Pre-Game Talk: Oilers in Sin City on Saturday

[OfCorsiDid]

Finally a 4th line we've been looking for.

Having a Russell-Barrie 1st paring in 2021 is pretty sad lol.

 

[Beerfish]

We don't have to worry about Vegas, Vegas has to worry about us.

 

[Czechboy]

Having a Russell-Barrie 1st paring in 2021 is pretty sad lol.

I find myself quietly questioning 'day to day' on Keith.

 

[Czechboy]

 

[yukoner88]

Not long enough apparently...lol

I knew it

 

[Drivesaitl]

Wait, Failure? We have what, the 4th highest win % in the league?

Can people at least pick appropriate adjectives. We live in a world of hyperbole.

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

We could win the cup and Oiler fans would whine.

 

[Czechboy]

Wait, Failure? We have what, the 4th highest win % in the league?

Can people at least pick appropriate adjectives. We live in a world of hyperbole.

I 'think' they are referencing the 5 on 5 play away from McDrai - that has been an absolute failure. Lowest mark of their entire tenure.

I don't think the 'twitter-er' said the Oil are a failure.. I believe he was responding to the initial tweet that was saying the 5 on 5 is a failure away from McDrai.

However, not my tweet, not my response... I just thought it was interesting.lol

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Wait, Failure? We have what, the 4th highest win % in the league?

Can people at least pick appropriate adjectives. We live in a world of hyperbole.

McDavid and Draisatl aren’t going to put up four every game. They need the depth to step up, or at bare minimum, saw off. We have had depth problems the last few years and it came back to haunt us.

 

[bone]

Wait, Failure? We have what, the 4th highest win % in the league?

Can people at least pick appropriate adjectives. We live in a world of hyperbole.

I think one thing that everyone seems to discount is that when you have players so much better like McDavid and Draisaitl, that teams by nature are going to bear down harder to try and take advantage of the other two lines. I have no idea how that could ever be quantified with stats, but I know by nature if I'm playing against someone that can embarrass me, I'm playing it safe while they are out there and the second they are off I'm pushing. Obviously, I'm not anywhere close to the skill level of anyone at any level of pro hockey, but could it be a similar effect? The whole playing on your toes vs heels theory.

If there's any validity to this theory, could it be that being a bottom 6 player on the Oilers is one of toughest gigs in the NHL. You have the least minutes of your counterparts and every one of those minutes, teams are bearing down to take advantage of those minutes. As McDrai keep getting even better, could this factor be compounding?

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

I think one thing that everyone seems to discount is that when you have players so much better like McDavid and Draisaitl, that team by nature are going to bear down harder to try and take advantage of the other two lines. I have no idea how that could ever be quantified with stats, but I know by nature if I'm playing against someone that can embarrass me, I'm playing it safe while they are out there and the second they are off I'm pushing. Obviously, I'm not anywhere close to the skill level of anyone at any level of pro hockey, but could it be a similar effect?

Would it not be common sense for the Oilers to be worse 5v5 without McDavid and Draisaitl? The Oilers are weighted heavily with those 2 players as they take 25% of the entire cap.

That said it does have to improve but the sky is not falling as the Twitter guy implies.

 

[bone]

Would it not be common sense for the Oilers to be worse 5v5 without McDavid and Draisaitl? The Oilers are weighted heavily with those 2 players as they take 25% of the entire cap.

That said it does have to improve but the sky is not falling as the Twitter guy implies.

100% it needs to improve. But just throwing out a hypothesis, as we've cycled through so many guys that at some point, you'd think someone would stick, but everyone fails in the bottom six eventually it seems. The only hope may just be for home grown players to eventually make it and using the 3rd and 4th line to grow future 1st and 2 liners as we cycle out guys like JP and KY which may become a necessity at some point.

