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LemmyUlanov55

4th line grinder
Apr 3, 2016
5,361
4,614
Well, the Devils got shutout 3-0 by the Flames two nights ago, so I had a feeling who'd suffer because of it, lol.
 

Lacaar

Registered User
Jan 25, 2012
4,222
1,425
Edmonton
Out
Foegele 4 goals, McLeod 4 goals, Holloway 4 goals
In
Skinner 3 goals, Arvidsson 1, Podkolzin 0

I will say that you could likely swap the players and the numbers would just reverse for each.

Edmonton doesn't score early in the year. I don't care who is playing on this team it doesn't matter. Christ we had McDavid and Draisitl for the first ten games look like average NHL hockey players.

This team collectively doesn't have its "shit" together. Not even close. 3/4 of the forwards (VETERAN forwards) haven't left second gear.

The good news being this year they've managed to hover .500 while in second pre-season.

This team doesn't score like we get scored on. Even the last two games. Calgary 2 goals from distance with people in front. New Jersey's first goal. Chaos in front. Our forwards are getting their asses handed to them in front of the net. It's practically a no fly zone. Like watching the rebels attack the Death Star in Return of the Jedi.. It's a Trap!

Just have to wait for that come to Jesus moment before the real season starts for this team.
 

Messrules11

6 Cups, elbows up.
Nov 23, 2018
5,727
6,469
Knoblauch’s wet sock approach is rubbing off on his charges and it’s going wear thin with the media and fans fast. This team needs a fiery leader in moments of complacency like this and he just ain’t it.
A coach that doesn’t prioritize hitting has no business in this league. Maybe he should send a resume to the women’s league cuz this is bullshit. 5 hits last night, f*** off.
 

FlameChampion

Registered User
Jul 13, 2011
14,633
17,163
Not really surprised by this one. Was pretty much a scheduled loss. Hopefully it makes them more hungry against Vegas and Vancouver.

Our lack of finishing and special teams are very concerning though. I guess Gulie and Stuart just figured they could coast on the special teams based on last year. Time to figure it out.
 
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FlameChampion

Registered User
Jul 13, 2011
14,633
17,163
I will say that you could likely swap the players and the numbers would just reverse for each.

Edmonton doesn't score early in the year. I don't care who is playing on this team it doesn't matter. Christ we had McDavid and Draisitl for the first ten games look like average NHL hockey players.

This team collectively doesn't have its "shit" together. Not even close. 3/4 of the forwards (VETERAN forwards) haven't left second gear.

The good news being this year they've managed to hover .500 while in second pre-season.

This team doesn't score like we get scored on. Even the last two games. Calgary 2 goals from distance with people in front. New Jersey's first goal. Chaos in front. Our forwards are getting their asses handed to them in front of the net. It's practically a no fly zone. Like watching the rebels attack the Death Star in Return of the Jedi.. It's a Trap!

Just have to wait for that come to Jesus moment before the real season starts for this team.

Agreed. The players don’t matter. McLeod, Holloway, Foegele did nothing offensively last year at the beginning of the year. The team never seems to start rolling until January. Just a bizarre bizarre team.
 

The Panther

Registered User
Mar 25, 2014
20,053
17,025
Tokyo, Japan
Credit the NHL scheduler and the Devils' goalie (who was great) for this Jersey win. Seriously, what team ends a week-long road trip with a final road game and then has a home game the very next night? No surprise they looked flat.

I don't really understand playing Ryan (who is toast at this point) and Perry in the same games. But whatever.

Until my dying day, I will continue to bang the drum that Darnell Nurse should never, ever be on the PK. Every single time he's on it, the opposition scores (or so it seems). But I've been saying this since about 2019, and no coach ever listens...

Anyway, it's just one flat game (and basically a scheduled loss at that), but consider this:

Not counting one (rather iffy in itself) overtime goal, the Oilers this season have managed to score 12 goals in 7 games on home ice.

In fact, excepting the Pittsburgh game, it's 8 goals in 6 games. On home ice. To put that into perspective, Winnipeg has scored 27 non-overtime goals in 6 home games.
 
