Post-Game Talk: Okay

[nabob]

In all fairness, RNH has been a big disappointment this year. He needs to be much better

I don’t think anyone would argue against the idea that Nuge needs to produce more offense. And he will.

 

[nabob]

HaHa
Ya - a bit... unusual!

LTIR I think

maybe we should put IATL on the LTIR

 

[RegDunlop]

maybe we should put IATL on the LTIR

Ha!
Whoops! Meant IATL

 

[nexttothemoon]

I gotta say... the general anger level on these forums seems higher than ever.

Maybe I just misjudged the levels in the past, but it seems it doesn't really make any difference that this team is leading the West and is overall doing much better this season.

PP, PK and goaltending all solid... overall team D is good.

Sure there's some issues with the team and not all lines are firing on all cylinders offensively but hell if they were... they'd likely have close to 30 points now and be undefeated... and realistically I don't think anyone could have expected that.

I'm enjoying finally watching a team that on any given night is competitive and has a chance to beat any other team and on most nights isn't really out of it until the final whistle blows.

 

[guymez]

I gotta say... the general anger level on these forums seems higher than ever.

Maybe I just misjudged the levels in the past, but it seems it doesn't really make any difference that this team is leading the West and is overall doing much better this season.

PP, PK and goaltending all solid... overall team D is good.

Sure there's some issues with the team and not all lines are firing on all cylinders offensively but hell if they were... they'd likely have close to 30 points now and be undefeated... and realistically I don't think anyone could have expected that.

I'm enjoying finally watching a team that on any given night is competitive and has a chance to beat any other team and on most nights isn't really out of it until the final whistle blows.

I agree and this is really all we should have realistically expected this season.

 

[OilerTitanFan]

If our bottom 6 is employed only to kill time and not score then Khaira and the rest of the lot are doing their job. Then this board, the media, the coach and the GM should stop complaining about the bottom 6 not contributing to the offence.

However based on the games I have seen him play live, and that is all the home games and 2 of the road games, he consistently peels off on the rush when he is not the puck carrier and does not drive the far post of the net. Peeling off is what goal scorers do looking for open ice. He is not a goal scorer as you say.

He should be driving the net stick on the ice looking for rebounds or loose pucks that a shot from his off wing creates more often than not. When he has the puck instead of wasting time along the boards every single time, he needs to take pucks to the net more often and with more urgency. On down low plays he needs to get in the grill of the goaltender and use his size to be a net front presence. Instead he has consistently been on the perimeter.

Bottom 6 scorers consistently score from the blue paint area on hard working goals. He got his goal on a skate deflection driving the net in the blue paint. We need to see more of that.

And your Crosby Guentzel comparison is ridiculous.

The bottom 6 have yet to gel as a group. So far it has been a bunch of plug and play. We rolled out deadbeats like Rieder and Lucic and brought in a bunch of nobodies like Nygard and Haas. All Holland did was get a bunch of junk at a lower price doing a whole bunch of nothing. This is a net positive.

It is like one person going to an organic market buying a bottle of organic milk for $5 while another goes to Loblaws finding the same milk for $3. The same milk but different price. Then checks out with a PC Optimum card to rack up some points. The points being the cap space.

Nobody is expecting the bottom 6 to do anything at all and that is the way it is for more than half the teams in the NHL. We can trade all 6 of our junk for 6 of another team's junk. It will not change a thing.

 

[iCanada]

I gotta say... the general anger level on these forums seems higher than ever.

Maybe I just misjudged the levels in the past, but it seems it doesn't really make any difference that this team is leading the West and is overall doing much better this season.

PP, PK and goaltending all solid... overall team D is good.

Sure there's some issues with the team and not all lines are firing on all cylinders offensively but hell if they were... they'd likely have close to 30 points now and be undefeated... and realistically I don't think anyone could have expected that.

I'm enjoying finally watching a team that on any given night is competitive and has a chance to beat any other team and on most nights isn't really out of it until the final whistle blows.

