Was yesterday the real turning point?

[McDeathbyCheerios*]

Exactly, and with Khaira looking like he's about ready for full time 4th line duty, if you swap him in for Korpi, and have hendricks center Pak and Khaira, that's one hell of a fourth energy line.

Hendricks becomes much less effective as a center. Messes with his game. Khaira is a natural center so he can just center that line.

 

[Hopelesslucicfan]

Lucic Mcdavid Yak
Hall Drai Maroon
Pouliot RNH Kassian
Hendricks Khaira Pak
Cracknell/Lander

Klefbom Hamonic
Sekera Vatanen/Shattenkirk
Davidson Nurse
Pardy/Gryba

Talbot
LB

Lucic might be a stretch, but the rest of that lineup is very realistic for next year, assuming Chia can shed some dead weight. Definitely looks like a playoff capable group, that has guys able to step up if there are any injuries to the top 6 or top 4 dmen.

That gets me ****ing pumped for next year.

 

[Hopelesslucicfan]

Hendricks becomes much less effective as a center. Messes with his game. Khaira is a natural center so he can just center that line.

Ah, I wasn't aware that Khaira was a center. That works even better!

 

[Cloned]

Everyone posting in this thread should be voting.

Not voting would be like going to an election booth and watching everyone else vote and verbally shouting your opinion but not actually voting.

 

[Musashi]

Yesterday's game definitely made me feel warm and fuzzy inside but we've been fooled too many times with short samples.

I know it's just for fun and there's reason to believe that Chia and McDavid are finally the guys to pull us out of purgatory but I have a hard time jumping on board until I see what this team looks like a few months into next season.

 

[McJadeddog]

They don't mean anything to you. But they do to the Flyers who may have severely damaged their playoff chances with the loss. And they do to a guy like Kassian who is fighting to save his career, or to Yakupov who may be trying to save himself from being traded. They mean something to McDavid who lost part of his first year and will never get that time back. I'd say it also mean something to Brandon Davidson and to Patrick Maroon or to Cam Talbot...

those are all actually fairly good points

 

[ChaoticOrange]

Lucic Mcdavid Yak
Hall Drai Maroon
Pouliot RNH Kassian
Hendricks Khaira Pak
Cracknell/Lander

Klefbom Hamonic
Sekera Vatanen/Shattenkirk
Davidson Nurse
Pardy/Gryba

Talbot
LB

Lucic might be a stretch, but the rest of that lineup is very realistic for next year, assuming Chia can shed some dead weight. Definitely looks like a playoff capable group, that has guys able to step up if there are any injuries to the top 6 or top 4 dmen.

That gets me ****ing pumped for next year.

That lineup looks awesome, but I'd be very afraid for Drai/Nurse/McDavid's extensions. I guess those are problems you address when you have to and not before.

 

[guymez]

I'm asking people's opinions, obviously. Not going to gloat over it later on or whatever. Just curious to see what people think at this point in time vs. what really transpires over the next year.

It was one game. There were some positive signs but I would like to think that we have some experience witnessing small sample sizes that end up meaning nothing.

The one thing I do like is that for the first time in years the roster finally has some balance to it....additional players in the top 6 that arent just small and skilled.
Something I have been ranting about for 5 years now.

So for me I have been maintaining that a balanced roster is the only thing that will turn around the fortunes of this team.

Is this the start...I think it is but there is more to come. This is just the first step.

Step #1 in reassembling the team to becoming more competitive.

So to conclude my 500 word rambling answer (sorry Cloned)...i would say yes...this is a turning point.

 

[Hopelesslucicfan]

That lineup looks awesome, but I'd be very afraid for Drai/Nurse/McDavid's extensions. I guess those are problems you address when you have to and not before.

Yeah, that's kinda why Lucic is such a stretch. He'd be a nice luxury, but I'm sure there is someone cheaper out there who can play on Mcdavids wing.

 

[Suxnet]

Sure hope so. It's about time they started playing like men and not boys.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

We lost 2 close games to LA and Anaheim. Beat NYI (playoff team), Buffalo (not good) and Philly (fighting for that last wildcard spot).

Those blowout wins we didn't even play great. Our pp clicked and we had good offensive confidence. The rest of our game was actually not great.

nope but everybody was pumped back then too...mainly cause McJesus was going to lift us to wins...

again, I've been burned so many times about getting excited about "turning the corner" that I need to see how they perform for more than 5 games...I wanna see how they do after a loss and see how they respond...

 

[missinthejets]

the games don't mean anything and the opposition was a middling team from the lesser eastern conference ... not exactly the LA kings

It's not winning 4-0 that makes me think this might be a turning point, it's how they responded when the Flyers tried to bully them around. Too many times we've seen teams do just that and make the Oilers go away entirely, but last night someone (think it was Simmonds) took a poke at Hall and guys immediately came in and said "**** no you can't do that" and the Flyers pretty much lost their **** as a result of the Oilers actually pushing back. They tried again to get rough with one of the stars and Kassian went ape ****. That's the kind of **** this team has been missing for so long. They take a poke at your star their guys get punched in the face.

 

[Burnt Biscuits]

Easy no vote for me. One it is statistically unlikely that this game was the turning point, so the smart bet is to vote against it. Secondly if this most recent stretch is actually the turning point for the team, I believe this game is being misidentified as a turning point just cause it produced a lobsided result, when the turning point should be the L.A. game where the style of hockey we played was modified coming off a rather awful homestand. Multiple Oiler players also identified the Kings game as the point where the team changed its mindset and style of play.

 

[Cloned]

It was one game. There were some positive signs but I would like to think that we have some experience witnessing small sample sizes that end up meaning nothing.

