Speculation: Rate your level of concern

[North Cole]

It would be very nice to add at the TD, but we are up right against the cap now, and if you move only prospects and picks the other way, where do you suppose the cap room will come from? I can't imagine teams lining up to take our 3 million dollar busts.

JP will have a month left on his contract, I'm sure he can be added in a trade with picks and prospects to give us 3M of room. Yamo is harder to trade because he has an extra year.

I think we have a better team than last year, team just bought its own hype and is playing careless hockey.

 

[Soundwave]

The playoffs isn’t the regular season it’s not comparable. In the playoffs the numbers go out the window you either win or you don’t the how doesn’t matter. In the season under woody we were playing way, wayyyyy more sound hockey last year.

Woodcroft is good at teaching run n gun hockey, but I’m not really sure how many defensive masterpieces they’ve played under him.

He gets full credit for whupping Calgary with a crippled Nurse and Draisaitl by going high tempo and leaving them in thw dust but I still do wonder if this team needed a hard ass coach for periods where they get lazy on details and start to cheat.

I said it back then but we really could use a hard ass coach who will be anal retentive on players making mistakes instead of “well who cares we won 5-4”. It breeds a mentality of a team that is easily content and feels like structure is optional.

 

[Zguy370]

I’d argue the biggest disappointment so far is actually Woodcroft. The team as a whole has been a mess. Everyone’s cheating for offense leaving our D with no options. Our forwards are losing their checks on the regular, our D are floating and not taking their man. The whole team is a hot mess with and without the puck. Complete 180 from what we saw last year.

Actually I didn't think of the coaching staff, totally agree with you on the coach. Sounds like the players have figured out his soft laid back, passive character and probably how he runs his nonchalant practices, and figure there is no pressure on them, give minimum effort more often than not. I still like Woody, but at times wonder if we had someone like Torts how this group would have panned out so far this season.

 

[Duke74]

I’m not so sure that I buy the schedule excuse, especially given that we seem to play down to our opponents. We lost to Buffalo and almost Chicago. I don’t think an easier schedule will resolve these issues unfortunately. With this team, there is no such thing as an easy schedule.

 

[Reasonable Oil Fan]

JP will have a month left on his contract, I'm sure he can be added in a trade with picks and prospects to give us 3M of room. Yamo is harder to trade because he has an extra year.

I think we have a better team than last year, team just bought its own hype and is playing careless hockey.

I respectfully say that I don’t believe we are better
Forward and goaltending is about the same
Defence is worse
Last year we had to have an incredibly hot second half to make the playoffs and we were almost bounced in the first round
Which brings me to the part of your post that I agree with
The “buying into the hype”. Which I never understood

I’m not so sure that I buy the schedule excuse, especially given that we seem to play down to our opponents. We lost to Buffalo and almost Chicago. I don’t think an easier schedule will resolve these issues unfortunately. With this team, there is no such thing as an easy schedule.

And
That we haven’t had a particularly tough schedule

 

[Ritchie Valens]

I'm not to worried yet. Vegas and Seattle are overachieving. Calgary and Edmonton are underachieving. It will all balance out as the season goes on. The team will start tightening up their defence play and Campbell will start getting used to the team and vice versa, secondary scoring will start picking up.

I don't think they are at all. They have a pretty solid lineup and had a lot of injuries to key players last year plus their goaltending had let them down.

 

[Shaquille Oatmeal]

I'm more worried that some of these Oilers fans are going to wind up with a self inflicted 'Kane injury'. It's early, relax. Really need Campbell to find his game tho.

 

[CycloneSweep]

I'm more worried that some of these Oilers fans are going to wind up with a self inflicted 'Kane injury'. It's early, relax. Really need Campbell to find his game tho.

The roster is currently worse than it was before we fired Tippett and signed Kane. So there’s that.

 

[McShogun99]

I don't think they are at all. They have a pretty solid lineup and had a lot of injuries to key players last year plus their goaltending had let them down.

They’re a good team but their record is also being boosted by having one of the easiest schedules to start the season. You give them our schedule and they probably have 4-5 more losses.

 

[Shaquille Oatmeal]

The roster is currently worse than it was before we fired Tippett and signed Kane. So there’s that.

Hopefully the flood gates open for Holloway soon and the Defense can simplify their game. I do feel like we're one more injury away from missing the playoffs, however. Fingers crossed we have some luck staying healthy.

 

[Reasonable Oil Fan]

Hopefully the flood gates open for Holloway soon and the Defense can simplify their game. I do feel like we're one more injury away from missing the playoffs, however. Fingers crossed we have some luck staying healthy.

Stuff like this bothers me too
Holloway should still be in the ahl
Yet we push our young guys into positions they aren’t ready for
Mind you
With our cap/roster situation, we have no options

 

[McDNicks17]

The apathy has set in for me.

