GDT: WCQF | G5 | “Check” | Oilers vs. Kings | 5.1.24 | 8:00PM | SN/CBC

[TheNumber4]

Foegele was probably our worst forward last game. He seems to get too antsy in the playoffs and his brain shuts off. Kept throwing the puck to nowhere last game. Holloway deserves his spot for now.

Ceci was probably our worst defenceman. Slow to react. Bad sticks, kings were stepping up on him and ripping it meanwhile guys like Bouch were getting sticks in the way all game .

 

[Drivesaitl]

Every highschooler in the city is in the Moss Pit - it's kinda fun and rowdy but I'm of the age where I feel a bit old there plus I don't want to be doinked on the head with a half full beer. Haven't been to the tent, interested to hear how it is.

I feel like pubs or with a couple buddies is the best watch experience

I hate getting older

I'm guessing you're half my age. hehe

Man, the farther one gets away from drunken sophomoric stupor and experience the better. jmo. I'm not good at parties though and I would hate Vegas. Yeah, I'm not going.

 

[SupremeTeam16]

Win this game 5x5 and finish the Kings season.

With Vancouver having to fly 3 timezones away for game 6 this team can get some valuable rest time before the next series.
A game 7 in that series would be sublime.

I dunno. If we finish LA tonight and Vancouver goes 7 then the earliest we are playing is next Tuesday/Wednesday.

I don’t know if it would be good for this team to be sitting idle for 5-6 days.

 

[bone]

Not sure if Perry really deserves the 3rd line spot over Foegele, and I am not a Foegele booster. I guess I can understand the desire to have a tough veteran leader in that slot with 2 younger players, but Perry has kinda given 4th line vibes in a few of the games and it seems like Foegeles speed might be a good match with McLeod and Holloway. Either way I guess its fine. Still not sure if theres much seperation between the guys who are permascratched and the guys who are permadressed...

I'm fine with the call firstly because Holloway/MacLeod/Perry have played well together recently whereas Holloway/MacLeod/Foegele have never really gelled in the past. Secondly, because Foegele has made more poor decisions with the puck than Perry has in the series so far and maybe this resets him a little bit.

That said, I'd hope Knoblach gets Foegele some extra shifts at some point if he's playing better.

 

[Not Canada Drai]

I dunno. If we finish LA tonight and Vancouver goes 7 then the earliest we are playing is next Tuesday/Wednesday.

I don’t know if it would be good for this team to be sitting idle for 5-6 days.

I think it depends on how dinged up they are by the end of the series (if we win).

 

[CupofOil]

So over 4 games Adam Henrique has seen 2 high danger chances against at even strength. The next closest forward is Derek Ryan who has played 1 game and seen 4. McDavid and Hyman with 5.

View attachment 863001

That's heavily influenced by being on the McDavid line but Henrique is a nice stabilizer on that line.

I think this chart is more alarming than encouraging though. Only one line is coming out ahead, the 3rd line has come out relatively even and the 2nd and 4th lines getting caved. I'm a little surprised about the 4th line as they've looked visually ok but I see similar problems that happened last playoffs (Vegas series in particular) occurring now with the Draisaitl line and Nurse pairing struggling at even strength, that needs to change going forward or the Oilers might not even make it to the Conference Finals.

 

[bone]

I dunno. If we finish LA tonight and Vancouver goes 7 then the earliest we are playing is next Tuesday/Wednesday.

I don’t know if it would be good for this team to be sitting idle for 5-6 days.

Not optimal. but they've also been way better playing after a break this year, so I wouldn't panic that much. Particularly if Nashville actually wins as they'll have put a lot of miles on, and would have to travel immediately to Edmonton and Edmonton just waiting for them having rested in their beds for 8 straight nights. Whereas Vancouver would be waiting at home with Edmonton having to fit in the short travel day, so it's not as hard for Vancouver and Edmonton would have to jump a plane.

 

[Drivesaitl]

That's heavily influenced by being on the McDavid line but Henrique is a nice stabilizer on that line.

I think this chart is more alarming than encouraging though. Only one line is coming out ahead, the 3rd line has come out relatively even and the 2nd and 4th lines getting caved. I'm a little surprised about the 4th line as they've looked visually ok but I see similar problems that happened last playoffs (Vegas series in particular) occurring now with the Draisaitl line and Nurse pairing struggling at even strength, that needs to change going forward or the Oilers might not even make it to the Conference Finals.

