Edmonton determined to be last?

[Jester@wraiths.ca]

Really? maybe if some of his facts were, ya know, true, but thats not really the case.

Yes Penner was traded, he was also a player who was playing better under Quinn than under Renney. A plus player under Quinn, a minus player under Rennie. Quinn's goaltending for most of the season was Deslaurier and Dubnyk, neither of whom played well. He didn't have another option to ignore and send to the minors...

Gagner is bouncing back? You may want to realize that Gagner had virtually the same points per game under Quinn as under Renney, except under Rennie he has a much worse plus minus. How is that better?

Cogliano is on pace for 5 more points than last year and a plus minus twice as bad, how is that a "bounceback" ? At best he breaks even.

Gilbert's "bounceback" under Renney is on pace for less points than he had under Quinn.

You're saying that Renney was at a disadvantage because he only had Whitney for 35 games? Well, thats almost twice as many games as Quinn got him for, since he only played 19 games for Quinn...

The only guy out of your selection of bounceback players who actually is playing better under Renney, is Horcoff.

I don't know Quinn, what I do know is that he's had more success in any one stop in the NHL than Renney has in his career as a head coach. You seem pretty high on Renney as a coach, what I don't understand is why? Renny's teams have NEVER finished above 3rd in their own division. How is that better in any way?

[Greene02]

First, I'd like to point out this is my second go at this post. I have to be honest, my first attempt was a beauty but when it hit post the page didn't load and everything was lost. It's like Risk...you just can't put as much effort into the second game of the night So here's the half assed version.

-------

I can't help but find it funny how thin his argument has become. We're now going player by player and apparently giving the coaches all the credit for their success and all the blame for their disappointment.

Yes Penner was traded, he was also a player who was playing better under Quinn than under Renney. A plus player under Quinn, a minus player under Rennie.

[Jester@wraiths.ca]

I like Renney but I also liked Quinn. I was bummed when Quinn was let go but I can recognize that Renney is a better fit for the Oilers going forward. As bad as the on ice product was last season, it was even worse in the locker room. Kevin Lowe even admitted in the Oil Change documentary that it got to the point where he didn't even want to go down to the locker room anymore because it was just so negative. Renney has done a very good job of making sure the team doesn't get too high or too low on themselves. Plus, it's really not that crazy to think that at the age of 68 years old Quinn wasn't quite the same coach he used to be.

...and Renney is far from perfect. There is plenty of things you could criticize him on and I wouldn't put up much of an argument. You just don't watch the Oilers and don't know what they are.

[avelanch]

Gerber was lit up by the moose on tuesday (4GA, .8571 SV%), and has a pertty bad season in the AHL as a whole this season:

GP GA Mins Saves GAA  SV%    W  L SOW SOL SOGA SOA  SO%  T SO

37 91 2182 982   2.50 0.915 20 13  4   3   11   47 0.766 0  4

19th overall in GAA, and 15th in save % in the AHL. that doesn't scream "should be supplanting an NHL goalie"

It seems like his 3 games in the NHL were more of an anomaly than anything.

[Jester@wraiths.ca]

Gerber was lit up by the moose on tuesday (4GA, .8571 SV%), and has a pertty bad season in the AHL as a whole this season:

GP GA Mins Saves GAA  SV%    W  L SOW SOL SOGA SOA  SO%  T SO

37 91 2182 982   2.50 0.915 20 13  4   3   11   47 0.766 0  4

19th overall in GAA, and 15th in save % in the AHL. that doesn't scream "should be supplanting an NHL goalie"

It seems like his 3 games in the NHL were more of an anomaly than anything.

[RAMBUTANS]

if i were edmonton id try to to be last too. 1st overall pick.

[Greene02]

If Quinn wasn't the coach for the job, the goal would be replacing him with someone who would do better. I question choosing a guy who has failed in each head coaching job he's had. Bringing in a coach who has had a losing history and couldn't coach a team to better than 3rd in their own division, ever, doesn't strike me as bringing in a good coach or setting up a winning atmosphere.

I expect Renney to do no differently than he has in the past, miss the playoffs most of the time, and get fired once it's clear he's taking the team nowhere. but, he's a perfect fit for a team who wants to score big at the draft...

[Jester@wraiths.ca]

How am I being unreasonable?

He was pretty well regarded prior to getting a head coach gig, and has failed to succeed in each of his opportunities.

You said his teams were decent?

96-97 he took the Nucks to 9th in the west, missed the playoffs.

97-98 he got 4 wins in 1/4 of the season and was fired

03-04 he took the Rangers to 13th in the East, missed the playoffs

05-06 he managed 3rd in his division and made the playoffs! SWEPT 0-4 in playoffs.

06-07 Maintained his medicrity, 3rd in his division, made playoffs, amd made the 2nd round.

07-08 3rd in division again, made playoffs, made 2nd round, then lost in 5 games...

08-09 fired

I can't look at that and say "great job".

[otherwise]

How am I being unreasonable?

He was pretty well regarded prior to getting a head coach gig, and has failed to succeed in each of his opportunities.

