**POLL** What are the top 3 problems with the Oilers

[Stoneman89]

The correct answer is all of the above. You shouldn’t limit the choices to three. Change the poll to ask fans which of the above is a significant problem and determine your top 3 that way.

Let's just simplify things and make it easy on everyone. Someone start a poll asking "what things are they doing correctly?"

 

[Stoneman89]

I do find it amusing how many folks were going on about how we had all this defensive depth and how losing Klefbom wasn't really going to be that bad before the season started. How we had acquired some better NHL depth upfront than we started with the year before and that goaltending was the big concern.

Then you see the first and leading option on this poll and I have to ask..what happened there folks?

Turris, Kahun, Barrie, KK. I guess we just found more guys who aren't actual NHL players, hey? Seems like every player and coach who signs here isn't actual NHL calibre.

The so-called defensive "depth" we have here is a couple 2nd year guys, still finding their way and being asked to do way too much, a UFA low level pickup, and some other struggling vets trying to find their game, as well a some prospects in other various leagues.

 

[DropTheGloves]

Let's just simplify things and make it easy on everyone. Someone start a poll asking "what things are they doing correctly?"

Playing like shit from puck drop so I know I can safely turn the channel or go do something else and not miss anything of importance. That’s a big improvement over last year when they actually might give me hope by scoring first only to crap the bed later.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Too many areas to even narrow down to a top 3 unfortunately

Throw 3 darts.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Let's just simplify things and make it easy on everyone. Someone start a poll asking "what things are they doing correctly?"

Only 1 choice.

Nothing.

 

[GOilers88]

The so-called defensive "depth" we have here is a couple 2nd year guys, still finding their way and being asked to do way too much, a UFA low level pickup, and some other struggling vets trying to find their game, as well a some prospects in other various leagues.

Lol I don't disagree about the defensive depth. I laughed at that at the time as well.

I don't believe McDavid/RNH/Drai/Yamo/
Kahun/Kassian/Nygard/Haas/Neal/Archi/
Ennis is a terrible group of forwards either though.

Chiasson and Khaira are the only two glaring weaknesses to me, with JP still being an unknown who has shown some promise to at worst be a part of a top 9.

Do people honestly believe this team only has 3 or 4 NHL calibre players on it? I sure don't, so I think saying everyone is bad there's no depth anywhere is just a weak cop out.

 

[McJesusSaves97]

1. Defense - Lack of quality defenders that can actually defend well
2. Klef injury - Nurse & Bear are a serviceable 2nd pair, nothing more, & certainly not 1st pair
3. Soft - We are simply too easy to play against. Yep, we have guys like Nurse & Kass, but they don't bring it consistently, or even very often

 

[syz]

Some of these are related. Like, the depth on this team is obviously bad, and would likely be better if the team had managed to draft any legitimate NHL'ers outside of the first round over the course of the last *checks notes* nearly 20 years. The draft history of this team is an extremely depressing list, especially when it comes to forwards.

1) The defense sucks at moving the puck in all zones
2) The depth forwards on this team may as well be ghosts
3) Questionable goaltending

All 3 for me are talent issues. This team has extreme high end talent and then nothing after it. It's not a secret, either; everybody has been talking about it for years, and opposing teams no doubt plan around it. Shut down the two guys on the team who are good at hockey, the rest of the team won't hurt you. It's why Yamamoto made such a difference.

McDavid and Draisaitl are no doubt aware of it as well. They know that whenever they're on the bench nothing positive is going to happen. All they can do is sit there and watch Josh Archibald fail to make a 3 foot pass. If neither of them are on the ice you can 100% without fail get up and go make a sandwich or take a leak and you absolutely will not miss anything positive. For a while I would just change the channel depending on which line was on the ice.

 

[Pizza!Pizza!]

Defense, Goaltending, Coaching. Its going to be insanely hard for Ken Holland to fix this team, not just because of the cap crunch - but he also inherited a team with no depth, so there's no spare assets to trade. He needs to simultaneously shed cap while brining in top talent, depth talent and retaining (and hitting on) draft picks. He also needs to do this all under the ticking clock of McDavid being in his prime and not demanding a trade.

I still say and truly believe he's the best GM in the league, and will get it done in EDM if given the time and support --- but holy crap is the deck stacked against him. Even so, looking at signings like Koekoek, makes me hopeful that he can scout/snipe other teams' undervalued bottom pair D and pick them up for next to nothing and build some semblance of an NHL caliber defense. Hopefully they can get a better coach. If Columbus fires Torts for any reason, EDM should jump on him and cut him a blank check. Torts' defensive system and individual player accountability is EXACTLY what EDM needs to fix their system. We've all seen what Torts can do with a mediocre team w/o top talent up front - imagine what he could do with the current Oilers roster.

Fixing the goalie situation may not be possible for another year or two based on how the goalie market has been - but if Holland can fix the D I think a lot of the other problems will self correct.

 

[RandomGuy79]

Lol I don't disagree about the defensive depth. I laughed at that at the time as well.

I don't believe McDavid/RNH/Drai/Yamo/
Kahun/Kassian/Nygard/Haas/Neal/Archi/
Ennis is a terrible group of forwards either though.

Chiasson and Khaira are the only two glaring weaknesses to me, with JP still being an unknown who has shown some promise to at worst be a part of a top 9.

Do people honestly believe this team only has 3 or 4 NHL calibre players on it? I sure don't, so I think saying everyone is bad there's no depth anywhere is just a weak cop out.

Any decent player doesn't want to sign here unless we significantly overpay them it seems.

