Pre-Game Talk: Oilers @ Boston Thursday 10/11

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McBigYak

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19 shots, two from high danger areas. But offense wasn't the problem? Ok man.



Come on man, you're better than this strawman b.s.



It's not shaping up to be an offensive powerhouse either. So what, exactly, is this team?

This is a one line team, possibly two if Lucic maintains his play and Draisaitl can put up 70 points.

This is a team that has RW depth similar to that of an AHL team.

Our defense isn't that poor. I really predict throughout the year we will have a hell of a time scoring goals. Watching the Devils skate circles around us without much effort was very concerning to watch. We have no speed up front, and we have no winger depth. Our best winger is a guy who has played less than 20 games at the position. Our 2nd best winger is someone we have to desperately hope has a bounce back season. Chia is banking on Pulju, Yamo(who looks like he doesn't even belong in the league yet) and a 2nd round bust to provide a massive chunk of the Oilers offense this year. That is a bet you are going to lose the large majority of the time.

Boston sticks their shutdown line out against Mcdavid, and we are f***ed. It's a pretty easy game plan.
 

belair

Jay Woodcroft Unemployment Stance
Apr 9, 2010
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You're not going to win many games scoring 2 goals a night and getting 0 offence when McDavid is not on the ice either. This isn't 2004 anymore and this isn't the Daryl Sutter Calgary Flames that could win on that philosophy.

A young team will always be shaky defensively unless you have freaking Nik Lidstrom or Chris Pronger back there, that's just how its going to be.

This team is going nowhere as long as McDavid is the only player on the ice that reliably can generate offence. This league is not built for that lame ass style of team structure anymore.
This team isn't always going to score two goals a night. Do you honestly believe Leon Draisaitl offers zero offense? Or that our third line is completely incapable of creating at minimum, their career average offense? You're using a single game to push your narrative now. Like I said before--this is getting really sad.
 

PumpkinBombX

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The last thread was absolute garbage after being overrun by the same posters that seem to get their jollies by derailing threads. If it happens again every poster that participates in the OT conversation will get thread banned at minimum.

Thank you, i have 3 people on ignore. (not necessarily because i don't like their opinions, but because they post so frequently). Opening up the thread when i was logged in vs not made the thread like 1/2 the volume. let that sink in, like 3 people had about 1/2 of all posts. That's crazy. One dude has been on the form for 1 year and 2 days and has over 6500 posts. (almost 20 per day). I have a little over 900 in 9 years...
 
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PinSeeker

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Aug 22, 2005
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This is a one line team, possibly two if Lucic maintains his play and Draisaitl can put up 70 points.

This is a team that has RW depth similar to that of an AHL team.

Our defense isn't that poor. I really predict throughout the year we will have a hell of a time scoring goals. Watching the Devils skate circles around us without much effort was very concerning to watch. We have no speed up front, and we have no winger depth. Our best winger is a guy who has played less than 20 games at the position. Our 2nd best winger is someone we have to desperately hope has a bounce back season. Chia is banking on Pulju and Yamo and a 2nd round bust to provide a massive chunk of the Oilers offense this year. That is a bet you are going to lose the large majority of the time.

Boston sticks their shutdown line out against Mcdavid, and we are ****ed. It's a pretty easy game plan.
I am not sure how one can claim that a forward group that has McDavid, Pulju, Yamamoto, Nuge, Rieder who are all at minimum above average skaters has "no speed up front".

I would guess the issue is in how they are deployed. Didn't see any sort of pressure forecheck against NJ.
 

Soundwave

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This team isn't always going to score two goals a night. Do you honestly believe Leon Draisaitl offers zero offense? Or that our third line is completely incapable of creating at minimum, their career average offense? You're using a single game to push your narrative now. Like I said before--this is getting really sad.

The two goals factors in probably 1 McDavid to Draisaitl feed.

You look at that last game and as much as people want to praise Lucic, the fact is WITHOUT McDavid on the ice with the two of them, Leon and Milan struggled to even get out of their own zone.