Not too worried. The way our lines are playing is relative to who we are playing. If we just saw off at EV we're basically guaranteed wins against LA who can't buy a PP goal and who can't defend against our PP with a Diamond.

If Kings unpack Diamond in game 5 I wonder who their next coach is? Brindy?

 

[Porkleaker]

Tonight, is the night of nights.

 

[Ibanez]

I'm guessing you're half my age. hehe

Man, the farther one gets away from drunken sophomoric stupor and experience the better. jmo. I'm not good at parties though and I would hate Vegas. Yeah, I'm not going.

The moss pit reminds me of the red mile in Calgary back in the day. I wasn’t cheering for the Flames but I sure was partaking in the party.

Although underneath the fun was a lot of shitty behaviour. It was fun at the time, but I couldn’t be bothered to be close to anything like that.

#grumpyoldman

 

[Drivesaitl]

I dunno. If we finish LA tonight and Vancouver goes 7 then the earliest we are playing is next Tuesday/Wednesday.

I don’t know if it would be good for this team to be sitting idle for 5-6 days.

A lot of angst on the board for a game 5 leading series 3 games to 1.

The Kings are being badly outcoached in this series, next to no adjustments, and continue with same player usage mistakes and deployment and still trotted out the fail diamond pk in game 4. ironically how they lost the game.

Never know what happens but not sure how much Kings have left if they continue with similar lines and player minutes. Banishing Fiala to 4th line is the only adjustment made. lol

 

[CupofOil]

Not too worried. The way our lines are playing is relative to who we are playing. If we just saw off at EV we're basically guaranteed wins against LA who can't buy a PP goal and who can't defend against our PP with a Diamond.

If Kings unpack Diamond in game 5 I wonder who their next coach is? Brindy?

But a big reason for the saw off is the McDavid line. The McDavid line is coming out so far ahead that it just shows how badly the other lines are getting outplayed that it becomes overall even. This is concerning considering that better competition and much better if they make the CF lies ahead. I'm scared to look at what the defense HDCF and HDCA against chart looks like, Nurse-Ceci numbers must be incredibly ugly.
With that said, still some business to be taken care of in this series before we can worry about what lies ahead.

 

[DavidHasselhoffsFist]

Delete

 

[BlackDogg]

This is the game where McDavid goes coast to coast

Coast to Coast AM after the game?

 

[Drivesaitl]

The moss pit reminds me of the red mile in Calgary back in the day. I wasn’t cheering for the Flames but I sure was partaking in the party.

Although underneath the fun was a lot of shitty behaviour. It was fun at the time, but I couldn’t be bothered to be close to anything like that.

#grumpyoldman

I got married fairly early. You can probably tell. haha. I might've liked that sorta thing for a longer period of time but once you're married, well, you know.

Growing up near the Klondiker Biker Hotel you quickly learn not to be drinking around randoms. Its a life long message that serves well. I drink only with people I know.

 

[DavidHasselhoffsFist]

View attachment 863115

 

[Porkleaker]

Coast to Coast AM after the game?

I miss Art Bell. I called in a couple times and once he berated
me for my username.

 

[Drivesaitl]

But a big reason for the saw off is the McDavid line. The McDavid line is coming out so far ahead that it just shows how badly the other lines are getting outplayed that it becomes overall even. This is concerning considering that better competition and much better if they make the CF lies ahead. I'm scared to look at what the defense HDCF and HDCA against chart looks like, Nurse-Ceci numbers must be incredibly ugly.
With that said, still some business to be taken care of in this series before we can worry about what lies ahead.

What lies ahead is either Nashville or Vancouver. You seem overly worried in that regard. Now I'm not saying look past, but if we can't close LA or win next round handily the team doesn't deserve anything.

I get worried in Conference final. I'll enjoy it till then and not worry.

 

[alanschu]

 

[Da McBomb]

I'm far too old now for watch parties like the Moss Pit. Would have been great in my 20's... but now I would much rather watch on my big screen TV at home where I can focus on the action without any distractions.

