Oilers hit the greasy slide

A once great hockey team from a great city is now wallowing in last place. The Edmonton Oilers fired their head coach a few games ago, but not much changed. Eakins is one of the elite coaches in the sport of hockey. Even he had to realize once he had a chance to evaluate the team that the roster was filled with poorly developed hockey players. Loads of talent. Lacking in skill.
... Typical. The Oilers overrate their players. One really has to wonder where the management derives its plan. McT probably issued the funniest assessment about his inability to forge a meaningful trade.
... He said that he doesn't want to trade away his core players. Worse. He said it with an absolutely straight face.
... The Oilers management has bungled their player development so badly that it is totally believable that every player would likely pass through recallable waivers. And if there was interest, none could attract a value trade of better than a 6th round draft pick.
... Every other team in the league recognizes that there isn't a single player on the Oilers who would not benefit from doing a year or two in the AHL. If the Oilers manage to get another first, or second pick in the first draft round put them into a year in the AHL. And throw away the key.
... The NHL is no place to develop players. Too focused on winning. Too little practice time. Too many games. Very little time for meaningful long term one on one coaching.

Big stopper

Well Bob, this day is almost (two days short) the one year anniversary of the game, which converted the Leaf's season from a walk in the park, to the top of the diving tower into an empty pool. Worse than this, it is also the same sequence of goalie changes. Reimer's net choice followed Bernier loses. Worse this year, is that they are up against a formidable high tempo hockey team in the Hawk's home rink.
... Reimer is in net. The last two games indicate that the Leafs are on the down low when it comes to game. Now last year, the loss to the Hurricanes was the precursor to an early visit to the Florida golf courses.The other goalie might be the number one, but Reimer must prove that he is the stopper, the wall.
... The Leafs will be on the road for the next seven games. How successful they are will determine just how the rest of their season goes. Its the fine line. Tonight they step over a line or trip over it.

Life in the Fastsh Lane.

Fastsh just screamed his way out of Edmonton. Reimer does well against the Wings.And in the Leaf's eyes Reimer's trade value will never be higher. Maybe finally MacTavish has seen the light and offered up one of his... and I am trying to say this with a fuckin' straight face now.... core players.

... I could see a three way trade with Fasth going to Winnipegs farm team, Budaj going to the Leafs with a forward from Edmonton and Reimer going to the Oilers.

.. That would be the best deal for the Leafs because Budaj has to be the best back up goalie available. The Jets don't seem to want to give Budaj a chance but they are still paying him a salary.

... The latter would be the best deal for the Leafs right now. If the Jets don't want to play in the pool. Then MacTavish must make a deal straight up. Which means he must trade somebody both useless and valuable which the entire Oilers are smitten with. All of them have offensive talent but most were brought up to the NHL without at least a year's seasoning in the AHL to get their bodies honed and learn even the most basic of defensive skills.

... The Leafs on the other hand must get the deal done by 8:00 o'clock Reimer's value goes down if you are the Leafs and the Red Wings take out their frustrations on Bernier. Which by the way they will. Bernier's in a tough spot right now. He has to win tonight with an offense who only managed 19 SOG in regular play.

... So Dave (Nonis) you only got 6 hours(from 1300hrs EST) leverage to get Hall or Hopkins for Reimer and maybe a 3rd round daft pick.

Faux pas; the Reimer Primer 3

The guy who should be traded is Reimer. 48 hours before Saturday night Reimer could do no wrong. He has one bad game and the fans are all over him. That's totally disgusting. Again the fans came down even to the point of threatening his wife.

This city is toxic. Reimer deserves better from the team mates and the fans. The goalie that did get the Leafs into the playoffs last time was Reimer, not Bernier. Even if he doesn't play, if Reimer is playing well the whole team is playing well. And vice versa.

On the first goal that was on Reimer, but the second goal was a disgrace. The Sabre forward came unchallenged down the wing. The only reason, and the only reason a goalie leaves the net on that play is because the defense playing in front is total crap. If Reimer had managed to poke check successfully he would have been a hero. The margin between goat and hero is thinner than a razor's edge. Case in point.

To aggravate the bad play the Leafs defense was nowhere to be seen. Obviously they were in the wrong end of the rink Phaneufing around. When the two defensemen did show up, they were looking at the puck. One guy of the two just had to pick up the trailer and the other cover the net as Reimer scrambled back from doing their job. Just one had to turn around and mark the trailer, just one guy. Nope.

What is most aggravating is that the Leafs can play a much better defensive game. They have stymied the opposition to ten shots on goal for the whole game. The topper was the third goal on Reimer. The Sabres Forward moved to the point to Reimer's left. I'd swear there were four Leafs between that guy and the goal. The forward had time to set and shoot. No one came to challenge at all. The shot went through the 4 man screen and into the net. No one thought to try to stop the puck.