I counted in the 2nd period three straight shifts from that line where they got out of their own zone *once*.

This team is in big trouble any time no.97 is not on the ice. They are horrendous offensively without him.

And yes I agree this is sad.
 

Delicious Pancakes

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I just have a question about coaching and hope it does not get deleted and is relevant to the game day thread. Does anyone see any difference in systems and break outs, special teams, etc from last year to indicate that the influence of the new assistant coaches have kicked in?

Are they doing anything different from last year. This is mostly a question to people that are keen observers of strategy and are more experts at the x's and o's then myself or others. Because if it all looks the same that has to be concerning considering they threw 3 people under the bus last year, which does not speak highly of the character of the bench boss if he stayed quiet and was ok with the blame on his subordinates while not really doing any sort of adjustments to make his new staff feel like they actually have some input. Not the smartest strategy to not listen if you are trying to make yourself look like you aren't the weak link.

Its early, maybe its an overreaction and hes been listening to them all summer, we are all just speculating and will be very glad to be wrong.

They've been trying to pressure more when they don't have the puck to mixed results. It has looked somewhat disorgnanized and at times though you definitely see some players reverting to playing more passively, which hopefully will improve as they get used to the new system. With the puck they still appear to be trying to figure out working as a 5 man unit and to my eye have looked more stretched out on the breakout and not supporting the puck terribly well. It has made them easier to defend. Again hopefully they're still getting comfortable and that will improve. Certainly you're going to be more effective as a team when guys can just instinctively go to where they know they're supposed to be. Right now in general they seem to be half a step slow reaction-wise. It's not how certain players looked last year so it's likely system related, although it could be some rust too.
 

KeithIsActuallyBad

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Apr 12, 2010
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This team isn't always going to score two goals a night. Do you honestly believe Leon Draisaitl offers zero offense? Or that our third line is completely incapable of creating at minimum, their career average offense? You're using a single game to push your narrative now. Like I said before--this is getting really sad.
You're right, they might score one or less.

Draisatl, McDavid, and RNH offer offense. Lucic might as long as he remains consistent. The rest of the forwards? Who knows, and that's not even getting into the defense.
 

McBigYak

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I am not sure how one can claim that a forward group that has McDavid, Pulju, Yamamoto, Nuge, Rieder who are all at minimum above average skaters has "no speed up front".

I would guess the issue is in how they are deployed. Didn't see any sort of pressure forecheck against NJ.

I would say when you effectively negate all that speed by placing Pulju with Khaira and Strome and Yamo with Draisaitl and Lucic, you've overall got a team that severely lacks speed.

Anyone watching that New Jersey game can clearly see that the large majority of the time the Oilers were 2nd to pucks and were being outclassed by a large margin in terms of speed.
 

ohheyhemsky

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Nov 1, 2010
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I do hate playing teams that have already shaken off early season rust while the Oilers have played one game in 8 days.
puts Edmonton a step behind right from the get go.

I'll be an optimist, but only if Rask starts.

If Rask starts, Oilers win 6-2.

if Halak starts, we'll lose 3-1 :(
The biggest thing for me is how awful we looked, even compared to the teams that have been shaking off rust. We were playing 1/4th their speed. This is including Boston when they were blown out against Washington.
 

T-Funk

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Every problem from last year came creeping back on Saturday, but I find it hard to believe it could be so bad again.
The excuses: they played a no hitting game on large ice the game before and they got scored on the first shot of the game again only 1 minute in. Thats all got to mess with you. If I'm McLellan, I pull Talbot every time that happens.

If I'm looking for a positive in this, it's that they played a slightly different system than Saturday almost all preseason where the Oilers did look more engaged. The results don't really matter in preseason but they were putting in the effort. Maybe the German game did take some aggression and motivation out of their play.

