Quote:
Originally Posted by Tkachukwagon
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Oiler nation spent all summer talking about the signings of Arvidsson and Skinner, and how the Oilers had a great summer (which completely ignores that they lost Foegele, McLeod and Holloway), but there has been no where near enough talk of what happened to their blueline. The D was already the weakest part of the lineup, and over the summer they made the following changes:
Out: Ceci, Desharnais, Broberg
In: Brown, Stecher, Emberson
That is a huge downgrade. If we simply rank the players on current skill level, I would go:
Ceci
Broberg
Desharnais
Stecher
Emberson
Brown
It's a very significant downgrade in talent. But it isn't even just that, they got smaller, slower, and lost 2 key guys from their PK.
Bouchard is not good in his own zone. Nurse, as bad as he is, is going to have a worse partner than he had last year. And the bottom pairing is going to be Kulak with either Stecher or Brown.
It is going to be no good. It is so no good that the Flames, after moving out Hanifin, Tanev and Zadorov, are going to have a better group.
And imagine if they incur any significant injuries. As terrible as this group is, they have zero depth. ZERO. The Flames have half a dozen guys that could step into the 3rd pairing and get by. The Oilers have... Akey?
Seriously, asking this group to play 82 games, and then go 4 rounds in the playoffs? Laughable.