Post-Game Talk: “Everything is so crappy right now” - @gordonhught

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

New rink is incredible! UBS arena is gorgeous and has all the amenities you could ask for!

Nice! Looks great. Hope to get there in the next year or two. Got Ottawa Montreal and Seattle this season. Maybe Boston Buffalo and Toronto too but if we keep crapping the bed I will delay those 3 lol.

Hope we beat you in our barn next!

Honestly the forwards are a big problem. They’re not moving or positioning themselves to move as a unit. It should be two easy passes to transition out of the zone. Instead it’s often one easy pass and one incredibly risky pass, or sometimes no easy pass outlets at all.

Forwards are too spread out. Also to spread out from the D at times. Last year Woody insisted on breaking out as a tight 5 man unit. This year it’s just a shoulder shrug from him.

We’d be forfeiting games due to insufficient players within a week.

Gonna lose them anyway with players playing brain dead or beating their own drum anyway.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Sounds like you should be the one to make the thread…

I’m getting there.

 

[BertMcDrai]

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tenor.com

Season is over...let's tank for another first OA pick.

 

[Cloned]

Nice! Looks great. Hope to get there in the next year or two. Got Ottawa Montreal and Seattle this season. Maybe Boston Buffalo and Toronto too but if we keep crapping the bed I will delay those 3 lol.

Hope we beat you in our barn next!



Forwards are too spread out. Also to spread out from the D at times. Last year Woody insisted on breaking out as a tight 5 man unit. This year it’s just a shoulder shrug from him.



Gonna lose them anyway with players playing brain dead or beating their own drum anyway.

Yeah I’m not sure exactly what happened over the summer. Seems like both coach and players lost their minds.

I’m getting there.

I’d suggest making it positive instead of negative. Like “Hire Barry Trotz” instead of the other way lol.

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

I actually don’t think I can take it if this team misses the playoffs.

 

[rboomercat90]

Die a villain, or live long enough to see yourself become the hero (again).

lol.

Or…stay involved in a less prominent role having a hand in picking a long line of crappy GM’s and hope they’re bad enough that people eventually forget how bad you were.

 

[SwedishFire]

Honestly if this team even had a real top 4 it would be fine. Almost every D is playing too high in the lineup.

Nurse-X
X-Ceci
Kulak-Bouchard/Barrie

Is *at least* what an actual contending team would look like. They haven't iced a full top 4 since Klefbom, Larsson, and Sekera were in town. There are always one or two guys that the team is just crossing their fingers for.

I think Barrie and Ceci are fine 2nd åair D mans. They need another top4 beside them

Nurse Ceci
X - Barrie
Kulak - Bouchard

 

[Soundwave]

We are right back where we were before we acquired Kane last season. The team is so top heavy it can't compete when a top 6 player is out.

More or less, yeah. Season was going down the toilet last year too before they fluked out and got Kane.

Puljujarvi, Yamamoto, Holloway, Foegele just cannot provide sustainable depth for this team, the four top players are scoring out of their minds, no one else does shit. Kane was always the X-factor that came in and basically scored at a 50 goal rate since getting here. They can't cover that loss and the GM was too stupid to consider that there were several good upgrade options on Puljujarvi and Yamamoto sitting there in the summer.

Like Kubalik has two NHL seasons of scoring at a greater than 30 goal rate and absolutely torched us in that play-in series, but OK lets go back with Puljujarvi who's never had even one season of scoring at a 20 goal rate and did nothing in the second half of the season + playoffs.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Oh hey Ethan Bear has more goals than Kulak, Bouchard, and Ceci combined.

 

[Kaptah2]

More or less, yeah. Season was going down the toilet last year too before they fluked out and got Kane.

Puljujarvi, Yamamoto, Holloway, Foegele just cannot provide sustainable depth for this team, the four top players are scoring out of their minds, no one else does shit. Kane was always the X-factor that came in and basically scored at a 50 goal rate since getting here. They can't cover that loss and the GM was too stupid to consider that there were several good upgrade options on Puljujarvi and Yamamoto sitting there in the summer.

Like Kubalik has two NHL seasons of scoring at a greater than 30 goal rate and absolutely torched us in that play-in series, but OK lets go back with Puljujarvi who's never had even one season of scoring at a 20 goal rate and did nothing in the second half of the season + playoffs.

Also McDrai is bleeding goals against. Both are minus players.

