Oilers after 47 games - 2014/2015 vs. 2015/2016

[McJadeddog]

Just keep looking up at the rumps of all the crap teams above us in the standings is all I can say. Even the few we are ahead of right now have games in hand. Has there been a minor improvement in points and differential and such? sure. Has the team looked vastly superior overall? Not in my books.

The team is a disappointment and if we are basing this year as good improvement I'll see you guys in the playoffs in another 5 years.

The good news is that we've seen a massive jump in the play of Draisiatil which has been a great surprise. Defense in general has been disappointing, goaltending sporadic, pp is horrawful.

The loss of McDavid was a massive blow and with him this team has another 4 or 5 wins imo. Can this team turn the corner and be good reasonably soon? Yes, but only if the GM makes a few team altering moves this off season.

i'm not sure we really know what the true impact of losing mcdavid is... i know its massive, but i can't quite get my head around it.... we've only seen him for 12 games, so its so difficult to assess his true impact.... i understand what this team is without hall, or eberle, but because we've seen so little of mcdavid, i don't quite understand the delta between this team with/without mcdavid just yet.... obviously we're better with him, but does it translate into 1 win in 40 games? 5? no idea really

 

[The Nuge]

Of course the loss of McDavid was a massive blow, but I can argue saying the loss of Klefbom has been a much more greater blow to the oilers as a whole.

Ya, with the way Draisaitl stepped up, losing McDavid wasn't the end of the world like we expected. Losing Klefa has been

 

[Gret99zky]

Frankly the whole regulation wins thing is overblown. Who cares? Wins are wins.

Until the playoffs.

Lol, playoffs.

 

[oilz89*]

It's almost like Eakins and MacT had no idea what they were doing.

They got their ideas from playing NHL 15

 

[oilz89*]

Or how Dallas Eakins was one of the worst coaches in the history of the league.

Oilers after 47 games last year:

12 - 26 - 9, 109 GF, 158 GA, 33 points

Oilers after 47 games this year:

19 - 23 - 5, 115 GF, 136 GA, 43 points

10 point improvement in the standings despite massive injuries, +6 GF, -22 GA compared to the same point last year.

We're getting better, slowly but surely.

How the hell did we allow 22 more GA? That's almost half a goal PER GAME more. Bad goaltending was one thing, but keep in mind we've had periods of spotty goaltending this season too and the results are NOWHERE near as bad.

Answer: Dallas Eakins

Mind=Blown

Dallas Eakins SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS

 

[Beerfish]

i'm not sure we really know what the true impact of losing mcdavid is... i know its massive, but i can't quite get my head around it.... we've only seen him for 12 games, so its so difficult to assess his true impact.... i understand what this team is without hall, or eberle, but because we've seen so little of mcdavid, i don't quite understand the delta between this team with/without mcdavid just yet.... obviously we're better with him, but does it translate into 1 win in 40 games? 5? no idea really

He was dangerous literally every shift he was on the ice. Hall was not doing much and Drai was in the minors and Eberle was hurt and most of all he clearly demonstrated in 12 games that he is the type of player that makes those around him much better.

He instantly made Yakupov more than relevant and the second he went down Yak turned back into a pumpkin. This kid is the real deal and is already just about our best player imo.

 

[oilz89*]

4th last in the standings this year, what were we last year at this time? I guess we are 'visually' better. The Oilers still stink in the grand scheme of things. Are we still last in the league in regulation wins?

Why do regulation wins matter? A wins a win plus almost every team in this league is tough, even columbus. I'd expect more games that are close

 

[Beerfish]

Of course the loss of McDavid was a massive blow, but I can argue saying the loss of Klefbom has been a much more greater blow to the oilers as a whole.

I've seen this stated a number of times now, I think it is 100% laughably wrong. Nothing against Klefbom but he is still a developing 2,3 dman who was playing quite well. McDavid was the best player on the team the moment he stepped on the ice as an 18 year old.

I can only assume that it is the fact that he has been out so long that people are forgetting what he was like the 1st 12 games.

 

[Beerfish]

Why do regulation wins matter? A wins a win plus almost every team in this league is tough, even columbus. I'd expect more games that are close

They matter because when you win in reg the opposing team gets zero points. Teams that look like they have a decent record and then you look closer and see they are doing a lot of it in over time or shootout is not sustainable fro year to year. We saw that ourselves a few years back when we had Garon in goal and we had some absurd record like 13-2 after full time.