 

[Porkleaker]

I was watching the Klima SUPER OT

 

[K1984]

Fair enough. Kopitar ate his lunch in Game 2, so that one game may have heavily influenced the numbers. I'm a bit concerned with only 2 ES points, but hopefully that improves.

I don't know if I could possibly be any less concerned about the lack of even strength scoring because we are scoring at will on the PP so fighting or taking risks for 5v5 offence make no sense.

What a lot of Oiler fans and people outside Edmonton don't fully understand is this isn't a normal team where you would look at metrics like bottom 6 scoring or EV scoring and be concerned. If the PP pots 2 goals early, why would we push at all 5v5? If the top 6 is on a heater, why do we care if the bottom 6 isn't scoring goals? Everything is relative, and there is give and take. We don't need the 4th line to get the 5th goal in a 4-0 game.

Our bottom 6 scoring and EV scoring will adjust with the flow of the game. If the PP is cold or we are down goals we're probably going to push quite a bit more, but if the PP is hot an we are leading? I'm more than happy with a +/- of 0 across the board at EV and the group seems to be playing that way.

 

[bone]

I'm not overly panicked about the 5 on 5 play at this point.

Game 1 - Oilers opened up with 3 straight 5 on 5,, then blew it open by scoring on the PP to make it 4-0. LA then presses because they are down so much and get a couple fortunate ones to make it 4-2, but Edmonton reopens the four goal lead by taking advantage of the PPs. Then LA gets two even more fortunate bounces.

Edmonton ultimately ends up -1 at 5 on 5, but the 5 on 5 got them into a position to win the game in the first place making LA chase and then they window dressed it by pumping three PP goals while LA got some bounces. (3 GF)

Game 2 - LA starts hard and skates out to an early 3-1 lead, all at 5 on 5. Edmonton closes the gap on a PP goal, but ultimately twice erased LA leads with even strength goals. LA ultimately comes out plus 2 in this game and were the better 5 on 5 team, but were also assisted by some poor goaltending, and it wasn't like Edmonton couldn't accomplish anything 5 on 5 (3 GF)

Game 3 - Edmonton skates to a 2-0 lead with two 5 on 5 goals, then adds to it late in the first with a PP goal. LA gets one back in the second but Edmonton quickly gets it back restoring the lead with another 5 on 5 goal. They add some window dressing by scoring 2 PP goals in the third when LA goes full sideshow. Ultimately though, that game was owned by Edmonton 5 on 5. (3GF)

Game 4 - Looks terrible by shot metrics at 5 on 5, but ultimately they never allowed a single goal against and some models were suggesting that despite the volume of shots, LA never really had an amazing scoring chance, just some decent ones. (0 GF)

It all adds up to the teams being -1 at 5 on 5, but really most of LAs 5 on 5 success came on some very lucky bounces and bad goals in Games 1 and 2. After Edmonton cleaned that up for Games 3 and 4, they only managed 1 goal in 2 games.

I'm not overly panicked yet. Only Corsi numbers make Edmonton look poor at 5 on 5 and I suspect there's tons of score effect involved there as LAs been chasing the game all series having been trailing for 134 minutes of play in this series, trailing by 2 or more for 95 minutes of play and trailing by 3 or more goals for 68 minutes.

 

[K1984]

I dunno. If we finish LA tonight and Vancouver goes 7 then the earliest we are playing is next Tuesday/Wednesday.

I don’t know if it would be good for this team to be sitting idle for 5-6 days.

Up until now I would have agreed with you, but I think that slowly this team's ability to make the most of time off is showing itself.

Woodcroft had a difficult time preparing this team for anything. Starts of games, starts of seasons, starts after time off, starts of series, etc, etc. It was a consistent theme with him where the team would look consistently totally unprepared for anything new or different. They had difficulty in their preparation process across the board.

Don't get that same feel with Knoblauch. I feel like we have been much better to start games gradually since he's been here. He had the group ready for Game 1. He had the group prepared to adjust their approach after a bad Game 2. He kept the group focused and prepared for Game 4 when in the past they probably would have gone off the rails after a cake walk Game 3. It just feels different and I think that this group can much better take advantage of time off vs what would have occurred in the past.

 

[Captain Fantastic]

I miss Art Bell. I called in a couple times and once he berated
me for my username.

Is their a radio station in Canada that still airs Coast to Coast AM? I was a frequent listener years ago.