 

[Soundwave]

Also McDrai is bleeding goals against. Both are minus players.

Their plus/minus always takes a hit when they are forced to carry the entire offence and they have to over-reach.

But hey that's the position the Oilers put them in ... if they don't score the team has zero chance of winning because the "support forwards" aren't going to ever do shit.

 

[Sweetpotato]

What a disappointment and waste of our time.

Imagine gaming being more enjoyable now, no interest in tuning in until that changes.

 

[LemmyUlanov55]

Guess I didn't miss much aftre falling asleep before the 3rd period..
The optimist in me was hoping the struggles this season would come later and being of a different kind but right now it looks a lot like "back to the basics".. *sigh*

 

[Sra1974]

50 shots while trying to pass it into the net is pretty impressive.

It’s a weird thing some nights but last night shot volume appeared high but I don’t think the Oilers carried the play at all and weren’t really a threat to score.

 

[The Panther]

Yikes. Just got through trying to watch this on NHL.TV. Once it got to 2-0 I knew it was over.

I would have expected the Oil to put their stamp on this one and get the win. They would have been in pretty good shape on this trip if they'd won this one. And they easily could have, as this game started with very low-intensity. The Islanders weren't demanding anything in the 1st period and the game was there for the Oilers' taking. And so they... did jack squat.

It's a bit sad when the most exciting call Jack Michaels made all night was this humdinger, in the 2nd period:
"Bouchard and Puljujarvi, in sequence, with shots on goal!"

Speaking of Puljujarvi, is it legal to replace him with a electrical pylon that will move to the front of the net? The pylon would certainly have a better chance of having a puck bounce off it and go in. Here's the shooting percentage of all current Oilers' forwards with 25 games or more since last New Year's Eve:
17.2% - Draisaitl
16.1% - Ryan
15.4% - McDavid
15.2% - Yamamoto
13.4% - Kane
12.5% - Nugent-Hopkins
11.8% - Hyman
10.8% - Shore
10.3% - McLeod
8.3% - Foegele
4.4% - Puljujarvi

And at least 2 of Puljujarvi's five goals in this span are random shots that bounced off his body and went in.

The Oilers' third and fourth lines have now combined for a grand total of 8 even-strength goals so far this season. In twenty games.

On the positive side, Campbell had a pretty good game.

 

[Soundwave]

Yikes. Just got through trying to watch this on NHL.TV. Once it got to 2-0 I knew it was over.

I would have expected the Oil to put their stamp on this one and get the win. They would have been in pretty good shape on this trip if they'd won this one. And they easily could have, as this game started with very low-intensity. The Islanders weren't demanding anything in the 1st period and the game was there for the Oilers' taking. And so they... did jack squat.

It's a bit sad when the most exciting call Jack Michaels made all night was this humdinger, in the 2nd period:
"Bouchard and Puljujarvi, in sequence, with shots on goal!"

Speaking of Puljujarvi, is it legal to replace him with a electrical pylon that will move to the front of the net? The pylon would certainly have a better chance of having a puck bounce off it and go in. Here's the shooting percentage of all current Oilers' forwards with 25 games or more since last New Year's Eve:
17.2% - Draisaitl
16.1% - Ryan
15.4% - McDavid
15.2% - Yamamoto
13.4% - Kane
12.5% - Nugent-Hopkins
11.8% - Hyman
10.8% - Shore
10.3% - McLeod
8.3% - Foegele
4.4% - Puljujarvi

And at least 2 of Puljujarvi's five goals in this span are random shots that bounced off his body and went in.

The Oilers' third and fourth lines have now combined for a grand total of 8 even-strength goals so far this season. In twenty games.

On the positive side, Campbell had a pretty good game.

Puljujarvi, Yamamoto, Holloway, Janmark, Kostin, Bouchard have a combined 1 goal, lol. Really stepping up there to help the team out in Kane's absence.

 

[The Panther]

I really want to know how the Oilers' bottom half's 8 ES goals on the season compares to, say, Boston or New Jersey. Must be depressing.

 

[Soundwave]

Woodcroft needs to stop acting like he's the smartest person in the room and just do the freaking obvious

blank McDavid Draisaitl
blank RNH Hyman

You can rotate in/out players in the blank spots, but splitting up our offensive fire power when the team is struggling to score without Kane is just suicide.

