Speculation: So Now What Do We Do?

[Stoneman89]

My point was that he played amazing for the first 8 games (LA series and first two Vegas games) and then regressed significantly for the last four games. Obviously his goal-scoring pace was unsustainable, but everything just fell apart, including his own-zone play.

Games 1-8 - 13 G, 17 P, +6
Games 9-12 - 0G, 1P, -7

That's just a crazy split.

Simply ran out of gas after being overplayed. MacDavid on the other hand, is a special beast, with nearly effortless and energy conserving natural skating ability.

 

[fireantz]

IMO the reason they came up short was depth. Going early and often to 11-7 was very successful giving RNH and Hyman career seasons but they ran out of gas in playoffs. Combined with Kane injuries and Yamo being sub par they were very thin offensively in the end. Prior to trade deadline Ceci and Nurse were also overplayed. Next season we need to believe Foegele, McLeod and Ryan can play tough minutes as a shutdown unit. They need to move Yamo and allow the young guys to battle for the 2RW(Holloway, Lavoie, Tullio, and Bourgault). Sign Bjugstad and play him with young guys. If we need a move at the trade deadline use Broberg or Holloway or Bourgault to upgrade for an all in. Play four lines(12-6) and rely more on the young guys early, see what rises to the top.

 

[bucks_oil]

IMO the reason they came up short was depth. Going early and often to 11-7 was very successful giving RNH and Hyman career seasons but they ran out of gas in playoffs. Combined with Kane injuries and Yamo being sub par they were very thin offensively in the end. Prior to trade deadline Ceci and Nurse were also overplayed. Next season we need to believe Foegele, McLeod and Ryan can play tough minutes as a shutdown unit. They need to move Yamo and allow the young guys to battle for the 2RW(Holloway, Lavoie, Tullio, and Bourgault). Sign Bjugstad and play him with young guys. If we need a move at the trade deadline use Broberg or Holloway or Bourgault to upgrade for an all in. Play four lines(12-6) and rely more on the young guys early, see what rises to the top.

I like your general strategy, but you need to take it a step further.

If you are going to play youth early in the season and upgrade gaps at the deadline, we need to be sitting on at least $3M in empty cap space on day one of the season. Otherwise we'll have no money for a meaningful upgrade.

Rationale: moving a $3M guy to replace with a different $3M guy at the deadline, won't move the needle much. If you are planning to upgrade at the deadline, get rid of a $3M guy in the summer and sit on the cash so it grows to be >$6M by deadline.

Since we are already cap constrained and facing raises to our RFA, that means that THREE of our FOUR $2.5M to $3M guys need to be gone:
* $3M player one (Foegele or Yamo, replaced with ELC youth) gets traded to make room for McLeod, Skinner & Kostin raises
* $3M player two (either the remaining forward or one of Ceci/Kulak, who gets replaced by Broberg) gets traded to make room for Bouchard raise
* $3M player three gets traded to create non-LTIR cap space to be spent at the deadline (it would be >$6M worth by TDL)
* And if you want to upgrade the D this summer then that means the remaining D (from Ceci/Kulak) also gets traded and replaced with a better D.

 

[fireantz]

I don’t believe we need an upgrade on D. Ceci had a good season but played too many minutes. As the #4, he
is fine at 3.25. Kulak is still MUCH more dependable than Broberg. I move Broberg with Yamo for an upgrade at 2RW. I think it is foolish to pay Kostin, Lavoie and Philip anything over $950,000. I also see people wanting to pay McLeod $2M when his brother (very comparable) gets $975000. Save every nickel for Bouchard. Only consider Bjugstad if he will sign for $1.5M. If any of the young ones including Holloway jump forward, consider moving Foegele at the deadline to fill need

 

[Soundwave]

I don’t believe we need an upgrade on D. Ceci had a good season but played too many minutes. As the #4, he
is fine at 3.25. Kulak is still MUCH more dependable than Broberg. I move Broberg with Yamo for an upgrade at 2RW. I think it is foolish to pay Kostin, Lavoie and Philip anything over $950,000. I also see people wanting to pay McLeod $2M when his brother (very comparable) gets $975000. Save every nickel for Bouchard. Only consider Bjugstad if he will sign for $1.5M. If any of the young ones including Holloway jump forward, consider moving Foegele at the deadline to fill need

Ceci needs to go by the trade deadline. You can keep him until then, but if the Oilers are banking on him to play top 4 minutes again with Nurse, they're going to eventually meet a team in the 2nd or 3rd (or maybe even 1st round) that destroys that Nurse-Ceci pairing the way Colorado and Vegas did.

