Kevin Francis: Sens sweep Alberta! Tippett or Holland, who gets fired first in Edmonton?!

Listening to crusty Connor McDavid in his postgame presser.....man, he's pissed!

5 goals in the 3rd period by Ottawa, love it!

I remember when the Oilers won the McDavid lottery and I knew the Cup was coming back to Canada many times starting in two or three years. All they needed to do was use their picks to draft and develop D and find a goalie.

Well the sports talking heads and a lot of the fans were not having any of that. They were like a bunch of spoiled brats rolling around on the floor at Walmart throwing a tantrum. Waaah! Waaah! Waaah! Playoffs now! Waaah!

With their sixteenth pick I was saying take Chabot. With the low 30s pick take Brandon Carlo. Waaah! Waaah! Don't want to wait and waste the McDavid window. You may recognize some familiar sounding BS? Anyway they traded those two picks for Griffin Reinhardt and so began the steady destruction of any future hope for that franchise under the guiding hand of Peter "Bold Moves" Chiarelli. Just wanted to mention that the following year I was saying take Chychrun. I was constantly ridiculed and attacked on the Oilers Message Board by the way and a lot of those geniuses are still at it.

Imagine! It was all right there in the palm of their hands. Chabot, Chychrun, Nurse and Carlo plus whatever.

Edmonton should have won at least a couple of cups by now and be seriously challenging for more for years to come. They pissed it all away for a couple of playoff rounds and you can still listen to the same sports talking heads pontificating on the state of the Oilers franchise. No shame at all.

Ottawa has a bright future but impatience can so easily destroy it all. I hope they don't make the same mistake Edmonton made.

Great post by Whatisavailable..

Patience.

You have to allow time for players to find their NHL game. Some supposed sure fire prospects never will. Others will settle in and far exceed expectations.

Especially true for defensive players.

Love this team and the way it is being pulled together. Don't pay too much attention to the negative chatter. These guys are doing more than enough keep me happy for this year.

I remember when the Oilers won the McDavid lottery and I knew the Cup was coming back to Canada many times starting in two or three years. All they needed to do was use their picks to draft and develop D and find a goalie.

Well the sports talking heads and a lot of the fans were not having any of that. They were like a bunch of spoiled brats rolling around on the floor at Walmart throwing a tantrum. Waaah! Waaah! Waaah! Playoffs now! Waaah!

With their fifteenth pick I was saying take Chabot. With the 32 pick take Brandon Carlo. Waaah! Waaah! Don't want to wait and waste the McDavid window. You may recognize some familiar sounding BS? Anyway they traded those two picks for Griffin Reinhardt and so began the steady destruction of any future hope for that franchise under the guiding hand of Peter "Bold Moves" Chiarelli. Just wanted to mention that the following year I was saying take Chychrun. I was constantly ridiculed and attacked on the Oilers Message Board by the way and a lot of those geniuses are still at it.

Imagine! It was all right there in the palm of their hands. Chabot, Chychrun, Nurse and Carlo plus whatever.

Edmonton should have won at least a couple of cups by now and be seriously challenging for more for years to come. They pissed it all away for a couple of playoff rounds and you can still listen to the same sports talking heads pontificating on the state of the Oilers franchise. No shame at all.

Ottawa has a bright future but impatience can so easily destroy it all. I hope they don't make the same mistake Edmonton made.
- Whatisavailable

Oilers should have won at least 1 cup by now, it took Crosby 3 years to reach the finals and 4 to win his first cup, McDavid is in his 7th year has yet to to reach the finals, now this is not entirely his fault, he is not surrounded by the quality players as crosby was, cept for Drai, his 12.5M cap hit hurts the oilers ability to get quality players to help him and now they gave Nurse 9.5M which will hinder them further. They D is bad and their Goaltending questionable at best. The leafs are in the same boat.

Thanks to Whatisavailable.., I realize that I have been a bit impatient too, lately. I need to be more patient with Stevie Y's rebuild, as it takes time for him to create yet another masterpiece. I have been saying he should go after Chychrun, but giving up 3 assets for a good player is not something that should be done in the middle of a rebuild. But I wanna see that hole in the LD spot plugged now! No fear Edvinsson is on the way!
Thanks for pointing out the Oil's impatience as a recipe for disaster! I see Buffalo is digging out from the same train wreck that impatience can cause!