Look, there's a good chance any combination of forwards here without Kane is not gonna be the silver bullet here, that is a huge potentially insurmountable loss for this group, but you have to at least try playing your best combinations.

It's also clear Draisaitl is not 100% healed, why then force him to carry a sub-par line 2 and make 5 on 5 scoring that much harder for him. C'mon Jay. You had your 5-6 games now already to try this whole "lets see if McDavid can get Puljujarvi/Janmark/etc. going!". It doesn't f***ing work. Accept it and move on, if you want to be mad about it, be mad at your GM for not getting better forwards when there were plenty to choose from in the summer.

McDavid and Draisaitl have enough problems dragging this shitty support cast around, why are you making things even harder with these dumb lineup decisions. It's the last thing we need right now.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

I really want to know how the Oilers' bottom half's 8 ES goals on the season compares to, say, Boston or New Jersey. Must be depressing.

Someone posted the stat last game that the Oilers had 6 goals and 13 points from their bottom six.

NJ had 22 goals and 48 points.

 

[ujju2]

Well, we lost Keith who was a vet and sheltered others. Smith, whose puck handling drove people crazy used that to kill penalties, advance the puck on the power play and move the puck up the ice which made the d look a bit better.

Bouchard has stepped way back, having lost the mojo and mentorship from Keith.
Holloway is not ready.
Yamo and Puljo have taken significant steps backwards.
There really isn’t a player who is exceeding their performance from last year, and most are under performing their contracts, some by a large margin.

The GM gambled on growth, didn’t get it, and here they are.

Nuge and Foegele. But somehow Foegele's production has gone down. And improvement from those 2 isn't nearly enough to offset the rest.

 

[BlackDogg]

Ultimately boils down to a motivation problem and a GM problem. I guess that's what happens when your paid millions to play a sport, while a GM makes safe moves to keep his job.

 

[Zerotonine]

I'm trying to grasp how er have regressed so much from last spring. Something isn't adding up. Yes Campbell has been a HUGE disappointment. Now Kane is gone for 3 months atleast and the bottom 6 is nothing more then passengers on the bus.

I'm not worried. We were or had a lot uglier record this time last year I'm sure with Tippets 18 game losing streak. Lots of time to turn it around. The negativity on this forum isn't helping each other get by tho....

 

[Soundwave]

I'm trying to grasp how er have regressed so much from last spring. Something isn't adding up. Yes Campbell has been a HUGE disappointment. Now Kane is gone for 3 months atleast and the bottom 6 is nothing more then passengers on the bus.

I'm not worried. We were or had a lot uglier record this time last year I'm sure with Tippets 18 game losing streak. Lots of time to turn it around. The negativity on this forum isn't helping each other get by tho....

They actually never were below .500 last year. They could be within a game. That is worse than any point last year.

 

[brentashton]

500 team playing like even worse than a 500 team.

A quick check on last year’s season standings, Oilers would have to go .750 win percentage in the rest of the schedule to just get a Wild Card spot, which was 97 pts last year. They‘d have to play super nuclear .951 to get to Colorado‘s 119 pt season and 1st place in the conference, last year. Right now both seem like a hard stretch for this group. And I think I’m being charitable.

Listening to Woodcroft‘s post game presser, was somewhat telling. He appears to be out of answers and is searching for what is the solution. His word cabbage coleslaw answers were, frankly, head shaking for their lack of anything that came close to suggesting he has a plan to correct the continued mind numbing execution such as seen on the first goal scored on the Oilers last night. Guys not tying up sticks, peeling away from defensive responsibilities in the D zone so that they can make a run for center ice (ya, thats you RNH, Barrie and Conner), puck ends up in the net and now you’re down 1-0 and “chasing” to quote our friend Tippet.

One last guffaw to ponder… RNH asked in his presser what the Oilers have to do different to turn things around. His response “we need to play more like we did in the first 10 minutes of the game”. WHAT???? The team took first penalty of the game…again, at the 5 minute mark and had ZERO SOG until around the 9 minute mark. f*** off, keep playing like that and you wouldn’t make the AHL play offs.

My well of positivity has sadly, run dry.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

I'm not worried. We were or had a lot uglier record this time last year I'm sure with Tippets 18 game losing streak. Lots of time to turn it around. The negativity on this forum isn't helping each other get by tho....

our record last year at this time was 15-5...without Kane either