The Oilers cannot score when McDavid isn't involved

[winnipegger]

Man I thought Rattie was going to solve everything /s

Trading Hall and Eberle for Larsson and Reinhart was one of the biggest blunders ever. That team is scary up front with those two.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Man I thought Rattie was going to solve everything /s

Trading Hall and Eberle for Larsson and Reinhart was one of the biggest blunders ever. That team is scary up front with those two.

It was Eberle for Strome but the point is still well made.

3 years at the helm and the defense looks no better than when he started.

 

[Cup or Bust]

The Oilers really need guys like Yamamoto and Puljujarvi to be useful NHL players, which is a gamble entering an NHL season to rely on unproven players to fill core positions. That is an Oilers tradition I had hoped would end with Chiarelli as GM. I thought a guy that won a cup and made the cup finals another year should know better than that, unfortunately that does not appear to be the case.

You hate to jump the gun after 2 games, but unfortunately we are seeing similar trends in the Oilers play from last season, same excuses, the leash should not be very long. Personally at about the 10-15 game mark if the team is playing poorly or has a bad record I would terminate both the GM and the head coach. I think this group (Head coach and GM) have had a reasonable opportunity to show improvement and it is not happening. Nothing personal against either guy, but if you want to raise the standard of expectations and performance, you have to demand it.

It should be unacceptable to have the best hockey player on the planet and at game 5 or 10 of the next season, after the team just had a bad year, that the team has the same weaknesses and the same poor play as the previous season.

 

[TIGERCOOL]

Management needs to find out exactly what this team's identity is. Feels like a bunch of clunky random parts thrown together. Focusing on surrounding McDavid with speed and skill ala the Pittsburgh, NJ, Tampa model seems like a no brainer. Instead they sign an aging, lumbering Lucic to a stupid contract, and trade one of the fastest and most skilled wingers in the game for a 2D

Where's Draisaitl with that 8.5 million dollar contract he held out for?

 

[booyakasha]

Man I thought Rattie was going to solve everything /s

Trading Hall and Eberle for Larsson and Reinhart was one of the biggest blunders ever. That team is scary up front with those two.

Could've been worse....what if Ottawa accepted the Hall for Ceci trade.

 

[Critical13]

I think we know a thing or two about winning.

Was this sarcasm?

 

[Coffey]

Man I thought Rattie was going to solve everything /s

Trading Hall and Eberle for Larsson and Reinhart was one of the biggest blunders ever. That team is scary up front with those two.

lol Reinhart... Please don't spread fakenews.

 

[Critical13]

Come home, McDaddy

 

[mazmin]

Was this sarcasm?

Well the Leafs once knew a thing or two about winning Cups...

 

[Critical13]

Well the Leafs once knew a thing or two about winning Cups...

We sure did! Still number 2 overall last I checked

 

[Braunbaer]

 

[McDNicks17]

Has there been any changes in their scouting/player development staff over the years? That seems to me the place they have to start with. You have to be able to round out your roster from the draft in the NHL these days. Either by developing the players or trading them while they still have that prospect shine. Their drafting record outside of the couple studs picked top-5 is pretty poor.

Basically everyone on the scouting side was replaced when Chia was hired, I believe.

They have some decent guys coming up soon, but unfortunately it looks like the NHL team is the development graveyard instead of just the AHL team now.

 

[Kranix]

Basically everyone on the scouting side was replaced when Chia was hired, I believe.

They have some decent guys coming up soon, but unfortunately it looks like the NHL team is the development graveyard instead of just the AHL team now.

Keith Gretzky followed him over from the Bruins, and if he's the primary voice in Chiarelli's ear they're doomed.
Edit: maybe being to hard on Keith, I was conflating him with Scott Bradley in my head. Nonetheless.

 

[ponder]

McDavid is SO f***ing good, IMO the best player in the league by a pretty significant margin, but his supporting cast is so insanely bad. Draisaitl is very good, but then there’s a huge dropoff to their 3rd best player (RNH?), and once you get past their top 6-7 ... eek.

They’ve been insanely poorly managed for so long, but even still, if Chia had just sat on their assets instead of trading them for garbage, they’d be pretty good:

• 16th + 33rd at the draft for Griffin Reinhart. Barzal/Connor/Chabot went 16/17/18, they’d almost certainly have drafted one of them, and Dermott/Aho/Carlo went 34/35/37, good chance they’d have one of them too. Meanwhile Reinhart is a mediocre AHLer
• Hall for Larsson. Trade looked awful the day it was made, and probably looks even worse today
• Eberle for Strome. This one’s not so bad, but still, you shouldn’t be giving up guys who are a lock for 50-65 points every year when you have so little talent

Swap Larsson/Strome with Hall/Barzal/Dermott/Eberle and they’re a perennial contender.

 

[ottomaddox]

Is it possible to squeeze in a comment like: "It's just 2 games".

I get it. EDM get anxious at this time of year because so many times their season ends in November (Dallas Eakins style crash and burn). A slow start could be tough when you consider that the Pacific has many challengers now.

