Post-Game Talk: Remember When we Didn’t Suck? Min 6- Edmonton 5

[Stoneman89]

Mike Smith is 38 this season. There wasn't a lot of expectation when we got him. This is not a player that can play many games anymore. The Flames played him too much and Arizona rode him too hard. Not much left. This is a beat up Ford pickup that isn't going to be the primary hauler.

Current Smith should be seeing around 30 games in a season. He's seen 18 so far and started 17, about twice as much as he should.

So that its a bit odd that in December 2019 a goalie who most here expected would be horrible has now become the *reason* the Oilers are losing games.

The Oilers lost last night because they scored 5 goals and still lost an NHL hockey game. A rare feat that falls on almost everybody on the team. Every scoring chance the Wild got was a complete and utter disaster breakdown by the Oilers in front of Smith last night. One Oilers line played well last night and were engaged. Gagner-Haas-Neal. Good on them. Everybody else deserves what they got.

Solid points. And regarding the bolded. The reason Smith is playing way too many games, is that we have a 4.5 million "starter" that apparently collapses if we play him more than 45-50 games.

 

[TheRebuild]

So our chances of making the playoffs have gone from 88%

I never believe that shit - it's ridiculous to think that any team will sustain constant momentum through the entire season (good or bad), I figured the chances were slim at best and relied entirely upon the team being healthy ALL year long. Clearly, they are not healthy now, and that's going to be problematic going forward. They need to ride Koskinen and stop playing Smith and they need to play some frickin defense.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Solid points. And regarding the bolded. The reason Smith is playing way too many games, is that we have a 4.5 million "starter" that apparently collapses if we play him more than 45-50 games.

Yep. Reality is we have an NHL squad with no real starter and everybody knew that going in. If we dial back to September we were expecting goaltending to be a disaster and realistically its been far better than can reasonably be thought. Many of our wins this season are arguably goalie steals. Few of our wins are outscoring the opposition in road hockey. But this team reverts to style of play that no coach would subscribe to.

I did like Nurse though. Not his play on ice but his petulance and fight. In fairness to him he and Klef have been seeing way too much toi as well. Bear as well. This team is riding around 5 players really hard because of lack of depth. But at least Nurse stood up and was counted. He's playing horrible lately but you know he cares and if his workload is manageable he's probably better.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Yep. Reality is we have an NHL squad with no real starter and everybody knew that going in. If we dial back to September we were expecting goaltending to be a disaster and realistically its been far better than can reasonably be thought. Many of our wins this season are arguably goalie steals. Few of our wins are outscoring the opposition in road hockey. But this team reverts to style of play that no coach would subscribe to.

I did like Nurse though. Not his play on ice but his petulance and fight. In fairness to him he and Klef have been seeing way too much toi as well. Bear as well. This team is riding around 5 players really hard because of lack of depth. But at least Nurse stood up and was counted. He's playing horrible lately but you know he cares and if his workload is manageable he's probably better.

Koskinen outside of one or two games has been fine. There's really no reason not to ride him for a while.

Smith on the other hand has been deplorable punctuated by a game last night that Jonas Gustavsson would've been embarrassed about. How was he not pulled? What was Tippett thinking?

 

[Drivesaitl]

Koskinen outside of one or two games has been fine. There's really no reason not to ride him for a while.

Smith on the other hand has been deplorable punctuated by a game last night that Jonas Gustavsson would've been embarrassed about. How was he not pulled? What was Tippett thinking?

Tippett is a different cat then we've had. So is Smith. These two are more like Quick and Sutter in disposition. If the team is crap no help is coming, and the goalie and coach won't save you. They WANT there to be embarrassment for bad play, to be messages, to be eye openings. The Oilers, its my firm belief, need another reality spanking just as much as they need 2pts. Its unfortunate the scoreline wasn't 10-2. Team needs a reality check something fierce. But the whole org does.

The table isn't set to win here. Chia scorched Earth takes time to recover from. Do the players give up? Do they not buy in because they unconsciously don't believe? Despite what the players are saying this team is real fragile now and you can see it every period. Oilers score a goal and they're engaged. Give up a goal and they're deflated. Not a resilient bunch now despite them coming back in games (and still losing them all)

My fear is the Oilers come out of Minny still thinking they were this close and can just outscore their mistakes. The Wild easily turned the result around after the Oilers tied it and bent over the RNH line to bag the win right after we tied. Easy enough to do.

