Biggest Disappointment This Season

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Jeff Jackson playing GM for a day should put to rest the idea that agents are capable of building a hockey team. Agents spend their entire career thinking of reasons and making excuses for why their player should be paid as much or more as the previous guy. Thats their sole purpose. It’s not in their best interest to consider all their hockey skills as a whole but rather to downplay or outright ignore their weaknesses and upsell their strengths. All these guys are equal to them one way or another.

I don't think this can be a blanket statement indictment. There's some examples where it has worked notably Zito but he had substantive years of progressive pro hockey management experience before getting the gig in Florida. Even then he surrounded himself with a group of senior hockey advisors Rick Dudley, Les Jackson, and Paul Fenton who were vital resources to him. Brian Lawton with agency experience helped build a good foundation in Tampa. I think the Montreal model of deep rebuild is being watched.

Jackson seemed to be a good hire. Spoke of how his agency experience gave a world view of organizational best practices across key function areas, played the game at NHL level, and had some team management experience. Maybe a part of the issue was timing and circumstantial of the executive role to him (without Ken Holland training wheels) and requirement of immediate, significant personnel decisions to deal with. BIG difference from theoretical to immediate huge personnel decisions that carried risk-reward amplified by coming off a Game 7 Cup run. Decisions made with essentially in-house people in an organization that has some significant misses and some hits.

I was really bullish on the Jackson hire for the diversity of experience and philosophy he was espousing. However the summer decisions of he and oiler management have significantly hurt this team at this existential point of their winning window.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Funny how in the last 9 months;

Ottawa addressed goaltending.
Colorado addressed goaltending.
LA addressed goaltending.
Washington addressed goaltending.
New Jersey addressed goaltending.
Seattle addressed goaltending.
Hell - Even San Jose and Chicago addressed goaltending.

But we are constantly told goalies aren’t out there and when they are we sign Jack f***ing Campbell. Only to be fed “SkInNeR gOt ThEm To GaMe SeVeN”.

Dustin Schwartz has cast an evil spell on this franchise.

 

[Lay Z Boy GM]

McLeod, lmao, watching him turtle from any physical contact in the playoffs was an embarrassment. Good riddance to that little Mary.

Not disagreeing but I do wish we could have kept him, I just wouldn’t want to pay the guy much money.

He’s not physical but his speed was useful and he was part of an amazing PK. That speed tires out the opposition too.

The lack of edge is just so noticeable in the playoffs.

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

So you expected Mcdavid to go from 150+ to 130+ points to barely 100?

I expect him to easily put up 100.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I agree to an extent. McLeod could still be more than Savoie though. McLeod is just a bottom six talent so it's not a huge deal. But, it would have been good to keep him if we were going to populate the bottom six with so many 30+ year old forwards.

The punch to the gut to our youth was the mishandling of Holloway and Broberg. This might have much deeper consequences than most think.

I don't get the degree of consternation with McLeod on the board. So a guy that is excellent at pk, has top speed in league, is aces at zone exits and entries and can knock in 15 goals a year. Thats not of any value? The opinions on him seem to give him no credit at all for what he does do well and frankly we have half a dozen forwards on this roster that don't even approach what McLeod was doing here consistently.

Thing is McLeod was an established NHL player, a can't miss NHL player that will have a long career in this league and will contribute. Thats bird in the hand stuff. Say what people want about McLeods lack of physicality its zero in Savoie and in a recent game Savoie at Center was flat out put on his back by Killorn in Anaheim game. They go onto score the goal. I mean put flat on his back taking faceoff.

So the talk about physicality is odd. Savoie barely seems to have the strength to play at this level.

Matt Savoie has 4 games here and was getting steamrolled. -4 in 4GP. Too early to tell but Savoie is no certainty at NHL level. McLeod always was.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Not disagreeing but I do wish we could have kept him, I just wouldn’t want to pay the guy much money.

He’s not physical but his speed was useful and he was part of an amazing PK. That speed tires out the opposition too.

The lack of edge is just so noticeable in the playoffs.