The one thing I do like is that for the first time in years the roster finally has some balance to it....additional players in the top 6 that arent just small and skilled.
Something I have been ranting about for 5 years now.

So for me I have been maintaining that a balanced roster is the only thing that will turn around the fortunes of this team.

Is this the start...I think it is but there is more to come. This is just the first step.

Step #1 in reassembling the team to becoming more competitive.

So to conclude my 500 word rambling answer (sorry Cloned)...i would say yes...this is a turning point.

I'll mark you down as a yes then.

I'm not trying to raise controversy here. Just want to see how the general opinion is here after a game that felt different.

 

[Cloned]

It's not winning 4-0 that makes me think this might be a turning point, it's how they responded when the Flyers tried to bully them around. Too many times we've seen teams do just that and make the Oilers go away entirely, but last night someone (think it was Simmonds) took a poke at Hall and guys immediately came in and said "**** no you can't do that" and the Flyers pretty much lost their **** as a result of the Oilers actually pushing back. They tried again to get rough with one of the stars and Kassian went ape ****. That's the kind of **** this team has been missing for so long. They take a poke at your star their guys get punched in the face.

One added benefit of this is the kind of camaraderie it builds.

Yes, all locker rooms generally have some sort of natural "bro" and hockey player camaraderie, and Remenda has said multiple times that this year the Oilers have had good chemistry in the room.

What I think has been missing for a long time is the kind of camaraderie where you start looking out for each other in the ways each individual can. So Kassian defends Hall, and Hall remembers that and next time he's playing on a line with Kassian maybe he tries a little harder to get Kassian an assist or goal. Kassian remembers that and so on.

This kind of positive reinforcement is part of what I mean when I say I hope the psychology has finally started feeding back positively into this team's confidence. If that happens, the sky is the limit.

 

[McDrai]

They will reach a turning point when they can actually beat teams like Anaheim and LA instead of weak Eastern conference teams such as Philly and Buffalo

 

[Draiskull]

Point is to answer now so that you can see whether you were right or wrong.

I say No.

Talbot pretty much stole the game for us. Sure we scored 4 goals but the number of PPs and scoring chances we gave Philly was unacceptable.

The players still have to figure out where the line is.

McDavid's return from injury seemed like the turning point and how the team was going to dominate rest of the way... look how that turned out..

I still dont see 6-10 of the 23 players playing last night returning next season.

 

[Stoneman89]

I think this is for real this time. We've had other games or points in seasons past where we've pummelled a team with goals and everyone jumped on the bandwagon. But this was born in blood. And nothing pulls a team closer together than one that gets bloody together. There will be more changes, of course, and likely some big ones, but an attitude is being cast here.

 

[Philly85*]

lol 1 game, against a ****** opponent.

**** no

 

[Halibut]

I voted yes and I said it in the Maroon thread but this last stretch felt different than the fake runs we've had in the past and the last game I think is the turning point. That doesnt mean we're contending for the Stanley Cup now but I do think we arent in the running for 30th place going forward no matter what happens, injuries wont be an excuse. We played with a swagger and confidence that is going to help us over come little blips that in the past have turned into huge downward spirals.

We still need a better defence to become a contender but we've got the depth up front now to trade from a position of strength to fill holes on our blueline.

 

[CupofOil]

I guess it depends on your definition of turning point.

Mine personally is seeing that this team is finally not playing like a chicken **** on ice, afraid of their opponent's shadows and Jedi mind tricks. The point when this team's psychology feeds positively into their confidence on a consistent basis is the real turning point, IMO.

Yeah but this needs to be done consistently. I recall a game against Winnipeg last season when Yak was getting run by Big Buff and co. and Gadzic jumped him and gave Yak a pat like "I've got your back" in the penalty box then the Oilers resorted to their usual pushover selves not too long thereafter so we need time to assess if this was a turning point.

Don't get me wrong, I was pumped up after the game last night and it was great to see but we need to see more of this and for it to translate to wins when the games matter next season. I love the new additions and am hopeful but I don't know if this means anything in the long run. Only time will tell.

I personally think the Mclellan tirade "could" be a turning point. You can tell that the players respect him and have gotten the message loud and clear. There has been a distinct uptick in compete level the last 5 games, very consistent efforts with an undermanned group, so I'm hoping that we can look back at the Mclellan tirade and say "that's when it started to turn".

Tonight is an interesting test. Back to back road games, emotional win last night, team that they could beat. This has been an easy fail just about every time in the past so lets see how they handle it this time.

 

[Philly85*]

Turning point is when they don't get pushed around by a big team out west like LA or ANA, actually win a couple back to back games and compete/beat Chicago in a meaningful game down the stretch, with Hall/McJesus/one of their stars put up a game breaking performance.

Sure was nice seeing some pushback last night though... really nice, I'll give them that.

 

[I am the Liquor]

We've been deceived dozens of times over the last 10 years.

Was yesterday the first real true sign that the team is truly becoming a different entity?

Its the personnel changes. Shipping out cream puffs for grit. Not done in that regard. Need to dispense with one dimensional boat anchors like Eberle. Still work to do.

 

[MoneyGuy]

It was a positive sign, but after 10 years of crushing disappointment it will take a hell of a lot more for me to believe.

Sounds like my love life. Just kidding, dear. She's actually easy.

Seriously, I'm with the Elephant Man. It will take a end-of-season run, the acquisition of a top-two defender and a good start to the next season to make me a believer. This is not a legit turn-around without at least one more first-line defenseman.

 

[plikestechno]

No, November/December next year, playing for the playoffs next March will be the real turning point.

The Oilers always seem to go on a run or two to end the season. I like the hockey they're playing right now but not completely surprised. They still have to win a lot more games against the West next year.