We need some good cheap players to round out the roster and we've got a GM that either sits on his hands or throws $5M at UFAs and nothing in between.

We're going to need another miracle Kane-like addition or McDrai to play at Lemieux levels to go anywhere.

 

[Stoneman89]

I’m not so sure that I buy the schedule excuse, especially given that we seem to play down to our opponents. We lost to Buffalo and almost Chicago. I don’t think an easier schedule will resolve these issues unfortunately. With this team, there is no such thing as an easy schedule.

Agreed. We also crapped the bed a few times at home already. That needs to be our safe haven.

 

[Stoneman89]

Reminding me a lot of 17/18. Win a playoff round, downgrade roster.

What did we downgrade?

 

[Cloned]

Just a day ago you were saying this was an opportunity to show how much the team is improved through coaching and that removing Kane from the picture can illustrate that. My own take is goaltending is improved, with Kostin and Janmark we've added some bottom winger depth, and we have Holloway developing on team. We have a somewhat better team than a year ago even if we're missing Kane. Who we get back at some point.

I said it’s a big test for Woody…I never said if I thought he’ll pass it.

 

[brentashton]

Lately I’ve learned that some segments of HFOIL are blaming different things on the latest turn of events:
- goaltending Skinner and Campbell, no hot liquid meal got special dispensation, some are blaming
- defence, everyone, no favourites (not saying I can argue there)
-some blaming forwards JP, Yam, Foegle,even Draisaitl and losing Kane
- always blaming Ken and Nicholson and EPCOR water services
- heck I even read that Kevin Lowe is still to blame for this current skid in a thread earlier

I’m gonna go out on a limb and blame Keith Gretzky, Rocky Thompson, Kim Issel, Ales Hemsky, Glen Sather and the first 3 draft picks of the 2024 draft (that BrD Holland picks) because I want on the bandwagon early.

 

[CycloneSweep]

What did we downgrade?

Goaltending and defence.

 

[GOilers88]

Goaltending and defence.

Crazy how we listened to people call Smith/Koskinen and Keith some of the worst players in the league all year and now suddenly we've downgraded without three of the worst players in the league.

 

[CycloneSweep]

Crazy how we listened to people call Smith/Koskinen and Keith some of the worst players in the league all year and now suddenly we've downgraded without three of the worst players in the league.

You can always find worse players.

 

[GOilers88]

You can always find worse players.

But they didn't. By a lot of accounts last year turfing Keith/Kosko and Smith was addition by subtraction, which is basically what they did.

 

[Oilhawks]

Crazy how we listened to people call Smith/Koskinen and Keith some of the worst players in the league all year and now suddenly we've downgraded without three of the worst players in the league.

By a lot of the same people too, hmmm

 

[GOilers88]

Anyone who says they aren’t concerned in my opinion is lying. This start is concerning. The defense at times looks worse than last year, and the goaltending from Campbell for the most part has been horrific. Until one of these two (or preferably both) are fixed, the Oilers will be lucky to even make a wild card team.

Team is still above .500 and has played and beat some pretty good clubs. Would I prefer the team be 10-5, of course. Am I lying when I say it's far too early to be panicking? Not at all.

 

[Harry Curry]

Team is still above .500 and has played and beat some pretty good clubs. Would I prefer the team be 10-5, of course. Am I lying when I say it's far too early to be panicking? Not at all.

The team did improve on D and in goal. Keith upped his game in the playoffs. But nobody was happy with the trade for Keith this time last season.

Does current Campbell compare to the worst of Koskinen and Smith? Absolutely.
Can Campbell's abysmal play go on much longer? Absolutely not.

 

[North]

In the middle. I can't remember the last time I was this optimistic going into a season (maybe never) and I thought the team looked great on paper. Didn't have us pegged as a Stanley Cup champion but had us as top 3 in the West behind Calgary and Colorado.

At this point I don't even know what the problem is as so many players are under performing and it feels a little like Woodcroft/Manson have lost the plot compared to last year. I especially feel like they don't know how to optimize the defence.

I think most people are probably worried about Campbell but to be honest it's the drop off in 5v5 and PK play that had me concerned as goaltending is notoriously streaky.

I hope they turn it around.

I do think the mix on d is not quite right.

 

[brentashton]

As fans, collectively, do we overly micromanage the team with critique to the point of suffocating the players from just playing their game?

Mettle, I’ve followed you and do respect your contributions to this site. However, this is an honest question, based on the bold, do you really think that members of the team read our banter on this site? I cant see it at all. And if they are, I recommend they get hold of Patrick Laines XBox provider and find something else to do, other than read this shit. It drives us crazy, I cant imagine what it would do to players. Cheers.