I agree, I think there is a lot of long held negativity.

That being said, it is hard for me to call it unwarranted; this entire board has been coo'd for many a sixteen game stretch before the floor fell out and everything fell apart.

Last year we we're in a playoff spot at Thanksgiving, for example.

 

[dssource]

For a grinding, low scoring game, that was actually pretty entertaining but VERY frustrating. I hate the Yotes style of play. Refs were bad, but once the Oilers realized it, they were taking liberties as well so let's not pretend this was one way.

I'd like to see more Gagner on the top line. He seemed out of sync with the other 2 in this game but I believe he would do well there. Haas has looked much better, although he's still really weak. I'd like to see his speed and skill in OT. Tippett should go balls out and have a Nuge-Haas-Bear line in OT. I doubt that will happen though.

Kassian with a great game. I loved that Nuge was hitting, especially when he clocked OEL. And Draisaitl out muscling and running OEL into the net was a thing of beauty.

Oilers were the better team for the majority of this game. If Kosk doesn't let in a stinker, the result is different. Regardless, the effort was great to see, we earned a point against a tough team and now on to the next.

Not sure why Tipp wouldn't have started Smith against his former team.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

The bottom 6 have yet to gel as a group. So far it has been a bunch of plug and play. We rolled out deadbeats like Rieder and Lucic and brought in a bunch of nobodies like Nygard and Haas. All Holland did was get a bunch of junk at a lower price doing a whole bunch of nothing. This is a net positive.

It is like one person going to an organic market buying a bottle of organic milk for $5 while another goes to Loblaws finding the same milk for $3. The same milk but different price. Then checks out with a PC Optimum card to rack up some points. The points being the cap space.

Nobody is expecting the bottom 6 to do anything at all and that is the way it is for more than half the teams in the NHL. We can trade all 6 of our junk for 6 of another team's junk. It will not change a thing.

The Oilers had a league historic low in bottom 6 offence last year and are trending to be even worse this year.

But that’s not my point with how Khaira (and Granlund and Chaisson) has been playing in the offensive zone.

You won’t score from the wall and cycles rarely break down a defensive group anymore. You need to put your work boots on and get pucks and bodies to the net and not peel off on zone rushes looking for open ice. Otherwise forget it. Even Tippett has said they have to work harder to generate goals.

If your content with near zero offense from the bottom 6 then the way they are playing is fine I guess.

 

[nally]

Nuge backchecked hard and caught Schmaltz on that play. Nurse should have taken the pass.

I thought Nuge backed off at the absolute wrong time instead of just chugging as fast as he could. I don't know...just thought Nuge could have disrupted the play if he didn't let up near the end

 

[frag2]

That’s asking for bit much considering the Oilers cap situation. RNH needs to be able to get things done while playing with players like Chiasson, Kassian, Neal, Haas, Jurco and Gagner. If he can’t, I don’t really understand how he would be able to ask for any kind of a raise at all.

Also worth noting that when RNH had a clear top six linemate in Eberle, 99% of the fans blamed Eberle every time that line went cold, called him ‘addition by subtraction’ and cheered when he got shipped out of town. I hope those fans can see how wrong they were in that assessment.

For the record I like RNH, but I’ve been saying for years that he a) can’t carry the puck, b) has no offensive creativity, moves, whatever you want to call it, that would allow him to beat a dman one in one and open up space for himself or his linemates to have an odd man situation, and c) needs to get service in the slot to score. Sorry, but those are serious limitations.

To be fair, post-Johnson headshot Eberle was a shadow of his former self. He would hardly cut towards the net and would rather just button hook and wait while defenders collapse on him. That was hurting the team offensively, something he was heavily leaned on for. He wasn't a defensive dynamo either...then again, neither is Nuge.

Nuge always seems to get away from criticism. He may be a 'responsible' player but he is literally just there at this point. 2nd line Centers need to do more than just "break even".

