Refs/Oilers clown-out another loss.

[MPStoEberletoHall*]

Haha ... wait, really, OMG you have to be kidding me. GK, the guy who never has anything positive to say about the Oilers spent $200 of his hard earned (presumably) money on Oiler tickets! And then drove from Calgary to watch the game. And picked a Preds game. That's the best laugh I had all day man. Thanks.

Oh, and thanks to Asuno for posting up the fancy little chart. I see Weber's name down there at the bottom. How bad does that guy suck, eh?

This made me giggle

 

[harpoon]

This isn't bantam house were everyone gets equal play. Sit the damn passengers and send a message. Quit pointing out the obvious.

Exactly. I lose respect for the coach when he keeps saying the same thing over and over and takes no action.
This is several times now he's come out and said similar things. Nothing more irritating than passive/aggressive coaching.
If you want to say Eberle and Pouliot sucked tonight, then come on out and say it. And then do something about it.
And fix your ****ing powerplay while you're at it. What a ****ing tool.

 

[oobga]

Haha ... wait, really, OMG you have to be kidding me. GK, the guy who never has anything positive to say about the Oilers spent $200 of his hard earned (presumably) money on Oiler tickets! And then drove from Calgary to watch the game. And picked a Preds game. That's the best laugh I had all day man. Thanks.

Oh, and thanks to Asuno for posting up the fancy little chart. I see Weber's name down there at the bottom. How bad does that guy suck, eh?

Weber definitely took a beating from the Hall line. Schultz, his biggest beatings were against...Calle Jarnkrok, Miikka Salomaki and Austin Watson.

 

[oobga]

They are Shultzing Nurse.

Damn, I thought Schultzing was a self contained phenomenon. Now it's mutated into a contagious disease? We're all doomed!

 

[Ninety7]

Time to start throwing the passengers out of the bus...

 

[ChaoticOrange]

I'm seriously questioning Woodcroft at this point. His powerplay is Eakins bad.

 

[Mcnofool6110]

I'm seriously questioning Woodcroft at this point. His powerplay is Eakins bad.

Heh. What's the point?

No seriously, what is the point? I haven't seen it being used in an Oilers uniform for at least 3 years now.

 

[harpoon]

Time to start throwing the passengers out of the bus...

Gonna be an empty bus before you know it. Same as every year.

If we are talking about players who are absolutely useful going forward, whose names do you put on the list?

McDavid - Obviously.

Hall - nobody on this team pushes the speed like Hall does. And he's proven he can score. Top five in his position. Pretty hard to upgrade on that, especially when you consider age and contract.

Draisaitl - I said several weeks ago that even though he had slowed down his superman pace, he was still giving opponents fits with his relentless pursuit of the puck. Its been years since I've seen a kid this young impose himself on the game shift after shift. I'm almost afraid to get my hopes up, but man when you watch him play he just looks like the kind of player who is going to be a perennial AllStar in this league. Looks like Forsberg to me.

Eberle - all he does is score. At a top ten rate for his position. Like clockwork. Some people on this board want to make that into some kind of failing, but at the end of the day you need goals to win. Unfortunately three on three is probably here to stay, as is the shootout. Both are areas where Eberle has/will thrive. Folks who think seventy point players are easy to find (and all have well rounded games) are dreaming.

Personally I'd try to hold onto RNH as well. Everyone else is either replaceable or not absolutely useful going forward.

Defense is easier because we have three guys with still some hope for their careers, and three guys who are done like dirt. Keep Nurse, Klefbom and Davidson. I guess we keep Sekera too since he isn't awful and he's signed. Everyone else is either not absolutely useful or easily replaceable.

Chiarelli, at best, has one good forward unit and three decent (but inexperienced) defencemen. If I'm him looking at the cards in my hand, I'm thinking fml.

I would dangle the first round pick in 2016.
Then Yakupov.
Then RNH.
Then Eberle.

Of course I would trade anyone else on the roster (not mentioned above as absolutely useful going forward) if I could get anything useful in return. But the only guys who might bring anything would be Purcell, Pouliot, Hendricks, Letestu, Fayne and Schultz .... and lets be honest, we aren't getting much for that assortment.

