Post-Game Talk: Not good enough.

[Yuke]

Our deadline looks pathetic when u see what other teams added. Oil fail here hollands time has to be up.

The main accusation is hurt, don't think Holland could have predicted that

 

[Reasonable Oil Fan]

Dude there's no way the team is healthy right now.
What are you going to do if you know they just can't perform.
Let's see what comes out.

Nobody is healthy at this time of year
It comes down to desire and professionalism now

 

[Yuke]

That last goal was quite the display. Very sleepy play by Bouchard, and McDavid leaves Miller all alone. Also gave up the zone in record time with a bad change from Ekholm

The positive is that our top guys couldn't possibly be worse than this. Our bottom six and goaltending showed up. If we can keep that, and our top guys play like they should, we can win two more

Watch that goal again. McD shoulder checks and sees Hyman next to Millar then skates toward the puck carrier. Hyman decides to peal off leaving Millar alone

 

[Salvaged Ship]

After my 2 hours sleep I wish I could say I feel better, just pissed off still AND tired. Someone last night said the Oilers were Toronto west and another came back pointing out we at least had more success than them. I kind of wonder, if we didn’t have LA’s number or played someone else in round 1 would we have even gotten out of the first round these past several years? Our front office has built a team to defeat LA, well done!

 

[BlackDogg]

This is Toronto Maple Leafs West

 

[CookiesAndMilk]

What a frustrating series. The Oilers could have swept the Canucks. They deserved to win games 1 and 3 but we sunk by Skinner. They didn't deserve to win last night.. but were one shot away from stealing a game - something that Stanley Cup winning teams have to do.

I'll join in on this "coulda shoulda woulda"-thingie. I wish we could have someone like Zadorov on our D. The Nucks are just the better team right now.

 

[Pavel10]

The main accusation is hurt, don't think Holland could have predicted that

Who cares? Henrique is nothing compared to some of the other acquisitions in the year. Just look at what Vancouver has done in their first playoffs. They've gone all in.

 

[Ritchie Valens]

Not at all. If he chooses not to sign this summer it just means whoever takes over the helm from Dipshit #2 (Holland) has to answer do we run the year with him and risk losing him for nothing as an "own rental" or move him this summer at peak value? Difficult decision indeed.

Holland allowed Larsson to go the year and we lost him for nothing which severely hurt this team.

We’ve have had Larry, then Curly and since Moe was the smartest of the bunch, I guess he’s up next in the GM chair.

The only way Nurse and Campbell are leaving is if we buy them out.

Nurse holds enough clout around the league that a GM would take him with retention or bad contract for contract. Campbell, yeah he’s a buyout candidate but thankfully it’s not a killer.

Holland Chiarelli’d this team so f***ing bad it’s not even funny.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

I've come to the realization that this team doesn't have what it takes to win the Cup

sure, we may squeek out a win tomorrow...heck, pull the miraculous upset in Game 7

but this team is old, slow and full of passengers....and they're finding new ways to lose now

for once, we get goaltending and depth scoring...then our PP goes cold and the top line goes silent

we probably got more kick at this thing next year, hopefully the new GM does better than Perry, Henrique, Carrick and Stretcher during the year

 

[barry halls]

The window could realistically be over.

If Draisaitl makes any sort of indication he's "meh" on re-signing this offseason you have to move him for assets. No way you can let a top 5 player in the league walk for nothing.

You could probably take one more stab at it next year with assets acquired via a Draisaitl trade. But after that, could be it for them.

I’ve been worried about ‘the window’ closing for years now, but after last night a switch flipped and I don’t care anymore.

This team is constantly under immense outside pressure to win just by having McDavid on the roster. It’s a blessing and a curse. The constant threat of him wanting out (as peddled by guys like Friedman, DNB, etc for years) combined with the narrative of him needing a cup ring to cement his legacy probably produces more pressure for this team than any other, even more than the Leafs.

I love 97 & 29, they’re my favourite players ever, but announcing “it’s cup or bust” to the world was so f***ing stupid and turned up the heat tenfold. Do they not realize it’s “cup or bust” for every other playoff contender? JT Miller and Quinn Hughes want to win a cup just as badly as McDavid and Draisaitl do. McDavid doesn’t deserve it any more than anyone else just because he’s generational.

I truly believe that they can get it done, and their opportunity here is as good as it would be anywhere else. If one or both of 97 & 29 leave then so be it, it will alleviate a ton of pressure and for many people it will be an indictment of character if they quit on Edmonton. Cup chasing rarely works, so if that’s the path they choose I’ll wish them well and move on. Having “cup or bust” hanging over our heads has made this the least fun I’ve had watching playoffs since the bubble year.

 

[jesusbuiltmyhotrod]

He played good on the pp last year but was dominated 5 on 5 by Vegas top line.

One series sure he says entire playoffs… the whole team was dominated 5 v5 versus Vegas

 

[joestevens29]

All we need is average goaltending to win and then when we get it the team plays like shit.

Almost like they play better when they know they have to score 4+ goals to win.

Props to Pickard though. Game could've been a lot worse than what the score showed

 

[jesusbuiltmyhotrod]

That last goal was quite the display. Very sleepy play by Bouchard, and McDavid leaves Miller all alone. Also gave up the zone in record time with a bad change from Ekholm

The positive is that our top guys couldn't possibly be worse than this. Our bottom six and goaltending showed up. If we can keep that, and our top guys play like they should, we can win two more

Yep not winning with that effort from your best players just sleepwalking

They looked gassed. They’ve played a lot of tough hockey in the last few weeks
They need to bring it on Saturday obviously.
If they don’t, with our contract situation, our window could begin closing quickly

The gassed excuse makes no sense to me…. They had a week off and he played around 23 mins…it’s rd 2….

