The Biggest problem with this team

[Drivesaitl]

The Oilers are minus 10 goal differential and plotting around .500. If anything this indicates the opposite of what the OP is citing. Contrary to the thread the Oilers actually getting more results in close games and in nitty gritty moments than they are throwing away. The difficulty is winning games in OT and/or by one goal is usually unsustainable.

We have 5OT W's. We have another 4 games won by 1 goal. This means we have 9/12 of our wins by 1 goal. If anything we've been gutting out the close games and winning more than our share of them. Conversely we've lost 10 games by multiple goals. Around 5 times we've been drubbed.

 

[Jet Walters]

If Talbot had a save percentage even close to Koskinen's we'd have a positive goal differential. I think it works out to over a dozen goals less. That's been the biggest problem with this team, and it's going to be a problem that doesn't see the ice as much going forward.

 

[Drivesaitl]

If Talbot had a save percentage even close to Koskinen's we'd have a positive goal differential. I think it works out to over a dozen goals less. That's been the biggest problem with this team, and it's going to be a problem that doesn't see the ice as much going forward.

Given the quality of scoring chances this club routinely gives up, even to bad teams, the chance of Koskinen maintaining his current numbers is remote. By and large we are getting the goalie stats one would expect with a bad team. The LA Kings for instance in the two game set had more scoring chances against the Oilers in both gamea then any game I've seen. This being a Kings team that averages only 2 goals /game. In these games against the Oilers a player such as Dustin Brown averaged 2G/G all by himself. The scariest thing is he could have scored 8 goals in the two game set. We gave up 3 breakways last game in a 1 goal game that was decided on a fortunate late PP goal.

The Oilers level of overall play is indicative of a sub .500 team. They are actually better than that due to winning an inordinate amount of 1 goal games.

 

[Multigrain]

What is Hitchcock going to do with all the defensemen he is stockpiling?

 

[Perfect_Drug]

Main problem WAS coaching.

I think we fixed that now.

Btw look at record under Hitch. A single lost game in regulation where the refs did everything in their power to gift LA their win.

We are playing Hitchcock hockey and we are eeking out 1 goal wins.


This team is learning how to win inch by inch.

 

[GMofOilers]

People still dont think sub 900 save % was a problem?!?

 

[Aerchon]

People still dont think sub 900 save % was a problem?!?

I always find it amusing on these boards how much more important it is for many to be right than have the team do well.

THE biggest problem by far LAST year was Talbot. It's not even a little bit close. He sunk at least 10 games of the first 40 with bad chl level goaltending.

Every goaltender knows if the team in front of them loses faith that the goalie can't stop a beach ball the team loses focus and loses period. This has always been the case.

You know what made a bad situation even worse. A dumb @#$ coach who is stupid stubborn to play said goalie 7 out of 8 games.

Talbot and McLellan threw away last season with both hands.

While this year was not as bad I think it's safe to say goaltending and coaching are/were again two of the biggest problems.

Even with a great 2016 2017 season Talbot has actually been more bad than good in Edmonton. I personally find how good he was in 2016 2017 gets exaggerated to suit peoples personal naritive.

If Talbot can get back to 2016 2017 levels it would be great. I don't have faith it will happen again in Edmonton.

Koskinen may not be able to sustain this level of goaltending. And obviously the team needs to be better in front of him. But let's not kid ourselves. Talbot was not supplying nhl playoff calibre goaltending and Koskinen is. A team HAS to have goaltending. Period.

I've heard the biggest reason for Buffalo doing well this year is... goaltending.

 

[GMofOilers]

I always find it amusing on these boards how much more important it is for many to be right than have the team do well.

THE biggest problem by far LAST year was Talbot. It's not even a little bit close. He sunk at least 10 games of the first 40 with bad chl level goaltending.

Every goaltender knows if the team in front of them loses faith that the goalie can't stop a beach ball the team loses focus and loses period. This has always been the case.

You know what made a bad situation even worse. A dumb @#$ coach who is stupid stubborn to play said goalie 7 out of 8 games.

Talbot and McLellan threw away last season with both hands.

While this year was not as bad I think it's safe to say goaltending and coaching are/were again two of the biggest problems.

Even with a great 2016 2017 season Talbot has actually been more bad than good in Edmonton. I personally find how good he was in 2016 2017 gets exaggerated to suit peoples personal naritive.

If Talbot can get back to 2016 2017 levels it would be great. I don't have faith it will happen again in Edmonton.

Koskinen may not be able to sustain this level of goaltending. And obviously the team needs to be better in front of him. But let's not kid ourselves. Talbot was not supplying nhl playoff calibre goaltending and Koskinen is. A team HAS to have goaltending. Period.

I've heard the biggest reason for Buffalo doing well this year is... goaltending.

