Difference between This year and last year

[AM]

The Oilers have now went on an unprecedented run in the current NHL parity era. Is the team just good or is the parity era parity for all teams?

Here is a mail I sent my son:
Hard to find, at least I found it so, as the NHL doesn’t want to advertise this:
NHL Travel Miles: The 2017-18 Super Schedule!
You can see, Toronto is sitting at 35.6k. Calgary Edmonton Vancouver sitting at ~47k.
That is 12k extra travel miles in 6 months. That is not the real story though.
The real story is the amount of nights you don’t make it home.
Say on average 500 miles and you don’t make it home. That would be 24 extra nights not at home in 6 months.
Teams play 82 games, 41 at home. So the extra “travel” is actually +50%.
How much better is a team that puts in 50% extra practice?
How much better is a team that gets 50% extra rest?

Toronto and Montreal are slated to travel extra miles compared to normal. Will that affect their play? Has it already?

What are the other parity imbalances in the league?

Click to read more...

 

[Bryanbryoil]

I think that we are a better team, but all of that extra travel would take a toll on a team for sure.

 

[Zenos]

I know the real point of your post is to discuss parity imbalances, but I'd just like to add that the Oilers were actually a good team last year as well.

They started well, had a down month in December then took off in the new year (coinciding with Yamamoto coming on board and joining Draisaitl and Nuge).

I think the poor play-ins really threw a lot of people off. Yes, they should have been better. But it was also 4 games in a bubble after months-off in the midst of a pandemic.

 

[LTIR]

Biggest difference has been Nurse.
We have someone playing like a true #1D this season. No way we beat the Nucks or the Flames this past week if it was the last year's version of him playing. He is masking a lot of defensive mistakes.

Offense from the blueline and bottom 6 are the other major differences.

 

[McShogun99]

I know the real point of your post is to discuss parity imbalances, but I'd just like to add that the Oilers were actually a good team last year as well.

They started well, had a down month in December then took off in the new year (coinciding with Yamamoto coming on board and joining Draisaitl and Nuge).

I think the poor play-ins really threw a lot of people off. Yes, they should have been better. But it was also 4 games in a bubble after months-off in the midst of a pandemic.

They were the best team in Canada when the season was stopped. They lost all their momentum during the stoppage, took the Hawks lightly and looked bad. Then they added a bunch of new players without a preseason and looked bad during the first 10 games of this season.

 

[The Nuge]

We have more depth, which makes us much better equipped to deal with the intense schedule. We had 4 dmen out, and were still able to ice 6 dmen who don’t look out of place. We also have 17 forwards itching to play every night. And that’s not even including guys like Quine, Benson, Marody, McLeod, etc down in the AHL.

 

[Connor McConnor]

Imagine the possibilities next year with Holloway potentially joining Drai's wing and replacing Kahun. That top 6 is Cup contending worthy assuming Pulju and Yams continue to improve (Yams has been a bit unlucky this year but is still a puck retrieval god and paired with someone like Holloway would cause havok in the forecheck). Even our bottom 6 is looking better with the improved play of Khaira and solid contributions of Ennis, Archibald and Haas. Obviously need to shore up goaltending but Edmonton looks to have finally turned the corner into becoming a perennial top contender in the West for the foreseeable future.

Difference between last year and this year has pretty much been 2 players = Pulju + Nurse.

 

[Nostradumbass]

Since the start of 2020, the Oilers have added 3 players to their top six with two of them being quite productive compared to who they'd replaced. They have also added a top pairing offensive D and found depth within the ranks. No more relying on stalwarts like Brandon Manning.

 

[FlameChampion]

I think theres some differences. I think the play-ins affect some peoples memory a bit, but we were a pretty good team last year.

- I feel McDavid is better this year. Hes fully healed. Hes much better defensively. Hes better offensively (than last year but idk about the year before).
- Nurse is much better this year. Hes better all around. Hes making better decisions and hes more dominant.
- Larsson is playing better this year than last year. Lagesson has emerged as a NHL'er.
- We have substantially better offense from the defense. Barrie, Bouchard, Nurse in particular are making it easier on the forwards but I think it rubs off on the other defenders too.
- Puljujarvi has added a different dimension to the team.
- Khaira is playing at a much higher level 5 on 5 than last year (so far).
- I think we have more overall depth this year. The additions of JP and Kahun have pushed bottom 6 players into playing bottom 6 roles more consistently which helps the bottom 6.
- PK is worse this year statistically although it has been improving (I dont think it was sustainable though). I think having Haas out there has solidified it with Nuge, Khaira and Archibald along with the defense lately though.
- PP is worse this year. It feels less dangerous. I think teams have adjusted to the Oilers and we have been slow to react. We score b/c we have a lot of talent, but too much passing and not enough urgency.
- Yamamoto is worse I think. I/m not sure how much its him. He still works his butt off. But the DRY line had a lot of chemistry.
- I think Tippett in general was much stronger last year. Hes had more to work with this year and I feel like hes been really slow to adjust. Hes starting to push the right buttons more lately but I feel like the Teams slow start was partially on him. I would still like to see some mixing up of the top 6 to get some more chemistry. I feel like it took too long for Bouchard to draw in. I think he needed to put Jones in a bit sooner. (Some of this could probably be blamed on no training camp).