Apr 12, 2010
74,714
34,091
Calgary
This lack of offense act is getting tiresome. 13 games into the season and many forwards have goal totals well below their usual norm. Obviously McDavid's absence hurts but the depth forwards have to start putting pucks in the net too.

Also why are they so inept at home? 13 goals in 7 home games is awful. Their PK gets shredded almost every single game. This isn't even anything new... I'd almost rather next game be in Vegas than in Edmonton.
 
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Juxta Position

Registered User
Jul 2, 2006
2,344
1,933
Credit the NHL scheduler and the Devils' goalie (who was great) for this Jersey win. Seriously, what team ends a week-long road trip with a final road game and then has a home game the very next night? No surprise they looked flat.

I don't really understand playing Ryan (who is toast at this point) and Perry in the same games. But whatever.

Until my dying day, I will continue to bang the drum that Darnell Nurse should never, ever be on the PK. Every single time he's on it, the opposition scores (or so it seems). But I've been saying this since about 2019, and no coach ever listens...

Anyway, it's just one flat game (and basically a scheduled loss at that), but consider this:

Not counting one (rather iffy in itself) overtime goal, the Oilers this season have managed to score 12 goals in 7 games on home ice.

In fact, excepting the Pittsburgh game, it's 8 goals in 6 games. On home ice. To put that into perspective, Winnipeg has scored 27 non-overtime goals in 6 home games.
Agreed, that is some absolutely horrendous scheduling, I don't think i've ever actually seen that before in 45 years of watching hockey.

The offense will come. The Oilers have too many offensive players for it not to get better. Personally, I'm more concerned about the PK. It's not just bad; it's epically bad. They could go an entire month without giving up a PP goal and still not be in the top 10 for PK. That isn't good.

All that being said, the Oilers are still 6-3-1 in their last 10 games, with zero offense and brutal special teams. Even if they stay at that pace, which I don't think will be the case, they will be better, they would end the season 48-27-7 which is a 103-point pace, very respectable, not winning the division but firmly in playoff territory.
 

Tobias Kahun

Registered User
Oct 3, 2017
44,821
55,964
Credit the NHL scheduler and the Devils' goalie (who was great) for this Jersey win. Seriously, what team ends a week-long road trip with a final road game and then has a home game the very next night? No surprise they looked flat.

I don't really understand playing Ryan (who is toast at this point) and Perry in the same games. But whatever.

Until my dying day, I will continue to bang the drum that Darnell Nurse should never, ever be on the PK. Every single time he's on it, the opposition scores (or so it seems). But I've been saying this since about 2019, and no coach ever listens...

Anyway, it's just one flat game (and basically a scheduled loss at that), but consider this:

Not counting one (rather iffy in itself) overtime goal, the Oilers this season have managed to score 12 goals in 7 games on home ice.

In fact, excepting the Pittsburgh game, it's 8 goals in 6 games. On home ice. To put that into perspective, Winnipeg has scored 27 non-overtime goals in 6 home games.
They looked flat?
 

CycloneSweep

Registered User
Sep 27, 2017
51,049
42,651
Agreed, that is some absolutely horrendous scheduling, I don't think i've ever actually seen that before in 45 years of watching hockey.

The offense will come. The Oilers have too many offensive players for it not to get better. Personally, I'm more concerned about the PK. It's not just bad; it's epically bad. They could go an entire month without giving up a PP goal and still not be in the top 10 for PK. That isn't good.

All that being said, the Oilers are still 6-3-1 in their last 10 games, with zero offense and brutal special teams. Even if they stay at that pace, which I don't think will be the case, they will be better, they would end the season 48-27-7 which is a 103-point pace, very respectable, not winning the division but firmly in playoff territory.
The record in the last 10 is good but it’s also all wins against bad teams. We have a very easy strength of schedule this year.
We have a single win against teams who made the playoffs last year (in 5 games). We also have a single win against teams who are in the top 16 this year.
We are 1-4-0 against last years playoff teams and are currently 5-1-1 against bottom teams. So perfectly a middle team at the moment.

Scoring should come back but how much? Guys like Nuge and Hyman probably won't score like they did last year (especially Hyman), Arvidsson and Skinner should score in the 15-20 amount depending on health. I don't see our bottom 6 really putting much offense up. Our bottom 6 wingers aren't really offensive minded or able in any way and Henrique has nothing to really work with down there.
 

