Post-Game Talk: Oilers beat NYI 5-2

[McDeathbyCheerios*]

Are we really worried about Klinkhammer now? He didn't look like anything more than advertised, he had a fine game and contributed to the scoresheet. He was also drawing in near the end of the game so obviously the coaching staff likes what they see so far. I will agree that the Islanders lacked very little emotion in this game and seemed to sleepwalk through the first two periods.

He does his job well. Made Halak look stupid too on his assist

 

[Replacement*]

Are we really worried about Klinkhammer now? He didn't look like anything more than advertised, he had a fine game and contributed to the scoresheet. He was also drawing in near the end of the game so obviously the coaching staff likes what they see so far. I will agree that the Islanders lacked very little emotion in this game and seemed to sleepwalk through the first two periods.

primarily just annoyed that this is the dreck the Oilers got in exchange for Perron. I mean really, the Oilers couldn't even pry a legit 4th line player in trade? Klink was the worst roster player for either Yotes or Pens.

Yay, of course we end up getting him.

This is the worst Oiler player for awhile. Just watch. I've seen this guy play for Yotes. You'll start to realize that other than skating and size this guy has nothing close to NHL skillsets. Terrible handling the puck, can't receive a pass, can't make a pass. A player that chases hits all day and people not familiar with system play just go. wow, look at that guy, he's all over the place.. his positional play is a laugh. He doesn't even consider when to forecheck. He'll try to chase a forecheck when the play is already breaking the other way.

Trouble is Gordon and Hendrick are our checking line. Islanders were getting most of their scoring chances off that line and specifically Klink screwing up.

 

[McTedi]

primarily just annoyed that this is the dreck the Oilers got in exchange for Perron. I mean really, the Oilers couldn't even pry a legit 4th line player in trade? Klink was the worst roster player for either Yotes or Pens.

Yay, of course we end up getting him.

I don't know much about the player except that he has been moved numerous times in his career. Outside of a handful of players I don't really care who gets traded anymore, they have earned it. Perron hasn't really impressed me for awhile tbh, he was taking dumb penalties and outside of getting the occasional mitt to the face he really didn't do much in the way of grit or being a pest. The fact that Perron got a 1st is good enough for me, 1st round picks do have trade value. Maybe the Oil can turn it into an NHL player, we'll see.

 

[Replacement*]

I don't know much about the player except that he has been moved numerous times in his career. Outside of a handful of players I don't really care who gets traded anymore, they have earned it. Perron hasn't really impressed me for awhile tbh, he was taking dumb penalties and outside of getting the occasional mitt to the face he really didn't do much in the way of grit or being a pest. The fact that Perron got a 1st is good enough for me, 1st round picks do have trade value. Maybe the Oil can turn it into an NHL player, we'll see.

Its more than that. In 6mths the Oilers have got rid of the two talented players that would be playing with Yak. Perron and Gagner. At this moment we have Lander and Fraser filling that role.

The Oilers make all these deals and roster changes every year but is this really getting better?

We traded a 2nd line potential star player for an AHL player and late first round pick.

Not only have we sold out on Gagner and Perron but Yak is now hopelessly sunk in this configuration and guaranteed gone as well. Which the Oilers seem to want.

we're literally drowning a #1 pick here.

Its sad.

 

[Hemsky4PM]

Ahem, Gazdic is the worst Oiler and it isn't close. Pakarainen is better than Luke.

Klinkhammer is a 13th forward. Whatevs.

 

[McTedi]

Its more than that. In 6mths the Oilers have got rid of the two talented players that would be playing with Yak. Perron and Gagner. At this moment we have Larsen and Fraser filling that role.

The Oilers make all these deals and roster changes every year but is this really getting better?

We traded a 2nd line potential star player for an AHL player and late first round pick.

Not only have we sold out on Gagner and Perron but Yak is now hopelessly sunk in this configuration and guaranteed gone as well. Which the Oilers seem to want.

we're literally drowning a #1 pick here.

Its sad.

Yah I guess, I can't really disagree with anything there. Rudderless ship...yaay.

 

[Replacement*]

Ahem, Gazdic is the worst Oiler and it isn't close. Pakarainen is better than Luke.

Klinkhammer is a 13th forward. Whatevs.

I don't even consider Gazdik a hockey player. Just to clarify.

If Klink is a 13th what is he doing in the lineup?

 

[LaGu]

I don't even consider Gazdik a hockey player. Just to clarify.

If Klink is a 13th what is he doing in the lineup?

I wouldn't jump ship on how Nelson is handling Yak just yet. Whatever your opinion may be on Lander (not Larsen) and Fraser the fact is that one has scored 2 G in 3GP and the other is (or at least was) Nelson's go-to player in terms of offense/defense for the last couple of years. It is possible that Nelson, for what-ever reason, thinks that this line will click sooner rather than later and I am ready to give them 10-15 games, not only 2.

Nelson has been doing good things that anyone watching can see. What do you say we giving him a pass on others which at the moment are not yet evident?

