Happy New Year to HFOil (sneaky Tippett poll inside)

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

This is not a Tippet issue, the boys need to solve this themselves. Start right, end right.

I agree professional players motivate themselves. Mark Messier - the best leader in hockey history - agrees and said that it comes from within the room and it’s leaders. We have a group of very quiet leaders.

But more than that, observing practice footage the Oilers release they are going at 1/2 speed much of the time. You play how you practice. TMac ran high intensity practices and IMO should never have been fired by Chiarelli.

Scott Hartnell recently gave a comparison of the pre Torts practices compared to practices Torts ran. Night and day. He said it went to full on short but faster than game speed practices, like a bag skate with pucks and 200 shots per player.

Say what you want about Torts but his teams competed and he had his Columbus teams in the playoffs and won rounds.

Now don’t want Torts here but it all starts with how a team practices. We’ve been a slow starting team under Tip since Day One and this year the slow starts are an ingrained part of this teams culture along with a serious lack of focus and attention to detail.

That starts bleeding into a team in practice and is why if we want to save the season it’s time for Tip to be shown the door now so we don’t miss the playoffs or are the last wildcard and not wait for seasons end, they can go with interim solutions like GG and decide off season.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I agree professional players motivate themselves. Mark Messier - the best leader in hockey history - agrees and said that it comes from within the room and it’s leaders. We have a group of very quiet leaders.

But more than that, observing practice footage the Oilers release they are going at 1/2 speed much of the time. You play how you practice. TMac ran high intensity practices and IMO should never have been fired by Chiarelli.

Scott Hartnell recently gave a comparison of the pre Torts practices compared to practices Torts ran. Night and day. He said it went to full on short but faster than game speed practices, like a bag skate with pucks and 200 shots per player.

Say what you want about Torts but his teams competed and he had his Columbus teams in the playoffs and won rounds.

Now don’t want Torts here but it all starts with how a team practices. We’ve been a slow starting team under Tip since Day One and this year the slow starts are an ingrained part of this teams culture along with a serious lack of focus and attention to detail.

That starts bleeding into a team in practice and is why if we want to save the season it’s time for Tip to be shown the door now so we don’t miss the playoffs or are the last wildcard and not wait for seasons end, they can go with interim solutions like GG and decide off season.

Gonna contrast this with Mclellan running the same hard practices in SJ all seasons and expecting all players including older sods like Jumbo and Marleau to take part in them. It got ugly, and to the extent of McLellan calling out his own players to management basically fibbing that they were not up to snuff. Eventually a player mutiny occurred in SJ and Mclellan was replaced with Deboers who reversed almost everything, made practices easier, and often optional, and the older players could opt out of as many as they liked. As a direct result the Sharks went further in playoffs with Deboers, and to a cup final. This all occurred because a more cerebral coach realized and assessed what the player needs actually were and so that he made changes to optimize their potential, and energy left for actual games played.


So that its not crystal clear one vs the other. Due to obvious lineup limitation we overplay McDrai and Nurse on this team. They get huge minutes basically because we have to. because anybody else being on the ice the team craters. So that the coaching staff adroitly make practices easier on the players so that the few guns on this team can get through 82game seasons and have anything left in the tank.

The hard practice mandate would seem to make some sense, but would more on a team where you're not playing anybody more than 20 mins in games. That isn't possible with this Oilers roster full of holes.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Gonna contrast this with Mclellan running the same hard practices in SJ all seasons and expecting all players including older sods like Jumbo and Marleau to take part in them. It got ugly, and to the extent of McLellan calling out his own players to management basically fibbing that they were not up to snuff. Eventually a player mutiny occurred in SJ and Mclellan was replaced with Deboers who reversed almost everything, made practices easier, and often optional, and the older players could opt out of as many as they liked. As a direct result the Sharks went further in playoffs with Deboers, and to a cup final. This all occurred because a more cerebral coach realized and assessed what the player needs actually were and so that he made changes to optimize their potential, and energy left for actual games played.


So that its not crystal clear one vs the other. Due to obvious lineup limitation we overplay McDrai and Nurse on this team. They get huge minutes basically because we have to. because anybody else being on the ice the team craters. So that the coaching staff adroitly make practices easier on the players so that the few guns on this team can get through 82game seasons and have anything left in the tank.

