Post-Game Talk: A successful season?

[YakDavid]

After sleeping I think I’m the off season needs more smaller additions and one big one. We need a true number one. Smith is way to inconsistent and could not come up with a big save this whole series. Realistically aside from that we need a defender or two or one stepping up from the minors.

We scored enough to be there and 3 out of 4 were 1 goal games, the one open net made it a two goal game. Just needed some better defensive hockey.

 

[bone]

Those arguing the high stick, move on. It was super close whichever interpretation you want. For the angle I saw with the line drawn at the crossbar on Sportsnet shows me it was likely at or below crossbar where the puck actually touched the stick and below shoulder height because he was leaning such that his shoulders were right at crossbar height anyways.

Lots of blame to go around in losing this series and I've had my own complaints about the officiating in this series, but that goal wouldn't even be top 10 in terms of the gripes I have for how the series unfolded.

 

[bucks_oil]

Those arguing the high stick, move on. It was super close whichever interpretation you want. For the angle I saw with the line drawn at the crossbar on Sportsnet shows me it was likely at or below crossbar and below shoulder height because he was leaning such that his shoulders were right at crossbar height anyways.

Lots of blame to go around in losing this series and I've had my own complaints about the officiating in this series, but that goal wouldn't even be top 10 in terms of the gripes I have for how the series unfolded.

I completely agree with that. It was borderline near the crossbar.

But I am pointing out the inconsistency in the logic with that rule. It makes no sense.

 

[Staghorn]

honestly even if we have zero options with Smith, just waiving him is certaintly an option.

There's got to be options out there who would take a little bit of a show me deal. Husso and Campbell had rough ends to their runs, which could keep their AAV down if the term was low. The other one is obvious: Skinner. It could translate into a relatively cheap tandem that would be above average.

Does anyone here actually think Skinner is ready or capable of being an NHL Playoff team goalie?? I do not. No offence, but he hasn't grabbed my confidence. Smith unfortunately is under contract next year too. So perfect nightmare storm... We can't even have Skinner be a #2...

 

[Arpeggio]

I was onboard the Smith train most of the season, and I felt vindicated by the way Smith finished the season. His numbers were better than most guys they could've realistically brought in, and I stand by that.

However, even with all of the issues the Oilers have defensively, this series is 2-2 if they have even a slight upgrade in net. They were outplayed consistently, but they have a shot if Smith shows up at all.

It was still a hell of a season, we'll all be watching highlights from that Flames series for years to come. I argued with many people here about what constitutes a successful season, and it seemed to be the consensus that anything past the second round would be considered a success. So many of you had this team knocked out in the first round, or not making the playoffs at all, so I don't see how anyone can consider this season a failure (unless you're a cup or bust kind of person, in which case, whatever).

I think this was the best roster on paper that I've seen as an Oiler fan, and I hope that they're able to add to it a little bit over the offseason. It was a fun, awesome year.

 

[midnightcopper]

Overall a success, most teams don't go from losing in the 1st round, to winning a Stanley Cup in 1 year. Wish this series had been closer, but we know what this team needs, and no experience is bad experience.

Now: f*** the Avs. I'll cheer for a Tampa Bay Lightning 3-peat over those f***ers.

Have to vent here with this one. I was going to listen to the Cult of Hockey Podcast like I usually do after the game, but one of them (remains nameless) started with his "the Avs are such a great team and I hope they go on to win the Stanley Cup" take. You mean the team that took out Kailer, slew footed Drai and went knee to knee with Hyman? Couldn't listen past that opening remark. Was going to respond but would have been a waste of time.

 

[PBandJ]

Doesn't hurt any less this morning.

God this sucks. I'll take a Tampa three peat over the Avs diving team at this point.

 

[Game suspension]

What do you replace Yamamoto and Puljujarvi with?

Good question. I don't know the Oilers forward prospects as well as many here. I just think those two guys have had many years to prove themselves now and don't impress me anyway. One is a small peripheral player and the other is big dumb player. They are 23 and 24 so if you can't get something by trade now you never will.

 

[frag2]

I don't even care that there is a bit of bias that creeps into the national broadcasts sometimes, but this was full on trolling a very specific customer base complete with an active hashtag supporting a team that they don't have any specific rights to whatsoever.

The Steve Dangle stuff, fine. That's his schtick and those who like him understand it is mostly for entertainment so I'm okay with that, but that gif was not cool with me. I'd maybe be a little more forgiving if they had done something similar for all teams once eliminated if they are trying to be edgy, but why pull it out for the first time mocking a team you own the broadcast rights and building name right to.

All I know is deleting it isn't enough. Too many people saw it. They need to explain why it happened and what was done about it.

