Post-Game Talk: I guess I'll make it... Oilers Lose 4-1

[Soundwave]

I only watched the first half of the game, but I thought we dominated for stretches. Eberle had some glorious chances, when those didn't get buried, I figured we'd lose because when we don't capitalize it always comes back to haunt us.

I don't think demoting Yakupov will help, he needs to be able to just play through this and finally bury one. I think scratching him actually did not help at all, it just sent his confidence lower whereas in the season opener and pre-season he had a ton of jump in his step.

 

[OilerTyler]

At least I can take solace in the fact that this is only year four of the Oilers five year plan.

The organization totally knows what it is doing.

 

[Captain Catatomic]

LOL

 

[Soli]

Board needs new consequences.

Any infraction yields 25 mandatory posts in PGT. Not gifs either.

Sorta like community hours.

Mind as well just make them Mods.

... Oh...

 

[KCC]

I only watched the first half of the game, but I thought we dominated for stretches. Eberle had some glorious chances, when those didn't get buried, I figured we'd lose because when we don't capitalize it always comes back to haunt us.

I don't think demoting Yakupov will help, he needs to be able to just play through this and finally bury one. I think scratching him actually did not help at all, it just sent his confidence lower whereas in the season opener and pre-season he had a ton of jump in his step.

Oh, the team didn't play bad at all, at least through the first 2 periods. But then in the final frame, they came out hard, couldn't score and Washington came right back and buried a goal and that was that. The team got deflated and that was the game. It was as the game went along in which everyone got upset because the team literally gave up. It was pathetic and they deserved to get booed out of the building.

 

[Replacement*]

Mind as well just make them Mods.

... Oh...

Who's the clever boy?

 

[NewBoysClub97*]

Loud mouth hemsky fan mentioned it. Petry is looking really good, but our D had a "get the puck outta here at all costs" mentality.

We are so terrible with puck management in all three zones. So many plays or passes made with no purpose at all. We just give the other team the puck like a gift.

It must get tiring. That is so much extra energy wasted over 60 minutes.

It's magical watching the sharks or even the Yotes(yes I know they got blown out). You don't see many wasted passes.

Maybe it's our forwards going up too far but god those long bomb passes make me rip my hair out. You might as well just toss them the puck at the red line and retreat.

Another thing I notice after watching a ton if other games. Our D coast back to retrieve the puck so much. They are always being beaten to the puck.

 

[Soundwave]

Oh, the team didn't play bad at all, at least through the first 2 periods. But then in the final frame, they came out hard, couldn't score and Washington came right back and buried a goal and that was that. The team got deflated and that was the game. It was as the game went along in which everyone got upset because the team literally gave up. It was pathetic and they deserved to get booed out of the building.

Well lets hope they continue to keep playing the way they did in the 1st/2nd then.

On the positive side our 4th line was really good and Pitlick was good again also.

And the one PP I saw was probably the best one we set up all year long.

Just poor puck luck and good goaltending on their side. But yeah, obviously we have to deal better with being in adverse situations. I think it's happened so often this year (bad breaks) that the team just loses focus.

 

[Replacement*]

At least I can take solace in the fact that this is only year four of the Oilers five year plan.

The organization totally knows what it is doing.

We've already had the purges so it has to be getting better..


ps This game was 50% better to watch when pretending Mr Bean was behind the Oilers bench watching his topline go -4 while tripping on banana peels he tossed out..

 

[Gret99zky]

Two wins in a row is plenty.

I know this Oiler fan couldn't handle 3 or 4 wins in a row.

That kind of thing leads to unrealistic expectations.

No sir. A couple more losses and those 3 wins out of 11 games are all the more sweeeeeeet!

 

[The Joker*]

Need to start getting points. Coming close and putting in a solid effort isn't really good enough anymore.

 

[Oiltankjob Fail]

I only watched the first half of the game, but I thought we dominated for stretches. Eberle had some glorious chances, when those didn't get buried, I figured we'd lose because when we don't capitalize it always comes back to haunt us.

I don't think demoting Yakupov will help, he needs to be able to just play through this and finally bury one. I think scratching him actually did not help at all, it just sent his confidence lower whereas in the season opener and pre-season he had a ton of jump in his step.

This

 

[Replacement*]

Need to start getting points. Coming close and putting in a solid effort isn't really good enough anymore.

Well that was uplifting..

Thank you for the moral support.


edit; now attempted tongue in cheek funny post makes no sense at all. ;(

 

[Soli]

Need to start getting points. Coming close and putting in a solid effort isn't really good enough anymore.

Ya'll know I love them, but there's a time and a place.

But erm, could really use 2... points.

 

[alphahelix]

Just because they weren't horrendously brutal for 2/3 of the game doesn't mean they played well. Every game I feel like I'm watching a drowning. Sometimes they manage to tread water for a while, other times they are taking great big gulps of agua. Sometimes they have sunk to the bottom and are being pecked at by bottomfeeders before they miraculously recover and rise to the surface. This game they managed to keep their head above water with a few gulps sneaking into the lungs here and there. Still didn't look like an NHL team on a mission. It's one thing to tread water for a while but if you don't know how to swim to shore whats the point? They have a lot of work ahead of them if they are to salvage respectability.

 

[The Joker*]

Time = Now.

Place = This thread.

For rising up the standings, I mean.

 

[AssistantCaptain*]

Two wins in a row is plenty.

I know this Oiler fan couldn't handle 3 or 4 wins in a row.

That kind of thing leads to unrealistic expectations.

No sir. A couple more losses and those 3 wins out of 11 games are all the more sweeeeeeet!

If we won 4 on a row my testicles would rupture. No thanks

 

[Soundwave]

I'm seeing some good things so I'm not overly pessimistic.

