Oilers call press conference for Friday 9am

[Daradon]

How is the national media not all over this right now? Or are they just wording their articles to get the best jokes in there?

[saillias]

Originally Posted by Locke

When guys just spout off buzzwords it tells you a lot and MacT gave away a lot of information in that presser.

MacT was basically the sacrificial lamb. Hes that goat on a leash in Jurassic Park.

And you could tell how nervous he was. Lowe and Katz trotted him out there and told him to smile and nod.

It kind of reminds me of the Torts-Gillis spat that went on last season. He openly and angrily refused to even let that reporter group him with Lowe and Howson.

[CalgaryFan1988]

Originally Posted by Barbecue

I still have no idea who you are

Google doesn't know either... Did you used to play poker or something?

I googled "Amazing Oilers" and it said, 0 results.

[TheDebaser]

Can we stop witch hunting this poster in real life. Classless move by this community imo. Just because what he's saying is ridiculous doesn't mean you should hunt out his personal life to insult him with his vacation photos.

Keep it civil guys. The mods should probably step in with that vacation photo post as well. Just a matter of basic internet etiquette guys, there are lines you shouldn't be trying to cross.

[V]

Originally Posted by Flames89

- and I feel bad for some Oiler fans. The 10 year old kid who wants a hero. Not the banger ######bag skid version, though even my stunted-Alberta-brothers are still better than Canuck fans.

This is the worst part of it. My wife won tickets to the game next week against the Ducks, and I know it's going to be a bloodbath, similar to the first game of the season I managed to get tickets for. Do I really want to subject my 7 year old boy to that?

[Barbecue]

Originally Posted by TheDebaser

Can we stop witch hunting this poster in real life. Classless move by this community imo. Just because what he's saying is ridiculous doesn't mean you should hunt out his personal life to insult him with his vacation photos.

Keep it civil guys. The mods should probably step in with that vacation photo post as well. Just a matter of basic internet etiquette guys, there are lines you shouldn't be trying to cross.

I'm not trying to hunt this guy down or find out personal information

This guy's claim to fame was "In 2003 I was writing a blog covering the Oilers for thescore.ca" which he brought up voluntarily and I'm trying to validate it since it was in the public's eye.

No different than me google searching Arianna Grande and finding out her past work

[Daradon]

'Trades in today's NHL are very hard to consummate.'

It's like a third grader getting asked about his D in math and him replying, 'But Mommy... it's haaaaaarrrrd.'

And yeah MacTavish, trades are hard when you not only overvalue your players and prospects, but have the stink of perpetual 30th place finishes on you. Haha. No one wants losers.

[Fan in Exile]

The advanced stats advocates are drinking the same koolaid as Lowe and McTavish:

IJay Palansky from The Toronto Star:

In one recent example, Sportsnet ran an article on Nov. 20 headlined “Flames and Oilers Heading In Opposite Directions.” The headline is the one thing we can agree on.

Calgary and Edmonton are indeed two teams heading in opposite directions, but it’s not the directions the author and most other people think.

The writer contrasted Calgary’s surprising 12-6-2 start at the time with Edmonton’s disappointing 6-11-2, and marvelled at the Flames’ “character” and “courage,” and delicately declaring that “Calgary has more guts than a killing floor.”

Fortunately, analytics gives us much better metrics for gauging performance. Twenty games isn’t a huge sample, but there’s enough to get a sense of what’s going on.

And what’s going on is that, despite its uncanny ability to give up prime scoring chances with disturbing regularity, Edmonton is a better team than Calgary.

Much like the Leafs’ early success last season, Calgary’s start this year is smoke and mirrors.

I guess there's no arguing, right? The "advanced stats" say the Oilers are better than the Flames so goals for and against, records and head-to-head results be damned; they ARE a better team. The circular reasoning employed here reminds me of the reasoning of a religious fanatic.

I hope the Oilers hire this guy. They deserve each other.

[terminator]

Originally Posted by TheDebaser

Can we stop witch hunting this poster in real life. Classless move by this community imo. Just because what he's saying is ridiculous doesn't mean you should hunt out his personal life to insult him with his vacation photos.

Keep it civil guys. The mods should probably step in with that vacation photo post as well. Just a matter of basic internet etiquette guys, there are lines you shouldn't be trying to cross.

