Pre-Game Talk: Are you a nervous Flyer?

[Broberg Speed]

I think Foegele is gonna start putting up points

That line is putting up a goal a game... that might be the hardest line to play against in the league. I love it. Foegele is driving the bus.

 

[tardigrade81]

I shall have nachos for the game.

 

[The Panther]

I loved Bear and was disappointed to lose him, but I think one of the issues with him (I'm speculating here) is that he tended to make egregiously bad plays in bigger games. Like, the bigger the moment, the more he choked.

Since the Oilers have entered a "win now or next year or the year after" kind of phase, I think they just felt they didn't want to gamble with that kind of player. (Of course, this leaves the question of why they signed Barrie, but conversely I think Barrie tends to play better in big moments. Also, his offensive upside is way bigger than Bear's.)

 

[Oilhawks]

Bear was trash ala Koskinen on these boards when he was traded. Should we expect a 1st if a team adds him to be their starter?

Having said that I do agree that there were plenty of free agent wingers available so this swap wasn't really needed.

I’m not saying that there weren’t any free agent wingers that they could have signed instead, but who would have made sense to sign as a top 9 guy like Foegele with work ethic, size & speed and flashes of skill? Also at an age entering his prime as a winger and signed for under $3M

I can’t think of any

 

[ujju2]

I like Bear but I don't miss plays like this:



Matthews just easily skates by him to score.

I like how the announcer was just talking about the trade haha

 

[McHelpus]

Seriously? You think Bear was worth a top nine forward and a second or third round pick? This seems a little far fetched. Bear has had a very good start by all accounts but let’s wait more than 6 games before making claims like he’s a top pairing d man. Also remember Slavin is very good at covering for his partners deficiency.

I dont think he's worth that much, but Carolina does. Carolina desperately needed a cheap RD defender - not to mention he is young. I just think in the scenario Carolina was in, the oilers could have gotten more than just a 3rd line winger.

The oilers could have taken advantage of Carolina's need and came out with more. How hard was it for the oilers to aquire a RD a few years ago? Teams would hold us hostage for everything, we should have done the same.

 

[McHelpus]

Bear was trash ala Koskinen on these boards when he was traded. Should we expect a 1st if a team adds him to be their starter?

Having said that I do agree that there were plenty of free agent wingers available so this swap wasn't really needed.

I mean he was getting trashed but Carolina had no one at RD and all it took was a 3rd line winger for them - who also wanted out - to get it.

 

[tardigrade81]

That line is putting up a goal a game... that might be the hardest line to play against in the league. I love it. Foegele is driving the bus.

Having a third line has been incredible. Takes off so much pressure from the top line and second. If Foeg, Ryan and Kassian keep up this play we will be a force.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

Bouchard is already better than Bear anyways.

And now we have one of the best third lines in the league.

 

[Oilhawks]

I mean he was getting trashed but Carolina had no one at RD and all it took was a 3rd line winger for them - who also wanted out - to get it.

Ethan Bear is a talented, but flawed, 5th round pick that came off of two lacklustre playoffs. I think the trade was more than fair and continues to be so

 

[WaitingForUser]

I dont think he's worth that much, but Carolina does. Carolina desperately needed a cheap RD defender - not to mention he is young. I just think in the scenario Carolina was in, the oilers could have gotten more than just a 3rd line winger.

The oilers could have taken advantage of Carolina's need and came out with more. How hard was it for the oilers to aquire a RD a few years ago? Teams would hold us hostage for everything, we should have done the same.

Carolina is playing him there due to circumstance more so than skill level. They tried different things and those two clicked. I don’t know where people get that GMs like to hold each other hostage on negotiations but it doesn’t happen very often at all. Almost the entire hockey world agreed it was a fair deal for both teams. Two young players that have yet to make a serious impact traded for each other it happens all the time.

 

[LTIR]

I mean he was getting trashed but Carolina had no one at RD and all it took was a 3rd line winger for them - who also wanted out - to get it.

It was a win win for all I think. CAR could have grabbed a Barrie or Ceci off of UFA market too but chose to give up value to get someone specific they wanted...
We could also have gone after a Tatar, Saad or Coleman to shore up the left side but gave up an asset to get a better fit for better price.

 

[NedPlimpton]

 

[Blue Line Turnover]

Bouchard is already better than Bear anyways.

And now we have one of the best third lines in the league.

It's early into the season and I've only watched two full Hurricane games, but Bear seems to still have the same decision-making problems under pressure in the defensive zone, still gets outmuscled by average sized forwards, makes bad reads under pressure in the d-zone, etc.; his offensive pinches look much better, though

 

[Oilers in NS]

That line is putting up a goal a game... that might be the hardest line to play against in the league. I love it. Foegele is driving the bus.

That’s what I was mentioning to a Pro Bear fella. Foegele made others around him better, Kassian. Bouchard gets prime minutes . Win win so far. I wish Bear the best, I liked him, but from a hockey standpoint, we won that trade so far

 

[Oilers in NS]

The guy has scored 3 key points in 5 games already from the 3rd line.

