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Does anybody still think that Tmac was the problem, rather than the team itself?

48g90a138pts

48g90a138pts

Registered User
Jun 30, 2016
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McJadeddog said:
So now that we have lost 5 in a row, and are no longer getting vezina calibre goaltending, which was the only reason we were winning games, is there anybody who thinks Hitch is better than Tmac? This is a terrible, TERRIBLE, team, and prime Bowman wouldn't make this sorry sack team any good.

There were a lot of people buying into the idea that our pathetic play was due to Tmac, which just simply isn't true. This team is not anywhere CLOSE to go good enough, and no coach will change that.
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Yes, yes he was.
 
Stoneman89

Stoneman89

Registered User
Feb 8, 2008
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This organization has always been really good at giving their coaches the stiff one, while the boys up top continue to roll along.
 
elmeroil

elmeroil

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Feb 3, 2013
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Really weird thing to say after they started losing when 2 of the top 4 d men went down. The team was playing so much better under Hitch, they had confidence and their d was far better than it was under Tmac. Yes Tmac was a huge problem, give Hitch a healthy team and they will do good things.

Depth has been the other issue as we've seen. The Klef injury really hurt and would hurt a lot of teams. Pretty tough to lose one of your top 2 d men for 2 months and a top 4 d man for an extended period of time when the strategy for winning starts with defending.
 
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FlameChampion

FlameChampion

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Jul 13, 2011
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Tmac was a problem. Hes a below average coach.

Chiarelli is definitely a problem. Team doesnt have enough depth. To be fair he incorporated a team with no prospects who were ready. But hes made too many poor decisions and done a poor job.

Problem is we dont know how much influence the OBC has on the whole operation. When theres so many flawed parts, its hard to really analyze anything especially from outside looking in (with no insider information).
 
Barrsy

Barrsy

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May 14, 2017
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TMac was a very good coach with a shit roster & horrific goaltending. Funny how that works.
But yeah, it was his fault
 
fuswald

fuswald

I'd Be Fired
Dec 10, 2008
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Yes McLellan was the problem.

Now team injuries are messing up our already overworked team. Hitch was getting it going then Oilers luck (yin yang for McDavid win) stepped in.
 

Hynh

Registered User
Jun 19, 2012
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The Panther said:
I never thought McLellan was the core problem. But I can understand Chiarelli firing him when he did and bringing in Hitch when he did. Hitch is a great motivator (which McLellan wasn't, by reputation anyway), and by bringing in the new guy with the big track-record Chiarelli may have saved his job until this spring, at least.

I must say, I was not in favor of firing McLellan (as my post history will show). It's not because I thought McLellan was doing a great job -- his attachment to Lucic and Benning continues to confound the universe -- but because the Oilers have simply fired too many coaches.

1979 - 1991
2 Head Coaches (not counting Bryan Watson, who lasted 18 games)
5 Stanley Cups
8 1st/2nd-place finishes
7 Conference Series appearances

2008 - 2018
8 Head Coaches
0 Stanley Cups
1 2nd-place finish
0 Conference Series appearances
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Stability doesn't produce success, success produces stability.
 
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Stoneman89

Stoneman89

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Feb 8, 2008
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elmeroil said:
Really weird thing to say after they started losing when 2 of the top 4 d men went down. The team was playing so much better under Hitch, they had confidence and their d was far better than it was under Tmac. Yes Tmac was a huge problem, give Hitch a healthy team and they will do good things.

Depth has been the other issue as we've seen. The Klef injury really hurt and would hurt a lot of teams. Pretty tough to lose one of your top 2 d men for 2 months and a top 4 d man for an extended period of time when the strategy for winning starts with defending.
Click to expand...


Not true. The team wasn't playing all that great before the 2 injuries. Outshot and ouplayed at the beginning of many games, and Koski had an out of body experience and shut the door until Connor and Drai found some magic. Clock has turned to midnight now, and the magic of Koski is gone. Still a better option than Talbot at this point, but teams are getting the book on him. Fantastic goaltending definitely was saving our asses for that brief period of success, and masking other problems.
Expecting a team to go through a season without having anyone of note injured is delusional. This season was going to be a problem before it even started due to lack of depth.
 
McJadeddog

McJadeddog

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Sep 25, 2003
20,240
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Stoneman89 said:
Not true. The team wasn't playing all that great before the 2 injuries. Outshot and ouplayed at the beginning of many games, and Koski had an out of body experience and shut the door until Connor and Drai found some magic. Clock has turned to midnight now, and the magic of Koski is gone. Still a better option than Talbot at this point, but teams are getting the book on him. Fantastic goaltending definitely was saving our asses for that brief period of success, and masking other problems.
Expecting a team to go through a season without having anyone of note injured is delusional. This season was going to be a problem before it even started due to lack of depth.
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Exactly. Hitch's first few games has vezina-level goaltending. Any coach in the world would have won games during that time. Now that we are back to having normal, or slightly below normal, tending, we are back to losing. This isn't surprising at all. Tmac was a product of his team, and Hitch is a product of his team.
 
McJadeddog

McJadeddog

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Sep 25, 2003
20,240
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Regina, Saskatchewan
nabob said:
TMac had the same roster and failed. Hitch had success until we got injuries to our best Dmen. Hitch is obviously a better coach.

We’re missing 3 top 4 Dmen. Almost no team has the ability to overcome that.
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Tmac was missing 1 of those as well. I will admit though that Hitch is clearly icing a more depleted roster than Tmac was, as losing Russell, and especially Klefbom, hurt quite a bit.

My general point is that people didn't want to hear that Hitch was winning games because of all-world goal tending. They wanted to pretend that it was because of improved team play. The reality was that the team in front was the same, and played pretty much exactly the same, but the goalies started playing out of their minds. Now that the tending has come back down to earth, the results are predictably bad once more.
 
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