Post-Game Talk: “Everything is so crappy right now” - @gordonhught

[SnipeShowJB11]

I tired of the Howdy Doody buddy buddy act a few games ago. Being your worst players best friend is not what a coach needs on their resume. Woody looks lost right now behind the bench.

Good coaches know when to compliment and also know when to kick ass. This is not complimentary moral victory time for the Oilers. There are no participation ribbons handed out. This isn't a developmental league.

Woody Doody f***ed up right from day 1 with his flaccid training camp, crap practices, has his finger on the blender which is going full tilt and now he is doing skills and drills practices like its Novice Day 1.

Zero chance Holland makes a coaching move so here's hoping Woody figures it out.

I think the players from McDavid on down believed their press clippings from this off season and came into the season mentally unprepared to compete this season.

Nothing good comes easy. This team thinks good things come easy.

Pretty much. Just look at their very first game this year. Canucks were kicking their a** and then the Oilers had to come back.

 

[Soundwave]

I tired of the Howdy Doody buddy buddy act a few games ago. Being your worst players best friend is not what a coach needs on their resume. Woody looks lost right now behind the bench.

Good coaches know when to compliment and also know when to kick ass. This is not complimentary moral victory time for the Oilers. There are no participation ribbons handed out. This isn't a developmental league.

Woody Doody f***ed up right from day 1 with his flaccid training camp, crap practices, has his finger on the blender which is going full tilt and now he is doing skills and drills practices like its Novice Day 1.

Zero chance Holland makes a coaching move so here's hoping Woody figures it out.

I think the players from McDavid on down believed their press clippings from this off season and came into the season mentally unprepared to compete this season.

Nothing good comes easy. This team thinks good things come easy.

He’s gotten himself in trouble with this group by being too soft and nice. Having lax practises is basically saying “we are so good we don’t need to work hard”. You play how you practise, the Oilers don’t start on time because they don’t practise hard.

Also don’t think this guy has it in him to tear a strip off anyone for making mistakes.

 

[YakDavid]

If you were to look at this game on an individual level I think we played okay. 21 high-danger scoring chances and 49 shots. We get out goalied by a Vezina candidate. It's frustrating because it isn't a one-off.

Overall we need to play much better but normally that is a one-goal game.

 

[Reasonable Oil Fan]

You’re gonna lose games like this once in a while
The problem is, the timing of this loss wasn’t great
Obviously you prefer a loss like this while you had a bit of a cushion
But it’s not the end of the world
I think woody is learning too
It seems other teams are “on to” our transition system a bit
That happens
Tweaks need to be made many times a year
They will be I’m sure
It’s just that right now we are caught in that “couple of games of no man’s land “

 

[Soundwave]

You’re gonna lose games like this once in a while
The problem is, the timing of this loss wasn’t great
Obviously you prefer a loss like this while you had a bit of a cushion
But it’s not the end of the world
I think woody is learning too
It seems other teams are “on to” our transition system a bit
That happens
Tweaks need to be made many times a year
They will be I’m sure
It’s just that right now we are caught in that “couple of games of no man’s land “

Don't think there is a "tweak" that fixes losing Kane's 35-50 goal pace from the forward group.

The other big problems with our so-called "support forwards" is they are incredibly mentally weak. Like you would figure just by probability and hard work a Puljujarvi would score the odd goal here and there, but of course he's so far up his own ass in terms of being down that he couldn't score into an ocean right now.

 

[frag2]

I'm trying to grasp how er have regressed so much from last spring. Something isn't adding up. Yes Campbell has been a HUGE disappointment. Now Kane is gone for 3 months atleast and the bottom 6 is nothing more then passengers on the bus.

I'm not worried. We were or had a lot uglier record this time last year I'm sure with Tippets 18 game losing streak. Lots of time to turn it around. The negativity on this forum isn't helping each other get by tho....

Because they aren't playing 'as a team'...they've all resorted back to either playing for personal stats or just waiting for McDrai to carry. The only person to consistently play 'hard' is Hyman but he himself is a semi flawed player [ie. tunnel vision]

 

[Soundwave]

Because they aren't playing 'as a team'...they've all resorted back to either playing for personal stats or just waiting for McDrai to carry. The only person to consistently play 'hard' is Hyman but he himself is a semi flawed player [ie. tunnel vision]

They didn't really play "as a team" last spring either. That was basically a 4 man show playing firewagon hockey, because Kane was scoring at a 50 goal rate, they could actually pull it off.

The bottom 6, D, and "support forwards" like Puljujarvi and Yamamoto were hot sweaty ass in the playoffs, anyone thinking otherwise was wearing rose colored glasses.

Smith was OK, some games solid, some games a wreck, clearly age and injury had him gassed by the end.

All that shows is how little help McDavid and Draisaitl need to go somewhere, and how sad it is the Oilers can't even give them that much.