 

[BoldNewLettuce]

Send a message. Promote Gazdic, Hendricks, Pakman, Kassian, guys who give a damn.

Can't stand losers like Pouliot, Eberle, and Schultz.

Agreed.

I was hopeful for pouliot, part of me wants to see the 3c experiment work, part me likes the fantasy that he will be a big strong physical power winger...but BP is literally the textbook definition of a passenger.

Ebs can GTFO. Skating into the boards to try and stick check in a weak and pathetic fashion does nothing but take you out of the ensuing transition defense. Maybe it would be ok if he backchecked aggressively through the neutral zone but he does not.

Nurse has had some serious growing pains and his offensive game that looked like it could have been progressing in the nhl has now looked flat.

Schultz's TOI cannot be explained by science. Are they showcasing him? For what purpose? Is there a clown college scouting NHL players at the moment? I

 

[oilers4life5]

Kassians game. Only guy with some heart and balls.

 

[oilers4life5]

Time to start throwing the passengers out of the bus...

And then run them over with it.

 

[CupofOil]

Reinhart looked good and Drai scored a goal, that's pretty much it for the positives.
The Letestu line was decent too.
Most of the rest of the team is already in offseason mode seemingly.

Did Eberle and Pouliot even play the last 3 games? Ever since RNH went down, 0.0 from those two.

Nurse needs to be sent down ASAP or at the very least, get him the **** away from Schultz. WTF is Mclellan thinking with that pairing? Pair Nurse with Sekera if he's going to play that many minutes, they are sewering a.k.a oilering his career.

Lets hope that McDavid and Klefbom breath some life into this group.
Thank god for the 9 day break. The team needs it and Oiler fans need it.

 

[Tyrolean]

I never watch Oilers games at normal speed or on real time. As soon as the other teams scores or goes ahead I fast forward as most of the time it's an inevitable loss.

Saves me a lot of wasted time or pain.

I wish they get rid of all the slow lumbering d-men who cannot pass or support the forwards as an extra forward.

 

[Spawn]

So at one end of the ice a slapshot ricochets off Sekera's head and into Talbot's pants and than as he tries to get into position it falls out of his pants and slides into the net.

At the other end of the ice, Sekera has a wide open net from 4 feet out and his shot goes off the crossbar....

You can't write this kind of stuff.

The Oilers startling lack of organizational depth is once again rearing it's ugly head.

Down two centermen to injury and we're forced to play a guy who has never played center at pro hockey in his decade long career. Our 3rd and 4th line centers are so offensively inept that they can't even do spot duty in the top 6 for 2 or 3 games, and there's not a single prospect on the farm team that comes even remotely close to projecting into a top 9 role.

 

[McFlyingV]

I'm seriously questioning Woodcroft at this point. His powerplay is Eakins bad.

I am too, but it looked a lot better when we had McDavid, Drai, Nuge, and Klefbom all in the line up. I think we miss Klefbom on the point as much as we miss McDavid on the PP.

I also think they should start trying Kassian out on the point after the all-star break. We really need a net front presence. Pouliot is capable of it sometimes, but he's also pretty damn inconsistent.

I'd like to see this if everyone gets healthy

1st unit:

Hall-McDavid-Kassian-Drai-Klefbom

2nd unit:

Yakupov-Nuge-Pouliot-Eberle-Sekera

So at one end of the ice a slapshot ricochets off Sekera's head and into Talbot's pants and than as he tries to get into position it falls out of his pants and slides into the net.

At the other end of the ice, Sekera has a wide open net from 4 feet out and his shot goes off the crossbar....

You can't write this kind of stuff.

The Oilers startling lack of organizational depth is once again rearing it's ugly head.

Down two centermen to injury and we're forced to play a guy who has never played center at pro hockey in his decade long career. Our 3rd and 4th line centers are so offensively inept that they can't even do spot duty in the top 6 for 2 or 3 games, and there's not a single prospect on the farm team that comes even remotely close to projecting into a top 9 role.

