Edmonton..looks bad

[EdmFlyersfan]

The Oilers will be fine. Just growing pains.

Yeah I heard that 10 years ago with HOPE also...it must be awful to be an Oilers fan and watch Chiarelli keep trading down in talent, making each year harder for McDavid and Co to get a shot at the cup.

 

[AngelDuck]

Paying RNH way too much money. Mediocre defense

 

[EdmFlyersfan]

And when the Oilers won the lottery the players available were Hall/RNH/Yakupov/McDavid

Only two of those players are even top liners... that's how. Bad years to lose, if they lost in the years priror they could have got Kane and Stamkos / Tavares... Instead they got Nuge Hall and Yak, its pretty simple bud

Did you ever think it is not the players drafted but the inept management of Oilers to push them immediately into the spotlight and ruining their development; evidence points towards that more than the players drafted.

 

[Roof Daddy]

Did you ever think it is not the players drafted but the inept management of Oilers to push them immediately into the spotlight and ruining their development; evidence points towards that more than the players drafted.

What are you talking about? Who got rushed out of the 1st OA group?

Hall? Was back to back Memorial Cup MVP, there is literally nothing more he could have done with an extra year of junior.

Nuge? Perhaps from a physical standpoint, but they did well in sheltering his ice-time and matchups, and to this day his rookie season is still his most productive year (55pts in 62 games).

Yak? A case could certainly be made here, but he and his agent had the Oilers by the balls, particularly due to the circumstances (playing in the KHL already during the lockout, thus wasn’t an idle threat). He did tie for the team lead in goals as a rookie, and looked absolutely fantastic the final 10 games of that season. He may have lived up to expectations if Krueger remained our coach instead of Eakins.

Management was certainly a joke in a number of aspects during that dark period, but I don’t see “rushing” first overalls as one of those aspects.

 

[IranCondraAffair]

I read a quote somewhere about the cap making every team have holes and the best teams are those that can overcome those holes.

The Oilers management needs to help them. Falling behind after early looks bad but isn't dangerous. 10-15 games is substantially different and almost impossible to catch up.

 

[Pi]

I love how the vultures start circling young teams as soon as they stumble a bit.

Every team in this league is going to have a bad stretch of 5-6 games no matter how good you are. The Oilers are still a ridiculous 57% possession team with bad SH% and SV%. Possession will go down over time but SH% and SV% will increase unless you think Talbot is one of the worst goalies in the league suddenly.

They will be fine. Losing Draisaitl has to hurt but I am sure the rest of the team will step up and try to compensate for his loss.

 

[Dustin]

I love how the vultures start circling young teams as soon as they stumble a bit.

Every team in this league is going to have a bad stretch of 5-6 games no matter how good you are. The Oilers are still a ridiculous 57% possession team with bad SH% and SV%. Possession will go down over time but SH% and SV% will increase unless you think Talbot is one of the worst goalies in the league suddenly.

They will be fine. Losing Draisaitl has to hurt but I am sure the rest of the team will step up and try to compensate for his loss.

Great post. Not to mention there's barely enough games to even make a haphazard guess as to how the season will play out.

 

[BlueBull]

wait until december boys. wait until december.

 

[Tad Mikowsky]

Yeah I heard that 10 years ago with HOPE also...it must be awful to be an Oilers fan and watch Chiarelli keep trading down in talent, making each year harder for McDavid and Co to get a shot at the cup.

Did you ever think it is not the players drafted but the inept management of Oilers to push them immediately into the spotlight and ruining their development; evidence points towards that more than the players drafted.

We get it. You don't like the Oilers.

 

[John Eichel da GOAT]

They live and die by McDavid. Everyone else on that team is meh, even Drai and Talbot.

 

[Mobiandi]

I don't think Edmonton will keep up their poor play, especially with how terrible the division is. But putting Draisaitl with McDavid is the definition of putting all your eggs in one basket offensively

 

[These Are The Days]

I'm not trying to trash the Oilers because this is a very premature thread but for years and YEARS the Penguins had to figure out ways to win without Crosby and/or Malkin. And until the Oilers can prove that they can win without Drai and/or McDavid either at full health or at their best I'm gonna believe that they are nothing more than lipstick on a pig.

 

[3074326]

Yeah I heard that 10 years ago with HOPE also...it must be awful to be an Oilers fan and watch Chiarelli keep trading down in talent, making each year harder for McDavid and Co to get a shot at the cup.

They didn't have McDavid 10 years ago. [mod]

 

[Fig]

They didn't have McDavid 10 years ago.

I think H.O.P.E. was Hall, Omark, Paajarvi and Eberle. (But I might be wrong). However, I don't believe that group was 10 years ago.

The Oilers will roar back. The Pacific is in for a correction and a hell of a blood bath this season.

 

[MinimaMoralia]

They really really need at least one of Puljujarvi or Yamamoto to work out in the next two years.
If both work out they'll be golden.

 

[5150]

wait until december boys. wait until december.

Christmas time daddy

 

[Fatty McLardy]

They live and die by McDavid. Everyone else on that team is meh, even Drai and Talbot.

Not really Draisitl is legit. Everyone else i agree i though. RNH is about as average as they come and a bust for a number 1 overall pick and they got worse with the Eberle trade, on top of that, guys like Maroon had career year last year with 27 goals, don't think he comes close to that this year.

 

[Mav3rick07]

They live and die by McDavid. Everyone else on that team is meh, even Drai and Talbot.

Drai and Talbot are 'meh' ?

Okay cool good argument.

 

[poolparty98]

Was hoping that Oilers slow start would hurt their Stanley Cup odds in Vegas...after all they were ranked 22 in this weeks TSN power rankings....nope, Vegas still likes the Oilers...in fact they are now tied with Pens at 8-1 as Cup favorites,will have to wait another month to put down some money on Oilers to win it all.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

They live and die by McDavid. Everyone else on that team is meh, even Drai and Talbot.

There must be a lot of "meh" players in the league if Draisaitl and Talbot are considered meh.

 

[Cleatus]

Pretty sure it's just a slow start. They'll pick things up soon enough.

 

[Nick Hansen]

My fear is that Chiarelli is going to drag that franchise down with loads of bad contracts. Signs of it are already there with Lucic and Russell. What is Maroon going to make next season? Anything over 3.5M is just stupid.

Draisatl needs to drive his own line. You don't pay a centre 8.5M to be riding on McDavid's wing.

 

[Flameshomer]

How could one look at teams who have rocketed up the standings after many poor seasons and not know this would happen to the Oil? It's happened to literally all the others. They won't make the playoffs this year, they'll be back and better next year after a coaching change and a few key trades.

 

[Tad Mikowsky]

How could one look at teams who have rocketed up the standings after many poor seasons and not know this would happen to the Oil? It's happened to literally all the others. They won't make the playoffs this year, they'll be back and better next year after a coaching change and a few key trades.

That’s a bold claim considering it’s been four games into the year,

 

[lightstorm]

Re: edmonton's draft lottery luck -- Lets just be thankful Edmonton ended up with pool party because they had a real chance drafting Matthews/laine that year.

Now that'd be gross