Post-Game Talk: x - Edmonton Oilers

[Drivesaitl]

I like Mondays. Think about it.

2weeks ago the outstanding game, a win against the Habs. People calling the slobberknocker the best game of the season, certiainly most physical. 4-1W

Last week we hammer the last remaining bits of life out of the Jets so thoroughly spanking them. 6=1W. We stuff the jets in the trunk of a Toyota and drive it off the cliff.

Yesterday an entertaining fast paced open game in which McD bags 2G 2A 4pts.

Every one of the Monday contests well worth watching.


Are the Oilers going to make a thing of Monday Night Hockey? Hey NBC, pick up on this..

 

[Oilers in NS]

Yup, 8h ahead of Edmonton.. As much as I was hoping for a BoA in the playoffs, the start times would've killed me throughout the series..

It’s worth it

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Oilers are 2nd in the league in Regulation Wins with 29
Avs have 30

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Beyond the clinch, so much good came out of last night. Koskinen continues to play well, Nuge found his legs and hands, Nuge's line was very effective, Barrie with another goal, Nurse steady, Bear and Jones were quite good, and McLeod showing more and more confidence.

Last night Tippett trusted McLeod and Yamamoto to kill a penalty and they did not disappoint. This team.

 

[BoldNewLettuce]

Just insert Holloway directly into my heart and we will be good to go.

Is he eligible or his contract starts next year?

 

[WaitingForUser]

Just insert Holloway directly into my heart and we will be good to go.

Is he eligible or his contract starts next year?

Next year

 

[Snipes45]

It can take a while for a new D man to mesh with a team.

I remember a lot of people were not happy with Pronger until the team got hot around Decemeber 2005.

I remember this as well. There were people questioning how good he really was lol.

 

[Snipes45]

If Holloway can be a 2nd line player, that will be huge. McLoed looks like a player. Insert a solid top 6 in there and we are rolling if RNH does not take an overpayment.

 

[Paralyzer]

If Holloway can be a 2nd line player, that will be huge. McLoed looks like a player. Insert a solid top 6 in there and we are rolling if RNH does not take an overpayment.

I'm actually hoping Holloway takes 2nd line and McLeod plays 3rd line. Then shift Kahun, Yamamoto, Ennis, and Kassian (When he returns) where-ever on those lines. I am so pleased to see our prospects finally being players, instead of they just taking a backseat. And we haven't even seen Benson or Marody yet, which lead the AHL league in scoring with 2nd and 3rd. As much as people think our prospect cupboards is empty, it really isn't rofl.

 

[nally]

He's basically doping. Evolutionary advantage to be able to get that much oxygen in his blood all at once.

Elite air intake...like a velociraptor

 

[OilersaretheMcBest]

Who can read lips

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

I think you are kind of exaggerating. I did some quick calculations (sue me if they're ballpark). Based on the rate the players scored last season (only goals, not assists) the number below represents how far off that pace they are through fifty games this season.

Neal - 13 (played only 24/50 games)
Yamamoto - 12 (played 48/50) so really the only guy that is way down and actually played the games.
Kassian -10 (played 27/50)

Mostly the rest of the roster is reasonably close to the rate of scoring from the previous season.
Draisaitl -6
RNH -3
Archibald, Khaira and Haas -2 each
Chiasson equals his scoring rate from last season

McDavid is +4
Larsson is +2
Nurse is a massive +11
JP is found money at +13
And Barrie vs Klefbom is a +3

It would appear that the '50-60' extra goals you were expecting from Kassian+Yamamoto+RNH is not a realistic number, at least based on what those guys produced last year. By my count those three guys have contributed 25 fewer goals this season than could have been expected based on last season. A far cry from 50, and a number that is actually perfectly replaced by the +24 goals the team got from Nurse and Puljujarvi.

McDavid and Draisaitl haven't gone on some unforeseen tear .... in fact combined they are -2 vs their scoring rate last season. I would say the glaring disappointments are Neal, who has barely played, and Yamamoto who is kind of without excuse. The stud beyond belief is Darnell Nurse. Pay that man his money.

Nice work and appreciate the context! Funny how expectations versus reality can play out when looking at actual results. It's interesting how goals have also shifted most notably to Nurse with a staggering 15 ES goals no doubt enhanced by the defensive breakdowns created by McDavid's unrivalled attack game that creates so much open ice for line mates and breakdowns in d-zone coverage.

