Post-Game Talk: What a drai game

[K1984]

No one went to the slot the entire game. It was pretty much all perimeter play. Passing was pretty brutal as well.

This is the problem.

I actually thought the team played well enough to win, but they just pretty much refuse to simplify to score goals. When we get the puck in a lane to shoot we always dust it off looking for a pass play. Then the lane closes and the play dies. Drives me f***ing insane. Trying to force the cross slot pass for a one timer needs to stop as well.

We have the players that can drive the net and score in tight. Problem is our playmakers are too busy looking to set up the tap in rather than just shooting the f***ing puck.

 

[Forgot About Drai]

I rarely like commenting on the state of the board, but this place in shambles.

Horrible start but Virtanen would be better then Yams/Pulju????? What the f*** are we even talking about right now.

 

[frag2]

I mean we should have beat Buffalo but of course the Edmonton born career back up played the game of his life. It is what it is. The first few games with the garbage starts were bad but outside of that I don’t think we’ve played particularly bad it’s one of those stretches where we aren’t getting that bit of puck luck to be the difference in these close games. There will be more stretches like this throughout the season this one just happens to be the beginning of the season.

I dont know if I'd chock it up as puck luck though. Team is constantly attempting to make low percentage plays [ie. D throwing hail marys, Drai and his no lookers/drop passes, McD trying to thread puck through skates]. Just stupid play throughout. If team can keep it simple, they'll be successful IMO. They are their own worst enemy

 

[nexttothemoon]

I rarely like commenting on the state of the board, but this place in shambles.

Horrible start but Virtanen would be better then Yams/Pulju????? What the f*** are we even talking about right now.

This stems from the fact that the bottom 6 players that Virtanen (or Kostin or really any random PTO option) would likely be playing with (or replacing in some cases)... have a total of 1 assist so far through 5 games:

Yamo
JP
Foegele
Ryan
Malone
Shore

Total of 1 assist in 23 man games played with a collective cap hit of $11.7 million



It's not hard to see why there's frustration there from the fanbase when you are getting essentially zero offensive input from that group.

 

[Forgot About Drai]

This stems from the fact that the bottom 6 players that Virtanen would likely be playing with (or replacing in some cases)... have a total of 1 assist so far through 5 games:

Yamo
JP
Foegele
Ryan
Malone
Shore

Total of 1 assist in 23 man games played with a collective cap hit of $11.7 million



It's not hard to see why there's frustration there from the fanbase when you are getting essentially zero offensive input from that group.

I get the frustration with them - they suck lol. But replacing them with a player who sucks more.... thats just angry thoughts clouding your judgement

 

[nexttothemoon]

I get the frustration with them - they suck lol. But replacing them with a player who sucks more.... thats just angry thoughts clouding your judgement

Well I guess an equally sucky player (or even one that sucks slightly more) at a lower cap hit would in theory allow a GM to fix some issues in other areas.

If you had 6 Virtanen level players (say Kostin/Benson/Virtanen and 3 other similar "junk players") all making $750,000 in the bottom 6 for example... that would open up $10+ million to address other areas on the team. Definitely should be able to get a couple decent dmen at a minimum.



ie.... Micheal f***ing Stone who signed for $750,000 with the Flames has 4 pts in 5 games so far... that's 3 more points than all those 6 forwards combined for the Oilers on that list up above.

 

[grego]

The early game had me confused I just assumed it was later. But now I am glad I didn't know as I had more important stuff to do that watch that game

 

[K1984]

I dont know if I'd chock it up as puck luck though. Team is constantly attempting to make low percentage plays [ie. D throwing hail marys, Drai and his no lookers/drop passes, McD trying to thread puck through skates]. Just stupid play throughout. If team can keep it simple, they'll be successful IMO. They are their own worst enemy

Agree 100%.

Nothing drives me crazier than "well they're getting some looks but just not burying them, it will come around!" as if it is only happenstance that goals are scored.

It's so apparent that the way we approach offense doesn't work unless you're playing a really shitty opponent. The inclination of the entire team in the o-zone is to either move the puck east-west for a cool one timer, or cycle, but never shoot because we are looking for the tap in pass off the wall. Instinctually we need to start thinking about o-zone offense from a north-south perspective. Inclination of all skaters needs to be shooting if you have the puck and going to the net if you don't. The cool east-west plays open themselves up by driving the net and shooting, but nobody wants to do it.

 

[Duke74]

Does everyone actually hate him though?

Are you mixing up criticism to hate?

Criticism is one thing and in Draisaitl's case, warranted thus far this season. But some of the comments uttered in the GDT go way beyond that. I know it's frustration, but come on people, be better than that.

2 of our losses are directly from his mistakes. His giveaway in the Buffalo game that led to the game winner and his offensive zone penalty vs the blues that led to the only goal.

It wouldn't be that way if some of the useless garbage on this roster could have actually contributed in those two games (Yam, Pul, Shore, Ryan, Foegele, etc). But no. It's all the fault of one of the best players this team has had in the last 30 years. Sometimes I wonder if some of this fanbase even deserve a player like that let alone McDavid.

 

[frag2]

Agree 100%.

Nothing drives me crazier than "well they're getting some looks but just not burying them, it will come around!" as if it is only happenstance that goals are scored.

