Figures it's the plugs who understand hockey better than the superstars.
As a Leaf fan, I'm still somewhat stung by the 80's Oiler teams. The current Oiler's performance have been a curiosity, but it wasn't until this game that really made wonder what is going wrong. And I know wrong... like I said, I've grown up watching the Leafs.
The current edition of the Oilers reminds me of the 80's Leafs. How? Back in the 80's the Leafs were terrible... but really the talent level of the kids they had coming in was pretty good. But they immediately stuck them in the NHL. Iafrate played 10 games for the Belleville Bulls. P.K. Subban played 4 seasons and went on to win the Norris. Gary Leeman, Russ Courtnall, Clark, etc... they all lacked development. And often it's the high scoring players that suffer. They've usually gone their whole career with the puck on their stick. Throw them into the NHL and they're lost. The funny thing with the 'plugs', they've usually made it a career of playing without the puck, but they're more likely going to be developed.
Throwing kids into the NHL, whether they can score or not, is a guaranteed way of having allot of goals-against. And now when you can't 'buy' players, the key is development. I knew the Hamilton Bulldogs was Montreal's farm team. They had patience, took their time with players. How many top Oilers would it take to match
Tomas Plekanec's 77 games in the AHL? Galchenyuk was throw right in. They had to spoon feed his shift and he still ended up a -12 in his first season. So yes you can do it at the NHL level sometimes. And sometimes you have to. But the Oilers, I believe, need to start working on their development big time. It won't hurt to play kids in the minors for a season to learn what will and won't work offensively, learn how to play within a system, and how to start playing against more elite levels of competition.