JR Ewing

@yave1964 Could you imagine what it would be like if McDavid played for the Leafs?

When Kekalainen walked up to the podium and didn't take the Finish kid whom he'd seen a ton of, I thought "Oh wow".

There was no penalty on the play. I don't like to bitch about referees because a) That's all we'd probably ever do as fans, and b) It never gets better. That said, I thought the refs weren't great last night. They blew the whistle on some pretty iffy Oilers plays and swallowed the whistle with instances like the Dach hit on Ennis. The Oilers did a poor job of adjusting to refs, but the refs weren't great, all the same.

Chicago has played alright, and the Oilers defense definitely tightened up after game one. The problem has been that Edmonton continually puts itself in a position where they have to kill of 6 or 7 PP per game. Tough to win like that.

They're doing it to themselves. In every game, even game 2, which they won handily, the Oilers took FAR too many penalties. Last night, a better opponent would have put that game out of reach in the 2nd period.

Every bet is one against the house.

I was pretty sure he was born in Winnipeg.

I don't like Matt Tkachuk (though I love his Give a ****/60) but that was clearly an accident.

It's BC Day out here on the coast.

I mean, jeez... When the season wrapped up, they had the 12th highest Pts%, and the 8th-best Regulation Pts%. They're not a great team, but they obviously don't suck. I don't know the rest of the series will go: Chicago could roll on like this or Edmonton could do the same thing to them and win the series, but in any one game, even terrible teams can put a whooping on a much better team. It happens; we've all seen it. The major items: -Mike Smith was bad, and the game changed immediately when he let in that stinker that was 100% on him over-handling the puck and making such a weak play with it. -Coach Tippett messed up by starting Smith and then leaving him in after the 3rd goal, when it was clear as day he needed to come out. -97's line had a great night with the bat and a bad one with the glove. -Chicago played a very good game at evens and were gifted 3 PP goals by one of the league's usually-best PK units. Also: -Watching Andreas Athanasiou, it's hard to believe he's scored 15 goals in an NHL season, let alone 30. Looks completely lost out there. At this point, two 2nd-rounder is looking like a great trade for DET. -Klefbom/Larsson were awful, looked indecisive and slow. Nurse/Bear are better, and should be the top pairing. -Kassian is poor defensively, and Nugent-Hopkins is very responsible, and McDavid often cheats for offense. Old Dutch needs a 1RW who remembers that there are two nets on the ice. -I wouldn't mind seeing Nugent-Hopkins moving back to the Drasaitl/Yamamoto line. They were a hot-sh|t trio.

lol... Literally everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. Always nice to wait about 5 months for a game like this.

The opportunity must have been too good for Chayka to pass up for things to have happened like this. If this is the Devils/Sixers/Crystal Palace situation, I wouldn't be surprised if he was given a hands-on job across the different franchises. Orrrrrrr: has Chayka been offered a small piece of ownership?

Any single injury to Chicago's blueline will be very painful for the team's chances.

@Keep Your Stick on the Ice I keep hearing about this Carole Baskins lady... I know that I could look it up on google right now, but in the interest having a traditional conversation (welcome to HF.net btw!) who is she?

It's a short series, and if Kane comes out and absolutely rips it up, Chicago could win. Realistically though, for them to have a chance, Corey Crawford has to play, because as of right now Malcolm Subban is the starter. The Hawks are an awful team, defensively, and it's difficult to see him standing up very well to McDavid/Nugent-Hopkins and Draisaitl/Yamamoto. And, no matter if Crawford plays, if the Hawks take a lot of penalties, then it's all done. The 2020 Oilers have a ridiculous power-play, leading the league by almost 5% over 2nd place Boston. News of note: so far as yet, it would seem that young defenseman Phillip Broberg is, day-by-day, playing himself on to the roster, moving past several players on the depth chart. [Hidden Content]