Playoffs or Chia fired?

[CantHaveTkachev]

It will never not be funny to me that we went from "we're sick of just scraping into the playoffs! We need to tank for elite players so we can dominate!" to "well, we have the best player in the world now, so hopefully we can just scrape into the playoffs."

almost as funny as "damn, so much talent...why aren't we winning games?"
"another high pick, this year is the year we turn it around and not be a bottom 3 team...promise!"

 

[iCanada]

Impossible to like this post enough.

I hope we're so successful that firing Chia seems like the most absurd idea possible.

Lets punch a ticket to the dance, like damn.

 

[Little Fury]

When you have the best player in the world you always have a punchers chance. Even if we scrape in as an 8th seed do you think that anyone wants to match up against Connor?

One player, even one of McDavid's calibre, can only take you so far.

 

[Little Fury]

almost as funny as "damn, so much talent...why aren't we winning games?"
"another high pick, this year is the year we turn it around and not be a bottom 3 team...promise!"

You keep making this specious argument that the Oilers had talent pre-McDavid. They had Hall and some decent pieces in RNH and Eberle, but absolutely nothing else.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

You keep making this specious argument that the Oilers had talent pre-McDavid. They had Hall and some decent pieces in RNH and Eberle, but absolutely nothing else.

Klefbom? Nurse? Petry? Dubnyk? Perron? Schultz?

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

When you have the best player in the world you always have a punchers chance. Even if we scrape in as an 8th seed do you think that anyone wants to match up against Connor?

Have we beaten Nashville since he was drafted? We didn't exactly have a stellar record against most of the Western playoff teams last year.

 

[Little Fury]

Klefbom? Nurse? Petry? Dubnyk? Perron? Schultz?

Not sure how you include Klef and Nurse in that since only Klefbom played in that pre-McDavid cluster and for just 60 games. The rest are decent complimentary players who were miscast in the wrong roles in Edmonton. Then, as now, the problem was a lack of difference-makers.

 

[Soundwave]

Nurse and Klefbom virtually played nothing before getting McDavid, he played one 60 game stretch where he scored 2 whopping goals, 20 points and was a -21. Which is normal as he was basically a rookie. Nurse played nothing before Chiarelli got here.

The Oilers were never that talented before. It was basically the equivalent of this ...

Oilers were hyped to be super talented because three no.1 overalls should yield at least 2, more like (well) 3 top end players like Stamkos or Tavares or (gulp) Crosby, but the fact is the Oilers only got one high end player to show for that (Hall) and that player was not a Crosby/Ovechkin tier player either.

RNH still after 7 years has never once scored at a 70+ point pace, Ales Hemsky (13th overall pick) did that like 3-4 times already in his first 7 years here.

Yakupov is a straight up bust. People say "wow, three no.1 overall picks" and figured that meant Stamkos + Tavares + Patrick Kane. Instead it was really more like Phil Kessell (Hall) + Brayden Schenn (RNH) + Patrik Stefan (Nail Yakupov).

Now for Chia, the hockey gods made that up by gifting the Oilers Draisaitl and McDavid, that effectively could've created a "big 3" dynamic where Hall is the third best player and let RNH be a support player. So eventually we did have that made up for us, but anyone saying the 2010-2015 era Oilers were "super talented" is a liar, super hyped sure, but the reality on the ice was not that talented.

 

[Took a pill in Sbisa]

I voted 'missed playoffs' however I'm not sure about the ''Chia fired" part

 

[Little Fury]

Biggest factor no one is talking about is Draisaitl. IMO success this season will really turn on him becoming a guy who can push the river at evens on his own on a consistent basis. Even if they fix the PP and PK and the goaltending bounces back to just average, they absolutely need to get more than one line going.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

One player, even one of McDavid's calibre, can only take you so far.

True, however we are not a one player team and if any player can go supernova it's McDavid.

Have we beaten Nashville since he was drafted? We didn't exactly have a stellar record against most of the Western playoff teams last year.

That was last season, I for one expect improvement this season, do you expect an even worse season?

 

[mouz135]

True, however we are not a one player team and if any player can go supernova it's McDavid.

Some would argue that the Oilers are infact a one man team, or 1 line team. Possibly a 2 man team. If McDavid or Drai go down with injuries, the team is sunk. If McDavid and his line are shut down in a game, 90% of the time the Oilers will lose the game.

There is so much riding on just McDavid’s shoulders it’s crazy. After him and Drai, it’s just a whole bunch of meh and question marks.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Some would argue that the Oilers are infact a one man team, or 1 line team. Possibly a 2 man team. If McDavid or Drai go down with injuries, the team is sunk. If McDavid and his line are shut down in a game, 90% of the time the Oilers will lose the game.

