Player Discussion Todd McLellan

[nabob]

Which coach would get great production from that 2nd line and that 2nd D pairing?

Team is built horrendously.

A good coach would not have Matt Benning playing tha many minutes.

 

[LMFAO]

Plz fire his arse

 

[Aerrol]

Well said.

The problem I am finding is that there are so many things to repair. When you post a good opinion of your assessment like this, it only makes you realize that you can go on and on - to the next problem, player, coach's decision, game, etc.

I mean outside of McD, Drai, Nuge, and some promises, there are so many holes to plug on this ship that we don't even know if it's seaworthy.

Which is frustrating because you'd think that after this many years of accumulating high first round picks we'd at least be able to look at your roster and say 'okay, we have something good to work with'... But alas, development isn't so simple as picking top 10 over and over and grinning.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Which coach would get great production from that 2nd line and that 2nd D pairing?

Team is built horrendously.

Lucic looked good last night, Draisaitl is one of the top young centers in the game. Nurse is an ok top 4 option. Did you look at Vegas last year and think that they were a playoff team? Are you telling me that coaching wasn't a big part of their success? As far as I'm concerned we have more than enough talent up front to work with but could use that 2nd pairing offensive type to round out our roster. There are teams that have shown much better while having less than we have. You might not think that we have the talent to contend, but this team has the talent to at least be a playoff team.

 

[RegDunlop]

Which coach would get great production from that 2nd line and that 2nd D pairing?

Team is built horrendously.

I don't like some of the makeup of thus team either. But seriously I think a great number of coaches could get better out of it.

Lucic can be a force still. He is a 50/50 I'll give you that, but if on, tilts the tables.
Yamamoto is the weak link and should be given a short leash.
But Leon is where the balance gets unfair. He should be leading this whole team almost as much as McD. Perhaps even more so in areas. This guy is a horse that has not raced. Why?

Nurse has a lot to work with as a second pairing D. He is still developing in my mind.

 

[Spawn]

I know what you are getting at here Spawn but tell me with a straight face that Jesse would not be better served as a point man than in the ****ing slot on PP2. He has/had 2 RH point options in Bouchard and Bear yet he is hell bent on Oscar playing there. We've seen Stoll as the point man here, Jesse clearly has the shot, also has the speed and awareness to get back on defense and can move the puck. I guess that might take too much thinking on Todd's part and might *gasp* stop Jesse from getting a chance to bull to the net so I should know better than to even suggest it.

I can say with a straight face that there is nothing wrong with playing puljujarvi in that spot. Draisaitl did it two years ago to tremendous success. TJ Oshie and mark scheifele also play the spot with plenty of success. All three are guys who can shoot the puck like puljujarvi. Fact of the matter is that in 2 years we’ve see. Puljujarvi use his one timer about 3 times.

And I’m not saying McClellan is flawless. Far from it. But there is one major culprit in this organization and it’s certainly not him.

 

[Spawn]

They lost another game because of special teams. They had numerous pps in the first and got squat out of it not even a single scoring chance outside of Mcdavid doing his usual speed past people and set someone up off the rush its ludicrous not to blame the coach at this point.

They lost the game 5-2 and had one PP goal for and one PK goal against. Special teams didn’t lose that game. A bad team lost that game.

 

[Spawn]

Our roster is essentially better than or equal to 2016-2017... And relatively speaking is better than many/most in the nhl. Teams like the Devils and Vegas last year are significantly worse and made the playoffs...

I know it's fun to blame Chiarelli but we have one of/the best groups of centers in the nhl. Great young winger and defense prospects. A decent mix of vets when healthy. A young promising team that last year was projected to make the finals...

What sort of delusional thought sees you thinking that this roster is better than the one in 16-17? We’ve lost the teams two best wingers and replaced them with nothing. Oh and our most consistent dman from the 16-17 season is basically done as an NHLer with no replacement brought in at any point in well over a year.