Toronto will never admit they are wrong. I mean, they'll make up shit and then shove under rug.
Too bad Oilers organization top down as a whole has no balls to make them come out with a statement.

 

[Oilers]

It's been a while since we've gotten this far, but man oh man I forgot how long the road to the cup is. Beating the Kings and even the Flames feels like a different year ago.

 

[bone]

I completely agree with that. It was borderline near the crossbar.

But I am pointing out the inconsistency in the logic with that rule. It makes no sense.

If we want to debate the logic then fine, I just can't see in what world they could turn it into crossbar everywhere as it's such a hard thing to determine, especially live speed.

I could live with a tweak that if the high stick directs it on net crossbar is the determining factor rather than shoulder and believe it would be within the spirit of the rule, which was original intended to discourage getting the stick up whatsoever to prevent people getting a stick in the face.

So last nights game may be useful to debate that interpretation, but the goal itself I believe should have counted as it did.

 

[oXo Cube]

This won't be a popular take on here I'm sure, but being upset about a few tweets at the teams expense is a bit soft IMO.

If the Oilers don't like it they can not get swept next time.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

Still proud of the oilers.

We got 16 more playoff games than we were expecting in Jan

 

[bone]

Does anyone here actually think Skinner is ready or capable of being an NHL Playoff team goalie?? I do not. No offence, but he hasn't grabbed my confidence. Smith unfortunately is under contract next year too. So perfect nightmare storm... We can't even have Skinner be a #2...

Of course, my preference is that we find someone early and start the season next year, but with the cap being what it is and Skinner being a waiver concern, we may be best off waiting to see what trickles loose at the deadline next year. Smith and Skinner should be enough to keep them in the running until the deadline and by that point, hopefully we'd have a good 30 game sample size for Skinner to see if he can possibly go for a playoff run.

 

[DingerMcSlapshot]

What do you replace Yamamoto and Puljujarvi with?

Hollands job to figure that out. As well as 6-7 other holes to fill. While trying to dump, trade and wash bad players/contracts. Gonna be hard. That's why he gets payed the big bucks. Pressure in on bigtime now.

 

[FlameChampion]

Even if he doesn't become a finished product, I have no idea why the board wants to dump him so bad. He's a fine third liner, which you need.

He's never going to live up to the 4th OA hype, but that's no reason to throw the player away and then go riffling through the trash bin hoping for someone of the same level and likely coming up with someone much worse like Brassard. He's one of our better forecheckers, if people just accepted him for what he is instead of what they wanted him to be 4 years ago, maybe he would be less hated.

At the end of the day, he should be relatively inexpensive to resign, which is a good thing because we can't afford any more $5M+ players.

Part of me wouldnt mind seeing him move for JP's sake. I think he might be better off somewhere else personally. I am only speculating of course. If JP is happy here and wants to be here, then maybe my opinion is different.

He was such an effective player for the majority of the year. He was good on the forecheck and infront of the net for majority of the season. I realize that he flubbed a lot of pucks in scoring chance areas, but I think you also have to give him credit for getting into scoring chance areas. If his hands/scoring improve at all, he becomes that much more of a threat. I dont really agree with some people thinking hes a cap dump or waste. I dont mind trading him away if theres some team out there heavily into analytics (like Carolina) that is willing to take some risk and give up something good for him. But if we're just getting rid of him for the sake of getting rid of him, its nonsensical imo.

 

[FlameChampion]

Does anyone here actually think Skinner is ready or capable of being an NHL Playoff team goalie?? I do not. No offence, but he hasn't grabbed my confidence. Smith unfortunately is under contract next year too. So perfect nightmare storm... We can't even have Skinner be a #2...

I saw signs from him during the regular season that told me he was the better of the three goaltenders.

That being said, we didnt see enough from him, so honestly I dont know. Hes a question mark. I think it was a fail on management to not give him more games and see what hes capable of. It would of made this offseason a bit easier to project. Going into the season with a Smith/Skinner tandem is what I expect but its a really problematic bet if Holland goes this route.

 

[MettleMcOiler]

This won't be a popular take on here I'm sure, but being upset about a few tweets at the teams expense is a bit soft IMO.

If the Oilers don't like it they can not get swept next time.

Tweets from fans and non-affiliated persons...sure...who cares

but

A national network that broadcasts Canadian content with brandnames with affiliation with the Oilers, activitely trolling the last Canadian team in the playoffs

big difference
- poor taste, and unprofessional.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Those arguing the high stick, move on. It was super close whichever interpretation you want. For the angle I saw with the line drawn at the crossbar on Sportsnet shows me it was likely at or below crossbar where the puck actually touched the stick and below shoulder height because he was leaning such that his shoulders were right at crossbar height anyways.

