Post-Game Talk: Oilers def. Canucks in season opener, 5-3 (Pettersson, Miller, Kuzmenko)

[Sergei Shirokov]

Thank you @MS for being the voice of reason & restoring my sanity.

Maybe I will be excited for the Philly game now

 

[TruKnyte]

It's my fault guys, turned the game on when it was 3-0, and it was all downhill from there.

 

[Zippgunn]

We are still blaming

willie D a decade later ?



Who in the F over rated us? Lol. Nobody expects this roster to do shit.

It's ALL Willie D.'s fault. And Benning, of course...

 

[orcatown]

Too much McDavid and Draisitl. Canuck out-chanced the Oilers and more than even on the play. But NHL games mostly decided by high end talent. PK was a problem and coaching decisions in this game left much to be desired. Another key factor was how Edmonton and the crowd were able to manipulate the officials leading to the first Edmonton goal. Non-call was horrible


Good

Garland - why the hell wasn't he out there on the 6 on 4 instead of dead weight like Boeser. Best two way forward on the team and created more 5 on 5 offense than any other player.

Pettersson - very good start but couldn't sustain it till the end of the game. Still trying to get some chemistry with line mates

Podkolzin - played well in every zone. Just short of completing some plays . Likely should be on PP rather than Horvat.

OEL - I thought he had a good game. Consistently got the puck up to the forwards and used skating to stay positionally sound. Played well at the offensive blue line. Thought he should have been on the PP ahead on Hughes.

Burroughs - guy is playing himself into being an regular NHL defenseman. Made good play coming out of his end and consistently steered the play to the corner when Oilers rushed.

Not Good

Miller - scored and provided a very good assist but just too many awful passes that screwed up the PP and led to great chances against. Really a plus/minus situation with Miller. In this one the minuses were greater than the pluses. Really a continuation of the sloppy play in showed in the pre-season.

Hoglander - had chances early to put the game out of reach but whiffed or butchered every set up. If this player isn't going to be finisher (and right now he is far from that ) then he is likely useless. For one thing he is not good defensively.

Horvat - if you had no knowledge of the team and came out to watch the game you'd say how come that plug 53 is getting so much prime time ice time. Horvat did nothing much all game and is inability to pivot was totally exposed on the 3rd Edmonton goal.

Hughes - huge problems defensively. Looked weak and you have to ask if he was well enough to play. Trying to assert his shot but ended up just forcing it and this along with Miller errant passing caused the PP to fall apart. Give him credit for his effort but if he was still feeling under the weather he shouldn't have been used as much as he was and maybe not at all.

Boeser - looked ok on first couple of shifts but then disappeared and left on the fringes of the play. Terrible late penalty. Right now, don't no where he fits in the line up.

Others

Poolman - was surprisingly decent and mostly stayed out of trouble. Used stick to break up plays and at times forced the paly up ice to create chances. Plays like this and he may not be the major problem he looked to be in the pre-season.

Stillman - tried to watch for him but really very little involved. I guess a good thing.

Kuzmenko - looked dangerous around the net and one of the better puck movers on the PP. Thought he had some trouble in transition however.

 

[MS]

I … don’t really agree?

I thought we had a lot of good shifts and quality chances at 3-1 and kept padding the shot differential. And then took a penalty and 10 seconds later it’s 3-2. And then played really well again only to get sunk by the terrible PP and SHG.

It didn’t feel like the typical blown lead to me where the team sagged and lost momentum and the opposition took over. It was just pure crap special teams. And a brutal blown call.

Further to this, that 2nd period was absurdly unlucky.

The quality chances must have been about 12-5 in our favour and we were outscored 3-1. And one of those goals was on a horrific blown call.

Two breakaways, a terrible miss by Miller, multiple bad misses by Horvat.

It’s not how you usually blow a lead. It was all quick-hit special teams for Edmonton against the run of play. Benefits of having the best player alive, I guess.

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

Does not give him a pass.

He made several horrible passes on the pp

Did not skate hard defensively

Horrible lazy d zone play

We've been saying this about Miller almost every year..makes a number of unbelievable bad blind passes...Then is the pivotal player in the next goal or two, or game winner....There's two sides to JT.

On another note, Hughes just got over a really bad flu..So, I'm expecting better from him on this road trip.

For the most part,Bo was anonymous this game

 

[FlowMaster]

I guarantee Elliotte is only talking to Pat Morris and getting an inflated number. There has been zero leaks about trades or contracts here, just insiders throwing shit at the wall or pumping agent rumors. When the Horvat story is resolved either re-signed or traded, every insider will be caught with their pants down.

