PP aside one would hope that this also spells the end for the amazing, trailblazing L-shaped penalty kill that only the Oilers seemed willing to employ last season.
Or was that just bad because of a lack of execution, too?
This speaks directly to my point. When the team was as disengaged as this group was for most of the season its difficult if not impossible to know how much to blame the coaching.
For me I saw progression the first year...more progression the 2nd year and then the wheels fell off in year 3.
For me year 3 was really frustrating to watch primarily because of the players....missed defensive assignments...lazy disengaged play....half hearted efforts.
Like I said earlier...there was maybe 4 times all season where the team dedicated themselves to hard work and better focus but it didnt last.
A few games later they would be back to the same crap level of intensity and dedication and poor execution and low and behold the losses would follow. There were so many times when a player would outright ignore a defensive assignment...Maroon, Draisaitl, Kassian, Caguilla, Lucic, Slepyshev, et al.
So many 10 bell scoring chances given up. Talbot needed to be better as well but he was hung out to dry so often it was ridiculous.
There were large portions of the season where watching this team was just an exercise in frustration.