 

[Reasonable Oil Fan]

Don't think there is a "tweak" that fixes losing Kane's 35-50 goal pace from the forward group.

The other big problems with our so-called "support forwards" is they are incredibly mentally weak. Like you would figure just by probability and hard work a Puljujarvi would score the odd goal here and there, but of course he's so far up his own ass in terms of being down that he couldn't score into an ocean right now.

Perhaps
But
We played well enough to win last night for the most part
It seemed that some subtle parts of our play were stifled a bit which took away from our speed
Sure our depth is terrible (that’s been the case for a while) and we miss Kane
But
You gotta play the hand you’re dealt

 

[SwedishFire]

So fire Holland and name Lowe interm GM? I wouldn't be mad...

Not the way to go.
Holland is better. He actually signed some good pieces here. Hyman, E Kane, Barrie, getting Kulak and Kieth - though not retained, and he coild daved that 2nd pick, giving a 3rd instead.

 

[Soundwave]

Perhaps
But
We played well enough to win last night for the most part
It seemed that some subtle parts of our play were stifled a bit which took away from our speed
Sure our depth is terrible (that’s been the case for a while) and we miss Kane
But
You gotta play the hand you’re dealt

The hand they're dealt is quite probably "not enough depth to make the playoffs" unfortunately.

They were 3-5-2 in the 10 games last year before Kane was signed, on a tailspin out of the playoff picture.

Now that he's hurt, they are 2-4 in the games since.

That's becoming a pretty clear pattern. I think with him gone, it mentally takes a toll on McDavid/Draisaitl especially because they look at the Puljujarvis and Janmarks on the team and deep down they know they don't have the horses, and they're already pushing themselves probably to exhaustion as is. It's demoralizing to not have any reliable depth whatsoever and to be continually let down by your teammates.

 

[McShogun99]

I thought they played a good game overall. Barrie cost them the game. The third goal was weak by Campbell but the first two would be hard to stop by any goalie.

 

[Reasonable Oil Fan]

The hand they're dealt is quite probably "not enough depth to make the playoffs" unfortunately.

They were 3-5-2 in the 10 games last year before Kane was signed, on a tailspin out of the playoff picture.

Now that he's hurt, they are 2-4 in the games since.

That's becoming a pretty clear pattern. I think with him gone, it mentally takes a toll on McDavid/Draisaitl especially because they look at the Puljujarvis and Janmarks on the team and deep down they know they don't have the horses, and they're already pushing themselves probably to exhaustion as is. It's demoralizing to not have any reliable depth whatsoever and to be continually let down by your teammates.

I couldn’t agree more
Right from the beginning of the year when it was clear that we’d only have a 21 man roster when everyone was healthy I was concerned
I suppose I’m just looking for positives
And
We did play well enough to win last night
We generated lots

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

Our bottom 6 shouldn’t even be allowed in the locker room.

 

[Soundwave]

Someone posted the stat last game that the Oilers had 6 goals and 13 points from their bottom six.

NJ had 22 goals and 48 points.

I think it was posted on Oilers Nation but 5 on 5 production this is apparently the worst bottom 6 McDavid and Drai have had in their careers (lol), even worse than the Chiarelli days. They are just giving us nothing.

Holland's gamble on Puljujarvi and Yamamoto to be the support depth on this team along with Foegele and probably the hope that Holloway was NHL ready has been an enormous disaster.

 

[K1984]

Bouchard's ceiling is looking like a a #6 guy at the moment. Boy, has he regressed hard.

In addition to being a terribly constructed and horribly flawed roster, this team is beyond boring to watch as well.

Most teams that are good only have one or two "Bouchard" players - that is highly talented and skilled, but dumb as shit and incapable of defending or playing with consistent structure. Good teams have players around him that know what they're doing so that his flaws can be hidden and his strengths can be taken advantage of.

Problem with the Oilers is we are stocked top to bottom with the skilled, but stupid player especially on defense. Nurse, Bouchard and Barrie are all various degrees of talented, but insanely stupid. Up front we have Puljujarvi and Yamo leading the way in this department on a constant basis, but there are others too that I won't name that periodically decide to be dumb too. Nuge has blown back checks for goals against in back to back games for example. Leon is still addicted to over passing and pissing pucks up at both blue lines.

The only players that can honestly be reasonably relied upon to not do incredibly stupid things on a regular basis are McDavid, Hyman (even though he has his own defensive warts sometimes)..... and I think that might be it honestly.

Besides everything else that's wrong with the team, collective hockey IQ has to be 32/32 in the NHL. We are the dumbest team in the league by a mile and certainly the dumbest among teams that are supposed to be good.

 

[Soundwave]

Most teams that are good only have one or two "Bouchard" players - that is highly talented and skilled, but dumb as shit and incapable of defending or playing with consistent structure. Good teams have players around him that know what they're doing so that his flaws can be hidden and his strengths can be taken advantage of.