Yes, it was nice to watch .

 

[harpoon]

Don't you think Holland could have gotten more if Carolina is playing him top pairing minutes tho? I mean Foegele is fine but Holland should have known that they were desperate for a dman after Hamilton left. I think we could have gotten at least a 2nd or 3rd round pick along with Foegele.

Greedy. I like it.

 

[RavenGuard]

At Bear’s best he was a legit #4 dman in Edmonton. He’s currently playing #2 dman minutes in Carolina.
The jury is still out on Bear For sure. But he is definitely not as bad as Oil country made him out to be.

He would be a 4 there as well but the Canes aren't breaking up their 2nd pairing and Slavin can cover for Bears play. Checkout Bear on Matthews goal the other night.

 

[RavenGuard]

I think Bear has been in the past and can be. It’s only 5 games but he definitely looks like that for Carolina right now.

Everyone looks great playing with Slavin. He's the new Andy Greene

 

[gordonhught]

I loved Bear and was disappointed to lose him, but I think one of the issues with him (I'm speculating here) is that he tended to make egregiously bad plays in bigger games. Like, the bigger the moment, the more he choked.

Since the Oilers have entered a "win now or next year or the year after" kind of phase, I think they just felt they didn't want to gamble with that kind of player. (Of course, this leaves the question of why they signed Barrie, but conversely I think Barrie tends to play better in big moments. Also, his offensive upside is way bigger than Bear's.)

That Bear and Foegele trade was one of those “help both teams” trades.

Oilers needed the fore checker and the Canes needed a D.

Although I think Foegele has a bit more upside than Bear has.

Edit - autocorrect is from the devil

 

[gordonhught]

It's early into the season and I've only watched two full Hurricane games, but Bear seems to still have the same decision-making problems under pressure in the defensive zone, still gets outmuscled by average sized forwards, makes bad reads under pressure in the d-zone, etc.; his offensive pinches look much better, though

Yes. Bear looks exactly the same in Carolina as he did in Edmonton. Same player.

 

[McBooya42]

Seriously? You think Bear was worth a top nine forward and a second or third round pick? This seems a little far fetched. Bear has had a very good start by all accounts but let’s wait more than 6 games before making claims like he’s a top pairing d man. Also remember Slavin is very good at covering for his partners deficiency.

Bear has potential to be a good #3 IMO, but he's not there yet and he'll need to bust his ass to be consistent (conditioning wise in the off season etc...). We've seen both sides of him and his success was directly impacted. Foegele for Bear was just a good old school hockey trade. Everyone walked away happy.

 

[McBooya42]

Bouchard is already better than Bear anyways.

And now we have one of the best third lines in the league.

100% That's why the trade was a win win. Bouchard has been even better than I thought he would be at this point though.

 

[McTonyBrar]

The opportunity for his type of game and the type of linemates he will need is extremely unlikely to occur in Edmonton.
He either has to dramaticlly change his game to 4th liner and/or defensive structure type duties or he needs to get traded/moved out to a place with players that he needs further down the line up (not so top heavy as we are).
Likely best for the player and team.

I still would give him a look. He could perhaps change his style of game. I have a soft spot for him

 

[doulos]

I did not, so I went back through the calendar schedule to get the actual data on that, and was actually quite surprised by most of what I found: we really haven't had a lot of lengthy stretches of time off (I initially wanted to go with breaks of 4+ days but had to drop it to 3+ , as there were only three instances of more time off than that going back to December of 2019) and we don't actually completely suck coming off of rest anymore.


Apr 17 2021 3-0 WPG 6 days off, 2 game win streak
Mar 27 2021 3-4(OT) TOR 6 days off, 3 game win streak
Feb 15 2021 5-6 WPG 3 days off, 3 game win streak
Feb 06 2021 4-6 CGY 3 days off, 2 game win streak

----Bubble Disaster---

Jan 29 2020 3-4(SO) CGY 10 days off, 2 game win streak
Jan 18 2020 7-3 ARI 3 days off, 1 game win streak
Dec 27 2019 1-5 CGY 3 days off, 1 game losing streak

I stopped here, as a)my point had already thoroughly been disproven, and b) it seems like around the time Yamamoto was brought up from the farm is about as good a cutoff point for comparing Oilers squads as any.

So yeah, it looks as though the Oilers have already managed to dispel that particular problem as well, I just hadn't noticed it. I would assume that the results I've shown are about what you'd expect from any NHL squad (2-3-1-1 isn't great, but it's not atrocious). I think it's those three loses to Calgary in those 7 games I listed that might have made this stick in my craw. Thanks for calling me out on that claim, I likely wouldn't have figured out how wrong it was without your post!

Interesting stuff. Definitely contrary to my own hunches as well.

I'd love to see a really deep dive by someone with way more time than I have into some of these things.

How do the Oilers really do on afternoon/weekend games, or after ceremonial delays, or after longer breaks. How does it compare to other teams? Does it simply correlate to the average performance of the team in general?

I suspect a there would be very little Oilers specific performance that was anything distinct from how good or bad the team was, but would love to see it laid out!