Lots of blame to go around in losing this series and I've had my own complaints about the officiating in this series, but that goal wouldn't even be top 10 in terms of the gripes I have for how the series unfolded.

People were discussing the rule being illogical. Not the goal itself. tbh a brilliantly taken goal by Lehkonen on what ought to have been a harmless play, but he deftly deflects a high puck down into Smiths pads, (perfect) sets up his own (perfect) rebound, and then walks the committed Smith and slots it home (perfect). Only one player on the ice knew what Lehkonen was going to do in that sequence but he's done it before, and he's a dangerous player to have around the net, and he was acquired by an astute org that knows the player is capable of huge game breaking moments like this. On the whole, objectively, it was a wonderfully taken goal. Mind you I've been on to Lehkonen for years. Too bad neither of our D are.

Hollands job to figure that out. As well as 6-7 other holes to fill. While trying to dump, trade and wash bad players/contracts. Gonna be hard. That's why he gets payed the big bucks. Pressure in on bigtime now.

This Cat avatar reminds me of Evan Bouchard. Not sure why. lol

ps this is a lame Principe type joke I want to pull but I would prefer in the name was EVEN Bouchard.

 

[DingerMcSlapshot]

People were discussing the rule being illogical. Not the goal itself. tbh a brilliantly taken goal by Lehkonen on what ought to have been a harmless play, but he deftly deflects a high puck down into Smiths pads, (perfect) sets up his own (perfect) rebound, and then walks the committed Smith and slots it home (perfect). Only one player on the ice knew what Lehkonen was going to do in that sequence but he's done it before, and he's a dangerous player to have around the net, and he was acquired by an astute org that knows the player is capable of huge game breaking moments like this. On the whole, objectively, it was a wonderfully taken goal. Mind you I've been on to Lehkonen for years. Too bad neither of our D are.


This Cat avatar reminds me of Bouchard. Not sure why. lol

ps this is a lame Principe type joke I want to pull but I would prefer in the name was EVEN Bouchard.

Cat's cross eyed.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Cat's cross eyed.

Yeah, I got that heh. Bouchard has that look almost every time a goal light is flashing behind him. Unfortunately I get to see it a lot.

 

[bone]

Does anyone here actually think Skinner is ready or capable of being an NHL Playoff team goalie?? I do not. No offence, but he hasn't grabbed my confidence. Smith unfortunately is under contract next year too. So perfect nightmare storm... We can't even have Skinner be a #2...

Of course, my preference is that we find someone early and start the season next year, but with the cap being what it is and Skinner being a waiver concern, we may be best off waiting to see what trickles loose at the deadline next year. Smith and Skinner should be enough to keep them in the running until the deadline and by that point, hopefully we'd have a good 30 game sample size for Skinner to see if he can possibly go for a playoff run.

This won't be a popular take on here I'm sure, but being upset about a few tweets at the teams expense is a bit soft IMO.

If the Oilers don't like it they can not get swept next time.

Only issue is with the one from Sportsnet since they are the broadcast rights holder and namesake for the building any of the others don't matter to me.

It's similar to if Netflix tweeted mockery of Stranger Things in support of Severance, or if Disney Plus mocked Star Wars and Marvel to show support of DC Comics movies.

 

[soothsayer]

Doesn't hurt any less this morning.

God this sucks. I'll take a Tampa three peat over the Avs diving team at this point.

Same. I'd also like to see Av fans' heads explode when they don't get the breaks from officials against the reigning champions. And yes, I will be participating on the mains when that happens.

 

[frag2]

Tweets from fans and non-affiliated persons...sure...who cares

but

A national network that broadcasts Canadian content with brandnames with affiliation with the Oilers, activitely trolling the last Canadian team in the playoffs

big difference
- poor taste, and unprofessional.

Of course, my preference is that we find someone early and start the season next year, but with the cap being what it is and Skinner being a waiver concern, we may be best off waiting to see what trickles loose at the deadline next year. Smith and Skinner should be enough to keep them in the running until the deadline and by that point, hopefully we'd have a good 30 game sample size for Skinner to see if he can possibly go for a playoff run.


Only issue is with the one from Sportsnet since they are the broadcast rights holder and namesake for the building.

It's similar to if Netflix tweeted mockery of Stranger Things in support of Severance, or if Disney Plus mocked Star Wars and Marvel to show support of DC Comics movies.

Here's hoping Oilers move to TSN after next season. Bell aint much better, especially their handling of their employees-a whole diff discussion- but f*** Rogers

 

[bellagiobob]