Pre-Game Talk: Game 2 - Edmonton at Vancouver: Looking for a rebound

[jesusbuiltmyhotrod]

Nailed it.

Skinner sucked, yes. But so did the entire team in front of you when the Canucks possessed the puck the entire second half of the game and you put 4 something shots on their net.

He did not nail it when you are up 4 -1 your goalie cannot be letting those in the oil had kept them to the outside with not much in the way of good chances....YEs the O dried up but they were defending them well, it was embarassing those goals went in.

Maybe Vancouver is a bad matchup, no idea why the oil were faves coming into this series the nucks stymie us every game.

If Mcdavid doesn't pick it up this series is over, lets hope he does.

Skinner allowed 4GA in 24mins while seeing only one HDSC in that timeframe. Sure the Canucks had puck a lot. They were not getting inside and were not getting into dangerous areas. The only difficult one was the Miller goal, brilliantly executed. Goals 1, 2, 4, 5 were weak.

You think the Rangers throw wins back when they get outplayed all game by CArolina in two games? They won both those in OT because Shesterkin standing on his head making 50 stops in a game. In a game that wasn't even close. In a game that Canes threw so much at net they tired themselves out like Foreman against Ali. Rangers just said thanks for having god in net and took over game in OT and bagged another W.

If the oilers play like that ever its guaranteed loss time and not even close.

The whole job of a goalie is to stop pucks. To make quality saves. Skinner is allowing more goals than making quality stops. Again on 11 nuck scoring chances they pumped 5 goals, 2 goalposts and another shot that somehow hit Skinners stick shaft instead of going in empty net. That ain't good.

The players started playing scared soon as it was 4-2. Both teams got a look at Skinner being shaky in net. It unravelled us. Players were scared of making turnovers so not making any plays. Oilers played as if they were scared of even allowing shots and one could see why.

I don't agree with you often but this is spot on

 

[Drivesaitl]

My 3 concerns.

1. Draisitl is likely compromised. even if he plays he was a shell of himself after the injury. Was our best player before hand. And unfortunately.. (looks at McDavid) it wasn't even close.

2. Pressure. This team has not shown the ability to deal with pressure. They lose overtime games. And they were obviously intimidated by the Vancouver crowd imo. They played scared Wednesday imo. Hence the poor decisions, bobbled pucks, and brutal passing.

3. Vancouver. They have yet to play a single game against this team and not looked like a pile of shit. I don't know how anyone thinks the Oilers were playing anything close to what they were capable of even after the 4-1 lead. Is Vancouver just too fast for this team? Because we looked sloooooooooow.

Oilers can win but they HAVE to match the heart and commitment of the Canucks. They haven't done that once this year.

I pretty much guarantee this wasnt it. heh Most of the game the crowd was silent as if at a funeral. it wasn't the crowd intimidating it was Nucks finding their speed and pressure game. Oilers need to solve that by making plays, which they can do.

Other concerns have merit.

 

[Drivesaitl]

He did not nail it when you are up 4 -1 your goalie cannot be letting those in the oil had kept them to the outside with not much in the way of good chances....YEs the O dried up but they were defending them well, it was embarassing those goals went in.

Maybe Vancouver is a bad matchup, no idea why the oil were faves coming into this series the nucks stymie us every game.

If Mcdavid doesn't pick it up this series is over, lets hope he does.


I don't agree with you often but this is spot on

With a quality goaltender the score is 4-0 Oilers headed into third period. The only goal Vancouver got that was unstoppable was the Miller goal. Skinner not only kept the Nucks in the game he gave them the W in third period. His reaction on the horrible goal 5 he knows he completely blew it too.

What fans don't seem to realize is that most teams in playoffs have been alternating between good and not so good games. At this level its hard to bring peak intensity every night. every period. Other teams are being saved often by elite goaltending keeping them in games or even winning them series.

The Oilers don't have that benefit. With the Oilers they have to be airtight every night or the lose.

 

[CrazyJoeDavola]

Unfortunately predicted. Desharnais can't quick decision at this level against speed forecheck. If he has time he can look like an NHL D and even make passes. But he's slow footed, and his playoff game is increasingly limited to just trying to bang puck out to nowhere. Just so the quicker Canucks retrieve it and come back endlessly. The amount of times our D just gave the puck away in game one is concerning. Only Ekholm and Booch pair were making plays and using their skill to get good outs.

