Post-Game Talk: Not good enough.

[RandomGuy79]

Jackson wouldn’t do it but as an Oilers fan I can’t say it’s impossible.

New GM needs to be aggressive right away. We need to alleviate cap issues before free agency, which means dumping cap at the draft. Kane, Nurse, Ceci, Campbell, get picks back to use as trade ammo, whatever you can get just open up cap space.

The only way Nurse and Campbell are leaving is if we buy them out.

 

[Oilhawks]

They didn't trade any A prospects in their deadline work. Podkolzen who can fill a bottom six role. They've found support players like Dakota Joshua and others. Have an elite goaltender that hasn't played. Strong management that have won Cups and has been locked in their coaching hire and off-season work to build up quality of support players.

They're a developing team, not a great team. This is a leap season and now a playoff where they are learning to win. Finding ways through their adversity to do so. Regress? Maybe. But there's a solid foundation.

Oil have more than had their handsfull with an opponent that everyone was taking lightly. They've done self-damage (again) with sub-average goaltending until Pickard; costly mistakes; but Canuck top players are giving the Oilers top players a handful. Notably top line hasn't been good enough.

They traded a good player (Kuzmenko) with term for a rental in Lindholm (maybe he re-signs, but that's not a given). Podkolzin hasn't done much in his career yet, bottom 6 or otherwise. Not a great way to end up for such a high pick but better than the busts Wright has been drafting I guess. Most of their bottom 6 has regressed after their torrid starts, particularly after their team slipped back the last third of the season. They only kept 1st in the division because no one else wanted it. Their winning % dropped heavily. Demko is an elite goalie but this isn't the first time he's been missing significant time with injury, it could be a pattern. This team has been light on Silovs and the Preds are no offensive dynamos either. They would have Demko back next round but he could both be rusty and not 100%.

Again, there are no guarantees and with their regression in the last third of the season and being outplayed nearly every win they have in the playoffs, I don't really see a great team. I see an Oilers team that is beating themselves yet again. Poor management has exasperated their plight and some of the shine has worn off on KK with poor goalie management (Skinner should have been sat since game 1's giveaway by a coach with balls) and a refusal to sit other underperforming players. I think Tocchet is overrated but he's schooling KK right now. I think DeBoer would chew him up and spit him out, frankly

We both agree in some sense that a good portion is the Oilers losing this series, though likely disagree on how much the Canucks are winning it. They have had lots of quiet players as well including their vaunted face of the franchise in Petterson who has never done much in the playoffs. Their best players have been the ex Flames

 

[Cloned]

Jackson wouldn’t do it but as an Oilers fan I can’t say it’s impossible.

New GM needs to be aggressive right away. We need to alleviate cap issues before free agency, which means dumping cap at the draft. Kane, Nurse, Ceci, Campbell, get picks back to use as trade ammo, whatever you can get just open up cap space.

My guesses:

Campbell gets bought out.

Ceci and Broberg traded for a top 4 upgrade.

Kane is a tough one. Depends on if they get a good offer for him.

 

[McAsuno]

It's ironic how Holland is completely loyal to shit players, while the two finalists in the actual GM search, Zito and McCrimmon, are ruthless and have transformed their teams into cup contenders/winners by trading fan favorites. Zito casts off Huberdeau and Weegar, two overrated playoff underperformers, and immediately takes his team to the cup finals against McCrimmon's team, who has had no loyalty to any player from day 1.

Of course, Edmonton does not have the favorable draw that living in LV or Florida has, so the team has to have some desirability in order to afford the ability of churning through players. Florida and VGK have limitless mercenaries they can sign as they will always be the top desirable markets in the league. Who cares if the team treats you like shit in Florida, you can golf/jet ski/bang Miami bottle girls and no one will ever recognize you in public or heckle you because no one gives a single f*** about hockey in the whole state.

It's a "Do or Die" game in a "Cup or Bust" year and we don't even know who the starting goalie will be on Saturday night, while we have a $5M third string goalie we can't even play. Thanks Ken Holland. 5th year of wasting McDrai. Absolute f***ing shitstain of a GM.

 

[Kerberos]

Oilers in 7.
I expect an easy couple of wins.

The Oilers, doing anything easy? lol

 

[TheNumber4]

I must say, this thread is peak HF oil right now lol. I’m for it. It’s therapeutic to piss and moan for a bit.

But I’m telling ya. This series and playoffs aren’t over. Two Ws is all we need. And McDrai can provide.

