Post-Game Talk: Microcosm

[Oilslick941611]

OH NOES we lost 2 games in a row, seasons over, fold the team, fire everyone.

 

[harpoon]

Yup. Media wouldn’t have let the breadcrumbs about the leadership wanting to add and “not take away” and it’s been rumoured Ceci is close with them now. There’s also Brown, Campbell, Hyman (thank goodness) etc that were said to be “requested” in some way or another by the core.

If this is true (and the Tyson Barrie trade makes me think it is mostly idle speculation) then the leadership group will have to shoulder their share of the blame when they come up short again.

I know a lot of fans are saying “old and slow” but who? Perry and Henrique are slower, who else was added that is slow? Carrick and Stecher are fine skaters, no? The lack of speed lately looks a lot more influenced by disinterested and entitled play than actual skating ability.

A lot of fans are saying that? On this board there is one poster who is certainly going hard on that narrative, but his agenda driven posts are barely even worth reading anymore. I don’t see a lot of other posters calling age and speed into question, but maybe you are talking about outside media and I tend not to read a lot of that other than the stuff that gets posted here.

I don’t think the Oilers are too slow. A player like Kane who seems to be slow af most nights is still able to skate quickly when he feels like it. I think you nailed it when you say there is a level of disinterest there that seems to be affecting his game. It’s a shame and we can only hope that he dials it up soon because when on his game there is no other Oiler who can provide what he does. Some of the primadraisaitls on the team may think they don’t need Kane but that would be a mistake.

No idea why the poster referenced above is calling the Perry signing into question. Yes he’s slow, but wtf were people expecting? He’s played all around the lineup and scored six goals in the 25 games so far averaging just over 12:00. I’m quite satisfied with that. I had hoped he would be a bit more physical but a veteran like that knows what he’s doing and I expect him to be a much more aggressive player come playoffs. He knows this could be his last season.

Henrique I won’t say much about because I’m not a fan of this signing … but I also know very little about the player. Im trying to watch carefully and learn how he plays. I would concede on limited viewings that he seems slowish.

Ryan? For sure. He’s not super slow imo but he’s just so weak that it will be a big failure if he plays anything other than injury duty in the playoffs.

But the Oilers have plenty of speed if they use it right. McLeod and Foegele are both very quick. Nurse and Kulak are above average skaters. Even Bouchard has shown some surprising speed this season in my view. The problem is that many of those players are not the most uh, cerebral players on the team. So their speed is wasted to a degree. Even the fastest guy on the team sometimes misuses his speed trying to cut through four guys. I hope some of the recent line tinkering we have seen is the coach trying to find some balance between speed and brains. Ironically, I might say that the Oilers issues are more with the latter than the former, compounded of course by the entitlement, disinterest and inconsistent effort that you mention.

 

[The Panther]

Darnell needs to come off the PK. He's a liability there. Far, far too dumb to read who to cover and always leaves the shooter at the top of the circle room to fire.

Unfortunately, this is correct. Nurse is simply the team's biggest liability. I don't even care about his contract as I really don't care how much money players make, but Nurse is always trusted with big minutes and big responsibility, and he continually can't handle it. Yes, he has stretches where he plays quite well and he occasionally is a big factor in a win. But such nights are outnumbered by his total lack of mental awareness defensively, and his poor decision-making leading to goals against.

What the hell was he thinking on the winning goal?? The Oilers had already been burned twice by a cross-seam pass to a wide-open shooter left of Pickard... So, Nurse sees TWO Oilers forwards go to the puck carrier right of Pickard, and he immediately rushes over to make THREE Oilers on one man. Gee, I wonder who could be open??? Could it be... the a wide-open shooter left of Pickard???

Unfortunately, the Oilers are never going to be more than a mediocre defensive team (i.e., not good enough to win it all) as long as Nurse is in on the main PK unit, and I'm not sure they're going to be able to win anything with Nurse in the top 4.

Mattias Ekholm's importance to the team right now cannot be overstated. Once he is in the box and Nurse is on the PK, we're in trouble. God help us all as Oiler-fans if Ekholm breaks his leg or something before the playoffs...

As you can read, I'm a little frustrated with this game. I wonder what the Oilers' record is for biggest margin of shot-advantages in a three-period loss in franchise history. This must be up there...

(And yes, Pickard was awful, but I don't pick on the goalies unless they're consistently bad, which he certainly isn't.)

