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Pens & Oilers
Apr. 19th, 2015 11:57 amPens won! Series is at 1-1! Sid with almost a hat trick, great PK, Flower fantastic as always. And that's with 4 of our top 6 D, 3 of the top 4, still out. Now that's depth on defense. Plus Duper is out, and Geno is obviously injured. (Now if only Lovejoy can improve, that would be great...)
So the Pens aren't getting swept. I try not to get my hopes up, because nothing really changed - most people predicted a 5 or 6 game series - but it's hard *sigh* I have many thoughts, many of them in the general category of "fuck the Rangers."
Now the real fun news: the Oilers won the draft lottery! 4th 1st overall pick in six years. Wow. This is hilarious.
Many people seem to be pissed, but I'm just glad he didn't go to Columbus. (Philly would have been fine, yay arch rivalry storylines, but I really dislike Columbus and they're already a very good team.) About the "Edmonton ruins young players" narrative, the only one that I think that definitely applies to is Justin Schultz. Hall is a top winger in the league, RNH is very good but had some injury problems, Yakupov didn't have spectacular rookie seasons but from what I heard is going to be fine, and Draisaitl got into a bad situation but hopefully it'll be more stable next year.
What the Oilers really need imo, apart from better management (poor fans), are better veterans as mentors and for stability. They tried with Andrew Ference, but that didn't work so well/wasn't enough. I'm just speculating, but I think Paul Martin might be a great fit for them. He's a top pairing defenseman, very underrated. Very calm, he can play both stay-at-home and move the puck, he also plays PP, big minutes. He's 34, so he might decline a bit, but with his style of play it won't be immediate. Many young Pens D-men said he's great as a mentor, exactly what the Oilers need. And he comes from a team familiar with pressure and disappointment, and superstars. He doesn't have a Cup yet, so he might want to go to a team that's a contender, or that's less of a mess, or that's somewhere less cold and remote, but the Oilers could pay well and after the lottery it's sure to become exciting.
Just speculating, of course. I'm going to miss Martin, he's great, but if Letang is good to play next year (PLEASE) we have more than enough good young cheap options in Maatta, Pouliot, Dumoulin, Harrington, Cole, and we also still have Lovejoy and Scuderi.
Hopefully McDavid in Edmonton will make for fun storylines. He didn't look especially happy with the result, but there's still hope. Hope that the media doesn't try stupid Gretzky comparison storylines, he's far too young for that.
So the Pens aren't getting swept. I try not to get my hopes up, because nothing really changed - most people predicted a 5 or 6 game series - but it's hard *sigh* I have many thoughts, many of them in the general category of "fuck the Rangers."
Now the real fun news: the Oilers won the draft lottery! 4th 1st overall pick in six years. Wow. This is hilarious.
Many people seem to be pissed, but I'm just glad he didn't go to Columbus. (Philly would have been fine, yay arch rivalry storylines, but I really dislike Columbus and they're already a very good team.) About the "Edmonton ruins young players" narrative, the only one that I think that definitely applies to is Justin Schultz. Hall is a top winger in the league, RNH is very good but had some injury problems, Yakupov didn't have spectacular rookie seasons but from what I heard is going to be fine, and Draisaitl got into a bad situation but hopefully it'll be more stable next year.
What the Oilers really need imo, apart from better management (poor fans), are better veterans as mentors and for stability. They tried with Andrew Ference, but that didn't work so well/wasn't enough. I'm just speculating, but I think Paul Martin might be a great fit for them. He's a top pairing defenseman, very underrated. Very calm, he can play both stay-at-home and move the puck, he also plays PP, big minutes. He's 34, so he might decline a bit, but with his style of play it won't be immediate. Many young Pens D-men said he's great as a mentor, exactly what the Oilers need. And he comes from a team familiar with pressure and disappointment, and superstars. He doesn't have a Cup yet, so he might want to go to a team that's a contender, or that's less of a mess, or that's somewhere less cold and remote, but the Oilers could pay well and after the lottery it's sure to become exciting.
Just speculating, of course. I'm going to miss Martin, he's great, but if Letang is good to play next year (PLEASE) we have more than enough good young cheap options in Maatta, Pouliot, Dumoulin, Harrington, Cole, and we also still have Lovejoy and Scuderi.
Hopefully McDavid in Edmonton will make for fun storylines. He didn't look especially happy with the result, but there's still hope. Hope that the media doesn't try stupid Gretzky comparison storylines, he's far too young for that.
