Have the Oilers improved?

[onetweasy]

You can tell McLellan is an elite true top NHL coach. That is not even a question IMO.

I expected his impact to be more. To me that means the players just are not quiet as good as I thought they were.

The team has improved, just not as much as I thought they would.

Injuries obviously have derailed the teams chances for really taking the next step but that really shouldn't be an excuse. Good TEAMS find ways to win even with injuries. Yes I know we have gone plaid with the amount of injuries but even still I expected a bit more than what we shown.

At what point can injuries be an excuse? We haven't played a single game with a full line up all season.

Personally, when you lead the league in man games lost - you have a justified excuse. That's said, TM has done really well with this team considering the quality of the roster and the injuries on top. If we can get healthy and add some defenceman this summer I think we are a playoff team next year.

 

[Soundwave]

Which team? The one without Eberle? The one without McDavid? The one without McDavid and Klefbom? Or the one without McDavid, Klefbom, and RNH?

I know "injuries ain't an excuse" but it would be nice to have *one* damn game with the actual roster.

 

[Up the Irons]

Which team? The one without Eberle? The one without McDavid? The one without McDavid and Klefbom? Or the one without McDavid, Klefbom, and RNH?

I know "injuries ain't an excuse" but it would be nice to have *one* damn game with the actual roster.

I think its safe to assume that, each and every year, the team that has the most man-games lost to injury underachieves that year. Especially if most of those injuries fall on top 6 forwards, and top 4 dman.

 

[thadd]

We are a way better team.

Talbot > every since Roli took us to the finals.

Our team actually plays like a team. You can see them actually working together to achieve the same goals while on the ice.

In the unlikely event that we're healthy, we're ****ing beasts up front and we're 2 d-men shy of being a legit competitor.

 

[cbzblaze]

You can tell McLellan is an elite true top NHL coach. That is not even a question IMO.

I expected his impact to be more. To me that means the players just are not quiet as good as I thought they were.

The team has improved, just not as much as I thought they would.

Injuries obviously have derailed the teams chances for really taking the next step but that really shouldn't be an excuse. Good TEAMS find ways to win even with injuries. Yes I know we have gone plaid with the amount of injuries but even still I expected a bit more than what we shown.

Veteran, experienced teams that have had stable coaching and years of playing the same system deal with injuries a lot better. We got a completely new coaching staff, trying to get everyone to START playing a certain way. Let alone they came into the year not knowing what exactly they have in each player. It's gonna be difficult.

I for one, am pleasantly surprised by how good they have held up since McDavid went down. Klefbom's injury has been a killer though. Just look at how Florida's D has struggled without their #1 guy.

It's not like we had stanley cup aspirations this year. The standings don't show it but the improvement on the ice has been tremendous.

 

[KCC]

There have been many times when they've been very structured and played a decent game. But then there have also been alot of games where they look like they're being coached by Eakins.

It doesn't matter who is coaching this team. At the end of the day it's the same old song and dance. Can't hold leads and continue to bend and break.

 

[Broilers]

All the elements have improved. Defense and goaltending have been exhaustively discussed already

Top6
Draisalt/McDavid>Roy

Bottom6
Korpikoski>call ups like Hamilton, Pitlick etc

 

[Zaddy]

This team is better but I wouldn't call it only marginally better and i wouldn't call it much better. The truth lies somewhere in between IMO. We are better by a bit but not by a lot. The personnel is better but that's mostly because of the addition of McDavid, the emergence of Draisaitl and Klefbom developing nicely. I guess we are starting to see the effect of Talbot these last 2 months too so if that goaltending is for real then that'll be another thing that has improved. Overall though, this team is still full of holes, is not properly balanced and still have that loser mentality where they more often than not give up leads in the 3rd. All those things must be adressed if this is going to be a winning team in the future.

 

[AJGass4]

In my opinion, way better.

Each game, they are in it. We have had quite possibly the worse schedule of anyone and the most injuries of anyone and we are still competitive.