 

[A91]

McDavid is SO ****ing good, IMO the best player in the league by a pretty significant margin, but his supporting cast is so insanely bad. Draisaitl is very good, but then there’s a huge dropoff to their 3rd best player (RNH?), and once you get past their top 6-7 ... eek.

They’ve been insanely poorly managed for so long, but even still, if Chia had just sat on their assets instead of trading them for garbage, they’d be pretty good:

• 16th + 33rd at the draft for Griffin Reinhart. Barzal/Connor/Chabot went 16/17/18, they’d almost certainly have drafted one of them, and Dermott/Aho/Carlo went 34/35/37, good chance they’d have one of them too. Meanwhile Reinhart is a mediocre AHLer
• Hall for Larsson. Trade looked awful the day it was made, and probably looks even worse today
• Eberle for Strome. This one’s not so bad, but still, you shouldn’t be giving up guys who are a lock for 50-65 points every year when you have so little talent

Swap Larsson/Strome with Hall/Barzal/Dermott/Eberle and they’re a perennial contender.

Sad part is that no, we wouldnt have. Wouldve been Erikson Ek or Svechnikov.
Carlo was rumored to be our 2nd round favorite however.
Saddest part is we drafted Barzals teammate in Ethan Bear in 2015 so we scouted Seattle a lot.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

We sure did! Still number 2 overall last I checked

I don't have time to run the numbers, but what does their rank look like over the last half-century (with more than 3 post-season opponents, and 2 rounds).

 

[Cup or Bust]

Is it possible to squeeze in a comment like: "It's just 2 games".

I get it. EDM get anxious at this time of year because so many times their season ends in November (Dallas Eakins style crash and burn). A slow start could be tough when you consider that the Pacific has many challengers now.

I agree it is only two games, the problem is though that the team has left off exactly the same as last season. The past 2 game look like game 83 and 84 of last season. Definitely you don't want to jump the gun, but if the trend continues it will be concerning.

 

[cpsman]

So many conclusions drawn from 2 games in lmao

It's actually from 84 games. It's pretty much the same team as last season thanks to Chiarelli doing nothing of significance. On top of that, McLellan decides to make zero coaching changes over the last year despite having three new assistant coaches named just to appease the fans. He still has Lucic as a top 6 forward, and on the 1st power play even though the puck dies every time it touches his stick. He continues to play Benning as second pairing D man even though he's struggling. Meanwhile, Puljujarvi who had flashes of great confidence in the preseason plays some of the least amount of minutes on the team and gets punted down to the bottom six.

Todd McLellan is almost as bad as Dallas Eakins in terms of his arrogance and unwillingness to change despite persistently bad results.

Yes, I just compared McLellan to Eakins. Something I did not think I would ever have to do.

 

[cpsman]

I agree it is only two games, the problem is though that the team has left off exactly the same as last season. The past 2 game look like game 83 and 84 of last season. Definitely you don't want to jump the gun, but if the trend continues it will be concerning.

bingo you beat me to it

 

[ponder]

Sad part is that no, we wouldnt have. Wouldve been Erikson Ek or Svechnikov.
Carlo was rumored to be our 2nd round favorite however.
Saddest part is we drafted Barzals teammate in Ethan Bear in 2015 so we scouted Seattle a lot.

Yeah, maybe I’m giving Oilers brass too much credit. But at the draft, pretty much every hockey fan, member of the media, etc. were all “OMFG Barzal and Connor both still there at 16! Steal!!!”. One of those two seemed like the really no-brainer pick, and they did indeed go 16/17. But obviously Edmonton didn’t like the talent available, as they saw who was there, and still decided to move the picks for a very unimpressive dman.

 

[hyduK]

It's a shame that McDavid is on such a bad team.

 

[Cup or Bust]

bingo you beat me to it

I am sure a lot of Oilers fans are probably thinking the same thing, so no surprise both of us had that in mind right away.

 

[A91]

Yeah, maybe I’m giving Oilers brass too much credit. But at the draft, pretty much every hockey fan, member of the media, etc. were all “OMFG Barzal and Connor both still there at 16! Steal!!!”. One of those two seemed like the really no-brainer pick, and they did indeed go 16/17. But obviously Edmonton didn’t like the talent available, as they saw who was there, and still decided to move the picks for a very unimpressive dman.

Worst thing that happened to the Oilers was having the Oil Kings play in the same arena. Our brass had a hard-on for Reinhart since forever.
I had a draft party at my place for the McDavid draft, when Florida, Dallas and the Boston (3x) passed on Barzal we were going nuts already celebrating. WHL guy who everyone had heard so much about and seen play, we knew he was going to be this good. Wasnt surprised whatsoever by what he did last season.

 

[space321]

Because Babcock is such a genius.

He’s one the better coaches in the league but he’s been knocked out more times in the first round then the Minnesota wild.

Wow you completely missed my point lmao