Its not like the club has even remotely addressed that aspect. So we get rid of soft McLeod, other "nothings" like Holloway, Broberg, Foegele and replace them with who exactly thats been useful. Was a classic case of an org disrespecting the players it had and being seduced by players they seemingly knew less about than they thought.

Jackson guilty of trying to be the smartest guy in the room. Lets get a guy off two backsurgeries that could barely finish any games last season. Lets get another that was getting bought out by the worst club in the league. These were going to be answers. And Podkolzin. That brings us back to physicality. Is a player ONLY offering a modicum of physicality useful when they can't finish a play to save their lives? Is that player more useful than a Holloway or McLeod or Foegele that could have had more time on Drais wings this season and usually did well with him.

 

[Messrules11]

I don't get the degree of consternation with McLeod on the board. So a guy that is excellent at pk, has top speed in league, is aces at zone exits and entries and can knock in 15 goals a year. Thats not of any value? The opinions on him seem to give him no credit at all for what he does do well and frankly we have half a dozen forwards on this roster that don't even approach what McLeod was doing here consistently.

Thing is McLeod was an established NHL player, a can't miss NHL player that will have a long career in this league and will contribute. Thats bird in the hand stuff. Say what people want about McLeods lack of physicality its zero in Savoie and in a recent game Savoie at Center was flat out put on his back by Killorn in Anaheim game. They go onto score the goal. I mean put flat on his back taking faceoff.

So the talk about physicality is odd. Savoie barely seems to have the strength to play at this level.

Matt Savoie has 4 games here and was getting steamrolled. -4 in 4GP. Too early to tell but Savoie is no certainty at NHL level. McLeod always was.

Spare us the McLeod love, it was embarrassing to watch him in the playoffs. That showing was his ticket out of here. He can go score 15 for Buffalo and not have to worry about playoff hockey ever again.

 

[Tarus]

McDavid may have lost a step but I think the biggest overlooked factor is that as this team has transitioned to a puck possession style, his production has gone down.

His game is tailored for chaos, rush and counter attacking. He’s not as effective at “half court” hockey in the offensive zone.

Draisaitl, by contrast, has seen his game elevate as he excels at half court hockey.

Team can’t really afford to go back to rush hockey though because of how average the defensemen are and how bad the goaltending is. If they get an actual goaltender at some point (lol) and aren’t as deathly afraid to make plays instead of being vanilla and boring you’ll see his points go up again.

RNH getting laundromatted and becoming washed up along with Hyman dropping back down to his Leafs level haven’t helped either.

I don't think the puck possession style has all that much to do with it, the Oilers still clog up the neutral zone and counter attack on fast breaks with the best of them. Considering they are usually playing from behind due to shoddy goaltending and are constantly forced to run the gauntlet might have something to do with it though.

Mcdavid's half court game was exceptional not even two years ago though, easily one of the best puck protection players in the entire NHL with the way he would drive through player's sticks and and fake out opposing defenders in the corners. The issue is that he's rarely driving to the net or through checks like he used to, both off the rush and in the offensive zone. Combined with his decline in shooting, we're seeing a much more passive and perimeter style of player.

Oilers are playing like they're heading towards a first round exit this year unless they make a dramatic turnaround in effort over the next month, so I suspect with a full offseason of training, less distractions, and the motivations from a disappointing year, we'll see Mcdavid recover a lot of what he lost.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Spare us the McLeod love, it was embarrassing to watch him in the playoffs. That showing was his ticket out of here. He can go score 15 for Buffalo and not have to worry about playoff hockey ever again.

We have half a dozen forwards that are worse options now in this lineup. You loving those?

 

[Jarvi]

I don't get the degree of consternation with McLeod on the board. So a guy that is excellent at pk, has top speed in league, is aces at zone exits and entries and can knock in 15 goals a year. Thats not of any value? The opinions on him seem to give him no credit at all for what he does do well and frankly we have half a dozen forwards on this roster that don't even approach what McLeod was doing here consistently.