They're probably not making the playoffs this year but we need to establish an identity and bedrock foundation on how we want to play.

 

[AssistantCaptain*]

This team lured my optimism behind a barn and shot it in the face

 

[harpoon]

You know its funny that if Yak was playing with Gagner tonight and the line was -4 there be people lineing up on this board to buy Gagner a plane ticket out of town and a ton of posters saying NO EXCUSE. He has to be able to carry players like this.

Fact of the matter is its been Gagner through the years carrying most of the young prospects on this club. Other than the star line that have usually had benefit of playing with each other and enjoying that benefit.

So tonight, on one of the few nights that our star line is expected to shelter (one rookie, not two) they're -4 on the night in a 4-1 loss. Shockingly bad and it rings a whole lot futher than Yakupov in this.

The entire line **** the bed. I actually think of the 3 that Yakupov at least showed some creative offensive play on the night.

 

[thinlizzy]

Top line minus 12. 630 CHED and Rob Brown figure moving Perron to top line and moving Yak to number 2. Works for me. Hemsky mailed in in tonight and it seems a few have been reading the last games Montreal newspaper headlines. We are fabulous deal. Very lackluster combined effort. Still some deadwood that needs to be cleaned out on this squad.

Wash tending was hot but again I don't think there was much intestinal fortitude on the bench at all. Ho hum, ho hum meh.

Ryan Jones 14 min and one hit and zero shots but he is making a comeback. Back to the minors quick.

I said last game if Pitlick is to stick he has to keep nailing the opposition. 2 hits in almost 12 min isn't going to cut it for a player that isn't putting points up.

The D is got exposed tonight. Mac T needs to find us a bit of help on the backend if we are to get better.

Next two games are going to be very difficult to get a W on the road.

 

[MetaOil1993]

Could not catch a bounce to save our lives today.

First two periods were strong, but that entire top line made some boneheaded plays all night. Every one of them.

The Arco line was off today too, despite a fair few scoring chances. Hemsky's hands were substandard tonight and I actually thought Arcobello looked shaky with the puck tonight. Perron has to bury some of those grade A chances, but at least he was stirring **** up.

Just doesn't feel consoling enough to say "we deserved the win tonight" anymore. Tired of waiting for us to have the hockey gods intervene and gift us 2 points for moral justice. Caps cashed in on their chances and we did not.

Eberle's choice to backhand deke into traffic instead of shoot from the middle of the slot wide open sums up why we didn't score when we had to tonigt. Still trying to do it fancy. You wanna talk about players on their own page tonight, Eberle and Yak are prime examples.

Agreed, Seeing the fancy stick work during Hall and Eberle's rookie season was fun to watch but its not that fun anymore. It infuriates me when they get good scoring chances and they mess it up trying to do the "extra" move instead of taking the shot.

Oh and Its mind boggling how bad our special teams is this year after being so good last year, Honestly I miss Krueger in this regard. It was the 5 on 5 that messed us up all year and its the complete opposite now. The PP is incredibly frustrating since no one wants to take a ****** shot.

 

[nitz]

I blame Holtby. He was DIALED in tonight.

 

[CorpseFX]

Terrible with puck management in all three zones. So many plays or passes made with no purpose at all. We just give the other team the puck like a gift.

It must get tiring. That is so much extra energy wasted over 60 minutes.

it's been like this for a long while, too. that's the sad thing.

and yes, seeing earlier hockey (Sharks/Bruins) looked like the best ******* hockey ive seen in ages.

hilarious that this is suppose to be a "puck possession" build from the management but it looks like a super pretender/poser crew throwing the puck anywhere/everywhere. it just makes me think of inline hockey leagues. all hot dogs with no structure.

the AND1 team of the NHL. "sick hands bro. you can't make a break out pass to your buds tape."

 

[thadd]

OK I've read everyone's spouting and I can agree with the following:

Dubby needs to be more aggressive in protecting the crease. He's as passive as Gandhi.

We did very well. 2 game winning streak. Played very strong and effectively without our 1st line LW(Hall), 2nd line center(Gagner), third line winger(Joensuu) and press box specialist(Smyth).


My idea:


Yakupov shouldn't be playing on the first line in the next game. Put him on the third line with Pitlick and Gordon.

Perron-Hopkins-Eberle
Jones-Acrobello-Hemsky
Yakupov-Gordon-Pitlick
Gazdic-Action-Eager

Perron has played some pretty solid hockey. I think he plays the way that the coach wants him to and I believe that Hopkins and Eberle would produce more with Perron than hey would with Hall because Hall always seems to be in too much of a hurry when he rushes the puck. With Hall off of the first line we've seen our players have a much easier time setting up in the offensive zone to get good shots on net because the puck carrier hasn't been 3 or 4 strides ahead of the rest of his team.

Jones or Eager on the LW on that second line. Doesn't matter to me. Whoever is going to do a better job of forechecking or going to the net wins it for me.

Yakupov won't hurt us so much on this line. He'll be winning faceoffs and playing with tough guys who can win the puck battles for him. Plus Gordon's face-off winning % will help him out a lot, too.

Nothing new to say about that forth line. Just hope they keep up the good work.


On our defense, I'm disappointed with the play of Ference this year. He shouldn't be the captain of the team. Eberle should be the captain. Petry and Gordon should be the assistant captains. Smid hasn't been as effective, but Petry has played some really good hockey this year.

I'd be open to trading Smid or Ference. If we're putting a package together for a #1 d-man who's a great puck mover(not going to happen) I'm happy to deal Justin Schultz away, as well. Justin Schultz is starting to remind me of a lighter version of Paul Coffey at his worst. Justin Schultz has good stick work at times, but he's so nasty in his own end.

As for Belov. What happened to the guy we saw in the pre-season?

Our blueline is hurting us the most right now... again.