pass the puck won't make him a liability against fast or good forechecking teams.

I think the fans here if anything are willing to overlook his flaws too much. He's not a good defender and only looks passable as a top 4 when Barrie plays well enough to compensate. When Barrie's play drops, Holden sinks like a stone.

 

[ABasin]

He's 28 years old with 500 professional games. WYSIWYG.

He'll never develop into something where his inability to skate or pass the puck won't make him a liability against fast or good forechecking teams.

I think the fans here if anything are willing to overlook his flaws too much. He's not a good defender and only looks passable as a top 4 when Barrie plays well enough to compensate. When Barrie's play drops, Holden sinks like a stone.

Correct. Holden is a mediocre 3rd pairing guy. If he had to give Duchene a dollar for every outlet pass he sent into Duchene's skates, he'd be playing for free.

On another note, happy to see that Roy is starting to put his best offensive forwards together on his top 2 lines. I still maintain that they should put MacKinnon-Duchene-Landeskog together (Duchene at center this time) and let their 3 best forwards roll. Then Iginla-Soderberg-Grigorenko on the 2nd line. Get Tanguay and Comeau out of the top 2 lines.

 

[Tweaky]

Soderberg is 30, has played 643 Pro (not including the high level juniors, as I am unsure how it translates to WHL) games, 221 in the NHL....and we see him improving this season. And he pays a position that generally is considered quicker developing. Not so much WYSIWYG.

I am not saying that Holden will turn into this great D, top pairing guy. I am not even saying that his physical skills will get much better. But I do feel that he has some room to develop those skills in a more consistent manner. Learn better decision making with the passes, better gap control, when to pinch, etc.

Flip what you said...Barrie is only passable in the top 4 when he is playing well enough. When he isn't producing, he is 3rd pairing at best defensively without a partner to cover for him. Holden played just fine last season without Barrie after EJ went down. As part of the shutdown pairing, with Brad Stuart. Not great, but well enough to show that he is not just a product of playing with Barrie.

 

[bohlmeister]

Would be awesome to see Patty match Bigras against McDavid for the game. Doubt he will, haha.