 

[GMofOilers]

The Condors have won six of their last eight games, with Jack Campbell (4-1-0, 0.81, .975) and Olivier Rodrigue (2-1-0, 1.96, .932) combining for a .959 save percentage in that time.

Campbell hurt though

 

[Coffey]

Thankfully it will be a short post-season which means I have more days opened up to do other things.

 

[McDrai]

What our playoff lineup should look like:

RNH-McDavid-Hyman
McLeod-Draisaitl-Foegele
Kane-Henrique-Holloway
Janmark-Carrick-Perry
Brown

Ekholm-Bouchard
Nurse-Stecher
Kulak-Desharnais

Skinner
Campbell

Pick your poison with Ceci and Desharnais on the bottom pairing. I went with Desharnais since Ceci has been our worst defender for the whole year. If I were the Oilers I would consider bringing Broberg up and having him play on the bottom pairing for a few games. I don’t see how he would be any worse than Ceci at the very least.

 

[CookiesAndMilk]

It’s not just the GM. It’s the players too.

They’re too nice on the ice. I was hoping Perry would show them how to take liberties and draw calls, but so far it hasn’t worked.

Like sometimes you just need to flop. Refs are more likely to call a penalty if you embellish. Don’t invent stuff out of nowhere like Stutzle does but if you feel a hold or a slash you need to show it.

Nah man, never ever flop. If you wanna go this way then just punch someone in the mouth or something. Flopping and embellishing is Soccer style and they can keep it.

...or even better. Just play a fair and hard game.

 

[MessierII]

Some interesting splits regarding our specials teams

At home our pp is the best in the league and our PK is the 4th best. Absolutely elite special teams on home ice.

On the road our pp drops to 14th and our pk drops all the way to 28th. Significant drop off for both but especially that pk. My god.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

I don’t think the skies falling by any means but I have been concerned about the inability to start on time lately. That being said we got a bit goalied last night on one end and in our end Pickard showed why he’s a career 3rd stringer. PK was brutal and it’s time for Ceci to sit a game.

 

[McShogun99]

Is it just me or has this site become really slow the last 2 days?

 

[brentashton]

Actually it can be both ways... it's called professional sports and the Oilers are losing at it. Every Canadian team is a perennial loser when it comes to championships.

The Bettman teams are winning the championships every single year. If they didn't, those markets would dry up and the revenue sharing model would crash.

If you watch the NHL you are by default a hypocrite. If you demand some sort of equality of ethics you'd tune out because you won't find it in the NHL.

NHL = National Hypocrite League

Dude, you’re calling me a hypocrite because I watch sports?

I wasn’t the poster that said they hate how Vegas manages their roster then said the Oilers should be more like them. That’s what I was commenting on. If you hate something so bad that you wished you had it, you really don’t hate it that much.

Too funny. You are so misinformed.

 

[CupofOil]

Unfortunately, this is correct. Nurse is simply the team's biggest liability. I don't even care about his contract as I really don't care how much money players make, but Nurse is always trusted with big minutes and big responsibility, and he continually can't handle it. Yes, he has stretches where he plays quite well and he occasionally is a big factor in a win. But such nights are outnumbered by his total lack of mental awareness defensively, and his poor decision-making leading to goals against.

What the hell was he thinking on the winning goal?? The Oilers had already been burned twice by a cross-seam pass to a wide-open shooter left of Pickard... So, Nurse sees TWO Oilers forwards go to the puck carrier right of Pickard, and he immediately rushes over to make THREE Oilers on one man. Gee, I wonder who could be open??? Could it be... the a wide-open shooter left of Pickard???

Unfortunately, the Oilers are never going to be more than a mediocre defensive team (i.e., not good enough to win it all) as long as Nurse is in on the main PK unit, and I'm not sure they're going to be able to win anything with Nurse in the top 4.

Mattias Ekholm's importance to the team right now cannot be overstated. Once he is in the box and Nurse is on the PK, we're in trouble. God help us all as Oiler-fans if Ekholm breaks his leg or something before the playoffs...

As you can read, I'm a little frustrated with this game. I wonder what the Oilers' record is for biggest margin of shot-advantages in a three-period loss in franchise history. This must be up there...

(And yes, Pickard was awful, but I don't pick on the goalies unless they're consistently bad, which he certainly isn't.)

It doesn't get much mention because of the focus on Ceci, depth scoring and goaltending but Nurse has, sort of lowkey, been the Oilers biggest liability the last few playoffs (the Avs and Knights playoff series in particular) and has been awful since the All Star break for the most part.