I agree with every thing you say here.

Every team needs goaltending, always has.

Why you think the great goaltenders always got a team in the playoffs? Look at what happened to New Jersey after Brodeur left.

Can you imagine what the Leafs would look like with Talbot in net? They would be at the bottom of the league. Anderson stands on his head. Gibson another one.

 

[SaltNPeca]

It's been the top 4 d for a decade. We really miss the version of Sekera that turned Russel into a passable second pairing player. A complete top 4 turned Talbot into a decent starter and tilted the ice forward. Russel or Nurse need a puck mover like Sekera and Larsson/Klefbom need a second pair that doesn't keep them in the deep all of the time. Lots of championship teams have a bums as the #6,7,8d.... tendency is to blame them for losses when the top 4 can't get it done.

Edit: PS how can a team go this long without a scoring threat from the point on the PP? Every PP needs 3 legit threats to force the opp pk to try picking a poison.

Good post. Top 4 D.

While a superstar tendy would make a substantial difference, the Oilers D and team defensive play over the last decade or so has been a huge issue. '06 run doesn't happen without the additions of Pronger, Spacek, and Peca (Selke winner).
Seems like Tendies and coaches go to Edmonton to die. Somehow Dubnyk salvaged his career. Somehow Schultz is actually a good complimentary D (which Pens fans are currently missing!).

Watching Nurse in the final minutes just kills me. I like the kid, but he's out there sliding around, batting pucks with his hands, chasing guys up past the face-off dots, and generally just making me bite the skin off my fingers. The 23 year old is in the deep end too often on this roster. Doesn't look comfortable.

Oilers lost the Points from wingers Hall & Eberle which were certainly not replaced by Lucic, Poolparty, nor Yammo. In the meantime the Top 4 D seems only marginally improved. I don't see the young Jones, Bear, or Bouchard fixing this in the short-medium term.

 

[Drivesaitl]

People still dont think sub 900 save % was a problem?!?

Sure its a problem. Was the Oilers team playing as well in some of those games or to start the season?

Last night was a quite surprising game. Its kind of uncanny how inconsistent the Oilers are as well. They allowed a disproportionate amount of scoring chances against LA, both games, and played MUCH better last night. Vegas players were being consistently pressured, time and space was taken away. Gap control, passing lanes, Oilers really worked to limit chances, rebounds. Outside of a 5 minute gap early in the game the Oilers were a pretty tight ship.

Its fair to say the Oilers are also being more confident with who is in goal. It happens. Teams go on runs with goalies. We'll see how it plays out.

Its my take that you can't know what you have in a goalie until you see them play a 8-10 game run. Right now its on 3. The thing is will Koskinen endure the workload.

I think its a given that the Oilers generally give their goalies a lot of work each game. Theres some nights where the team is all in and tying everything down. Other nights when the goalie is more abandoned.

 

[GMofOilers]

Sure its a problem. Was the Oilers team playing as well in some of those games or to start the season?

Last night was a quite surprising game. Its kind of uncanny how inconsistent the Oilers are as well. They allowed a disproportionate amount of scoring chances against LA, both games, and played MUCH better last night. Vegas players were being consistently pressured, time and space was taken away. Gap control, passing lanes, Oilers really worked to limit chances, rebounds. Outside of a 5 minute gap early in the game the Oilers were a pretty tight ship.

Its fair to say the Oilers are also being more confident with who is in goal. It happens. Teams go on runs with goalies. We'll see how it plays out.

Its my take that you can't know what you have in a goalie until you see them play a 8-10 game run. Right now its on 3. The thing is will Koskinen endure the workload.

I think its a given that the Oilers generally give their goalies a lot of work each game. Theres some nights where the team is all in and tying everything down. Other nights when the goalie is more abandoned.

Yes yes they were, Talbot blew a few all by his lonesome.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Yes yes they were, Talbot blew a few all by his lonesome.

Goaltending is the hardest position to play, outside of pitching, in prosports. Probably hardest because in hockey the object that hurts is flying AT YOU all the time. Innately goalies impact results. Sure. Both good and bad and theres been that with Talbot. Is there a reason you think he can't get back to 16-17 or even later on last year when he was pretty good last 20 games?

I think its great he's being spelled off competently. He's a competitor. The bar has been moved, he has to be better, I think its possible he will be. Its good to have goalie competition and pushing. It falls on Talbot to push back.

 

[Up the Irons]

the biggest problem, now, is secondary scoring.
it was, as others have noted, goaltending and coaching.

take the first 10 minutes last night. no way Talbot gets thru that push by Vegas scoreless. Koskinen won the game in the first 10 minutes.

