JR Ewing

The Charlie Huddy argument is a lot like the Kevin Lowe argument for the Hall of Fame: not so good... Huddy's run through Bill James' Keltner Test: Was he ever regarded as the best player in hockey? No Was he ever regarded as the best player at his position? No Was he good enough to be among the top 10 in his position in G, A, Pts, W, SO No League leader in G, A, Pts, W, SO? No Impactful on a deep playoff run? Yes, Huddy played key minutes in six Cup Finals (1) Key member of a Cup winner? Yes, on five Cup winners (2) Was he ever a team Captain? No Did he ever Captain a Cup winner? No Was he likely to win a Selke? Was he a shut-down defenseman? Yes, Huddy was a fine shut-down defenseman. (3) Was he intimidating physically? No. Huddy was a competitor and could play physically, but he certainly didn't intimidate anybody with his fists, and he wasn't a dangerous hitter everybody kept their head on a swivel for, like a Scott Stevens. Did he maintain his standard of play after passing his prime? No, due to mileage he was mostly done as an effective shut down man by the time he turned 30, and from then on he was a bottom-pairing man on weaker teams. Huddy's main thing was impacting goal differential... Before he turned 30, he +254. From 30 on, he was -19. Was he ever a post-season AS? No Are players with similar career stats in the HOF? None Did he ever win a Hart/Lindsay/Norris/Vezina? No Did he ever win a Conn Smythe Trophy? No Is there evidence that he was better than his stats show? NO INJURIES No Did he bring intense positive focus to the sport of hockey? No Was he innovative, inspire a new style of play, or cause the league to change its rules? No 13+ = Best of the best 11-12 = Unquestioned HOFer 9-10 = Great player 7-8 = Belongs in the HOF ------------------------------ 5-6 = Borderline 3-4 = Weak argument 1-2 = Completely unqualified Huddy ends up with a four on here, and I feel the need to point out that even getting that many means that a guy was a hell of a hockey player... But not a Hall of Famer.

I would obviously love it if it could happen, but no. In all of the playoff rounds in all of the years in the history of the National Hockey League, a reverse sweep has only been done four times, and only one of those was in the Finals. It's been about 30 years since there was a sweep in the Finals, so even the losing teams rarely lose four in a row. Bobrovski stole game one from the Oilers and the Oilers stole game three from themselves, so it could easily be two games a piece now, but "should" isn't how any of this works, and I can live with that. I'll just have a harder time listening to the morons talking about how McDavid needs a Cup to cement his place in the history of the NHL, as if it's still the days of the Original Six, and almost everybody got one if they hung around long enough. He'd be a Hall of Famer if he hung them up tomorrow, so those fools can pound sand.

That assist ties Connor with Gretzky for most assists in a playoff year.

-Narratives are a funny thing. One that we keep hearing about is the brilliance of Sasha Barkov (and he *is* terrific) and that he's completely shut down Connor McDavid. As can be the case so often with narrative, it's not always indicative of what really happens. McDavid Scoring Chances/60 Minutes, 2024 playoffs First 3 rounds - 33.7 vs Florida - 33.9 McDavid isn't being shut down by Sasha Barkov; he's being goalied by Bob. -Yes, he's injured, but Darnell Nurse has been beyond awful. He's now cruised his way to the all-time worst single playoff +/- mark of -16. He's an absolute horse of an athlete. Huge, mean, strong skater, but one of the lowest Hockey IQs I've seen from a guy in his position who still makes rookie mistakes. He's not a player with 10 years of experience, but a player with one year of experience 10 times. -If Cody Ceci plays another game in an Oilers uniform, I'll turn a table over. -Think of how useful $14.5M in salary which is being spent on Nurse and Jack Campbell would be if it could be used elsewhere on the roster. A lot of Nurse's contract is the responsibility of Peter Chiarelli, who saw fit to sign such stalwarts as Zack Kassian and Kris Russell to long term deals while he twice bridged his young defenseman. -The bad start is probably part of what's coming back to haunt the team in the Finals. With Jay Woodcroft and Dave Manson implementing such poor coaching decisions, about 16% of the season was burned off before the team brought in what has clearly been a good hand in Kris Knoblauch. That meant that when McDavid was hurt early on, they couldn't rest him because they needed him so badly. He's as fast a skater as he ever was, but he lost 12 mph off his shot this year, so shoulder or wrist is the likely culprit. Evander Kane has been playing through a hernia since December and after almost getting his hand chopped off in Tampa Bay, he still can't feel anything in his left arm from the elbow-down. They couldn't rest him because they needed him so badly, and now when they need him the most, they were forced to shut him down. -I called for Phillip Broberg to be inserted into the lineup and that, even as a lefty, he could easily cover Cody Ceci's minutes, and he has. Though playing with Darnell Nurse, he's +2 and the Oilers get the majority of the scoring chances when he's on the ice. His reach gives him the ability to defend entries and his legs give him the ability to retrieve pucks. I was hoping that his habit of defending with his stick actually being on the ice might rub off on Nurse, but I was guess that was too much to ask.

-Barkov took part in the morning skate this morning. I expect he'll be in the lineup. -Kane and Nurse missed today's skate, but Kane hasn't practiced this calendar year, so take that for what it's worth. ---edit--- Barkov will play tonight. https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/panthers-captain-aleksander-barkov-play-174406103.html

There's a reason they make 'em play the games, but it's going to be really difficult for Edmonton. Things are really flipped between last year's Finals and this season's... Last year, Florida was really banged up, and this year they're pretty healthy. This year, half of the Oilers aren't practicing, and haven't been for well over a month.

For his entire run on the Sportsnet panel, Gazdic might as well still be wearing his Oilers jersey.

Are you quoting this tweet from Rick Westhead?

Ron McLean clarified that it should have been a penalty: it's where the puck makes contact with the stick and nothing else.

Argh; and then they miss a delay of game. Oh well.

Warren Foegele is one of the dumbest hockey players I've ever seen in the NHL. It was completely dirty: Foegele had his head up, didn’t change his path whatsoever, leaned in with his shoulder and went right directly through the knee. Textbook major.

That might be Warren Foegele's lat shift as an Edmonton Oiler.

The Flyers won't be making a qualifying offer

Yeah, I think he will. I always thought he was good coach.

They're also playing a much better offense than they've encountered in the playoffs so far.