This leak was stupid from the agents point of view. All it has done is started to turn the fan base against him. We’re now getting used the idea of trading him and are becoming quite ok with it.

 

[Petey O]

Horvat playing his way off the team.
What’s his issue?

I think he was touted too highly based off of some admittedly really good playoff performances.

Also, I think his arsenal is pretty limited as a player, even if he does what he does well.

His offense mostly consists of:

Toe drags on the rush (sometimes he scores ridiculous goals but most of the time it doesn't work).

Tips in front

That bumper play where he makes space in the slot (Probably his most common way to score goals these days).

Defensively, he usually seems a step behind all the time.

Odd player. Certainly not a two way forward. More of a less physical power forward. When he's on (i.e playoff/late season Horvat), he kind of reminds me of a shorter, centre version of Erik Cole (love the way he drives to the net when he wants to).

Can be a useful player to have, without a doubt, but he's far from 'dynamic'. And I don't think he's as key a player as people dressed him up to be.

 

[CanucksSayEh]

People would be more upset if we won playing like the Oilers.

 

[rypper]

This leak was stupid from the agents point of view. All it has done is started to turn the fan base against him. We’re now getting used the idea of trading him and are becoming quite ok with it.

I think to the agent and general manager, what the fans think is pretty low on the scale of caring in a situation like this.

 

[FlowMaster]

I think to the agent and general manager, what the fans think is pretty low on the scale of caring in a situation like this.

I disagree. This is the entertainment business. The one of the main reasons for keeping Horvat would be marketing, he is the captain after all.

 

[Canuckle1970]

It took the Oilers 3 PPGs to take the game in the end. That was the difference. Our PP needs more creativity - the talent is there. Please put Pods with Petey & Kuz as a regular line - wanted that since pre-season.

Edmonton is very fortunate to have a supreme being in McDavid. Without him, they are not a very impressive team. They should be worried, since we're supposed to have a shitty defense. Their even strength game tonight was lousy.

 

[sting101]

Pretty good game. Unfortunate that McDavid and Draisaitl are in our division. One of the best combos of all time is unfolding and that's not gonna be easy to deal with.

Liked the 3 line balance and 5v5 play outside of Aman Joshua Miller and Hughes who had rough nights. Hughes was good before the nose getting smashed and that was a really sloppy unfortunate turning point and these refs should be fined for missing that crap as it was a pivotal moment

Special teams were a mess.

Hoglander and Horvat have to do better with the opportunities they got and the efforts from Bo and JT were not very inspiring as both faded and looked sluggish

The defense was surprisingly pretty good overall and Poolman Burroughs OEL had very good games

 

[rypper]

I disagree. This is the entertainment business. The one of the main reasons for keeping Horvat would be marketing, he is the captain after all.

The GM can't control what the agent puts out there.

The agent just wants to get the most they can for their client.

 

[iCanada]

That was a f***ing strange game. We were easily the better team at ES for basically the whole night, outshot and outchanced them badly. But we caught a terrible break - we probably won't get a worse blown call than that all year - and our special teams were rancid. And their goalie was really good including stopping two breakaways that would have sealed the game.

- PP just awful. Edmonton is playing tick-tack-toe for high-percentage tap-ins. We're trying for low-percentage Petey one-timers from 40 feet away. Just totally ineffective and looked frazzled by their high-pressure PK.

- after all the worry about the defense pairings ... they were basically really good. Burroughs-Stillman held up really well. Burroughs needs to play more - he's really developing as a player and looks like he can handle heavier minutes. And he couldn't do worse on the PK than the guys playing there. Stillman made a good first impression - skated well, didn't make any obvious errors.

- Poolman - to his credit - played one of his best games as a Canuck. Pressed the play well, much better than usual with the puck on his stick. OEL is solid but so passive and his passivity kills him on the PK.

- Hughes was probably the defender who had the roughest night. Poor on the PP, weak on the winning goal.

- Kuzmenko is really, really good. He's probably going to push 70 points this year. So smart with the puck. He and Pettersson need a better linemate than Hoglander, though. Hoglander worked but doesn't think the game on the same wavelength. Garland or Podkolzin needs to be there.

- JT Miller was either great or horrible. Two great plays to create goals. Lots of terrible passes. Iffy effort on winning goal. But his wingers weren't great. Boeser probably gets some slack because he missed the whole preseason but on the other hand it didn't look any different from last year.

- Horvat stunk. Looked totally disengaged. Probably the most disappointing player on the ice. Podkolzin was doing his best to carry that line and played really well. Garland didn't have his best night.

- Aman and Lazar worked hard and did what they were supposed to do. Joshua needs to be much better if he's going to stay in the lineup.

