Post-Game Talk: Legs Wide Open on the Coaching Couch

[GOilers88]

It's not even the losses that I think bother people, it's the fact that it's the same ol' shit ... terrible defense and terrible goaltending and the front office that did nothing to address either area.

Why should the Oilers be given the benefit of the doubt in these areas? They haven't done anything to earn it.

I'm well aware of your thoughts on how shitty management is. You repeat it ad nauseum.

2 games where we lost the exact same way we lost last year in the playoffs with the exact same main weaknesses except somehow even worse.

Not only are the flaws evident and not been fixed, but it appears they've been exacerbated.

If you think those 2 games represent how the team will finish the year I don't know what to say.

I'll see you when the heater starts.

 

[Jumptheshark]

I'm not going to make a judgement on the defence or goaltending OR on the team after 2 games in an 82 game season. Buffalo is 0-2 as well. I don't see their fans screaming bloody murder

Sabres are 2 years behind us in their rebuild

 

[Drivesaitl]

It's insane how fast it's going. It feels like year 6 of McDavid ... but it's year 9. Year 10 for Drai.

I really hope sitting on their ass in the 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 drafts instead of using some of those picks to make a serious move to get McDavid help earlier was really worth it there galaxy brain Oilers.

I think the Covid years and things kind of stopping or being different for awhile has distorted a lot of the perception since a decade has passed. We've had so many memories and opportunities during the McDrai arc but so little has come from it. The other sad thing is that McD has rarely been able to play in Olympics, or International tournaments either. Both him and McDrai had that strange tournament with NA, Europe, U24 teams etc. All prior generations of players had so many tournaments to etch their names on history that this group have not.

When both retire they will have been not able to recollect famous international memories like Coffey to Gretzky to Lemieux because they never even got the chance.

 

[Soundwave]

I'm well aware of your thoughts on how shitty management is. You repeat it ad nauseum.


If you think those 2 games represent how the team will finish the year I don't know what to say.

Or there's just a high probability that the D and goaltending indeed do suck (just like some people here needed to wait years/months before they accepted Lucic was done, Chiarelli sucked as a manager, Koskinen was in fact not actually a no.1 goalie, etc. etc.).

Will they have better stretches? Sure, because frankly you'd have to be an AHL team trying to suck to be worse than these two games.

But these games also count and mean something as much as any other 2 games in the regular season.

The fact that this team is this unprepared and looks this bad defensively does say something about this team.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Dude it's been 2 games. I get it wasn't the start we all wanted but do you honestly believe that we've seen the best they have to offer and the next 80 games will be the same?

Like, you can already see the "season is f***ed" mentality creeping into posts and its really laughable. Absolutely textbook kneejerking here. Everyone is acutely aware, and is repeatedly reminded in almost every thread every day that the team has some holes. But once again, that shit isn't going to happen in the first couple months of the season, let alone the first week. Like, people need to just step back and breathe because it's going to be fine.

We literally do this every single year.

Nobody thinks we've seen the teams best. But most are spotting the teams limitations. This far in thats troubling. I mean this far into the McDrai timeframe here. Therein lies the rub. Views on this team and org have to be put into context of how much this org squanders anything, including the last decade, McDrai.

For most fans here its been longstanding cynicism with this org. Thats the context, and its arguably not "kneejerking"

 

[BlackDogg]

This is Leon's 10th season here, lol.

McDavid's 9th.

Anyone who is sitting there blowing smoke about how this D or goaltending is acceptable given the above two facts can go sit in a corner and sniff their own farts.

Geez I was way off. This is ridiculous

 

[McTonyBrar]

Stauffer’s spin will be that the Oilers were 25th (or whatever it was) in the league before Holland came in and last year they finished 7th. What he will conveniently forget is Drai went from an 80 point player to scoring 120 and McDavid went from scoring 100 to 150. He will also omit a historic best powerplay driven by zero players brought in by Holland (okay Hymen is in there, but this PP still lead the league when JP was rotating in- so anyone can fill that spot)



They don’t have 97 or 29 on their team. The 2 best players in 30 years on the same team. No one is picking Buffalo to win the cup

They have two #1-2 Dmen on their team do they not? Their top 9 is strong as well

Reading this thread is like standing in an echo chamber. If you missed something on page 1, it's on every page again after that.

Jesus f***ing christ. Fandom in mid season form already.

This place is becoming unbearable right now. I would take a break from here for a bit lol

 

[Soundwave]

They have two #1-2 Dmen on their team do they not? Their top 9 is strong as well


This place is becoming unbearable right now. I would take a break from here for a bit lol

They have

Two no.2 defencemen (Ekholm and Nurse, Ekholm being the better defenceman of the two).