The hard practice mandate would seem to make some sense, but would more on a team where you're not playing anybody more than 20 mins in games. That isn't possible with this Oilers roster full of holes.

We’re seeing the results of half speed practices. And we can play a more balanced lineup with McLoed at LW and RNH at 3C giving the top 3 lines equal minutes and the bottom line a good hard 8-10 a night.

 

[Drivesaitl]

We’re seeing the results of half speed practices. And we can play a more balanced lineup with McLoed at LW and RNH at 3C giving the top 3 lines equal minutes and the bottom line a good hard 8-10 a night.

I would be fine with bagskate level practice intensity if the team forbade McDrai and Nurse from taking part in them. Given any option to attend, unfortunately McDrai and Nurse will be there. So the opposite has to occur. It can't even be stated as optionals. You basically have to say no to the horses showing up, because McDrai, Nurse will show up for any practice and out work the bunch of sods. The difficulty being that human endurance has limitations. McDrai and Nurse give it all in long seasons and give it all on the ice. They need recovery time when not doing that. Sure they are young, but everybody has limitations and NHL hockey is the worst endurance contest in all pro sports.

So sure, have higher tempo practices, but you have to keep the horses off the ice for those. The trouble is you can't. NHLPA won't allow it and the players won't allow it. You can't refuse the practice ice time.

 

[Stoneman89]

Hopefully 2022 brings better things than 2020 and 2021.

Stay safe out there tonight (in more ways than one).

(Sneaky poll for those who want to vote)

I'm sure with a simple turning of the calendar over to a new year, that things will magically get better. The Oilers will upgrade and become a mediocre team, Covid will suddenly just go away, and beloved celebrities will stop dying.

 

[Stoneman89]

Edmonton Oilers Schedule

Oilers opponents up to the Olympic break organized by points percentage, with record over last 10 games included:

2. Washington - 6-2-2
4. Florida - 6-3-1
5. Toronto - 7-2-1
6. NY Rangers - 5-4-1
8. Minnesota - 6-3-1
9. Calgary - 5-4-1
11. Vegas - 8-2-0
13. Nashville - 7-2-1
18. Winnipeg - 5-4-1
24. Vancouver - 8-1-1
26. NY Islanders (x2) - 4-2-4
27. Chicago - 4-4-2
30. Ottawa - 5-4-1
31. Montreal - 1-7-2

That's not exactly an easy schedule for January. Then, there are the make-up PPD games (presuming they play them over the Olympic break):

9. Calgary - 5-4-1
14. Anaheim - 4-2-4
19. San Jose - 5-5-0
20. Los Angeles - 6-3-1

And then the remaining 3 games for February scheduled after the Olympic break:

1. Carolina - 7-3-0
3. Tampa Bay - 7-2-1
4. Florida - 6-3-1

That's 22 games, 6 of which are against teams with a .700 P% or better, 7 are against teams with a P% between .600 - .700, and 5 are against teams with sub .500 P%. If the team doesn't start playing better they could very well be a .500 team by the end of February (after 53 GP). They would need to go 20-9 over their last 29 games just to get to 93 points and have a shot at a wild card spot. Holland can't let it get to that point.

If the Oilers lose their next 3 games I could easily see Tippett being fired before the team returns to Edmonton for next Saturday's game against the Islanders. Say the team goes 3-4-0 over their next 7 games and then loses in Winnipeg, I could also see that game being a straw that broke the camel's back game whereby Tippett gets fired. The team can't be sputtering going into that game against Calgary on the 22nd, so I expect a firing sometime over the next 10 games. It's hard to envision this team under Tippett being successful in the playoffs, so just pull the bandaid off already. The sooner the better.

...Also...Happy New Year!

PS - Obviously the relevance of teams' records over their last 10 games is potentially less consequential given the game postponements, but I thought they were worth including as a comparable to help illustrate that the Oilers have a tough task for January regardless of coaching.

At this point, and the way they're playing, it really doesn't matter who they line up against. The result will not be a good one.

 

[Stoneman89]

Beautiful. I never knew the origin of that song. Thanks for sharing that rendition.

Ya know not Robbie Burns, lad? What's a matter yee?