End of Season Interviews

[Soundwave]

I'd say last year, Sek and Klef were pretty good consistent puck movers on the back end. Unfortunately, both guys were broken this year. We pretty much went this whole year with 0 consistent and effective puck movers on the back end. Larsson is a mix of dumps and passes, but he usually needs guys pretty close to him to actually hit a teammate. Nurse is good at transporting, but not really passing yet. Russell is almost totally off and around the boards. Benning was better a year ago, but super inconsistent this year.

Need Sek and Klef back to 100% next year, and to add at least 1 more good puck mover this summer if we want a chance to have a fast transition again when McDavid isn't on the ice. Even with that though, if the same Lucic as this year shows up, he will still be the guy standing still throwing hot potato passes to the first guy he sees hoping someone else will carry the puck up the ice for him. He absolutely cannot just hope the team gets faster around him and that will hide his slowness and lack of usefulness in transition. Needs to get his butt to work this summer and make a big change.

I think Klef will be better but there's a good chance Sekera is beginning a down cycle on his career. 32 years old, major knee construction ... usually not a good combination.

You can't rely on everything going right for you as a team, you have to be able to play through guys have poor seasons, it happens to every team.

 

[The Nuge]

Perhaps less strength training and more endurance and explosiveness. Same with less MMA and boxing and more stick handling, shooting, skating drills.

I don't personally think he needs to drop huge amounts of weight, he's a specimen not carrying extra... just needs a little refocus. Someone previously mentioned a sports psychologist, that might be a good idea as well.

Ya I definitely agree with this. I can’t help but think of Gagner when he had a few years of bouncing his weight up and down because management kept flip flopping on whether or not they wanted him to be stronger or faster.

For Lucic, I think the answer isn’t to drop weight, but as you say to focus more on conditioning. It probably means more gym time than he’s ever put in in order to do be able to do both, but he’s a proud guy. I guarantee he’s not going to settle for this level. He hasn’t produced this badly since he was a teenage rookie trying to fight the entire NHL. Something will change

 

[T-Funk]

Lucic has a lot of problems in between the ears right now. How many times must he take a pass in a good scoring position or at least a safe position and then just toss it backwards blindly like a spaz?

Another thing that would help is if he was actually engaged physically even to last year's level. Obviously we are always going to be left wanting more drive, aggression, physicality, but his attempts to even hit guys has gone way down. Maroon and Kassian also were almost completely neutered this year. The "hits" guy at Rogers Place is just straight up making up hit numbers and it is not doing us any favors when we don't use the only skillset Chia built our team around. Would have been nice if the coach had demoted Lucic and told him to go bang some bodies for a while.

I would fix his head with a sports psychologist, then his physicality, then his size and skating.

 

[Soundwave]

Lucic has a lot of problems in between the ears right now. How many times must he take a pass in a good scoring position or at least a safe position and then just toss it backwards blindly like a spaz?

Another thing that would help is if he was actually engaged physically even to last year's level. Obviously we are always going to be left wanting more drive, aggression, physicality, but his attempts to even hit guys has gone way down. Maroon and Kassian also were almost completely neutered this year. The "hits" guy at Rogers Place is just straight up making up hit numbers and it is not doing us any favors when we don't use the only skillset Chia built our team around. Would have been nice if the coach had demoted Lucic and told him to go bang some bodies for a while.

I would fix his head with a sports psychologist, then his physicality, then his size and skating.

This team seems to have a lot of players that are mentally fragile. Lucic, Talbot, Klefbom, Puljujarvi (though understandable because he's a kid), etc.

 

[MettleMcOiler]

Honestly, this focus on foot speed has to die. DeBrusk has said it countless times: other teams are "fast" largely because the puck-moving is getting faster and smarter, not because their skaters are Pavel Bure-ing their way past defensemen. They are developing systems which focus on efficient puck movement and explosive shooting, and we have a team who (a) more often than not relies on a skating McDavid, Drai, Nurse or Slepyshev to even get the puck past the red line, and (b) dusts the puck off like it's a thanksgiving centerpiece and the in-laws are on their way over.

Systems, group intelligence, quick puck movement. That's what we need, and Lucic can help, even if he's only got average foot speed.

There was play from the last game the really emphasis this. I think it was the third period, Russell had the puck and the forwards were in the neutral zone ready to spring out. But Russell held to the puck, and I noticed Draisaitl, who was in the middle of the neutral zone gave a angry wack and I mean really hammered it down to get Russell to pass the puck up to him. But Russell just kept holding on to it until the play disappeared and the Draisaitl line turned in for a line changed. Russell does this a lot, so does Benning and I notice Nurse does this sometimes as well. That is why Bear is noticeable because even with his Defence still lacking, he can break it out quickly.
This is the biggest problem for me about the team. The puck movers that we have are not making quick, smart puck movement. They take too long to make a decision that the opposing team can literally see what the next play is going to be and react to it.
This definitely needs to change for next season, or guaranteed we will have the same results next year. We need to find the right players in the right position and not playing above where they should be.
If we can only get a proper #1 D. It would solve so many problems.

