Oilers lose 4-1 to Montreal.

[backhandsauce]

You're happy Hall got hit...?

Damn, the Habs fans are invading our PGT.

He's gotta learn bro.

His toe drag move is about as effective as Dubnyk in a shoot out.

No Hab fan. Just want these guys to develop and learn. It's the same old every game for Hall. He's not that good. I don't get the hype. He had wheel and a high wrist shot. What else?

 

[dustrock]

I thought JSchultz and Belov were our best d-men and they got the most time.

Not a fan of Smid this year.

Eberle, as I said last year: have teams figured him out? A few positive signs this game where he started to skate in with some aggression but he is generally playing such a passive game.

Team is better 5-on-5 but PP is horrendous.

Will say I felt Montreal got away with about 8 billion hooks, but that's the way to beat the Oilers.

Not sure how many goals this team scores when they're not on a break. And other than JSchultz and maybe Belov, no offensive input from the d-men.

 

[Pablo Aimar]

Aside from his one fluke season Eberle is not near the player Hemsky has been and wont' be going forward. If they can trade him while he is still perceived as an elite talent they should. Maybe then can get an actual competent defender and resign Hemsky.

Yakupov is really weird. He either looks like an all-world talent or he looks like a guy who just started playing hockey a few days ago. Why does he stop skating all the time and just stand around? Hopefully he figures it out soon or this team is going nowhere.

 

[McJC]

Meh, not worried about Hall. The guy is usually quiet to start the season. In a few weeks, you guys will be singing a different tune.

Yakupov's confidence is at an all time low. You can see it in his game. He's just way to afraid to make a mistake. It takes his aggressiveness away from him. He doesn't look at all like the same player from last year. He'll get out of it though, too much talent and drive not to. Once he sees a puck goes in off his stick, everything will be normal again.

 

[cpsman]

You're all a bunch of ****ing downers. Seriously.

1-3 isn't the end of the world. Stop being so dramatic. There's a reason why the season has 82 games.

If we're still struggling into November, sure, jump off bridges.

4 games in? Little premature.

It definitely is premature. This team is better than they have been playing. A LOT of the players are slumping right now, which is a recipe for disaster. I just think they need to sort out why a lot of them are slumping and figure it out soon.

 

[ohheyhemsky]

With as much as Eakins has switched up lines through the first 4 games, Yakupov has had plenty of time with offensive players at ES on the PP to generate something. Other than hitting the post against Jersey he isn't getting it done.

Nail Yakupov does not look like an NHL player at the moment. That is something you have never been able to say about Hall or RNH. Even when one of them has struggled they've always looked like NHLers.

Yakupov looks like he belongs in the minors. As I said, he better get his head on straight. Poor line mates isn't an excuse. A first overall should be able to create something on his own or make the players around him better. Yakupov does neither right now.

I wouldn't say plenty of time with actual players. He gets time with them when we're struggling, and limited time at that.

Also, watch the PP again, and notice how flawed our system is to set Yakupov up for his shot. We need to have that shot anchored as a threat to scramble the defence. It's hard to do that when Below, who is supposedly QBing our PP overlooks an open Yakupov every single time. He never gets that pass. It pisses me off to no end.

 

[smackdaddy]

You're all a bunch of ****ing downers. Seriously.

1-3 isn't the end of the world. Stop being so dramatic. There's a reason why the season has 82 games.

If we're still struggling into November, sure, jump off bridges.

4 games in? Little premature.

Losses aren't the problem here, it's how we lose. Take a real good look. When you realize nothing has changed since 2009 and the team still struggles with 2009 problems, you'll realize how bad it's gotten.

 

[McGoMcD]

You're all a bunch of ****ing downers. Seriously.

1-3 isn't the end of the world. Stop being so dramatic. There's a reason why the season has 82 games.

If we're still struggling into November, sure, jump off bridges.

4 games in? Little premature.

Ya, I actually thought we played a good game. Pucks weren't going in, some times it is just breaks. I think Arco really hurts us, need gags back big time. Other than that we are fine.

 

[MetaOil1993]

Don't forget that Yakupov has been shown nothing but ****** wingers for a majority of his career so far. He's not being treated like a 1st overall winger.

I'm not taking his side, but we must keep in mind that it's easy to lose confidence when you have to create offense by yourself.

Again though, he is a 1st overall draft pick. He should be able to get past this.

My changes for next game? Put Hall on the third line, put Perron on the first and switch up Eberle and Yakupov.

Spot on. Honestly I would put him with RNH, IMO it makes sense putting our best sniper with our best play maker to see what happens.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

How many times are you going to watch Hall get crushed doing the exact. same. move. It's like a record skip.

I actually thought the hit Gorges put on him was more of a collision that neither anticipated.

 

[GretzkytoKurri9917]

You're all a bunch of ****ing downers. Seriously.

1-3 isn't the end of the world. Stop being so dramatic. There's a reason why the season has 82 games.

