[bubbsy]

Meh, i've cooled with my initial reactions from last night.

It's one game, and this isn't new territory for the flames.... Remeber the 2010/2011 season, flames got rocked 4-0 against the oilers. Oilers were a lottery team that year finishing 33 points below the crappy flames.

Outside the flames doom and gloom, gotta give credit where credit is due. McDavid is a definite game breaker. Mathews, Eichel, Mackinnon, these other top pick Cs are great, they excel and are better at thing over other Cs and/or top players in the league (offensive vision, shooting, 2 way game, etc). The thing with McDavid, is he has something that no other player in the league has, or has had in the last decade or two.

- His short burst speed and breakaway speed is unparalleled.
- Add to that the hands to actually make plays at that top level speed, (ie. his hands are as fast as his skating, this ain't no M. Lombardi speed/skill)
- Then you have the drive to actually make use of those and almost always use that to go directly to the net

I just don't know how teams defend how he plays. I am actually really excited to tune in to watch some of the more defensively sound teams in the NHL play against him (Blues, chicago, kings, tampa,etc). You can't have your d playing back, as they give up the zone too easily, you can't be overly aggressive at the blue line as he'll blow past 90% of the leagues dmen. You hear all the time about not letting him get speed thru the neutral zone, and i'd love to see how a flat out trap deters him, but in the new NHL that method has proven quite ineffective for players who can carry the puck at great speed (ie. mcdavid's best 2 assets). Kid is nuts, just unreal. If he can stay healthy, he'll be up there with Gretzky/Lemiuex when all is said and done, he's that good in my opinion. I'll also take a shot at the oilers here... What would have happened if they didn't get mcdavid??? I seriously think the NHL saw the tire fire with no real direction, and with the big budget arena, if the team didnt' improve, economy going where it was, it could have become a really nasty issue going forward. I have my aluminum tin on for sure now, oilers getting mcdavid was no accident.

Anyways....
Outside of crappy goaltending, some questionable defensive pairings, and general sloppy play by both teams (especially the flames), what i saw yesterday was an uncontrollable player in mcdavid, that created scoring chances or powerplays at will. Other than that, the other oiler lines didn't do much (decent goaltending and they dont' even get on the scoreboard other than perhaps the kassian breakaway). Their d suffered similar brainfarts and giveaways, their goaltending was pretty suspect, their specialty teams need some definite work.

All in all, i expect a closer match up on friday, but i still see mcdavid rolling to a multipoint night.

I also hate ragging on the refs, i didn't like the penalty shot (i didnt' see a penalty on gaudreau on the same play mind you, it was just good defense leaning on a smaller player), and perhaps a missed call on gaudreau, but then there were missed calls on the flames also (pretty sure flames got away with a too many men penalty). Was it even? No, but it wasn't as brutal as some make it out to be, though hard to say given that the timing/result of the penalty shot changed the entire flow of the game (i know i'm contradicting myself a bit there, sorry am "typing out loud").