VD is decent on pk. He's not bad without the puck, or boxing out. With the puck he tends not to be much.

Agreed. And even without the puck, he's slow and thus has terrible stick checking even with his size. Because of him always being behind the play, he's actually a weak and non-physical dman outside of occaisionally shoving a guy in front of the net. That's evidenced by his zero hits in game 1. This man has somehow frauded an entire organization into thinking he's an nhl calibre punishing physical dman when he's actually one of the weakest.

 

[jesusbuiltmyhotrod]

With a quality goaltender the score is 4-0 Oilers headed into third period. The only goal Vancouver got that was unstoppable was the Miller goal. Skinner not only kept the Nucks in the game he gave them the W in third period. His reaction on the horrible goal 5 he knows he completely blew it too.

What fans don't seem to realize is that most teams in playoffs have been alternating between good and not so good games. At this level its hard to bring peak intensity every night. every period. Other teams are being saved often by elite goaltending keeping them in games or even winning them series.

The Oilers don't have that benefit. With the Oilers they have to be airtight every night or the lose.

Yep I often wonder if most of this forum watches any other games besides the oil no team is 100% every game its imposssible. Every team that wins cups win games they are not near 100%...this should have been one of those with competent goaltending.

Every team gets pinned in their zone and gets outplayed in stretches, that's where the goalie needs to make stops that he is expected to make

 

[Drivesaitl]

Agreed. And even without the puck, he's slow and thus has terrible stick checking even with his size. Because of him always being behind the play, he's actually a weak and non-physical dman outside of occaisionally shoving a guy in front of the net. That's evidenced by his zero hits in game 1. This man has somehow frauded an entire organization into thinking he's an nhl calibre punishing physical dman when he's actually one of the weakest.

Yep. I don't think Desharnais would find himself on a lot of contender lineups. Worse, the reason he's been upped from 7D to much more looks is due to passivity from some of our other D. Particularly Nurse Ceci who have stopped hitting. We have size D, we should be phsyical at back but Nucks somehow getting more of that from their group. Desharnais is here to bring the bang and to use his wingspan and get in the way of pucks because others weren't doing that effectively enough.

Desharnais is probably tired, exhausted. Look at him on the bench. He's sucking wind constantly. he can't play these minutes at this pace and level.

Meanwhile the Oilers are not even skating a speed dynamo like Stecher that flies out there and has unlimited pace and energy. its strange stuff.

Desharnais has snowed the team too. Both Skinner and Desharnais as a support tag team have done that. Neither are good. Woodcroft is who foisted this on the org. Telling the org these two are good enough for the show and bringing them up here because they were "his guys". its up to a new coach to have figured out thats not the case. KK not changing that up at all.

 

[TheNumber4]

Hope Drai is ready to go.

Hope Nurse doesn’t boot a 3rd puck past Skinner with his stupidity causing Skinner to be blamed for a goal by the wilfully ignorant.

Hope Ceci becomes a defenceman he’s never been.

Hope Nuge finds his finishing touch.

Hope McD has an all time performance.

Time to get that split.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Hope Drai is ready to go.

Hope Nurse doesn’t boot a 3rd puck past Skinner with his stupidity causing Skinner to be blamed for a goal by the wilfully ignorant.

Hope Ceci becomes a defenceman he’s never been.

Hope Nuge finds his finishing touch.

Hope McD has an all time performance.

Time to get that split.

Don't pile it on too hard. lol

Its a given that Oilers should be much better in game 2 and that Skinner will be. He probably has a bounce back game in him. But Nucks will be better too and frankly Boeser, Pettersson, they would know they didn't get anything going in that game 1.

 

[McJC]

Go in there, get the split.

If we get home ice, Nucks might crumble. None of their top guys have seen an atmosphere like ours.

 

[Pavel10]

Anyone know who canucks starting in goal?

 

[Kinibo]

Skinner allowed 4GA in 24mins while seeing only one HDSC in that timeframe. Sure the Canucks had puck a lot. They were not getting inside and were not getting into dangerous areas. The only difficult one was the Miller goal, brilliantly executed. Goals 1, 2, 4, 5 were weak.