It's so apparent that the way we approach offense doesn't work unless you're playing a really shitty opponent. The inclination of the entire team in the o-zone is to either move the puck east-west for a cool one timer, or cycle, but never shoot because we are looking for the tap in pass off the wall. Instinctually we need to start thinking about o-zone offense from a north-south perspective. Inclination of all skaters needs to be shooting if you have the puck and going to the net if you don't. The cool east-west plays open themselves up by driving the net and shooting, but nobody wants to do it.

Its why I said in GDT that the players on ice remind me of EA NHL online play. Players just doing whatever they want and then attempting video game like plays. Shit that don't work IRL 99% of the time

 

[DaGap]

Criticism is one thing. Some of the language used in the GDT goes way beyond that.


It wouldn't be that way if some of the useless garbage on this roster could have actually contributed (Yam, Pul, Shore, Ryan, Foegele, etc).

I was hoping the Yams Jp were let to walk and Foegle was traded for peanuts

 

[TheHoff]

Criticism is one thing and in Draisaitl's case, warranted thus far this season. But some of the comments uttered in the GDT go way beyond that. I know it's frustration, but come on people, be better than that.


It wouldn't be that way if some of the useless garbage on this roster could have actually contributed in those two games (Yam, Pul, Shore, Ryan, Foegele, etc). But no. It's all the fault of one of the best players this team has had in the last 30 years. Sometimes I wonder if some of this fanbase even deserve a player like that let alone McDavid.

Well put, thank you.

The bigger problem is the incapability of the "bottom" players (in case of the Oilers bottom scoring starts at line 2, Pulju, Yam etc.), not the effort of the two best scoring players in the game.

 

[K1984]

Its why I said in GDT that the players on ice remind me of EA NHL online play. Players just doing whatever they want and then attempting video game like plays. Shit that don't work IRL 99% of the time

Except in our case the cool one timer passes that make it there are getting fanned on due to a combination of shitty ice and poor execution. Even when the odd dumb 10% pass makes it there we fan on it most of the time.

The antidote is just shooting it, but, well, we just don't do that in Edmonton. The way things go with these players we will change to a shooting mentality, but will start cresting the shots or doing some other obvious thing that causes us to not score that the group is collectively mystified about why it doesn't work.

 

[DaGap]

The way I look at it is we have 5 top 6 players but we have to use those 5 to fill out 9 roster positions.

 

[MessierII]

It wouldn't be that way if some of the useless garbage on this roster could have actually contributed in those two games (Yam, Pul, Shore, Ryan, Foegele, etc). But no. It's all the fault of one of the best players this team has had in the last 30 years. Sometimes I wonder if some of this fanbase even deserve a player like that let alone McDavid.

I mean sure. That doesn’t mean it’s ok for Leon to be making those mistakes. We are trying to win a cup here right?

 

[MessierII]

The way I look at it is we have 5 top 6 players but we have to use those 5 to fill out 9 roster positions.

Very few teams have 6 legitimate top 6 players. Like I don’t think the pens at any point have had 4 bonafide top 6 wingers for sid and geno. Right now Danton Heinen in on the top line for example. He’s not much better if at all than Yamamoto.

 

[North Cole]

Honestly this is the best loss we had all season. We gave up 1 actual goal to a really good f***ing team. The sooner this team learns how to consistently play 3-2 hockey or less, the better, we can't keep giving up 5 a game and expect to win anything.

 

[Duke74]

I mean sure. That doesn’t mean it’s ok for Leon to be making those mistakes. We are trying to win a cup here right?

You're absolutely right. He shouldn't be making those mistakes, like the infuriating giveaways and blind passes, especially nine years into his career. But I still feel he takes a disproportionate amount of slagging when the team struggles, especially given that the pros far outweigh the cons. McDavid gets a free pass because of his reputation and there's zero to low expectations for the rest of the roster, except maybe Nurse.

 

[Oilhawks]

Considering all 3 of our losses were more or less 1 goal games (2 goals against were EN).

It's hard not to believe that 2-3 more goals would have meant at least 2 more wins.

JP Yamamoto and Foegele are sitting at 0's.
Regardless if they 'look good doing nothing', this is essentially their make or break year.


These guys gotta score. They have the best players in the league as support, so there's no excuses. They gotta score.

They would literally be replaced by league minimum 4th liners at this point. Might as well put Foegele and Ryan up on the wings if those two keep shooting blanks.

 

[MessierII]

You're absolutely right. He shouldn't be making those mistakes, like the infuriating giveaways and blind passes, especially nine years into his career. But I still feel he takes a disproportionate amount of slagging when the team struggles, especially given that the pros far outweigh the cons. McDavid gets a free pass because of his reputation and there's zero to low expectations for the rest of the roster, except maybe Nurse.

At the end of the day we have 5 even strength goals so far amongst the worst. No one is scoring enough right now 5 on 5. We’ve played a lot of tight games that come down to little mistakes. I don’t care who’s doing the scoring we shouldn’t be the 30th best goal scoring team 5 on 5. Even Leon and Connor 5 on 5 aren’t getting it done.

 

[Oilhawks]

I get the frustration with them - they suck lol. But replacing them with a player who sucks more.... thats just angry thoughts clouding your judgement

Virtanen at league minimum, cap flexibility and around $5M to spend on one or two better players > JP and Yams, currently.

That’s the point.

 

[nabob]

The next week is going to be pretty tough. We could end up being 3-6 if the team keeps playing like this.


Holloway should be sent to the minors, he's not ready yet. JP and Yamamoto are at least NHL regulars.

Could be 6-3 if the team keeps playing like this

 

[nabob]

Keep playing like this and we could be 7-3