McLellan makes some idiotic, game-costing decisions way too much.
McLellan is actually a pretty bad coach.
Plus, toughness is way overrated. Oilers fans complain about McLellan for putting Lucic in OT but who pays 6M/7 years for a guy who you is a liability in OT? It's not like this is the 5th year of his contract and he's just now slowing down either. This is the very first year of his contract. Why pay so much for a guy who is literally a liability in OT? "Toughness"? "Grit"?
I saw Lucic in the playoffs last year take stupid penalty after stupid penalty and score no goals against the Sharks. As soon as the Oilers signed him I knew it was a mistake.
Kassian showed why his grit is useless when he got beat up and landed no punches against a guy way shorter than him and then took 2 unnecessary penalties by getting riled up. Last time the Sharks had a player like that, Ben Eager was costing them games in the playoffs.
If the Oilers weren't out wasting money on idiots like Kassian and Lucic, put that money into defense instead, and had a good head coach, they would be an elite team. They're still decent just because they have McDavid who is ridiculous. But tonight they were dominated and didn't deserve a single point.
I don't mean to flame the Oilers. I just hate how people overrate toughness in general and I find it hilarious how people were hyping up the Oilers new found "toughness" when the players they signed for toughness won't help.
