Speculation: Oilers habits that drive you nuts.

[thadd]

I really think that the Oilers could be a really good team. We need a coach that can actually influence the entire team to buy into a system that essentially removes a lot of this team's bad habits.

I really don't think that goaltending or defense are our worst problems. We have tons of forwards with bad habits that puts the blueline and goaltender in impossible to deal with situations. I don't claim to be a hockey wiz and I'm sure you guys have recognized some habits that I haven't figured out here.

1. Goalies over-handling the puck. I don't think this is one of our top 3 problems. But we've seen this out of both Kos and Smith this year. I think our goaltending coach is garbage since this is a occurring problem, but I don't think it's costing us enough points in the standings that I'd make it an urgent priority.
2. Cross ice passes. God damn... we all talk about how bad it would be if we got Babcock as a head coach, but there's no way he'd let so any cross ice passes fly. How often do we see a cross ice pass attempt in the offensive zone result in the opposition gaining control of the puck and getting the puck out of the defensive zone? If anyone knows a website where I can see such a stat I'm very interested in seeing it. This costs us huge points in the standings. It makes us an incredibly easy team to play against.
3. Lazy attempts to regain control of the puck. How many times this year have we seen an Oiler look at the puck and look in the opposite direction while trying to corral the puck in the direction they begin to skate only to find that the puck was poked away? It results in the opposition getting control of the puck and the player who should have proceeded with the puck look like a complete idiot. This is a horrible, lazy habit and I see it happen every game.
4. Many of our players look like they have no clue what they're doing when handling the puck in the defensive zone. This is why most goalies see their stats drop when they come to the Oilers. A lot of teams have learned that you don't need to apply much pressure to the Oilers in their defensive zone to get them to make really horrible decisions. From my observations people not named Nurse, Drai and McDavid (while handling the puck, remember) are prone to making a number of bad moves. The good thing is that we don't take delay of game penalties for launching the puck over the glass that often. (Was Bouchard the last to be penalized for this?) When we are handling the puck like a hand grenade the best thing that we do is bank the puck off of the boards in hopes that it gets out. This drives me nuts. It happens too often! Rarely do we gain possession of the puck. Next best thing we do after that is ice the puck. And then... OMG I can't count how many times we literally cough up the puck in the defensive zone. I really don't think it's because our players lack the ability to do things right, I think we lack defensive systems or they haven't been engrained in our players so these tactics aren't used without thinking on an instinctive level. We really need that and I thought Tippet was going to provide us with this but it wasn't happening this year when we had him. This is killing our team.
5. Too many players miss the *** **** net too often! Do any other teams have shooting coaches? Because we need one. Yamamoto and Foegele seem to miss the net more often than they hit it and McCloud is way too gun shy. Get us a damn shooting coach.
6. 1st powerplay unit = no shots on goal = Losing my mind! I genuinely look forward to the 2nd PP unit getting ice time. They accomplish so much more! Even if you aren't scoring on the PP, it's nice to wear the opposing team down by constantly ATTACKING but our first PP unit doesn't seem interested in doing that. The opposition doesn't have to do anything. All the opposing team has to do is stand in a box and wait 60-90 seconds for us to make a shot attempt or cough the puck up while attempting a cross-ice pass. Logging minutes on the PK against the Oilers is so damn relaxing. Look at what most of the other teams put the PK through. Forcing them to block shots, make saves, win puck races and battles against the boards! Our PP philosophy needs to change. We need to shoot a lot more often so that teams actually fear our PP again. Why does our PP play like a bunch of perimeter players when we've got guys like Hyman, Drai, Nurse, Foegele, Puljujarvi, Hopkins and Yamamoto on our team?

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[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Every time an Oiler has a perfect opportunity to hit a guy and flies by I roll my eyes.

 

[booyakasha]

certain players with Dyschronometria.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Losing.

 

[russ99]

Throwing it back to the point or around the wall to the next guy when we have possession in the offensive zone. Try something other than this passive nonsense.

Goals come about via individual play, yes, but team goals come about by moving players and the puck and somebody has to make a tough play in harder areas to create space. Hyman is the only Oiler to do this with any regularity.

Fans pinned this behavior on Tippett, but he's gone and we're still doing it. With this group, pretty goals and overpassed goals only need apply.

 

[K1984]

6, 3 and 2 are my personal favorites.

The one missing are the constant lazy half baked efforts in the first period of most games. Also totally disintegrating in a 5/10 minute stretch of games where we give up goals in bunches. Bonus for this one is it only ever seems to happen on home ice as a thank you to the fans.

 

[K1984]

Throwing it back to the point or around the wall to the next guy when we have possession in the offensive zone. Try something other than this passive nonsense.

