Post-Game Talk: Like Manti Te'o's girlfriend, the Oilers disappear. Lose 4-3

[T-Funk]

We have no toughness and Hordichuk is no Chris Neil or Zach Kassian. We need big guys who can play and wear out other teams. You can't generate a cycle when your small and soft. This same problem has been going on for years and management just doesn't want to address it. It's not a coincidence that we lose to this team all the time. We have enough skill and anybody can draft first overall. Now it's on management to provide complementary players with size. This loss is on management not the players.

Agree with your post, except that loss was complete lack of effort and motivation to play a team they said they'd have no problem being motivated for. Size had no real part in that game.

 

[Replacement*]

I thought Hemsky played pretty well in the first two games. Since then, not so much. I do think the play dies on his stick more than any other player because he is forced to be the main puck carrier on that line. Yakupov hasn't really had any success leading the rush in his first four games. I remember a play last night where Yakupov came down the right side with the puck on a rush, stopped up just inside the blue line, then threw the puck into a bunch of Flames in the middle of the ice.

At the end of the day, our entire team has scored two goals 5 on 5 this season, yet Hemsky is taking the vast majority of the blame on HFOil. It's scapegoating, and it's annoying to read. No one wants to criticize the younger players.

Hemsky did play well in the first couple games and was instrumental in us getting any result against the Nucks. This board happens to be more about what did you do for me the last couple games.

I disagree with your notion of Hemmer having to be the main puck carrier and Gagner has done a lot of it. These are guys still learning to play together. lets give them a chance. People shouldn't evaluate too much unitl 10-20 games together.

 

[McDNicks17]

I thought Hemsky played pretty well in the first two games. Since then, not so much. I do think the play dies on his stick more than any other player because he is forced to be the main puck carrier on that line. Yakupov hasn't really had any success leading the rush in his first four games. I remember a play last night where Yakupov came down the right side with the puck on a rush, stopped up just inside the blue line, then threw the puck into a bunch of Flames in the middle of the ice.

At the end of the day, our entire team has scored two goals 5 on 5 this season, yet Hemsky is taking the vast majority of the blame on HFOil. It's scapegoating, and it's annoying to read. No one wants to criticize the younger players.

No one is saying it's all Hemsky's fault for the team's problems so far. It seems like you're trying to rationalize it that way to discredit the "hate".

He's been playing like heartless dog **** aside from a couple rushes. He's been a giveaway machine. He continually plays like there's no one else on the ice with him.

At this point, getting Hemsky away from Gagner(probably our best forward so far) would be addition by subtraction.

 

[oilerfanatic]

Agree with your post, except that loss was complete lack of effort and motivation to play a team they said they'd have no problem being motivated for. Size had no real part in that game.

One can have all the motivation in the world but when you're dealing with bigger and stronger guys physics has a tendency to determine the outcome. We saw it against the Sharks as well.

 

[OilerFan4Life]

Probably already mentioned in the thread but wow has Hall been absolutely terrible.

He tries that same stupid move 1-on-1 in the offensive zone and loses the puck.

 

[OilerTyler]

No one is saying it's all Hemsky's fault for the team's problems so far. It seems like you're trying to rationalize it that way to discredit the "hate".

He's been playing like heartless dog **** aside from a couple rushes. He's been a giveaway machine. He continually plays like there's no one else on the ice with him.

At this point, getting Hemsky away from Gagner(probably our best forward so far) would be addition by subtraction.

Hemsky is facing more criticism than the rest of the top six combined. Every time I check into a GDT or a PGT, the majority of the posts are about how terrible he has been or how he is "heartless dog ****". Why aren't people talking about the other players in the top six in that manner? Hall, Yakupov and Nugent-Hopkins have all been as bad, if not worse, at even strength.

It's ridiculous.

 

[oilerfanatic]

Probably already mentioned in the thread but wow has Hall been absolutely terrible.

He tries that same stupid move 1-on-1 in the offensive zone and loses the puck.

Granted it's only been like 4 games but Hall hasn't looked very good. At this point if I had to trade one of the big 4 it would be Hall. I think he's good captain material because he's passionate, but in the end this is Eberle's team.

 

[CupofOil]

I thought Hemsky played pretty well in the first two games. Since then, not so much. I do think the play dies on his stick more than any other player because he is forced to be the main puck carrier on that line. Yakupov hasn't really had any success leading the rush in his first four games. I remember a play last night where Yakupov came down the right side with the puck on a rush, stopped up just inside the blue line, then threw the puck into a bunch of Flames in the middle of the ice.

At the end of the day, our entire team has scored two goals 5 on 5 this season, yet Hemsky is taking the vast majority of the blame on HFOil. It's scapegoating, and it's annoying to read. No one wants to criticize the younger players.