 

[Zerotonine]

If the only thing we did this off season was FIRE Schwartz I'd consider that a very successful off season

 

[Anarchism]

Ceci needs to go by the trade deadline. You can keep him until then, but if the Oilers are banking on him to play top 4 minutes again with Nurse, they're going to eventually meet a team in the 2nd or 3rd (or maybe even 1st round) that destroys that Nurse-Ceci pairing the way Colorado and Vegas did.

If this team stays as it is there is not second round anymore. The formula to beat us is obvious.

 

[Soundwave]

If this team stays as it is there is not second round anymore. The formula to beat us is obvious.

I mean LA didn't lose for a lack of trying, I think they wanted to beat us worse than any other team we played, lol, it's just in round 1 we can get by on just sheer talent.

 

[Anarchism]

As far as prospects....Broberg is not ready and maybe never will be. Holloway needs a high quality main camp and looks to graduate. Bourgault likely sees coffee at Xmas, pretty sure they look at Lavoie in main camp and gets cut fairly quickly as they realize his play away from the puck and his own zone are barely AHL quality. Maybe Noah can surprise as a 4th line guy perhaps with 3 line defensive potential.
Kemp is close but hard to say till he face faster and wiser competition.
Desi should be a specialty guy at this point.

 

[Anarchism]

I mean LA didn't lose for a lack of trying, I think they wanted to beat us worse than any other team we played, lol, it's just in round 1 we can get by on just sheer talent.O

How to beat the oilers....
Don't take penalties...whine to the refs everytime.
When on the PK collapse to the centre with one guy out.
Target Drais not Connor.
Roll four lines....exhaust Connor.

At this point were a high entertainment regular season team....with only 4 defensemen and overall crappy goaltending. Our 5 on 5 sucks. Our top 2 centres are very average or less than defensively.

 

[Soundwave]

How to beat the oilers....
Don't take penalties...whine to the refs everytime.
When on the PK collapse to the centre with one guy out.
Target Drais not Connor.
Roll four lines....exhaust Connor.

I would say more like target our D-Corp weaknesses for starters.

You're not targetting shit really with Connor or Leon because they can score anyway, even our PP, same deal.

But the likes of Nurse, Ceci, Bouchard, Broberg, Desharnais can be exploited for sure.

 

[Anarchism]

I would say more like target our D-Corp weaknesses for starters.

You're not targetting shit really with Connor or Leon because they can score anyway, even our PP, same deal.

But the likes of Nurse, Ceci, Bouchard, Broberg, Desharnais can be exploited for sure.

Next year will be entertaining ....dont get your hopes up with expecting to win....Holland will not make the changes necessary.
Its more than changing out Ceci or adding a vet with Kulak to the bottom pair.

 

[BlackDogg]

Waiting for deja vu

 

[Anarchism]

I mean LA didn't lose for a lack of trying, I think they wanted to beat us worse than any other team we played, lol, it's just in round 1 we can get by on just sheer talent.

LA only needs one or two changes and another season of experience and they could easily sweep us....if we dont change our style of play and strenght our D and find a good starter or get a pyscho guy full time for head case Campbell (its not that Campbell cant do it ...its never ever being consistent at the NHL level).

 

[mkatcherin00]

I hope this coach can implement a system and the players can buy in and don't blow their wads in the regular season again. That would consider the coach is smart and the players also buy in. Might be tough.

No more cakes trotted out for a RNH 100 pt season lol.