Post-Game Talk: Ducks 2 Oilers 1 - 30 second swing

[space321]

Speaking for myself, it's not that we're overly sensitive. It's just that we've continually seen good players unnecessarily trashed and run out of town (Eberle and Schultz come to mind as the biggest two examples of this - Ganger and Dubnyk to some extent but their play was causing fans to bash them). My second issue is the way in which fans attack the player rather the play. People saying "Draisaitl is an idiot, a lazy bum, a moron, a loser, garbage, etc. is what really annoys me. If he makes a dumb play or has a bad game, then yes, he should absolutely be called out (i.e. bad play by Draisaitl, Draisaitl should be better than that) but not attacked.

Don't worry though, after we run our talented players out of town we can spend the whole summer convincing ourselves that Lucic will bounce back. Did you see how physical he was last game? Incredible.

L O L

 

[heynowbababooey]

This place needs to chill the **** out. Lol. They are 1-0-1 on this trip , with a fluke Anahiem goal in the last minute away from being 2-0. Just need to recover , play the same way with a little more push offensively and run right through L.A. Put the game away early and shut it down.

Im all for defensive snoozefests a for the next couple of weeks to build up our record then we don't have to squeeze the sticks so tight. One game at a time

How was it a fluke goal?

 

[McDNicks17]

Speaking for myself, it's not that we're overly sensitive. It's just that we've continually seen good players unnecessarily trashed and run out of town (Eberle and Schultz come to mind as the biggest two examples of this - Ganger and Dubnyk to some extent but their play was causing fans to bash them). My second issue is the way in which fans attack the player rather the play. People saying "Draisaitl is an idiot, a lazy bum, a moron, a loser, garbage, etc. is what really annoys me. If he makes a dumb play or has a bad game, then yes, he should absolutely be called out (i.e. bad play by Draisaitl, Draisaitl should be better than that) but not attacked.

Unless the players are reading HFboards, no post on here is going have any effect on a player being "run out of town".

 

[Jamin]

Anyone notice with like a min or two left the top line feeds an awesome scoring chance to the trailing dman, who makes a below peewee level mistake and doesn't have his stick on the ice. I feel like that's the type of goal every other team scores on but seems Oilers never do

 

[Messrules11]

Exactly, a near league minimum player is playing 4th line minutes and has won us the same number of games as he's lost through 20 games. Yet you're basically crucifying him like he's the sole reason we suck lol. I understand those folks that are disappointed with him because he's taken a step back compared to last, but you're just on a whole other level.

So tell me why a 4th line guy that is obviously struggling continues to get a spot in the lineup? Seems to me he is easily replaceable. Is a guy like Patrick Russell or Brad Malone given those same opportunities?

 

[space321]

Anyone notice with like a min or two left the top line feeds an awesome scoring chance to the trailing dman, who makes a below peewee level mistake and doesn't have his stick on the ice. I feel like that's the type of goal every other team scores on but seems Oilers never do

Yes because our dmen lack a good shot. Last game I remember Larsson and Draisaitl's give and go, the play itself was excellent, and then Larsson's shot didn't even leave the ice and went right into the pads lol. All that buildup for nothing.

 

[space321]

So tell me why a 4th line guy that is obviously struggling continues to get a spot in the lineup? Seems to me he is easily replaceable. Is a guy like Patrick Russell or Brad Malone given those same opportunities?

Look I don't care if Khaira gets scratched for another 4th line plug. I just saw you over 3 or 4 threads last night shitting on Khaira as if we lost because of him. Play Brad Malone and Patrick Russell, I don't give a f***ing shit who plays on the 4th line.

But one fact you missed is that Khaira has outproduced literally every other bottom 6 forward on this team. So take that for what you will.

 

[Messrules11]

Look I don't care if Khaira gets scratched for another 4th line plug. I just saw you over 3 or 4 threads last night ****ting on Khaira as if we lost because of him. Play Brad Malone and Patrick Russell, I don't give a ****ing **** who plays on the 4th line.

But one fact you missed is that Khaira has outproduced literally every other bottom 6 forward on this team. So take that for what you will.

And you overlook his giveaways, not a good trait for a guy with 0 goals

 

[LaGu]

Yep. The NHL is just as guilty, as are both team feeds. Its just ridiculous. Its a 14 sec segment, the winning goal, in OT, and they only cut to showing half the segment. I mean what on Earth. The same channel will show a Baseball pitcher chewing on cud for 10secs before throwing a pitch.