I just did criticize the younger players, i'm not happy with the top line as is and think that it should be broken up but the fact remains that they are producing more than Hemsky and Hemsky is supposed to be better than that being one of the veterans of the team. Fair or not, veterans should be held accountable moreso than young players because having been through the experiences of the ups and downs and being the "leaders" of the team, they should know better. Hemsky doesn't play on the PK like Horcoff and Smyth so if he's not producing offense, what's his value to the team?

 

[frag2]

I'd drop Hemsky down to the Horcoff line where he isn't killing 2 other offensive players games on the rush, he can carry the mail on that line like he seems to enjoy doing. Then I'd move Harski or Paajarvi to the 2nd line for a few games and see how they do. IMO both would add a bit of a net presence and be complimentary players/puck retrieval guys to add a different element to that line.

This. Though I would swap Nuge with Gagner.

 

[frag2]

And Hemsky shouldn't be put on the third line either. The fact that people are suggesting it is pretty ridiculous. If it were up to me, I would use these lines when Jones is healthy (assuming Eager is out for a while)

Hall - Gagner - Eberle
Yakupov - Nugent-Hopkins - Hemsky
Hartikainen - Horcoff - Jones
Smyth - Belanger - Petrell
Paajarvi

Gagner and Hemsky don't work. They never have. Hemsky and Nugent-Hopkins showed a little promise last year. Gagner has also been better offensively than Nuge thus far and RNH's defensive play couldn't hurt on a line with Yakupov and Hemsky.

Hemsky will nullify Nuge's passing skills because he will insist on carrying the puck himself and trying to do the setups.

 

[T-Funk]

One can have all the motivation in the world but when you're dealing with bigger and stronger guys physics has a tendency to determine the outcome. We saw it against the Sharks as well.

How would you explain the 2nd and 3rd periods then?

 

[frag2]

Granted it's only been like 4 games but Hall hasn't looked very good. At this point if I had to trade one of the big 4 it would be Hall. I think he's good captain material because he's passionate, but in the end this is Eberle's team.

The amazing thing is he's PPG and he's playing horrible

 

[McDNicks17]

Hemsky is facing more criticism than the rest of the top six combined. Every time I check into a GDT or a PGT, the majority of the posts are about how terrible he has been or how he is "heartless dog ****". Why aren't people talking about the other players in the top six in that manner? Hall, Yakupov and Nugent-Hopkins have all been as bad, if not worse, at even strength.

It's ridiculous.

With good reason.

The 1st line is at least playing terribly as a line.

Hemsky is doing his usual rogue line mate act. He's basically the sole reason for the second line's ineffectiveness at even strength.

 

[oilerfanatic]

How would you explain the 2nd and 3rd periods then?

The other team playing more defensively and backing off because they did all the work in the first. The Oilers aren't able to weather the storm from big clubs which is why they're always down early.

 

[Asher]

I just did criticize the younger players, i'm not happy with the top line as is and think that it should be broken up but the fact remains that they are producing more than Hemsky and Hemsky is supposed to be better than that being one of the veterans of the team. Fair or not, veterans should be held accountable moreso than young players because having been through the experiences of the ups and downs and being the "leaders" of the team, they should know better. Hemsky doesn't play on the PK like Horcoff and Smyth so if he's not producing offense, what's his value to the team?

Not to mention he's facing weaker opposition this year than he has since 1st or 2nd year in the league. So far he's done very little with it. And for some reason he's also gone from being a pretty good PP quarterback to looking awkward and confused. I really don't like to crap on anybody this early on, especially considering we had no preseason to hopefully work these kinks out, but so far Hemsky's been a huge disappointment to me.

 

[Philly85*]

Probably already mentioned in the thread but wow has Hall been absolutely terrible.

He tries that same stupid move 1-on-1 in the offensive zone and loses the puck.

I like Taylor Hall. I really do. He's fast, he plays hard, its evident the guy is 1000% a team player. He's got some skill as well. That being said, he consistently makes things difficult on himself, puts himself in bad positions and generally speaking has poor hockey IQ. I don't think it's a stretch to say he is/will be one of the weaker first overall picks from the past few years. It's hit or miss with the kid, sometimes he handles the puck like an absolute grenade and other times he can make things happens, but he sure is frustrating as hell to watch.

Anyways that was a terrible game. 2nd line getting eaten alive. 1st line isn't doing much better for that matter. I think they need to break things up there, also put Yak back on the right if they can and perhaps put Hemsky on the third line. Defensively still tons of room to grow. Plenty of negatives and not much positives to take away from a game like that. Very disappointing.

 

[T-Funk]

The other team playing more defensively and backing off because they did all the work in the first. The Oilers aren't able to weather the storm from big clubs which is why they're always down early.

Obviously they are getting outmatched in the size department, but it's hard to say that's the sole reason for it when they've come out flat every game this year. We need more size on this team, but we should be able to keep up with any team in the league if we put the work in.