Goals come about via individual play, yes, but team goals come about by moving players and the puck and somebody has to make a tough play in harder areas to create space. Hyman is the only Oiler to do this with any regularity.

Fans pinned this behavior on Tippett, but he's gone and we're still doing it. With this group, pretty goals and overpassed goals only need apply.

Forcing pucks to the point in the o zone kills me. Can’t believe I didn’t mention it in my previous post, but it might actually be THE thing that drives me mental above all else.

Often you can see them telegraph it. Teams know to pressure us high, but we still do it.

Sad thing is we have bigger bodies that are actually decent at winning down low board battles and net front battles, but why play for that when you can put it in the hands of our weakest position in a panic/pressure situation? Bonus is our forward are all deep waiting for a point shot as we are in the process of needlessly turning it over. Makes total sense.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Forcing pucks to the point in the o zone kills me. Can’t believe I didn’t mention it in my previous post, but it might actually be THE thing that drives me mental above all else.

Often you can see them telegraph it. Teams know to pressure us high, but we still do it.

Sad thing is we have bigger bodies that are actually decent at winning down low board battles and net front battles, but why play for that when you can put it in the hands of our weakest position in a panic/pressure situation? Bonus is our forward are all deep waiting for a point shot as we are in the process of needlessly turning it over. Makes total sense.

Nobody at the point can get the puck through or do anything worth a damn with it, that's why teams are often content to just let us use the points.

 

[fuswald]

The first 5-10 minutes of nearly every single game. Its like they are warming up and brain dead. Then after a goal or 2 (blame the goalies of course) they get serious.

 

[NotAVacuumSalesman]

Over passing.

Chasing the game.

 

[Smartguy]

The first 5-10 minutes of nearly every single game. Its like they are warming up and brain dead. Then after a goal or 2 (blame the goalies of course) they get serious.

This, every single game anymore they don’t show up to play. This was blamed on Tippet by many on here but it’s still happening. They have to get scored on twice pretty much to start pushing the offense.

Like 2 months ago it was just kind of a crazy stat that they never score first anymore, now it’s a big issue, they are chasing every single game now.

 

[K1984]

This, every single game anymore they don’t show up to play. This was blamed on Tippet by many on here but it’s still happening. They have to get scored on twice pretty much to start pushing the offense.

Like 2 months ago it was just kind of a crazy stat that they never score first anymore, now it’s a big issue, they are chasing every single game now.

The bad starts have been a thing for the last 5 years at least. A pre-Tippett issue.

 

[bobbythebrain]

Overall Ceci has been good but he is an offense killer. Way too often players like McD and Drai breakout full steam and he just coasts the puck along. The guys actually have to turn back, again, before he makes a play

Team needs to cycle with more regularity

 

[FlameChampion]

For me personally, theres a couple things:

1) First 10 minutes of every game. I dont even have to explain this one.
2) Support on the boards by the wingers. And the general fly-bys when the puck is on the boards. Kassian is the worst.
3) Inability for forwards/defense to get the puck out. A lot of the time, the rims around the boards seem more like a nice pass to the other team.
4) Ability to make simple passes and pass the puck effectively on 5 on 5 especially in the defensive/neutral zones
5) Overpassing of the puck, (especially on the PP's and odd man rushes).
6) Desire for forwards to go to the net. This actually seemed better when Woodcroft first took over, but its starting to wane. Only guy who consistently does this is JP.
7) Forgot the goalies overhandling of the puck. I wish they would just stay in their nets.

 

[barry halls]

Dmen holding onto the puck too long at the offensive blue line while they look for that perfect shooting lane, then running out of time and space and just chipping the puck into the corner for a 50/50 battle. Ceci is solid overall but he is especially guilty of this.

 

[Oilers]

• Ceci handling the puck
• Yamamoto not shooting the puck below the hashmarks / in the slot
• Love/Hate relationship with Dratsaitl's backhand passing

 

[thadd]

Every time an Oiler has a perfect opportunity to hit a guy and flies by I roll my eyes.

For me, it feels like we've been like that since the 90's. over the past 20 years we've had a few players that consistently bring it, but the team as a whole doesn't buy into punishing the opposition physically. If you go back and look at Nurse 5 years ago, it's really amazing to see how differently he plays now. Some people will tell you that he's a better player now because he paces himself and he's able to play 28 plus minutes a night without breaking a sweat, but he looks a lot easier to play against than he was as a kid.

Forcing pucks to the point in the o zone kills me. Can’t believe I didn’t mention it in my previous post, but it might actually be THE thing that drives me mental above all else.

Often you can see them telegraph it. Teams know to pressure us high, but we still do it.