You think the Rangers throw wins back when they get outplayed all game by CArolina in two games? They won both those in OT because Shesterkin standing on his head making 50 stops in a game. In a game that wasn't even close. In a game that Canes threw so much at net they tired themselves out like Foreman against Ali. Rangers just said thanks for having god in net and took over game in OT and bagged another W.

If the oilers play like that ever its guaranteed loss time and not even close.

The whole job of a goalie is to stop pucks. To make quality saves. Skinner is allowing more goals than making quality stops. Again on 11 nuck scoring chances they pumped 5 goals, 2 goalposts and another shot that somehow hit Skinners stick shaft instead of going in empty net. That ain't good.

The players started playing scared soon as it was 4-2. Both teams got a look at Skinner being shaky in net. It unravelled us. Players were scared of making turnovers so not making any plays. Oilers played as if they were scared of even allowing shots and one could see why.

You know what mystifies me? How every broadcaster, writer and “insider” seems to fall all over themselves praising Skinner for how good he is. You rarely hear even the speculation that he’s anything but fantastic. Granted he’s been steady at times, very good at others. But his baseline is barely average and there’s certainly no evidence I can see that he’s of the caliber you need to win in the playoffs. Due respect to Stu, but I don’t see what the experts keep telling me.

 

[bone]

No I don't trust a goalie with .887 save percentage and a 0.33% in quality start.

I'm more concerned about the 50% RBS over his last 12 playoff starts.

 

[Oilers in NS]

We've hit an iceberg every playoffs and been sunk. I don't think Vancouver is that but the Conference final sure has some foreboding looks. Again if one is watching these other teams they are playing a more playoff unpacked game than the Oilers are.

Difference in our reactions to game would be you are busy working and I'm retired. I have more time for idle hands in to think too much about the game and stuff. haha. This was not a good game to watch being retired. Let me tell you. haha

Maybe due to the one week break and other scheduling problems late in season but the Oilers don't have that playoff step. They had it for a couple games in LA series and now have played 3 underwhelming playoff games in a row.
Kudos to you though being an East Coaster and referencing Titanic. Never forget going look around the Cemeteries in Halifax and seeing interned from the Titanic or learning more about the massive Bedford harbor explosion. The single biggest detonation in world history until Hiroshima.


4) If the Oilers score more goals they will win.

Good history buff
The scientist who developed the Atomic bomb studied the explosion from the Halifax Explosion in their design. When I went to college in HAlifax, I lived in North End by Olands brewery. All the houses were from the late 1800's early 1900's. All the houses foundations were made of rock . Every house in neighbourhood is pushed off its foundation a bit from the soundwave of the explosion.

Good history buff
The scientist who developed the Atomic bomb studied the explosion from the Halifax Explosion in their design. When I went to college in HAlifax, I lived in North End by Olands brewery. All the houses were from the late 1800's early 1900's. All the houses foundations were made of rock . Every house in neighbourhood is pushed off its foundation a bit from the soundwave of the explosion.

 

[TheNumber4]

Any chance we get an update on Drai before the game?

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Have to be much, much better in the face-off dot. Canucks running a 63.5% to 36.5% face-off win rate which flatters the Oilers top two line results of McDavid 27.8% and Draisaitl 28.6%. Puck possession is the Oilers oxygen and beginning the play with puck possession versus chasing it is important.
Now this is challenged even more with Draisaitl hurt or potentially not playing.

But the key will be goaltending which was abysmal in game 1. Skinner can't continue to be the second best goalie against the opposition's third and second string options.

 

[K1984]

Hope Drai is ready to go.

Hope Nurse doesn’t boot a 3rd puck past Skinner with his stupidity causing Skinner to be blamed for a goal by the wilfully ignorant.

Hope Ceci becomes a defenceman he’s never been.

Hope Nuge finds his finishing touch.

Hope McD has an all time performance.

Time to get that split.

This is another thing with him that gets dismissed as "ah, just bad luck," but you don't see pucks go in off anyone and into the net near to the degree it happens to Nurse. It's gotten a little better, but was chronic earlier in his career and its starting to become chronic again.

It's another small detail that he just isn't at all dialled in to.