 

[Oilhawks]

Not a panic, just a reality! And yes the GM whether it be Holland or whomever will have their work cut out this summer!



Nicholson has turned out to be the single worst hire in Oiler history it turns out.

The mess or Leon leaving? I don't think the latter is a given. The former is, yes. The new GM will have their hands full, agreed.

 

[Lay Z Boy GM]

The only way Nurse and Campbell are leaving is if we buy them out.

Nurse might be tradeable. Campbell needs to be bought out. We need space right away

 

[Drivesaitl]

Took him this long to realize players like Perry, Ceci, Foegele, McLeod, etc have been highly ineffective and players like Carrick, Broberg, Stecher, or Gagner can't move the needle more? Thanks Knob. Took you in a game 6 + potential 7 must win to finally figure it out.

Meanwhile Tocchet knew they had to move out ineffective players for tonight's game and fix a bad PK to take a commending 3-2 series lead for his team.

oh Christ. So the taxi guys are actually healthy and we could've been using them all along? My head hurts thinking about our lack of adjustments.

 

[TheNumber4]

Oilers in 7.
I expect an easy couple of wins.

Yes Oilers in 7. The galvanization of the group needed to win in 7 creates the momentum we need to take out Dallas too.

Believeeeeeeeee

 

[Oilhawks]

It's ironic how Holland is completely loyal to shit players while the two finalists in the actual GM search, Zito and McCrimmon, are ruthless and have transformed their teams into cup contenders/winners by trading fan favorites. Zito casts off Huberdeau and Weegar, two overrated playoff underperformers, and immediately takes his team to the cup finals against McCrimmon's team, who has had no loyalty to any player from day 1.

Of course, Edmonton does not have the favorable draw that living in LV or Florida has, so the team has to have some desirability in order to afford the ability of churning through players. Florida and VGK have limitless mercenaries they can sign as they will always be the top desirable markets in the league. Who cares if the team treats you like shit in Florida, you can golf/jet ski/bang Miami bottle girls by the handful and no one will ever recognize you in public or heckle you because no one gives a single f*** about hockey in the whole state.

100% agree with this. Which is actually part of why I don't think those guys look nearly as good here (or a lot of other markets). They need a guy like Nill who can find some gems in the draft.

Next rebuild, I guess.

 

[Lay Z Boy GM]

I must say, this thread is peak HF oil right now lol. I’m for it. It’s therapeutic to piss and moan for a bit.

But I’m telling ya. This series and playoffs aren’t over. Two Ws is all we need. And McDrai can provide.

Totally

Really if we win, at home btw, it’s anyone’s game after that.

It’s just easy to get mad at our last two GMs looking at this team. They’re contenders but they’ve had obvious holes for years and been mismanaged in so many ways. Just a semi competent gm could have had a cup by now, maybe multiple.

 

[TheNumber4]

Nurse might be tradeable. Campbell needs to be bought out. We need space right away

I’d take any trade for Nurse at this point. Too many years in a row now of seeing him completely blowing it for us when the games are most important.

 

[DaGap]

Important game

 

[McAsuno]

oh Christ. So the taxi guys are actually healthy and we could've been using them all along? My head hurts thinking about our lack of adjustments.

Nah brother, we'll still play Ceci knowing how dog shit he is at playing defense, how he can't move or transition the puck cleanly out of the oilers end, and getting caught leading to odd man rushes of Grade A scoring chances galore or playing the likes of perimeter McLeod, an old ass Perry that has skating that can't keep up to the speed required in the playoffs. Just lack of brains type of coaching meanwhile Tocchet fixed his problems fast yesterday and moved the right players in his lineup to secure a win.

 

[Lay Z Boy GM]

I’d take any trade for Nurse at this point. Too many years in a row now of seeing him completely blowing it for us when the games are most important.

I’d do it for no return. Just don’t take a bad contract back or retain. Some team might want him if they’ve got a ton of cap space.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Not a panic, just a reality! And yes the GM whether it be Holland or whomever will have their work cut out this summer!



Nicholson has turned out to be the single worst hire in Oiler history it turns out.

Just for memory sake you and others were swearing at me for saying Nicholson was going to be the worst when he got here. Was already an obvious hard drinker, had f***ed over quite a few things within his Hockey Canada incumbency. Said at the time he was a grade A glad hander with a phony drunk smile that would spend too much time in the red wine room.

The guy was a buffoon before he got here.