 

[shoop]

This is biggest problem for me about the team. The puck movers that we have are not making quick, smart puck movement. They take too long to make a decision that the opposing team can literally see what the next play is going to be and react to it.

I would think that is on coaching to a large extent.

 

[MettleMcOiler]

I would think that is on coaching to a large extent.

I agree somewhat, but the tendency for Russell, Benning and somewhat Nurse is overhandling the puck. I would think the coaching would be telling them to be quicker with the breakouts, but I've seen it too often to come to the conclusion that they are a too slow to make that quick decision.

 

[Soundwave]

There was play from the last game the really emphasis this. I think it was the third period, Russell had the puck and the forwards were in the neutral zone ready to spring out. But Russell held to the puck, and I noticed Draisaitl, who was in the middle of the neutral zone gave a angry wack and I mean really hammered it down to get Russell to pass the puck up to him. But Russell just kept holding on to it until the play disappeared and the Draisaitl line turned in for a line changed. Russell does this a lot, so does Benning and I notice Nurse does this sometimes as well. That is why Bear is noticeable because even with his Defence still lacking, he can break it out quickly.
This is the biggest problem for me about the team. The puck movers that we have are not making quick, smart puck movement. They take too long to make a decision that the opposing team can literally see what the next play is going to be and react to it.
This definitely needs to change for next season, or guaranteed we will have the same results next year. We need to find the right players in the right position and not playing above where they should be.
If we can only get a proper #1 D. It would solve so many problems.

Decision making is a talent/skill. Wayne Gretzky had it in spades.

You can't expect much from the Russells of the world. Honestly our D group in general is kind of a stupid group, they make a lot of baffling decisions, even last year. Cam just bailed them out more times last year.

This isn't a D-group that screams "high hockey I.Q.".

 

[oobga]

Decision making is a talent/skill. Wayne Gretzky had it in spades.

You can't expect much from the Russells of the world. Honestly our D group in general is kind of a stupid group, they make a lot of baffling decisions, even last year. Cam just bailed them out more times last year.

This isn't a D-group that screams "high hockey I.Q.".

Yeah, you're not gonna turn Russell into some guy making 50ft+ passes to forwards on the fly. That's just not in line with his skill set. That is where coaches need to come in. Sullivan has had some weak puck movers on the Pens D, and his solution was keeping his forwards way more engaged inside their own zone, and having lots of plays for breaking out and up the ice. Pens forwards are always giving their D easy options, and it makes like a hell of a lot easier. Ben Lovejoy looked like a a puck moving master 2 playoffs ago thanks to the game plan he was playing under.

Us though, our guys are camping out at center all the time, waiting for a lame 100ft pass to just tip into the offensive end for a chase, or standing still on the boards just inside our blue line. D are told to make safe plays, ringing stuff around the boards without even looking for another option. We do very little here to try to improve our transition with possession game plan aside from just waiting for McDavid to come out and do all the work.

 

[GMofOilers]

While everyone is piling on Lucic did anyone even watch McDavids comments on him?

Nah prob not....

 

[oobga]

While everyone is piling on Lucic did anyone even watch McDavids comments on him?

Nah prob not....

McDavid is a good teammate and captain, that's for sure.

 

[shoop]

While everyone is piling on Lucic did anyone even watch McDavids comments on him?

Nah prob not....

It wasn't that negative at all. Post #34 directly addresses what you are talking about. Other of us have been favourable to Lucic or at least sympathetic to his situation.

 

[GMofOilers]

McDavid is a good teammate and captain, that's for sure.

McDavid isn’t wrong though. Lucic on this teams allows McDavid to take the least amount of abuse possible.

 

[oobga]

McDavid isn’t wrong though. Lucic on this teams allows McDavid to take the least amount of abuse possible.

May be true to some degree. McDavid still gets tackled and hacked and kneed in the legs from behind by the Kesler's while the refs look the other way. Never seen an Oiler take as much abuse and cheap shots in recent memory as he did against the Ducks last playoffs. Regardless though, Lucic still needs to do a lot more for 6M of cap hit. 2 primary points since Christmas is just nuts considering the ice time he was given.

 

[shoop]

I agree somewhat, but the tendency for Russell, Benning and somewhat Nurse is overhandling the puck. I would think the coaching would be telling them to be quicker with the breakouts, but I've seen it too often to come to the conclusion that they are a too slow to make that quick decision.

Russell and Nurse are probably your 4/5. Benning is barely a 7 D.

Nurse needs to improve on that if he is going to be a first pairing guy or at least a solid 3. Russell is what he is getting paid for as a 4/5.

