Post-Game Talk: I guess 20 minutes is almost 60? Oilers lose 4-3.

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

A lot of people want Haas with McDavid and I don’t know why. He is a 4C playing 8-9 minutes a game who is barely treading water and has not played wing but let’s throw him on the wing of the fastest and most dominant player in the league and expect him to excel both offensively and defensively against the leagues top forwards and defencemen. Doesn’t make a lick of sense.

The team had a shitty middle first and the entire 2nd period in their 4th game in 7 days while criss crossing central North America. Big deal.

A 3 game home stand is upon us where they can get a bit of practice time in and work the kinks out with McDavids linemates.

 

[oilynutz]

A lot of people want Haas with McDavid and I don’t know why. He is a 4C playing 8-9 minutes a game who is barely treading water and has not played wing but let’s throw him on the wing of the fastest and most dominant player in the league and expect him to excel both offensively and defensively against the leagues top forwards and defencemen. Doesn’t make a lick of sense.

The team had a shitty middle first and the entire 2nd period in their 4th game in 7 days while criss crossing central North America. Big deal.

A 3 game home stand is upon us where they can get a bit of practice time in and work the kinks out with McDavids linemates.

Haas is a good skater and skilled. What would it hurt trying Haas there? Especially with how good all the other options have worked....seems pretty dumb not to give him a chance...

 

[Paperbagofglory]

Dave Tippett was a goof this game. Mike Smith should have been pulled immediately after the third goal. I am sick of Khaira. After the oilers got scored on he immediately throws Khairas line out there and it was almost 4-0. The line blenders made no sense. Kassian should have been put back with Mcdavid as soon as line 1 was dead in the water to start the second. AA did nothing to deserve being out there with Mcdavid in the third period. Also please get Neal off of Mcdavids line he kills so many plays and is too slow to keep up.

 

[Messrules11]

Smith was 12-1-4 in his last 17 and the team was garbage for 40 minutes but some are putting the loss on Smith? Ridiculous.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Haas is a good skater and skilled. What would it hurt trying Haas there? Especially with how good all the other options have worked....seems pretty dumb not to give him a chance...

Because the NHL isn’t house league or beer league hockey. You don’t take a lifelong centre and chuck him on the wing with 14 games left before playoffs. It’s a completely different position. He’s barely a 4th line centre treading water against the worst competition in the NHL in sheltered minutes.

If Haas had the chops to be playing first line wing he would be doing so already.

In the NHL the cream rises to the top on its own, creating its own opportunity.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Smith was 12-1-4 in his last 17 and the team was garbage for 40 minutes but some are putting the loss on Smith? Ridiculous.

People lose their mind over every loss and look for scapegoats and plan the parade after every win. Human nature I suppose.

 

[oilynutz]

Because the NHL isn’t house league or beer league hockey. You don’t take a lifelong centre and chuck him on the wing with 14 games left before playoffs. It’s a completely different position. He’s barely a 4th line centre treading water against the worst competition in the NHL in sheltered minutes.

If Haas had the chops to be playing first line wing he would be doing so already.

In the NHL the cream rises to the top on its own, creating its own opportunity.

Ok boss. Forgot Haas was a beer leaguer.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Ok boss. Forgot Haas was a beer leaguer.

I didn’t say he was. I said this is not a beer league where you just try things out right before the playoffs to see what happens. What I did say was if Haas had first line talent to switch his lifelong position and play the wing on the first line he would already be doing it.

He played wing a few times earlier this year on the 4th line and IIRC the 3rd. Didn’t work.

 

[oilynutz]

I didn’t say he was. I said this is not a beer league where you just try things out right before the playoffs to see what happens. What I did say was if Haas had first line talent to switch his lifelong position and play the wing on the first line he would already be doing it.

He played wing a few times earlier this year on the 4th line and IIRC the 3rd. Didn’t work.

Lmao our lines have been a blender for a while now. It's much easier moving from C to W. You also have no idea if C has been his lifetime position. Stop pulling shit out of your ass.