Thanks to Whatisavailable.., I realize that I have been a bit impatient too, lately. I need to be more patient with Stevie Y's rebuild, as it takes time for him to create yet another masterpiece. I have been saying he should go after Chychrun, but giving up 3 assets for a good player is not something that should be done in the middle of a rebuild. But I wanna see that hole in the LD spot plugged now! No fear Edvinsson is on the way!
Thanks for pointing out the Oil's impatience as a recipe for disaster! I see Buffalo is digging out from the same train wreck that impatience can cause!
- HenryHockey

Chyrchun is 23 and has 3 years left on his contract not counting this year at 4.6M, he is young enough to still be in his prime when detroit should be ready to compete, is he good enough tho to give up what ARI wants in exchange for him? he has yet to play a full regular, non-shortened season and his best season was last years 56 game shortened season and this year he has not produced (7 points in 26 games).

It’s time for the Gretzky trade;

Send McDavid to Arizona for Chychrun and futures. AZ needs to start the build even though McDavid won’t want to be part of it.

I remember when the Oilers won the McDavid lottery and I knew the Cup was coming back to Canada many times starting in two or three years. All they needed to do was use their picks to draft and develop D and find a goalie.

Well the sports talking heads and a lot of the fans were not having any of that. They were like a bunch of spoiled brats rolling around on the floor at Walmart throwing a tantrum. Waaah! Waaah! Waaah! Playoffs now! Waaah!

With their fifteenth pick I was saying take Chabot. With the 32 pick take Brandon Carlo. Waaah! Waaah! Don't want to wait and waste the McDavid window. You may recognize some familiar sounding BS? Anyway they traded those two picks for Griffin Reinhardt and so began the steady destruction of any future hope for that franchise under the guiding hand of Peter "Bold Moves" Chiarelli. Just wanted to mention that the following year I was saying take Chychrun. I was constantly ridiculed and attacked on the Oilers Message Board by the way and a lot of those geniuses are still at it.

Imagine! It was all right there in the palm of their hands. Chabot, Chychrun, Nurse and Carlo plus whatever.

Edmonton should have won at least a couple of cups by now and be seriously challenging for more for years to come. They pissed it all away for a couple of playoff rounds and you can still listen to the same sports talking heads pontificating on the state of the Oilers franchise. No shame at all.

Ottawa has a bright future but impatience can so easily destroy it all. I hope they don't make the same mistake Edmonton made.
- Whatisavailable

You're so full of it. Like you had the foresight to know who they should pick. You're just spouting off because your crappy team beat their crappy team. The Senators are no closer to winning than the oilers are. Sure you have prospects but your team and coaching staff won't develop them and you franchise will remain poop

The Oilers are going to be fine-- Mike Babcock and Evander Kane are in the wings, waiting to bring their magic to the team.

Just wanna point out 7W in last 11Gs
What’s going on lol
I can see it now we’re gonna finish around the bubble and (frank) our pick lol
I’m fine with winning but ya better give me playoff games 😂😂😉

Sens got lucky here, benefiting from an Oil team that appears to be legitimately cursed. Ottawa is the worst third period team in the NHL statistically but we got five goals this time. That's awesome, but Murray was sub 900. Hope this team can find ways to keep piling them on. The real plus in this game is I noticed Brannstrom for the first time as a Senator. Took awhile, but hope they roll more with him.

Listening to crusty Connor McDavid in his postgame presser.....man, he's pissed!
- Kevin Francis

He’s part of the problem though. The entire team just believes they can get back to out scoring their massive flaws. They need systemic changes team wide. Coach and Gm and president everyone needs to be fired. McDavid need to change his own game if he wants to win. Run and gun never works.

He’s part of the problem though. The entire team just believes they can get back to out scoring their massive flaws. They need systemic changes team wide. Coach and Gm and president everyone needs to be fired. McDavid need to change his own game if he wants to win. Run and gun never works.
- TurdFergeson

As an outsider who watches all Canadian teams, you are so correct. They have massive flaws. The drop off from their 1st line to their 3rd line is massive, far more than more teams. Kassian shouldn't be on their 2nd line but they have no depth due to payroll. Yes, they should fire the entire front office and coaching staff, it's a mess.

The Oilers are going to be fine-- Mike Babcock and Evander Kane are in the wings, waiting to bring their magic to the team.
- MABster

Can you imagine?! Make them a larger trainwreck.

