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NHL Off-Season thread:Down goes Kane! (1 Viewer)

what happened to the Islanders?

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Minnesota Wild rallied from a three-goal deficit and scored four unanswered goals in the third period in a 5-4 win against the New York Islanders at Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday.

It was the second consecutive game the Islanders led 3-0 and lost; they lost 6-4 to the St. Louis Blues at Nassau Coliseum on Saturday.

For Minnesota, it was the second straight game they erased a 3-0 deficit on home ice. The Wild rallied Friday against the Anaheim Ducks, taking a 4-3 lead before eventually falling 5-4.

Per Elias Sports Bureau, it's the first time in Wild history they've won in regulation in a game they trailed by three goals.

Down 4-1 to start the third, the Wild got goals from Mikko Koivu and Erik Haula to start the rally before former Islanders forward Thomas Vanek chipped away at a loose puck in front of goaltender Chad Johnson, tying the game at 4-4 with 8:12 to play.

Four minutes later, it was another Islander scoring off a net-front scramble; Nino Niederreiter, New York's first-round pick (No. 5) at the 2010 NHL Draft, scored his team-leading 12th goal with 4:33 left.

The Islanders got a late power play and pulled Johnson with one minute left for a 6-on-4 advantage, but were unable to capitalize.
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Not used to gloating Sabres fans.

Isles have now lost back to back games after being up by 3 goals.

After the injury to Ballard,which was frightening, the Wild got pissed off and dominated the 3rd period. Vanek actually found his spine and did something.

Hope the Isles make a mental note on Scandella - viscous stick slashes (on Tavares) and elbows to the head (on Nelson) deserve pay back the next time they meet.

 
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Aaron Rudnicki said:
what happened to the Islanders?

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Minnesota Wild rallied from a three-goal deficit and scored four unanswered goals in the third period in a 5-4 win against the New York Islanders at Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday.

It was the second consecutive game the Islanders led 3-0 and lost; they lost 6-4 to the St. Louis Blues at Nassau Coliseum on Saturday.

For Minnesota, it was the second straight game they erased a 3-0 deficit on home ice. The Wild rallied Friday against the Anaheim Ducks, taking a 4-3 lead before eventually falling 5-4.

Per Elias Sports Bureau, it's the first time in Wild history they've won in regulation in a game they trailed by three goals.

Down 4-1 to start the third, the Wild got goals from Mikko Koivu and Erik Haula to start the rally before former Islanders forward Thomas Vanek chipped away at a loose puck in front of goaltender Chad Johnson, tying the game at 4-4 with 8:12 to play.

Four minutes later, it was another Islander scoring off a net-front scramble; Nino Niederreiter, New York's first-round pick (No. 5) at the 2010 NHL Draft, scored his team-leading 12th goal with 4:33 left.

The Islanders got a late power play and pulled Johnson with one minute left for a 6-on-4 advantage, but were unable to capitalize.
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No Idea...they played the last 2 periods with their head up their ###s. We need Boychuk back ASAP!!! Johnson should not see any ice time for the rest of the year. Not an easy schedule coming up...gotta get back on the horse ASAP before Dec is the beginning of the typical isles 20-game mid season slide

 
not sure what the hell has been wrong with the Wild in the 1st period of the last two games, but two inspired comebacks and this time it stuck. Nino buries the GW on the Isles, sweet.

thought that 4th goal was going to be the back breaker on the Isles only shot in the 2nd...17 minutes into the period.

Koivu was great tonight everywhere on the ice and at the dot. need more of that from him.

rare Vanek goal. hopefully skating with Granlund and Parise Sparks him.

Ballard hit was really scary. awkward play, correct no call. was worried for him there, completely out and then looked like he started to convulse. I have a lot of respect for Brodziak stepping up to fight a bigger, stronger, and far better fighter in Martin and holding his own. no real fighters in the Wild lineup. really sparked the whole team.

Scandella might get a game for the head shot on Nelson since he was just fined for one a couple weeks ago. bad hit. saw the slash mentioned above, no problem with that since Tavares gave him 3 shots of his own just prior and actually caused that turnover without a call. give, take.

what a game!

 
Bill Brasky said:
not sure what the hell has been wrong with the Wild in the 1st period of the last two games, but two inspired comebacks and this time it stuck. Nino buries the GW on the Isles, sweet.

thought that 4th goal was going to be the back breaker on the Isles only shot in the 2nd...17 minutes into the period.

