tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83356688981305681972011-04-21T15:19:49.125-07:00SalimValjihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03397210960310289254noreply@blogger.comBlogger21100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335668898130568197.post-27773902886468544612008-12-04T09:37:00.000-08:002008-12-04T09:46:00.758-08:00Sean Avery is an idiot, plain and simple. Not only has he offended the NHL, its fans and the game of hockey itself, he's offended Dion Phaneuf and Elisha Cuthbert. I would not be surprised if he is suspended for the rest of the regular season and playoffs. He is a shithead, plain and simple. Brett Hull may be right in suggesting that Avery needs medical help. <br /><br />But he did make things exciting, no? He made us tune into the league, he made Americans tune into the league. For once hockey was someting people talked about in the USA. He made life interesting. Not the good kind of interesting, but he made it interesting nontheless. <br /><br />He did something remarkably stupid, but it stirred the pot, and gave people who don't even follow hockey something to talk about. <br /><br />Written By: Salim Valji<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8335668898130568197-2777390288646854461?l=salimvalji.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>SalimValjihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03397210960310289254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335668898130568197.post-69913840526380523722008-11-28T10:13:00.000-08:002008-12-04T09:35:53.546-08:00Does defense win championships? Ask Oilers coach Craig MacTavish that. Is he the right guy to lead this team into the future, with a very defense-oriented brand of hockey? Sam Gagner and Andrew Cogliano are going to be great NHL'ers, especially Gagner.<br /><br />I would like to see a situation, perhaps 3-4 years down the road in which Cogliano is a Shawn Horcoff-type player, a two-way threat who can kill penalties as well as get his fair share of points. Not Hall-of-Fame type numbers, but very productive nontheless; more productive than Horcoff is right now.<br /><br />Gagner should become a 90-point-per-year player at the least. I as an Oilers fan WOULD NOT CARE if he was his +/- rating was below zero, as long as he was getting a good number of points (85>). Gagner should not be counted on as a two-way threat unless he can deliver a very good number of points. A talent like his should NOT languish on the second line playing second-line minutes. With MacT's perverse obsession with defensive hockey, Gagner may not reach his full offensive potential, and may settle for being a 60-point per year, two-way threat. Something which he SHOULD NEVER SETTLE FOR.<br /><br />Ales Hemsky continues to show that maybe just maybe he'll get 80 points in a year. He's off to a great start (very inconsistent though), but he has been a bit of a dissapointment thus far in his career. Would that be the same way if MacT were never here? Who knows.<br /><br />Is a career 3rd line center the right guy to coach a young team? Gagner could become a 60-point/year with MacT and have a positive +/- rating. Or he could be a 100-point/year, negative +/- player without MacT. You decide what's better.<br /><br />I agree that we need to pay attention to defense, but MacT runs his whole hockey team by the mantra, "defense wins championships." First of all that's a football saying, secondly he doesn't do a good job preaching defense to begin with.<br /><br />Give him until Christmas to get our record 4 games above 0.500 (NOT a hard thing to do AT ALL), if he fails, fire him<br /><br />Written By: Salim Valji<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8335668898130568197-6991384052638052372?l=salimvalji.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>SalimValjihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03397210960310289254noreply@blogger.com0