 

[harpoon]

To be fair, post-Johnson headshot Eberle was a shadow of his former self. He would hardly cut towards the net and would rather just button hook and wait while defenders collapse on him. That was hurting the team offensively, something he was heavily leaned on for. He wasn't a defensive dynamo either...then again, neither is Nuge.

It seems you would agree then that Eberle is able to carry it into the zone while holding possession. And he’s a threat at any moment to beat his man one on one - even if he doesn’t cut to the net like a 24 year old anymore. RNH needs a player who can pull up with the puck and serve him with passes. Some might even say that Eberle was forced into that style of game because of years of playing with RNH, and knowing how they had to play to give themselves the best chance of scoring, he made adjustments.

I think there’s certainly a point to be made that Eberle isn’t going to carry a line by himself any more than RNH is. Would he be doing any better with the linemates RNH has been getting? Maybe not, but for example I think Eberle would work better with Chiasson than what we’ve seen from the RNH/Chiasson pair.

Nuge always seems to get away from criticism. He may be a 'responsible' player but he is literally just there at this point. 2nd line Centers need to do more than just "break even".

I think he’s due to start scoring. The knock on Eberle with so many on this board was ‘when he’s not scoring he’s not doing anything’. And that’s where Nuge always got the out because he was the ‘defensively responsible’ guy who played PK and made other contributions as a center.

I’m not at all a fan of the idea of giving RNH a raise (like the crazy $8 million numbers that were being thrown around offseason), but he’s definitely a useful player in an all round sort of way. The team won’t panic because they know he’s having the worst twenty game stretch of his career in terms of goal scoring. However given that there’s no EV scoring below or around RNH in the lineup, Holland has to be concerned by now that his gamble to spend all of his meagre cap space on six cheap one year hopefuls doesn’t seem to be panning out. Thanks for screwing the team Chiarelli you dumb ass.

 

[frag2]

It seems you would agree then that Eberle is able to carry it into the zone while holding possession. And he’s a threat at any moment to beat his man one on one - even if he doesn’t cut to the net like a 24 year old anymore. RNH needs a player who can pull up with the puck and serve him with passes. Some might even say that Eberle was forced into that style of game because of years of playing with RNH, and knowing how they had to play to give themselves the best chance of scoring, he made adjustments.

I think there’s certainly a point to be made that Eberle isn’t going to carry a line by himself any more than RNH is. Would he be doing any better with the linemates RNH has been getting? Maybe not, but for example I think Eberle would work better with Chiasson than what we’ve seen from the RNH/Chiasson pair.
I think he’s due to start scoring. The knock on Eberle with so many on this board was ‘when he’s not scoring he’s not doing anything’. And that’s where Nuge always got the out because he was the ‘defensively responsible’ guy who played PK and made other contributions as a center.

I’m not at all a fan of the idea of giving RNH a raise (like the crazy $8 million numbers that were being thrown around offseason), but he’s definitely a useful player in an all round sort of way. The team won’t panic because they know he’s having the worst twenty game stretch of his career in terms of goal scoring. However given that there’s no EV scoring below or around RNH in the lineup, Holland has to be concerned by now that his gamble to spend all of his meagre cap space on six cheap one year hopefuls doesn’t seem to be panning out. Thanks for screwing the team Chiarelli you dumb ass.

Eberle has talent. Offensively, he was "better" than Nuge IMO. He just lost his mojo after he got erased by Jack Johnson that one game. Was never the same again and made watching his game extremely frustrating

RNH is the Klefbom of Oiler forwards. He's good but not as good as people hype him to be. And if he's your best, you're going to be in trouble.

We're just lucky we have McDrai and both Bear and Nurse took a huge step up

 

[foshizzle]

He seems to like Khaira.

And he likes Connor. What's your point? He can either like European players or Canadian, not both? I'm guessing you are just trying to find an argument to support your narrative. Carry on.