And then they have like 5 bottom pairing guys

Bouchard
Ceci
Kulak

Are bottom pair guys. Bouchard puts up points on the PP, but that doesn't make you a top 4 D, his defensive game is a large liability, he should be a sheltered 5/6 guy at this point.

Broberg
Desharnais

Are honestly no.6 guys at best, probably no.7/8 on a good defense.

I think it's hard to argue that unless you are a massive homer.

 

[GOilers88]

They have two #1-2 Dmen on their team do they not? Their top 9 is strong as well


This place is becoming unbearable right now. I would take a break from here for a bit lol

Either that or I should maybe just consider using the ignore function. Been fighting it for years lol.

 

[Soundwave]

The concept of the Oilers "having two no.1 D" is laughable. They don't have a single no.1 D.

Ekholm and Nurse are no.2 D.

You don't have a D this bad (and I'm not just talking about these first two games, this goes back years now) if you have two actual no.1 D.

If we had two no.1 D there would've been a Cup banner being raised at Rogers last night.

 

[WaitingForUser]

Or there's just a high probability that the D and goaltending indeed do suck (just like some people here needed to wait years/months before they accepted Lucic was done, Chiarelli sucked as a manager, Koskinen was in fact not actually a no.1 goalie, etc. etc.).

Will they have better stretches? Sure, because frankly you'd have to be an AHL team trying to suck to be worse than these two games.

But these games also count and mean something as much as any other 2 games in the regular season.

The fact that this team is this unprepared and looks this bad defensively does say something about this team.

The players were fine last night aside from the goalie. You can blame the players if you want but 1 goal every 4 shots is deplorable in any league but especially in the NHL. Time to find a goalie no more waiting Leon is gone in 2 years if we miss the playoffs this year and with this goaltending it’s not if it’s when.

 

[GOilers88]

Nobody thinks we've seen the teams best. But most are spotting the teams limitations. This far in thats troubling. I mean this far into the McDrai timeframe here. Therein lies the rub. Views on this team and org have to be put into context of how much this org squanders anything, including the last decade, McDrai.

For most fans here its been longstanding cynicism with this org. Thats the context, and its arguably not "kneejerking"

I do appreciate the leveled response. I feel like we were all well aware that the defense and goaltending needs to be better this year. Where I'm losing it now is that some seem to be decided for certain already that the team won't hit a groove and settle into their new system. Is it really fair or reasonable to think that after 2 games it's clearly not capable of happening? Is it also fair and reasonable to think after 2 games that what we've seen from our goalies is all we're going to get?

I certainly don't. But maybe that's just a me thing then.

 

[WaitingForUser]

I do appreciate the leveled response. I feel like we were all well aware that the defense and goaltending needs to be better this year. Where I'm losing it now is that some seem to be decided for certain already that the team won't hit a groove and settle into their new system. Is it really fair or reasonable to think that after 2 games it's clearly not capable of happening? Is it also fair and reasonable to think after 2 games that what we've seen from our goalies is all we're going to get?

I certainly don't. But maybe that's just a me thing then.

The reality is though we have run out of time. If our goalies don’t put up or shut up and we miss the dance Leon walks next summer and Connor the following year. Times up get a godamned goalie that can stop more than 1 of every 4 shots.

 

[Heavy Dee]

That's the line of thinking that Ekains loved. Just because you do a good job limiting the low danger chances doesn't mean that your goalie should be expected to save more of the 5 bell chances. Expecally when you give up a s**t ton of them.

It's far better to give up 35 shots with only 2 to 3 high grade chances vs. 16 shots, where about half of them are high danger.

So how many high danger chances did Skinner save? I can't think of one.

 

[Soundwave]

The players were fine last night aside from the goalie. You can blame the players if you want but 1 goal every 4 shots is deplorable in any league but especially in the NHL. Time to find a goalie no more waiting Leon is gone in 2 years if we miss the playoffs this year and with this goaltending it’s not if it’s when.

Aside from giving the Canucks 3 free goals (letting a Canuck player stand right in front of the goalie with your thumb up your ass instead of tying up their stick is not a great strategy) and then a free 2-on-0.

How many "free" goals did the Oilers get last night? They had to pepper the shit out of DeSmith to get the first one, which is all they got 5 on 5 all night and then two PP goals, so basically we got nothing for free.

We are ALWAYS generous with the other team letting them have easy bullshit ... do they ever return the favor for us?

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Maybe it’ll take the 2 road games to get to .500.

To do that they need to dramatically improve the PK, stop with the giant boneheaded mistakes that cost goals, dial the work rate and will up for the entire game and not just in the first and last 5 minutes of each game, and get some goaltending.