 

[OilerTyler]

With good reason.

The 1st line is at least playing terribly as a line.

Hemsky is doing his usual rogue line mate act. He's basically the sole reason for the second line's ineffectiveness at even strength.

Disagree.

Yakupov has been largely ineffective at even strength. He had a nice play on the forecheck last night but he has shown no ability to pass the puck or make any kind of play off of the rush. He is also worse at cycling the puck than Hemsky is.

 

[BadMedicine*]

And Hemsky shouldn't be put on the third line either. The fact that people are suggesting it is pretty ridiculous. If it were up to me, I would use these lines when Jones is healthy (assuming Eager is out for a while)

Hall - Gagner - Eberle
Yakupov - Nugent-Hopkins - Hemsky
Hartikainen - Horcoff - Jones
Smyth - Belanger - Petrell
Paajarvi

Gagner and Hemsky don't work. They never have. Hemsky and Nugent-Hopkins showed a little promise last year. Gagner has also been better offensively than Nuge thus far and RNH's defensive play couldn't hurt on a line with Yakupov and Hemsky.

Are you advocating putting a raw rookie in Hartikainen on a playoff teams 3rd line and expecting sucess.The team is suffering from an immediate lack of 1st line and tertiaery scoring from the 3rd and 4th lines,only the second line is producing consistantly,and this would happen without Hemsky on the 2nd line at all.This is a matter of line composition perspective--statistical based vs Dynamiclly based--we are looking at things from a statistical perspective when we insert Hemmer with Gagner and Yakupov.Hemmer is a one dimensional puck possesion o-zone entry specialist in a line position where we need a big fast defensively focused two dimensional thinker and player.We need support pointswise from that 3rd line and to get that they need Hemmer who can moopolise puck possesion and still score off his rushes when he screws up and shoots the puck by accident.We need our first line to begin to score and to do that we need to stop making them dump and chase the puck as a base system tactic,simple.

The Hartikainen vs MPS battle was illusionary,MPS is NHL ready immediatly in his specific role,and harti has a lot of maturing to do to be able to provide system support in the roles we are asking him to fill.The coaches made a mistake in their evaluations down in OKC,it was MPS anchoring the 2nd line that bolstered hartikainens stock,and we are seeing this clearly now.

Hall-Nuge-Eberle Playing a controlled 3 transition style
MPS-Gagner-Yakupov Playing a controlled 3 transition style
Smyth-Horcoff-Hemsky Playing a fastbreak style

4th line needs to be offensive as well but we dont need to be spreading the minutes around the way we are trying to do so the line composition just needs to be as offensive as we can put together with only offense as our baseline.

 

[Aceboogie]

Lost 4-3 to the flames The effort was horrendous in the second half. If we play liek that against a good team we are gunna get smoked out of the water SJ style. They completely beat themselves.

Justin Schultz
Jordan Eberle
Taylor Hall
Petry I was just giving you praise the LA game and now you make me look like a fool

Hall has been having trouble carrying it in on the rush. Stop the toe drags and shoot the puck. (where have I heard that before)

Jay Bouwmeester and Iginla played amazing. But its the Flames, we should have had this game if we put in a decent effort. If it wasnt for the blown goal from Backlund and Cammys amazing dive we could have won. But hindsight is 20/20, the flames put in a better effort and were a better team.

Give Harti a shot on the first line, he is amazing on the boards and can keep the puck down low and in the zone. Eberle and RNH can rush it in and shoto but its pointless if they clear the puck 7 seconds after. Harti creates additional chances by keeping the puck down low and cycling, thats where eberle can do some serious damage.

TL;DR we needed to put in a better effort if we want to beat the more challenging teams or we are going to be a lotto team again.

Im a believer tho, 9th place, here we come

 

[HallOfGreatness4]

I am STILL pissed about this game.

 

[T-Funk]

Oilers exactly like Manti Te'o's gf: looks great on paper but the reality is a cruel joke.

 

[McDeepika]

Oilers exactly like Manti Te'o's gf: looks great on paper but the reality is a cruel joke.

The 1st line is kind of strange. As duo's the match up perfectly.

RNH and Eberle had success last year playing with guys like Smyth and even Jones I think
Eberle and Hall have had success playing with Gagner and Horcoff
RNH and Hall have had success playing with Hemsky.

For some reason though, they don't seem to work great as a trio unless it's on the PP.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

One can have all the motivation in the world but when you're dealing with bigger and stronger guys physics has a tendency to determine the outcome. We saw it against the Sharks as well.

As a whole, Calgary isn't very big... certainly not as big as the Kings or Sharks.

 

[Suxnet]

RNH and Hall played like ****. My god, how many times did Hall try that stupid toe drag move to no avail?