Post-Game Talk: LA drowning in Oil tonight

[GhostfaceWu]

All I know is it got traded off the team. His play was fine, and he was a good partner with Seider.

The trade happened to definitely send a message to the team

Yeah to go miss the playoffs for another year. Paying to trade players because you think they're having too much fun is beyond short sighted. Yzerman is one of my all time favorite players and he did some great stuff with Tampa but his tenure with Detroit has been very suspect.

 

[snipes]

The craziest stat of the night be just be Brett Kulak leading the team in TOI. Just such a different player come playoff time

He was fantastic all night once again.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Yeah. You wanna ask the ref why he didn't blow the whistle when losing sight of the puck, because if he did see the it how could he possibly not call the penalty shot?

There is no real accountability with the referees and never has been. The league protects them like they are the crown jewels and always say the officiating is the best in the world, no problem with officiating, happy with the officials, blah blah blah.

And Gary wonders why the entire planet hates him worse than Adolf Hitler.

 

[North]

sv% this series:

Pickard: .904
Kuemper: .899
Skinner: .810

Wow that high for Skinner?

 

[Pip]

All I know is it got traded off the team. His play was fine, and he was a good partner with Seider.

The trade happened to definitely send a message to the team

Was the message that they didn’t need good players and wanted to miss the playoffs again

 

[guymez]

Anyone that whines about the Oilers getting favourable officiating, or claiming that we're "divers" is just an emotional fool that needs an excuse to explain away why the team they despise is winning. There is no basis in reality for either allegation, but it's all idiots that have Oiler derangement syndrome have to explain why a team that they think actually sucks is winning all the time.

The officiating in this series has been laughably one sided all series.

Its the same BS year after year in the playoffs. I have posted about this a few times.

The refs manage the games instead of actually calling the fouls.

Its bush league primarily because it comprimises the intgrity of the game and makes the star players vulnerable.

This League clearly doesnt give a f*** about its star players.

 

[North]

He did it every goal he scored. When you're chasing playoffs and letting it slip away year after year, maybe you shouldn't be grittying across the ice on meaningless goals.
He was also scratched the last 6 gakes of the season.

If you've ever seen Moneyball and the infamous "That's what losing sounds like" scene, I'd say the Walman situation was basically that

The no fun league.

We want these guys to show personality and then when they do: “No not like that.”

 

[Forgot About Drai]

Its insane - after watching Skinner a .905 feels like a .925 LOL

 

[McBigYak]

Its insane - after watching Skinner a .905 feels like a .925 LOL

Oilers don't need excellent goaltending to win. That is why a .905 feels like Vezina level goaltending haha. They simply need average goaltending. Their cap structure is setup in a way where they literally cannot have a good goalie, unless they get one red hot on a cheap deal. Stolarz prime example.

But the team can without question outscore average goaltending. They just cannot outscore bad goaltending, which has just crippled them this year.

 

[Canovin]

Oilers don't need excellent goaltending to win. That is why a .905 feels like Vezina level goaltending haha. They simply need average goaltending. Their cap structure is setup in a way where they literally cannot have a good goalie, unless they get one red hot on a cheap deal. Stolarz prime example.

But the team can without question outscore average goaltending. They just cannot outscore bad goaltending, which has just crippled them this year.

Oilers could have gotten Gibson at 3.2M if Stan was willing to pay. That's 600k more than what Stuart is making.

 

[Arty Spooners Bsmnt]

Stu would still be wondering where the puck went but he would also know that it wouldn’t be his fault.

Yes, two things can be true at the same time. Have to protect your psych.

 

[94 Oil Drops]

After the harmonica show all whistles and wind instruments at Staples were confiscated. Can't have any more of that noise.

Whats next? Accordions?

Maybe they can call up Weird Al next time theres a Kings home game and he can play a musical number or 2 between periods. He is from the Los Angeles area after all!