Koivu was great tonight everywhere on the ice and at the dot. need more of that from him.

rare Vanek goal. hopefully skating with Granlund and Parise Sparks him.

Ballard hit was really scary. awkward play, correct no call. was worried for him there, completely out and then looked like he started to convulse. I have a lot of respect for Brodziak stepping up to fight a bigger, stronger, and far better fighter in Martin and holding his own. no real fighters in the Wild lineup. really sparked the whole team.

Scandella might get a game for the head shot on Nelson since he was just fined for one a couple weeks ago. bad hit. saw the slash mentioned above, no problem with that since Tavares gave him 3 shots of his own just prior and actually caused that turnover without a call. give, take.

what a game!
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we can agree to disagree...but that slash was nasty and could have been a lot worse. Looks like just the toe of the sick made contact, but that stick started out (with only his hand on the top of it) behind his head. Thats a lumberjack swing if I've ever seen one. If that hits square on the knee, that's good night JT for the rest of the season.

 
Aaron Rudnicki said:
Not gloating. I bet on the Wild and wrote it off as a loss, so was surprised to see it graded as a win.
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Same here, was surprised to see your article that they blew that game. Had them tied up with something else and assumed that was a winner. Nice comeback for you Rud, turrrrble for the isles.

And the Flyers lose again but pickup another painful point in the process.

Go Sabres Go!!

 
glvsav37 said:
we can agree to disagree...but that slash was nasty and could have been a lot worse. Looks like just the toe of the sick made contact, but that stick started out (with only his hand on the top of it) behind his head. Thats a lumberjack swing if I've ever seen one. If that hits square on the knee, that's good night JT for the rest of the season.
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seems a bit dramatic to me. wasn't any worse than Okposo's retaliatory two hand slash on Granlund in the 2nd period. both minors, as Tavares' slash should have been as well. :shrug:

 
Caps with a modest 3 game road sweep after a very solid effort against the Bolts last night.Holtby has turned his game around and has been really good for the last month.The PK has been horrendous but didn't allow a PP goal the entire trip not did they ever trail in any of those games.

Trotz slowly but surely getting them to buy into his style of play but it hasn't been easy.I still fully expect a few names to be moved come trade deadline unless they just go on a huge tear.Brouwer and Green are the 2 best candidates to get moved and it wouldn't surprise me if Laich gets dealt either.

 
Caps are decent. pretty stunning how much better that team is when all they really signed was a couple overpaid D men. good young players getting better helps too of course. Trotz is a good bench boss.

 
Bill Brasky said:
Caps are decent. pretty stunning how much better that team is when all they really signed was a couple overpaid D men. good young players getting better helps too of course. Trotz is a good bench boss.
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I think it had a lot to do with how Oates wanted them to play last year.Bottom 3rd in both Corsi and Fenwick to now the top 3rd under Trotz 5 on 5.

Orpik is doing what is asked of him(hit and block shots)even though he doesn't drive puck possession like you would hope and that gives Carlson some space to do his thing so he has been the biggest winner with Orpik playing with him.Alzner just isn't that type of player even though he is pretty good at positioning himself.

I'm curious to see what Trotz does with Orlov once he's ready.Does he sit Schmidt(who has been good)or just leave Orlov as the 7th D man every night(scratch)?

Pretty good depth they have now.

 
Bill Brasky said:
Northern Voice said:
Bill Brasky said:
Weird decision to not use JvR at all. Not that it matters against Howard.
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Yeah, surprised me as well. Bozak is now best in NHL % wise for 15+ attempts, but after him, you'd usually expect JVR.
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Bozak is money all alone. he's been playing pretty well for a while too. looking like the Leafs made the right call there.
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He's getting points that don't involve Phil Kessel this season, which he's never really done before. Leafs 7-1-1 in last 9. They're not that good, but in the East they could pretty easily be a playoff team. The 3rd and 4th lines are so far ahead of what they sent out there last season.

 
Sabres have won 8 of 11.

were outshot 45-19 tonight and still won 4-3.

:lmao:

Ennis/Girgensons/Myers/Enroth carrying this team.

 
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Solid effort tonight for the B's, but a couple of breakdowns dug them a hole and then they didn't have much puck luck. Can't do that against a team as good as the 'Hawks.