 

[GMofOilers]

Goaltending is the hardest position to play, outside of pitching, in prosports. Probably hardest because in hockey the object that hurts is flying AT YOU all the time. Innately goalies impact results. Sure. Both good and bad and theres been that with Talbot. Is there a reason you think he can't get back to 16-17 or even later on last year when he was pretty good last 20 games?

I think its great he's being spelled off competently. He's a competitor. The bar has been moved, he has to be better, I think its possible he will be. Its good to have goalie competition and pushing. It falls on Talbot to push back.

I dont think its the hardest, but I do think its one of the most important. It always has been.

No I dont think Talbot is that good of a goalie, his time is done. He might be a good back up option for us or another team, thats all hes ever been and all hes going to be going forward.

 

[McXLNC97]

The Oilers are minus 10 goal differential and plotting around .500. If anything this indicates the opposite of what the OP is citing. Contrary to the thread the Oilers actually getting more results in close games and in nitty gritty moments than they are throwing away. The difficulty is winning games in OT and/or by one goal is usually unsustainable.

We have 5OT W's. We have another 4 games won by 1 goal. This means we have 9/12 of our wins by 1 goal. If anything we've been gutting out the close games and winning more than our share of them. Conversely we've lost 10 games by multiple goals. Around 5 times we've been drubbed.

The goal differential could easily be at 0 instead of where they are just due to the empty net goals. This team constantly gives up the empty netter to end up losing by 2 or 3, and rarely ever scores one to get a 2 goal victory.

 

[Drivesaitl]

The goal differential could easily be at 0 instead of where they are just due to the empty net goals. This team constantly gives up the empty netter to end up losing by 2 or 3, and rarely ever scores one to get a 2 goal victory.

I could use a better reference source. I think the Oilers have allowed 6 empty net goals but they've also scored some. Do you have a good source or citation that delineates that the Oilers are close to -10 just on empty net goals differential.

@ NHL stats its such a headache to find things like that.

 

[Drivesaitl]

the biggest problem, now, is secondary scoring.
it was, as others have noted, goaltending and coaching.

take the first 10 minutes last night. no way Talbot gets thru that push by Vegas scoreless. Koskinen won the game in the first 10 minutes.

Yeah, I mentioned it was a heroic performance there by Koskinen early. That's the definition of "holding the fort" Good on him. The team seemed to appreciate it by getting into gear, matching intensity, and finding better defensive form.

Its still troublesome that this Oilers team, desperate for points, starts games badly. Gotta be ready to start. So much in NHL is decided by first goal. A HUGE factor as I've mentioned.

 

[CycloneSweep]

Goaltending is the hardest position to play, outside of pitching, in prosports. Probably hardest because in hockey the object that hurts is flying AT YOU all the time. Innately goalies impact results. Sure. Both good and bad and theres been that with Talbot. Is there a reason you think he can't get back to 16-17 or even later on last year when he was pretty good last 20 games?

I think its great he's being spelled off competently. He's a competitor. The bar has been moved, he has to be better, I think its possible he will be. Its good to have goalie competition and pushing. It falls on Talbot to push back.

Talbot can bounce back but it's damning when his competition for the roster spot is doing like.... substantially better with the same players in front of him.

 

[guymez]

The goal differential could easily be at 0 instead of where they are just due to the empty net goals. This team constantly gives up the empty netter to end up losing by 2 or 3, and rarely ever scores one to get a 2 goal victory.

I am looking forward to the days where instead of giving one up the Oilers are the team scoring an empty netter...cant remember the last time that happened.
I really cant.

 

[LABound]

I thought this deserved its own thread.

IMO the biggest concern with this team isnt a lack of scoring depth on the wing...it isnt Cam Talbot....it isnt the non calls on McDavid...it isnt the lack of a #1 dman.

Its puck/situation management. When I watch this team and the game is winding down into the last couple of minutes of the 3rd in a close game I become a nervous fan. Why...because I know that until the final buzzer that this team can, and usually does, find a way to mismanage the puck and gift the other team an opportunity to score.

This can obviously happen at any time in the game but when the game is on the line this team seems to be really prone. There are so many examples of this over the past couple of years and we only have to go back to the game a few days ago against Anaheim to see the last time this cost them a game.

It almost happened again last night....3 poor (completely avoidable) decisions with approx a minute left.
First Draisaitl (with just over a minute left) skates just outside his own blue line and then tries to put a soft pass across the neutral zone and it gets intercepted. Nothing came of it (no scoring chance) but its exactly the wrong play to make when you are trying to preserve a point. Mistake #1.

Next (about 15 seconds later) Nurse holds onto the puck in his own zone far too long (12 seconds) and then decides that the best option is to try a low percentage pass up the boards which predictably gets called for icing. The Oilers have possession and then give it right back to the opposing team.
Mistake #2.