 

[barry halls]

**** being an Oiler fan sucks! I wish I didn't care but it's in my blood. I've tried but I'm on this ship until the end.....

Well said. Being a fan of the Oilers truly sucks. It's a burden and a curse.

But every other team can kiss my ass, Edmonton f**kin' Oilers until death.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Tippett is a different cat then we've had. So is Smith. These two are more like Quick and Sutter in disposition. If the team is crap no help is coming, and the goalie and coach won't save you. They WANT there to be embarrassment for bad play, to be messages, to be eye openings. The Oilers, its my firm belief, need another reality spanking just as much as they need 2pts. Its unfortunate the scoreline wasn't 10-2. Team needs a reality check something fierce. But the whole org does.

The table isn't set to win here. Chia scorched Earth takes time to recover from. Do the players give up? Do they not buy in because they unconsciously don't believe? Despite what the players are saying this team is real fragile now and you can see it every period. Oilers score a goal and they're engaged. Give up a goal and they're deflated. Not a resilient bunch now despite them coming back in games (and still losing them all)

My fear is the Oilers come out of Minny still thinking they were this close and can just outscore their mistakes. The Wild easily turned the result around after the Oilers tied it and bent over the RNH line to bag the win right after we tied. Easy enough to do.

I don't disagree but when Smith is letting in basically every scoring chance, you have to adjust somehow. The Oilers didn't play a great game last night but it got to the point where I had to look away whenever the Wild were in the Oilers zone.

"Figure it out yourself" isn't going to work for this team. We aren't that far removed from when Hitchcock basically did the same thing.

And the Oilers got their shit kicked by the Sens and Canes. Nothing changed. The next one isn't going to wake them up either. The reality check is already here. They're going to be out of a playoff spot by 2020 despite a relatively lax schedule. It's not that hard to picture them losing most of the remaining games of the month. They aren't beating Toronto. They aren't likely to win in Dallas or St. Louis (both houses of horrors for them). They might squeak out a win against Pittsburgh/Montreal. But with the teams no longer so far in the rear view mirror, something has to change otherwise this season will be lost.

And how many more lost seasons do you think McDavid and the fans can handle?

 

[Drivesaitl]

I don't disagree but when Smith is letting in basically every scoring chance, you have to adjust somehow. The Oilers didn't play a great game last night but it got to the point where I had to look away whenever the Wild were in the Oilers zone.

"Figure it out yourself" isn't going to work for this team. We aren't that far removed from when Hitchcock basically did the same thing.

And the Oilers got their **** kicked by the Sens and Canes. Nothing changed. The next one isn't going to wake them up either. The reality check is already here. They're going to be out of a playoff spot by 2020 despite a relatively lax schedule. It's not that hard to picture them losing most of the remaining games of the month. They aren't beating Toronto. They aren't likely to win in Dallas or St. Louis (both houses of horrors for them). They might squeak out a win against Pittsburgh/Montreal. But with the teams no longer so far in the rear view mirror, something has to change otherwise this season will be lost.

And how many more lost seasons do you think McDavid and the fans can handle?

One could say Elvis has already left the building.

Theres not a lot of happy campers now fans, or players.

STL and Dallas will be tough. I'm never all that convinced Toronto is unbeatable..

But really its probably amazing we're in a playoff spot this late in the year.


Some positive notes is Neal getting re engaged, has actually played well for a number of games and clearly getting a wake up call. Haas, Archibald have been playing better and starting to look more like what is expected from them.

As much as we knock the bottomsix of the team these are not garbage players, but its taking some time to gell. Over the last month all of Granlund, Haas, Archibald, Sheahan etc have been better.

Other positives how good Kassian has been all season.

Having the two top forwards in scoring.

Its never as good or as bad as it looks at any given time.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

One could say Elvis has already left the building.

Theres not a lot of happy campers now fans, or players.

STL and Dallas will be tough. I'm never all that convinced Toronto is unbeatable..

But really its probably amazing we're in a playoff spot this late in the year.


Some positive notes is Neal getting re engaged, has actually played well for a number of games and clearly getting a wake up call. Haas, Archibald have been playing better and starting to look more like what is expected from them.

As much as we knock the bottomsix of the team these are not garbage players, but its taking some time to gell. Over the last month all of Granlund, Haas, Archibald, Sheahan etc have been better.

Other positives how good Kassian has been all season.

Having the two top forwards in scoring.