He has more then enough skill to play with McDavid. If he is smart enough that is another question, confidence is a big part of it too.

 

[K1984]

I have a feeling a lot will turn around when Klefbom is back.

Every time he’s out the team’s breakout and general defensive ability usually disintegrates. This has happened this year as well, just to a slightly lesser degree than past seasons because we are a bit deeper.

Inability to move the puck out with any kind of consistency has plagued them the last few games even in wins. Nurse, Russell, Benning and to a much lesser extent Larsson can’t make breakout passes with any kind of consistency. Jones and Bear can, but are susceptible to getting their heads kicked in on the forecheck that they wouldn’t have to worry about if their match ups are a bit easier.

Take 5 mins off Nurse’s ice time with easier matchups, get Jones on the third pair and things will improve. Klefbom being out has literally written off seasons in the past, this group has found a way to survive even though it wasn’t pretty.

 

[joestevens29]

Haas on the first that's how desperate we are?

My god, guy has been out played by Arcobello the past few seasons.

We have better options than him

 

[Weitz]

Can't win them all, but if they continue to get caved in shot wise its not going to be a good end to the season.

Got to pick it up on this home stand and win some games via domination.

 

[Missing smitty]

It's gonna be tough for wingers to be successful with Connor (when opposing teams show up with solid efforts) the way he's been playing. He's not putting much of any effort in the forecheck or battling for any pucks let alone any effort in back pressure and defence. We're basically one man short as far as puck pressure on the forecheck and dzone when connor doesn't feel like getting involved. Tough to regain possession. You can see how easy connor's line is to play against right now. Easy ice time for opposition now when connor's line is on the ice. I think this is why tips pops archie into his line... add more jam and tenacity and make them harder to play against.

You mean he puts a hard forechecking WINGER on his line? Shocking that he would put a guy who plays the position that actually does the forechecking, to actually do the forechecking.

Draisaitl's defensive game has been better, because...shockingly...his wingers are better.

McDavid hasn't been himself since coming back from injury. You complain people refuse to criticize him (which people are and have been commenting that he isn't himself) but you've taken it upon yourself to criticize everything, including things that aren't really his responsibility.

 

[Missing smitty]

Haas on the first that's how desperate we are?

My god, guy has been out played by Arcobello the past few seasons.

We have better options than him

If they don't go 82-0, then the team is junk and should be blown up immediately.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Lmao our lines have been a blender for a while now. It's much easier moving from C to W. You also have no idea if C has been his lifetime position. Stop pulling shit out of your ass.

He has more then enough skill to play with McDavid. If he is smart enough that is another question, confidence is a big part of it too.

It may be easier to move from C to W than W to C but that’s not the conversation. In beer league it may be easy to move from C to W but it’s still not easy in the NHL.

As for things I pull out my ass here is his position in 2012 with his Swiss League team

EHC Biel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

He is a lifelong right shot Center if you’d care to do several seconds of research.

As for having the skill or smarts or confidence to play with McDavid explain why he can barely make it as a 4C.

And I am saying if he did have the skill or smarts or confidence to play with McDavid on a regular shift he would already be doing so.

He is an NHL tweener who has some nice wheels but not the top end skill smarts hands or confidence to roll with Connor.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

If they don't go 82-0, then the team is junk and should be blown up immediately.

I wish I could like this but I can’t because of a cow so I will say I like this a lot.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Klefbom coming back will make a huge difference. Nurse and Bear are playing too many high end minutes. This will settle their minutes and competition down.

Nygard coming back onto the 3rd line will help, they were looking good before he went down. Green on the 3rd pair with Jones or Russell will also be an improvement.

For me the biggest thing is getting McDavid back with two of AA Neal and Kassian and let them get settled before the playoff drive.

 

[Missing smitty]

It may be easier to move from C to W than W to C but that’s not the conversation. In beer league it may be easy to move from C to W but it’s still not easy in the NHL.

As for things I pull out my ass here is his position in 2012 with his Swiss League team

EHC Biel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

He is a lifelong right shot Center if you’d care to do several seconds of research.