 

[GOilers88]

Any decent player doesn't want to sign here unless we significantly overpay them it seems.

Yet we constantly hear about overspending on free agents and never trying to bring people in.

Sort of entirely contradictory.

 

[bellagiobob]

Let's just simplify things and make it easy on everyone. Someone start a poll asking "what things are they doing correctly?"

They kept Habs fans out of the building the last two games, so that's one on the plus side of the ledger.

 

[Not Canada Drai]

Poor execution, reads and decision making - Consistently we are one of the lowest hockey IQ teams in the league who can't even make a simple pass yet we try to pass the puck into the net. Absolutely no desire to score greasy goals therefore we don't get them. It's cringe when you see other teams score the most frustrating goals ever and then you see our 4th line try behind the back passes at center ice.

Lack of intensity - I think we have heart but the intensity is not there

The water - Yessir

 

[Aerchon]

Other than down the middle and maybe RD where is the depth?

Even on C we got no #4C and RD we got no top quality.

Any of our RDs could be a healthy scratch candidate on a given night

Um. No. The bottom 6 is still replacement level players.

I don't like our d depth. Yes we have a lot of guys that can play in the NHL, but without true top pairing we don't have enough top 4 depth.

IMO Nurse, Bear and Barrie are probably the only guys that should be NHL everyday top 4. Koekkoek as well as he's looking is only averaging 16 minutes a night. Russell looked good last night, but he can't play 20 minutes a night. Larsson can fill in at times, but not a guy you want in the top 4 too many nights.

Forwards I'm fine with what we have on paper. When you have LD, McDavid and RNH you simply aren't going to have a lot of room for high end wingers. The real issue for me is given the number of guys we have is that no one is really standing out in a good way all that much.

A team playing Alex Chiasson regular minutes and on special teams is far from a team with "loaded" depth.

We have a plethora of promising young players, experienced nhl player with solid games played, and two superstars which literally count as 1.5 players at least.

Even someone like Larsson has come here and gotten significantly worse. Doesn't change that at his age, pedigree, and previous history he absolutely SHOULD be a top 3 defender.

But instead he is currently washing out the league. It takes a special kind of organization to bring about the end of a promising career.

Chaisson has a cup and played in the top 6 of a few teams over the years...

I think many just need to look at a roster and realize half of other teams are nobodies and ahl call ups compared to our forwards anyways.

 

[Rafters]

I will start off by saying I am a huge fan of McDavid and Draisaitl , but when your captain and assistant captain take 2 minute shifts and save energy on the defensive end to cheat for offence then your team is f***ed. Start taking some 55 second shifts, give 100% on both sides of the puck and get off the ice.

 

[McDNicks17]

On paper the depth is fine, but they're all playing a line/pairing too high, so it's just a bunch of below average depth.

 

[bellagiobob]

On paper the depth is fine, but they're all playing a line/pairing too high, so it's just a bunch of below average depth.

Groundhog Day. Been like this since forever.

 

[Louis Cypher]

The cap mess (chia)
Bad drafting (before chia)
Bad trades and signings (chia)
Edmonton's geographic location
Intensity and heart
Coaching and systems

 

[McFlash97]

Biggest problem is lack of depth , so the Oil pump up dumb players with low IQ...who make poor decisions and reads all over the ice. Seriously Lagesson might be the smartest defensive defenseman we have... and guaranteed he will be sat out for someone who makes poor decisions all over the defensive end.

Terrible puck tracking ability by our defensemen

Instead of hanging onto pucks when there is no support along the boards...just randomly throwing it up the boards or to the center of the ice without looking up. Giving pucks right back to the opposing team when in total control of it for no apparent reason instead of waiting for a play to develop.

These are things that smart players are good at.

 

[Samus44]

Goaltending
No #1D
Lack of two way forwards.

I think early the biggest problem is the team has undergone a lot of changes since the trade deadline and hasn't had a lot of time to come together. Chemistry takes time and the lack of pre season games in the restart and before this season has been an issue. This team is still very young overall and it shouldn't be shocking it's taking a bit of time to gel. In 56 games they're going to have to figure it out quick though. Losing Smith and Forsberg makes it tougher but hopefully they figure it out sooner rather than later, 4 games is too early for me to panic.

 

[ConnorMcNugesaitl]

We all knew 5 on 5 had to improve so far it's still not good enough and on top of it the special teams have been the wrong kind of special.

 

[redgrant]

Aside from the one off year in 2006 the last time this team had respectable defensive depth was the 90s with guys like hamrlik, ninnimaa, Richardson, marchment etc.

I can't remember the last time in 10 years we had a solid actual NHL calibre top 10 line up.

 

[Stoneman89]

Montreal drafted Romanov in the 2nd round, and he looks like he's going to be a keeper, and maybe more than that. Holland just gave away two 2nd rounders for nothing, like it was candy at a parade. This team needs all the draft picks they can get, to try to hit some home runs or at least some doubles.

 

[Jumptheshark]

1. The water in Edmonton
2. Fans expecting to win
3. No one on this board being named GM

 

[tardigrade81]

Lack of intensity and heart is the biggest

on paper, We have a quality team with a lot of star power so it makes absolutely no sense that our power-play is as bad as it has been this year. We just look flat and that should not happen when you have the likes of McDavid and Draisaitl on this team. I really don’t have a concrete answer as to what is completely wrong with this team. At least last year we fought t through the regular season and made the playoffs. This year, I think we could finish dead last in the league. The two games against Montreal were just sickening and pathetic for how bad we looked.

Guess we will see how they respond tonight.