Post-Game Talk: Is it a cruel irony that PDO was created by an Oilers fan?

[Drivesaitl]

We definitely agree that neither seem to be the answer.

One last point for quality of opponent, for what it's worth:
Pickard xGAA: 2.26 (#1 in the entire league for goalies GP>/=10!!)
Skinner xGAA: 2.62 (#12, same filter)

That, to me, says 2 things:
1. The Oilers are very, very good.
2. Pickard plays against significantly poorer competition.

Yeah neither is the answer. Neither is a guy I would land on. Just for giggles borrowed this from another thread. Pretty obvious what our main problem is.

https://forums.hfboards.com/attachments/goaliess-png.965830/

Thanks for the reasonable exchange. Regarding the Expected vs actual GA until recently Pickard had around .4GAA lower than Skinner so difference in expected is .36 and actual was right there too until recently. A stronger Dec gave Skinner the edge there.

 

[guymez]

This is the last aspect of our team game that needs to be addressed and rounded out. All teams still look at us with the thought of "if we just get one we might be able to lean on them and get back." Need to start taking steps to address the deficiencies in our game that are allowing that to happen.

I couldnt agree more.
Time to learn how to consistently lock games down.

 

[guymez]

Draisaitl and McDavid are bad culprits of not making the safe play especially when they’re playing together.

I feel like they’re both much better defensively when running their own lines, when playing together it seems like they just outscore their problems

100% agree.
Having them together does seem to make that issue worse.
They are so used to creating offence (their entire hockey lives) that it must be really difficult to suppress those impulses in high danger areas of the ice. The thing is that they create so much together they can almost always outscore their mistakes.
I have ranted about the teams inability to lock down games on here a few times. This team has been able to outscore thier mistakes for so long now that locking down a game hasnt been necessary.
In tight games it is necessary though.

I do think that to win a cup (especially when they are spending bottom basement pricing on goaltending) they absolutely need to learn to lock down games.
As @K1984 pointed out in a previous post...they didnt do that in clutch games last year. Its not a stretch to suggest that if they did lock those games down (and a few other games) they would have won the cup.
Locking down a game can overcome having an average goalie IMO...especially tight games like the SC finals.

Until this team consistenly shows that it can lock down games the coaching strategy against the Oilers will be to keep pushing....because the Oilers will do something stupid eventually.
They need to get rid of the expectation that something stupid (a high risk/low reward play) is inevitable.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

In what universe has he escaped criticism for that? It sure isn't this one. The major frustration with the goaltending is that when our skaters do make the occasional mistake the goalies almost never come up with a save for them. Meanwhile the Oilers lose games strictly due to heroic goaltending efforts like twice a month.

Now the Oilers have invested almost no cap money into their goaltending so of course part of that is you get what you pay for but it should be no surprise people are clamoring for an upgrade.

It's a completely unforced error that happens all too often in the offensive zone. It's one thing to have a missed check, it's another to just blindly give the puck away.

Also at some point we need more offense from players not named McDavid or Draisatl. Part of the reason we lose due to "heroic goaltending" is because of our forwards not scoring enough. It's been a season long issue.

 

[McDNicks17]

We definitely agree that neither seem to be the answer.

One last point for quality of opponent, for what it's worth:
Pickard xGAA: 2.26 (#1 in the entire league for goalies GP>/=10!!)
Skinner xGAA: 2.62 (#12, same filter)

That, to me, says 2 things:
1. The Oilers are very, very good.
2. Pickard plays against significantly poorer competition.

That really isn't that significant though.

We're talking about a difference of 0.9 high danger chances per 60, 0.54 medium chances per 60 and 0.17 low danger shots per 60 at 5v5.

The only place where there's a big gap is at 3v3 where Skinner has faced about 3 xGF/60 more.

 

[CROTT]

Call it bad luck or just bad finishing, but a lot of times this season the oilers have failed to raise a shot into an empty net when given a HDSC. They fire it right into the goalies pad, those were almost automatic last year.

 

[Oilhawks]

Interesting you say this.
A quick look at the scoring depth for teams leading each division compared to the Oilers.

Toronto...6 players with 10 or more goals.
Washington....8 players with 10 or more goals.
Winnipeg.....6 players with 10 or more goals.
Vegas.....8 players with 10 or more goals.


Edmonton....4 players with 10 or more goals.

Apparently the depth scoring is just fine.

It hasn't been, but doesn't excuse Skinner's inconsistent and far too often poor play.

 

[McHelpus]

Interesting you say this.
A quick look at the scoring depth for teams leading each division compared to the Oilers.

Toronto...6 players with 10 or more goals.
Washington....8 players with 10 or more goals.
Winnipeg.....6 players with 10 or more goals.
Vegas.....8 players with 10 or more goals.


Edmonton....4 players with 10 or more goals.

Apparently the depth scoring is just fine.

If it makes you feel any better we only had 10 last year. But now Hyman, Bouchard, nuge have fallen off.

 

[McDNicks17]

Interesting you say this.
A quick look at the scoring depth for teams leading each division compared to the Oilers.

Toronto...6 players with 10 or more goals.
Washington....8 players with 10 or more goals.
Winnipeg.....6 players with 10 or more goals.
Vegas.....8 players with 10 or more goals.


Edmonton....4 players with 10 or more goals.

Apparently the depth scoring is just fine.

I'd say part of that is the Oilers basically having only one PP unit.

10 goal scorers at 5v5:
Toronto - 4
Washington - 3
Winnipeg - 2
Vegas - 3

Edmonton - 3

The other teams have a bunch of guys with a handful of goals on the PP while the Oilers top four goal scorers at 5v5 are also 4/5th of their PP unit.