It was frustrating yesterday not being able to find any replays that showed the entire segment. It explains how a Duck got into the clear. Its a set piece. But again McD needs to read something is occurring there. His lane coverage there is abysmal. doesn't even make an attempt at blocking the pass despite the D having wide eyes on that play looking for the pass. Drai, the only player that read what was happening in the first place, is getting torched for allowing the goal. I get that he shouldn't have blown the crease after the first shot but he guessed wrong that he would be able to retrieve the rebound. stupid play, but can happen in fatigue.

I still don't agree with the notion 10 secs into an OT that a forward should be last man back instead of a D. Given that we did not have puck possession at any point I don't know how Klef isn't covering back. Think about it as well. Klef is obviously the least dangerous player on the ice. Theres no reason at all for him to be forward in the play. I mean he's covering Getzlaf, 150 feet from our net while a forward is switched to D coverage (always a liability having that) and the Ducks are scoring the winning goal.

D should be back on 3 on 3except in the instance that you jump into a scoring chance or sustain possession that is fairly risk free. To get out of position just for man on man coverage is asinine. That assumes that Forwards should be able to defend as well as D. Which of course is bogus.

So we give a pass to Drai and then (again) jump Klefbom.

He is far from my favorite player but the crap he gets night in night out for whatever minor misstake he does (and sometimes even for no misstake at all...) is just too much. He played 27+ mins of pretty decent hockey tonight, you'll be making misstakes with that kind of ice time.

Anaheim made a good play in OT, well executed drawing apart our guys and creating a breakaway with a that change.

 

[ChaoticOrange]

I think when Rieder draws back in, Khaira will get the short straw. Spooner looked ok last night. He needs to improve his defensive game but I think he will be good with Nuge.

Caggiula-McJesus-Dra
Spooner-Nuge_Chaisson
Kassian-Brodziak-Lucic
Rattie-Help-Rieder

Klefbom-Larsson
Russell-Nurse
Wideman-Gravel

I'm liking Gravel. He is getting better every game. I was recently in Edmonton for 3 games. I was watching the Oilers warm up on the glass (I'm still a kid when it comes to that and I still try to get a high 5) and Gravel is a monster. I couldn't get over the size of him.
I still think we are in this. Get 5 outta 6 points and win at home next week. We need to win one in the Pacific because the wildcards will be the Central.

What does everyone think we should do with 2nd and 4th line? Re-arrange lines and double-shift McJesus? Call-up? I'm just throwing ideas out there

I can’t see any situation where Hitch has Rattie in over Khaira.

I think we’ll see this before too much longer

Caggiula-McDavid-Draisaitl
Benson-RNH-Puljujarvi
Spooner-New 3C/Khaira-Chiasson
Lucic-Brodziak-Kassian
Malone

Klefbom-Larsson
Nurse-New D
Russell-Wideman
Gravel/Garrison

I honestly don’t think Benson spends the year in the AHL. He’s too smart of a player and would really mesh with RNH - he seems to have chemistry with anyone he plays with in the AHL. Leaves Hebig-Marody-Yamamoto as the top line in the AHL, with Gambardella-Malone-Russell on the 2nd.

Rattie I think is traded or waived. Patrick Russell goes down. Probably stuck with Garrison even though he should be waived. Khaira and Benning are trade bait, as are our 2nd rounder and spare third rounder.

 

[space321]

And you overlook his giveaways, not a good trait for a guy with 0 goals

yikes

 

[Messrules11]

yikes

You’re a JJ lover, I get it. I’m not, I don’t see an NHL caliber player in him or Benning and I’m surely not the only one with that opinion

 

[Drivesaitl]

So we give a pass to Drai and then (again) jump Klefbom.

He is far from my favorite player but the crap he gets night in night out for whatever minor misstake he does (and sometimes even for no misstake at all...) is just too much. He played 27+ mins of pretty decent hockey tonight, you'll be making misstakes with that kind of ice time.

Anaheim made a good play in OT, well executed drawing apart our guys and creating a breakaway with a that change.

In multiple posts I've blamed Drai for the GA. I was just outlining the other mistakes in the play upon further review. All players on the ice could have played the sequence better.

The reality is McDrai have had so many positive results in OT that they need these to humble them. Drai was actually thinking on that play of grabbing rebound and moving it up ice quickly. The wrong thought, instinct, etc. But I'll blame it on the success they had. Both were not focused on prevention.

