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Originally Posted by mrdonkey
What I find laughable is the assertion that things have changed so dramatically for Neal because of... magic? Some kind of mystical voodoo force that was never going to visit him in Calgary? And that adding Milan effing Lucic was the only solution to this problem.
What is Edmonton doing differently that Calgary could not possibly have done? Was there really nothing that could have massaged this situation behind closed doors that could have prevented this? No kind of early intervention that would have drastically changed the outcome of all this?
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Take another look at SuperMatt’s post directly above yours—the answers are all there. There is no magic in Edmonton beyond the incredible luck the Oilers have had to begin the season. The biggest difference for Neal is a ridiculously high powerplay shooting percentage. I don’t think the constant hand wringing about this trade would bother me so much if some posters actually paid attention to the responses their complaints illicit. Yes, the trade looks bad today. But it also seems like a good bet that the optics will appear very differently after a few more months.
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I don’t buy for a second that this was inevitable from day one, and that this was the only outcome that could ever make sense. Somewhere, things failed. My question is where and how.
I don’t expect we will ever get a definitive answer for these questions, because we don’t know what goes on behind closed doors. We only know that the people who do control those things didn’t do a very good job. Like I said, the results speak for themselves. The evidence is now showing they mismanaged an asset that could have helped them, and took on a known commodity that amounts to $5 million of dead cap space as a last resort.
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From the things I have heard about behind closed doors which I will not repeat on this site, there was no chance to salvage James Neal in Calgary. I expect a similar disaster is on the horizon in Edmonton. Maybe it takes a little more time to hit, but it’s coming.
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