You said his teams were decent?

96-97 he took the Nucks to 9th in the west, missed the playoffs.

97-98 he got 4 wins in 1/4 of the season and was fired

03-04 he took the Rangers to 13th in the East, missed the playoffs

05-06 he managed 3rd in his division and made the playoffs! SWEPT 0-4 in playoffs.

06-07 Maintained his medicrity, 3rd in his division, made playoffs, amd made the 2nd round.

07-08 3rd in division again, made playoffs, made 2nd round, then lost in 5 games...

08-09 fired

I can't look at that and say "great job".

[Greene02]

How am I being unreasonable?

He was pretty well regarded prior to getting a head coach gig, and has failed to succeed in each of his opportunities.

You said his teams were decent?

96-97 he took the Nucks to 9th in the west, missed the playoffs.

97-98 he got 4 wins in 1/4 of the season and was fired

03-04 he took the Rangers to 13th in the East, missed the playoffs

05-06 he managed 3rd in his division and made the playoffs! SWEPT 0-4 in playoffs.

06-07 Maintained his medicrity, 3rd in his division, made playoffs, amd made the 2nd round.

07-08 3rd in division again, made playoffs, made 2nd round, then lost in 5 games...

08-09 fired

I can't look at that and say "great job".

[Zigmund.Palffy]

You may want to double check the assessment of Khabibulin's play this season.

He ranks 66th in save percentage and 70th in goals against average, which isn't "great" unless you're shooting for last, in which case he is well worth the 3.75 mill cap hit.

[Jester@wraiths.ca]

But hes on a bad team

[Zippgunn]

...and the conspiracy theories just keep on coming. Coming soon: the dark cospiracy to screw the Canucks in the playoffs led by Campbell, Bettman and Rasputin.

[MikeyD]

Edmonton should have beaten Detroit, but damn they were f*cking robbed by the refs soooooo bad.

[Greene02]

Edmonton should have beaten Detroit, but damn they were f*cking robbed by the refs soooooo bad.

[otherwise]

Yeah. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it since the game means nothing but it's tough to see that kind of stuff. That would have been Dubnyk's 2nd career shutout and he had earned it.

For people who don't know....Strudwick takes an interference penalty. On the delayed penalty he takes the puck and tries to clear the zone(play should be blown dead) and Lidstrom keeps the puck in and fires it on net. The puck deflates off Cogliano's stick(again should be blown dead) and goes past Dubnyk with 24 second left in the game. That tied the gae 1-1 and the Redwings won the game in OT. Twice the whistle should have been blown but wasn't.

Again, I don't really care but Dubnyk is a rookie goalie and the shutout would have been nice. He had made all 41 saves up until that point.

[Greene02]

Dubnyk played fantastic and so did Ryan Jones 24:50 in in ice time, holy cow that's a lot but he didn't look out of place.

Did you see the BS call on Brule? He totally had the puck first but gets called for tripping.

[otherwise]

Yeah. I try not to complain about the refs too much since every fan base feels they get ripped off but last night there were a few odd calls and non-calls.

As for Jones, he's been a surprise. 15 goals from a guy you picked up on waivers? That doesn't happen very often. I remember reading Predators fans opinion on him. They were disappointed to lose him because they thought he could be a 20 goal scorer. I kind of just rolled my eyes and assumed he was a dime a dozen 4th liner. That hasn't been the case at all. 15 goals playing almost the entire season in the bottom 6 is impressive. He's also been the team's best penalty killer. That's not much of a compliment when you're playing for a bottom 5 PK unit but he really has been good. He gets so many shorthanded scoring chances and tons of breakaways. If he had the hands of a top 6 player he'd probably flirt with 25-30 goals since he gets so many chances.

I'll be disappointed if they let him walk for nothing in the summer for two reasons. The first is because he's a good player. The second is because he reminds the rest of the fan base of Curtis Glencross. Personally I thought he was overrated in his Oiler days but a lot of fans still haven't forgiven Lowe for letting him go to Calgary. I'd rather watch Jones than hear another "the one that got away" story for the next 5 years.

[Jester@wraiths.ca]

The competition was fierce, Colorado and Florida getting just 2 wins each in the last 10 games, but Renney is definitely the coach for this challenge.

Renney indeed has the experience to get them where they want to be, he got them all on the same page and playing for the bottom, zero wins in the last 11 games. Best chance at 1st pick again. Good stuff.

They would need to win all their remaining games to beat Quinn's season which got him fired...

[reptile87]

It's mind boggling just how bad Edmonton's team defense and goaltending is. I've seen Dubnyk play reasonably well on many nights, but wow does he ever get hung up to dry sometimes. Edmonton's top 6 needs to get a guy like Shea Weber in the offseason, and draft Adam Larsson with that number one pick. Whitney is a solid dman but I'd put him at no.3 on most good teams. Smid is a decent bottom pair guy, maybe even 2nd pair. Other than that, that blueline needs to be gutted because it is pretty ugly. Guys like Peckham and Macintyre and strudwick for chrissake... season was mailed in a long time ago.