Thing is McLeod was an established NHL player, a can't miss NHL player that will have a long career in this league and will contribute. Thats bird in the hand stuff. Say what people want about McLeods lack of physicality its zero in Savoie and in a recent game Savoie at Center was flat out put on his back by Killorn in Anaheim game. They go onto score the goal. I mean put flat on his back taking faceoff.

So the talk about physicality is odd. Savoie barely seems to have the strength to play at this level.

Matt Savoie has 4 games here and was getting steamrolled. -4 in 4GP. Too early to tell but Savoie is no certainty at NHL level. McLeod always was.

I was with you on McLeod, but you lost me with Savoie. That -4 was from one game when the team was garbage all around. Hardly indicative of his overall play. He should get another look before playoffs imo.

But yeah, Clouder was one of my favorites, wish we didn't lose him, but gaining Savoie is huge for this org too. And tbh, I thought Henrique could be a great 3c, so I was pretty stoked on the deal overall. Turns out just keeping Mcleod and letting Rico go would probably have been best.

 

[The Panther]

I voted for Knoblach's coaching decisions, not for Jackson. I know it's trendy in Oiler-land now to crap on Jeff Jackson, but it needs to be borne in mind that Jackson was never the GM. The very fact that he was left making all those decisions at a critical time (which then led to the loss of Holloway, etc.) is not Jackson's fault. He was doing the best he could, but not getting paid to be a GM. I think his priority then was to please Draisaitl, who (I suspect) made some noise about getting some actual wingers to play with before he'd sign his new contract. So, Jackson went out and signed up Arvidsson and Skinner as a show of good faith to Mc-Drai.

Errors were made to be sure, but I don't think of it as Jackson's fault.

I was tempted to vote for Connor's merely human play this season, but, really, who cares? As long as he brings it for the playoffs.

Nuge isn't a disappointment; it's pretty much as expected. Hyman's decline was also predictable (not sure why the OP is comparing him to Tim Kerr, who was consistently an elite goal scorer for many years).

About the Skinners, I think Jeff has been okay. They just haven't put him in a position to succeed (hard to score if you get ZERO PP time and you're healthy scratched for half the games), while yes, Stu has been quite disappointing.

Overall, though, I voted Knoblach's weird decisions. This seems to be a trend with Oiler coaches (all of whom have phallic names -- 'Cock, Tip', Woody, Knob'), who look like freshly minted geniuses in their first 40-odd games or whatever... and then inevitably fall into the usual signs of decline (overplaying McDrai together; disappearance of depth scorers; crappy PK emerging; forgetting existence of Time-Outs; baffling rewarding of mediocre play with elevated line-positioning or ice-time, etc.).

 

[Jumptheshark]

my vote goes to this board and so many posters going batshit crazy too easily on a regular basis.

 

[Messrules11]

We have half a dozen forwards that are worse options now in this lineup. You loving those?

Not loving them nope but until they purposefully avoid play in the offensive zone during a PLAYOFF game I’ll cut them some slack.

 

[CupofOil]

Unfortunately if you were here on the board much in July and August you'll know some of the fans here ate this shit up and asked for seconds of old players while saying guys like McLeod, Holloway etc are "nothing".

Many of the fans here asked for this outright. They thought these were great offseason signings.

Kulak has been fine. Don't see the problem there.

McLeod and Foegele were nothings in the playoffs, Foegele showed up in the Florida series when he was bumped up to the top 6 but they were no shows the majority of the playoffs. Fine regular season players but the Oilers needed playoff performers so they brought in vets. The problem is that they thought they were getting the Arvidsson of 2-3 years ago (you were bang on about Arvy, I and many others were way wrong) and Skinner had never been to the playoffs and clearly didn't fit Knoblauch's system so I have no idea what JJ was thinking there. Then he re-signed the playoff 3rd line of guys past their primes that he thought could recreate the unsustainable magic of last years' playoffs.
Not matching the Holloway offer sheet is GM malpractice. Can you imagine having THAT player for the low low price of $2.2m/yr and a long term solution in the top 6 beyond that, a local guy who wanted to stay? Boom, there's your Drai winger for the next half decade. Huge huge miss by this organization. Such an obvious fit for this team that was let go because JJ/Bowman were butthurt by him signing an offer sheet? Nothing else makes sense.

