Post-Game Talk: Can we leave Stu in a California Closet?

[CantHaveTkachev]

Nurse and Bouchard's numbers are dreadful so far

Oilers 4-4 when Nurse is off the ice, 1-3 when he's on
Bouchard is 3-2 when he's OFF THE ICE but 2-5 when he's on

these 2 are supposed to be their best d-men and could be making almost 20 MILLION next season! you simply cannot win with them playing this bad

 

[PitkanensGitch]

Consider saying f*** it, putting Philp and Savoie in and praying something sparks. We need more speed along with also needing more goaltending, more physicality, more defensive awareness, uhhhh what else.

 

[K1984]

Skinner aside. Does this team employ a shooting coach? We have the worst shooting ability of any good team in the league year after year. Everything blocked. Never even attempting to change the angle of our shots.

10+ years of trying to pass the puck into the net to score, unable to score from distance because we don't even try and don't have any snipers or shooters on our team. Why have we never addressed this? Why do we not have a single f***ing forward on this team who goes out and LOVES to fire the puck at will and LOVEs to pick a corner (like kempe or fialah)? We have NONE. We have had NONE for the McDrai era. Maybe the closes is j skins but he does most of his damage in tight.

85% of this roster can f*** off. Slow, old, incapable of playing with any intensity, incapable of scoring unless spoon fed a tap in from mcd.

They simply will not make a quick play with the puck, especially in scoring areas. 95% of the team's instinct is to find somebody to pass to so that's where they go before they just turn it over.

Two sequences last night summed up this team of morons to a T:

3rd goal against - we have traffic in front of the net and Bouchard has a clear, CLEAR shooting lane and time to really step into one. Just decides not to, passes to Connor instead, they piss it around to each other a few times with risky high zone puck play, gets turned over, back of our net.

The very next shift - we have traffic in front again, except its Kulak this time deciding not to shoot, but instead attempt a 0% slap pass cross ice to nobody. Gets turned over, 2 on 1 the other way, they nearly score again.

This is in the heat of having no shots the whole period and being down 2 and then 3 goals. They have to be the only group of players on the planet that still will not show any form of shooting urgency under those conditions. They're f***ing dumb players.

Then lo and behold - Klingberg makes a quick play to the net with traffic and it's a goal. Kulak, maybe learning something, then launches one on net with traffic and it's a goal. Just took being down 3-0 for these f***ing morons to finally take a simple approach. They just simply will not do it if the game is close. It's a dick around and then they'll only do what they need to when they have a gun to their head.

 

[redgrant]

Id

Not enough people shitting on arvidsson. He goes makes it 3 to 2 momentum in our favor and what does he do his next shift? Overskates a puck going into the corner allows kopitar to take the puck than proceeds to try and double team kopitar when nurse was already going to him and leaves kempe wide f***ing open. That one play is what snowballed that third period.

Would rather have skinner in than him.

 

[bucks_oil]

Koskinen was a simple $1.5M buyout that Holland refused to do. He was content with a 40 year old stop gap and Koskinen for McDrai's window.

He left the team even more capped out than when he got it and ensured the next GM - who doesn't have the luxury of moving slow - was screwed.

He didn't fix the goaltending in the one year he had the $$$ to do so (2022). We all know the Campbell mistake.

But some corrections:
* Koskinen gave us 0.917 the first full year of his three year contract.
* Then he gave us a season of 0.899... I assume you wanted the buyout that summer (like so many of us did, myself included), but...
* The best UFA signing that summer (under $3M, which is what we had) were like Brossoit or Halak... certainly not any long term solutions.
* So Holland punted, saving $$$ for the next year (with a much stronger crop incl Keumper)... we rode out Koskinen (who posted 0.903 that year) 0.911 and as a team. So the huge mistake (no buyout)... would it really have made a difference?
* Then comes 2022, we had the money, we were rumored to be targeting Keumper, but he ended up with uncertainty about his eye injury so Holland chose Campbell... obviously that was a huge mistake.
* But overall, for those three years, we got 0.910, 0.908, and 0.911. Not championship level for sure, but above league average each year with a total spend of $5.5 to $6.5M (well below league average). It was relative value for money.

That's a far cry better than what we got so far under Bowman/Jackson, who also had the money to go shopping last summer and at the deadline and did nothing.

We need to trade Skinner's RFA rights (they'll never do it) and actually INVEST in this position. Unfortunately, while it sounds good... who would you even invest in this summer? Offer sheet Otter? After that... slim pickings... Forsberg, Vanecek, Vladar, Rittich, Lyon, Levi,.... I mean yuck, I'm having a tough time finding a single guy out there who you could reliably expect to even bat 900.

It's gonna have to be via trade.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

I'll just say this - Ryan Rishaug can get off his pedestal lecturing "Oiler fan."

f***ing idiot goes "ya well Oiler fan, you shouldn't expect a lot better out of Pickard."

