Post-Game Talk: Despite Eakins' attempts, the Oilers beat Tampa 3-2

[Burnt Biscuits]

Petry was NOT that good. Stood around like an idiot like he usually does on Lightning's tying goal. This dude does NOT recognize danger. This dude does not execute plays to get the puck out of the zone. His biggest problem is hockey IQ is low. But everyone acts like he's a stud because he looks somewhat dynamic skating the puck out of our zone. It's very noticable which is why he gets looked upon like he's good.

Truth is:
He CANNOT get shots to the net.
He CANNOT make simple passes.
He CANNOT get pucks out of our zone.
And after many seasons, still can't pick up danger in our zone when he sees it.

I think you are watching a different Jeff Petry then me, Petry is our best passing defenseman hands down on the big squad and he makes simple passes quite well. I'd say he is maybe not the best defenseman at getting pucks out of our zone, in the literal sense cause we have some d-men that are decent at just pounding it out of the zone without a care in the world where it ends up afterwards, but actually doing so and maintaining possession i.e. tape to tape pass to a teammate; he is the best we have at this as well.

Petry has weaknesses, but I don't think you've hit the nail on the head at all. His weakness IMO are inconsistency, over-reliance on the poke check which is particularly troublesome against high skill players who at times deke him out of his jock, and is at times slow to pick up defensive breakdowns and doesn't adjust quick enough. I will agree that his offensive game leaves something to be desired and while he has a decent shot he misses the net far too often, a little less mustard on it and if he kept it lower for rebound purposes would probably do us and him some good.

I also think Ference is a bad partner for him and they don't have much chemistry, he'd fair better with someone else. It was nice to see him get the icetime he deserves tonight, we just have to find a way to cut back Ference's minutes without overtaxing Marincin and Nikitin.

 

[Jamie]

That is the best I've seen our defensemen play this season. The only dman that I thought was bad in our own zone consistently was Schultz. You know, I wanna like him because he has so much talent and could be a top offensive dman, but he hasn't sold me on being anything more than MAB or even Andy Delmore at this point of his career. Hoping I'm wrong on him.

But, that said, Petry, Fayne, Ference, Marincin and Nikitin all had strong games in my opinion. I know people like to hate on Ference, but he ended several rushes quickly and swiftly to negate a chance before things could even get exciting for the opposition. Great positioning and recognition by his part I thought. Nikitin looked like he might be worth that contract if can play little more consistently... Petry is good, just nothing special, like that Gilbert fellow. I've been hoping until now that Petry is more than that - been a fan of his for some time, but don't think he has that extra compete level to be more than a 2nd pairing type dman.

 

[The Batman]

Drouin impressed the hell out of me. Sad to see Yakupov warming the bench again despite playing great this young season. Strong defensive game overall by everybody. Really thought Drai was going to score his first goal from a nice pass by Perron.

 

[TheNumber4]

I think you are watching a different Jeff Petry then me, Petry is our best passing defenseman hands down on the big squad and he makes simple passes quite well. I'd say he is maybe not the best defenseman at getting pucks out of our zone, in the literal sense cause we have some d-men that are decent at just pounding it out of the zone without a care in the world where it ends up afterwards, but actually doing so and maintaining possession i.e. tape to tape pass to a teammate; he is the best we have at this as well.

Petry has weaknesses, but I don't think you've hit the nail on the head at all. His weakness IMO are inconsistency, over-reliance on the poke check which is particularly troublesome against high skill players who at times deke him out of his jock, and is at times slow to pick up defensive breakdowns and doesn't adjust quick enough. I will agree that his offensive game leaves something to be desired and while he has a decent shot he misses the net far too often, a little less mustard on it and if he kept it lower for rebound purposes would probably do us and him some good.

I also think Ference is a bad partner for him and they don't have much chemistry, he'd fair better with someone else. It was nice to see him get the icetime he deserves tonight, we just have to find a way to cut back Ference's minutes without overtaxing Marincin and Nikitin.

I agree that Petry might be our best passing defenseman, but our defenceman are horrible at passing. This is the huge problem with this team that leads us to LAST place finishes. Just because he is relatively good, does not mean he is good in this respect.

The thing about Petry's shot is that it misses but also that he doesn't get it through ever. His shots almost always get blocked. Seen it happen tonight. He receives a pass at the blue line takes a half second too long to try to aim his shot and boom a defensive player catches up to him and he misses. He doesn't have the hockey IQ to receive a pass and automatically move to a more open spot to get a shot through. This lack of awareness of opponents hurts him in the D zone too. On tonight's 2nd goal from TBAY he was caught puck watching the giveaway from Perron and not covering the one timer like he should have. He was caught in no man's land as usual.

The guy just doesn't have the skill to be a top 2 defenceman and unfortunately he wants to be paid long term like one. I welcome a Petry + Futures trade to upgrade our D.

 

[Connor McSaviour]

I think Fayne was the best player on the ice tonight. Great game from him. Hopefully he can play like this consistently.

