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Taylor Hall is my favorite player ever. Rebuilding since 2006. I have animosity towards Tyler Seguin.

Wednesday 18 January 2012

Broncos Heavy



Being under-man'd in any situation is not ideal, especially when you are the center of attention for thousands of people while being paid handsomely.




Tim Tebow gets a lot of press, a lot. He gets ripped on and praised, but the bottom line is that he's pretty damn controversial. The problem with Tebow is that he can't throw the rock at an NFL calibre. Team defense's know this. The Broncos have had to adapt to this. They have a play designed for Tebow to just run the damn ball. Five O-lineman, a receiver and THREE running backs in front of him. All the players on the field just need to block. He may not be able to throw a spiral, but he's damn athletic.

The Broncos have some flaws, as any club does, but they were able to get by this season and into the playoffs. The reason for this is because their defense played exceptional when it had to, and they rode some good luck, really good luck. A 20th ranked defense and a 23rd rank offense, yuck. The AFC West was a three-way tie for first, no one had a winning record to boot. The TSN turning point was - Denver won the key games, the ones that mattered. Fluke? I think so.

What I'm getting at here is that riding luck is fun and can work, but it isn't sustainable. Denver still isn't very good and they never got any meaningful results either. Making it to the post-season was nice, but the Patriots spanked them and maybe people now realize that they never had a chance. The reason they never won is because they don't have the horses to compete (no pun intended).

Ritch Winter's article he posted a couple days ago was a little surprising. I was stunned at his suggestions. His praising of Glen Sather isn't based on much merit of the modern day NHL either. Sure his strategy worked in the 80's, but how many of those 17 year olds would slip to the Oilers in the later rounds of the draft if the scouting was as advanced as today's is? I doubt Glenn Anderson would be an Oiler. Anyway, New York is being run by Sather now, but they haven't won a cup since '94 and Sather wasn't a part of that. Jason Gregor had Ritch on his show yesterday and tore into him pretty good, but I'll provide my opinion, too.

Organizations like Hockey's Future's list most of the Oilers top prospects as their young defensemen. Martin Marincin, David Musil and Oscar Klefbom are three of the Oilers top 5 prospects. David Musil, a player everyone agrees has 15 year NHL career written all over him, didn't even get a fair shot at camp to prove he was ready to be part of the plan. One solid exhibition game and then gone. But why?
 Why do young defenseman get sent down? Playing defense in the NHL is not a walk in the park. Playing defense is incredibly difficult, actually. Taylor Chorney can attest to this. He was a young player who got a push from the organization and had his confidence shattered. David Musil, while strong in the prospect tourney, looked like a fish out of water. You cannot have a player this young, playing in the best league in the world when he is not ready, especially on defense. Forwards are passable, but even then only the top 4 or 5 forwards make the NHL after their draft year. If David Musil would have made the Oilers out of camp he would have gotten torn up, it would have been disgusting to watch. Instead, we send him down to work on his foot speed, offense, and he got the chance to represent his country at the World Juniors. Oscar Klefbom is the best defender out of the prospects, as draft pedigree backs it up. He was a World Junior all-star on defense. Klefbom didn't even attend camp because he is still under contract in the SEL, a league that has yet to see him establish an offensive game in. He would not help the Oilers either. The Oilers had four defensive prospects playing in that tournament, all gaining valuable experience while, in my opinion, excelling at the game of hockey.

The Oilers had a goal to reach the playoffs at the beginning of the year, that goal is now a long shot. In order for teams to reach the playoffs, they need to have solid players in all aspects of the game. Having 1 or 2, 18 year old, rookie defenders does not give a team the opportunity to compete for playoffs. The job is too complex and they would be bombarded every night. The Edmonton Oilers would have a bunch of quarterbacks who couldn't throw a spiral on D.

After the lockout, when forced to alter their stance, Duchene, Del Zotto, Skinner, Stamkos and Hedman, among others, proved management wrong - AGAIN.

3rd overall pick, 20th overall - who was -20 his first year and spilt time in the AHL and NHL his second year, 7th overall, 1st overall and 2nd overall... Hmmm, elite high end pick getting a shot, second rounders and on? Not so much.

 To play Peckham, Sutton, Potter and Petry instead of Musil, Marincin and Klefbom this year puts this team another year, maybe two away. It may create a situation under the salary cap whereby the Oilers miss the small window the new CBA provides for teams. A situation where the young Oiler prospects on D develop too late. Crazy.

Peckham and Petry are 24 years old, that is not old at all for NHL standards, and defenseman don't reach their peak years until 26 or 27 (see Smid, Ladislav). Potter has been a solid bottom pairing defenseman. Sorry, Potter would be a solid bottom pairing defenseman, he's formidable now in a top 4 role, but the Oilers should have someone better next year. Sutton is just a stop gap for a team trying to reach the playoffs, having him is better than having a kid lose a battle 82 times in a season.

I do agree, however, with the CBA point. Did the Oilers not learn from Chicago, when they had a live auction on free agency day? The time to win in the modern NHL is having 27 year old defenseman in their prime, a top 9 group of forwards with the elite ones on ELC's because they're young and a goalie that can stop a wrist shot. I am scared we missed the boat on our true potential already.

Do I hear a faint "bring Sather back" chant out there? :-)

One word: NO!

 We are seeing the rise of young D (when teams played them as youngsters all over the NHL. Hedman is playing anywhere from 22 to 29 minutes every night in Tampa (played his first NHL game at 18), Michael del Zotto in New York is 20th in  defenseman NHL scoring as of Jan 15th (played his first NHL game at 19)  and Erik Karlsson at 21 in leading the league in scoring amongst defensemen.

These guys are the exception, not the norm. Karlsson and Del Zotto didn't come into the league as 18 year olds either. MDZ was 19 and Karlsson was 20.

 Almost three years ago, I told Bob Stauffer on the air that it would take the Oilers 5 to 7 years to develop into an elite 100 point NHL team. Fans were outraged. They thought the prediction ridiculous. Well, with hindsight knowing what we know now, I revise my earlier projection. The Oilers, as currently configured behind the bench and in the management suite, will not become a 100 point team for 5 to 7 more years, if at all. So I should have told Stauff it would take as long as 10 years.

You didn't know how bad Tambellini would be, Ritch, no one did. This team has more holes than the Denver Broncos and their luck is the polar opposite. The only bright spots in Edmonton are hurt, except for Smid and Petry, but they'll probably go down in the next few weeks too. It's too bad, we need help. God bless us and God bless Tebow.

Disclaimer: Helmets do not need to be worn in warm up. Quit treating grown men like children.

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