There is so much riding on just McDavid’s shoulders it’s crazy. After him and Drai, it’s just a whole bunch of meh and question marks.

Well that could change this year if Puljujarvi and/or Yamamoto take a step up. Nuge is nothing to scoff at either as a 3rd wheel.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

True, however we are not a one player team and if any player can go supernova it's McDavid.

That was last season, I for one expect improvement this season, do you expect an even worse season?

I don't expect a worse season but the current roster doesn't look like a playoff team. Does it to you?

They need to improve by at least 15 points if not more than that.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

I don't expect a worse season but the current roster doesn't look like a playoff team. Does it to you?

They need to improve by at least 15 points if not more than that.

I think that coaching will be huge for this team. We need the coaching staff to get the best out of our young players and to have functional PP and PK schemes. IMO the additions of Rieder, Brodziak and possibly Upshall should really help our PK. I personally think that this team could be a very good one and yes a playoff team. If McLellan continues to be stubborn and is here in spite of a tough start then things could get very, very ugly.

 

[Little Fury]

True, however we are not a one player team and if any player can go supernova it's McDavid.

We're not? I'd disagree there. Like I said, if Drai can pull his own line for the better part of a season, we'll be in business, but that's still tbd.

 

[Aceboogie]

The team building mentality is flawed and that will cause us to continue to underachieve in the long run. So for me its quite easily fire Chiarelli and not make playoffs next year. One year of playoffs is fun, but ill take continued long term success, something we arent going to get under Chiarelli

 

[Section337]

I realized I might be more negative about things than those voting to miss the playoffs and fire Chiarelli. After all, it often appears to be based on the assumption that there will be a positive change; whereas, I question that more than the team that exists this year.

 

[Soundwave]

The team building mentality is flawed and that will cause us to continue to underachieve in the long run. So for me its quite easily fire Chiarelli and not make playoffs next year. One year of playoffs is fun, but ill take continued long term success, something we arent going to get under Chiarelli

I would agree there needs to be a bigger philosophy here than just "pray to scrape into the playoffs!", you're not going to build a legit contender with that attitude.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

We're not? I'd disagree there. Like I said, if Drai can pull his own line for the better part of a season, we'll be in business, but that's still tbd.

Drai needs more help on the 2nd line. A hopefully rejuvinated Lucic, Rieder or an improved Pulju should do that. Drai did fine last season but like many others had his stats affected by a piss poor PP.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

I would agree there needs to be a bigger philosophy here than just "pray to scrape into the playoffs!", you're not going to build a legit contender with that attitude.

Do you really think that is the mentality of the players? They want to show everyone that doubts them the middle finger.

 

[Little Fury]

Drai needs more help on the 2nd line. A hopefully rejuvinated Lucic, Rieder or an improved Pulju should do that. Drai did fine last season but like many others had his stats affected by a piss poor PP.

For $8.5M a year Drai should be dragging whoever he's with along with him. He's shown snippets of the ability but overall, he's been stapled to elite players for the bulk of his career to date. We ain't going nowhere if he's not the guy.

 

[Soundwave]

Do you really think that is the mentality of the players? They want to show everyone that doubts them the middle finger.

The mentality of the GM is where everything begins IMO. You don't have it right there and it trickles down.

Hate to say it too but mentally this team doesn't strike me as mentally tough either. They are fragile as f***, any little thing goes wrong and they let it snowball out of control.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

For $8.5M a year Drai should be dragging whoever he's with along with him. He's shown snippets of the ability but overall, he's been stapled to elite players for the bulk of his career to date.

Hall was not elite in Drai's 2nd season. He went out with a whimper instead of a bang as an Oiler. Yes he played great with Connor and he owes at least some of his contract to that. I don't think that it's fair to expect him to be McDavid, Crosby or Malkin level and carry guys like Aberg, Khaira and Rattie. He may get there but the odds aren't in his favor. I'd agree that he should be able to carry a line with at least one other good player on it.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

The mentality of the GM is where everything begins IMO. You don't have it right there and it trickles down.

Hate to say it too but mentally this team doesn't strike me as mentally tough either. They are fragile as ****, any little thing goes wrong and they let it snowball out of control.

The GM does his job and then it's up to the players to do theirs. At worst, Chia at least addressed the PK with the additions of Brodziak, Rieder and possibly Upshall as well as 3/4 new coaches.

This was true last season but not the season before that. Clearly the leadership group needs to make sure that it is not a problem next season.