 

[McShogun99]

This team could have easily kept Hall and Eberle on the roster with the Mcdavid and Draisaitl contracts, still spend 24 million of cap on Dmen and 7 million on goalies. We’d have 12 million in cap left for the bottom six and a winger for Mcdavid which is doable but not ideal.

 

[Porkleaker]

Posts like this are what I have an issue with. "Lazy moron" is trashing the player, not the play.

How quickly people's memories of Tuesday night fade.

Not saying he *is* a lazy moron, I said he was playing like one, it's all about context. Now Klefbom is actually a moron.

 

[Soundwave]

This team could have easily kept Hall and Eberle on the roster with the Mcdavid and Draisaitl contracts, still spend 24 million of cap on Dmen and 7 million on goalies. We’d have 12 million in cap left for the bottom six and a winger for Mcdavid which is doable but not ideal.

Don't really even need Eberle if you have Hall. You have two scoring lines no matter what if you have 4 of McDavid-Hall-Draisaitl-RNH. Eberle is a nice to have, not a must have.

 

[HockeyGuy1964]

How was it a fluke goal?

It hit a player, that didn't see the shot coming, in the back & went to the only place where Ritchie had an open net. It was a pretty good bounce for sure.

 

[LaGu]

In multiple posts I've blamed Drai for the GA. I was just outlining the other mistakes in the play upon further review. All players on the ice could have played the sequence better.

The reality is McDrai have had so many positive results in OT that they need these to humble them. Drai was actually thinking on that play of grabbing rebound and moving it up ice quickly. The wrong thought, instinct, etc. But I'll blame it on the success they had. Both were not focused on prevention.

My point was more to the issue of beimg reasonable on the one hand: i.e. sure Drai could have done better but it wasn't really "brutal" misstake, but then turn around and bash Klefbom (not only this situation). I think Klefbom is more important to this team than many choose to accept, but for being a guy who both McL and now Hitch (and before even Eakins) often trust with 25 mins/night he sure gets crapped on more than most. And I am also square in the corner of people thinking Drai gets too much crap every time someone thinks that he's coasting "lazy bum, overpaid etc etc".

Edit: anyway, I have been here before. Defending a player who is far from my favorite, but sometimes I think the name calling goes too far (and that is directed to others as well).

 

[Drivesaitl]

My point was more to the issue of beimg reasonable on the one hand: i.e. sure Drai could have done better but it wasn't really "brutal" misstake, but then turn around and bash Klefbom (not only this situation). I think Klefbom is more important to this team than many choose to accept, but for being a guy who both McL and now Hitch (and before even Eakins) often trust with 25 mins/night he sure gets crapped on more than most. And I am also square in the corner of people thinking Drai gets too much crap every time someone thinks that he's coasting "lazy bum, overpaid etc etc".

I honestly don't see a lot of what Klefbom or Larsson do to be a top pair. I do think its one of the weakest top pairs found anywhere in the league. My honest feeling. For sure they are both top 4 D, I'm not engaging in hyperbole, but both look over challenged playing on a top pairing.

We've seen great D here in Edmonton before, we know what it looks like, it doesn't look like this.

As many others have mentioned, and I agree, this pairing is even sub Jason Smith/Steve Staios. Sorry, but it is.

Petry is just as good an option than either of these D and I wondered why the org got rid of him at the time.

Anyway I like that Klefbom has physical compete. I think he has pretty solid battle. But he does have a tendency to float too far from his coverage, is not particularly adept at transitioning puck as a PMD, and is not good at all keeping the puck in offensive zone. These are criticisms that are well established and real areas of work.

 

[Duke74]

Unless the players are reading HFboards, no post on here is going have any effect on a player being "run out of town".

I don't just mean HF Boards, I mean all of the spaces in which fans can articulate their opinion, especially Twitter, which is the worst. Eberle even admitted what a tough city it was to play in and how his confidence was shot due to continual fan criticism.

 

[Missing smitty]

I don't just mean HF Boards, I mean all of the spaces in which fans can articulate their opinion, especially Twitter, which is the worst. Eberle even admitted what a tough city it was to play in and how his confidence was shot due to continual fan criticism.

That crap always seems like a cop-out. Kid made 6 million a year to PLAY hockey. People with real jobs, who do real work telling him to try harder should wake him up.