 

[DaGap]

Only playing the same 6 teams over and over again has a major effect

 

[joestevens29]

Last year and this year on any given night this team can win or lose and it will have nothing to do with the other team for the most part. If we are playing the I don't give a f*** style and just gifting chances to the other team there is a good chance we will lose. If we are deciding to make stupid passes that have a 1% chance of working, it's going to be a long night.

I mean lots has changed for this club personnel wise, but the way we play seems to always have been the issue. We needed guys to be better, own up to their mistakes and learn from them. I don't care if all 19 players on the team make a stupid play in a game I also can somewhat live with a guy making the same mistake twice in a game. I say this as there is still a lot of inexperience and it's hard to expect every guy to learn in game the same way. What pisses me off is when guys are making the same mistakes game over game.

The other issue that we've consistently had for years is guys not playing with enough drive/effort. Honestly if you are Connor, Leon, Nurse or even Nuggy I can give you some slack here. Those guys play a lot of minutes or hard minutes and it should be expected that they have off games. However, if you are a rookie on this club or one of the 20 guys that we have that are only playing 8-12 minutes on any given night then there is no reason you aren't out there giving it your all. There were so many open spots on this club and there is no reason for you not playing hard every night. I might exclude Archibald from this list because that guy is a god damn wrecking ball that must get sore at time.

As of late there have been a few games that I've watched and thought during the game "you know what they are playing a decent game tonight, if we lose then so be it the other team deserves to win". This is essentially what I was hoping for this year. A playoff team that works hard and play smart. If come playoff time we find out we are losing because we don't have enough skill or coaching tactics were horrible then that will be something we need to work on for next year.

IMO we need to continue to play the way we are. We need to be playing that more sound structure so that if we have an injury to a key player we should still be able to compete. You all of a sudden get back to the bad habits and lose Connor and you might as well just phone the league and tell them to give the other team the win.

Long and short I don't think travel is the reason. It's far too early in the year for travel to being an issue for clubs. Playing a condensed schedule should be a reason for team fatigue, but not travel after just a little over a month of play.

 

[majormajor]

I think theres some differences. I think the play-ins affect some peoples memory a bit, but we were a pretty good team last year.

- I feel McDavid is better this year. Hes fully healed. Hes much better defensively. Hes better offensively (than last year but idk about the year before).
- Nurse is much better this year. Hes better all around. Hes making better decisions and hes more dominant.
- Larsson is playing better this year than last year. Lagesson has emerged as a NHL'er.
- We have substantially better offense from the defense. Barrie, Bouchard, Nurse in particular are making it easier on the forwards but I think it rubs off on the other defenders too.
- Puljujarvi has added a different dimension to the team.
- Khaira is playing at a much higher level 5 on 5 than last year (so far).
- I think we have more overall depth this year. The additions of JP and Kahun have pushed bottom 6 players into playing bottom 6 roles more consistently which helps the bottom 6.
- PK is worse this year statistically although it has been improving (I dont think it was sustainable though). I think having Haas out there has solidified it with Nuge, Khaira and Archibald along with the defense lately though.
- PP is worse this year. It feels less dangerous. I think teams have adjusted to the Oilers and we have been slow to react. We score b/c we have a lot of talent, but too much passing and not enough urgency.
- Yamamoto is worse I think. I/m not sure how much its him. He still works his butt off. But the DRY line had a lot of chemistry.
- I think Tippett in general was much stronger last year. Hes had more to work with this year and I feel like hes been really slow to adjust. Hes starting to push the right buttons more lately but I feel like the Teams slow start was partially on him. I would still like to see some mixing up of the top 6 to get some more chemistry. I feel like it took too long for Bouchard to draw in. I think he needed to put Jones in a bit sooner. (Some of this could probably be blamed on no training camp).

The Oilers were pretty good in the 2020 part. Pretty bad in 2019.

I agree with many of your points.

-- McDavid being better all-around, basically being an all-around god, has been the biggest difference. He always was better on the attack than anyone on the planet, but the sum total last year at 5v5 was that he was on for 62 GF and 58 GA. That's not MVP caliber. This year is MVP caliber, on track for maybe the best season any player has had in a very long time. He's even been a bit unlucky with on ice shooting %.

-- Draisaitl has had only 7 GA this year at 5v5, which is insane, but credit Smith and Koskinen for going .961 when Leon is on the ice. That bit is just going to be luck. I do think Leon's energy is more consistent this year, and his defensive play much more consistently unremarkable rather than awful.

-- Nurse is much better, no doubt, like a real #1D. I like him a lot more with Barrie than Bear, Nurse can pick his spots on the breakout, doesn't have to skate it out every time. The breakouts and the offensive creativity from the backend is a step up.

-- Larsson was also pretty good in 2020 after a bad start last year. Klefbom did the opposite.

-- With Jesse and Yama, who are both playdrivers, as well as Kahun coming on board, everyone in the top six is a reasonable top six player. In 2019 they had maybe 4 guys.

-- Last year's bottom six got caved in, and it started even worse this year. Much of it is luck but in the last few weeks Khaira and Haas have been greatly outperforming 2019-20 Khaira and Sheahan. This is still a big potential issue for the team. I think they need to invest in a real shutdown guy.

What is worse?

-- The PK. The PP scoring rate is almost the same.

-- I agree that the DRY line needs to be put back together. RNH and Yama are scoring at half the rate (or lower) at 5v5 compared to what they did when they were together. Yes, the Oilers could be even better than this, especially at 5v5.