They have shown themselves capable however from Woody on down the team put it on cruise control entering the season after reading all those press clippings about how great they are.

Unfortunately for us everyone but the Sharks improved their team this summer and our PP will have been studied to death by our opponents so we can’t rely on it to win games.

 

[logan5]

Sorry delete. I thought this was the main boards thread. My bad.

 

[WaitingForUser]

Aside from giving the Canucks 3 free goals (letting a Canuck player stand right in front of the goalie with your thumb up your ass instead of tying up their stick is not a great strategy) and then a free 2-on-0.

How many "free" goals did the Oilers get last night? They had to pepper the shit out of DeSmith to get the first one, which is all they got 5 on 5 all night and then two PP goals, so basically we got nothing for free.

We are ALWAYS generous with the other team letting them have easy bullshit ... do they ever return the favor for us?

We allowed 16 total shots that should be an easy night for an NHL goalie but it looks like ours is anything but

 

[Soundwave]

Maybe it’ll take the 2 road games to get to .500.

To do that they need to dramatically improve the PK, stop with the giant boneheaded mistakes that cost goals, dial the work rate and will up for the entire game and not just in the first and last 5 minutes of each game, and get some goaltending.

They have shown themselves capable however from Woody on down the team put it on cruise control entering the season after reading all those press clippings about how great they are.

Unfortunately for us everyone but the Sharks improved their team this summer and our PP will have been studied to death by our opponents so we can’t rely on it to win games.

This isn't even really "cruise control" ... this is a continuation of bad signs from last year's playoffs.

Inability to finish 5 on 5? Check.

Almost all the offence coming from the PP? Check.

Dog shit defense especially in front of the goalie? Check.

Letting the other team score on you just as you've scored to get some momentum? Check.

Kane, RNH, Hyman providing dick all supplemental offense 5 on 5? Check.

Goalies that can't ever make a big save? Check.

This isn't like some new thing here, this stuff was exactly the reason why Las Vegas got to have a Stanley Cup parade. All of the above was massively noticable in the playoffs last year, they just seem to be continuing it into this season.

 

[OilersFan109]

Two games in. Second game oilers dominated. No need to panic!!

 

[BoldNewLettuce]

I know they told everyone that starts are important but I think they were lying.

 

[Soundwave]

The only good thing I can say is it's good that these same issues are becoming more and more blatantly obvious that the ownership/management of this team has no where to hide to cover it up or keep playing the "wait and see!" card for much longer.

If our D and goaltending is going to let us down again, then it's simply better they embarrass themselves with it now rather than finding out in like round 1 of the playoffs that they were a fraud carried there by McDavid and Draisaitl scoring a shit ton of points.

If it ain't good enough, then it's for the best that teams are hanging 4/5/6 and yes even 8 goals a game against us to embarrass this organization into having to finally do something about these areas that have been below par for years (decades?).

#Oilerpositives

 

[iCanada]

I do appreciate the leveled response. I feel like we were all well aware that the defense and goaltending needs to be better this year. Where I'm losing it now is that some seem to be decided for certain already that the team won't hit a groove and settle into their new system. Is it really fair or reasonable to think that after 2 games it's clearly not capable of happening? Is it also fair and reasonable to think after 2 games that what we've seen from our goalies is all we're going to get?

I certainly don't. But maybe that's just a me thing then.

I'm sure they'll improve and play better.

But can you honestly tell me, game 7 it, you're comfortable with either Skinner or Campbell in net for a single game elimination do or die?

Because I think I'd go with a shooter tutor or the eBUG to be honest. In fact, historical eBUG Dave percentage is currently around 13% higher than Campbell and Skinner have been this year.

 

[GOilers88]

The reality is though we have run out of time. If our goalies don’t put up or shut up and we miss the dance Leon walks next summer and Connor the following year. Times up get a godamned goalie that can stop more than 1 of every 4 shots.

I'd bet my house they aren't missing the playoffs.

I don't know why we do this every year. It's the same thing over and over.

I'm sure they'll improve and play better.

But can you honestly tell me, game 7 it, you're comfortable with either Skinner or Campbell in net for a single game elimination do or die?

Because I think I'd go with a shooter tutor or the eBUG to be honest. In fact, historical eBUG Dave percentage is currently around 13% higher than Campbell and Skinner have been this year.

Yes, I do think Skinner will improve on last year. 2 games doesn't mean squat. This is a discussion that seems far more reasonable a couple of months into the season, not during the first week.

 

[Soundwave]

I'd bet my house they aren't missing the playoffs.

I don't know why we do this every year. It's the same thing over and over.

You'd probably have made the same bet in 17-18 too and ended up homeless.

No one is entitled to a playoff berth. You earn it and every team can possibly miss if certain things go sideways.