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.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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?