It sucks that Toews got hurt. The hit didn't look good live, but I guess the replay showed that Seidenberg just kind of caught him awkwardly (not between the numbers) and didn't even really push him at all.

B's really missed Savard tonight.

 
I really wonder what the limit is on which outdoor venues actually want to host it. That might explain why we're already recycling after about 6-7 years.

I'm as hockey fanatical as they come, but I'm already pretty bored of the idea of hockey at Fenway after going to two different events there. Eventually the novelty just runs its course and you realize it's all about the spectacle (and the $$$) at the expense of glorified pond hockey.

 
Brutal stretch for the Islanders and off to a bad start with the Hawks coming up. First Islander game in a long time that has peaked this Ranger fan's interest. My Islander fan friends have been overhyped all year. Let's see if the team comes through for them or if it's just another failed Islander season.

 
Aaron Rudnicki said:
ditka311 said:
Morin traded for Tim Erixon. Hawks dropped the dead weight so hopefully they can go on another long win streak now.
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It's amazing how many times Erixon has been traded already. I thought he was going to be a long-time stud for sure.
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I don't know much about him. I know he's only 23 so maybe there's hope.

My post was all sarcasm but I honestly wish Morin the best. Hope he does well in Columbus.

 
Bill Brasky said:
tom22406 said:
Sources tell TSN's Darren Dreger that the Edmonton Oilers have fired head coach Dallas Eakins.
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problem solved. or not.
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Decent read

The Dallas Eakins Hiring Doomed The Edmonton Oilers

December 15, 2014 | by Derek Neumeier· Filed under: Edmonton Oilers



Things were supposed to be different this year for the Edmonton Oilers.

Sure, nobody except the most oil-tinted-glasses-wearing fans of the team thought that Edmonton actually had a good shot at making the playoffs this year. Not in this brutally tough Western Conference, and not with that roster void of both talent and experience.

Even without the playoffs, though, things were supposed to be different this year.

The Oilers haven’t made the playoffs since 2006, by far and away the longest streak in the NHL. Not only have the Oilers been consistently missing the playoffs, but they’ve been spectacularly disastrous in that span of time. They’ve been one of the league’s ten worst teams each season since 2008-2009, finishing dead last twice and in the bottom three two more times on top of that.

The one silvering lining for the franchise, however, was that each abysmal season awarded the team more and more high draft choices that were used to accumulate elite young talent. With skilled former first round draft picks like Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Nail Yakupov and Leon Draisaitl all now in the mix, maybe this year would be the year where the Oilers finally started their long, grueling crawl out of the NHL’s basement and into league’s upper-echelon of teams. After all, the same rags-to-riches climb worked incredibly well for recent Stanley Cup-winning teams like the Los Angeles Kings, Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins.

And yet, with more than a third of the season already concluded, things couldn’t be further from the truth.

The Oilers are currently dead-last in the NHL, with a record of 7-19-5. The team is 29th in goals per game, 29th in goals against, 28th on the powerplay and 20th on the penalty kill. In short, absolutely nothing is going the team’s way right now. Again.

Even more distressing is that the team’s prized young stars, who were all supposed to grow as players and be leading the team, are all struggling. While some are simply spinning their tires, others have flat-out regressed from the level that they were at last season.

Instead of taking one step forwards this year, the team appears to have somehow taken two steps backwards.

When it comes to dissecting the issues of this perennially struggling franchise, from the front office all the way down to the bench there’s no shortage of blame to go around. When articles like this one start to become a common theme from your local media, well, that’s when you know you’ve really hit rock bottom.

It was one personnel decision back in 2013 in particular, however, that truly broke the camel’s back, directly putting the team into it’s current tailspin from which it now might need nothing short of a miracle to recover from: the hiring of Dallas Eakins as head coach.

Fixing What Wasn’t Really BrokenEakins was officially hired by the Oilers on June 10th, 2013, replacing Ralph Krueger. Eakins was the shiny new toy on the shelf that summer, an accomplished young minor league coach that was coming off of two great seasons with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies and seemed primed and ready for his first NHL gig. His name had been making its rounds in the NHL rumor mill all season. Multiple teams had reportedly contacted Eakins about a coaching job that summer, but it was the Oilers that courted him the hardest, salivating at the chance to sign a young and aspiring head coach to align with their young and aspiring roster.

