Saturday, March 14, 2009

Sniping and Speedy 1st Line Winger Gets Acquired For the 3rd Line, True Story


Once again Craig Mactavish has screwed the pooch in terms of player management. When I heard that we acquired Patrick O'Sullivan from LA, I thought (this guy is a perfect fit for Hemsky). At this point in time the Kotalik trade looks as bad as the O'Sullivan trade looked good. Attached to Ales Hemsky at the hip, the "other" Ales hasn't produced much and the anticipated chemistry between the pair of Czechs has been non existent.

So why not put O'Sullivan where he belongs and move Kotalik back to the RW across a pair of playmakers in Nilsson and Gagner? Just because O'Sullivan can play on a 3rd line shouldn't mean that he should be relegated there. While I usually don't have a problem teeing off on MacT and placing MOST of the blame on the teams woes on his shoulders for mishandling and mismanagement of players, IMO Hemsky and Kotalik need to step up their games, especially since it seems like they've wanted to play together like 2 close 5 year old cousins that haven't seen each other for summer break.

The bottom line is that if the Ales and Ales show is MIA again tonight, it's time for O'Sullivan to take his rightful spot on the top line LW. If that isn't in the cards, then why not put him on Gagner's LW and move Nilsson to the right side? Instead he plays on a line with no playmakers in a checking role. That is all on MacT, there is no excuse to put him in a checking role on a team that is starved for offense.

Is this once again an odd ploy by MacT to misuse acquired parts because he didn't get a Marty Reasoner clone on deadline day? He seems to like sticking it to his bosses at times. It certainly wouldn't surprise me in the least. To borrow a quote from a poster on HF, it's as if MacT is trying to get fired like the main character in the movie Office Space. I guess Lowe is the "excuse me, you have my stapler" guy and if we're lucky, at the end of the season he'll burn the building down. And hopefully MacT's employment in this organization will go up in smoke.

3 comments:

Ontario Oilfan said...

O'Sullivan had almost 20 minutes in icetime last game, some solid PK play, and a goal while working on the 3rd line. If MacT has a checklist of how to become his pet favourite (I'm sure he's got one), one's gotta think O'Sullivan just checked off a bunch of the boxes. I wouldn't be surprised to see him on the 1st line tonight against a team the Oil should beat...

He's quickly becoming one of my favourite players. Lets hope he doesn't catch a chill like Penner and get benched for scoring a hat trick... Bi-polar much, Mact?

Bryanbryoil said...

He became one of my favorites when we acquired him, I really liked him in LA. He reminds me of Schremp except faster and much more willing to shoot the puck. I REALLY like his game.

RaoulDuke said...

It's going to be sick to see O'Sullivan on the first line tonight.

For all of 5 minutes before Reddox finds his way back there.