Pre-Game Talk: Oilers ship sinking fast. They need an Island.

[LTIR]

Nuge getting shafted... Gets to play the wing and with inferior linemates.

The 5 core members I see right now are: CmD, Drai, Hyman, Nuge, Skinner.

That's pretty offensively loaded. Nurse is a bust. He's not core. This team has zero defensive core.

Skinner is far from core... He is another bad game away from fringe NHL/AHLer caliber

The team is going nowhere with this goaltending duo.

 

[Shaquille Oatmeal]

Nuge getting shafted... Gets to play the wing and with inferior linemates.


Skinner is far from core... He is another bad game away from fringe NHL/AHLer caliber

The team is going nowhere with this goaltending duo.

SKINNER is currently ranked mid-range of the top starting Goaltenders in the 32 team NHL. It's not Skinner you should be worried about. The oilers defence doesn't even show up on the radar. It's non-existent

 

[SwedishFire]

Lots of overreacting recently here. I read someone call Woodcroft a nepotism hire. How? He was as far removed as possible from the inner circle and it basically took a lightning in the bottle situation for him to become head coach.

And for people complaining that Yamo is still in the top 6, we only have like 5 (currently 4) true top 6 players and everyone else is vanilla. Gm hasn’t really given many options (same as every other coach in the past 500 years).

Yamamoto doesnt really fit any center except Nuge here.

Oilers could use McDavid, Leon, Hyman, Kostin, Fogele, McLeod as yop 6ers meanwhile. But, yes, its easier to use Yamamoto.

Kostin McDavid Hyman
Fogele McLeod Leon - McLeod being better defensivly.
Järnmark Nuge Yamamoto
Holloway ryan Pulju

 

[Harry Curry]

Nurse is a bust. He's not core.

The last three games have been Nurse's best three-game stretch of the season. The Oilers are 1-2 in those three games. That ain't core.

Calling him a bust is excessive. He'd be fine at $7 M per.

The Oilers need to find a top-pairing LD at no more than $3 million less than Nurse makes.

Bring in an upgrade on left D before the end of the month Kenny!

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

Closed door meeting only to show up and play half assed again tomorrow.

 

[SwedishFire]

Throw out the anchor Nurse and maybe the ship will rise out of the water.

Replace him with what?
Who would take a 9.5 million D in a cap world, and see it as an add, while shipping out something else?

It has to be a Weber - Subban trade. Is there any good although overpriced D out there, who is good at defense?

 

[SwedishFire]

Holy shit PJ not in top 6. Color me shocked.

Won’t matter if they continue to ignore solid systems play and basic peewee level d zone coverage.

Wonder what utter bullshit Woozy comes up with to blow smoke up everyone’s ass this post practice session.

“Uncharacteristic”.

What a joke.

Will the bottom 6 be

Fogele McLeod Pulju or
Järnmark Ryan Pulju?

 

[Rengorlex]

Will the bottom 6 be

Fogele McLeod Pulju or
Järnmark Ryan Pulju?

Hard to choose between a douche and a turd.

 

[SwedishFire]

The best managemwnt is making 7D to activate all players, and take away minitues from Ceci and Bouchard.

Nurse Barrie
Niemo Ceci
Kulak Bouchard
Nurse Broberg

And sit Pulju.

Double shift McLeod as 3 and 4 C.

 

[gordonhught]

The best managemwnt is making 7D to activate all players, and take away minitues from Ceci and Bouchard.

Nurse Barrie
Niemo Ceci
Kulak Bouchard
Nurse Broberg

And sit Pulju.

Double shift McLeod as 3 and 4 C.

This is crazy.

 

[SnipeShowJB11]

I've been trying so hard to see the good in Woodcroft and defend him but... Its getting mighty hard now.

Being an Oilers fan is like being stuck in a horrible nightmare you can't wake up from.

It's like watching a car crash. We have Ferrari's with sh** 9.25 tires plus a few other crap tires

Even the Ferrari's suck at braking

 

[SnipeShowJB11]

Because THIS is the main problem with the Oilers….

Woodcroft is hovering at Eakins level idiocy and rapidly descending.

LOL these nimrobs are doing this when they cannot play a lick of D?

