Player Discussion Klefbom

LaGu

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Jan 4, 2011
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Maybe this post is too long, but since Klefbom discussions has come up in several threads lately I thought I'd try to gather some of the things that are known about his season so far. Feel free to add.

Mid-October:
In the methodical, mistake-free opening night shutout of the Calgary Flames, the Edmonton Oilers’ best players were their best players.
It included three goals for star centre Connor McDavid, a perfect night for goalie Cam Talbot, and an awesome performance (nine shots, plus-3) from defenceman Oscar Klefbom.

Since then, a different story.

On the back-end, Darnell Nurse and Kris Russell have been fine, same for third-pairing guy Eric Gryba. But Klefbom and Larsson are nowhere near where they should be.

“I did too many mistakes. I can take half the blame for this one. I was not good today.” Larsson said after the Carolina game.

“We’re not playing good enough, especially me and Lars,” said Klefbom, who knows he goofed on the game’s first shift, as Jaccob Slavin, who had a tremendous game, found Teuvo Teravainen on a 100-foot 2-on-1 break.

“We’ve been losing some games, and you get over-excited and want to show the fans you’re on your toes,” said Klefbom.


Mid-November:

Oscar Klefbom’s defensive game isn’t anywhere near what it should be. He knows it and he isn’t hiding anything, except for the unnamed body part that’s hurting through the first quarter of the troubling Edmonton Oilers season.

When St. Louis Blues centre Brayden Schenn can easily push Klefbom off the puck along the end boards as he did Tuesday, knocking the 210-pound Klefbom to his knees, before setting up Vladimir Tarasenko for their first goal, something’s wrong with Klefbom other than the six-inch space between his ears with his poor puck decisions.

His coach Todd McLellan, who badly needs his best defenceman to play like his best defenceman, alluded to a medical issue before Wednesday ’s 6-2 win over the Red Wings, where the Oilers were resolute and all those questions about not being quick enough with their foot speed and head decisions were not there, including Klefbom. He was good, noticeable in all the right ways.

“He’s been playing with bumps and bruises that has affected his play,” said McLellan. “And I think that’s hurt him in the physical part of the game. Some of the physical battles right now are tougher for Oscar to win, but the mental part, the thinking, being aware of his assignments, that’s on him.”

When asked about his medical distress, like maybe he has a sore shoulder or arm, he blew it off.
“Yeah, no comments on that,” said Klefbom. “I’m not 100 per cent but I don’t want to go up to the media and find any excuses.
“If I’m not 100 per cent, I have to find a way to play better. Like I said, no excuses.”

“The confidence has been at an all-time low,” said McLellan.
He hasn’t been able to outscore his mistakes.
So where did the confidence start to ebb?
How did the Oilers No. 1 defenceman with Adam Larsson start looking like a No. 5?

“Second game, when we lost in Vancouver,” said Klefbom. “Then you get games where you’re a minus-2 or a minus-3. If you start looking at the stats and you see how many goals you’re on the ice for against, you start saying, ‘What am I doing bad here?’ And it gets worse and worse. Then the coaches split the defence pairs just to see what’s going on.”

Maybe he shouldn’t be looking at game sheets to see the minuses?
“Exactly. I should not be doing it, but ...
“But when it’s bad, it goes really bad. I can get stronger as a player, so if it happens in the future, I won’t go as deep. Hopefully, I’ll get the tools to play a couple of games bad, then find myself back to better play.”

McLellan knows Klefbom’s been nervous on the ice.

“I think you (media) asking me about Oscar every day gets to him after a while you have to find a different player,” he said with a laugh. “He hears that, he’s human and he’s carrying that. But the only way to get out of it is for Oscar to play himself out of it.”

End-December:
Oscar Klefbom should return from a shoulder injury Friday night when the Edmonton Oilers host the Chicago Blackhawks. Klefbom only missed three games, but he hasn’t been right all season.

“It’s been a rough season,” Klefbom said on Thursday. “There’s been a lot of medication and tough games.”

Klefbom got an injection in the shoulder last week. He originally started having issues with it in the 2017 playoffs. It limited him physically and took a bite out of his confidence as well.

“It’s pretty tough when you know you’re not 100 per cent,” Klefbom said.

“It can be a bad hit or something that just triggers it a little bit and I get an inflammation, or whatever it is, in the shoulder. It gets very, very sore. Then you start getting on meds. The stomach turns upside down when your [on] meds for a couple of months, too. I’m just happy to feel a lot better now.”