 

[Beerfish]

Frankly the whole regulation wins thing is overblown. Who cares? Wins are wins.

Because if you look at a team on year and a large chunk of their points are built on unreal shoot out and over time stats they are likely to fall off from that in the future.

 

[Young Lions*]

Why do regulation wins matter? A wins a win plus almost every team in this league is tough, even columbus. I'd expect more games that are close

Most games (around 75%) are decided in regulation so it's a good idea to be good at winning games in 60 minutes. Once you get to the skills competition portion of the night, it becomes more of a coin flip. IOW: regulation wins are a better gauge of a team's true ability than OT/SO.

 

[Replacement*]

Why do regulation wins matter? A wins a win plus almost every team in this league is tough, even columbus. I'd expect more games that are close

Knowing how to win and close games out matters. Clearly. Learning how to win in regulation (where the majority of wins occur) is logically a very important part of that.

 

[The Nuge]

Most games (around 75%) are decided in regulation so it's a good idea to be good at winning games in 60 minutes. Once you get to the skills competition portion of the night, it becomes more of a coin flip. IOW: regulation wins are a better gauge of a team's true ability than OT/SO.

Yes and no. It's good to be winning games period. In theory, you could go 10-0-72, and make the playoffs. On the flip side, you could go say 46-36-0, with 30 wins coming in OT, and also make the playoffs. One team loses more than they win in regulation, while the other didn't lose once in regulation. I know which I would bet on come playoffs, and it's not the team that was "better" in regulation

 

[Faelko]

I don't care about Regulation vs OT wins at this point. This team just needs wins to get some confidence that they can build on. We finished with 62 points last year, if we finish with 82 points, that would put this team on track for what I thought they would realistically accomplish heading into the season.

 

[Young Lions*]

Yes and no. It's good to be winning games period. In theory, you could go 10-0-72, and make the playoffs. On the flip side, you could go say 46-36-0, with 30 wins coming in OT, and also make the playoffs. One team loses more than they win in regulation, while the other didn't lose once in regulation. I know which I would bet on come playoffs, and it's not the team that was "better" in regulation

OK, but who is your playoff money on between two teams with 46-30-0 records where one has 30 OT/SOW and one had only regulation wins?

 

[LaGu]

6 pts up to playoff spot within the division, 6 pts up to wildcard spot.

Consistency is lacking, although not as much as last seasons. I was hoping for more but I cannot say that I am overly displeased with how this season is looking so far.

 

[nexttothemoon]

Just like Einstein said... it's all relative.

The Oilers are better this year... better overall goals differential... more points in the standings at this point than they had last year... much closer to average goaltending than they had last season... PK has improved somewhat... PP has... well let's not talk about the PP.

As others so often point out... the team has had quite a stream of injuries to deal with as well... so all things considered it IS an improved team.

They do seem to be hanging around in games better... win or lose... but they obviously make some terrible mistakes that leads to goals against at seemingly the worst times and games slip away.

So they are better... but fact remains they are still dead last in the West (although obviously very close to several other bottom dweller teams).

So yes, better, but still basement level in this league and they obviously need to take a step upwards and start winning more of those 1 goal games and stop flittering away games that are winnable.

They are on pace for ~73 pts this season which would be about 10 pts of improvement over last season. I was honestly expecting ~82-85 pts for them this year, so basically they are looking at an improvement level at about half the rate that would take them to be a ".500 team".


I think that's the general feeling with this team... yes they are improved but it's a modest, very gradual level of improvement.. maybe to be expected with the coaching/roster turnover levels and the abundance of injuries... BUT at some stage excuses must stop and wins have to be expected as well as an actual move up the standings away from 13th/14th in the West... until then this is effectively not all that far off from the "visual improvement" propaganda of the Eakins/MacT era.

 

[Halibut]

I don't care about Regulation vs OT wins at this point. This team just needs wins to get some confidence that they can build on. We finished with 62 points last year, if we finish with 82 points, that would put this team on track for what I thought they would realistically accomplish heading into the season.

Agreed. What we really have to cut down on is regulation losses. Only Columbus has more than us. Turn even a few of those into OT or shootout wins or heck even OT losses and we'd be several spots up the standings.