 

[Smart Dunsparce*]

WAT. I'm not a huge fan of Ference and don't like him as Captain, but what on earth are you talking about here? Ference hating is the definition of mainstream here. It's no doubt amplified by his captaincy but people crack jokes about Ference's play before every game. He'd have to start playing like Chris Pronger to reverse his reputation at this point.

I should have used a different word, but what I was implying is that Ference is not bad because of the popular opinion of him on HFOil is that hes not that good... He's just not good.

 

[OiledUp]

I think we played a very good and solid hockey game last night. Just a real hockey team winning a game which was nice to see for once. Usually when we win it's due to individuals having insane games, Hall going beastly, one line being outstanding, the PP goes 4/5 or the goalie standing on his head.
Last night was just a good effort from all hands, the right players stepped up for the big moments but noone had to be the superhero. Very good.

Fayne showed why he was so highly regarded in NJ. Him and Marincin, had a very nice game.
Nikitin had his best game, he has some flaws to his game that tend to make him look worse than he is at times, he has glitches where his reaction time is very slow and so on, but you sort of have to take the bad with the good, he's really good at breaking up the cycle with his long reach, he moves the puck nicely when he doesn't get caught in the headlights and he limits the own zone time in a very nice way, rarely gets hemmed. Offensively his shot is some heavy **** and he's good at keeping the puck in the zone. To me he's the kind of player who looks sluggish and gives you a few facepalm moments a season but when you look beyond that and consider the overall result he's a clear positive.
I think Schultz was good as well, I think he's been better defensively than what's been the general narrative so far this season. Far from perfect but ok and actually it's his offense that's been disappointing to me, hopefully the goal last night gives him some confidence.

Ference had a pretty strong game without the puck but with it he had some grenadehandling. Petry was pretty good.

The forwards overall were good. The right guys were involved with the goals. The first line had some stupid own zone giveaways but all three also had a few good defensive plays. Yak keeps playing well, with some bounces he'd have more points on the season. He probably deserves some more toi but we won the game and him being sheltered to start the year might be a smart thing as long as he slowly gets more if he keeps his play up over the longer haul. I didn't like it when his toi was cut against Nucks since he was so obviously much better than Ebs for example in that game, tonight I didn't mind it since all lines did fairly well.

There was some bad defensive moments, Scrivens on the first goal, Drai on the second, but as a whole it was very solid, Stamkos didn't get a lot of looks. The PK was good and the PP was ok.

Good game. Build on this against the Caps please.

 

[NewBoysClub97*]

I thought the sportsnet panel was annoying at the end. All they kept talking about how Edmonton had big horseshoes up our but. Never talked about the goal posts we hit or the five star saves bishop made. Made it seem like it was all luck

 

[harpoon]

Ference was pretty solid the last couple of games.

Respectfully, because I always enjoy reading your posts, this is just an overly kind evaluation of his work. Admittedly I didn't watch the 0-2 game vs Vancouver, but Ference has been flat out terrible in the other games I've seen. Running around, losing his man, getting schooled along the boards, not taking his man right in front ... there hasn't been one single thing he has been "pretty solid" at doing on the defensive side of the game.

I thought he quietly did his job tonight.

I'm scratching my head on this comment quite honestly. I didn't notice him do one thing right tonight. I'm sure open to having you point something out to me, but I sincerely thought he was easily the worst Oiler d-man tonight.

Some posters who enjoy preaching at the board will call the criticism Ference is getting "a trend" - as if the rest of us haven't been watching the games. Let's be honest, the only "trend" here is the downward trend in Ference's game that anyone with a modicum of impartiality has observed over the last sixty games.

Poor Petry saddled with this guy. He must be frustrated beyond belief.

 

[Klimando Kostani]

Is it just me or did we completely stop playing the swarm the last two games and we've looked a lot better defensively?

 

[Replacement*]

Coverage has been better the last couple games but theres still lots of problems creeping up.

Gotta say as well Stamkos had an off night. Had trouble handling the puck even when he was open. Very quiet night from him.

That said, Hall turns the puck over in his own zone twice in one shift with Stamkos on the ice.

RNH, while killing a penalty, makes an excellent rush up ice but then it all goes nuts and Nuge brings puck deep in Tampa zone, another Oiler forward comes in aggressively, then Nuge inexplicably puts the puck up high which fortunately an Oiler D, who had also jumped into Tampa zone puts the puck safely back deep. If that D doesn't handle that puck 3 oilers are caught, shorthanded, in Tampa Zone, with Stamkos on the ice.

Nothing bad happened on that play but its a textbook example of how things go wrong in an instant with this club. Nuge HAS to have better awareness then to go for that kind of high risk play while killing a penalty. Your best option is to rag the puck in the corner somewhere long as you can then fall back to defend.

This team is so geared to trying to create something offensively that they forget the hazards completely of cheating for offence. Even while killing a penalty.

