from Damien Cox of the Toronto Star,

EDMONTON

The bad moves are piling up on GM Peter Chiarelli, and the bad metrics, particularly historically awful penalty killing, aren’t complimentary to head coach Todd McLellan. Nobody expected the Oilers to take such a massive step backward this season, and somebody, you figure, has to pay the price.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins needs to move on. Problem is, the Oilers felt the same about Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle, and the trades involving both of those players look pretty bad right now for Edmonton. The Oilers have historically been one of the NHL’s fastest teams, and now they’re one of the slowest. As said many times, that Milan Lucic contract is going to haunt them.

The key question is whether the Chiarelli/McLellan combo can return, or whether they need to wipe the slate clean in Edmonton. Again.

Tough call for owner Darryl Katz. Connor McDavid’s cap hit, don’t forget, jumps to $12.5 million from $925,000 next season.

MONTREAL

The Canadiens can’t blame the absence of Carey Price for this debacle. He’s been a big part of it. There’s no No. 1 centre, and you’d have to be an eternal optimist to believe Jonathan Drouin is going to become that guy....

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