While I don't disagree, I think thats a little overblown. If Pittsburgh lost Crosby and Malkin they would be beyond ****ed. Chicago has only had to go without Toews for a 20 game stretch once (although they can make up for it because they have Keith, Seabrook, and Hjalmarsson. Needless to say, I don't think any team would have much success without their top 2 centres and their top D (especially on a team that doesn't have anyone who can step up for missing their top D).

 

[harpoon]

Down two centermen to injury and we're forced to play a guy who has never played center at pro hockey in his decade long career. Our 3rd and 4th line centers are so offensively inept that they can't even do spot duty in the top 6 for 2 or 3 games, and there's not a single prospect on the farm team that comes even remotely close to projecting into a top 9 role.

And people think we can afford to trade RNH for whatever cause he's such a disappointment.
We absolutely must move the 2016 first round pick for NHL bodies. Even better if its a lotto pick, we can get a lot for it.
If Chiarelli keeps the pick ... I dunno, that might be the last straw for me with this team.

 

[Narnia]

Reinhart looked good and Drai scored a goal, that's pretty much it for the positives.
The Letestu line was decent too.
Most of the rest of the team is already in offseason mode seemingly.

Did Eberle and Pouliot even play the last 3 games? Ever since RNH went down, 0.0 from those two.

Nurse needs to be sent down ASAP or at the very least, get him the **** away from Schultz. WTF is Mclellan thinking with that pairing? Pair Nurse with Sekera if he's going to play that many minutes, they are sewering a.k.a oilering his career.

Lets hope that McDavid and Klefbom breath some life into this group.
Thank god for the 9 day break. The team needs it and Oiler fans need it.

I wonder the people wanting RNH traded still want to trade RNH? The team misses RNH and I really believe he's underrated on this board.

 

[Soundwave]

I wonder the people wanting RNH traded still want to trade RNH? The team misses RNH and I really believe he's underrated on this board.

I honestly don't think we'd have won either one of the last two games with him.

Yes he's a good player, but we've sucked with him in the lineup too, he's not that level of a difference maker.

I'd keep him for the reason that at this point he hasn't had a good enough season to return us anything great. We'd likely get screwed on a trade for him now that Seth Jones is gone.

But he is the third best center on this team once McDavid comes back, lets not kid ourselves.

 

[Soundwave]

And people think we can afford to trade RNH for whatever cause he's such a disappointment.
We absolutely must move the 2016 first round pick for NHL bodies. Even better if its a lotto pick, we can get a lot for it.
If Chiarelli keeps the pick ... I dunno, that might be the last straw for me with this team.

They're not going to trade the pick.

You're just going to have to content yourself with Matthews, Laine, Chychrun, Tkachuk, or whoever on the team.

 

[CupofOil]

Down two centermen to injury and we're forced to play a guy who has never played center at pro hockey in his decade long career. Our 3rd and 4th line centers are so offensively inept that they can't even do spot duty in the top 6 for 2 or 3 games, and there's not a single prospect on the farm team that comes even remotely close to projecting into a top 9 role.

In fairness to the Oilers, if any team lost their 2 of their top centers, they would be boned as well. The Oilers 3rd line center if ever healthy is Drai, McDavid or RNH, take your pick so depth isn't a problem there.
The problem is the extraordinarily soft wingers and of course a bunch of Dmen who can't complete an outlet pass or ya know, play defense.

I honestly don't think we'd have won either one of the last two games with him.

Yes he's a good player, but we've sucked with him in the lineup too, he's not that level of a difference maker.

I'd keep him for the reason that at this point he hasn't had a good enough season to return us anything great. We'd likely get screwed on a trade for him now that Seth Jones is gone.

But he is the third best center on this team once McDavid comes back, lets not kid ourselves.

Eberle and Pouliot have been complete no shows since RNH went down.

I'm not saying that they shouldn't deal him but he's still an important part of this team.

 

[thadd]

I'm seriously questioning Woodcroft at this point. His powerplay is Eakins bad.

Sometimes I wonder if the players have a had time following the coach's instructions.
Hall, Hopkins, Eberle, Schultz and Yakupov flat out don't seem the least bit coachable on the PP.

 

[McFlyingV]

And people think we can afford to trade RNH for whatever cause he's such a disappointment.
We absolutely must move the 2016 first round pick for NHL bodies. Even better if its a lotto pick, we can get a lot for it.
If Chiarelli keeps the pick ... I dunno, that might be the last straw for me with this team.