I don't know of any goalie that could anticipate the path of that puck. It was a perfect screen and worse the entire screen was composed of Reimer's team mates. At that point, Carlyle should have swapped out Reimer and Bernier. Nope.

At that point I switched to the Florida State vs Miami game. Which was far more entertaining than watching the Leafs.

To the glue factory

Don Cherry begins his exit from Hockey Night in Canada (HNIC). This Saturday past he complained on air somewhat bitterly about the length of time Rogers assigned his Coach's Corner rant. Basically, Rogers sort of reneged on their commitment to Cherry. Before the deal was signed with the NHL Rogers swore up and down about giving Cherry a wider fan base. Well its seems that the new boss is retrenching or going back on the CBC veterans.

The new producers slyly began the process of putting Ron MacLean out to pasture. He has been assigned to a pathetic national grand tour of Canadian towns, designating one unlucky community as hockey town of the week. It shows on Sunday evening. Its the slow dismissal by a thousand cuts.

Why? Its very simple. They want their man Stroumboulopoulos to shine away from the shadow of McLean or Cherry. Its sort of working. Strombo has youth, experience and interview skills. Strombo also equals or excels most of the colleagues regarding sports, and especially hockey. He began his career as a sports producer on radio. One of his resume references comes from the fact that he produced Prime Time Sports hosted by the notoriously cranky Bob McCown. To survive that, and get a good reference out of McCown, one must know their stuff.

CBC rather in one of their bizarre moves employed Strombo as an Entertainment and pop host. Strombo emerged from the period when the CBC was trying to attract a younger audience. It was the motivation that deposed Definitely Not the Opera with Nora Young, with "Q" hosted by the now notoriouser Jian Ghomeshi. CBC made a mistake with both. Strombo being badly assigned and Jian  a horror waiting to happen. But the Mother Corp. refused to put him into Sports where his real talent lies.

Rogers wanted to change everything. Its much like the spouse walking into a mansion with grand staircases, Victorian black oak furniture and simply disliking the place based on the fact that the drapes were all wrong. Cherry and MacLean are part of the HNIC furnishings. Typical of designers Rogers doesn't want to totally piss off the house owners. The house owners being the audience.

Cherry's confrontational style caused friction all the time with the CBC executives. But he was making them money, an unusual thing at that publicly owned broadcaster. Indeed their segment was the highest rated television period in all of the network. By association Ron MacLean's stock grew. Enter a new player Rogers/Sportsnet. They bought the entire NHL television rights for the next decade paying out Billions. Enter the dragon of private ownership.

Cherry chafes big time about everything. Like the Scorpion in folklore, its in his nature. Unlike the CBC though, Sportsnet isn't likely to be pushed around. They have control of the material for the next decade. They are locked in for success. Right now he has no leverage. He threatens to quit. They will just point to the door. Even if his certain departure comes sooner this company will not shed one tear.

And even if there is a furor over Cherry the Darth Rogers storm troopers have landed on the rebel planet hockey. Cherry has no more leverage on pay, time or issues. By the time the monopolist contract expires, departures of Cherry and MacLean become a distant dim memory in the media Oort Cloud.

Cherry bomb

Fine. Leafs lost. They call it an OT loss. Still its a loss. Meanwhile back at the hanger, they received a deluge of Cherryisms. Apparently he wants them to pick a number one goalie. What's wrong with the Leafs have nothing to do with the goalies. Its lousy defense. The coaches are listening to living fossils instead of using their own experience.

Time to retire Donnie boy.

Leafs - the Bermier Conundrum

Y'know I think Carlyle is starting to like jerking everyone around 4 fun. The fact he can go to any either goalie and trust they will play well is a really good place to be. Its a long season. Last year he went away from rotating in mid December, and it cost them the trip to the playoffs. That won't happen this year.
... Certainly, the new coaching staff will put more effort in trying to figure out in what situations where each excels. The other challenge is to set up the defense strategy playing in front of each goalie. It appears that Bernier plays better when the defense works to force shots on goal to come from the outside. Reimer seems to play better when the shots come from in front of him.
... After midseason last year it seemed that many of the scoring plays began from the corners. Also I noted during the last game that the defense put more effort into clearing the screen from tne left side of Reimer's net. Bernier seems to play better with the defense two steps closer to the net.
... Last year, after New Year's day the Leafs seemed to play the defense one way. That way favored Bernier's style. This year it appears the Leaf's are trying to adjust to the goalie style.to a greater degree.-