Post-Game Talk: Don't Drink and Drai

[Draiskull]

We can't even run two at this point so that should be the first goal.

If we put Neal and RNH on different lines we would instantly be better. Those two together is an offensive sink hole.
Chiasson-Drai-Neal
Khaira-Nuge-whoever

The new guy would either be on McLW or at 3C allowing Nuge to play on top line. We just need someone better than Gagner.

 

[McOilers97]

If we put Neal and RNH on different lines we would instantly be better. Those two together is an offensive sink hole.
Chiasson-Drai-Neal
Khaira-Nuge-whoever

The new guy would either be on McLW or at 3C allowing Nuge to play on top line. We just need someone better than Gagner.

I'd be prepared to see neither of those lines produce much of anything, if I'm being honest. Running McD-Draisaitl-RNH all at C is not the answer for this team.

 

[Little Fury]

If we put Neal and RNH on different lines we would instantly be better. Those two together is an offensive sink hole.
Chiasson-Drai-Neal
Khaira-Nuge-whoever

I dislike the looks of that.

They were running Drai-Nuge-Kharia at practice today. I wonder if they go Neal-McDavid-Kassian?

 

[LTIR]

I'd be prepared to see neither of those lines produce much of anything, if I'm being honest. Running McD-Draisaitl-RNH all at C is not the answer for this team.

Well, it would be sink or swim time for others. If they don't work we make em the new Caggiula, Rieder, Lucic and get another batch of Euros.

It would also force all lines to play a team game giving someone the easy minutes.

Chiason and Neal have looked good together. Khaira-Nuge, McD-Kassian
Sheahan has a nice line going as well.
IMO just separating NealNuge would work wonders

 

[CupofOil]

If we put Neal and RNH on different lines we would instantly be better. Those two together is an offensive sink hole.
Chiasson-Drai-Neal
Khaira-Nuge-whoever

The new guy would either be on McLW or at 3C allowing Nuge to play on top line. We just need someone better than Gagner.

Tippett has the right idea with the practice lines with Nygard and Kassian flanking McDavid (the $12.5M player should be expected to carry a line) and RNH/Draisaitl on the 2nd line with Neal on the 3rd line playing less even strength minutes which would be a blessing.

 

[guymez]

Tippett has the right idea with the practice lines with Nygard and Kassian flanking McDavid (the $12.5M player should be expected to carry a line) and RNH/Draisaitl on the 2nd line with Neal on the 3rd line playing less even strength minutes which would be a blessing.

I like the speed element of having Nygard with Kassian and McDavid for sure. Nygard just hasnt shown me much so far...he reminds me of Aberg actually.

 

[MaxR11]

lol wow. that Klef interview from last night was awesome.

Yup, klef basically saying exactly what i'm saying. He repeated over and over in that interview how Effort and grind needs to be first and foremost here and skill HAS to be second place. Work hard and grind the other teams down and the skill will take over after. When you grind teams down with effort you sap them a bit and that opens up milliseconds of time and inches of space that allow you to do more skilled things.

 

[Soundwave]

No offence to Klef but he doesn't exactly have much of a leg to stand on when defensively he's been terrible the last few weeks and basically cost the Oilers at least one if not two losses with awful pinches on his part. He basically gave Colorado two free goals in a game the Oilers were winning 1-0 in the third period and then had a stinker of a game with Larsson (-4) versus Ottawa where the Oilers were also winning 1-0.

 

[frag2]

No offence to Klef but he doesn't exactly have much of a leg to stand on when defensively he's been terrible the last few weeks and basically cost the Oilers at least one if not two losses with awful pinches on his part. He basically gave Colorado two free goals in a game the Oilers were winning 1-0 in the third period and then had a stinker of a game with Larsson (-4) versus Ottawa where the Oilers were also winning 1-0.

Remember, this is the same Klef that make Hall comments and then backtracked lol

Guy should just focus on his game and stfu

 

[CupofOil]

I like the speed element of having Nygard with Kassian and McDavid for sure. Nygard just hasnt shown me much so far...he reminds me of Aberg actually.

I don't see the comparison. Nygard works hard, he battles for pucks, he goes to the net.
Aberg has more natural skill but Nygard goes to the tough areas which is what you need from a McDavid winger.

I'm not sure how sustainable the top line is but for the love of god Tip, play RNH and Draisaitl together for more than a handful of shifts. If they can get that line going, it'll make it much tougher on the opposition to match their best with the 2nd line or McDavid. This will also challenge McDavid and Draisaitl to put in a more consistent 200 foot effort now that they don't have the other to lean on. I feel like they get complacent playing with each other at times.

 

[MaxR11]

I always love reading about how the two players most responsible for the Oilers' favourable position in the standings need to change their games. If the mostly replacement-level players that make up the bulk of the Oilers roster are trying to play the game like 97 and 29 but lack the skill to do so, the onus is on the bad players to change, not for the good players to dumb their game down.

