Thoughts on McLellan

[McDeathbyCheerios*]

I'd say that was the case with the MacT/Eakins era. Do you honestly not see any improvement in this team this season?

Don't bother hear. In his and many fans eyes. Unless we are not in the bottom 5, no matter how we play, we still suck and nothings changed.

 

[Aerchon]

Obviuosly a massive upgrade on Eakins.

Imo better all around coach than anything in the last decade at least.

Nobody is perfect tho. His handling of the goalies is terrible, needs to pull a goalie when it can make a difference not after 4-6 goals. Obviously Schultz needs to be sent to the ahl but not sure if he is enabling that or not. Be nice if he could get all our players playing well at the same time. PP is disaster and at least some of that is on him.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

I'd say that was the case with the MacT/Eakins era. Do you honestly not see any improvement in this team this season?

I do and I don't. The team is better but this is largely because they couldn't get much worse.

The last two games though felt like a lot of what we've gone through, especially the Calgary game. When the Flames scored shorthanded there was an immediate sense of dread, both in the fans and probably the players themselves.

Granted there's been good games too, like the last Sharks game... But the Oilers have to improve on the road and their power play HAS to contribute.

 

[lakai17]

Great coach.

 

[Up the Irons]

It's not the coach.

Give us Calgary's D and we r a playoff team.

 

[PBandJ]

Great coach trying to make chicken salad out of some major chicken ****.

 

[Draiskull]

There is one thing I really hope he tries.
play Schultz as a forward for a small stretch.

 

[ZJuice]

There is one thing I really hope he tries.
play Schultz as a forward for a small stretch.

Put Nuge on defense?

 

[Draiskull]

Put Nuge on defense?

What was the point of this post?
Schultz has good offensive instinct and might work out as a forward in NHL.
Skill wise to me he is on par with Eberle and Yak or atleast he was when he first joined the Oilers.

 

[Measles]

I personally think McLellan has done a great job with what he's been given to work with. Chiarelli has stuck to the gameplan he laid out when he took the helm. The first half of this season is for evaluation. He is not in a rush to spend our forward assets just to plug our D-line enough to MAYBE squeak into the playoffs just to get smashed by a deeper team.

McLellan and Chiairelli are smart hockey guys. They know what we need, and I think their track records have shown they can evaluate talent. Not only have they had to deal with the league lead in man-games lost, but also the league lead, by a wide margin, in man-games lost adjusted for player impact factor (ie. Eberle missed game weighted higher than Klink missed game). There is no point making a rushed trade to plug an injury hole if it means compromsing the longterm goal of building a cup contender. Assets like RNH, Eberle, Yak etc are not and should not be spent until Chiarelli is getting the deal he wants.

McLellan has not had a healthy lineup to put out there to see where we really stack up. I think the time between now and trade deadline will be the most crucial time to really evaluate this team, when most of our lineup is healthy (knock on wood!).

And I personally think we will make only minor deals at the deadline, unless he can snag a top-pairing D from a team out of the playoff picture. No playoff team will part with a top-D before the end of the season. The real moves, imo, will come in the off-season. I think that's when Chia will make some blockbuster deals, and then next season we can see what McLellan can do with a more balanced roster.

 

[ZJuice]

What was the point of this post?
Schultz has good offensive instinct and might work out as a forward in NHL.
Skill wise to me he is on par with Eberle and Yak or atleast he was when he first joined the Oilers.

Schultz doesn't have offensive instinct.. Have you watched the games the past few seasons? He's a 3.9 million dollar turnover machine

 

[Draiskull]

Schultz doesn't have offensive instinct.. Have you watched the games the past few seasons? He's a 3.9 million dollar turnover machine

Have you watched him before 2014?
pretty much led his college team in scoring ..
following that up with a 48pts in 38 AHL games
then a 33pt full NHL season that included 11 goals.

but yeh lets not get facts get into the way of hate. Is he ****** defensively? yes
can he hit? No ...Is he skilled offensively ..most definitely.

The Laleggia experiment to forward position in AHL seems to be working out.
Could be worth a shot in NHL for Schultz .

 

[Husker Du]

What are people's thoughts on McLellan so far?

He's got a terribly imbalanced lineup so I find it hard to be too critical of him. He has gotten more out of some players than previous coaches and we have more points than last year and not too far put of the playoff picture.

With that being said though, I am starting to see the team reverting back to where they were prior to this season. If the goalie's hadn't put together some great performance's in December, we would be last in the NHL.

My biggest problem boils down to Schultz. Yet another coach that won't hold him accountable to his poor play. McLellan held Ference, Nikitin and Fayne accountable, but failed with Schultz. He continues to put him on the PP even though it is clear he is not part of the solution. I think McLellan is on the verge of losing the locker room for not holding Schultz accountable, if he hasn't started already.

Let's call a spade a spade. This thread isn't about McLellan, it's about how much you dislike Schultz. Do you honestly believe that McLellan has lost or is about to lose the locker room over his handling of Schultz? When Taylor Hall looks around the room do you think he would rather see Schultz getting ice time or would he rather see fat Nikitin/glacial Fayne/quicksand Gryba or cluster f**k Hunt eating up minutes?

 

[BoldNewLettuce]

I know mclellan wasnrt special teams coach, but I knew from day one this season would live or die with the powerplay.