If Sekera/Larsson/Klefa had those same concerns it would be a bigger concern.

 

[oljimmy]

There was play from the last game the really emphasis this. I think it was the third period, Russell had the puck and the forwards were in the neutral zone ready to spring out. But Russell held to the puck, and I noticed Draisaitl, who was in the middle of the neutral zone gave a angry wack and I mean really hammered it down to get Russell to pass the puck up to him. But Russell just kept holding on to it until the play disappeared and the Draisaitl line turned in for a line changed. Russell does this a lot, so does Benning and I notice Nurse does this sometimes as well. That is why Bear is noticeable because even with his Defence still lacking, he can break it out quickly.
This is the biggest problem for me about the team. The puck movers that we have are not making quick, smart puck movement. They take too long to make a decision that the opposing team can literally see what the next play is going to be and react to it.
This definitely needs to change for next season, or guaranteed we will have the same results next year. We need to find the right players in the right position and not playing above where they should be.
If we can only get a proper #1 D. It would solve so many problems.

Yeah, while everyone is freaking out about getting wingers I'm not seeing that at all. The absolute priorities are an elite puck-moving defenseman and better coaching. We have several good-to-elite wingers on the team and in the system, but not a single great puck-moving D anywhere in sight.... maybe the wingers are underperforming partly because the flow of play is borked.

 

[Soundwave]

While everyone is piling on Lucic did anyone even watch McDavids comments on him?

Nah prob not....

McDavid is not going to throw a teammate under the bus. He would defend Talbot the same way.

 

[FlameChampion]

I havent watched the videos but I assume this is end of season interviews with the media?

Does this include end of season interviews with players and GM?

 

[Soundwave]

Yeah, while everyone is freaking out about getting wingers I'm not seeing that at all. The absolute priorities are an elite puck-moving defenseman and better coaching. We have several good-to-elite wingers on the team and in the system, but not a single great puck-moving D anywhere in sight.... maybe the wingers are underperforming partly because the flow of play is borked.

Several good to elite wingers? lol.

Right now Caggiula is probably the best pure winger on the team.

 

[oljimmy]

Several good to elite wingers? lol.

Right now Caggiula is probably the best pure winger on the team.

OK "elite" might be a little strong but consider the pure talent contained in JP, Yamo and Nuge alone. That's a lot of talent in the system. Who's the comparable talent for a puck-moving defenseman? Maybe Bear on a good day, that's it. I honestly think wingers should not be the focus.

 

[oljimmy]

Another thing to consider is that our team GF only dropped by 13 this year but our GA skyrocketed by 51 goals. That alone should make adding defense the default conversation, assuming we're sticking with Talbs.

 

[shoop]

Sekera interview was really strange. A reporter asked a not heard clearly question, Sekera immediately became uncomfortable, unnerved, and you could audibly hear somebody stating "should this even be on camera" and then they cut from his interview. His segment being cut very quickly. Something significant happened there. Anybody figure out what the question was?

Didn't hear but it's a problem with the Oilers media relations in general.

If you are going to broadcast these media avialabilities it's really hard if you can't clearly understand half to a third of the questions becing asked.

 

[FlameChampion]

I dunno what this team is going to do with the defense. Last year, the defense was solid but unspectacular. This year it was abyssmal.

Its hard to know where it will be next year. If Klefbom and Sekera rebound, the defense should be solid. This team still needs an offensive, preferably right shot in the worst way. They also need to get some defenseman who can transition the puck better. Maybe a different coach would help here. Bear has shown promise, but hes still at least a year away in my opinion (if not longer).

I think it will be hard to do much with the defense core. I dont think they should move Klefbom unless they think hes not going to fully recover. His value will be at a low. If you're going to get rid of a defenseman, it should be Russell of Sekera but both have nmc till the following off-season.

They should be targeting Carlson or Green. I doubt Carlson is a real option though, he probably doesnt want to play here and hes going to be extremely expensive. Green might be a good option and he might be willing to sign here but I just wonder what his contract will look like. Have to walk away if its too much.

I would be surprised if the defense looks much different next year. They might be able to do something the following year.

 

[Little Fury]

This is not true.

Outside a couple of big hits and a few fights he hasn't been consistently physical this season. Or last season for that matter. He's a ghost.

Ya guys like Maroon and Gryba had weight to lose. Lucic doesn’t. Dropping weight means losing muscle mass, and that’s not necessarily the answer

Well, short of a hand or brain transplant I'm not sure what else there is for him.

 

[Little Fury]

That's just cruel man. Looch is at a loss. His hands turned to stone. He gets that the game has passed him by.

Four years left on his contract at $6M per, I'm cheering for him for the best interest of the team.

This might mean more if it wasn't coming from the guy whose been going on about how he hopes "Scam Talbot" gets lit up every night.