How about them Oilers? I now feel that this is going the full 7.
To be honest, Carolina might be better off without Weight anyway. He has not been impressive.
That reminds me. What’s the deal with the Edmonton crowd booing Weight all the time? Did he badmouth the city when he left or something?
He was the first really high-profile player who forced a trade from Edmonton in the late 90s. I guess a lot of fans are still bitter about that.
I don’t know. Depends on what kind of talent they’ve got riding the pine. The finals are the last place you want to start losing warm bodies, particularly veterans.
I think last night was Edmontons best game of the series, which was good because it had to be. They finally got their passing game going and that’s important against a skating team like Carolina. It forces them to chase the puck more and tires them out faster. It certainly showed in overtime when Edmonton pressured to get the shorthanded goal. Carolina just couldn’t make a play.
Just as important was that Edmonton got some good shots past Ward without any sort of net crashing belly bounces. It puts a crack in Wards force field and lets Edmonton stop clutching their sticks so hard.
Next game should be fun…and probably very loud.
C/LW Doug Weight CAR
GP 23
Goals 3
Assists 13
Points 16
PP Goals 2
Tied for 9th in league playoff scoring…
Key faceoff man and PP quarterback for the Canes…
All this while playing on the third line with limited ice time.
Not been impressive?
Weight does not deserve the booing from the crowd, he did nothing but want fair market value for his services and the Oilers couldn’t afford him under the old NHL deal. He never said a negative word about the city or team. The crowd still thinks he walked for more money. Weight is a class act.
With that said, I hope he’s ok… for next year. GO OILERS!!!
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I agree about Weight. Good guy, good player, doesn’t deserve the boos.
But is he smart? I mean he has said that he wants to go back to St. Louis fer crying out loud.
A 44.7% faceoff winning percentage. That’s awful. He’s not the PP quarterback anymore, either. Laviolette seems to be using him as a screen in front of the net rather than as a passer from the corner.
Which is the most damning statistic of all. He was brought in to be the second line centre and he’s managed to work his way to the third line. The third line, for a guy who’s been a top line centre his entire career. If Weight was playing well enough to deserve more minutes, I can assure you that Laviolette would find them for him.
No, he hasn’t been, which is pretty much par for the course him in the playoffs.
Let me put this another way. Daniel Alfredsson had 2 goals and 8 assists in 10 playoff games for the Sens this season while getting limited minutes on the third line. Was his performance impressive?
The hockey is much better this year and I believe the reason is the referees are calling penalties. It used to be you pretty much had to maim someone in the third period of a playoff game to get a penalty. Now they call it much the way the NCAA does- if they see it, it gets called no matter the circumstance. This has cut down a lot of the goon play and let some of the talent show on offense.
The rule changes I don’t much care for- especially the trapezoid behind the goal line to limit the goalie’s puckhandling. This business of an automatic minor for flipping the puck over the glass in your own end might be well meaning but I think it’s made things too hard for the penalty killers. Get rid of that silly shootout in the regular season and go back to 2 points for a win and 1 for a tie and no points at all for losing in overtime.
This has been a great series. And hats off to the fans in both cities who sing both anthems with enthusiasm. That’s classy and good sportsmanship. And bravo to the anthem singer in Edmonton. He’s my favorite since Roger Ducet in the old Montreal Forum.
Are you nuts? As a hockey traditionalist I didn’t like the idea of the shootout, but man is it ever good. There had been too many ties over the last 5 or 6 seasons and this was the best way to deal with it. Not to mention the fans in the areans love it. It is just fine for the regular season. I would go into a serious rage if it was ever implimented during the playoffs though.
I have always said that the refs should call more penalty shots, and now they don’t have to. The one on one of the shootout is damn exciting.
That’s another thing I love about hockey…two great anthems back to back when a Candian team comes to town and singers that can nail both of them.
I don’t mind the delay of game penalties so much, though I do think the trapezoid looks goofy.
The defense flipping the puck over the glass in their own zone and the goalie playing the puck outside the trapezoid while behind the icing line are both “delay of game” penalties, right?
Yep. I don’t mind the puck over the glass rule myself. The glass in the defensive zone is pretty high, and it makes the pkers less likely to just flip it over the glass to get a face off and a break when pressured.
In fact, I really like the changes. The game is a lot more open. The new rule on icing has sped the game up a bit. The only thing that I’ve noticed is that players seem to be getting whackier with their sticks, particularly in the playoffs.
Thanks for the info on Weight. I haven’t been paying a huge amount of attention over the years, but I had a memory of him being a well-liked player while in Edmonton, so I was surprised at the treatment he’s getting. I thought maybe I’d missed some Terrell Owens-style craziness or something.
Anyway, great to see the Oilers get game 5; I think the series is now where it should be based on the play of the teams. Carolina had the one blowout, and they’ve split the four close games. Game 6 has the potential to be a great one. Can you imagine if there’s a finish like game 5? They’ll bring the building down. 
The Oil are now poised to be the 3rd team to come all the way back from being down 3-1. The 'Canes can’t take anything positive away from that game. They were out played in every aspect of the game.
Go Oilers!!!
No kidding. Seven shots after two periods. Carolina just rolled over. They weren’t pressuring the puck at all. Never thought the game would go down this way.
They better dig deep and find something by Monday, or the fizzle will be legendary.
And woohoo game seven stanley cup finals. 
That’s some awesome hockey right there.
This, in my opinion, was the most underrated of all the changes. I remember when it was first proposed, I was ambivalent. I liked what they were trying to do but figured that it would be way too tough on the defence – they need to be able to ice the puck to be able to change after a tough shift in their zone, right?
Thinking like mine was one of the big problems in the game. People were so used to how things were they couldn’t conceive of things being different. But teams were able to adapt, and all of a sudden icing wasn’t a necessary part of hockey defence. Kudos to the NHL for finally stepping up and making some really positive (and necessary) changes to the game, despite the whining from the traditionalists.
Nah. I think it ruins the idea that all games are equal. It used to be that all games were worth two points. Now if a game goes to a shootout you’re guaranteed a point, making the game worth three points. Why some games are worth 50% more in the standings than others is hard to justify in my book. It even opens the door to fixing games- two teams each needing a point to make the playoffs on the last day could conspire to tie and go to a shootout.
Oilers looked as sharp as Don Cherry’s jacket this evening. They’ve got the momentum going into Monday.
Man, the Oilers were flying tonight. And you KNOW they aren’t going to let up in game 7. Listening to Chris Pronger being interviewed, he says he thinks that the physical play of the Oilers is catching up to the Hurricanes, who just aren’t used to that kind of game. As he said, “How would you like to go to the boards to get the puck 30 times a night when you know every time you do you’re going to be hit? We would rather be the ones doing the hitting.” This is wearing that team down, but the Oilers are used to it. Also, the Eastern teams aren’t used to the grueling travel, and Edmonton is. Couple that with the long rest Edmonton got, and what we may be seeing is the Hurricanes simply running out of gas.
Still, game 7 is going to be tough. You know Carolina is going to dig down and come up with everything they can muster. And home ice is still a big advantage.
As for the rules changes this year, I think on balance they are fantastic. The CBC has been airing all of the Oilers past cup-winning games during the finals round, and I taped and watched a couple of them. It really reminded me of how much better the game was then. Fast, furious, end-to-end action. In the 90’s, the game turned into a clutch-and-grab battle that rewarded the mediocre players and shut down the star players from displaying their talent. These new rules are a great step in pulling the game back to what it was 20 years ago. They’ve still got some bugs to work out - penalties are far too haphazard right now. But in general, it’s a great improvement.
This has been an outstanding playoff season.