Its never as good or as bad as it looks at any given time.

This isn't giving the Oilers enough credit obviously but the main reasons they're in a playoff spot are Koskinen, McDavid, Draisatl, and a very, very weak division where the contenders haven't figured things out yet. If we're lucky Vegas and the Sharks stay in the rearview mirror.

 

[Anarchism]

Its not an easy thing to say after the last decade....but this year its us fans that need a reality check not the players.

 

[KlefDown]

I just wanna see a trade tbh

 

[Drivesaitl]

This isn't giving the Oilers enough credit obviously but the main reasons they're in a playoff spot are Koskinen, McDavid, Draisatl, and a very, very weak division where the contenders haven't figured things out yet. If we're lucky Vegas and the Sharks stay in the rearview mirror.

I don't see the Sharks doing anything and they're a spent force. Old lineup and even Deboers couldn't get much out of the team even with his old players get days off regimen. The Sharks core will suffer even more with a new coach. That's a clear team in need of rebuild. Getting Karlsson sure didn't help, and I said it wouldn't. They just hitched that cart to excessive payroll for a longtime. Sharks are in the same no mans land as LA. At least Kings bagged a couple cups before overpaying everybody.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

I don't see the Sharks doing anything and they're a spent force. Old lineup and even Deboers couldn't get much out of the team even with his old players get days off regimen. The Sharks core will suffer even more with a new coach. That's a clear team in need of rebuild. Getting Karlsson sure didn't help, and I said it wouldn't. They just hitched that cart to excessive payroll for a longtime. Sharks are in the same no mans land as LA. At least Kings bagged a couple cups before overpaying everybody.

I'm astounded that Wilson continues to be employed.

But yeah, the Pacific sucks ass this year. FFS Arizona is currently leading it.

 

[elmeroil]

Well said. Being a fan of the Oilers truly sucks. It's a burden and a curse.

But every other team can kiss my ass, Edmonton f**kin' Oilers until death.

 

[Yablo21]

Why stop at 5? I think they'll go on a 10 game heater

Ya at least 6, dont want to lose to Calgary.

 

[Beerfish]

Smith is terrible and Koskinen will fall off a cliff if he plays too much as he did last year. No one in the minors is remotely close.

 

[CupofOil]

Solid points. And regarding the bolded. The reason Smith is playing way too many games, is that we have a 4.5 million "starter" that apparently collapses if we play him more than 45-50 games.

This happened one year, a year which was his first in North America playing that many games consecutively. There's no proof that this is a pattern with Koskinen.

I've defended Tippett's use of the 2-2 method in the past but Smith's play has been poor for a long stretch now while Koskinen has been pretty steady for the most part. It's time for Tippett to adjust.
Also, keeping Smith in last night when it was obvious that he didn't have it was a fatal mistake.

I didn't see the game but watching the extended highlights, he didn't make one big save. In fairness to Smith, most of the goals were defensive breakdowns but he has to make a big save at some point like the Wild goalie did, a no name goalie. The 1st goal was completely inexcusable, what the hell was that? Those soft early goals are tone setters for the rest of the game, it can't happen.

 

[Oilhawks]

This was a winnable game with average goaltending.

 

[Louis Cypher]

Shades of post Olympic Tommy Salo, too.

Or the dreaded 3 headed goalie monster.

 

[9GWG9]

Or the dreaded 3 headed goalie monster.

Wowzerz haven’t heard that in awhile haa haa!

 

[9GWG9]

You could be on to something, there was a goal from centre ice recently...

 

[tardigrade81]

I just wanna see a trade tbh

We all do

 

[DingerMcSlapshot]

I wouldn't be surprised if the Oilers are out of the playoffs before they win their next game.

 

[McBeastMode]

No defending Smith in this game.
He really hasnt looked the same since he took that shot in the nads. Looked shaky ever since.

 

[McShogun99]

Koskinen isn't the problem right now. The team is playing horrible team defence, blowing coverage and missing assignments which we've been doing all year and Koskinen was bailing them out. Over the last month Koskinen went from Vexina level goaltending to just average which isn't good enough with this team. Smith has been Talbot bad the past month+ and should be lucky to be playing 1 out of every 5 games.

Tippet should just keep letting the 1st line run free and have lines 2-4 play the trap. It will lower the GA and if we can get 1-2 goals a game from the 1st line and 1 goal per game from the bottom 9 then we should win more then we lose if the bottom 9 can commit to the trap.