The team is worse. That’s not the coaches fault.

 

[rboomercat90]

Tough for a coach to do his job when his GM hasn’t acquired a single legitimate offense dman going on 4 years.

Sure the power play is frustrating (although it was at ~30% in pre season and scored in the first game), but the roster is bad. There isn’t much a coach can do when we don’t have dmen who can pass the puck and don’t have wingers who can support our centres and don’t have a bottom 6 that can piss a drop.

Tough for a coach to do his job when his GM hasn’t acquired a single legitimate offense dman going on 4 years.

Sure the power play is frustrating (although it was at ~30% in pre season and scored in the first game), but the roster is bad. There isn’t much a coach can do when we don’t have dmen who can pass the puck and don’t have wingers who can support our centres and don’t have a bottom 6 that can piss a drop.

I need to see this roster play for another coach before I’ll concede it’s garbage. One thing that is clear is that Mclellan can’t do much with it.

 

[Soundwave]

Lucic looked good last night, Draisaitl is one of the top young centers in the game. Nurse is an ok top 4 option. Did you look at Vegas last year and think that they were a playoff team? Are you telling me that coaching wasn't a big part of their success? As far as I'm concerned we have more than enough talent up front to work with but could use that 2nd pairing offensive type to round out our roster. There are teams that have shown much better while having less than we have. You might not think that we have the talent to contend, but this team has the talent to at least be a playoff team.

How many points do you think this "supporting cast" would get without McDavid in the lineup? Maybe 60 points? That's not a good hockey team.

The other issue is how many pairs of players do you look at on this team and can honestly say "those two have great chemistry together"? Not many. This roster is a mishmash of sadly built pieces that all need to be carried by McDavid to be good.

Unfortunately he can only play 22 minutes a night and you can't play him on a line with all of RNH, Draisaitl, Rattie, Puljujarvi, Lucic.

This team needs two McDavids, it only had one. This is why trading Hall was an enormous mistake and we are going to be paying for that mistake for a while.

 

[BlackDogg]

Media pressure will increase this year on him which should put the pressure on to do something. The media seemed to be giving the coaching staff a pass last year, but they seem harsher already after game 1.

 

[ToeMcDrag83]

Hey now, hey now..
Both our GM and coach are terrible.

 

[Throttlehead]

The other issue is how many pairs of players do you look at on this team and can honestly say "those two have great chemistry together"? Not many. This roster is a mishmash of sadly built pieces that all need to be carried by McDavid to be good.

Do you honestly believe that the Oilers are the only team in the league where players dont have chemistry because of the players assembled? Do you think its possible that maybe the coach cant match players, or build confidence?

You know which team was a mishmash of players thrown together? The answer to that would be Vegas. That worked out pretty well since they have a really good coach.

 

[ToeMcDrag83]

Sorry not a constructive post by me above. McLellan's leash should be short, like 15 games short.
One game, but we see the flaws of last year still evident in that sample. If he can't demonstrate getting the best out of this roster when on paper there are worse rosters littered throughout the league, he should not continue.

 

[Soundwave]

Do you honestly believe that the Oilers are the only team in the league where players dont have chemistry because of the players assembled? Do you think its possible that maybe the coach cant match players, or build confidence?

You know which team was a mishmash of players thrown together? The answer to that would be Vegas. That worked out pretty well since they have a really good coach.

Actually I don't believe there are any good teams in the league that have this much lack of chemistry up and down the roster.

When you have that you have a bad team.

This team has lost Sekera, Maroon, and Eberle. They have not added anyone note worthy since Maroon two years ago now and people act all amazed that the team isn't great. Who have they added that moves the needle for this club? It's been years.

 

[Hopelesslucicfan]

I wish he was able to get past his stubbornness and work with this team. He seems like an articulate guy, and I'd love nothing more than to have a coach here for a while without being run out of town.