Sad thing is we have bigger bodies that are actually decent at winning down low board battles and net front battles, but why play for that when you can put it in the hands of our weakest position in a panic/pressure situation? Bonus is our forward are all deep waiting for a point shot as we are in the process of needlessly turning it over. Makes total sense.

I feel like Nuge is pretty good for going in to battle for the puck but most the the team... it's weird. It does look like a great number of players aren't used to playing hockey at times. I guess I should also give Yamamoto credit. He takes a lot of risks for a man his size.

The first 5-10 minutes of nearly every single game. Its like they are warming up and brain dead. Then after a goal or 2 (blame the goalies of course) they get serious.

I kinda wanna laugh a this comment because it's sad how true it's been for many years. If we look at how the Oilers have played over the past few years, it's really unusual for Edmonton to start off playing with desperation. It's rare to see Edmonton playing like they really want to win from the start of the game. In January we had a few games where the team started off like a bat out of hell before Tippet was fired. They pushed and pushed and once we got scored on the team lost a bit of their nerve and the deeper we got into the game the more lax everyone played and by the end of the game we just remembered a decent first period and a forgettable 2nd and 3rd period.

Over passing.

Chasing the game.

I seriously wonder if passing would be seen in a different light in the NHL if passing stats were actually tracked. No website can tell me how many passes the Oilers make before they make a shot attempt because the NHL doesn't track successful and unsuccessful passes. If the NHL tracked passing stats there would probably be a whole ton of new relevant stats that would get their own acronyms that would make things like CORSI a thing of the past.

Chasing the game really pisses me off. You know we're chasing the game when we're making cross ice passes to players who aren't even ready to receive the puck. Blows my mind every time.

For me personally, theres a couple things:
6) Desire for forwards to go to the net. This actually seemed better when Woodcroft first took over, but its starting to wane. Only guy who consistently does this is JP.

Hyman would happily go to the net if we wasn't depended on to dig it out of the corners so often. Dude can only be in one place at once. I've noticed this season who we do go to the net a lot more often than in seasons past, but it's still not working because 90% of the time someone is in front of the net we don't have clear possession of the puck to take advantage of the net presence and 90% of the time that we've got clear possession of the puck there's nobody in front of the net.

As for Puljujarvi... he goes there often because it's one of the few things he can do and I don't think he goes there all that quickly. He often needs a while to make up his mind what he should be doing. It's not unusual to see Puljujarvi skate 2-3 circles from the slot to the offensive blueline before deciding to go to the net. If you gave Yamamoto Puljujarvi's body I'm pretty sure we wouldn't even know who Puljujarvi was.

 

[JarvisFunk]

Playing like shit in games we should win?

 

[Canovin]

Overpassing and they suck at passing

 

[Tarus]

Overpassing, trying to be fancy all the time, passive perimeter play, and slow decision making a major problems for this team.

-They constantly overpass themselves out of scoring opportunities, just an example is the 3 on 1 Yamomato turns into a non-scoring chance last night trying to force a pass through a defenseman to Mcdavid(who was almost past the net at that point). Apparently, Woodcroft needs to get them forcing passes through the goaltender, not through the defending players. Sadly, you can see it start to creep into Mcdavid's game too, he needs to get back to that more selfish game he was playing at the start of the season, and more passing opportunities will open up again.
-Mcdavid/Drai are amazingly skilled players, but the rest of the Oiler's top six? The defensemen? not so much. They need to hit the net instead of trying to pick the corners like they're Ovechkin, make quick decisive plays instead of overhandling the puck and getting stripped. I think a lot of players on this team have spent so much time around the two Oiler star players who routinely try and succeed at low percentage plays, and they subconsciously(or egotistically) try to play to their level.

I'd say defensive coverage is part of their bad habits too, but between the rotating cast of rookie defensemen and a new coach, I suspect that's more of a work in progress at least for the next while. They do look better in many respects, but I'm not sure how much time the new coach has had to really implement meaningful systematic change.

 

[Gunnersaurus Rex]

Draisaitl.
Makes equally amazing passes and complete bonehead passes.
Laziness equalled by his determined play.
Such an enigmatic player.

 

[mrjnick]

Playing down to their oppositions level..

Out chanced, out worked and simply out played the bolts and canes and lost. Get massively outplayed by the shitty Hawks and Flyers. And only come out with 3 out of a needed 4 points.

Just a recent example, but it's been an issue for years.

 

[McShogun99]

Losing.

Like

 

[Mr Positive]

I hate it when we dump the puck into the offensive zone when our players are still exiting. Other teams do it but we do it all the time. It's like a energy drain because it is a giveaway where our players go in for a forecheck but with no support because players are getting onside.

In general it seems part of either not giving puck support or just not looking at options

 

[BoldNewLettuce]

any time the defense backs up 100 ft to starfish.