Post-Game Talk: Dallas wins and my schwartz watch quit again...

[McFlash97]

He’s better than Arvidsson.

Arvidsson has been a bumbling joke this season. His 6 game stint has been an utter failure. He has brought absolutely nothing to this team. Preseason or regular season. The guy doesn't skate hard, doesn't get in on the forecheck. Not sure wtf is wrong with him. Thought these things would have been second nature to him. Compared to the players he brought in to replace. One of Foegle, Holloway or McLeod. The guy can't carry any of thier jockstraps at backing the opposition in.

There's a reason he's been demoted. He's not showing that he can keep up or play with that pace anymore.

 

[CrazyJoeDavola]

 

[McShogun99]

Go with these 4 pairs next game.

Mcdavid-Skinner
Draisaitl- Arvidsson
RNH-Hyman
Henrique-Brown
Fill in Janmark,Pod,Perry and Ryan where needed.

 

[Sanderson]

Yup, the D was fine today. It's our inability to only generate scoring chances from the perimeter. The PP is a microcosm of our entire 5on5 game and has been for years. Outside muffins with the occasional good passing play but not able to get any chances from the middle of the ice. This team is so used to having below average shooters on the fwd line that it's slowly, year after year, molding the playstyle to only being able to score off a backdoor tap-in.

I'd say it was even more than fine. They held Dallas to five shots in the first half of the game, and apart from very occcasional shifts Dallas wasn't really dangerous. Dallas woke up in the third, but it wasn't until after the stumble and fumble on the second goal that the team lost its composure. Down two, they suddenly started to run around like chicken with their heads cut off, being way too aggressive in an attempt to get something going, and Dallas made use of that to quickly add one more.

Edmonton lost because they failed to get goals out of their otherwise dominant play. They never should have been down after two periods.

 

[nexttothemoon]

Negatives...

-3rd worst PP in the league at 6.7% Obviously they need to get this going at it should be a team strength... not a severe weakness.


-Worst PK in the NHL at 55% Same coaching as last year so I assume the turnover in personnel has to be a big part of having everyone on the same page on the PK. Went from a record setting PK in the playoffs to hot garbage now. Shows just how fragile chemistry is on a team based unit such as the PK.


-2nd worst shooting % in the NHL at 6.3% Basically they are making goalies they face look like Hasek with an average 93.7% save percentage. They are tied with Nashville for the worst goals per game at 2.00... so generating offense is abysmally lower than last season's stellar rates.


-3rd worst team save percentage at 84%. Absolutely have to get better goaltending as 84% is WAY below what is even needed to be anything approaching average goaltending. Also "interesting" that the 2nd worst team and 4th worst team in save percentage right how are Nashville and Philadelphia... the only 2 teams the Oilers have managed to beat.


-2nd lowest hits/60 at 14.3/60 This may not correlate directly to wins/losses BUT I think it does correlate somewhat with team speed/effort levels and the level of engagement the team has on the whole. The team isn't an aggressive/punishing team and except for some momentum changing fights (which they obviously need more of)... the team really doesn't scare anyone with their physicality. If they aren't getting it done on the scoreboard they should at least be leaving some bruises on opponents

-Only once in the first 6 games have they scored 1st in a game (and they managed to lose that as well). Oilers are notorious for starting slow and not being ready and digging a hole for themselves in games... and that continues this season. Whether that's down to coaching or the players... or both, that needs to change if the team doesn't always want to be behind the 8-ball and be scratching and clawing for victories instead of putting the opposition on the backfoot by playing strong out of the gate each night.


Positives...

Shots differential per game is 4th best in the NHL... so the offense is at least generating shots... (7th most shots per game in the NHL) and the team D is restricting shots against... 2nd fewest shots against per game in the NHL. Problem of course is that if you aren't finishing your chances OR saving enough shots... it doesn't matter how much you are outshooting the opposition. The old "we won the Corsi battle but lost the game" argument. Bright side is that IF they can finish more chances and get at least close to average goaltending... things CAN turn around quickly.

I think the fact that the team D is holding opposition teams to the 2nd lowest shots against IS a positive sign that team D is at least not in shambles... there may be enough structure there for this team to eventually come around if/when the offense starts connecting and the PK & PP start to perform a lot better AND the goaltending improves.



Negatives far outweigh the positives right now overall which is why they are struggling so badly and have the 2nd worst goals differential in the NHL. Another "positive" is that the save/shooting percentages and PK/PP are so horrifically bad that they have to regress to the mean at some point... just have to hope they don't just get slightly better to mediocre levels and stay there all season long.