+1 let his E-life be separate from real life. I doubt anyone is close to their E-personality in real life.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by TheDebaser

Can we stop witch hunting this poster in real life. Classless move by this community imo. Just because what he's saying is ridiculous doesn't mean you should hunt out his personal life to insult him with his vacation photos.

It was one guy who did it, not the community. I reported the post.

[terminator]

Originally Posted by Barbecue

I'm not trying to hunt this guy down or find out personal information

This guy's claim to fame was "In 2003 I was writing a blog covering the Oilers for thescore.ca" which he brought up voluntarily and I'm trying to validate it since it was in the public's eye.

No different than me google searching Arianna Grande and finding out her past work

Dude people are just having fun with him and yes you are too, but getting personal on that level is just bad taste.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Robin Brownlee ‏@Robin_Brownlee
MacTavish says, "I'm going to get to the bottom of it." This just in: He is at the bottom of it now. Put down the shovel and climb out.

[Locke]

Yeah, that was the other thing and maybe goes to Bingo's point about them being Narcissists.

"Making trades is hard."

Well, yeah, but when your team is the league's personal turd sandwich you're going to have to take it in the teeth on a few trades.

Addition by subtraction, get rid of players for whatever you can get, draft well, scout well and move along.

[RM14]

Originally Posted by Fan in Exile

And what’s going on is that, despite its uncanny ability to give up prime scoring chances with disturbing regularity, Edmonton is a better team than Calgary.

Are regular prime scoring chances against not a big deal in analytics?

[Barbecue]

Originally Posted by terminator

Dude people are just having fun with him and yes you are too, but getting personal on that level is just bad taste.

really?
someone says "look at me! im a celebrity!" and i cant even google said celebrity because it's in bad taste?

wow, calm down people...

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Originally Posted by Fan in Exile

The advanced stats advocates are drinking the same koolaid as Lowe and McTavish:

The one thing that I don't get is that the Flames have a very good 1a/1b goaltending duo and their blueline is one of the best in the league, including the best blueline duo in the NHL.

Most teams built like that don't usually fall off a cliff in the standings. Could the scoring dry up? Sure. Could they fall in the standings? Sure. Could they miss the playoffs? Yep.

But the Oilers have built their team pretty much the exact opposite way to build a successful NHL team.......ppor goaltending and a horrid blueline. Even if their scoring takes off they won't be able to stop other teams from scoring. The Flames should not be as bad as the Oilers (or worse) for the foreseeable future. I really don't care which way the stats are twisted. It's not like the Flames are just outscoring their problems.

Anyways, off topic, sorry. Just something that's bugged me all season.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by V

This is the worst part of it. My wife won tickets to the game next week against the Ducks, and I know it's going to be a bloodbath, similar to the first game of the season I managed to get tickets for. Do I really want to subject my 7 year old boy to that?

I dont know, thats a tough one. I mean, it is just a game and it should be fun, but I dont think I'd want to go into that building let alone bring a kid.

Originally Posted by Fan in Exile

The advanced stats advocates are drinking the same koolaid as Lowe and McTavish:

[/INDENT]I guess there's no arguing, right? The "advanced stats" say the Oilers are better than the Flames so goals for and against, records and head-to-head results be damned; they ARE a better team. The circular reasoning employed here reminds me of the reasoning of a religious fanatic.

I hope the Oilers hire this guy. They deserve each other.

Seriously? I know its a foreign concept to the Oilers who are so used to being Dead Last, but look at the standings. Its as though having points in the standings doesnt count for anything except they're all that matter.

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

Originally Posted by Fan in Exile

The advanced stats advocates are drinking the same koolaid as Lowe and McTavish:

IJay Palansky from The Toronto Star:

In one recent example, Sportsnet ran an article on Nov. 20 headlined “Flames and Oilers Heading In Opposite Directions.” The headline is the one thing we can agree on.

Calgary and Edmonton are indeed two teams heading in opposite directions, but it’s not the directions the author and most other people think.

The writer contrasted Calgary’s surprising 12-6-2 start at the time with Edmonton’s disappointing 6-11-2, and marvelled at the Flames’ “character” and “courage,” and delicately declaring that “Calgary has more guts than a killing floor.”

Fortunately, analytics gives us much better metrics for gauging performance. Twenty games isn’t a huge sample, but there’s enough to get a sense of what’s going on.

And what’s going on is that, despite its uncanny ability to give up prime scoring chances with disturbing regularity, Edmonton is a better team than Calgary.

Much like the Leafs’ early success last season, Calgary’s start this year is smoke and mirrors.