 

[fuswald]

Stifle McDavid and Oilers have real trouble. Wasn't worst game we played but not great.

 

[BlackDogg]

Brad Holland will be a much better Gm.

 

[barry halls]

You should watch some Drop episodes and listen to how Wright would talk about prospects and team needs. “Do we want more jam in the bottom 6 or more skill”

It’s all very surface level assessments that could be done on HF Oil. No deep dives into analytics, no deep dives into the teams needs, just surface level pseudo scouting. How he landed on XB was particularly concerning, seemingly no analysis done on the Mavrick Borque factor, another actually good prospect the Stars landed on. So the stars probably KNEW that Borque drove results for that line, and Wright couldn’t see it.

There was one episode, I think last years trade deadline, where Wright was sitting there drinking a damn Molson in the office. I’m all for having a cold one AFTER work but that was a red flag to me, you guys are supposed to be grinding to put the finishing touches on a contender and you’re sitting around drinking on the job? Country club stuff.

 

[CycloneSweep]

Brad Holland will be a much better Gm.

Nah. He will just go after McDavids buddies too.

 

[North Cole]

It is what it is, team pissed away too many games and turned what was an easier series into an elimination. It's still winnable, but if the team can't even get out of its own way against the likes of Vancouver there's not much point bothering to show up against Dallas.

Hopefully Skinner and ceci are gone in the off-season. Jackson should have fired the GM in season instead of having a lame duck waste another trade deadline. I'd trade what you have to for Ullmark, and find another top 4D, then cut some of the deadweight bottom 6.

 

[joestevens29]

Not one guy had more than 2 shots last night.

We got goaltending. We got a bottom 6 goal. Two things we've been wanting even though the team was finding a way to play well.

But we lacked so much more. One story the rest of this series was we don't show the hits because we have the puck all the time. Well yesterday Vancouver had it most the time and they still doubled us in hits.

PP was not clicking at all. At some point start with your second unit then

Doesn't help either that McDavid looked to have his worst game in a very long time. Even Bouchard was fighting it with the puck which hasn't happened in quite some time.

 

[frag2]

Stifle McDavid and Oilers have real trouble. Wasn't worst game we played but not great.

McD was shit for sure but to be fair, Nucks had striped help with that

 

[McBigYak]

I’ve been worried about ‘the window’ closing for years now, but after last night a switch flipped and I don’t care anymore.

This team is constantly under immense outside pressure to win just by having McDavid on the roster. It’s a blessing and a curse. The constant threat of him wanting out (as peddled by guys like Friedman, DNB, etc for years) combined with the narrative of him needing a cup ring to cement his legacy probably produces more pressure for this team than any other, even more than the Leafs.

I love 97 & 29, they’re my favourite players ever, but announcing “it’s cup or bust” to the world was so f***ing stupid and turned up the heat tenfold. Do they not realize it’s “cup or bust” for every other playoff contender? JT Miller and Quinn Hughes want to win a cup just as badly as McDavid and Draisaitl do. McDavid doesn’t deserve it any more than anyone else just because he’s generational.

I truly believe that they can get it done, and their opportunity here is as good as it would be anywhere else. If one or both of 97 & 29 leave then so be it, it will alleviate a ton of pressure and for many people it will be an indictment of character if they quit on Edmonton. Cup chasing rarely works, so if that’s the path they choose I’ll wish them well and move on. Having “cup or bust” hanging over our heads has made this the least fun I’ve had watching playoffs since the bubble year.

Tandems like this typically find a way to win a cup. They did put immense pressure on themselves by declaring cup or bust, there's no doubt about that.

But you've got one of the most important games of your career. 2-2 series tied, up against a huge Canadian rival, and they're both virtually no-shows. It's really concerning.

If they manage to get by Vancouver (I'd say at this point 10-20% chance) they will get absolutely rolled over by Dallas or Colorado.

 

[bobbythebrain]

McD was shit for sure but to be fair, Nucks had striped help with that

You can't seriously blame refs for last night?

 

[frag2]

You can't seriously blame refs for last night?

Oh I'm not blaming the loss on refs. I'm saying Nucks did get away with a lot of obstruction and holding.

Doesn't absolve the fact McD played like shit. Just saying Nucks got away with a lot

 

[TKB21]

Tandems like this typically find a way to win a cup. They did put immense pressure on themselves by declaring cup or bust, there's no doubt about that.

But you've got one of the most important games of your career. 2-2 series tied, up against a huge Canadian rival, and they're both virtually no-shows. It's really concerning.

If they manage to get by Vancouver (I'd say at this point 10-20% chance) they will get absolutely rolled over by Dallas or Colorado.

This is the reason I could care less if they don’t make it past this round. We all know this team has virtually no chance against a team like Colorado/Dallas. This team has proved to us all they don’t have what it takes.

 

[CycloneSweep]

It is what it is, team pissed away too many games and turned what was an easier series into an elimination. It's still winnable, but if the team can't even get out of its own way against the likes of Vancouver there's not much point bothering to show up against Dallas.

Hopefully Skinner and ceci are gone in the off-season. Jackson should have fired the GM in season instead of having a lame duck waste another trade deadline. I'd trade what you have to for Ullmark, and find another top 4D, then cut some of the deadweight bottom 6.

Keep Skinner he can be a good backup.