No. f***ing. Shit. You don't need to lecture "Oiler fan" about that, it's what we knew for most of the year as those idiots licked those goalie's boots and basically propagandized for them. Both suck, we know that. Why we've been screaming for a goalie for years.

the first shot Pickard faced yesterday was a snipe from Kempe on a 3-on-1...kinda shows you how bad this defense has been playing

 

[TB12]

How I feel this morning after last night's game:

 

[bucks_oil]

They simply will not make a quick play with the puck, especially in scoring areas. 95% of the team's instinct is to find somebody to pass to so that's where they go before they just turn it over.

Two sequences last night summed up this team of morons to a T:

3rd goal against - we have traffic in front of the net and Bouchard has a clear, CLEAR shooting lane and time to really step into one. Just decides not to, passes to Connor instead, they piss it around to each other a few times with risky high zone puck play, gets turned over, back of our net.

The very next shift - we have traffic in front again, except its Kulak this time deciding not to shoot, but instead attempt a 0% slap pass cross ice to nobody. Gets turned over, 2 on 1 the other way, they nearly score again.

This is in the heat of having no shots the whole period and being down 2 and then 3 goals. They have to be the only group of players on the planet that still will not show any form of shooting urgency under those conditions. They're f***ing dumb players.

Then lo and behold - Klingberg makes a quick play to the net with traffic and it's a goal. Kulak, maybe learning something, then launches one on net with traffic and it's a goal. Just took being down 3-0 for these f***ing morons to finally take a simple approach. They just simply will not do it if the game is close. It's a dick around and then they'll only do what they need to when they have a gun to their head.

Great post...

There's a time and a place for razzle dazzle... and a tightly contested playoff matchup isn't it. I mean, Connor, you be you... but the rest of the guys have to make the play that's in front of them, not the one they hope Connor can make.

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

Nurse and Bouchard's numbers are dreadful so far

Oilers 4-4 when Nurse is off the ice, 1-3 when he's on
Bouchard is 3-2 when he's OFF THE ICE but 2-5 when he's on

these 2 are supposed to be their best d-men and could be making almost 20 MILLION next season! you simply cannot win with them playing this bad

Bouchard is useless without Ekholm baby sitting him. A 10 million dollar D shouldn’t need that.

 

[Forgot About Drai]

At least the pro skinner defenders mouth breathers are finally silent for once.

Go to reddit lol. They will defend him to the death.

 

[McDNicks17]

He didn't fix the goaltending in the one year he had the $$$ to do so (2022). We all know the Campbell mistake.

But some corrections:
* Koskinen gave us 0.917 the first full year of his three year contract.
* Then he gave us a season of 0.899... I assume you wanted the buyout that summer (like so many of us did, myself included), but...
* The best UFA signing that summer (under $3M, which is what we had) were like Brossoit or Halak... certainly not any long term solutions.
* So Holland punted, saving $$$ for the next year (with a much stronger crop incl Keumper)... we rode out Koskinen (who posted 0.903 that year) 0.911 and as a team. So the huge mistake (no buyout)... would it really have made a difference?
* Then comes 2022, we had the money, we were rumored to be targeting Keumper, but he ended up with uncertainty about his eye injury so Holland chose Campbell... obviously that was a huge mistake.
* But overall, for those three years, we got 0.910, 0.908, and 0.911. Not championship level for sure, but above league average each year with a total spend of $5.5 to $6.5M (well below league average). It was relative value for money.

That's a far cry better than what we got so far under Bowman/Jackson, who also had the money to go shopping last summer and at the deadline and did nothing.

We need to trade Skinner's RFA rights (they'll never do it) and actually INVEST in this position. Unfortunately, while it sounds good... who would you even invest in this summer? Offer sheet Otter? After that... slim pickings... Forsberg, Vanecek, Vladar, Rittich, Lyon, Levi,.... I mean yuck, I'm having a tough time finding a single guy out there who you could reliably expect to even bat 900.

It's gonna have to be via trade.

That's the point I'm making. Holland had five years to invest in goaltending and all he did was bring in stop gaps with no future. I couldn't really care less what kind of SV% he got from them. He left the organization completely barren.

He forced the next guy to do in one offseason what he refused to do over five. He screwed them.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Oilers had 5 f***ing goals and still lost.

They only started to actually give a shit when they were down multiple goals. If anything it makes the loss that much more frustrating.

It's been like this for 10 years. It's why we can't do anything when we get clamped to the perimeter, because this team knows it's incapable from scoring from distance and doesn't even try.

Depth. Defense. Goaltending. The three words that have haunted this organization for a decade.

 

[frag2]

WE DOWNGRADED
trade for Frederic is worse then 2 2nds for AA

haha at least AA played some games. Frederic's Oiler tenure is gonna be what, 5 games?
AA had covid cut short season

 

[K1984]

Bouchard is useless without Ekholm baby sitting him. A 10 million dollar D shouldn’t need that.

He's got to go. Move him in a shakeup that returns a player of roughly equivalent value that actually has a functioning brain in a shakeup.

