Post-Game Talk: A successful season?

[FunkyChicken]

Successful season and offseason, especially considering 2 of their top 5 players were on one leg for the playoffs.

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

Makar will be figured out soon enough... Wait til he becomes a target

Makar is the best D man in the league imo. He’s filthy.

 

[McOilers97]

I'm just absolutely livid, I can't say we were gonna win that series given the injuries but to get swept.

This loss is on fcking Woodcroft. Absolute horrible decision making this hole series. And to continue to go back to Smith game after game with how many blown saves and giveaways he was doing is inexcusable.

Facking embarrassing. Amd woodcroft won't be remembered for the season he saved yet rather the round we were swept....

We won 2 playoff rounds to get to this point. Haven't done that in 16 years. This is the first step in what it takes to get to a championship. Teams don't go from 1st round losses to Cup championships in 1 year.

Why would anyone be blaming Woodcroft right now? f*** off with that shit.

 

[Mr Positive]

I'd argue that McLeod was really the only one who was consistently good. He has a great playoffs even if he didnt score much.

Kassian had his moments but he didnt show up enough imo. Not a bad playoffs from him, he was fine, but largely inconsistent like the majority of the bottom 6. He did probably do more than most of the bottom 6 though, which is saying something.

I'd keep Kassian if his cap were lower. If any team would take him you just have to make that deal. I bet someone does

 

[Drivesaitl]

I'm a little relieved we lost, I would of enjoyed another game, but seeing the amount of pain Drai is in I'm just glad he can rest up and heal, no sense worsening an injury or creating any long lasting damage just to squeeze out an extra game or 2.

Also I think Makar might be a generational talent, the last d-man I seen this good this early into his career was Doughty, but I see a higher ceiling with Makar and his style I think lends more towards him having greater longevity on the top end of his game.

For the audience in attendance that paid a fortune to be in these playoffs in these games (and far more than US fans are paying) you want there to be at least a Win. I mean its easy for someone like me to say I'm OK with this. I'm not out thousands of dollars on playoff tickets. The NHL I feel had their hands on this result tonight and certainly helped the AV's along. Also if you consider Yams is out for the series and there wasn't even a call on that head hit, and that they suspended Kane which kept him out of this game, and all the botched calls in this game that contributed to at least two of the AV's goals tonight.

i get what you're saying but.. The Oilers fans fully deserved to go home happy on this one night. The NHL robbed us of that.

 

[LTIR]

I'm just absolutely livid, I can't say we were gonna win that series given the injuries but to get swept.

This loss is on fcking Woodcroft. Absolute horrible decision making this hole series. And to continue to go back to Smith game after game with how many blown saves and giveaways he was doing is inexcusable.

Facking embarrassing. Amd woodcroft won't be remembered for the season he saved yet rather the round we were swept....

Should have started Skinner

 

[Mack a doodle doo]

proud of most of the boy's, but hard not to be frustrated. Almost anybody being a realist/honest with themselves knew it would be a wasted season when the offseason(and eventually the deadline) ended without upgrading gaolentding.

Screw save percentage, solid gaoltending is sooooo much more importand than ocationally spectacular gaoltending. watching smith its sooo clear he's of a diferent era, he's so deep in his net, he used to be able to get away with it because in his prime he had elite reflexes, but that was years ago.

 

[Shizuka]

I sincerely hope so. I really hope he fluorishes somewhere, but I don't know. I just know that I'm tired of waiting for his hands of stone to soften up. I honestly think he's too fragile minded to live up to his potential in this league.

It isn't just his hands. He never properly positions himself as a useful outlet / puck support for his linemates in the O zone. For such a huge guy, he loses a stunning amount of puck battles. Furthermore, he looks as though his skating regressed again, back to where he was struggling last season.

He needs a clean slate elsewhere I think. Maybe management feels differently but I kind of get the sense he will be flipped, if they can find a taker. Just not enough shown these playoffs, when it matters (more than a few like him though, throughout the lineup).

 

[CycloneSweep]

Let's not forget MacKinnon targeting Hyman's knee. The Oilers better beef up because next season's games against Colorado and Calgary are going to be physical.

In my head I want to believe that Keith wants to retire and we trade him to Tampa for Cernak and he retires there to give them that extra cap.

But that’s crazy talk

 

[FlameChampion]

I'm just absolutely livid, I can't say we were gonna win that series given the injuries but to get swept.

This loss is on fcking Woodcroft. Absolute horrible decision making this hole series. And to continue to go back to Smith game after game with how many blown saves and giveaways he was doing is inexcusable.

Facking embarrassing. Amd woodcroft won't be remembered for the season he saved yet rather the round we were swept....

I thought Woodcroft was great overall but I think Woodcroft had a pretty bad round 3. Lots of head scratching decisions. But I do bet that him going back to Smith, probably has something to do with Holland as well.