If we're still struggling into November, sure, jump off bridges.

4 games in? Little premature.

watcha talkin' about?It couldn't be more clear that this team is done for the year.


Same crap from last year,and the year before,and the year before.

 

[Insta]

You're all a bunch of ****ing downers. Seriously.

1-3 isn't the end of the world. Stop being so dramatic. There's a reason why the season has 82 games.

If we're still struggling into November, sure, jump off bridges.

4 games in? Little premature.

Weve all seen this movie many times. It never ends happily.

 

[Distinct]

To Hall's credit he made a saucer pass today - that's honestly the first fore-handed saucer pass he's made in his career. I jumped off my couch when I saw it.

He also had a good feed over to Yakupov earlier in the 3rd that almost went for gold.

I think he was frustrated by a very solid MTL D today. Gorges, Subban, Markov - these guys are great players.

First season watching the oilers?

 

[The Perfect Human*]

I agree, I thought Petry was solid, one thing I like is when we are down he always has a really good rush or two. looks like he really cares basically.

Too be honest I think Smid is our worst D man this year so far. He is ok defensivly, but suddenly he seems a lot more flat footed, can't move the puck.

He doesn't have Petry shielding him anymore.

Eakins did one thing - he identified Smid's inability to support Petry's puck-moving ability on the top pairing against top opposition. That's why he demoted him to bottom pairing duty.

Now that Petry's with Belov there's a little more fluidity there. They're our best puck-moving pairing right now.

As for Smid-N.Schultz - it gives me nightmares of the Staios-Smith pairing of 6-7 years ago. No one can move the puck.

 

[Supermassive]

The pace of the game tonight was just ridiculous. Like, LUDICROUS SPEED.

Good to see we can hang with the Habs. Just couldn't get the bounces.

 

[Mr Forever]

So, are we still completely comfortable with letting Hemsky walk this off season...? Eberle, hey?

 

[Soliloquy of a Dogge]

Eberle needs to stop being spoonfed minutes and sat in the PB. He is constantly given carte blanche and frankly, hasn't deserved it. Way too many lazy habits in his game.

 

[oXo Cube]

Would have no issues with Yak being scratched for the next game.

Dubnyk was solid.

I get that Smid's awful passing limits his effectiveness in the system but I really don't think the team is tight enough to be limiting his minutes as much as we are.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

watcha talkin' about?It couldn't be more clear that this team is done for the year.


Same crap from last year,and the year before,and the year before.

Actually, in terms of starts to the season, this is the exact opposite of the last few years.

 

[tiger_80]

You're all a bunch of ****ing downers. Seriously.

1-3 isn't the end of the world. Stop being so dramatic. There's a reason why the season has 82 games.

If we're still struggling into November, sure, jump off bridges.

4 games in? Little premature.

This team sucks. It has no chance the way it is built right now. Sooner or later they will need to acquire a good 2C, a top pairing d-man and a pair of real 3rd liners. My guess is one of Eberle/Yakupov is as good as gone this off-season.

 

[McOilers97]

I think we have to remember that if not for the RNH turnover that led to the 2 on 1, this game could have been totally different. Not blaming RNH for the loss obviously, but just saying, we were still in the game.

I don't really get all the Hall bashing here. I was critical of his play through the first 3 games, but tonight he looked pretty confident to me. The dekes weren't really working, and we'd all rather see him shoot through the defenseman instead, but when he did lose the puck, he did a nice job of recovering it. He wasn't turning it over like in the previous 3 games.

Don't even get me started on Eberle though.

 

[CupofOil]

I agree. I don't understand why people are freaking out.

The Oilers were far and away the better team tonight. Just beaten by a team that capitalized better.

Christ, after the Canucks game, everybody was saying that they could live with a loss if it came off an effort like this. What happened?

The effort was fine but how in the world did you come away from this game thinking that the Oilers badly outplayed them? I can't think of many tough saves that Budaj had to make, he had an easy night. Perimeter shots and little net presence, typical of the Oilers of the last several years, very few of the Oilers shots were that threatening.
The Habs didn't create a lot of offense either but they didn't have to, just stand up the Oilers in the neutral zone and let them work on the perimeter all night long. Easy gameplan to beat the Oilers which many teams seem to employ.

 

[Spawn]

Galchenyuk is also playing with skill players while yak is spending his time on the ice with Gordon and Smyth with almost no power play time. Hard to compare the two players so far this season

He's gotten 3 minutes of PP time a game. He's played with combinations of Hall, RNH, Arcobello, Perron, Gordon, Joensuu and yes... Smyth.

It's not the coaches fault the guy stands around like a moron in the defensive zone 1/2 the time.

 

[Comrade Blunderbore]

yet again we play against a team where half D-men are better than anything we have at our hands. i think we need to trade for a real star on defense. good teams have those.

 

[Tarus]

First season watching the oilers?

He just dislikes Hall.