He can't make that much. That deal will doom this team.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Worst team play in the playoffs. And it's not even close. This team isn't getting stops however the lack of team structure and incredibly terrible decision making and awful puck management is being absolutely carved by efficient, quality shooters. Kempe was the best player on the ice last night with his assassin hands given open ice and confused, inept defending, bad puck management, and no stop goaltending behind the burning car.

I posted below my series areas I was going to watch and focus on. Had concern about this team's own zone defending which has been even worse than I ever imagined it could be from an old veteran team with heaps of playoff experience. No Ekholm is magnifying how erratic Bouchard and Nurse elevated into 1st pair responsibilities can be and the defensive depth hasn't been good though Klingberg showed a composed veteran game. Had big concerns about special teams on a regressing Power Play and a largely mediocre Penalty Kill. They've been badly owned.

Bad goaltending behind terrible team defending is a recipe for extinction. Management not addressing a highly volatile younger back-up masquerading as a window team starting goaltender is the culmination of inept management decisions that turned this into the league's oldest, smaller, less skilled team.

Now the series is 2-0 but any team with McDavid and Draisaitl coming home still has a chance. However the issues are wide spread and substantive and the ol' Oilers coaches panic card rolling up The Stack Line was played in game 2 and this team was throttled. Huge task to turnaround and win the critical areas required to win in playoff hockey.


This team can roll anyone for a deep run or flameout early. Such has been the rollercoaster this season. Key things I'm watching...

• Goaltending

• Healthy lineup
• Winning games not losing games in the margins. Especially without Ekholm this team needs to be dialled in with their own zone goal suppression work
• Special teams need to rediscover elite PP not this year's regression to a really good one and PK while non-repeatable 94% playoff version has to hold water without Ekholm

This team is battle tested, highly resilient with significant adversity through seasons of roller coaster play, and ices McDavid and Draisailt one of history's best 1 and 1A centre duos and super elite clutch time performers. How these team functions hold up is what I'm watching.

 

[frag2]

Bouchard is useless without Ekholm baby sitting him. A 10 million dollar D shouldn’t need that.

Both him and Nurse need babysitter Dmen...when at their current [in Bouch's case, future] salaries, they should be babysitting the pairing

 

[Forgot About Drai]

Stuart Skinner makes Dan Cloutier look like a brick wall

So either we have the worst defense in the playoff history that would cause any goalie to have these stats, or MAYBE just MAYBE, this guy f***ing licks.

 

[soothsayer]

That's the point I'm making. Holland had five years to invest in goaltending and all he did was bring in stop gaps with no future. I couldn't really care less what kind of SV% he got from them. He left the organization completely barren.

He forced the next guy to do in one offseason what he refused to do over five. He screwed them.

My sense is that there is an organizational philosophy toward goaltending that essentially doesn't take it very seriously. The justification that media mouthpieces give regarding Skinner is that his level of play is commensurate with his cap hit, and that's sufficient. (Whether the organization has spent those "savings" efficiently is another question.)

You hear it from people here too. I mean, there was some genius on here saying Skinner at his cap hit is better than Vasilevsky. I'm sure that mentality actually reflects the organization's position (though it's probably not as dramatic as thinking Skinner is better than the best goalie in the world). It's the only thing that makes sense.

 

[TB12]

Their Skinner takes have been embarrassing all season.

Absolutely comical how much water they carry for this guy. All these fat media f***s with their NAIT diplomas think they know more than everyone. Yes, they have access to the players, but that's it and most of them have no f***ing clue about hockey. They were ruthless with Koskinen, shitting on him non-stop, yet not a f***ing peep about Skinner, who has a MUCH better team in front of him and is WAY worse both statistically and eye-test. Like this goalie is legitimately one of the worst NHL playoff starters of ALL TIME.

In no other market would a goalie with these stats not be the entire focal point of the media. Yet because he's local and has a moustache they don't say a word. And you can GUARANTEE that when Stu does leave the team the media will have their pitchforks out and be shitting allllllll over him. It's as predictable as anything. Absolute joke.

 

[FiveFourteenSixOne]

How I feel this morning after last night's game:

Report of the Week is f***ing awesome lol. I subbed to his channel on YouTube for the lols

 

[1981 Oilers]

haha at least AA played some games. Frederic's Oiler tenure is gonna be what, 5 games?
AA had covid cut short season

exactly.

 

[1981 Oilers]

is it just me or do we have the most incompetent management team in the history of sports? Is not just his year. We have had some major boo boos over the years. Its Cleveland Browns level

 

[Duke74]

An Oilers haiku:

Powerless Peepee
Swiss Cheese Skinner stops nothing
More braindead defence

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

So we're also in agreement that Leon in probably way more hurt than they're letting on.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

is it just me or do we have the most incompetent management team in the history of sports? Is not just his year. We have had some major boo boos over the years. Its Cleveland Browns level

Holland was the best of the bunch and he was just average IMO, shows you how bad it's been

it's pretty astounding that almost every player JJ and Bowman brought in (with the exception of Podz and maybe Walman) have completely regressed to garbage