7even
Offered and lost
We won both games he was up here for. If we don't win again this season, will it be known as the Curse of the Freddy Goat?
Would be closer to the Blessing of Freddy Goat IMO.
We won both games he was up here for. If we don't win again this season, will it be known as the Curse of the Freddy Goat?
Yes, he puts up points. Yes, he's our best face-off man. No, he's dreadful defensively.
Believing that Bozak is competent defensively is one of the main reasons the Wilson and Carlyle ships sunk so badly.
Babcock realized very quickly that Bozak is a weak defensive player and sheltered him accordingly.
He could be a wrecking ball if he wanted to, but I rarely even see him finish a check, never mind with any malicious intent behind it.
Give coach babs sometime on that front
Agreed though I don't think he will make him a wrecking ball.
Babs said Freddie has to know when to go on offense and when to go on defense and I think that's where Babs will be huge in helping the Goat put the pieces of the puzzle together.
You see how the Red wings play?
He is going to turn him into a red wing , heavy on the puck , not afraid of high traffic areas, will use his big body as a tool
Mark my words, we will see the goat on the PP as the face off man or back up FO man and the park your butt in front of the net guy.
You see how the Red wings play?
He is going to turn him into a red wing , heavy on the puck , not afraid of high traffic areas, will use his big body as a tool
Mark my words, we will see the goat on the PP as the face off man or back up FO man and the park your butt in front of the net guy.
What do you mean sheltered him accordingly?
I thought Bozak had the highest dzone start % out of the team.
Bozak's 30. Why keep him around? That is bad asset management for rebuilding team.
You see how the Red wings play?
He is going to turn him into a red wing , heavy on the puck , not afraid of high traffic areas, will use his big body as a tool
Mark my words, we will see the goat on the PP as the face off man or back up FO man and the park your butt in front of the net guy.
You're right, let's do what the oilers did and have our 18 year olds play against top lines. Who needs veterans anyway.
Nope. Bozak had 57% OZS vs Kadri's 51% (it was lower before bozak got injured)
Kadri's line was the shutdown line, and Bozak + JVR was the scoring line
You're right, let's do what the oilers did and have our 18 year olds play against top lines. Who needs veterans anyway.
Skewed a bit with Bozak taking some additional d-zone face-offs then changing ASAP as well.
Insufficient veterans is about #183 on the list of reasons why the Oilers suck.
Doesn't do it as often as Carlyle, especially with Froese around and Kadri not awful on the draw, but it still happened regularly.I don't remember Babcock doing that. I remember him doing it with Froese though.
People use insufficient vets a lot but when the Oilers started this they had such players as Horcoff,Smyth,Nick Shultz,Potter,Whitney,Sutton,Gilbert,Jones etc.
Certainly nothing less than Parenteau,Hunwick,Boyes,Greening and so forth.
The fact of the matter is on the other side of the puck, the Oilers picks suck. IQ is questionable. As well as compete. They are happy to skate down the ice and either try to pass through 3 guys or rip a shot going anywhere. They are skilled but so is a player like Kessel. It's like putting a team of Connolly/Kessel/Lombardi/Kostka/Lupul/Raymond together.
Again, the Oilers as individuals have a certain skill set, put them all together and your team plays like the above.
They need to send individuals to different teams and build around McDavid. As a unit, they are done.
I think Bozak will be needed to fulfill the 25% of cap exposed rule when the expansion draft happens, I doubt they move him in the offseason. As far as Gauthier goes, he will be a Maple Leaf, Babcock will make a great NHLer out of him. I fully admit to being wrong in my initial impressions of him.
I hope he gets that 4C role next year as I don't think Ben Smith will be back..
Back to tank mode.
You don't want keep veterans for the sake of keeping veterans. The main problem with Oilers is that they have nothing beyond the 1st round picks. No good defensive prospects or anyone good for 2nd and 3rd lines. They had plenty of veterans but they weren't any good.
You trade Bozak as soon as you can, otherwise we will face what Washington faced with Laich. Relegated to 4th line or healthy scratch but paid too much.