 

[gordonhught]

Fair. I’d say if your top pairing is Nurse - Ceci, you don’t have a good defence. That’s a real good second pair though (not a knock on Ceci)

Healthy Nurse / shut down RHD
Kulak Ceci
Keith (for now) or Broberg / Bouchard

And you still have Nemo and Samu. You could even re-sign Russell as a minimum vet.

A RHD like Gudas. No offense, hard to play against and dirty.

 

[TheNumber4]

Driedger/Korpisalo ? Who exactly was available?

They don’t have this answer. That’s where their armchair GMing stops. Can complain about not getting a better option, but can’t back up what that option would have been.

 

[CycloneSweep]

I do think that St. Louis would have beaten Colorado in the last round if Binnington wasn't injured. Huso wasn't that good .

I think St Louis would have still beaten us but the matchup is a bit better and we would of won 1-2 at least.

 

[Cloned]

He’s Realistic Ricky enough about his own team that it makes sense.

 

[Shaquille Oatmeal]

Let's not forget MacKinnon targeting Hyman's knee. The Oilers better beef up because next season's games against Colorado and Calgary are going to be physical.

I hope there is a hearing for that. I doubt it but one can hope

 

[MoontoScott]

As somebody said earlier in the thread--when you have to score 5 goals most games to win then the odds get very long.

That 3rd goal in game 3 was a back breaker. It was (IMHO) the point of no return.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Let's not forget MacKinnon targeting Hyman's knee. The Oilers better beef up because next season's games against Colorado and Calgary are going to be physical.

Another late call on that, after the far side official made the call. The guy right next to it looking at it was too busy cheering for an AV's scoring chance. Just ridiculous what went on in the two game set in Edmonton. NHL and CBC got their wish I guess. Somehow they love Colorado.

 

[LTIR]

We need someone to push Ceci and Bouchard down. I liked Ceci a lot but with Nurse as your #1 d, you need a legit #2 guy to play with him

Nurse - New
Kulak - Ceci
New - Bouchard

Is ideal

But most likely it will be

Nurse - Ceci
Keith - Bouchard
New - Barrie

Keith needs to retire

 

[russ99]

The Oilers played 16 playoff games.

The oilers had games where they gave up: 4,4,5,9,4,8,4,4,6 goals. A full 9 of 16 games they gave up 4 or more.

Anyone that defends our tending or Holland for doing nothing about our tending should have his head examined.

The Top players on this team played well enough to try and force us to get to the cup but the 100% obvious weakest part of the team has not been addressed for years.

Successful year? No, it was there for us this year imo.

Can't wait till next year when people will be okay with a skinner smith tandem as long as smith is a 'good backup'....laughable.

This idea that goaltending alone is responsible for this is ridiculous.

We played by my count 8/16 games playing Woodcroft‘s inane corsi-rush system, which might be OK if we had quality defensemen, and we played 5-man defensive game. Nobody won a Cup since the Gretzky era ”outscoring” mistakes and obvious roster flaws. The first two Avs losses were directly due to not correcting this despite the Avs outskating our forecheck and “preventing entry”.

Our forwards didn’t help enough in the defensive zone, they were more concerned about breaking the rush than making clean exits and helping on coverage. A lot of goals ended up on the net due to lost puck battles by forwards resulting in odd man situations.

Nurse played crazy minutes against top opposition hurt all postseason.

 

[Cloned]

How can you possibly pick a favorite? It's like deciding if you'd rather have tastebuds in your asshole, or having to shit through your mouth.

I’m sure some Flames fans like KeithIsActuallyBad the most too.

 

[CycloneSweep]

Healthy Nurse / shut down RHD
Kulak Ceci
Keith (for now) or Broberg / Bouchard

A RHD like Gudas. No offense, hard to play against and dirty.

Noooooo. Gudas on the top pairing would be abysmal and Ceci would be back up on top in a month. We need a legit guy not a bottom pairing guy like Gudas.

 

[CraftyVeteran]

Avs will lose in the SCF, so there’s that

I hold the belief that the Avs really aren't as good as they're being hoisted to be. I still think Blues take that series in 7 with a healthy roster. The Avs have trash goaltending and they've been able to skate by three straight series' against bad/injured tendies and defense. That's about to change. Whoever comes out of the east is going to roll Colorado and it's going to be glorious to see, once again, their feet planted firmly back down on planet Earth.

 

[CycloneSweep]

Keith needs to retire

He won’t. He wants to keep playing for a few more years.

 

[Canovin]

They were missing their 3rd best defender, a top 6 winger and their starting goalie.

Kuemper played like shit in game 1 cause he was still having blurry vision from his injury. If he is healthy we don’t score near as much.

Now is not the time for this kind of talk

 

[gordonhught]

Noooooo. Gudas on the top pairing would be abysmal and Ceci would be back up on top in a month. We need a legit guy not a bottom pairing guy like Gudas.

Look at his stats. Gouda’s would be fantastic. Ok. Maybe not top pair, but second pair.

Gouda’s had 17 points and was +27. Had 105 pim.