 
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Panda Bear

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Apr 2, 2010
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How many players out there don't have their games suffer dramatically when they play through shoulder injuries?

Playing through injury is a great way to make your mistakes become habits.
 
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Aerrol

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They won't until the season is (mathematically) over. At least I hope they will do it at that time, but who knows.

Nah, it's the Oilers. They'll give him his summer break first and then properly diagnose him in July so he has his surgery at the end of August and misses half the season.

But good OP. Nice to see some gathered evidence for a serious lingering injury with Klef. I have no idea why he's still playing given his play and the apparent seriousness of it.
 
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Mez

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Nov 16, 2017
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Im so done with Klef...what a disaster this year.
 

nexttothemoon

and again...
Jan 30, 2010
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Sekera and Klefbom should both be out of the lineup.

A blind man can see that they are strong net negatives out there... yet they keep getting games and premium ice time which helps sink the team game after game.


Klefbom at evens: 2.32 GF/60 and 3.33 GA/60

Sekera at evens: 0.96 GF/60 and 3.13 GA/60


Those two players are sinking this team with their inferior, negative play game after game. There are others among the forwards as well but those two stand out badly on D.


Who would I replace them with?

Auvitu is WELL above water in his play so far this season and would be a good replacement for Klefbom and Gryba is easily much, much better than Sekera currently.

Davidson can also be fed slightly more minutes as well.
 

Drivesaitl

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The difficulty using health or injury as an excuse is when is Klefbom ever really healthy for an extended period of time. He seems to get serious and limiting infections quite easy and for a D that is as unphysical as any D we have how did he injure his shoulder. he doesn't hit anything. Except the - nearly every game..
 
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Drivesaitl

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My question is why was he allowed to participate in the skills competition if he was injured? I mean he was rippin it on the hardest shot competition... Sounds like excuses to me.

Plus he's taken more shots/game this season than he did last season. Something fishy. Somebody with a sore shoulder all year wouldn't be taking more shots all year and also taking part in optional skills context and including hardest shot. That's a good point.

Whenever theres a player here playing really shitty it seems like the injury rumor and talk come out. Klef missed only a few games, that's it. There hasn't been one time where it looked like he was favoring anything. I don't even know when and where he allegedly injured himself or how.
 

LaGu

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:laugh:

What is this nonsense?

He/them are faking injury?

Let me get this straight: so the story is that first when asked about the significant drop off in hus play he denies any problem, or rather says no comment. Then a month or do later when the management comments on that he is bruised he says ok, but prefers not to comment further and says it is not an excuse. Then after being off for over a week for "maintenance" he comments on his season confirming the injury and when it happened.... Nice story, great imagination by sll involved.
 
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walktheboulavard

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Jul 8, 2016
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Plus he's taken more shots/game this season than he did last season. Something fishy. Somebody with a sore shoulder all year wouldn't be taking more shots all year and also taking part in optional skills context and including hardest shot. That's a good point.

Whenever theres a player here playing really ****ty it seems like the injury rumor and talk come out. Klef missed only a few games, that's it. There hasn't been one time where it looked like he was favoring anything. I don't even know when and where he allegedly injured himself or how.
He's fine, he wasn't suffering from anything different than the average defenseman goes through. There is no way the team is letting him play through a severe shoulder injury, it makes no sense. I like Klef,I think he's our second best dman after Nurse, but I agree he's the dman people make the most excuses for.
 

Zaddy

Registered User
Feb 8, 2013
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:laugh:

What is this nonsense?

He/them are faking injury?

Holy crap, some people...

Yup, it's getting absolutely ridiculous. This place has gotten really toxic lately.

First Draisaitl was fat and lazy, and now Klefbom lacks a brain and is faking injury. Jesus christ.

I know the team is awful and it sucks, but lets try and be a little more reasonable here maybe ?

Kinda funny also to see so many people rail against Chia for his trades, but the people themselves are ready to move on from guys like Drai and Klef as soon as they hit a slump (in both cases related to injury nonetheless), regardless of how good they've proved to be when they're at their best.
 
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Dazed and Confused

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Sekera and Klefbom should both be out of the lineup.

A blind man can see that they are strong net negatives out there... yet they keep getting games and premium ice time which helps sink the team game after game.


Klefbom at evens: 2.32 GF/60 and 3.33 GA/60

Sekera at evens: 0.96 GF/60 and 3.13 GA/60


Those two players are sinking this team with their inferior, negative play game after game. There are others among the forwards as well but those two stand out badly on D.


