Kane has a similar problem offensively. Used to almost alternate PP time with Hyman, but since getting his wrist cut and the Oilers going historical with Hyman he only gets the occasional sniff in the final 40 seconds.
Agree about your point. Goaltending is critically interdependent on the team's structure and commitment in front of them. The Oilers have struggled forever to carve out a consistent, high level and repeatable systemic quality of team defending. It was Tippett's first principle on the job that they needed to work on goal suppression and it continued to be elusive.
No argument there. Just not sure they get it though Or will at the time of the next contract discussions.
If people are gonna harp on coaches for line decisions, we should be able to praise them for doing things right.
Conner looks like he’s ready. Drai is fighting it though. And no, even Conner being ready is fairly recent. Aand yes they would be ready if somebody else was doing the hard minutes. Is that what you mean?
He's been playing heavy minutes with some of the struggling forwards. His most common forwards he's played with are Kane, Drai, Hyman, Foegele, RNH, McLeod, Brown and then McDavid.
Much like how the Oilers aren't scoring as much and the shooting percentage is down, so he's not getting extra assists, as you said, but he'll adjust to the mean, imo, as the team does.
I agree with you in that the consistent, responsible play and work ethic starts at the top and our best players/leaders are often the most guilty when defensive break downs occur. When they put the detail into their games defensively and limit their bad turnovers we tend to win more games and our goalies seem to stop more pucks. This team will be at its peak when 97 and 29 commit fully and consistently to a more balanced game because scoring a 150pts a year doesn’t have the same effect on team success when you’re giving up as much 5v5 as they do at times.
perfectly summed up. They need a more reliable goalie option but they can improve their goaltending by limiting high danger chances and in my opinion more importantly they need to reduce the severity of the breakdowns leading to some of the highest quality chances possible. When we have break downs it tends to lead to the type of chances that most goalies are going to struggle to stop.
I think you missed the point
Drai lines have been getting constant diet of a lot more ownzone faceoffs and they've had Brown so should be considered shorthanded..
And Markannen(?) took them to game 7 of the finals.
Yeah. I'm not a big fan of the usage.
] when they're with Nurse. When away from Nurse, it's a 65% offensive zone faceoff % and a 72% xGF.
Woody tried a zillion combos, and this place was filled with whining no matter what.
I personally interpret the "cup or bust" mantra as meaning...
Well I don't view it as a "threat"... just the fact that they likely feel if they can't get traction here and can't push the team to a Cup Final while being probably the best performing playoff duo since Gretzky/Kurri era days.,. then they may never sniff "true" success in Edmonton and that would be a huge factor in deciding whether to re-sign in Edmonton as their prime years are now.