The negatives I choose to focus on out of the hundreds of things wrong with this organization are the powerplay and McLellan's stubbornness. Our powerplay should be the best in the league. It was f***ing terrible last season and nothing has changed. Imo I would put out Klefbom and Bouchard on the top unit, so they get some chances letting bombs go and some extra help keeping pucks in. We need Klefbom getting his shot back and a little extra d help for Bouchard so hopefully when the inevitable bobbled puck at the blueline occurs, it doesn't destroy him. I would probably put out Rattie with McD and puljujarvi or Lucic if he's going to be used in front of the net properly.

Draisaitl gets no time with McDavid in my world. I would argue putting them back together and getting that goal was the worst thing he could have done so early in the season. He needs to drive his own line and be engaged just as much there as when he's on McDavid's line. He has an extra gear when playing with McDavid that he needs to bring on his own.
 

Soundwave

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You're right, they might score one or less.

Draisatl, McDavid, and RNH offer offense. Lucic might as long as he remains consistent. The rest of the forwards? Who knows, and that's not even getting into the defense.

The other problem with this is Draisaitl and Lucic can provide offence too ... but you need McDavid on the ice most of the time even for that.

What exactly is the plan here then? To play him 40 minutes a night and drive him into the ground?

You remove RNH from McDavid's line and he probably defaults back to a 40-50 point player so that doesn't work either.

Both goals in the previous game were pretty much solely created by McDavid's speed backing the D off.
 

belair

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I would say when you effectively negate all that speed by placing Pulju with Khaira and Strome and Yamo with Draisaitl and Lucic, you've overall got a team that severely lacks speed.

Anyone watching that New Jersey game can clearly see that the large majority of the time the Oilers were 2nd to pucks and were being outclassed by a large margin in terms of speed.
I think people need to stop using video game logic when talking about line combinations. Fast players are allowed to play with slow players. It doesn't necessarily throw a wrench into their effectiveness. How many players in this league actually make plays at full speed anyways? Very few.

It's important for lines to have fluid chemistry and for its counterparts to have something of value to offer. There are plenty of 'fast' players this team has had in recent history who got squat done in elevated assignments because their awareness at that level was completely non-existent.
 

McBigYak

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I think people need to stop using video game logic when talking about line combinations. Fast players are allowed to play with slow players. It doesn't necessarily throw a wrench into their effectiveness. How many players in this league actually make plays at full speed anyways? Very few.

It's important for lines to have fluid chemistry and for its counterparts to have something of value to offer. There are plenty of 'fast' players this team has had in recent history who got squat done in elevated assignments because their awareness at that level was completely non-existent.

I'm really not using video game logic at all. In fact, I could care less about line combinations. My point is, the Oilers are a slow team. They are among the slowest in the league. And even with the speed we do have from the 3 players he mentioned outside of the top line, I would say that none of them have proven that they can help this team overcome it's biggest problem, which is scoring when 97 isn't on the ice.
 

Soundwave

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I think people need to stop using video game logic when talking about line combinations. Fast players are allowed to play with slow players. It doesn't necessarily throw a wrench into their effectiveness. How many players in this league actually make plays at full speed anyways? Very few.

It's important for lines to have fluid chemistry and for its counterparts to have something of value to offer. There are plenty of 'fast' players this team has had in recent history who got squat done in elevated assignments because their awareness at that level was completely non-existent.

It's not a video game when you're getting beat in real life though.

How many players on this team have any real chemistry (not "oh they look great in preaseason!", I'm talking real NHL games) that doesn't involve McDavid in the equation?

*crickets*

This team has some of the least amount of chemistry I've seen ever. Lucic is horrid with Draisaitl most of the time, RNH is kinda just "there" without McDavid, Strome might as well be invisible, Leon really can't get it going with anyone else consistently aside from you-know-who, Jesse still looks completely lost out there mot of the time. Kailer is trying hard but he gets rattled playing with good players and defers because he's a kid being asked to do too much. Kassian, lets not even go there.

This team is a mishmash of players that don't compliment each other very well at all.
 
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Bryanbryoil

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There's already been a ton of cleanup in this thread, if thread bans don't work then expect a vacation soon.
 