 

[Jumptheshark]

I see the board is still ready to burn down the village. Why are we shocked by the last few games? The team is poorly built and I do not think any of us really know how to fix it. We have had fire GM threads for 22 years now

Lowe
Tambelllini---this guy was a bad hire--he has not idea what he was doing
Mact
Chirelli
Keith G for 6 months
Holland

Lowe was most successful of the bunch--he was hated for most of his years on the job and he is one of the main Old boys club that we bashed all the time

for me, I have no answers, what the oilers did in the 2019 off season is just killing us. The Broberg draft and several of the moves. I usually love my Swedes... but we had taken Bouchard the year before--we knew we needed goal scoring l depth to come sooner than later and there were a lot of forwards on the board when we took Broberg. Broberg wasn't even the top D man left on the board..

Everyone has a list of players they can not stand

Mine are Yams, Jesse P. and pretty much all the D--

Yams was good last year but he has fallen off the face of the earth for production. He has one year left at 3mill. With Jesse P, do we even offer him a qualifying offer for next year?

Our D just sucks in our zone and man to man coverage

 

[SwedishFire]

I see the board is still ready to burn down the village. Why are we shocked by the last few games? The team is poorly built and I do not think any of us really know how to fix it. We have had fire GM threads for 22 years now

Lowe
Tambelllini---this guy was a bad hire--he has not idea what he was doing
Mact
Chirelli
Keith G for 6 months
Holland

Lowe was most successful of the bunch--he was hated for most of his years on the job and he is one of the main Old boys club that we bashed all the time

for me, I have no answers, what the oilers did in the 2019 off season is just killing us. The Broberg draft and several of the moves. I usually love my Swedes... but we had taken Bouchard the year before--we knew we needed goal scoring l depth to come sooner than later and there were a lot of forwards on the board when we took Broberg. Broberg wasn't even the top D man left on the board..

Everyone has a list of players they can not stand

Mine are Yams, Jesse P. and pretty much all the D--

Yams was good last year but he has fallen off the face of the earth for production. He has one year left at 3mill. With Jesse P, do we even offer him a qualifying offer for next year?

Our D just sucks in our zone and man to man coverage

Lowe and Tambellini thought building a team around a winger(Hall) and in was a good idea. It isnt. Nuge Hall Eberle would never be a strong team. Such a weak 1st line in retroperspective.

K Gretz was quite good. Chia suddenly fall off for some reason. MacT didnt make good trades to improve the team. Holland has great patience... great great patience... wich survives my patience. Why did he trade for AA, who is a poor intelligence player. Why did he give Kassian an absurd contract, and why doesnt he address one more D this year. Well, to be fair around all rumors - maybe its what he does right now.

Why did he gave away 3 mil to Yamamoto? Why didnt he trade Puljujärvi last summer for at least anything.

Broberg, Holloway wobt be impact players for at keast 2 years from here.
When McDavid and Leon has their primes now, he should think diffrent.
Get some D Ken, get some D. Make it so.

 

[KCC]

Nuge getting shafted... Gets to play the wing and with inferior linemates.


Skinner is far from core... He is another bad game away from fringe NHL/AHLer caliber

The team is going nowhere with this goaltending duo.

You can't blame Skinner for last game. He was just fine but the defense let him down. He had no chance on almost every goal. Yes he's had the odd bad game but for the most part he's given the team a chance to win. Tough to win though when the team is only scoring a few goals a game. Unless he plays like a Vezina goalie that's not on him.

Putting JP on the top line has really screwed things up. Said it for weeks, people here are probably tired of me saying it but I'll keep saying it until he's gone. Throw him on the third or 4th line and put in Kostin or McLeod. Anyone with some speed and remote awareness to give McDavid a chance to be himself. Or better yet, bench JP. He's useless. I'm tired of Woodcroft babying him and keeping a barely NHL player on a top line. He's gone insane at this point. It's the big reason it's costing the team games.

 

[Ritchie Valens]

You can't blame Skinner for last game. He was just fine but the defense let him down. He had no chance on almost every goal. Yes he's had the odd bad game but for the most part he's given the team a chance to win. Tough to win though when the team is only scoring a few goals a game. Unless he plays like a Vezina goalie that's not on him.

Putting JP on the top line has really screwed things up. Said it for weeks, people here are probably tired of me saying it but I'll keep saying it until he's gone. Throw him on the third or 4th line and put in Kostin or McLeod. Anyone with some speed and remote awareness to give McDavid a chance to be himself. Or better yet, bench JP. He's useless. I'm tired of Woodcroft babying him and keeping a barely NHL player on a top line. He's gone insane at this point. It's the big reason it's costing the team games.

There's a post with a Gregor tweet a couple of pages back indicating exactly this. I'm excited to see what Kostin can do with McDavid.

 

[Mez]

Closed door meeting only to show up and play half assed again tomorrow.