He's always had his flaws in the past but it seems like they've been really exposed in key moments in recent years, almost as if he's regressed as a player. His D partner always gets the blame but it seems like Nurse makes the same mistakes over and over again no matter who is D partner is.
Same on the PK, poor positioning and the inability to clear pucks consistently put the team in trouble more often than not.

There's nothing that can be done about it because his contract is what it is but he might be the biggest issue on this team when the chips are down especially considering how important his role has been and the contract he's carrying inhibiting the team from improving in other areas.
He, moreso than anybody, needs a big playoff run to prove the doubters wrong.
He and Skinner but especially Nurse because he's a longtime vet by now and should be better you'd think.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

It was labelled “maintenance”

Attitude/gaf meter maintenance.

 

[Kerberos]

Nah man, never ever flop. If you wanna go this way then just punch someone in the mouth or something. Flopping and embellishing is Soccer style and they can keep it.

...or even better. Just play a fair and hard game.

Hockey has been just as bad, if not worse than soccer for a long time now with the diving theatrics.

MacKinnon and Pettersson embellish just as much as the worst offenders in soccer.

 

[K1984]

What the hell was he thinking on the winning goal?? The Oilers had already been burned twice by a cross-seam pass to a wide-open shooter left of Pickard... So, Nurse sees TWO Oilers forwards go to the puck carrier right of Pickard, and he immediately rushes over to make THREE Oilers on one man. Gee, I wonder who could be open??? Could it be... the a wide-open shooter left of Pickard???

As soon as I could see what was happening (Darnell putting himself in no man's land and starting to go into the crutch lay down formation) I yelled "DARNELL GET OVER!" at the TV. Don't think I got the last syllable out before the puck was in the back of the net.

He's probably sadly too dumb to play any form of effective zone defence, which includes the PK. He has no instinct of where to be whatsoever, and he gets his wires crossed when he has to defend anything more complex than "cover that guy." The swimming on the ice and laughably attempting to cut off a pass by laying his stick on the ice is a panic crutch move. It's when he realizes he had f***ed himself with bad positioning, so at least looking like he's doing something is better than nothing at all.

We all talk about how this org is "too nice" to players like Ceci who should have been scratched months ago, but aren't because of age, longevity, salary, basically anything other than on ice results. Nurse isn't near the point of even thinking about a scratch, but time to get him out of situations that he's just bad at. The idea of using him as the first option in a defensive situation has to stop. Nurse is a skating, offensive defensemen with an extremely inconsistent defensive game, and he needs to start being treated like it. That means he is no longer on the PK unit, no longer plays lead if we're defending against an empty net, is no longer a first option in d zone draws, etc, etc, etc. Enough with the fantasy that this player can play two way defence - he can't. Get him a stable defensive partner so he can run around and push the puck up ice with his feet and actually play to his strengths for once.

If we actually manage his situations in the playoffs he could 100% be a key player for us. If we continue to pretend that he's a #1 and play him close to 30 mins per night in all situations we will lose again, and it will probably be off one of his infamous f*** ups.

 

[Duke74]

Maybe the only saving grace is Drai had another gear vs the AVALANCHE. It shows he can flip the switch, but yes he has been god awful this year

God awful and still on pace for over 40 goals and 100 points lol. I suspect an underlying injury or something. He’s too stubborn to sit out.

 

[guymez]

Unfortunately, this is correct. Nurse is simply the team's biggest liability. I don't even care about his contract as I really don't care how much money players make, but Nurse is always trusted with big minutes and big responsibility, and he continually can't handle it. Yes, he has stretches where he plays quite well and he occasionally is a big factor in a win. But such nights are outnumbered by his total lack of mental awareness defensively, and his poor decision-making leading to goals against.

What the hell was he thinking on the winning goal?? The Oilers had already been burned twice by a cross-seam pass to a wide-open shooter left of Pickard... So, Nurse sees TWO Oilers forwards go to the puck carrier right of Pickard, and he immediately rushes over to make THREE Oilers on one man. Gee, I wonder who could be open??? Could it be... the a wide-open shooter left of Pickard???

Unfortunately, the Oilers are never going to be more than a mediocre defensive team (i.e., not good enough to win it all) as long as Nurse is in on the main PK unit, and I'm not sure they're going to be able to win anything with Nurse in the top 4.

Mattias Ekholm's importance to the team right now cannot be overstated. Once he is in the box and Nurse is on the PK, we're in trouble. God help us all as Oiler-fans if Ekholm breaks his leg or something before the playoffs...