Last few years, I couldn't even watch a whole game because someone took a bunch of good hockey players and wrecked them.

Give this team a healthy roster from day one and I bet we would have been competing for 1st in our division.

 

[thadd]

Bottom6
Korpikoski>call ups like Hamilton, Pitlick etc

Pitlick? I donno man... if he stayed healthy I think I take Pitlick over Korp every day of the week. Their offensive upside is about even, but Pitlick skates faster and is much harder to play against.

When we drafted him I was excited that Pitlick was still available. I was hoping for a 2nd 3rd line tweener out of him but the dude just can't stay healthy to save his life.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

NHL has to do something about the injury epidemic:

$218million is annually flushed down the toilet due to injury:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...yers-218-million-each-season/article16403001/

Many of these are to star players
NHL Leading Scorer last year: Pat Kane was injured while at the top of the scoring race
Supplanted NHL Leading Scorer - Tyler Seguin injured while at the top of the scoring race
Draft Rival Taylor Hall Injured for a large chunk of the season

Best player of last generation (Sidney Crosby) was injured for most of his peak.


You could call this freak accidents all you want, you can say its the nature of the game.


But this is a WAY more marketable game when McDavid is playing, instead of not.
When Crosby is at his best, the league is more marketable than when he's not playing.



The NHL simply has to do something drastic about injuries because the best players in the league are losing a TON of games.

 

[Aerrol]

NHL has to do something about the injury epidemic:

$218million is annually flushed down the toilet due to injury:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...yers-218-million-each-season/article16403001/

Many of these are to star players
NHL Leading Scorer last year: Pat Kane was injured while at the top of the scoring race
Supplanted NHL Leading Scorer - Tyler Seguin injured while at the top of the scoring race
Draft Rival Taylor Hall Injured for a large chunk of the season

Best player of last generation (Sidney Crosby) was injured for most of his peak.


You could call this freak accidents all you want, you can say its the nature of the game.


But this is a WAY more marketable game when McDavid is playing, instead of not.
When Crosby is at his best, the league is more marketable than when he's not playing.



The NHL simply has to do something drastic about injuries because the best players in the league are losing a TON of games.

Agreed. Completely revamping how they handle the department of player safety would be a big step forward.

1. Call them evenly based on the damn hit/action taken. This b.s. suspension based on injury and who you hit just encourages players to continue to be dangerous. It's worth a gamble to shake up Crosby - if he keeps playing, you get a penalty and are otherwise fine. He's probably shaken up all game regardless. If he's hurt, you've weakened the competition.

2. INCREASE PENALTIES. It's a friggin joke how short the suspensions are and how small the fines are. If the league is serious about reducing injuries, it needs to increase the penalties to a level that amounts to more than a 'meh' in most teams, players, and fans.

3. ACTUALLY CALL PENALTIES WHEN THEY HAPPEN. I honestly think this won't change things nearly as much as the first two safety wise, but it would be a nice tag-on to fixing the player safety rules.

 

[thadd]

Agreed. Completely revamping how they handle the department of player safety would be a big step forward.

1. Call them evenly based on the damn hit/action taken. This b.s. suspension based on injury and who you hit just encourages players to continue to be dangerous. It's worth a gamble to shake up Crosby - if he keeps playing, you get a penalty and are otherwise fine. He's probably shaken up all game regardless. If he's hurt, you've weakened the competition.

2. INCREASE PENALTIES. It's a friggin joke how short the suspensions are and how small the fines are. If the league is serious about reducing injuries, it needs to increase the penalties to a level that amounts to more than a 'meh' in most teams, players, and fans.

3. ACTUALLY CALL PENALTIES WHEN THEY HAPPEN. I honestly think this won't change things nearly as much as the first two safety wise, but it would be a nice tag-on to fixing the player safety rules.

They'll never do it. The NHL doesn't want to make us happy. I'm not joking. I can't remember the last time the NHL made a decision that made the fans happy.

 

[Aerrol]

They'll never do it. The NHL doesn't want to make us happy. I'm not joking. I can't remember the last time the NHL made a decision that made the fans happy.

