Team Systems: Why Do the Oilers Struggle?

[Aerchon]

Coaching is a big part of systems and buy in.

But in a system where the team already had good success to me it looks like this is currently/primarily a player ineptness issue.

Situational awareness. Positional awareness. Just knowing where the other team members are on the ice and where they are likely to go.

The forwards in particular this year are abysmal. Like omfg bad. I am yelling at the screen, "just look behind you Draisaitl!!!!" But he doesn't hear me and the guy he should be covering has 10 + feet to walk in and put it where ever they feel like it.

Not just Drai, every forward on the team I feel has made that mistake and got caught puck watching and covering no one and nothing. Pretty embarrassing play by guys that should KNOW better. The only one that should be making those gaffs regularly is Holloway on this team now.

 

[Drivesaitl]

But you weren't saying this in the playoffs, right? Even though they were playing the exact same fire wagon style then and allowing the same amount of GA and getting down in games early too (in the Flames series, the Flames I believe were up 2-0 in 3/5 games ... and still lost, lol).

The Oilers were giving up way too many GA in the playoffs. Its not a formula for sustained success in playoffs, and if we're being real we were only .500 team in the playoffs and thats even with all of McDrai/kane on a scoring cheat code. Teams playing river hockey isn't what wins in playoffs. Way back to 1982 that was kind of established when the Kings took out the Oilers. Not much really changes in that regard. Winning in playoffs is predicated on ability to defend, protect leads, shut down opponents. Open it up and the results are random.

 

[OfCorsiDid]

We actually did reasonably well in the McDavid draft. Unfortunately all we have to show for Bear/Jones/Marino is Foegele.

Drafted picks yes.

The trading made on that day and since then has been catastrophic.

Bear for Foegele is pretty even. Bear is a 6-7 Dman, but is a righty and Foegele is a bottom 6er.

Marino sucks just because he didn’t want to sign here because Chiarelli was gone. You can’t even blame the return because we got the pick back. It’s just not fun.

Jones was packaged for some reason to get Keith. I still don’t like that trade even with how it played out. Ken just paid too much imo.

But the worst of all of it was trading 16 and 33 for 29 games of Griffin Reinhart. That probably goes down as one of the worst trades in franchise history.

 

[SupremeTeam16]

The top 6 has to play more risky because the bottom six can't do anything. There's a reason top heavy teams don't win anything. The top players are by no means perfect but imagine where this team would be in the standings if they got even just a little more help.

The team currently only has 7 players with more than 5 points, and Kane is currently injured. The Oilers have some of the worst depth in the entire league. Relying on McDavid/Draisatl to put up numbers every single game is a strategy that's doomed to fail. They are going to have rough games/periods/shifts. That's why the really good teams get a boost from depth players like the Kings did the other night.

Let's take a look at the top team in the standings right now: The Bruins. Using that same metric I used earlier, the Bruins have 14 players with at least five points. Marchand/Pastranak don't score every game so they'll sometimes get a goal from Zacha or Coyle or whoever the hell Frederic is. Where's that on the Oilers? If McDavid/Draisatl don't score the team loses. Opposing teams will focus on those guys to force them or their linemates to make mistakes (turnovers, penalties, etc) because they know they don't need to worry about Nogoal or Shore or whoever.

The Oilers might have had the top scorers in last year's playoffs but the Avs won the Cup on depth.

The Bruins are a perfect example. Their stars play a structured game, they don’t chase and cheat, they are patient knowing that if they play the right way eventually they will come out ahead on the back of their superior skill. This attitude means their supporting cast and bottom 6 players aren’t running scared, deathly afraid of making mistakes and not treading water. It allows them to build confidence and realize that they can make plays and contribute instead of just being placeholders on the ice until the stars catch their breath, because in Edmonton that’s all the bottom 6 has ever been for the last 5-6 years.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

You realize teams can W games 4-2 instead of 6-4 right? I'd take a performance that is more focused on outscoring than pts any time going. All other things being equal. We're paying McDrai 23M to be +2 players that have dropped off in EV production and that have considerable GA.

The way to look at it is your topsix should be staking out W's and goal differential further to getting W's Thats how the good clubs tend to get it done. Top lines on those clubs are usually owning.

But you're still asking them to put up 4 points a game because again, nobody else can score. The way I look at it is instead of losing 6-4, we're losing 4-2.

Again, if your mindset is "Rely on the top six to do all the scoring and hope the other lines saw off", you're not going to be a successful team. The best teams in the league have depth. We certainly had the better top players than Colorado, but we lost because surpisingly, when McDavid/Draisatl don't put up stupid numbers, we don't win. They're not going to score every game. They're going to have off-games. When that happens, who picks up the slack?

If this team had better defense/goaltending then maybe, but they still don't. If this team is ever going to win a Cup, they need more from just the two superstars. They're not perfect and they're never going to be. But if you want to picture where this team will be without them, I have an entire decade's worth of highlights for you.

The bottom six forwards in last year's playoffs combined for a paltry 8 goals in 16 games. McDavid was on the ice for 20/26 goals the Oilers scored in round 1. The bottom six is, yet again, absolutely abysmal.

The Bruins are a perfect example. Their stars play a structured game, they don’t chase and cheat, they are patient knowing that if they play the right way eventually they will come out ahead on the back of their superior skill. This attitude means their supporting cast and bottom 6 players aren’t running scared, deathly afraid of making mistakes and not treading water. It allows them to build confidence and realize that they can make plays and contribute instead of just being placeholders on the ice until the stars catch their breath, because in Edmonton that’s all the bottom 6 has ever been for the last 5-6 years.

If that's the attitude the bottom six has then they shouldn't be in the NHL. There's nothing stopping any of them from going out and potting a couple of goals on any given night.

But then again, only the Oilers were smart enough to give Devin Shore a multi-year extension.

 

[Soundwave]

The Oilers were giving up way too many GA in the playoffs. Its not a formula for sustained success in playoffs, and if we're being real we were only .500 team in the playoffs and thats even with all of McDrai/kane on a scoring cheat code. Teams playing river hockey isn't what wins in playoffs. Way back to 1982 that was kind of established when the Kings took out the Oilers. Not much really changes in that regard. Winning in playoffs is predicated on ability to defend, protect leads, shut down opponents. Open it up and the results are random.

So who's job then is it to augment those issues via roster changes?

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

So who's job then is it to augment those issues via roster changes?

The Oilers issues when Holland was hired were as follows:

Depth scoring
Defense
Goaltending

What's plaguing the Oilers this season?

Depth scoring
Defense
Goaltending

 

[Soundwave]

To be honest if we weren't hamstrung by the shit black hole duo of Yamamoto-Puljujarvi, we probably could just flat out play run n' gun hockey and cruise to a good record doing so.

Kane McDavid Kubalik
Domi Draisaitl Hyman
McLeod RNH Janmark
Foegele Ryan Kostin

Is probably a team that has a comfortable 11-6 or 12-5 type of record. The extra 8-9 goals from Domi + Kubalik would push the Oilers to several more wins given several of their losses have been effectively by 1 goal.

 

[NotAVacuumSalesman]

The system is to make less mistake than the other team does. That's it.

That's the system Woody deploys.