CrazyJoeDavola

Registered User
Jun 17, 2011
4,016
4,129
Vancouver
Our shooting percentage/PP/PK will average out over time. I’m a lot more worried about how soft and small we seem to be. 5 hits all game tonight? Dead last by a lot in hits/60. I know it’s somewhat of a subjective stat but holy that’s just so bad. We better add some muscle, or teams like Winnipeg/Vegas are going to roll us. Hell we had Mantha bullying our D last night and he’s not exactly prime Eric Lindros.
I don't really think our s% will increase by that much; all we take are soft shots around the perimeter, with zero ability to get into the middle of the ice shoot from a distance. We take weak muffins from the outside off the rush or from the perimeter in the zone and those account for the majority of our shots. They aren't going to magically start going in because every other team has competent nhl goaltending tandems.

This team, year after year, is stuck to the perimeter, can't drive the middle, and always tries to pass the puck into the net. Zero will to muck it up and score some greay goals.
 

oXo Cube

Power Play Merchant
Nov 4, 2008
11,323
12,167
In your closet
I don't really think our s% will increase by that much; all we take are soft shots around the perimeter, with zero ability to get into the middle of the ice shoot from a distance. We take weak muffins from the outside off the rush or from the perimeter in the zone and those account for the majority of our shots. They aren't going to magically start going in because every other team has competent nhl goaltending tandems.

This team, year after year, is stuck to the perimeter, can't drive the middle, and always tries to pass the puck into the net. Zero will to muck it up and score some greay goals.

And yet, this team, year after year, finishes in the top half of the league in shooting percentage and not dead last.

Unless you think losing Warren Foegele crippled this teams ability to finish the goals are going to start coming.
 
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GhostfaceWu

Shi Shaw
Feb 11, 2015
11,233
11,729
Also knob should be called out for inserting Ryan back into the lineup made zero sense coming off back to back wins where the forth line contributed on the scoring sheet and had a fair bit of opportunities. The guy is too slow for even strength and even slower for the pk just sit him in the pressbox for a while or waive him. Taking out a player who is one of two that plays physical was brilliant.
 
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K1984

Registered User
Feb 7, 2008
15,464
17,213
Other than the fact that we physically can't put the puck in the net no matter what, I didn't have much of a problem with the first 40 mins. I don't feel that they were overly perimeter either, quite a few chances came from in front, but again, they basically found the 1/100 ways to not score in a few of the chances they had.

Everything they did will through the first 40 went to shit in the third. Rather than keep grinding, they seemed to try to "simplify" by attempting to tie the game by creating a cute rush play. Stupid.

Our passing as a team is wretched, especially on the walls in both zones. Addicted to the soft area pass and it's killing us. Special teams is a joke all around, and they should start to consider some personnel shuffles.
 

Oilslick941611

Registered User
Jul 4, 2006
17,012
17,892
Ottawa
Unrelated note, seems like the population of HFoilers really took a hit this offseason and not many returned. These page counts on GDT and PGTs are really low
 
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nexttothemoon

and again...
Jan 30, 2010
30,595
18,602
Northern AB
Hits/60... 32nd in the NHL
Shooting %... 31st in the NHL
Save %... 29th in the NHL
PK... 32nd in the NHL
PP... 26th in the NHL

It's actually surprising that the team has the record they do with those mediocre/awful underlying stats.

The one saving grace is that the team is outshooting opponents handedly so far... 434 to 335... so that positive 99 shot differential is helping somewhat to keep the team in games because it takes so many decent chances to pot goals and the goaltending has been mediocre at best.

If those shot differentials slip... the team would be in real trouble.

It just seems the team has no identity... they aren't a particularly physical team... the special teams aren't firing so they aren't an offensive juggernaut or a shut down team on D... and the goaltending isn't good enough or consistent enough to stone teams except for the occasional decent game from a goalie that basically surprises us all when it happens because it's so rare.

It just seems that the team has so many issues that it's hard to pinpoint what to fix 1st as everything needs to be better. Ironically they seem to be decent defensively overall with the amount of shots they're allowing... but even that doesn't mean a lot when teams seem to bury their chances consistently vs the Oilers while the Oilers struggle so hard to bury their own.