The bottom line is that it was a lot of bets that have almost universally failed outside of the oldest man Perry. Ultimately it doesn't matter what they do in the regular season, if these vets can step their game up in the playoffs and help the Oilers advance, all of this angst about the signings will disappear. It doesn't look likely based on what we've seen thus far but it wouldn't be the first time vets cruised through the regular season and stepped up in the playoffs so lets pray to god that's the case here.

Regardless, I think there's 4 much bigger issues than the support wingers. McDavid has regressed hard from his usual standard, Ekholm as well and is he even going to be healthy for the playoffs, RNH is being paid to skate circles around the rink at $5.25m/yr for a lot of years and the ever present goaltending issue. The latter two issues can be mitigated if the former two were solved but if the Oilers aren't getting something resembling what McDavid and Ekholm used to be, their goose is cooked.

 

[Oilslick941611]

Im saying McDavid.

But he isnt the reason the season has sucked. Im saying McDavid because he has struggled and looked very bad and making poor choices, trying to force the same plays over and over again and lost all creativity.

The other people sucking like Skinner, Arvidsson, Henrique et all I can excuse in a way because my expectations of and from them aren't the same as McDavid. They need to be better, but im not sure they have it in their games anymore. McDavid however, we know has extra gears and being 4th in scoring and having 24 goals is extremely disappointing from him. If Drai wasn't scoring like his McDavid likely has the point totals of auston matthews ( go check him out, hes having a terrible year)

Team needs to score more and we can't always rely on McDrai to pull us through, but watching struggling this year hurts. It really does.

 

[Vagabond]

All of the above.

1) Jackson not keeping at least Holloway and addressing goaltending. Hiring a GM with the worst reputation imaginable.

2) Knob has been brutal with accountability and line juggling/combos. He never liked J.Skin from the beginning or gave him a chance early on. He has his favs.

3) Both Skinner's.. mostly Stu. He's lost us at least 10 games. He's super inconsistent and has the worst lateral movement league wide. For a big goalie, he doest fight through screens. He's crazy slow.

4) McDavid. He's given the puck away too often while continuously forcing passes. He's terrible defensively this season. He hasn't used his speed like he once did.

5) Hyman. He doesn't drive the net enough like he has since he became an Oiler.

6) Bouchard. The mistakes he makes are top shelf blooper. His backwards skating isn't good. His decision making with the puck is too slow. He does do so many good things that go unnoticed but the glaring mistakes he makes overshadows his good work.

7) Nuge. He's there but where the fukk is he? Mr. Invisible most nights has hardly been an impact.

 

[GhostfaceWu]

I expect him to easily put up 100.

Not what I said and not what this thread is for but thanks for coming out.

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

Not what I said and not what this thread is for but thanks for coming out.

Disappointing and down season for sure but he’s still on pace to easily pass 100 points.

I get what you are saying though.

 

[McShogun99]

I don't get the degree of consternation with McLeod on the board. So a guy that is excellent at pk, has top speed in league, is aces at zone exits and entries and can knock in 15 goals a year. Thats not of any value? The opinions on him seem to give him no credit at all for what he does do well and frankly we have half a dozen forwards on this roster that don't even approach what McLeod was doing here consistently.

Thing is McLeod was an established NHL player, a can't miss NHL player that will have a long career in this league and will contribute. Thats bird in the hand stuff. Say what people want about McLeods lack of physicality its zero in Savoie and in a recent game Savoie at Center was flat out put on his back by Killorn in Anaheim game. They go onto score the goal. I mean put flat on his back taking faceoff.

So the talk about physicality is odd. Savoie barely seems to have the strength to play at this level.

Matt Savoie has 4 games here and was getting steamrolled. -4 in 4GP. Too early to tell but Savoie is no certainty at NHL level. McLeod always was.

Any GM makes that trade all day. 3rd line C for a recent top 10 pick. Mcleods max potential is 3C while Savoie could be a 1st line winger.