Chyrchun is 23 and has 3 years left on his contract not counting this year at 4.6M, he is young enough to still be in his prime when detroit should be ready to compete, is he good enough tho to give up what ARI wants in exchange for him? he has yet to play a full regular, non-shortened season and his best season was last years 56 game shortened season and this year he has not produced (7 points in 26 games).
- Mithos

Let Chychrun go to LA, they have more of what AZ wants and are more willing to over-pay. Bergie will gung how to steer Blake into this one! A 1st, a good roster player and a good prospect is on their way to AZ! Only thing is LA will have to trade back over $4M in salary or clear it elsewhere!

the oilers remind me of the leafs all offense and no defense. unfortunately holland and the coach needs to go, they wont do both mid season i dont believe, babcock is not the answer for that team either he is a headcase and has not been back coaching for a reason. if i had to choose mcdavid or drasityl i would trade drai and keep mcdavid and of course it would be for a huge hall but the only problem for edm getting proper value is the cap, hard to add the pieces you need in this flat cap, they could easily get a ton for him.. better hope they win be4 both of their contracts are up cause once these 2 hit the market their cap hits are going to skyrocket again and they will still have no cap to fill other holes. its sad really, they remind me a bit of the TB lightning, if they can just find the missing pieces they may salvage everthing, they should trade for fleury and fix their goalies now, obviously they would have to get the hawks to eat salary so that deal starts with a 1st but then what is edm adding for chicago to eat 3.5 or more??

You're so full of it. Like you had the foresight to know who they should pick. You're just spouting off because your crappy team beat their crappy team. The Senators are no closer to winning than the oilers are. Sure you have prospects but your team and coaching staff won't develop them and you franchise will remain poop
- GPHawksfan

Didn't need any foresight or magical powers. The best D available at the sixteenth spot was Chabot and I liked Carlo at the low 30s spot. The following year the Oilers dropped to the fourth spot and even though lots of people preferred Sergachev I opted for Chychrun.

These were not long shots but solid choices in very strong draft years.

Don't know who you are and I don't much care. I have just put this response up so people will know that I wasn't going on hindsight but that I was actually saying this stuff back then but it was mostly falling on deaf ears.

Maybe I ran into a few of your relatives on the Oilers Message Board at the time?

I remember when the Oilers won the McDavid lottery and I knew the Cup was coming back to Canada many times starting in two or three years. All they needed to do was use their picks to draft and develop D and find a goalie.

Well the sports talking heads and a lot of the fans were not having any of that. They were like a bunch of spoiled brats rolling around on the floor at Walmart throwing a tantrum. Waaah! Waaah! Waaah! Playoffs now! Waaah!

With their sixteenth pick I was saying take Chabot. With the low 30s pick take Brandon Carlo. Waaah! Waaah! Don't want to wait and waste the McDavid window. You may recognize some familiar sounding BS? Anyway they traded those two picks for Griffin Reinhardt and so began the steady destruction of any future hope for that franchise under the guiding hand of Peter "Bold Moves" Chiarelli. Just wanted to mention that the following year I was saying take Chychrun. I was constantly ridiculed and attacked on the Oilers Message Board by the way and a lot of those geniuses are still at it.

Imagine! It was all right there in the palm of their hands. Chabot, Chychrun, Nurse and Carlo plus whatever.

Edmonton should have won at least a couple of cups by now and be seriously challenging for more for years to come. They pissed it all away for a couple of playoff rounds and you can still listen to the same sports talking heads pontificating on the state of the Oilers franchise. No shame at all.

Ottawa has a bright future but impatience can so easily destroy it all. I hope they don't make the same mistake Edmonton made.
- Whatisavailable

Edmonton's main issue is the group running the team. Bob Nicholson (PoHo) is responsible for hiring both Peter Chiarelli and Ken Holland. Trading Reinhart, while absolutely terrible, is not the reason for this tire fire in year 7 of McDavid. Trust me, no one, and I mean no one, thought that trade was good.

As for Chychrunm no. That was never an option. While it would be absolutely wonderful to have him at the moment, Puljujarvi was the no brainer pick. And you're discrediting Puljujarvi immensely here. He bloomed incredibly late, but he has 25 points in 33 game while also playing elite on the other side of the puck.

Honestly, drafting has been the one bright spot since Bob Nicholson took charge, the issues come through trades, awful contracts and inaction from the GM and PoHo.

Just wanna point out 7W in last 11Gs
What’s going on lol
I can see it now we’re gonna finish around the bubble and (frank) our pick lol
I’m fine with winning but ya better give me playoff games 😂😂😉
- sens4life1971

Take it from an Oilers fan, a losing culture doesn't help in the slightest. Yes, the pick may be good, but surrounding him with players that are used to losing doesn't help.