Little Fury

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which could never muster more than bottom 10 in offense in any given year

Yeah that's kinda the point. If you want a more recent example, the Oilers had the Art Ross winner on their team last season and were 20th in the league for offense.
 

CornKicker

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Feb 18, 2005
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It's not a video game when you're getting beat in real life though.

How many players on this team have any real chemistry (not "oh they look great in preaseason!", I'm talking real NHL games) that doesn't involve McDavid in the equation?

*crickets*

This team has some of the least amount of chemistry I've seen ever. Lucic is horrid with Draisaitl most of the time, RNH is kinda just "there" without McDavid, Strome might as well be invisible, Leon really can't get it going with anyone else consistently aside from you-know-who, Jesse still looks completely lost out there mot of the time. Kailer is trying hard but he gets rattled playing with good players and defers because he's a kid being asked to do too much. Kassian, lets not even go there.

This team is a mishmash of players that don't compliment each other very well at all.

i agree with your initial sentiment about chemistry and thats on the coach. Let these guys play 15-20 games together and learn how each little detail about each other. Vegas rarely changed lines ALL of last season. they let the lines fight through their trouble and build together. TM changing the lines every 1.4 periods is messing with everyone.
 

PulYou

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Line combinations are:

RNH-McDavid-Rattie
Lucic-Draisaitl-Yamamoto
Rieder-Strome/Brodziak-Kassian
Chiasson/Puljujarvi-Khaira-Caggiula/Strome

Klefbom-Larsson
Nurse-Russell
Garrison-Benning
Bouchard rotating in.

Talbot
Koskinen
 

Bryanbryoil

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Yeah that's kinda the point. If you want a more recent example, the Oilers had the Art Ross winner on their team last season and were 20th in the league for offense.

We lack offense from the blueline and have for many years. Bouchard eventually helps that out but truth be told we need more than just him. I am still unsure that Nurse gets there or Klefbom for that matter. Jones might be our best bet outside of Bouchard and maybe Bear. I have little doubt that we have enough on the wings to score especially if Lucic is ready to bounce back but we need to make it a priority to get Puljujarvi going. Lack of offense from the blueline continues to haunt us as does our PP. I don't see team speed being an issue, outside of Lucic who is really slow up front? Drai would probably be the 2nd slowest as by my eye Strome looks faster this year. Rattie maybe? On defense Nurse is fast and Klefbom and Larsson are mobile albeit not speed demons. Benning is the guy that has to go, not overly fast, big, strong or skilled. Russell skates well enough and Bouchard is mobile for a rookie. It all comes down to systems IMO and that lack of an offensive defenseman.
 

Ritchie Valens

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Line combinations are:

RNH-McDavid-Rattie
Lucic-Draisaitl-Yamamoto
Rieder-Strome/Brodziak-Kassian
Chiasson/Puljujarvi-Khaira-Caggiula/Strome

Klefbom-Larsson
Nurse-Russell
Garrison-Benning
Bouchard rotating in.

Talbot
Koskinen

Garrison probably feels like a third class passenger on the Titanic right about now with that partner.
 

Bryanbryoil

Pray For Ukraine
Sep 13, 2004
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Line combinations are:

RNH-McDavid-Rattie
Lucic-Draisaitl-Yamamoto
Rieder-Strome/Brodziak-Kassian
Chiasson/Puljujarvi-Khaira-Caggiula/Strome

Klefbom-Larsson
Nurse-Russell
Garrison-Benning
Bouchard rotating in.

Talbot
Koskinen

So they're moving Jesse to the left side again? I guess we can all hope that Jesse gets set up for a onetimer and the light bulb goes on for the coaching staff.
 
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Little Fury

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We lack offense from the blueline and have for many years. Bouchard eventually helps that out but truth be told we need more than just him. I am still unsure that Nurse gets there or Klefbom for that matter. Jones might be our best bet outside of Bouchard and maybe Bear. I have little doubt that we have enough on the wings to score especially if Lucic is ready to bounce back but we need to make it a priority to get Puljujarvi going..

Yeah about that:

 
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