I cut Yamamoto some slack as a second year player whose results have resent after a league dominant debut with Draisaitl and Nugent Hopkins. This is a tough league and development is not all straight arrows up. Neal's season has been frustrating with covid issues. The promise of better top six line balance hasn't really played out with Kahun's addition. I think he's more of a top nine tweener.

Oilers have been scoring goals. It's their work on goal prevention that Tippett's placed as high priority to take the team's next step in its growth. They have been very good in this regard and showing ability to lock down games with consistency which has been significant growth for this team. All in all Tippett's done a great job utilizing the versatility within the lineup (though still missing at least one proven top six big volume shooting winger imo) to maintain scoring among the league's best teams while reducing goals against to become a legitimate playoff team.

EDIT: A recalibrated Puljujarvi has been such a huge lift for this team in scoring goals but building out a threadbare top six forward group. He's been a revelation.

 

[Rafters]

Ne

Who can read lips

Neal.... "and I make half as much as Conner"... and everyone laughs

 

[Cloned]

Kulikov is such a mixed bag. He's mostly a physical shut down defender with mediocre break out passes, but a few times a game you'll see him make a really good offensive read or really good pass and it's as if he's having a flashback to his junior days.

Either way he's an upgrade on Russell.

He’s slowly getting more comfortable I think. Hopefully he cuts down on those weak giveaways.

 

[MaxR11]

Give McDavid and Draisaitl .915 or better goaltending and you have playoffs.

Why the Oilers made that so complicated is beyond me.

Like this season, the forward group beyond those two actually sucks donkey balls, they are considerably worse than last year. They've regressed there hard.

Smith has been good since January 2020, well before this season.

To be honest they don't really play that great defensively, they still make brain dead plays defensively routinely (like what the f*** was Khaira doing on that first goal), but Smith will make a big time stop when he needs to. The defence on the JT Miller goal was atrocious too, both Nurse and Barrie decided to play the same left side of the ice leaving no one but a rookie McLeod to cover the middle/right side.

You're looking at goaltending like it exists in a vacuum. It does not. Things like SV% is highly tied and correlated to the play of the 5 guys in front of him. It's not as simple as you're making it to be. You can't just pick a random goaltender from another team that has a .920 SV% and assume he'll do the same here if the players in front of him play poor defence.

At times you can have a goalie stand on his head behind shoddy defence and put up good GA and SV% for a little while but it's very rare that it'll last long term. You need solid, predictable 5 man defence in front of the goalie for him to perform at his best, long term.

So many times you'll see good goalies move from one team to another who's d is shoddy or even different and it'll mess him up and he'll look bad. Or other times you'll see a seemingly poor goalie move from a team with shoddy D to a team with much better D and they'll look great. More often than not, for the majority of goalies if not all, the 5 guys in front of him have a HUGE affect on his performance and numbers.

And the Oil have been playing way better and more consistent team D since Smith has come back. They were downright bad before that earlyy in the season. Night and day difference. They'll still make the odd mistakes but everything for much of the game is consistently predictable and relatively solid with decent battle level in front of the goal for the goalies and that's what they want. When guys are running around out of position all the time and there's low battle level it makes things impossibly unpredictable for the goalies and he starts to become passive and shrink into his net.

 

[Mickelsnitz]

Looch wanting out of Calgary now.

 

[Mickelsnitz]

Wrong thread

 

[Forgot About Drai]

Looch wanting out of Calgary now.

Where did you see this?

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

Ne


Neal.... "and I make half as much as Conner"... and everyone laughs

Why you gotta take it a negative way?

 

[joestevens29]

Where did you see this?

He's waiving his NMC, but I don't see that as a story at all. Was already a rumor he and Trevling had a deal

 

[Duke74]

Game was a cakewalk it seemed. On a serious note, what's wrong with Drai? He misses the net on those off wing PP shots that were automatic in years past. I can't remember the last time he actually scored one of those on the PP. The Ottawa impossible angle one? Hopefully he finds that shot again in playoffs here.

You raise a good question and I'm not sure of the answer.