This team doesn't have the talent to compete when McDavid and Drai aren't at their best or when they get stifled. That's a roster problem that can't be solved by them changing their game.

Changing their games to be more responsible defensively, keeping urgency and effort level up etc is a must if we want to keep developing and growing this team and it's culture to be a championship team. They're leaders and examples for the team. You want to see your leaders play hard at both ends and be responsible, not cheat, float. You want to see them be able to work hard and grind for offence when the checking gets tighter and they can't pass the puck into the net instead of seeing them continually trying to play the easier way by doing that. It's a huge downer when you see your best players slack on defence and get hemmed into their own zone through lack of urgency and effort trying to defend and retrieve the puck back. And you know that energy and effort is there because you see them all of a sudden have 3 times more energy and jump when the puck occasionally gets turned over and they go on a break.

When they're game isn't there (as in the case of drai last night and several other times recently), they need to be able to fall back to the basics and defend well and NOT be a liability. Too often in the past year they don't and their overall goes to c*** and they definitely become a liability. I mean not often are both "off" (and connor was still decent last night but drai was pretty bad) but when they are they almost get lazier and start to cheat and float to save energy for offence instead of bearing down and just try to not be a liability defensively. A lot of times when you do this (defend well), it opens up offensive chances for you. They get impatient and don't realize this. To be fair they've been better this year with this because last year they were horriawful when their offensive games were off and the other team was checking tight. They became huge liabilities in a bunch of games down the stretch last year.

Drai talks about how he wants to be a selke and looks at Kopitar as a role model.... well he better start walking the walk instead of talking the talk.

 

[MaxR11]

No offence to Klef but he doesn't exactly have much of a leg to stand on when defensively he's been terrible the last few weeks and basically cost the Oilers at least one if not two losses with awful pinches on his part. He basically gave Colorado two free goals in a game the Oilers were winning 1-0 in the third period and then had a stinker of a game with Larsson (-4) versus Ottawa where the Oilers were also winning 1-0.

Doesn't mean he's wrong though. Pretty sure he's parroting what Tips is preaching.

 

[Soundwave]

How many 21-23 year old forwards are Selke caliber defensive players again? While also having the pressure of carrying the entire team's offence on their shoulders because the previous GM was an idiot and traded away all support help offensively?

 

[Arpeggio]

They really didn't play that badly last night. It was night and day compared to previous games without Nuge. They deserved to win that game, had the puck for most of the game, and hit 2-3 posts. That kind of game was a bit of a relief compared to the barrage of shots they were giving up agains some of the worst teams in the league.

I don't mind splitting up the big line for a little bit, they were definitely overpassing last night. I think McDavid plays a bit more of a straightforward game without Draisaitl. He's not shooting enough and hopefully with Kassian and Nygard he'll look for his own shot more often.

Drai, Nuge, and Khaira could be a solid line. Khaira has surprised me over the last few weeks, I thought he was going to be out of the league by midseason. But he really does play quite well with Nuge, and that line should be able to play to his strengths.

 

[nexttothemoon]

Bottom line is that the team still picked up a point with no offensive contribution from McD/Drai.. and they did it by coming back from a 0-2 deficit as well.

They held the opposition to 22 shots and were perfect on the PK (zero shots allowed). An overall solid defensive game.

Overall that's about as good as it will get when your top line is dinging posts and not cashing in the chances they had (and they did get several... just didn't connect).

We all complain about the bottom 6 not producing enough but they were good in this game... and getting a point is basically treading water... you get a point in a game, you basically stand pat in the standings as teams you are battling with are both losing and winning as well. (Vegas, Arizona)

Interesting stat... all 6 top teams in the Pacific in their last 10 games have either 11 or 12 pts... so every team there is basically spinning their wheels in place... none of the top teams in that Pacific race are really hot or stone cold... which obviously is good for the Oilers as they've been just average as well recently.

Again though, you are going to have stretches like this where you are just decent/average... and that's ok because that's a lot better than going into prolonged slumps where you lose 4/5/6 games in a row and you don't even get a pt in OT/SO losses. Those types of slumps are what kills a team's chances at playoffs... and we haven't seen that from the Oilers... they seem to have enough resilience and work ethic to actually shake themselves out of going into slumps.

I think they are fully aware that they are not "all that"... which is why they don't get too high after wins (or too low after losses)... I think they are well aware that any team can beat you because every team is out there looking to grind it out in an 82 game schedule to get a playoff spot.. and some nights that opposition team just gets one more break than you and gets the W even though a game is basically a toss up... or even slightly in your favour but in those close games a key save or lucky bounce/deflection can be the difference.

This wasn't a bad game... it was a point in the standings (and every point helps towards a playoff berth)... and you bank that and move on to the next game where you again work on the goal of collecting 2 more pts.