Problem with the Oilers is we are stocked top to bottom with the skilled, but stupid player especially on defense. Nurse, Bouchard and Barrie are all various degrees of talented, but insanely stupid. Up front we have Puljujarvi and Yamo leading the way in this department on a constant basis, but there are others too that I won't name that periodically decide to be dumb too. Nuge has blown back checks for goals against in back to back games for example. Leon is still addicted to over passing and pissing pucks up at both blue lines.

The only players that can honestly be reasonably relied upon to not do incredibly stupid things on a regular basis are McDavid, Hyman (even though he has his own defensive warts sometimes)..... and I think that might be it honestly.

Besides everything else that's wrong with the team, collective hockey IQ has to be 32/32 in the NHL. We are the dumbest team in the league by a mile and certainly the dumbest among teams that are supposed to be good.

Broberg is gonna fit right in as he's right in that wheel house.

Not the brightest player, soft, but has some nice tools like end to end skating.

 

[K1984]

Broberg is gonna fit right in as he's right in that wheel house.

Not the brightest player, soft, but has some nice tools like end to end skating.

Yep. Holloway and Bogault are shades of this theme as well.

It's an organizational philosophy that has to change. Hockey sense and work ethic need to be balanced with skill, skill with no brains doesn't work.

 

[Soundwave]

Yep. Holloway and Bogault are shades of this theme as well.

It's an organizational philosophy that has to change. Hockey sense and work ethic need to be balanced with skill, skill with no brains doesn't work.

The other thing is this team looks to draft players that have "vague skill" ... which generally means none of them really have a good NHL level shot release, lol.

Like you can get away with being not the smartest player if you have a slam dunk finishing ability, but I'm not seeing NHL tier finish with Holloway. Bourgault not exactly lighting up the AHL either. Can any of these guys actually shoot the puck?

Oilers drafting seems overly obsessed with

1.) Skating ability

2.) Height. But just height alone. Toughness doesn't matter, lol.

"He's tall and dumb as f***, but boyyyy can he skate!" is like their drafting philosophy, lol. Also drafting by position rather than BPA is incredibly stupid too, but that seems to be Holland's way of thinking.

 

[Proko88]

I propose the following:

Broberg 2024 1st Puljujarvi
For
Chychrun

Barrie 2023 1st
For
Klingberg

Yamamoto
For
Soucy

Time to rebuild the backend

Nurse Klingberg
Chychrun Ceci
Soucy Bouchard
Kulak

Discuss

 

[Soundwave]

I propose the following:

Broberg 2024 1st Puljujarvi
For
Chychrun

Barrie 2023 1st
For
Klingberg

Yamamoto
For
Soucy

Time to rebuild the backend

Nurse Klingberg
Chychrun Ceci
Soucy Bouchard
Kulak

Discuss

I mean your general line of thinking that the D just needs to be scrapped and basically rebuilt probably isn't wrong. Don't think Seattle does that trade, maybe in the summer they would have said yes, but not now.

The thing is even with all that, I think they still need like a top 6 forward add ASAP, I don't think they're going to make it to even the trade deadline if they don't have Kane.

 

[Proko88]

I mean your general line of thinking that the D just needs to be scrapped and basically rebuilt probably isn't wrong. Don't think Seattle does that trade, maybe in the summer they would have said yes, but not now.

The thing is even with all that, I think they still need like a top 6 forward add ASAP, I don't think they're going to make it to even the trade deadline if they don't have Kane.

I think Seattle may want Yamamoto as the face of the franchise as he’s a local kid. I don’t think they covet soucy as much as other teams would either. Just my thoughts

 

[Reasonable Oil Fan]

I propose the following:

Broberg 2024 1st Puljujarvi
For
Chychrun

Barrie 2023 1st
For
Klingberg

Yamamoto
For
Soucy

Time to rebuild the backendhh

Nurse Klingberg
Chychrun Ceci
Soucy Bouchard
Kulak

Discuss

I see what you’re saying
But
I don’t think those assets of ours get any of those done

 

[K1984]

I think Seattle may want Yamamoto as the face of the franchise as he’s a local kid. I don’t think they covet soucy as much as other teams would either. Just my thoughts

I think Seattle is probably already past the point of making moves for mascot players that they can sell a story on. They're looking to win too, and that deal doesn't help them do that. They already have a bunch of Yamamoto type players except they are actually good.

 

[Proko88]

I see what you’re saying
But
I don’t think those assets of ours get any of those done

yeah, the main piece is the first round pick. The player is mostly for cap purposes.

 

[Reasonable Oil Fan]

yeah, the main piece is the first round pick. The player is mostly for cap purposes.

Yeah
Our cap situation really compounds our problems
Such a brutal year for many teams that way