Post-Game Talk: Forget this game ever happened

[K1984]

Connor got angry at the refs for one brief second years ago and still pays for it today. I don’t believe for a second that he would get more calls if he started whining, it would be the opposite. Watching how many times he is infracted without calls is just disgusting.

This is definitely true and fair.

I just look at the Wayne Gretzky's of ref working over the past 10 years or so and almost all of them have the combined element of diving and over the top whining if the diving doesn't pay dividends. Doughty, Pavelski, Mackinnon, Marchand, formerly Getzlaf, are poster boys of this and it works for them. However, you are right that conventional wisdom doesn't usually apply to us so it would probably result in us getting hammered worse than we do already.

 

[guymez]

It felt like the Vegas series a bit when the Oilers controlled play for large portions of the game but were unable to finish or were stoned by the other goalie then before you know it the puck is in the back of their net. Not blaming Skinner btw, just saying I saw some parallels between this game and the Vegas series.

I actually think the Oilers inability to finish in key moments in tight games is one of their biggest weaknesses come playoff time. Sounds weird for a team with McDavid and Draisaitl but they do seem to struggle in clutch moments.
This is why, outside of the ref intervention with the interference calls, this game was extra frustrating. It doesn't mean much in the long run because the Oilers are pretty much locked into their current spot but just a microcosm of all the close games they lose this time of year.

Valid point.
It seems that the team is intent on passing the puck into the net all too often.

 

[Slats432]

It’s not that black and white though. A team that bad it’s almost impossible to have a good penalty differential even with the reffs on your side. If they were even decent I guarantee they wouldn’t be close to this low.

You don’t think it’s slightly weird the Oilers are down with teams who spend 90% of the game in their own zone?

I’m not saying it’s corruption or buttman but the officials definitely don’t do us any favours.

That last sentence has my support. Do I think we take undisciplined penalties? Yes. I don't comb through each game by game to see how many missed calls there were on the other team.

Should we be in the positive for penalty differential? I think that based on what style we play, we probably should be. But I don't blame refs. I don't blame the league.

Think about this for one minute. Our top 3 penalty minute guys are Draisaitl, Kane and Nurse. Would you consider them to be the most undisciplined on the team? McLeod has 5 minors the whole year. McDavid and Nuge have 30 minutes each. Bouchard has 24.

Certain types of players get called a certain way. I bet many of Draisaitl's are undisciplined as well as Kane. I would think Nurse is more trying to prevent a play when he is out of position.

If you take good penalties (Kane taking a run at Doughty was a good penalty.) then fine. The dumb ones? Leave them at home.

 

[SupremeTeam16]

This might be true. The league knows that betting helps generate interest in the US and in areas that they might like to get a stronger following. That is just business. I don't watch the other sports as much but from what I can tell, they don't push it as much as the NHL. But if you think about it, that is why the refs/league aren't compromised because they need the legitimacy or else bettors leave in droves.

That’s bullshit. Most bettors are addicts, they aren’t going to walk away because they think it’s rigged rather they’ll believe there’s a pattern that can be gamed. It’s all moot though because like everything these days you don’t have to definitively prove anything, you just have to muddy the waters enough so that it’s impossible to prove anything one way or the other. That’s kind of the issue with the subjectiveness in officiating, it’s easy to muddy the waters.

I tend to believe that for Pro sports leagues, making the absolute most amount of money is paramount and that is best achieved by parity and keeping fair weather markets competitive and their fans engaged. While they would never direct outcomes they definitely have ways to put their thumb on the scale a bit to try and push things in the direction of maximizing profitability.

People are dumb and they’ll believe anything their told because they want to believe that things are fair.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

That’s bullshit. Most bettors are addicts, they aren’t going to walk away because they think it’s rigged rather they’ll believe there’s a pattern that can be gamed. It’s all moot though because like everything these days you don’t have to definitively prove anything, you just have to muddy the waters enough so that it’s impossible to prove anything one way or the other. That’s kind of the issue with the subjectiveness in officiating, it’s easy to muddy the waters.