I saw it from miles away.

 

[shoop]

I do and I don't. The team is better but this is largely because they couldn't get much worse.

Stuff doesn't get better 'just because' it was bad for a long time.

There would never be a reason to change coaches. 'Meh, it will get better eventually. Changing coaches will cost too much money. No way it could be this bad forever."

When Taylor Hall looks around the room do you think he would rather see Schultz getting ice time or would he rather see fat Nikitin/glacial Fayne/quicksand Gryba or cluster f**k Hunt eating up minutes?

I kinda like quicksand Gryba. Nothing softer than sand.

What about Ference?

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Stuff doesn't get better 'just because' it was bad for a long time.

There would never be a reason to change coaches. 'Meh, it will get better eventually. Changing coaches will cost too much money. No way it could be this bad forever."



I kinda like quicksand Gryba. Nothing softer than sand.

What about Ference?

I'm saying the team was terrible last year so improvement was inevitable. But they're still not that good.

 

[Replacement*]

Don't bother hear. In his and many fans eyes. Unless we are not in the bottom 5, no matter how we play, we still suck and nothings changed.

How we play? We just blew 2 very winnable games against divisional opponents in spectacularly stupid fashion. With a team that continues to appear to be congenitally stupid in close results.

At any point yesterday did anybody think we were going to win the game? I don't know theres a fan here or a player on the ice that thought so even with 2 2 goal leads.

This team is closer, yes, but something still very wrong with the players approach, consistency, focus, and how many players vs passengers we have.

By even the coaches admission we had half a dozen players floating in a divisional matchup with mere points differentiating the two clubs.

Frankly I'm disgusted by the past 2 results and what I see chronically happening with this club.

 

[Replacement*]

As for the coaching I have concerns. On a team with McDavid out, and which has limited Center options and is overplaying Centers its beyond stupid to be doubleshifting Nuge and Drai together. Either EV or PP. Which has both occurred regularly. There is zero good reason to be doing this. Especially with Nuge showing fatigue almost all season.

Next, on a club with an injury induced shortage of forwards on a team that covers back poorly its an imbecile notion to go with a 4F 1D PP. Just indescribably stupid.
The kind of thing that is just a no brainer "don't do this". But they do it.

McLellan is a better coach than Eakins, sure, but not as effective here as Krueger, for sure.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

As for the coaching I have concerns. On a team with McDavid out, and which has limited Center options and is overplaying Centers its beyond stupid to be doubleshifting Nuge and Drai together. Either EV or PP. Which has both occurred regularly.

Next, on a club with an injury induced shortage of forwards on a team that covers back poorly its an imbecile notion to go with a 4F 1D PP. Just indescribably stupid.
The kind of thing that is just a no brainer "don't do this". But they do it.

McLellan is a better coach than Eakins, sure, but not as effective here as Krueger, for sure.

Oof that's pretty scathing. I don't think Krueger was ever really that effective, especially 5-on-5 where the Oilers were the worst team in the league.

 

[Replacement*]

Great coach trying to make chicken salad out of some major chicken ****.

Great coach?

lmao

By his own admission he had 6 players floating and a whole top six line bagging a game against a divisional opponent in a playoff race. Something that is just disgusting.

Maybe we're not used to better but on most teams this would be viewed as failure. (I'm not saying that, just saying that its still a huge problem)

Certainly the word great does not describe how poorly this club was prepared to play its recent games.

''great" sure doesn't mean much around here lately.

 

[Replacement*]

Oof that's pretty scathing. I don't think Krueger was ever really that effective, especially 5-on-5 where the Oilers were the worst team in the league.

Krueger had a club that was playing exclusive difficult WC contests in playoff range.

This team when faced with conference rivals generally ***** the bed.

Kruger had a worse lineup to work with.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Great coach?

lmao

By his own admission he had 6 players floating and a whole top six line bagging a game against a divisional opponent in a playoff race. Something that is just disgusting.

Maybe we're not used to better but on most teams this would be viewed as failure. (I'm not saying that, just saying that its still a huge problem)

Certainly the word great does not describe how poorly this club was prepared to play its recent games.

''great" sure doesn't mean much around here lately.

Almost like the team is rotten at its core. No coach will fix this mess on his own. So much **** that needs to be shipped out. Even the so-called golden boys were extremely pedestrian the last two games.

This is practically new ground for the Oilers, i.e. not being out of it by November. They have no idea how to handle it.

 

[Tyrolean]

Time will tell. Nothing from the coach or GM that I am ecstatic about just yet. Chia has made some so so moves like the Reinhart trade.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Krueger had a club that was playing exclusive difficult WC contests in playoff range.

This team when faced with conference rivals generally ***** the bed.

Kruger had a worse lineup to work with.

Playoff range? They were in "Playoff range" for a day then spiralled out of control, including some very heartless losses to a beatable Flames team. They ended the season 10 points out of a playoff spot, which over the course of a full season probably would've been about double that.

 

[Mr Positive]

We'll know what the score is when Klefbom gets back. If we still lose like we have been, then we know it's that our D is razor thin. I'm guessing that's it. We cannot withstand losing either of Klefbom or Sekera. But who knows for sure? Maybe Klef gets back and we still lose games. Imo these last games have been tight enough that they could have been wins with a bit more support from the back end. It's hard to say.