Further on the comment about worse when they are off. I'm starting to find funny when people point out percentages of team scoring they generate. Well, no shit, they are outscoring everybody in the league except Ovechkin by more than 50%, so it should be automatic that they are significantly outscoring less players on their own roster.

I suspect if you took the 96th highest score (average 3rd best per team), 129th (average 4th best), 162nd etc and combined with McDrai, you still see McDrai generating 50% of the combined totals.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Would it not be common sense for the Oilers to be worse 5v5 without McDavid and Draisaitl? The Oilers are weighted heavily with those 2 players as they take 25% of the entire cap.

That said it does have to improve but the sky is not falling as the Twitter guy implies.

But it’s basically the same issue we had the last few years.

 

[Czechboy]

We could win the cup and Oiler fans would whine.

I would fly to Edmonton.. strip down and run down the street like Ferrel in old school.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

I would fly to Edmonton.. strip down and run down the street like Ferrel in old school.

I would finally fly the Oilers car flag Ive kept for just such an occasion. For those wondering why I don’t already, check my location.

 

[soothsayer]

Finally a 4th line we've been looking for.

That first d pair

 

[Czechboy]

That first d pair

It's bad for sure but I gotta give Russel some credit here... what a soldier!

This is his 5th year in the Top 4! That is amazing! He'll probably retire in Edmonton and be an ambassador.

 

[Czechboy]

I would finally fly the Oilers car flag Ive kept for just such an occasion. For those wondering why I don’t already, check my location.

Rent a car, get the insurance and then do it for a week. Post the pics when you're done!

 

[Shaquille Oatmeal]

I would fly to Edmonton.. strip down and run down the street like Ferrel in old school.

This is the kind of energy this fanbase needs more of.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

It's bad for sure but I gotta give Russel some credit here... what a soldier!

This is his 5th year in the Top 4! That is amazing! He'll probably retire in Edmonton and be an ambassador.

Not many teams have a 1.25m Top Pair D.

And we have one in Kris Russell.

Life is good.

 

[Took a pill in Sbisa]

Would it not be common sense for the Oilers to be worse 5v5 without McDavid and Draisaitl? The Oilers are weighted heavily with those 2 players as they take 25% of the entire cap.

That said it does have to improve but the sky is not falling as the Twitter guy implies.

Yeah, would be great to see what the numbers are league-wide when each teams 2 best players aren't on the ice for context.

 

[Faelko]

The only way to fix the bottom six is to split the players up into pairs.

McDavid-Hyman
Drai-Yams
RNH-Puljujarvi
McLeod-Foegle

Add the 3rd player as you see fit

 

[bone]

There you go for fun. I added up a list assuming that if all scorers were equally distributed. If you took the best "3rd best scorer by average on the team" (65th in league) you get this. The result with basically best distribution possible, they'd still be responsible for 44% of that teams goals, and 39% of the teams points. They are just that good.

		G	A	P
1st	best scorer	20	20	40
2nd	best scorer	14	22	36
Combined		34	42	76	44%	36%	39%
65	best scorer	5	11	16
97	best scorer	8	5	13
129	best scorer	5	6	11
161	best scorer	3	7	10
193	best scorer	1	8	9
225	best scorer	4	4	8
257	best scorer	3	5	8
289	best scorer	2	5	7
321	best scorer	2	4	6
353	best scorer	2	3	5
385	best scorer	0	5	5
417	best scorer	2	2	4
449	best scorer	3	1	4
481	best scorer	0	3	3
513	best scorer	1	2	3
545	best scorer	1	1	2
577	best scorer	0	2	2
609	best scorer	0	1	1
641	best scorer	1	0	1
673	best scorer	1	0	1
705	best scorer	0	0	0
737	best scorer	0	0	0
769	best scorer	0	0	0
		78	117	195

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[bone]

Not many teams have a 1.25m Top Pair D.

And we have one in Kris Russell.

Life is good.

On that note, does the entire D-Corps add up to $10M right now?

 

[Shaquille Oatmeal]