His lack of ability to adjust in every way is just killing me right now though. With a team like ours, or any modern day team I guess, you need to be able to change so much on the fly, and be willing to admit and fix mistakes that you made if things aren't working.

Instead Todd just seems like the kind of guy that thinks if his way doesn't work, he just needs to stick with it.. which is okay for a small stretch, but come on.

 

[Aerchon]

What sort of delusional thought sees you thinking that this roster is better than the one in 16-17? We’ve lost the teams two best wingers and replaced them with nothing. Oh and our most consistent dman from the 16-17 season is basically done as an NHLer with no replacement brought in at any point in well over a year.

The team is worse. That’s not the coaches fault.

Which two wingers? Eberle, extremely overrated for his impact and was rapidly declining and... Pitlick? Maroon...

 

[Bring Back Bucky]

I rarely join in negativity and yesterday was one game. Plenty left.

But when I look out at that all same-shot powerplay silliness I have a hard time not throwing stuff at the tv. Or the endless love affair with useless players like Benning or role players like Letestu.

Is he just that stubborn that he can’t let go of his ideas regardless of their results?

 

[oobga]

I rarely join in negativity and yesterday was one game. Plenty left.

But when I look out at that all same-shot powerplay silliness I have a hard time not throwing stuff at the tv. Or the endless love affair with useless players like Benning or role players like Letestu.

Is he just that stubborn that he can’t let go of his ideas regardless of their results?

He's shown pretty consistently that he is quick to blame players for mistakes and failed execution. He does seem to go in from the start believing his game plan is flawless and the only possible reason for failure would be the players not executing. Same approach Eakins took, except I think McLellan is even more obsessed about mistakes and putting them in players faces (custom mistakes videos by Woodcroft).

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Which two wingers? Eberle, extremely overrated for his impact and was rapidly declining and... Pitlick? Maroon...

Man if 25 goals and 59 points last year is declining then sign me up.

 

[ChaoticOrange]

I saw posted in another thread that Viveiros isn’t getting any PP input - is that the case? Because if so that’s almost fire worthy in and of itself - the powerplay and offense in general is his calling card.

 

[Missing smitty]

Actually I don't believe there are any good teams in the league that have this much lack of chemistry up and down the roster.

When you have that you have a bad team.

This team has lost Sekera, Maroon, and Eberle. They have not added anyone note worthy since Maroon two years ago now and people act all amazed that the team isn't great. Who have they added that moves the needle for this club? It's been years.

Why are you only blaming the roster? These guys have talent. Maroon wasn't that good and Eberle proved he could only produce when it didn't matter. You talk about no one having chemistry, but McLelland juggles lines so much they don't have time to develop any. Aside from McDavid, this is a middle of the pack team, with McDavid they should be top 3rd. They aren't because they're being coached from a guy stuck in 2007.

 

[Soundwave]

Why are you only blaming the roster? These guys have talent. Maroon wasn't that good and Eberle proved he could only produce when it didn't matter. You talk about no one having chemistry, but McLelland juggles lines so much they don't have time to develop any. Aside from McDavid, this is a middle of the pack team, with McDavid they should be top 3rd. They aren't because they're being coached from a guy stuck in 2007.

Whole franchise is stuck in 2007. This franchise bet the farm on players like Lucic, Reinhart, and Larsson, all slow, grinder players.

Now they wonder why they're getting skated circles around. They missed the bus on building a fast, high skill team, watching this team play versus other faster teams is like night and day.

They are not built for the new NHL and hired a guy who completely turned left when he should have turned right and now is lost in the woods.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Man if 25 goals and 59 points last year is declining then sign me up.

And what was his last season here like? He admitted to working more on his skating the summer that he was traded v. Prior to that.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

And what was his last season here like? He admitted to working more on his skating the summer that he was traded v. Prior to that.

He still scored 20 goals and 50 points. How many of our current natural wingers do you think are going to score that this year? One?

And good for him for working hard. I keep getting told he's lazy and doesn't care.