Such Oiler, so wow.

 

[StoveTopStauffer]

Isn't Dave Manson the defensive coach? That doesn't seem to be going well, maybe he's not NHL ready.

 

[Reasonable Oil Fan]

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know the last stretch of games have been a disaster. We pissed away a golden opportunity to give ourselves some breathing room.
With the position we are in and the upcoming schedules of the teams we are battling with, an argument can be made that we need to win the next 5 to avoid a tough spot

Crunch time

 

[russ99]

I see the board is still ready to burn down the village. Why are we shocked by the last few games? The team is poorly built and I do not think any of us really know how to fix it. We have had fire GM threads for 22 years now

Lowe
Tambelllini---this guy was a bad hire--he has not idea what he was doing
Mact
Chirelli
Keith G for 6 months
Holland

Lowe was most successful of the bunch--he was hated for most of his years on the job and he is one of the main Old boys club that we bashed all the time

for me, I have no answers, what the oilers did in the 2019 off season is just killing us. The Broberg draft and several of the moves. I usually love my Swedes... but we had taken Bouchard the year before--we knew we needed goal scoring l depth to come sooner than later and there were a lot of forwards on the board when we took Broberg. Broberg wasn't even the top D man left on the board..

Everyone has a list of players they can not stand

Mine are Yams, Jesse P. and pretty much all the D--

Yams was good last year but he has fallen off the face of the earth for production. He has one year left at 3mill. With Jesse P, do we even offer him a qualifying offer for next year?

Our D just sucks in our zone and man to man coverage

We're at the cap. Over the cap without LTIR, trades are going to be tight until there are more sellers closer to the deadline.

Firing the GM and whoever above does nothing now. Woodcroft actually coaching these players and giving up on his Eakins-like obsession with firewagon hockey would.

Just takes one game of benching the right guys and revising systems play to make a dent and get us on the right path. We can't wait until the week break to make the needed changes in how we play.

 

[Reasonable Oil Fan]

We're at the cap. Over the cap without LTIR, trades are going to be tight until there are more sellers closer to the deadline.

Firing the GM and whoever above does nothing now. Woodcroft actually coaching these players and giving up on his Eakins-like obsession with firewagon hockey would.

Just takes one game of benching the right guys and revising systems play to make a dent and get us on the right path. We can't wait until the week break to make the needed changes in how we play.

To me, the red flag was when we started the season at the cap and 2 roster spots short. No room to sit underperforming players.

 

[tardigrade81]

I dunno anymore

Just so.

 

[LTIR]

SKINNER is currently ranked mid-range of the top starting Goaltenders in the 32 team NHL. It's not Skinner you should be worried about. The oilers defence doesn't even show up on the radar. It's non-existent

There is a big gap between worrying about a player and declaring him a core piece.

Skinner is shiny sure but so are Barrie and Kostin. Nurse is more of a core player than either of these

 

[Mr Positive]

We're at the cap. Over the cap without LTIR, trades are going to be tight until there are more sellers closer to the deadline.

Firing the GM and whoever above does nothing now. Woodcroft actually coaching these players and giving up on his Eakins-like obsession with firewagon hockey would.

Just takes one game of benching the right guys and revising systems play to make a dent and get us on the right path. We can't wait until the week break to make the needed changes in how we play.

benching guys seems like we are sacrificing two points that night, because just know it means either giving insane minutes to the experienced players that aren't benched, or giving signficant minutes to the disappointing depth players who weren't benched.

And I totally disagree that it would fix anything. I don't think the problem with the underperforming players would be fixed with the 'slap in the face' approach. Everyone wants to do the right thing.

As for the systems, that might be an issue but it's impossible to know. I have a feeling that if our team had the right skill, like if Kane returned and we added the right defenseman, all of a sudden the systems would look great. They looked great last year under this same staff.

 

[Mr Positive]

Replace him with what?
Who would take a 9.5 million D in a cap world, and see it as an add, while shipping out something else?

It has to be a Weber - Subban trade. Is there any good although overpriced D out there, who is good at defense?

Nurse has looked really good ever since his minutes have been reduced. He is still our #1 D in minutes but he's just not a 28 minute a night D

The problem is that since the extra minutes have gone to other D and exposed them.

There's no trade out there for us, and personally I'd rather not look to trade Nurse. Like you say, we would be getting someone with question marks themselves, and since we can't know how they would gel with our team, it might end up being much worse than Nurse. So, the best route here is to find out what Nurse needs to succeed, and it's looking like repairing our defensive depth is the answer.