Look at the 76ers, look at the Oilers. Tanking is bad.

Didn't need any foresight or magical powers. The best D available at the sixteenth spot was Chabot and I liked Carlo at the low 30s spot. The following year the Oilers dropped to the fourth spot and even though lots of people preferred Sergachev I opted for Chychrun.

These were not long shots but solid choices in very strong draft years.

Don't know who you are and I don't much care. I have just put this response up so people will know that I wasn't going on hindsight but that I was actually saying this stuff back then but it was mostly falling on deaf ears.

Maybe I ran into a few of your relatives on the Oilers Message Board at the time?
- Whatisavailable

Draisaitl-McDavid-Maroon
Lucic-NugentHopkins-Eberle
Pouliot-Letestu-Kassian
Don't remember

Klefbom-Larsson
Nurse-Sekera
Russell-Benning

Talbot

That was an approximate lineup of the team in the next season. Both Klefbom and Larsson were young and under contract (Klefbom still is). Nurse was on an ELC. Sekera was the best defender they had that season.

What's more is that they actually drafted a lot of defenders the previous draft, like Ethan Bear, John Marino and Caleb Jones (both NHLers).

They didn't need to draft for positional need, so they went with the best player available according the majority of opinions, Jesse Puljujarvi.

Oilers should have won at least 1 cup by now, it took Crosby 3 years to reach the finals and 4 to win his first cup, McDavid is in his 7th year has yet to to reach the finals, now this is not entirely his fault, he is not surrounded by the quality players as crosby was, cept for Drai, his 12.5M cap hit hurts the oilers ability to get quality players to help him and now they gave Nurse 9.5M which will hinder them further. They D is bad and their Goaltending questionable at best. The leafs are in the same boat.
- Mithos

Crosby's cap hit actually took up more of his team's cap percentage than McDavid's did.

Crosby's first contract of 8,700,000x5 took up 17.30% of the cap space when he signed it.

McDavid's 12,500,000x8 took up 16.67% of the cap space when signed.

But no, you hit the nail on the head. This team hasn't had a competent front office for nearly two decades now. Chiarelli made some bad trades which hurt their future. Ken Holland has issues with signing players to reasonable contracts.

Edmonton's main issue is the group running the team. Bob Nicholson (PoHo) is responsible for hiring both Peter Chiarelli and Ken Holland. Trading Reinhart, while absolutely terrible, is not the reason for this tire fire in year 7 of McDavid. Trust me, no one, and I mean no one, thought that trade was good.

As for Chychrunm no. That was never an option. While it would be absolutely wonderful to have him at the moment, Puljujarvi was the no brainer pick. And you're discrediting Puljujarvi immensely here. He bloomed incredibly late, but he has 25 points in 33 game while also playing elite on the other side of the puck.

Honestly, drafting has been the one bright spot since Bob Nicholson took charge, the issues come through trades, awful contracts and inaction from the GM and PoHo.
- Oilers4Life14

Mr Bobby Burger was a disaster for the franchise and Chiarelli was the centrepiece of that disaster

As for Chychrun the reason I was saying pick him is because once the Oilers fell to the fourth spot nobody thought Puljujarvi would still be available. Only when Columbus surprised everyone by picking Dubois did Chiarelli do an about face on the draft floor away from whatever deal he was about to do and pick JP instead.

No one expected that. I was saying trade down, get a player and take Chychrun. Others were saying do the same but go for Sergachev. Nobody thought Ethan Bear had solved their D issues and so they needed to draft D.

Great post by Whatisavailable..

Patience.

You have to allow time for players to find their NHL game. Some supposed sure fire prospects never will. Others will settle in and far exceed expectations.

Especially true for defensive players.

Love this team and the way it is being pulled together. Don't pay too much attention to the negative chatter. These guys are doing more than enough keep me happy for this year.
- spatso

Honestly he's pretty much wrong about everything expect the Griffin Reinhart deal being awful.

Patience in a rebuild causes a losing culture, literally look at Edmonton.

However, when a player such as Chychrun becomes available, you trade a protected pick and a good prospect for him. Trading for him accelerates your rebuild while as giving you a cost controlled dman who is young.

Picks and prospects are a poopshoot, Chychrun is a top 4 dman who still hasn't reached his full potential