As you can read, I'm a little frustrated with this game. I wonder what the Oilers' record is for biggest margin of shot-advantages in a three-period loss in franchise history. This must be up there...

(And yes, Pickard was awful, but I don't pick on the goalies unless they're consistently bad, which he certainly isn't.)

This was October/November Nurse all over again.
His decision making is just so inconsisent. I have no confidence in him at all to make the right reads in a crucial moment. Unfortunately he is virtually untradable because of $9.25M contract but if you could get a legit reliable top 4 dman in a trade (and eat some salary) I would do that in a second.
I think that way simply because even though Nurse has all the tools to be a great dman he clearly has a 10 cent head. He has confrimed that over and over again and its a problem.
You just cant have a dman making what Nurse makes and not be able to trust him to consistently make the right reads. Ekholm is a great example...makes the right read +90% of the time and can carry a D partner if necessary..
Totally reliable in the D zone in every situation.

Thats what Nurse should be able to do but he clearly cant.
Even though I dont like Cody Ceci in a top 4 role its not his fault that Nurse is a dummy all too often.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Yup. Media wouldn’t have let the breadcrumbs about the leadership wanting to add and “not take away” and it’s been rumoured Ceci is close with them now. There’s also Brown, Campbell, Hyman (thank goodness) etc that were said to be “requested” in some way or another by the core.

I know a lot of fans are saying “old and slow” but who? Perry and Henrique are slower, who else was added that is slow? Carrick and Stecher are fine skaters, no? The lack of speed lately looks a lot more influenced by disinterested and entitled play than actual skating ability.

Ryan, Janmark, Kane all slower now. I think even Drai is. Perry definitely slow. I wouldn't even categorize Henrique as slow but he's lost a step. People think Brown has speed but short bursts only and not necessarily skating miles. The team gets beat to pucks by faster clubs. This is one of the oldest teams in league now, indisputable and even with parking Gagner. We parked a pace player in Holloway so that we can get immediate dividends in Perry. But good orgs don't do this. They don't continuously park their top prospect. They fit that guy in and grow him into the lineup.

There isn't really a plan or thought with this roster lineup we're dressing. As I stated earlier its Holland constantly painting himself in cap corner and then desperate to retain league minimum deals and get buyback contract deals because he has to, its all he's got. Further, Kane and Perry are both here because they were identified problems elsewhere. That can work for awhile as a stop gap until you find other players but the risk of keeping a Kane around for a long while is it impacts stuff in the room. Kane decides when he's going to bring it and play focused. That has to be infuriating to the stars here that expect more than that.

Team decision to play Desharnais instead of Stecher also means we're slower.

 

[Drivesaitl]

It was labelled “maintenance”

I think for windowdressing because its Kane and everybody knows how poorly he takes things. Can't be any accident that both Connor and Leon have gone at him on the bench in the last month. They spot a checked out player when they see one. Not scoring for 18 games in a row? Park his ass. This is the same player that complained twice about minutes despite not earning them.

I remember when Kane scored a hat trick I wasn't really thrilled about it, because he was just demonstrating the sort of play he can bring when he's engaged. But we're into the checked out phase of Evander Kane for now. He never stays solid on any team he's on. He was a good rental. You don't want this guy in your lineup for multiple seasons. Invariably it goes sideways and he becomes a passenger.

The Leafs gameplan was to go hard at McDrai. Even try to fight them. Kane watched as all that bs went on. Perhaps he's asshurt and not gonna help anybody but himself now. Except he's not even helping himself.

Kane might resurrect for playoffs, but he should be gone anyway.

 

[OilersaretheMcBest]

Is it just me or has this site become really slow the last 2 days?

Took a while to load this page today for me too

 

[bucks_oil]

Some interesting splits regarding our specials teams

At home our pp is the best in the league and our PK is the 4th best. Absolutely elite special teams on home ice.

On the road our pp drops to 14th and our pk drops all the way to 28th. Significant drop off for both but especially that pk. My god.

Wow... that is a wild swing. And you can't even blame it on road match ups with special teams you are icing your best to start with anyway.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Is it just me or has this site become really slow the last 2 days?

During the game it was unusable. Right now it’s barely passable.

