The Oilers Are Close To Making Some Serious Noise

[Bryanbryoil]

Guess you didn't hear that Fistric is out and Potter is in tonight then? haha

Yeah, I don't know wth to think about that decision. The reality is that Whitney has been the teams weakest link on D but we need to keep him playing and hope that some team's pro scouts can get bribed into telling their GM that they need Whitney!

 

[Master Lok]

Our hits leaders through 4 games are..... On D Smid and Fistric with 8 and Petry with 7, up front we have Yakupov with 4.

Detroit: On D they have Kronwall with 2 but who is widely known as a guy that can clean your clock with a big hit. Currently Lashoff and Smith have 4 hits apiece on the blueline for the team lead. Up front they have 5 players that have as many or more hits than Nail albeit for some of them in 1 more game. Their leaders in hits up front are Abdelkader and Tootoo with 10 each and then Cleary with 6 and Franzen with 5.

Pittsburgh has no less than 10 forwards with more hits than Nail albeit some in 5 games. Their forward leaders include: Kunitz with 18, Adams and Glass with 15 each, Cooke with 13, Dupuis with 9, Neal with 8, and even Sid has 6 hits in 5 games. Then they have Orpik with 11 and Engelland with 6, Engelland of course can also kick some ass when the gloves are off.

San Jose has 6 forwards with a hit a game or more led by Clowe (15) and Wingels (13). On D they have this guy named Douglas Murray who is a barrel chested beast of a man that has 15 hits to tie for the team lead then they have Stuart who just rocked Landeskog's world the other night and he has 6 hits on the year.
....

Pittsburgh has 4 forwards that have as many hits by themselves as our entire 3rd and 4th lines have this season.

San Jose has 2 forwards that have as many hits by themselves as our entire 3rd and 4th lines have this season.

Detroit has 2 forwards that have just 3 less hits than our entire 3rd and 4th lines have this season.

Our team is a full of pushovers and that gets magnified when Eager and Fistric are out of the lineup.

Sorry BBO, I believe that hitting is overrated both by the media and fans.

I think hitting is useful in establishing a forecheck. I don't believe hitting helps cure defensive ills.

Even if Eager and Fistric are in the lineup - are you really suggesting that we would be winning games if these hitters were in them hitting? Why then are teams paying $5 million for scorers, and $1 million for fourth line hitters?

For Detroit, the most important players are not Abdelkader and Tootoo. It's Zetterberg and Datsyuk.

For Pittsburgh, the most important players are not Kunitz, Adams or Glass or Matt Cooke. Chris Kunitz is six feet tall and 193 lbs. I'm fairly sure that he's not renown for his hitting.

For San Jose, its Pavelski, Thornton and Marleau that are killing teams. All three are well known for both their offensive and defensive contributions.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Sorry BBO, I believe that hitting is overrated both by the media and fans.

I think hitting is useful in establishing a forecheck. I don't believe hitting helps cure defensive ills.

Even if Eager and Fistric are in the lineup - are you really suggesting that we would be winning games if these hitters were in them hitting? Why then are teams paying $5 million for scorers, and $1 million for fourth line hitters?

For Detroit, the most important players are not Abdelkader and Tootoo. It's Zetterberg and Datsyuk.

For Pittsburgh, the most important players are not Kunitz, Adams or Glass or Matt Cooke. Chris Kunitz is six feet tall and 193 lbs. I'm fairly sure that he's not renown for his hitting.

For San Jose, its Pavelski, Thornton and Marleau that are killing teams. All three are well known for both their offensive and defensive contributions.

We don't have the collective strength to manhandle players, to intimidate players, or to dominate defensively. Our bigger players for the most part aren't physical. No matter how you slice it you aren't going to convince me that we are as physical of a team as the others that you've referenced.

 

[BadMedicine*]

Sorry BBO, I believe that hitting is overrated both by the media and fans.

I think hitting is useful in establishing a forecheck. I don't believe hitting helps cure defensive ills.

Even if Eager and Fistric are in the lineup - are you really suggesting that we would be winning games if these hitters were in them hitting? Why then are teams paying $5 million for scorers, and $1 million for fourth line hitters?

For Detroit, the most important players are not Abdelkader and Tootoo. It's Zetterberg and Datsyuk.

For Pittsburgh, the most important players are not Kunitz, Adams or Glass or Matt Cooke. Chris Kunitz is six feet tall and 193 lbs. I'm fairly sure that he's not renown for his hitting.

For San Jose, its Pavelski, Thornton and Marleau that are killing teams. All three are well known for both their offensive and defensive contributions.

Properly executed system play evens the playing field all over the ice in every area including size, hitting is a tactic designed to determine superior positioning on the ice in relation to the puck and the puck carrier, the basic goal of a hit properly executed within any system is to gain a superior position and recover back into the play before your opponent does, this could mean anything from a simple bump and spin to a huge hip-check, the rule remains the same you need to recover first or you have failed your system task. A team that telegraphs its comittment to huge standup checks is asking for the flying V ha ha ha because it is easy to pick them out of the play. You are right that hitting cures no defensive ills, more offense does that and this means longer more meaningful possesions in all 3 zones converted into more shots on net and rebound pursuits.