I totally mocked to shreds his pronouncement "we're goign to to do a top to bottom forensic audit." It was all bs I said. Only thing he was going to take inventory of was Liquor supply so that it would be guaranteed even he or gretz or other swillers didn't run out for years. This guy wasn't even looking sober or coherent in press conferences.

 

[Cloned]

More of the same? But every team needs 8-10 Centers on it. And of course we needed more Centers, cause McD and Draisaitl just aren’t good enough top 6 Centers….

/s

Versatility is good.

But they needed different styles of players. Henrique is basically RNH with more net presence but less speed.

And at 34 you can’t expect him to bring energy and hustle.

It wasn’t the type of player we should’ve spent a first on.

 

[Oilhawks]

oh Christ. So the taxi guys are actually healthy and we could've been using them all along? My head hurts thinking about our lack of adjustments.

Woody 2.0

 

[TheNumber4]

Totally

Really if we win, at home btw, it’s anyone’s game after that.

It’s just easy to get mad at our last two GMs looking at this team. They’re contenders but they’ve had obvious holes for years and been mismanaged in so many ways. Just a semi competent gm could have had a cup by now, maybe multiple.

Yeh. Huge home Win supported by the best crowd in hockey. Then it’s a toss up in game 7 where the game breakers will make their mark. And no one has better game breakers than McDrai. We’re on the ropes right now, but that can change in an instant as it has all series.

Yeh Hollands critical mistakes are piling up at this point. There’s good and bad moves he’s made, but ultimately we needed much more wins.

 

[McAsuno]

Just for memory sake you and others were swearing at me for saying Nicholson was going to be the worst when he got here. Was already an obvious hard drinker, had f***ed over quite a few things within his Hockey Canada incumbency. Said at the time he was a grade A glad hander with a phony drunk smile that would spend too much time in the red wine room.

The guy was a buffoon before he got here.

I totally mocked to shreds his pronouncement "we're goign to to do a top to bottom forensic audit." It was all bs I said. Only thing he was going to take inventory of was Liquor supply so that it would be guaranteed even he or gretz or other swillers didn't run out for years. This guy wasn't even looking sober or coherent in press conferences.

Last time I seen his stupid f***ing ass was when he was on the intermission promoting his wife's books. Asshole shouldn't even be allowed anywhere in hockey or this team after his hockey canada hush money fiasco.

 

[TheNumber4]

I’d do it for no return. Just don’t take a bad contract back or retain. Some team might want him if they’ve got a ton of cap space.

It’s hard to see how that move would look like. But I’d literally do it for almost any return at this point. Even a cap dump
In the area of 4Mish wouldn’t be too bad to free up took to find a replacement for Nryse.

 

[McAsuno]

Woody 2.0

At least Woody used his timeout this year against the nucks during the early season collapse. Crickets from Knob this whole series whether its calling timeouts, picking the right players to be in the lineup, moving players to the appropriate lines, or adjusting/being more assertive during the actual games.
Took him so f***ing long to finally put Holloway in a top 6 spot and that Ceci shouldn't be anywhere near a top four (shouldn't be played either)

 

[TheNumber4]

Versatility is good.

But they needed different styles of players. Henrique is basically RNH with more net presence but less speed.

And at 34 you can’t expect him to bring energy and hustle.

It wasn’t the type of player we should’ve spent a first on.

Sure. But specialization addresses needs more directly and impactfully. Why get the guy who’s half decent at center and half decent at wing when you just need a fully good wing. And/or a fully good RD to replace Ceci.

I agree Henrique is very very Nuge like. But like, we didn’t lose in past playoffs cause we didn’t have enough Nuges. You don’t take the load off McDrai by adding complemtary players, you add more drivers. And you address directly the weaknesses this team has. For this year it was at Wing and at RD.

 

[Old Boys Club]

100% agree with this. Which is actually part of why I don't think those guys look nearly as good here (or a lot of other markets). They need a guy like Nill who can find some gems in the draft.

Next rebuild, I guess.

Agreed. Nill is a top 3 GM, he's essentially been able to do two complete re-tools within the last decade. First go around was Seguin, Benn, Klingberg, Bishop, Spezza. Now is Pavelski, Robertson, Hintz, Oettinger, Heiskanen, Johnston, Stankoven. I do think he benefits from the market he's in, as there's very little pressure in Dallas. The Cowboys are perennial chokers and no one gives a f*** about hockey in Texas, which affords him time and patience to effectively re-tool and build through the draft.