I tend to believe that for Pro sports leagues, making the absolute most amount of money is paramount and that is best achieved by parity and keeping fair weather markets competitive and their fans engaged. While they would never direct outcomes they definitely have ways to put their thumb on the scale a bit to try and push things in the direction of maximizing profitability.

People are dumb and they’ll believe anything their told because they want to believe that things are fair.

I bet on sports I don’t even watch.

Being able to bet on the NBA doesn’t cause me to be interested in the games

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

This is the Oilers story in the playoff often times. They generally win the possession battle which is why their underlying metrics are elite but they seem to me to shoot less than other teams when the opportunity is there as opposed to Vegas, for example, who usually shoot when they're in a prime scoring area.

How many times have we heard in the past that the opposition goalie played well but the Oilers kind of made it easy on him? The Oilers need to, one, shoot the puck more coming off the cycle, two, create more chaos in front of the goalie and, three, bear down on their chances on loose pucks in the crease. It seems like they lag behind a bit in key moments on these three things. It's been so often the difference between winning and losing in tight playoff games.

Hyman, Perry, Kane when he's on and Foegele at times are really the only guys that battle hard for every inch in tight, some teams like Vegas and Colorado have a bunch of guys that all play this way. Need more guys to get into the fight more consistently, match the battle level of the opposition and be on the right side of the puck when the chips are down.

The Oilers make things unnecessarily hard on themselves with their style of play. They “scored” two goals by going to the net… but late in the third they controlled possession but were content to cycle without meaning until the person least likely to score would take a shot. They need to drive the net more and simplify their game.

 

[SupremeTeam16]

I bet on sports I don’t even watch.

Being able to bet on the NBA doesn’t cause me to be interested in the games

Sports betting is a science, luck definitely has a part but people who understand the ins and outs of what they are betting on are sure to be more successful and that includes understanding how those in charge can affect games.

I always think of the 2021 F1 season where Hamilton was gunning for his record 8th title and him and Verstappen were very close in points in the final few races but there were some questionable calls made in races leading up to the finale and they always seemed to go in the direction that kept the drivers close enough in points where it would would lead to a winner take all final race in Abu Dhabi. In that final race Hamilton all but had the win locked up but he got jobbed by the race director who applied the rules in a really messed up way which cost Hamilton the race and the title. Afterwards the FIA basically defended the result (and themselves against criticism of the sports fairness and credibility) by saying in this situation the race director can do as he sees fit, and then they canned the guy months later, all but admitting it was wrong. All the while they denounced any suggestion of impropriety as a crazy conspiracy theory, which is always the go to when you’re facing a threat of being exposed.

One of my favourites that I love to use is this:

What if I told you that the Canadian government paid to develop tests to determine if people were homosexuals and then they used said test to fire hundreds of civil servants.

Would you call me crazy and deride me as a conspiracy theorists?

 

[Stoneman89]

Sports betting is a science, luck definitely has a part but people who understand the ins and outs of what they are betting on are sure to be more successful and that includes understanding how those in charge can affect games.

I always think of the 2021 F1 season where Hamilton was gunning for his record 8th title and him and Verstappen were very close in points in the final few races but there were some questionable calls made in races leading up to the finale and they always seemed to go in the direction that kept the drivers close enough in points where it would would lead to a winner take all final race in Abu Dhabi. In that final race Hamilton all but had the win locked up but he got jobbed by the race director who applied the rules in a really messed up way which cost Hamilton the race and the title. Afterwards the FIA basically defended the result (and themselves against criticism of the sports fairness and credibility) by saying in this situation the race director can do as he sees fit, and then they canned the guy months later, all but admitting it was wrong. All the while they denounced any suggestion of impropriety as a crazy conspiracy theory, which is always the go to when you’re facing a threat of being exposed.

One of my favourites that I love to use is this:

What if I told you that the Canadian government paid to develop tests to determine if people were homosexuals and then they used said test to fire hundreds of civil servants.

Would you call me crazy and deride me as a conspiracy theorists?

Were you able to find another job?