 

[Replacement*]

I wouldn't jump ship on how Nelson is handling Yak just yet. Whatever your opinion may be on Lander (not Larsen) and Fraser the fact is that one has scored 2 G in 3GP and the other is (or at least was) Nelson's go-to player in terms of offense/defense for the last couple of years. It is possible that Nelson, for what-ever reason, thinks that this line will click sooner rather than later and I am ready to give them 10-15 games, not only 2.

Nelson has been doing good things that anyone watching can see. What do you say we giving him a pass on others which at the moment are not yet evident?

Not sure why I was saying Larsen, lol, I realized my mistake and had back corrected my posts before reading yours.

Don't get me wrong and I like Lander generally. Its just that Yak this year gets the nonstop *benefit* of a constant diet of AHL or rookie centers.

Yak isn't good enough to sustain offense on his own at this point. He sure isn't good enough to be holding others up.

In reality if you look at it the Oilers are shafting BOTH Yak and Lander with this kind of assignment and with Fraser being the latest Toby Peterson fill along for the ride.

MacT loves playing these kind of games. In his world if you can't climb out of the quicksand you deserve to die.

so it is

 

[LaGu]

Not sure why I was saying Larsen, lol, I realized my mistake and had back corrected my posts before reading yours.

Don't get me wrong and I like Lander generally. Its just that Yak this year gets the nonstop *benefit* of a constant diet of AHL or rookie centers.

Yak isn't good enough to sustain offense on his own at this point. He sure isn't good enough to be holding others up.

In reality if you look at it the Oilers are shafting BOTH Yak and Lander with this kind of assignment and with Fraser being the latest Toby Peterson fill along for the ride.

MacT loves playing these kind of games. In his world if you can't climb out of the quicksand you deserve to die.

so it is

I hear you and you may be right, but I will see how this rolls out with Nelson at the helm.

I wanted Eakins gone as much as the next guy but I was/is still surprised at the difference Nelson has made and that it works, at least for now. I am also one who still has a lot of faith in Yakupov and even though I cannot pretend to know what is best in terms of player development I put my trust in Nelson, at least for now. It is true that Lander has nothing to show when it comes to NHL but on every other level he has shown to lead by example and to be very good at just that. Maybe that is why Nelson did not hesitate to put Yakupov with him instead of, for example, Purcell.

 

[NeverForget06]

Count me as impressed with Nelson. Yes there have been a few player changes since Eakins was fired. But I don't see that as the difference. The team is playing with more pace than they used to. They still show signs of the old oilers and seem to collapse on leads and let the other team take over. However I was under the impression that things could get worse under Nelson. So far, they have not.

 

[thadd]

Interesting comments from NYI coach in the post game interview.

By the sounds of things he's a huge Oil fan.

Thinks we're much better than our record suggests.

I swear he almost said "visually" to talk about us.

Seriously... WTH.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n--8Tgovnyk

He comes in around 9:40 into the video. Maybe 9:43.

 

[thadd]

Count me as impressed with Nelson. Yes there have been a few player changes since Eakins was fired. But I don't see that as the difference. The team is playing with more pace than they used to. They still show signs of the old oilers and seem to collapse on leads and let the other team take over. However I was under the impression that things could get worse under Nelson. So far, they have not.

It's way too early to judge Nelson... but we can say this:

The team was bored of Dallas the minute he showed up. He admitted that most of the young players had no clue what he was talking about when he was trying to teach the swarm defence. He hinted that it was because so many of our players hadn't learned the fundamentals of hockey.

To a degree that's right and to a degree that's totally wrong.

Hall and Yakupov are never going to be fundamentally sound 2-way wingers like Hossa. They just don't play that style of game. That's not why they were drafted. They're the kinda guys you compare to Bure and Hull stylistically.

Yes you have to teach them how to improve and how to be better in some situations so that they can help the team get in front of the 8 ball more times than they help the team get behind it like Phill Kessel has learned to do to a noticeable extent, but you don't take everything those players have going for them away just so that they fit into the mold of your team and that's what Eakins did to a number of guys on this team. He didn't let our star players play to their strengths and when that happened a lot of players started to lose their passion.

We'll be lucky if they get it back under Nelson.

 

[McJadeddog]

As much as i like seeing wins, same old oilers. Winning when it means absolutely nothing.

yup... they can't even tank right and finish last when there are two quasi-generational talents available

this team will likely play around .400 hockey the rest of the way, finish around 27th-28th overall, and miss out on players that can actually turn the franchise around... the worst part about it, is that lowe and macT likely get to keep their jobs in such a scenario

the best thing for this franchise is to lose every game for the rest of the season, and have 0 people show up to the games.... only then is there a possibility of the cancer of lowe and macT being removed

 

[CREW99AW]

Good effort and win from the Oilers.

I think the isles looked past Edmonton, gave a sloppy effort and got burned for it.

 

[czar99]

Yeah, he was just a total cancer.

You could tell right from the start of last year, that he was tearing down everything positive about the team.

Could you imagine if he were to coach Montreal and went into there locker room and tried to dismantle the history of that team buy removing all the pictures of previous champs and players they've had! They would pitchfork that guy in the street so fast!

 

[Kepler 186f]

Good win, Nikitin had his best game as an Oiler. Scrivens had another strong outing.