 

[LaGu]

I honestly don't see a lot of what Klefbom or Larsson do to be a top pair. I do think its one of the weakest top pairs found anywhere in the league. My honest feeling. For sure they are both top 4 D, I'm not engaging in hyperbole, but both look over challenged playing on a top pairing.

We've seen great D here in Edmonton before, we know what it looks like, it doesn't look like this.

As many others have mentioned, and I agree, this pairing is even sub Jason Smith/Steve Staios. Sorry, but it is.

Petry is just as good an option than either of these D and I wondered why the org got rid of him at the time.

Anyway I like that Klefbom has physical compete. I think he has pretty solid battle. But he does have a tendency to float too far from his coverage, is not particularly adept at transitioning puck as a PMD, and is not good at all keeping the puck in offensive zone. These are criticisms that are well established and real areas of work.

... and there you go coming back at me with a very reasonable post.

In my world Larsson is an excellent #2 and Klefbom can pass as a #2 with a good partner. On good nights they get a pass as 1st pair, but on bad nights (normally Klefbom's side) they don't. Last games have been a bit off but the +- for a guy like Larsson who plays a lot of EV, vs the best opponents and on below average teams is pretty impressive. Not from me but someone showed that he normally goes - every 4th game or so over the last 2-3 seasons. That is very impressive and matches up vs the best of D's in the league.

Anyhow, not to dig deeper into that now. It's for another day/thread.

 

[Missing smitty]

... and there you go coming back at me with a very reasonable post.

In my world Larsson is an excellent #2 and Klefbom can pass as a #2 with a good partner. On good nights they get a pass as 1st pair, but on bad nights (normally Klefbom's side) they don't. Last games have been a bit off but the +- for a guy like Larsson who plays a lot of EV, vs the best opponents and on below average teams is pretty impressive. Not from me but someone showed that he normally goes - every 4th game or so over the last 2-3 seasons. That is very impressive and matches up vs the best of D's in the league.

Anyhow, not to dig deeper into that now. It's for another day/thread.

I've always thought Larsson was an excellent defensive defenseman. He could make an excellent top pairing with a true puck moving defenseman. Some kind of Subban/Markov combo. Subban is horrendous defensively, but he's always had an excellent partner to try and cover for his terrible mistakes. All we need is to get a true #1 and we're set, shouldn't be hard

 

[MettleMcOiler]

I feel this is looking only at boxcars. Both Kassian and Brodziak have shown much more offensive prowess than Khaira this season. You're also equating assists to goals which can be misleading. Brodz scored 2 goals which were instrumental in one of our wins, against Detroit. Kassian has shown enough polish to not look completely out of place in limited topsix minutes. Important to note that two of Khairas assists in the Detroit game were BECAUSE Brodz managed to cash.

As far as Khaira being able to score I think that was an outlier season last year where just everything was going for him, he was getting massive minutes with Drai, and I thought he slowed down last year too. I don't get the sense of a shooter. Really I don't see much of a player. Very little skill. Kassian and Brodz are on a whole other level in terms of puck skills. Kass made a sweet pass last night that Brodz nearly cashed. I can't remember 2 good scoring chances Khaira had all year. Not only is he not scoring, he's not getting any chances. He's not creating much of anything.

Granted Kassian and Brodziak have been more noticeable on scoring chances. Both those players have more experience and Kassian even had stints with the Sedins back in Van, so he should be able to slot in limited minutes in the top 6 like you said. Khaira has been good support for what he brings as a big body in the bottom six.
He has a good first pass, fed some nice secondary assists, and even a good feed to Caggiula on a 2 on 1 chicago. Had mulitple breakaways on PK, recently got a step on Karlsson and drew a penalty, and I think even had a breakaway in the ducks game but could't cash in. He has some wheels and I think he has more skill then you give him credit for.
Even if I'm not equating assists to goals. Khaira still has more goals in the last two seasons then Kassian. And last season was pretty much his first full season with the oil. He is getting chances and that is why I have more time for a player like him. I hope Hitch can get him going.

 

[Lacaar]

This team could have easily kept Hall and Eberle on the roster with the Mcdavid and Draisaitl contracts, still spend 24 million of cap on Dmen and 7 million on goalies. We’d have 12 million in cap left for the bottom six and a winger for Mcdavid which is doable but not ideal.

Well in all honestly when you look at the bottom 6 currently.
You wouldn't get any difference in a bottom 6 of 1 million dollar players.
They're awful atm with salary.. may as well be awful and cheap.