 

[Soundwave]

They really didn't play that badly last night. It was night and day compared to previous games without Nuge. They deserved to win that game, had the puck for most of the game, and hit 2-3 posts. That kind of game was a bit of a relief compared to the barrage of shots they were giving up agains some of the worst teams in the league.

I don't mind splitting up the big line for a little bit, they were definitely overpassing last night. I think McDavid plays a bit more of a straightforward game without Draisaitl. He's not shooting enough and hopefully with Kassian and Nygard he'll look for his own shot more often.

Drai, Nuge, and Khaira could be a solid line. Khaira has surprised me over the last few weeks, I thought he was going to be out of the league by midseason. But he really does play quite well with Nuge, and that line should be able to play to his strengths.

Yeah exactly, shit happens in hockey ... the outplayed Buffalo last night and lose in OT, but won against LA in a game they played worse in as a team.

 

[guymez]

I don't see the comparison. Nygard works hard, he battles for pucks, he goes to the net.
Aberg has more natural skill but Nygard goes to the tough areas which is what you need from a McDavid winger.

I'm not sure how sustainable the top line is but for the love of god Tip, play RNH and Draisaitl together for more than a handful of shifts. If they can get that line going, it'll make it much tougher on the opposition to match their best with the 2nd line or McDavid. This will also challenge McDavid and Draisaitl to put in a more consistent 200 foot effort now that they don't have the other to lean on. I feel like they get complacent playing with each other at times.

The comparison is that both players can skate but both players accomplish very little in terms of offence.
I like Nygard but he just isnt top line material...not even close.
I also dont understand how a player can go from playing 10 minutes to the top line.

In any event I will give Tippett the benefit of the doubt here. You do make some interesting points.

 

[Soundwave]

It's actually the easiest month this month. We are going to drop in standings big time in January.
Dec was supposedly the easiest stretch but we have missed out on 3 pts already and Koski'd the win out of LA.

That's the problem with this line of thinking ... there are no "easy stretches". Especially stretches where you are missing multiple top six players.

 

[Little Fury]

Changing their games to be more responsible defensively, keeping urgency and effort level up etc is a must if we want to keep developing and growing this team and it's culture to be a championship team. They're leaders and examples for the team. You want to see your leaders play hard at both ends and be responsible, not cheat, float. You want to see them be able to work hard and grind for offence when the checking gets tighter and they can't pass the puck into the net instead of seeing them continually trying to play the easier way by doing that.

I'm not disputing they have defensive lapses. However, they are literally the only line who is outscoring the opposition, so I'm willing to look past those since the rest of the team getting outscored is a much bigger issue. Also, some guys simply aren't made for grinding and McDavid is one of them. It's not his game and if you want to make him play that way, you're wasting him.

The problem, again, is that when those two have an off night there's literally no one else who can pick up the slack. And no culture shift will change that fact.

 

[LTIR]

That's the problem with this line of thinking ... there are no "easy stretches". Especially stretches where you are missing multiple top six players.

So in other words its pretty much all a toss up. We are no better than LA and no worse than BOS.

 

[Soundwave]

So in other words its pretty much all a toss up. We are no better than LA and no worse than BOS.

To be honest no current NHL team has the right to be so arrogant to think they can walk into a game today and just dominate because of who they are. None of these squads are the 80s Oilers or even late 00s Red Wings.

Even freaking Tampa Bay is fighting for a wild card berth right now.

Any team can beat any team any given night and especially if you're not one of the 5 premiere teams in the league (which is an unreasonable expectation of the Oilers right now), yes it can be a crap shoot. Especially when you have some major injuries mixed in.

And yes, quite easily I could see this team beating Boston and then losing to LA in a two game stretch. McLellan has the Kings primed to play the Oilers every time for obvious reasons.

 

[nabob]

Our OT has been figured out. Opponents know mcDrai won't change up... Just have onto the puck for a minute..get them tired and go for the kill

I’d like to see Nygard and Hass as a unit. Decent speed and creativity. Seem to work well together.

 

[Mcnofool6110]

No offence to Klef but he doesn't exactly have much of a leg to stand on when defensively he's been terrible the last few weeks ...

Heh classic Klefbom

 

[Soundwave]

We can't even run two at this point so that should be the first goal.

Team hasn't had two reliable scoring lines in like 10 years? 12? Even 16-17, the entire year was basically "Nuge and Eberle will get it going ... any minute now .... aaaaany minute now ... any minu ... DAMNIT would you two wake up?!!!".

 

[LTIR]

Well looks like Tippett lurks the boards.
Finally separated RNH and Neal.
We will have depth up front next game for sure.
Nygaard-McD-Kass is good enough wingers for McD at 5on5.

Khaira-Drai-Nuge will be the best 2nd line we have had.

Neal on the 3rd line should add depth.