Lets be clear here a well. This play is going on while Eakins is putting our topline up against other toplines and expecting them to outproduce. Which happened on this night but won't be the story on a lot of nights.

Nice to see the team overall play better, and Hall and Nuge on a cursory look are stars in this game, but the errors continue to concern me.

 

[joestevens29]

I thought the sportsnet panel was annoying at the end. All they kept talking about how Edmonton had big horseshoes up our but. Never talked about the goal posts we hit or the five star saves bishop made. Made it seem like it was all luck

I turned the volume off as I can't stand Remeda. This isn't baseball, it's hockey. He seems to never shut up.

 

[joestevens29]

Maybe it's just me, but for the most part this is the same team I've seen most the year. Defense was better, but there was still blown coverages allowing guys in deep.

But truthfully the team I saw yesterday is the team I expected to see. A team that can win or lose a game on any given night. Early on it was just lose regardless.

 

[McJadeddog]

Send him to junior

this is the answer

 

[Replacement*]

I thought the sportsnet panel was annoying at the end. All they kept talking about how Edmonton had big horseshoes up our but. Never talked about the goal posts we hit or the five star saves bishop made. Made it seem like it was all luck

Scrivens had a pretty good game as well. Thought he made a lot of saves to keep us in it.

We also let in a tying goal with 6mins left. At home.

The team has played markedly better the last 2 games but the mistakes continue to some degree and we're continuing to lose coverage around the net. We're reducing the frequency of this but leaks still occurring.

I think where the Oilers were luckiest is Tampa was missing their top D and the team really seemed to have an off night. They only played hard in instances in the game. They weren't matching Oilers intensity much of the night which is a phrase that you wouldn't hear often.

So lucky, no, but atypical, yes.

 

[Eirhead*]

I think our forecheck has been pretty good all season. Like, should be winning games in the league good. Our defence has let us down a bit, as did goaltending in our first couple. But it seems like they're shoring it up now.

Would be nice if we actually got some real serious puck luck one of these nights. Get a couple convincing wins under our belts

 

[Vagabond]

Happy with the win and how they won.

Unhappy with how Eakins utilizes Yakupov.

Other than that, Oil finally in the win column. ; )

 

[Pressure]

I seriously hate Eakins. His favoritsm and bias is killing this team. We won. Great. If we didn't, people would be asking wtf Yakupov isn't used correctly and given chances to succeed. You think it's easy for a young offensive Russian kid to "earn" icetime when he gets no flow to the game after huge long stretches of being benched???

 

[Beerfish]

I keep thinking we are going to have one of these moments and we really did not win.

 

[McDrai]

All I'm going to say is that if I was a European player I would not want to be on the Oilers...
Marincin sent down to the AHL to start the season, Yakupov benched for no reason , Belov stating that he wasn't too fond of the coach (if I remember correctly). Did this guy go to the Don Cherry school of hockey?

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

when the defence looks as good as it did last night, I wonder what the heck the team was doing starting the season with Hunt, Nurse, and Klefbom on the roster and Marincin in the minors

#becauseEakins
#becauseOilers

also, love Draisaitl's talent but he's not getting it done...1 point and a -6...back to junior to dominate and mature

get a real NHL center MacT!

 

[Kepler 186f]

Good. They finally outworked a team and voila, a win.

I wonder if that will sink in.

Still some god awful turn overs in dangerous positions. They have to work on that.

Hopefully they can build on this for a solid home stand.

 

[Kepler 186f]

We got screwed in the canucks game, so its only fair.

Boneheaded calls even out over the season. The stripes giveth, the stripes taketh away.

 

[Aerrol]

All I'm going to say is that if I was a European player I would not want to be on the Oilers...
Marincin sent down to the AHL to start the season, Yakupov benched for no reason , Belov stating that he wasn't too fond of the coach (if I remember correctly). Did this guy go to the Don Cherry school of hockey?

Sure seems that way, but other than Marincin there are... sort of decent reasons for their treatment. Yak was a horrific defensive liability and Belov just didn't play well for us. Of course, how much of that was Eakins being a terrible coach unable to explain things to his players? Especially if english isn't your first language? I lean towards less outright favouritism and more incompetence.

 

[Pennertration]

Maybe it's just me, but for the most part this is the same team I've seen most the year. Defense was better, but there was still blown coverages allowing guys in deep.

But truthfully the team I saw yesterday is the team I expected to see. A team that can win or lose a game on any given night. Early on it was just lose regardless.

I'm seeing the same thing. The Oilers record is nowhere near as bad as their play indicates it should be (kinda like the Flames hot start, which is a mirage).

I do think when the Oilers make mistakes though, they are major, major mistakes.

Also, I was content to see Eakins get a fresh start this year but I think it's time to let him go. I have little faith in his ability to do much of anything. He doesn't ever seem to adapt to the players he has - instead he tries to mash them into his own mold. I actually think he's done a good job of making Yak better but that could just be Yakupov's own doing, too.