- Demko made some good saves but overall did not look his best. Was outplayed by the guy at the other end.

Weird amount of negativity here. If they play that exact game most nights, they'll win a lot of games. Edmonton are a very good team and we mostly outplayed them.

Where you getting your scoring chance data from? Moneypuck and natural stat trick have the oilers with a slight scoring chance advantage at 5v5, and a minor disadvantage when you consider all strengths.

Vancouver Canucks @ Edmonton Oilers, 2022-10-12

www.naturalstattrick.com

 

[Johnny Canucker]

Further to this, that 2nd period was absurdly unlucky.

The quality chances must have been about 12-5 in our favour and we were outscored 3-1. And one of those goals was on a horrific blown call.

Two breakaways, a terrible miss by Miller, multiple bad misses by Horvat.

It’s not how you usually blow a lead. It was all quick-hit special teams for Edmonton against the run of play. Benefits of having the best player alive, I guess.

Lots of ways to skin a cat. At the end of the day it’s still skinned.

Oilers are good enough to play well for 20% of the game and beat us. Our goalie wasn’t great , our special teams were terrible. They are just better. Get used to this. It’s gonna happen a lot. The issue is, this is us , all in. Not a penny left. This is our team.

 

[Peen]

Where you getting your scoring chance data from? Moneypuck and natural stat trick have the oilers with a slight scoring chance advantage at 5v5, and a minor disadvantage when you consider all strengths.

Vancouver Canucks @ Edmonton Oilers, 2022-10-12

www.naturalstattrick.com

 

[Johnny Canucker]

McDrai is gonna make us their bitch for the next decade. Not looking forward to this.

 

[VanJack]

Nobody is talking about the goaltending.....but clearly Campbell was a lot better than Demko in this one.

 

[Aphid Attraction]

Pretty good game. Unfortunate that McDavid and Draisaitl are in our division. One of the best combos of all time is unfolding and that's not gonna be easy to deal with.

Liked the 3 line balance and 5v5 play outside of Aman Joshua Miller and Hughes who had rough nights. Hughes was good before the nose getting smashed and that was a really sloppy unfortunate turning point and these refs should be fined for missing that crap as it was a pivotal moment

Special teams were a mess.

Hoglander and Horvat have to do better with the opportunities they got and the efforts from Bo and JT were not very inspiring as both faded and looked sluggish

The defense was surprisingly pretty good overall and Poolman Burroughs OEL had very good games

Rugby is my number one sport… And when they started the TMO being allowed to but in and change decisions made on tries because the refs missed something, I thought it would ruin the game. Now I find it the worst part of hockey.

Hell the ref can even look up at the replay screen an see something and change his mind. That can be manipulated by what home teams put up on the screen but its still better to me then just saying oops.

 

[LickTheEnvelope]

Good first period then I had to step away and it all went downhill lol. See you all next game.

 

[Peen]

I, uh, am not sure if I want to write off our slower players for looking slow when matched up against McDavid.

I think I would probably roll with Mikheyev with Miller and Pearson to give them more speed and then put Boeser on a line with Kuz and Pettersson.

We may actually have something here with Kuzmenko. Like, not a 25/25 something. An actual… something. He really seems unfazed and somehow the puck positively comes off his stick every time he has it.

I really don’t think neutering that line with a substantial offensive downgrade like Mikheyev would be relative to Hoglander is the way to go.

So yeah, Mikheyev to Miller’s line and Boeser to Pettersson’s.

Could also go with Mikheyev on Horvat’s wing and shift Podkolzin up, but I thought they generated pretty good looks at ES so I think you should roll with that line again.

Thought that was a tale of two halves where Miller’s line did not look as good in the second half of the game as well.

 

[bbud]

Not only that but they only gave us 8 power plays...

Its not the giving pp canucks played well enough to earn some coilers get a brutal freebie that changes the game its fookin crap

 

[David71]

great 5 on 5. petey kuzmenko were good. d was surprisingly not bad. special teams killed them. all the oilers goals were bang bang plays. 1 -2 passes find open guy back of the net. nothing demko could have done to stop those. powerplay needs to change it up. put garland or boeser on millers spot and start firing. move on to the next one. the next time van meets oilers should be mikehvev alongside petey and pods to matchup against mcdavid.

 

[Johnny Canucker]

Nobody is talking about the goaltending.....but clearly Campbell was a lot better than Demko in this one.

Outside of this board nobody thinks Demko is a top 10 goalie. Over rated in my opinion.

Its not the giving pp canucks played well enough to earn some coilers get a brutal freebie that changes the game its fookin crap

Took about 5 minutes in to the season to start blaming the refs. They are the reason we blew a 3 goal lead.