Sunday, December 04, 2005

 

Defenseman wanted, nay needed

As much as I love Ullie for his toughness, interview skills, and various facial expressions, he needs to go.

It is pretty clear that the Oil need a real #3-5 dman.

I have no idea who is available, but the Oil have some cap room, and they have a lot of spare parts right now. They may need to bust open the bank.

Comments:

The Caps are still supposed to be trading Brendan Witt, aren't they? And New Jersey still needs to get under cap for whenever Elias gets back. Weren't we also looking at Tarnstrom before he got injured?
 


I'm not sure we should make a trade so much as bring in a motivational speaker to kick the guys we have in the arse when they start to play in a laxidazical manner. Although I think I would rather have had Semenov still here than Ulinov. I think Semenov would have at least improved as the season went on, I don't think we can teach the old dog new tricks though.
 


Motivational speaker?

We have more ex-captains on this team than Carter has little liver pills. If Pronger, Smith, Staois, Smyth, Peca, Mac-T can't get them to play well, what the heck is Tony Robbins going to be able to do.
 


I think the oilers need a defenseman for sure. I'm starting to believe the forwards are the real deal, but the defense is another thing.

It was beautiful watching the oilers implode last night. Very good TV.

Go flames.
 


You could make the argument they really need two. Cross and Ulanov need to be in the press box or elsewhere if the Oilers plan on going anywhere this year. Plenty of other teams are short on the back end, so one new D would be all that could be hoped for. Absent a move, they can't play their four top guys as much as they'll have to without ill effect later this season. Keep in mind Pronger is certain to log heavy minutes in the Olympics as well, so it's not like he'll get two weeks off in February.
 


How about Semenov? He's a big young guy--with the right situation and coaching, he might thrive.

What? Oh...
 


Sure Semenov will thrive, in Florida under Martin who seems to be the only coach still preaching the trap, and the dump-and-chase, god bless his stubborness, too bad Florida wasn't in our division.

If the Oil are going to let Ulanov make all these rookie mistakes, wouldn't it make sense to have a rookie in his place? I mean bring back Syvret, or try out Matt Greene. Do something, at least Syvret can skate, Ulanov almost appears to get pushed out of the players bench and then use that momentum for the remainder of his shift. And Cross isn't much better.

The only good thing about Ulanov is he's taking the spotlight away from Peca....ah crap, who had 7th comment in the pool for mentioning Peca?
 


This may be a little out there, but I think the Pronger acquisition is to blame for Ulanov and Cross. Stay with me here. For starters, Pronger is the best d-man in the NHL, position-wise, physically and in almost every other category. Now, he has instantly made Steve Staios play better, he's also had a great influence on M-A Beregeron, however, by having such a talented defenceman, it has shown how weak some of our other guys have been, namely Cross and Ulanov. So, I think here is another example of Pronger's excellent influence. No longer will Edmonton stand by for mediocrity (like Calgary, I mean come on Wiemer?) and its time for our d-men to show up, or go home, in Cross' case, it won't be a long drive back to his insurance business.
 


I think bringing up Syvret and trying to teach him to avoid stupid Ulinov like mistakes might be the most productive thing that can be done. I tend to agree that at least he can skate, he has been a defensive liability at some times. On the other hand, I tend to think that he has room to improve and that undoubtably there is a lot he can learn from playing with Pronger, Smith and Staios. I wish we hadn't traded away Semenov for a bag of pucks, sometimes Lowe and MacT make some..odd tactical decisions to say the last.

But if we were going trade for someone, Sykora is being shopped by Anahiem and I still think we could use a goal scorer at least more so than a defenseman.
 

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