Who would I replace them with?

Auvitu is WELL above water in his play so far this season and would be a good replacement for Klefbom and Gryba is easily much, much better than Sekera currently.

Davidson can also be fed slightly more minutes as well.

Pretty much this. Honestly the "defensive defencemen" on the roster have been decent to my eye (Larsson, Nurse, Davidson, Russell), it's the offensive ones that have shat the bed (Klefbom, Sekera, Benning) and its at both ends of the ice...

Also what happened to the TMac that doled out ice time for performance? The guy that gave Pitlick and Benning a shot because they out performed established talents? This season he's leaned on his go-to guys to whatever end.

Klef and Sekera have been bad, but it's the fact that they've been trot out there in near ever key situation that has sunk the team. That's on the coaching.
 
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frag2

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My question is why was he allowed to participate in the skills competition if he was injured? I mean he was rippin it on the hardest shot competition... Sounds like excuses to me.

Never thought of it that way. An injury would limit the amount of work he could do physically but he seems to be shooting the puck just fine. All of his mistakes are simple poor decision making. He doesn’t have Larsson covering for him anymore.

Yup, it's getting absolutely ridiculous. This place has gotten really toxic lately.

First Draisaitl was fat and lazy, and now Klefbom lacks a brain and is faking injury. Jesus christ.

I know the team is awful and it sucks, but lets try and be a little more reasonable here maybe ?

Kinda funny also to see so many people rail against Chia for his trades, but the people themselves are ready to move on from guys like Drai and Klef as soon as they hit a slump (in both cases related to injury nonetheless), regardless of how good they've proved to be when they're at their best.

It’s funny you bring up Draisaitl because during his slump, many including media heads noticed he had more jump when playing with McDavid but not so much when pegged with lesser players. He was also noticeably slower to start the season when you watch his skating.

At the end of the day, he improved throughout the season; same goes for Nurse.

Can’t say the same about Klefbom.
 

Zaddy

Registered User
Feb 8, 2013
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Never thought of it that way. An injury would limit the amount of work he could do physically but he seems to be shooting the puck just fine. All of his mistakes are simple poor decision making. He doesn’t have Larsson covering for him anymore.



It’s funny you bring up Draisaitl because during his slump, many including media heads noticed he had more jump when playing with McDavid but not so much when pegged with lesser players. He was also noticeably slower to start the season when you watch his skating.

At the end of the day, he improved throughout the season; same goes for Nurse.

Can’t say the same about Klefbom.

Ok so he's having a bad year dealnig with injury and probably a very low level of confidence right now. Whats next? Is Klefbom in the "addition by subtraction" territory now too? If we move him for, lets say, Jordie Benn and a 2nd round pick this team will be better off? Imagine all the cap space! I guess it's only a matter of time before we start seeing posts like this. Lets just keep running people out of town.
 

frag2

Registered User
Mar 8, 2006
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Ok so he's having a bad year dealnig with injury and probably a very low level of confidence right now. Whats next? Is Klefbom in the "addition by subtraction" territory now too? If we move him for, lets say, Jordie Benn and a 2nd round pick this team will be better off? Imagine all the cap space! I guess it's only a matter of time before we start seeing posts like this. Lets just keep running people out of town.

Why do people still insist there is some "injury"? His issues are strictly mental-he's making poor decisions game in game out.

Honestly, with regards to your last point, I don't know what's worse?
-Waiting it out on Klefbom to figure it out while the team suffers his good for 1 goals against per game rate
or
-Chia making a move
 

oobga

Tier 2 Fan
Aug 1, 2003
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Chia's summer is even more annoying knowing that he knew Sek was likely not going to be himself at any point this year after a serious injury, AND that Klef was going to be nursing a shoulder injury from the start of the year.
 

Verdadplus

Registered User
Sep 29, 2017
198
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No real evidence Klefbom can play hockey.
The winning goal last night was mostly on his woeful play at the blue line.
He is as dumb as Nurse when it comes to being an NHL defenceman.
Trading him would be a mercy, but only after Chiarelli is fired.
 

Verdadplus

Registered User
Sep 29, 2017
198
60
Why do people still insist there is some "injury"? His issues are strictly mental-he's making poor decisions game in game out.

Honestly, with regards to your last point, I don't know what's worse?
-Waiting it out on Klefbom to figure it out while the team suffers his good for 1 goals against per game rate
or
-Chia making a move
Klefbom is too stupid to play NHL defense. The evidence is overwhelming.
 

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