 

[Drivesaitl]

• Everyone CALM DOWN and stop being so bi polar. We did not play that bad. Chill
• Hate to blame refs, but how does Mcdavid get mauled all game? VD touches someone and gets a penalty?
• Picard had a rough rough game, but he’s been great. Give him this one.
• How does Stetcher not play ahead of Ceci? It puts Kulak, VD together which is good.
• Drai has been bad, I hope and believe he turns it on

Drai is doing what he's supposed to and also importantly scoring goals. Perhaps the several players on this lineup that aren't cashing anything are more the reason we're not seperating in games like this. Drai is around his usual figures and really to be on pace for a 46 goal pace and be described as bad is a bit rich. How about Nuge not scoring half the goals he had last year or only having 60% of the pts he had last year. How about McDavid himself not scoring even HALF of the goals he scored last year.

But Drai is bad, always listed, can't be anybody else letting the team down. We lost this game because we didn't cash despite being in total control of the game. The only players that Scored were DRai, Hyman, Henrique, they get a pass.

Bottom line for forwards in NHl, for topsix is scoring. Its lighting the lamp. Thats the number one objective. If you're not getting that you're not doing all you can to help the club.

I'll mention as well that Drai contractually is contributing as much to this team as anybody. The same sort of posters that complained about the Drai "obscene overpay contract" years ago are still complaining about him now. We're seeing Drai at about a 4-5M discount. But still blaming him.

 

[bucks_oil]

I think for windowdressing because its Kane and everybody knows how poorly he takes things. Can't be any accident that both Connor and Leon have gone at him on the bench in the last month. They spot a checked out player when they see one. Not scoring for 18 games in a row? Park his ass. This is the same player that complained twice about minutes despite not earning them.

I remember when Kane scored a hat trick I wasn't really thrilled about it, because he was just demonstrating the sort of play he can bring when he's engaged. But we're into the checked out phase of Evander Kane for now. He never stays solid on any team he's on. He was a good rental. You don't want this guy in your lineup for multiple seasons. Invariably it goes sideways and he becomes a passenger.

The Leafs gameplan was to go hard at McDrai. Even try to fight them. Kane watched as all that bs went on. Perhaps he's asshurt and not gonna help anybody but himself now. Except he's not even helping himself.

Kane might resurrect for playoffs, but he should be gone anyway.

How much of this is speculation though? Even on healthy functioning teams, guys have a go at each other on the bench. It doesn't mean there is a rift. People are competitive, people don't like to lose... words get shouted in frustration, that's passion. That's sport.

I don't want Kane to be happy playing on the third line. I want him playing mad.

I'm just saying don't be too quick to jump to conclusions. Unless you have more color to provide, we don't really know if there is any fire behind that occasional smoke. Not saying you are wrong... just that I hope you are.

 

[K1984]

I think for windowdressing because its Kane and everybody knows how poorly he takes things. Can't be any accident that both Connor and Leon have gone at him on the bench in the last month. They spot a checked out player when they see one. Not scoring for 18 games in a row? Park his ass. This is the same player that complained twice about minutes despite not earning them.

I remember when Kane scored a hat trick I wasn't really thrilled about it, because he was just demonstrating the sort of play he can bring when he's engaged. But we're into the checked out phase of Evander Kane for now. He never stays solid on any team he's on. He was a good rental. You don't want this guy in your lineup for multiple seasons. Invariably it goes sideways and he becomes a passenger.

The Leafs gameplan was to go hard at McDrai. Even try to fight them. Kane watched as all that bs went on. Perhaps he's asshurt and not gonna help anybody but himself now. Except he's not even helping himself.

Kane might resurrect for playoffs, but he should be gone anyway.

I really wish we could know with certainty what is going on with him. After his initial ~5 game slump to star the year you could argue he was one of our best 2 or 3 players for the next 10-15 games while piling up a lot of goals. He was outstanding for about a 2-3 week stretch from the Heritage Classic onwards. Then it seems like one day, randomly, the tap turned off and never came back.

There were reports of injury at the time, but unless it's an injury that truly has lagged this long (or he has been injured again subsequently) there really are no excuses. One of two things is true:

A - he has run into a bunch of injuries from about November on that have basically rendered him completely ineffective. If this is the case then that's just bad luck, but concurrently infuriating that the organization wouldn't look at using this as a LTIR play (although it takes two to tango for this, and maybe Evander isn't dancing).

B - he's playing like a f***ing loser and we need to think about what the future looks like for him

His performance in the playoffs is critical for me as far as his future is concerned. If he steps up and makes an impact then I can live with uneven play through 82 if it means we know we can rely on him when it matters. If he doesn't step up, then probably time to look to move him.