Pre-Game Talk: Series Discussion: Round 2 Oilers vs Knights

[MessierII]

Vegas with Mark Stone in is much scarier than LA, imo. Like what Ekholm did to the Oilers D, Stone does for the Knights forward group. Everyone drops a spot and plays in their appropriate position. And Vegas is a deeper team than LA. Nervous about this series.

They don’t have the defensive capabilities to limit Connor. There’s no danault and Kopitar and no 1-3-1 to squeeze us out. Good depth though I agree but no one can outscore us.

 

[oil Leaks]

Expecting a big series from RNH. He had a tough matchup against LA, hopefully he breaks against the Knights

 

[North Cole]

Ill say Oilers in 6 again. Some things to watch for:

Deboer (Edit - not Deboer cause he got fired) is a better coach, interested to see how keeps them focused. We got out of cgy where we just kind of ran away with it and used all our emotional energy up then forgot how to win and play in the close games against Colorado. Opposite this year, LA was hard fought. Wpg basically rolled over and died. We'll see how Vegas deals with that.

Need to clean up broken plays better, Vegas is more offensively gifted and will burn us down quicker.

We need to make sure dont cheat for offense, ice will be a lot more open and hopefully that doesn't lull guys into blowing the zone early or losing assignments. Against LA the forecheck and O zone were the battle ground. I think it will be transition and NZ against Vegas, their D moves the puck way better.

I dont think their goaltending will hold up as well as korpi did, so Skinner will be the deciding factor.

 

[syz]

They don’t have the defensive capabilities to limit Connor. There’s no danault and Kopitar and no 1-3-1 to squeeze us out. Good depth though I agree but no one can outscore us.

A healthy Mark Stone is at least twice the player Danault is and Vegas's D is much better than LA's overall imo, though Theodore still hasn't been practicing afaik.

 

[DrDrai]

Still stupid that Stone is playing. That rule needs to be changed.

I’m sure Kostin and Ekholm will welcome him to the second round.

 

[MessierII]

A healthy Mark Stone is at least twice the player Danault is and Vegas's D is much better than LA's overall imo, though Theodore still hasn't been practicing afaik.

Disagree. Overall maybe but in terms of pure defense Stone isn’t Danault. Danault is legitimately the best defensive forward in the game. Stone doesn’t look great so far either. They don’t have the matchups or system play to give us fits like LA. LA is way harder to play against.

 

[Anemia]

Factoid of the day - you can't spell KNIGHTS without K-I-N-G-S. Weird eh?

 

[commie]

You know there are gonna be ALOT of Oiler fans in Vegas

going to be there for game 2, hopefully that is on Thursday.

Anyone know what hotels the Oilers usually stay at? We are at the Aria, like we were back when Vegas/Wash was in the cup final. Saw bunch of Wash players eating breakfast at Lemongrass at Aria. I went to game 2 of that series too.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

A healthy Mark Stone is at least twice the player Danault is and Vegas's D is much better than LA's overall imo, though Theodore still hasn't been practicing afaik.

Stone is a winger who takes a different part of the ice than McDavid and Draisaitl if he’s playing center. Vegas’ D is not nearly as mobile as LA’s.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Stone is a winger who takes a different part of the ice than McDavid and Draisaitl if he’s playing center. Vegas’ D is not nearly as mobile as LA’s.

They also don't play as tight as the Kings do with their trap. When the Oilers weren't finding goals and didn't have the puck luck it buoyed the Kings allowing them to stay close, where as the Oilers will likely have an easier time finding opportunities against the Knights.

 

[5 14 6 1]

Bring on Vegas. I'm ready

 

[Fishy McScales]

Ill say Oilers in 6 again. Some things to watch for:

Deboer is a better coach, interested to see how keeps them focused. We got out of cgy where we just kind of ran away with it and used all our emotional energy up then forgot how to win and play in the close games against Colorado. Opposite this year, LA was hard fought. Wpg basically rolled over and died. We'll see how Vegas deals with that.

Need to clean up broken plays better, Vegas is more offensively gifted and will burn us down quicker.

We need to make sure dont cheat for offense, ice will be a lot more open and hopefully that doesn't lull guys into blowing the zone early or losing assignments. Against LA the forecheck and O zone were the battle ground. I think it will be transition and NZ against Vegas, their D moves the puck way better.

I dont think their goaltending will hold up as well as korpi did, so Skinner will be the deciding factor.

Deboer coaches Dallas.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Stone is a concern but we also just beat a team with two amazing defensive centers.

 

[North Cole]

Deboer coaches Dallas.

Oh yeah forgot he got fired, thank god for that. I'm more scared of Dallas if we make it that far anyways TBH.

 

[OilerTyler]

It's wild to see how many people are still claiming we can only win with our power play. We are second in 5v5 goals per game so far in the playoffs (after Vegas) and we played maybe the best defensive team in the playoffs.

We are also second last in power play opportunities per game. It doesn't even really matter that we have the best power play in the playoffs when the refs are doing their best to not let us use it.

 

[ManofSteel55]

I think the Kings were a much tougher opponent. But curious to see how much the Oil have in the tank after a very difficult 1st round series.