 

[Canovin]

If the Oilers can keep this defense for the next couple of years. We really only need a #2C and a starting goalie.

Ekholm-Bouchard
Walman-Klingberg
Nurse-Kulak
Emberson/Stecher

 

[McBeastMode]

Oilers could have gotten Gibson at 3.2M if Stan was willing to pay. That's 600k more than what Stuart is making.

Oilers Made Huge Mistake Signing Campbell Over Kuemper...

Oilers Made Huge Mistake Signing Campbell Over Kuemper - The Hockey Writers Edmonton Oilers Latest News, Analysis & More

The Edmonton Oilers would be in a far better position had they chose to sign Darcy Kuemper instead of Jack Campbell.

thehockeywriters.com

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Masterclass
Oil played their best game of season at the most important time of their season. I've been pumping Klingberg who has brought smart hockey IQ, veteran poise and calm to this blueline in absence of Ekholm. On full display with his smart, bold move on the Kane goal to slide to left side blueline boards to keep the puck in the o-zone then the vision and foresight to make a no panic play to Kane who buries a big goal. Kane as well is bringing his disruptive, heavy power forward game with hands that can shoot and finish often in big moments.

Hyman is not finishing but 10 hits again delivering a hard ice playoff game. Swiss Army Janmark shows up when the ice shrinks, games get tighter. Forget about his regular season, the guy does so many important, small detail things in playoff hockey. Should have had a short-handed goal but just over skated slightly and too deep on a critical kill that caught the Kings. Didn't like the return of Stack Line but even with only 6 shots between McDavid, Draisaitl, and awesome Perry, they drove an overwhelming ice tilt from first puck drop. Pickard steady and less volatile goaltending is stabilizing this team's weakness. Would like to see more finish by this team but Kuemper was the difference in what could have been a blowout.

Oil dominating the neutral zone creating havoc and turnovers and strong backtrack including greater discipline in their home plate defending support of their goalie huge improvements to this series shifting. This is reflected now in NHLEdge zone times which are now reinforcing the return of the "Oilers Game" with dominating ozone 43% (vs Kings 41%); neutral zone 18.4% (18.3% Kings); and d-zone 38.6% (40.7%).

Notably the neutral zone 18.4% is the Oilers highest within the NHLEdge tracking era going back to 2021-22.

NHL EDGE Puck and Player Tracking Statistics - Comparisons

Compare National Hockey League players, goalies and teams with NHL EDGE Puck and Player Tracking statistics including skating speed, skating distance, shot speed, shot and save location, and zone time for National Hockey League players and teams.

edge.nhl.com

Another game Cap Tip to Jim Hillier who is losing the coaching matchup to Knoblauch.

 

[Canovin]

Oilers Made Huge Mistake Signing Campbell Over Kuemper...

Oilers Made Huge Mistake Signing Campbell Over Kuemper - The Hockey Writers Edmonton Oilers Latest News, Analysis & More

The Edmonton Oilers would be in a far better position had they chose to sign Darcy Kuemper instead of Jack Campbell.

thehockeywriters.com

Kuemper shit the bed in Washington is why he's in LA.

 

[oobga]

Kuemper shit the bed in Washington is why he's in LA.

His rebound control was total trash last night. Honestly the guy got insanely lucky all night. Chaos with Kuemper looking like he was made out of rubber with no clue where pucks were, but the pucks just kept perfectly bouncing to all the wrong places for us, until Janmark. Kings doing a full on collapse around the net helped as well, and one diving puck grab, hehe.

 

[CupofOil]

Lots of mixing.

Bouch+Nurse 8:58 - 55.47% xGF
Bouch+Walman 5:00 - 61.58% xGF
Bouch+Kulak 3:24 - 89.13% xGF

Nurse+Kulak 8:34 - 68.91% xGF
Nurse+Klingberg 3:01 - 56.63% xGF

Walman+Klingberg 13:07 - 93.45% xGF

Kulak+Emberson 6:52 - 80.94% xGF


So, by analytics, worst performing pair Bouch+Nurse again, but didn't matter Kings really looked out of gas.