I guess there's no arguing, right? The "advanced stats" say the Oilers are better than the Flames so goals for and against, records and head-to-head results be damned; they ARE a better team. The circular reasoning employed here reminds me of the reasoning of a religious fanatic.

I hope the Oilers hire this guy. They deserve each other.

That's the problem with NHL stats at the moment. Nothing wrong with new Advanced Stats we keep talking about, and they certainly help analyse the games and help give us more directional information.

As someone else mentioned, the problem is, in the NHL, the stats, advanced or not do not provide the same level of insight or reduced margin for error that advanced stats do at this point in baseball for example. There is a lot of "assumption" and "proxying" that goes into what "advanced stats" are in the NHL. They are far less direct correlations being made from stats. For example, on base in baseball means exactly that, on base. But shots in NHL mean nothing more than shots taken that make it through to the net (and it's still subjective at that), yet it's being used as a proxy for possession and even quality scoring chances, both of which it does not definetly equal at all.

So what does this all mean? Doesn't mean that advanced stats in the NHL are useless, but it means drawing conclusions from them with certainty of outcomes is subject to a much much higher probability of error than if they were more accurate. So when people say Flames fans for example are just arguing against the odds with NHL advanced stats, it means much less than if we were talking about baseball because those stats have a much smaller margin for error, and therefore a much smaller chance that the Flames are legitimately not going to be subject to law of averages.

Anyway, it also means, that you can't just look at the stats sheets I the NHL and not watch the games. Anyone that has watched the Flames and Oilers play, realize there is a reason for the discrepancy for records, and it's not luck for the Flames and bad luck for the Oilers. But a Toronto Star columnist who doesn't watch the games is only going to put the effort in to look at stats, not watch, and assume his conclusions are solid, even though he's using very directional data at best to make his conclusions.

[N-E-B]

Originally Posted by Fan in Exile

The advanced stats advocates are drinking the same koolaid as Lowe and McTavish:

IJay Palansky from The Toronto Star:

In one recent example, Sportsnet ran an article on Nov. 20 headlined “Flames and Oilers Heading In Opposite Directions.” The headline is the one thing we can agree on.

Calgary and Edmonton are indeed two teams heading in opposite directions, but it’s not the directions the author and most other people think.

The writer contrasted Calgary’s surprising 12-6-2 start at the time with Edmonton’s disappointing 6-11-2, and marvelled at the Flames’ “character” and “courage,” and delicately declaring that “Calgary has more guts than a killing floor.”

Fortunately, analytics gives us much better metrics for gauging performance. Twenty games isn’t a huge sample, but there’s enough to get a sense of what’s going on.

And what’s going on is that, despite its uncanny ability to give up prime scoring chances with disturbing regularity, Edmonton is a better team than Calgary.

Much like the Leafs’ early success last season, Calgary’s start this year is smoke and mirrors.

I guess there's no arguing, right? The "advanced stats" say the Oilers are better than the Flames so goals for and against, records and head-to-head results be damned; they ARE a better team. The circular reasoning employed here reminds me of the reasoning of a religious fanatic.

I hope the Oilers hire this guy. They deserve each other.

People who believe in stats that much, IMO, know absolutely nothing about hockey, and typically haven't played the game at a high level...

Advanced stats are fun to look at, but as far as their ability to measure how good a team is, they're almost useless and completely overrated...

I agree with you, that guy and Dellow together would be awesome in Oil Country.

[stemit14]

Originally Posted by Daradon

'Trades in today's NHL are very hard to consummate.'

It's like a third grader getting asked about his D in math and him replying, 'But Mommy... it's haaaaaarrrrd.'

And yeah MacTavish, trades are hard when you not only overvalue your players and prospects, but have the stink of perpetual 30th place finishes on you. Haha. No one wants losers.

Exactly. Well said. It's like he's admitting that he can't make a trade. People can knock sutter's phaneuf trade all they want... He knew it needed to be done and he got what he could as soon as he could... Addition through subtraction cause his effect on the team needed to end. That was just after a 9 game losing streak for the flames.

It was controversial at the time and who knows what other deals could have been had but THAT was a bold move... Now, years later, looking at phaneuf with the leafs it feels like it was a good deal just to remove him from the core of the organization. You can see the same thing from guys like hall, eberle, yakupov, Shultz, etc. in Edmonton but they don't have the guts to do what EVERYONE knows should be done.