It was a close series but if that type of series drains the tank, we don't deserve to win.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Ill say Oilers in 6 again. Some things to watch for:

Deboer is a better coach, interested to see how keeps them focused. We got out of cgy where we just kind of ran away with it and used all our emotional energy up then forgot how to win and play in the close games against Colorado. Opposite this year, LA was hard fought. Wpg basically rolled over and died. We'll see how Vegas deals with that.

Need to clean up broken plays better, Vegas is more offensively gifted and will burn us down quicker.

We need to make sure dont cheat for offense, ice will be a lot more open and hopefully that doesn't lull guys into blowing the zone early or losing assignments. Against LA the forecheck and O zone were the battle ground. I think it will be transition and NZ against Vegas, their D moves the puck way better.

I dont think their goaltending will hold up as well as korpi did, so Skinner will be the deciding factor.

Big issue with the goaltending though and its hard to imagine that it will be anything close to Korpi, or even Skinner. Korpi getting flak but he was being torched for 40shots a game and facing the best players in hockey and the best scoring team in hockey.

Yeah, Dallas is a scarier team and with no holes. Good depth, great D, great goaltending. Dallas is going to be a big test for Colorado. Deboer is a good coach. Vegas always seem to hit a scoring lul. We'll see if they airlifted in enough talent to avoid that this spring.

 

[ManofSteel55]

I think several players are dealing with injuries after that series.

You can say the same for every series. Injuries happen when playoffs hit. Nobody looks awful due to injury. Not yet anyway.

 

[oXo Cube]

It's wild to see how many people are still claiming we can only win with our power play. We are second in 5v5 goals per game so far in the playoffs (after Vegas) and we played maybe the best defensive team in the playoffs.

We are also second last in power play opportunities per game. It doesn't even really matter that we have the best power play in the playoffs when the refs are doing their best to not let us use it.

The LA series had a PP merchant team in it.

It just wasn't Edmonton.

 

[ujju2]

Split McDavid and Draisaitl back up. We let a hot goalie convince us that it wasn't working when it was.

RNH-Bjugstad-Hyman on the other hand absolutely does not work.

Thinking (hoping) Vegas is a much better matchup for Nuge and Hyman. I'd go:

Nuge-McDavid-Yamamoto
Kane-Drai-Hyman

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Big issue with the goaltending though and its hard to imagine that it will be anything close to Korpi, or even Skinner. Korpi getting flak but he was being torched for 40shots a game and facing the best players in hockey and the best scoring team in hockey.

Yeah, Dallas is a scarier team and with no holes. Good depth, great D, great goaltending. Dallas is going to be a big test for Colorado. Deboer is a good coach. Vegas always seem to hit a scoring lul. We'll see if they airlifted in enough talent to avoid that this spring.

I really don't fear Dallas in the slightest. Got a cakewalk to round two. They have far and away the best goalie in the conference but every time I watched them play their opponent made them look very pedestrian.

 

[soothsayer]

The biggest difference between LA and Los Vegas is that Los Vegas has much better transitioning defensemen. I thought the biggest issue with the Kings was their lack of mobility on D, which is maybe partly why McLellan relied so heavily on their 1-3-1 structure.

LV can move the puck from the back-end. With that said, the Oilers eat up teams that try to go toe-to-toe with them in transition, and the Knights in general aren't better than the Kings defensively.

 

[Drivesaitl]

It's wild to see how many people are still claiming we can only win with our power play. We are second in 5v5 goals per game so far in the playoffs (after Vegas) and we played maybe the best defensive team in the playoffs.

We are also second last in power play opportunities per game. It doesn't even really matter that we have the best power play in the playoffs when the refs are doing their best to not let us use it.

I sure wouldn't call LA the best defensive club in the playoffs. If Kopitar and Doughty were 5yrs younger maybe the argument could be made. Kings are a high event team and have been all season. They get in high scoring games. McLellan tried to turn them into low event team but it was a mistake. This is not the 2015 Kings, lol. this is a club that scores way more, and gives up way more.

The biggest difference between LA and Los Vegas is that Los Vegas has much better transitioning defensemen. I thought the biggest issue with the Kings was their lack of mobility on D, which is maybe partly why McLellan relied so heavily on their 1-3-1 structure.

LV can move the puck from the back-end. With that said, the Oilers eat up teams that try to go toe-to-toe with them in transition, and the Knights in general aren't better than the Kings defensively.

Considering he didn't play Bjornfot one minute (think bigger, more physical version of Broberg with more experience) this makes McLellan even more indicipherable. Just as in Edmonton Mac has favorites and thats about it.

Really its incredible that when Edler went down it wasn't Bjornfot coming in. Man, if LA don't know what they have in this guy the Oilers should get him out of there.

 

[Da McBomb]

First playoff series between Edmonton and Vegas.... this rivalry is about to take another on another level

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

They also don't play as tight as the Kings do with their trap. When the Oilers weren't finding goals and didn't have the puck luck it buoyed the Kings allowing them to stay close, where as the Oilers will likely have an easier time finding opportunities against the Knights.

I agree. Vegas wins with depth scoring and a solid D which limits inside chances and second chances (rebounds). Also for reasons I can’t explain their goaltending has kept its head above water. I think the goaltending might crater under our attack offence however.