I've flip flopped back and forth on moving Nuge, but I'm back on the keep Nuge train for good now I think. I forgot just how good that Hall-Nuge-Drai line was for the few games they got together, and I forgot how much better our team looked with McDavid and Klefbom in the lineup. With the addition of Kassian, and guys like Letestu and Pakarinen starting to come around I don't think a healthy Oil club is that far off if they can add a top pairing D this summer. Klefbom and Sekera are both good top 4 D, and Klef was starting to look like a top pairing one before his injury. Nurse is capable of playing a more sheltered middle or bottom pairing role. If Davidson can keep it up, and Reinhart plays like he did tonight and works a bit more on his skating this offseason, with Fayne being our other D that rotates with those 2 on the bottom pair (also has to keep up his current play), then I think that is a more than capable D.

Looking back on that stretch from game 5 to game 13 before McDavid got injured this club should have been 6-1-2 at the worst over that stretch. The game they lost to Calgary easily should have been won. The game vs LA we were robbed of at least an overtime point, and the game vs the Wild I'm pretty sure our goaltending blew it but I'd have to look back. Its becoming more and more clear that we really didn't miss Eberle during that stretch, and actually that Drai was the missing piece up front. We also got pretty crappy goaltending during that period. If we got what we're getting from Talbot on most nights of late this is easily a .500+ team. Their power play also looked 100x better when they had that group going, and if you added another D who could play #1PP and bump Klef down to #2 it would be even better.

I will honestly think this is a playoff team next year if these spots are filled:

Hall-Drai-Nuge
Pouliot-McDavid-Yak
xx-xx-Kassian
Hendricks-Letestu-Pakarinen/Korpikoski

Klefbom-xx
Sekera-Nurse
Davidson-Reinhart
Fayne

Talbot
Brossoit/Nilsson

If Chia can fill that hole on D with a Hamonic or Shattenkirk or Byfuglien, or Burns (you get the idea), that 3rd line with 2 big strong cycling type forwards who can chip in 15-15 type of production, I have absolutely no problems with that lineup because its realistic. Sure the D won't be an elite level, but imo that a competent D core, and with a competent goalie it won't get exposed as bad as it has in the past. Now of course if you can add a FA like Lucic or Stamkos (lol), then by all means dump one of Pouliot or Yak.

 

[Soundwave]

In fairness to the Oilers, if any team lost their 2 of their top centers, they would be boned as well. The Oilers 3rd line center if ever healthy is Drai, McDavid or RNH, take your pick so depth isn't a problem there.
The problem is the extraordinarily soft wingers and of course a bunch of Dmen who can't complete an outlet pass or ya know, play defense.



Eberle and Pouliot have been complete no shows since RNH went down.

I'm not saying that they shouldn't deal him but he's still an important part of this team.

Eberle, Pouliot, and RNH are no shows on any given night together so it's not much of a shocker.

I actually at this point would not deal RNH simply because having center depth is not a bad thing and we're not going to get the type of d-man we want for him given the type of season he's having now (on pace for 14 goals and 53 points if he had played all 82 games).

For Seth Jones I would trade him, yes but that's a no go now. But not a Shattenkirk with one year left on his deal, nope.

 

[CupofOil]

Eberle, Pouliot, and RNH are no shows on any given night together so it's not much of a shocker.

I actually at this point would not deal RNH simply because having center depth is not a bad thing and we're not going to get the type of d-man we want for him given the type of season he's having now (OK, but not great).

They were playing a lot better before RNH went down. They were scoring more than the Hall-Drai line the previous 10 games or so although not driving possession as well. He has had a rough year though without a doubt but all I'm saying is that the team does miss him.

I still believe that RNH has more value than just an "ok" Dman. I'm just not sure that Chia is too keen on dealing him just yet unless it was for a surefire defensive upgrade or somebody with #1 potential.

 

[tinfish]

Draisaitl looks so bagged after every shift. I love everything he's brought this year, but the dude needs work on his cardio. I thought Fayne and Yakupov looked good in the first two periods. Didn't watch the third. Kassian looked good too