Now with apporx 10 secs left in the 3rd RNH skates out of his zone and passes the puck to Jesse right at centre ice. All Jesse had to do was get his stick on the pass and get it deep. He inexplicably misses the puck all together (almost like he losses focus because the pass from RNH was fine) and the puck doesnt go deep and gets turned over. Alternatively RNH could have also gained centre ice and then dumped it in deep...that would have also closed out the period.
As it was Dallas gets possession at their blue line and then quickly moves the puck up ice gains the zone (easily) and almost scored the game winning goal with less than 1 second on the clock. Mistake #3.

All 3 of these situations are completely avoidable if the decision making is better.
The fatal flaw with this team the last few years is that this poor decision making is ingrained into this team.
I dont know if its a low panic threshold due to big moment inexperience or that they just havent learned what it takes to win close games but I do know its a massive problem. It started against Anaheim in the playoffs back in 2016 and its been a problem ever since.

Until this gets cleaned up this team will never consistently win to the point of being a playoff threat.
This is a team issue.

So IMO Hitch is the perfect coach to instill the habits (the structure) required to properly close out games.

Its going to take some time though...maybe 10 to 15 games (or more) to start seeing results. So until about mid-late December I am willing to allow this team to figure things out and thats likely going to mean some additional disappointing losses in the interim. Losses I am not going to get too worked up about because this new adherence to structure isnt going to happen overnight.
The road is going to be a little bumpy for a while.

Great Post .

 

[oobga]

Main problem WAS coaching.

I think we fixed that now.

Btw look at record under Hitch. A single lost game in regulation where the refs did everything in their power to gift LA their win.

We are playing Hitchcock hockey and we are eeking out 1 goal wins.


This team is learning how to win inch by inch.

I would say coaching was keeping this team from at least being in the conversation for a wildcard spot. If we kept McLellan, I think it was very possible this team goes on a tailspin again and ends up a lottery team (don't quote me please if that happens anyways, lol).

Still though, the team is still far from a contender. Hitch may be able to save the season and make the team somewhat respectable, but no coach can turn crap into gold. It's damn nice though to see the panic level falling with the group, and players not looking like their lives just ended any time something goes wrong.

This team is still begging for multiple winning GM moves to hit the level it needs to get to.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Goaltending is the hardest position to play, outside of pitching, in prosports. Probably hardest because in hockey the object that hurts is flying AT YOU all the time. Innately goalies impact results. Sure. Both good and bad and theres been that with Talbot. Is there a reason you think he can't get back to 16-17 or even later on last year when he was pretty good last 20 games?

I think its great he's being spelled off competently. He's a competitor. The bar has been moved, he has to be better, I think its possible he will be. Its good to have goalie competition and pushing. It falls on Talbot to push back.

It's weird because even when Talbot was hurt last year, the Oilers were still terrible. There was a laundry list of problems (goaltending being one, secondary scoring was another, special teams...)

The only thing that's different from last year so far is goaltending, and the Oilers are still out of a playoff spot. The secondary scoring is still woefully absent and the special teams are better, but still pretty bad.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

I would say coaching was keeping this team from at least being in the conversation for a wildcard spot. If we kept McLellan, I think it was very possible this team goes on a tailspin again and ends up a lottery team (don't quote me please if that happens anyways, lol).

Still though, the team is still far from a contender. Hitch may be able to save the season and make the team somewhat respectable, but no coach can turn crap into gold. It's damn nice though to see the panic level falling with the group, and players not looking like their lives just ended any time something goes wrong.

This team is still begging for multiple winning GM moves to hit the level it needs to get to.

Dunno man. If you analyse quite a few of our losses, you can pin several of them on TMac being outcoached.


If you look in the "who should we get as coach" threads, I've been saying we needed a trap coach since the start. Hitchcock was one of my first choices.

This team is looking like it can do some heavy damage. We're learning to win 2-1, but we have McDavid in our pocket.

Tenacious teams who trap don't need Norris winners, or Vezina goalies. They just require the games be played ultra-tight, and we bet on McDavid being our trump card.



By January teams are gonna really fear us.

 

[RegDunlop]

Sorry - I never want a trap team here. Defensive first ok. Trap? No.

I have a different take I've been thinking about.
One of the issues I have with Pulji is that whenever he got sat out, sent down, or benched - he never had a fire under his ass the next time he was inserted.

He should look at Rattie. That's how I think players should respond.

 

[48g90a138pts]

Secondary scoring is the biggest issue with this team. Hitchcock shouldn't have to double shift McDavid to get more scoring. It's time for the 2 other lines to pick up they're play and carry their own weight.

Top 5 players have 44 goals. The rest of the team (21 players) have 19. Yuck! The worst in the league most likely.