The move came as something of a surprise, as the former coach Krueger was only given less than a year with the Oilers after replacing Tom Renney in 2012. He led them to a respectable 19-22-7 record during the lockout-shortened 2013 season, their best record since 2008-2009. Taylor Hall scored 50 points in 45 games, Sam Gagner had a breakout season with 38 points in 48 games, electrifying rookie Nail Yakupov led the team with 17 goals and Devan Dubnyk posted a solid .921 save percentage in net.

The young Oilers weren’t perfect, but by all means they were trending in the right direction under Krueger’s tutelage. He was doing his job, and in the process became well-liked by his players and by most of the fans. There was a lot of sentiment at the time of his firing that he was given a raw deal by the organization, that he wasn’t given enough time to produce the results that the higher-ups wanted to see.

“Ralph and I at the end of the year spent the better part of a week discussing that we would add a veteran assistant coach or associate coach,” general manager Craig MacTavish said at the time. “During the process of me conducting those interviews, I recognized I was trying to add a coach that was more closely aligned with the way I wanted to run the team and less about supporting Ralph in the head-coaching role. It was at that point when I contemplated making the change if, in my opinion, I found the ideal fit for our hockey club.”

Headed In The Wrong DirectionInstead of carrying on where they left off with Krueger, the Oilers’ first season with Eakins was disastrous. The coach’s new team system was an abject failure, as Edmonton became a puck-possession black hole and hemorrhaged shots, scoring chances and goals against. Dubnyk’s numbers plummeted and he was eventually shipped off to the Nashville Predators for a lackluster return. Core youngsters like Gagner, Yakupov, Justin Schultz and Jeff Petry all regressed. Hall and Eberle continued to produce points, but they were the only bright spots for a team that routinely looked lost, disorganized, and utterly defeated. They finished the season 29-44-9.

As bad as the 2014 Oilers were, the 2015 Oilers are shaping up to be even worse. They’ve shored up their possession game a bit, but the team’s scoring has gone bone dry. Hall is well below his previous point-per-game pace, with only 18 points in 25 games. Eberle has been disappointing, with only 18 points in 30 games. Yakupov’s infectious ear-to-ear smile has disappeared, and so has his scoring: eight points in 31 games. Any confidence that the team once had is long, long gone.

The Oilers were prepared for their team to have issues in the present, but if the organization’s young talent has stopped improving it puts their entire future in serious jeopardy. All those struggles of the past, all of those years of failure, might have no light at the end of the tunnel if their current course is not somehow corrected.

Now, all of this isn’t to say that Eakins is a bad coach. I truly don’t believe that. He says a lot of right things and comes off as a guy that’s not only has a lot of good ideas about the game, but also able to connect well with his players. The Oilers’ struggles long predate Eakins, so he doesn’t deserve all of the blame for the current mess.

The Perfect StormAt the same time, however, his hiring by the Oilers couldn’t have been a worse match for both parties. It was a perfect storm that turned into a state of emergency for everyone involved.

The young Oilers needed a lot of things out of their coach. Experience. Leadership. Consistency. Eakins has good qualities, but those aren’t the ones that he brought to the table when he got hired. Eakins, meanwhile, needed a better team to start his NHL coaching career with, one that had enough veteran players that could help step in and lead the team when he went through the normal growing pains as he got used to the job.

MacTavish made a huge gamble by hiring Eakins at the time, and he lost. Young players need consistency and stability to grow, so firing Krueger and naming Eakins as the franchise’s fifth head coach in six seasons was the worst possible thing to do. How can young players be expected to learn and develop with that level of turnover? While there’s a lot of fan pressure for the team to now find another new head coach to right the ship, firing Eakins at this point would just cause more instability and might make things even worse for the Oilers, as strange as that sounds.

Some mistakes can be fixed. But when it comes to the current state of the Edmonton Oilers, their management’s desire to find the perfect head coach has put themselves into a hole that they might not be able to climb out of, and that’s something that should have everyone involved very, very concerned.http://thehockeywriters.com/the-dallas-eakins-hiring-doomed-the-edmonton-oilers/
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I still think Eakins will do well somewhere else. That team just seemed doomed for failure.

btw, Tyler Ennis first star of the week! Tank is dead. Knew this would happen.

 
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