Opposition teams collectively have a 40% PP when they face the Oilers and an 85% PK when they face the Oilers as well... that's obviously has got to turn around if the Oilers hope to have any real success this year.

Opposition goalies are collectively almost 93% vs the Oilers... so it's basically like facing Hasek every night. I think it's obviously a combination of goalies/teams getting up to play the Oilers and giving 100% and of poor sniping/finishing skills on the Oilers (and when you look at the likes of Janmark/Brown/Ryan/Podz trying to finish on good scoring chances... you can see why). The fact that players like Hyman/RNH/Henrique have been subpar as well points to a team-wide funk that hopefully gets turned around soon. Even Jeff Skinner who looked good to start the year seems to be falling into the same hole of lower than expected finish.

I looked up the stats and Drai and Perry are the only forwards to have scored more goals than their expected goal totals would indicate they should have. So one top 6 player and one 4th liner is producing at or better than the rates expected... the rest of the forwards somehow have all developed stone hands at the same time.
 
Last edited:

TopShelfGloveSide

Registered User
Dec 10, 2018
19,845
28,722
Hits/60... 32nd in the NHL
Shooting %... 31st in the NHL
Save %... 29th in the NHL
PK... 32nd in the NHL
PP... 26th in the NHL

It's actually surprising that the team has the record they do with those mediocre/awful underlying stats.

The one saving grace is that the team is outshooting opponents handedly so far... 434 to 335... so that positive 99 shot differential is helping somewhat to keep the team in games because it takes so many decent chances to pot goals and the goaltending has been mediocre at best.

If those shot differentials slip... the team would be in real trouble.

It just seems the team has no identity... they aren't a particularly physical team... the special teams aren't firing so they aren't an offensive juggernaut or a shut down team on D... and the goaltending isn't good enough or consistent enough to stone teams except for the occasional decent game from a goalie that basically surprises us all when it happens because it's so rare.

It just seems that the team has so many issues that it's hard to pinpoint what to fix 1st as everything needs to be better. Ironically they seem to be decent defensively overall with the amount of shots they're allowing... but even that doesn't mean a lot when teams seem to bury their chances consistently vs the Oilers while the Oilers struggle so hard to bury their own.


Opposition teams collectively have a 40% PP when they face the Oilers and an 85% PK when they face the Oilers as well... that's obviously has got to turn around if the Oilers hope to have any real success this year.

Opposition goalies are collectively almost 93% vs the Oilers... so it's basically like facing Hasek every night. I think it's obviously a combination of poor sniping/finishing skills on the Oilers (and when you look at the likes of Janmark/Brown/Ryan/Podz trying to finish on good scoring chances... you can see why). The fact that players like Hyman/RNH/Henrique have been subpar as well points to a team-wide funk that hopefully gets turned around soon. Even Jeff Skinner who looked good to start the year seems to be falling into the same hole of lower than expected finish.

I looked up the stats and Drai and Perry are the only forwards to have scored more goals than their expected goal totals would indicate they should have. So one top 6 player and one 4th liner is producing at the rates expected... the rest of the forwards somehow have all developed stone hands at the same time.
Worried about the shot differential slipping. One of the best offensive teams in the league last year didn’t become SJ over the summer. They will turn it around.
 
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MessierII

Registered User
Aug 10, 2011
28,607
18,097
The record in the last 10 is good but it’s also all wins against bad teams. We have a very easy strength of schedule this year.
We have a single win against teams who made the playoffs last year (in 5 games). We also have a single win against teams who are in the top 16 this year.
We are 1-4-0 against last years playoff teams and are currently 5-1-1 against bottom teams. So perfectly a middle team at the moment.

Scoring should come back but how much? Guys like Nuge and Hyman probably won't score like they did last year (especially Hyman), Arvidsson and Skinner should score in the 15-20 amount depending on health. I don't see our bottom 6 really putting much offense up. Our bottom 6 wingers aren't really offensive minded or able in any way and Henrique has nothing to really work with down there.
Nuge didn’t even break 20 goal last year. You think he’s going to score even less? Skinner will score over 20 because he always does even in down years. Arvidsson and Henrique I’m less sure about.
 

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