Ugh. I agree. It's an organization that continues to succeed in spite of it's awful management.

(though to be fair, I will note that fans are such an angry group of people that you almost never please the majority of them, haha)

 

[NeverForget06]

All the elements have improved. Defense and goaltending have been exhaustively discussed already

Top6
Draisalt/McDavid>Roy

Bottom6
Korpikoski>call ups like Hamilton, Pitlick etc

Both good points. Alot of talk about the improvements behind the bench and on the back end but the forwards have made a big difference too

 

[HugginThePost]

Agreed. Completely revamping how they handle the department of player safety would be a big step forward.

1. Call them evenly based on the damn hit/action taken. This b.s. suspension based on injury and who you hit just encourages players to continue to be dangerous. It's worth a gamble to shake up Crosby - if he keeps playing, you get a penalty and are otherwise fine. He's probably shaken up all game regardless. If he's hurt, you've weakened the competition.

2. INCREASE PENALTIES. It's a friggin joke how short the suspensions are and how small the fines are. If the league is serious about reducing injuries, it needs to increase the penalties to a level that amounts to more than a 'meh' in most teams, players, and fans.

3. ACTUALLY CALL PENALTIES WHEN THEY HAPPEN. I honestly think this won't change things nearly as much as the first two safety wise, but it would be a nice tag-on to fixing the player safety rules.

I saw almost the exact same post on the Panthers board the other day.....

 

[Aerrol]

I saw almost the exact same post on the Panthers board the other day.....

And I'd agree with it then too. I'm fine with Hendricks being suspended longer if it means we're also slamming pukes like Marchand too. Fans around the league feel this way. NHL won't do anything anyways.

 

[Topkatz]

The Marincin/Gryba one has some interesting points. I haven't been paying as much attention as usual in the past few games but I feel like the whole team just gets hemmed in easily. Always has for years. I don't remember much of Marincin's positives. Last year wasn't an easy go for him.

Nurse's rookie plays are pretty rough sometimes. But I know he's playing more than he should right now. Easy to overlook some. Plus they don't feel as large as Sekera's at times. They don't feel like they directly caused the team to lose.
To me at least.

Marincin wont be in the NHL in three years. You can hold me to that. He was always incredibly overrated.

 

[PinSeeker]

The players we have are generally playing at a higher level. The issue is that we have limited options on the back end and have had major injuries this year.

I am happy with what I have seen from McLellan.

 

[Cloned]

EDIT: gonna make this a separate thread.

 

[Wretched Oil]

Marincin wont be in the NHL in three years. You can hold me to that. He was always incredibly overrated.

He's only played 30 games this year, was he injured?

 

[CaptainSexyPants]

I say much better.
Finally looking a little like a team rather than a bunch of headless chickens.
Talbot is an actual NHL level #1. What a difference that makes...whodathunkit.
Defense is a little better.
Offense is much better. (Goals scored maybe not as high as we'd like, but with injuries to McDavid, Eberle and now Nuge, some of that is understandable. Hall playing like a maniac and Draisaitl is completely exceeding expectations for this year.)

The standings aren't fun to look at, but hey you can't have it all.

 

[Bangers]

Way better.

The standings don't show a huge difference, but the 2014-15 Oilers (pre-Nelson) might have been the worst Oilers team I've ever watched - this includes the initial tanking seasons and the 92-93 season.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

better for sure...although last year may have been the worst season of any team in the history of the NHL
until Eakins was fired...

better goaltending, better defense and more depth from the forwards

if we didn't get ravaged by injuries we may be pushing close to 40 wins...as it stands, close to 35 wins would be a vast improvement

 

[Lacaar]

I firmly believe the hockey gods will do whatever it takes to ensure this team is crap.

8+ Week injuries to 1st line center, 2nd line center, #1 dman.

I predict Cam Talbot pulls his everything soon. Out for season.

Team has looked decent this year. Finding ways to lose games. It's different than in the past years when we obviously weren't even in the fight.