3rd period was scary though, looked discombobulated again. But they still held on to win, which is maybe a sign they have calmed down.

 

[Kepler 186f]

Roy certainly looks like a veteran player.. could have used a guy like him when the season started. Well played game from thr team. I don't buy into the islanders being a top team though.

No kidding. Man did they make a ton of mistakes, give aways and mindless gaffs. And Halak was awful.

But give the Oilers some credit, they were forechecking hard. For a change.

 

[AJGass4]

I don't think anyone thought Klinkhammer was going to be a world beater but I don't believe he is all that bad either.

He has exactly what we need, fast and big. He throws some hits and quite frankly, I'd rather watch a guy like him than Perron and his half assed effort on most nights. Many a night I was cursing him because he looked like he could give a ****. He'd get off the ice slowly after a shift and showed very little urgency at any point in a game. Yeah, he potted a goal every now and then but he checked out a long time ago and was part of the problem.

Say what you want about Hall and co. but I don't think they've ever not tried. In fact, I believe they tried too hard some nights and just forgot how to play basic hockey. I think Nelson will get them back to their pre Eakinization too.

Eakins did a lot of damage in his 1.5 seasons here and it's going to take some time but I also have enjoyed the Oilers more this past week than I have all season.

Our defence does't look like they are as stupid as they have been either. The break outs are cleaner and they aren't turning their back to the boards on every single play in our own end.

We'd be silly not to try very hard to resign Petry. Hopefully if we string together some wins, he might rethink getting out of Dodge ASAP.

 

[KneeOnKnee]

The oilers can now play with zero pressure now that season is lost, they will clutch their sticks a little looser and begin to play like team we should have seen at beginning of season. The oilers will now do the exact opposite of what you want, you want them to lose in hopes of securing a top draft pick, they will of course start winning just to stick it to the fan even more.

But don't get me wrong I am happy they are getting some positive results, they have all the potential in the world, they just started playing up to that potential when season is all but lost which makes it that much more frustrating.

 

[doulos]

Learning how to win games is more helpful than drafting one of the top 2 kids yet again. I'll take 3rd last in the league if it means they start to change the losing culture with the roster. Losing has got this team where it is and more losing will only make it worse.

 

[frag2]

Not sure why I was saying Larsen, lol, I realized my mistake and had back corrected my posts before reading yours.

Don't get me wrong and I like Lander generally. Its just that Yak this year gets the nonstop *benefit* of a constant diet of AHL or rookie centers.

Yak isn't good enough to sustain offense on his own at this point. He sure isn't good enough to be holding others up.

In reality if you look at it the Oilers are shafting BOTH Yak and Lander with this kind of assignment and with Fraser being the latest Toby Peterson fill along for the ride.

MacT loves playing these kind of games. In his world if you can't climb out of the quicksand you deserve to die.

so it is

I'm kind of hoping Nelson can turn Yak around but Yak still needs to stop being a spazz with the puck and just play a simple game. He still over handles and would rather pass it [usually to no one or at least no one ready for a pass] than just shoot the darn thing.

It's mind boggling how all this 'talent' doesn't know how to pull it together. A lot of that is on Yak. Sure his line mates aren't much better too but Yak hasn't shown, other than playing secondary on Hall's line, to carry a line himself.

 

[oilers_guy_eddie]

So is Scrivens really playing much better, or are the Oilers giving up fewer 5-alarm scoring chances now?

 

[PositiveCashFlow]

Kenny Powers does it again!

 

[mactforcoach]

I don't think anyone thought Klinkhammer was going to be a world beater but I don't believe he is all that bad either.

He has exactly what we need, fast and big. He throws some hits and quite frankly, I'd rather watch a guy like him than Perron and his half assed effort on most nights. Many a night I was cursing him because he looked like he could give a ****. He'd get off the ice slowly after a shift and showed very little urgency at any point in a game. Yeah, he potted a goal every now and then but he checked out a long time ago and was part of the problem.

Say what you want about Hall and co. but I don't think they've ever not tried. In fact, I believe they tried too hard some nights and just forgot how to play basic hockey. I think Nelson will get them back to their pre Eakinization too.

Eakins did a lot of damage in his 1.5 seasons here and it's going to take some time but I also have enjoyed the Oilers more this past week than I have all season.

Our defence does't look like they are as stupid as they have been either. The break outs are cleaner and they aren't turning their back to the boards on every single play in our own end.

We'd be silly not to try very hard to resign Petry. Hopefully if we string together some wins, he might rethink getting out of Dodge ASAP.

Agreed. For those who are dumping all over Klinkhammer (after one game) he looked to me last night to contribute just as much as Pitlick, Pinozotto, and all the other #13 guys this year. Sure he ran around a bit but that may have been partly from nerves in his first game. Jeez at least give him 5 games or so. And yeah Perron was mailing it in most of the season. Something tells me his attitude was bad for the team. Also I hope we don't start getting reports on here every time Perron gets a goal, look who he's playing with now.

The team is finally starting to play with some confidence, it shows on the ice and you can watch it on the bench, everyone is more engaged. The team is playing with more structure, less panic, and the seem to be enjoying the game once again. Why can't we?