I've definitely noticed that something's been off with him in the last 10 games or so. He also went through a rough stretch earlier in the year and seems to have as many off-games as on-games. I know that he's been racking up the points, but, by the eye test, he's definitely not nearly as dominant as last season. In particular, his goal scoring aptitude has diminished significantly. Guys like Aho, Rantanen, Toffoli, Barkov, Marchand, Debrincat, Reinhart all currently sitting with more goals than Leon. Some of those guys are great players but playmakers (Marchant, Barkov, Rantanen, Aho) while the rest are good but not great players.

He's either nursing an injury or just sitting back and letting McDavid take charge. I hope Tippett gives him plenty of rest and reflection time so that he can become his dominant self come playoffs.

 

[DaGap]

You raise a good question and I'm not sure of the answer.

I've definitely noticed that something's been off with him in the last 10 games or so. He also went through a rough stretch earlier in the year and seems to have as many off-games as on-games. I know that he's been racking up the points, but, by the eye test, he's definitely not nearly as dominant as last season. In particular, his goal scoring aptitude has diminished significantly. Guys like Aho, Rantanen, Toffoli, Barkov, Marchand, Debrincat, Reinhart all currently sitting with more goals than Leon. Some of those guys are great players but playmakers (Marchant, Barkov, Rantanen, Aho) while the rest are good but not great players.

He's either nursing an injury or just sitting back and letting McDavid take charge. I hope Tippett gives him plenty of rest and reflection time so that he can become his dominant self come playoffs.

Tired

 

[McTonyBrar]

Kulikov is such a mixed bag. He's mostly a physical shut down defender with mediocre break out passes, but a few times a game you'll see him make a really good offensive read or really good pass and it's as if he's having a flashback to his junior days.

Either way he's an upgrade on Russell.

Yesterday was his best game for us so far

 

[Soundwave]

You're looking at goaltending like it exists in a vacuum. It does not. Things like SV% is highly tied and correlated to the play of the 5 guys in front of him. It's not as simple as you're making it to be. You can't just pick a random goaltender from another team that has a .920 SV% and assume he'll do the same here if the players in front of him play poor defence.

At times you can have a goalie stand on his head behind shoddy defence and put up good GA and SV% for a little while but it's very rare that it'll last long term. You need solid, predictable 5 man defence in front of the goalie for him to perform at his best, long term.

So many times you'll see good goalies move from one team to another who's d is shoddy or even different and it'll mess him up and he'll look bad. Or other times you'll see a seemingly poor goalie move from a team with shoddy D to a team with much better D and they'll look great. More often than not, for the majority of goalies if not all, the 5 guys in front of him have a HUGE affect on his performance and numbers.

And the Oil have been playing way better and more consistent team D since Smith has come back. They were downright bad before that earlyy in the season. Night and day difference. They'll still make the odd mistakes but everything for much of the game is consistently predictable and relatively solid with decent battle level in front of the goal for the goalies and that's what they want. When guys are running around out of position all the time and there's low battle level it makes things impossibly unpredictable for the goalies and he starts to become passive and shrink into his net.

Smith has been good every month here except December 2019 where the forwards frustrated by no scoring depth basically started to do whatever they felt like.

The D is more or less the same, we're OK but we're not built to be something shut down defensive team (like most young squads).

Sometimes you just need a goalie to shut up and make a save. Simple as that.

Look at even the Sabres they are probably one of the worst teams in the past few years ... except when Ullmark actually plays they are about a .500 team which is a massive difference just from goaltending.

If Koskinen was the starter here, I don't care what the structure or culture of the team is, they'd miss the playoffs.

 

[MaxR11]

Smith has been good every month here except December 2019 where the forwards frustrated by no scoring depth basically started to do whatever they felt like.

The D is more or less the same, we're OK but we're not built to be something shut down defensive team (like most young squads).

Sometimes you just need a goalie to shut up and make a save. Simple as that.

Look at even the Sabres they are probably one of the worst teams in the past few years ... except when Ullmark actually plays they are about a .500 team which is a massive difference just from goaltending.

If Koskinen was the starter here, I don't care what the structure or culture of the team is, they'd miss the playoffs.

If we the 5 guys play the way they do in front of the goalie, we still make the playoffs with Kosk. The thing is Smith, through his leadership, has helped the team play a much better/more structured defence more consistently.