Kulak elevating everyone he plays with. I guess you just need to play Bouch/Nurse out of necessity because we only have 1 Kulak. And Walman/Klingberg played amazing together and ended up our most common pair. Would be nice to have Stecher back, clearly not much trust with Emberson still.

Remember when people said that the Oilers were dumb for not trading Kulak to make room for Broberg? There's a world where they could have had both but I digress.

I swear, Kulak has to be one of the most underrated Oilers of the last 20 years, right up there with Mike Smith. Guy continues to excel when elevated and raises the level of every D partner, even made Nurse look the best he's looked in years, made Desharnais look like a competent NHLer, made Ceci look good when Broberg replaced Ceci on the Nurse pairing etc.
He had some wobbly moments the second half of the season like most Oilers did but when it comes to big games, he always rises to the moment. 2.75m for him is a big steal, one of Holland's best moves.

 

[guymez]

Remember when people said that the Oilers were dumb for not trading Kulak to make room for Broberg? There's a world where they could have had both but I digress.

I swear, Kulak has to be one of the most underrated Oilers of the last 20 years, right up there with Mike Smith. Guy continues to excel when elevated and raises the level of every D partner, even made Nurse look the best he's looked in years, made Desharnais look like a competent NHLer etc. He had some wobbly moments the second half of the season like most Oilers did but when it comes to big games, he always rises to the moment. 2.75m for him is a big steal, one of Holland's best moves.

Underrated for sure....and on HF (for the most part) under appreciated.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Garbage league.

 

[oobga]

Garbage league.

There is an outside chance we would get a fairly called series against Minny. Definitely not Vegas though.

Jets, St. Louis and maybe Dallas would probably be even. Colorado nah.

 

[bellagiobob]

 

[oobga]

Knob was the king of adjustments last playoffs, first coach in the McDrai era that could adjust in a series. A huge reason why we ended up walking all over the Stars.

Was hoping he'd get it back, and looks like he is

 

[Drivesaitl]

sv% this series:

Pickard: .904
Kuemper: .899
Skinner: .810

Much more dramatic stats in the series. (one of these is not remotely like the others)

Pickard 2.62GAA

Kuemper 3.44GAA

Skinner (dunce stats) 6.11GAA and laughing about it while in net.

Of course Skinner is worst in league in the stat by a wide margin:

NHL Stats

The official source for NHL Stats including skaters, goalies, teams stats and more.

www.nhl.com

Skinner also worst save % in playoffs. Worst in every metric.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I'm actually still upset about the non-call on Kane. Absolutely bury a guy from behind and he goes flying into the net? To not call that is just blatant match fixing and corruption. There is no way around it. It was f***ing EGREGIOUS.

Imagine if Kane had done that? F*ck sakes, he would have been suspended for the rest of the playoffs. Maybe the rest of his life. Also, Byfield or Kempe would have laid in the net acting like they were dead so the refs would call a major. Absolute p***yes that entire LA team. Edmonton gets f***ed for many reasons and then their players don't dive and sell calls so they end up getting f***ed again. Like don't the refs watch the game and not get tired of getting embarrassed by guys goading them into calls?

This league is so cooked.

f*** LA! f*** THE REFS! The boys will win anyways.

Its turned into wild west. Anything goes basically. But the Kane hit on Kempe was just the sort of message to tell the Kings to f*** off with the garbage on McD. The great deterrent is having a player like Kane on the ice, and so essential because the officiating won't do a f***ing thing and so taking it in your own hands will. A lot of Kings looked a bit tentative after Kane started stapling them into boards this series.

The other series are featuring a lot of this too, maybe not to same degree but lots of shit going on. Teams have to have their own undertaking enforcement. Run the crooks out of town at high noon.