As for having the skill or smarts or confidence to play with McDavid explain why he can barely make it as a 4C.

And I am saying if he did have the skill or smarts or confidence to play with McDavid on a regular shift he would already be doing so.

He is an NHL tweener who has some nice wheels but not the top end skill smarts hands or confidence to roll with Connor.

I think that is the issue with McDavid. He isn't an easy guy to play with. He's too fast and thinks the game so fast that he needs someone that at least can think like he does. Draisaitl isn't a fast skater, but he thinks the game at a high enough level.

They have placed their number 2,3 and 4 forwards on 1 line and left Connor to deal with everything else.

I don't know if AA can be that guy for him, but he hasn't been given the time to mesh with Connor yet. Hopefully those good rushes and the post he hit give him at least a bit of rope.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

I think that is the issue with McDavid. He isn't an easy guy to play with. He's too fast and thinks the game so fast that he needs someone that at least can think like he does. Draisaitl isn't a fast skater, but he thinks the game at a high enough level.

They have placed their number 2,3 and 4 forwards on 1 line and left Connor to deal with everything else.

I don't know if AA can be that guy for him, but he hasn't been given the time to mesh with Connor yet. Hopefully those good rushes and the post he hit give him at least a bit of rope.

He also was banged up in his 2nd game and coming off a long injury this year which I think a lot of Oiler fans harping on AA either forget or don’t know about.

 

[nabob]

Smith was 12-1-4 in his last 17 and the team was garbage for 40 minutes but some are putting the loss on Smith? Ridiculous.

Yeah it could have easily been 3-0 Hawks after the 1st. The team in front of him was trash for over half the game.

 

[94 Oil Drops]

mcdavid will be fine. He is humble.
He needs a summer to train instead of rehab. I expect connor will get some rest before the playoffs.

I can't go into McDavid's mind but I do know that he has humble character. I really don't think he cares about the Hart or Art Ross this year. He's probably fine to let Leon chase those while he focuses on making the playoffs and getting ready for them.

 

[nabob]

It may be easier to move from C to W than W to C but that’s not the conversation. In beer league it may be easy to move from C to W but it’s still not easy in the NHL.

As for things I pull out my ass here is his position in 2012 with his Swiss League team

EHC Biel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

He is a lifelong right shot Center if you’d care to do several seconds of research.

As for having the skill or smarts or confidence to play with McDavid explain why he can barely make it as a 4C.

And I am saying if he did have the skill or smarts or confidence to play with McDavid on a regular shift he would already be doing so.

He is an NHL tweener who has some nice wheels but not the top end skill smarts hands or confidence to roll with Connor.

how many players would have great success with a combination of Jujar, PRussell, Granlund and random AHL level player as their most common linemates...

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

how many players would have great success with a combination of Jujar, PRussell, Granlund and random AHL level player as their most common linemates...

Cream rises to the top regardless of who your linemates are. If you have top line talent you play top 6 minutes unless you are blocked and he isn’t blocked.

 

[fuswald]

It really sucks that we still don't have a winger that has consistant chemistry with McDavid yet despite the trades. It's early but AA looks like a total lame duck so far..

We do. Kassian. Though Kassian is working his way out of the doghouse.
Other wing is up for grabs though.

 

[FlameChampion]

I think you would just like to see a more consistent effort by the team. Whens the last time the team actually played a 60 minute effort?. Just too many games where the guys arent moving their feet or working hard. The team really tends to play to their level of competition. They lose a lot of games to teams they shouldnt be losing to.

As much as we all want to blame certain players, I am not sure who you put on line 1 with McDavid to make it work better. Getting a solid McDavid line would make this team so hard to defend (assuming that the team is skating hard, which you would assume would be the case in the playoffs). Maybe we dont have the personnel quite yet to do it though. I dont know.

The team is still managing to put up points. I am not surprised we lost last night. A lot of long road trips lately. I just hope that we avoid any long losing streaks and can stay in the #2 spot in the pacific at a minimum.