 

[Drivesaitl]

You know what mystifies me? How every broadcaster, writer and “insider” seems to fall all over themselves praising Skinner for how good he is. You rarely hear even the speculation that he’s anything but fantastic. Granted he’s been steady at times, very good at others. But his baseline is barely average and there’s certainly no evidence I can see that he’s of the caliber you need to win in the playoffs. Due respect to Stu, but I don’t see what the experts keep telling me.

LIke @jesusbuiltmyhotrod just said it seems as if most fans and local beat don't watch other teams an awful lot. We have in the NHL right now another golden age of goaltending. I think people are comparing Skinner on past concepts of what can be good enough in net. yet all the contenders have fantastic goalies in net. Only Colorado doesn't, but Georgiev still reaction style goalie that can make stops Skinner can't. AV's give up a lot of Quality chances. They play a more wide open game than we do because they know they can fill net in playoffs, every game. Their arsenal is impressive.

But back to goaltending we're seeing an NHL now that has around 15 elite level goalies. Just incredible goaltending most good teams have. Multiple teams have 2 or more goalies that would be our starter.

That in our roster depth that Skinner is our starter in the most important position in hockey is a joke. The worse joke is during the entire McDrai era the only caliber goalie we've had is Talbot. Who we got rid of. (Talbot old now, no longer much, but he was capable, and did have good form and fundamentals. Guy could play. )

This is another thing with him that gets dismissed as "ah, just bad luck," but you don't see pucks go in off anyone and into the net near to the degree it happens to Nurse. It's gotten a little better, but was chronic earlier in his career and its starting to become chronic again.

It's another small detail that he just isn't at all dialled in to.

Sure, but Boston lose the Leafs series in final minute if Swayman doesn't make a good stop off his defender that almost kicked the puck in. Happens to other teams too and they get the routine stop. With stone frozen Skinner the puck goes into an empty net. Again people should watch more of the other series to see the kinds of stops other teams are getting and bounces off own D are common enough. They don't usually result in goals. Even on the 2nd goal in first game if Skinner isn't a 5 hole slut that goal doesn't go in despite Nurse hitting stick.

 

[backhandsauce]

Drai hatty tonight. He's mad.

 

[GMofOilers]

Go get 6 goals and don’t look back that could be the game plan

 

[Oilers in NS]

Any chance we get an update on Drai before the game?

Im going crazy waiting. This 4 hr time difference is killing me. Feels like we are awaiting or school report cards to see if we passed or failed

 

[TheNumber4]

Im going crazy waiting. This 4 hr time difference is killing me. Feels like we are awaiting or school report cards to see if we passed or failed

Well at least it wasn’t 7 days like last time lol. But with the need for revenge and the status of Drai up in their air, this wait will suck today.

 

[TheNumber4]

I really wonder how much change we will see from the Oilers. As much as last game sucked, we played the exact game we wanted to play for the first 40 minutes. The game took a turn after Nurse booted the puck in on Skinner at the end of the 2nd period, gave Nucks hope going into the intermission. They come back to score another then Stu isn’t good enough for the final 2 goals. Without the shitty individual mistakes performances by the blame trifecta of Nurse-Ceci-Skinner we played a game good enough to win that game.

 

[North Cole]

I expect the team will actually show up tonight, I also expect we get a few more powerplays as the league will be looking to manage to a 1-1 split.

I think Skinner will be better but still shaky at times and I'm not worried until Vancouver actually wins the 4th game. We will find a way to win this series

Despite not having many shots I think that 3rd period was fine. Outside of a hero tip Vancouver didn't do much, we just had two soft goals against.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Just an abysmal hockey player. Vegas would’ve cut bait with him by now.

He’s not abysmal. He’s inconsistent. For 9.25 you shouldn’t be inconsistent. That’s the problem. If he’s 5.5 it’s ok. His performance is not relative to salary. It is what it is. Oilers chose to overpay.

 

[TheNumber4]

I expect the team will actually show up tonight, I also expect we get a few more powerplays as the league will be looking to manage to a 1-1 split.

I think Skinner will be better but still shaky at times and I'm not worried until Vancouver actually wins the 4th game. We will find a way to win this series

Despite not having many shots I think that 3rd period was fine. Outside of a hero tip Vancouver didn't do much, we just had two soft goals against.

That 3rd period looked to me a lot like what we did to LA in terms of focusing on defence and defending the lead. It’s looks shitty cause we weren’t pushing but I really wonder if we were just in defend lead mode like we did against the Kings.