Pre-Game Talk: Late Game and Management Still Sucks

[GhostfaceWu]

As I said earlier I think part of the reason was they wanted him to wave his NMC. So it's pretty likely this will end as long as he keeps up the good play.

But I will ask you... in the words of coach Knoblauch: "who is he elevating!?" I guess the stat kind of captures that. But I want names.

Why don't you go ahead and list the names of players Janmark, henrique, brown, arvidsson, hyman, and nuge have elevated.

 

[Spawn]

As I said earlier I think part of the reason was they wanted him to wave his NMC. So it's pretty likely this will end as long as he keeps up the good play.

But I will ask you... in the words of coach Knoblauch: "who is he elevating!?" I guess the stat kind of captures that. But I want names.

Seems like that question is only asked about Skinner.

What about Janmark? What about Brown? What about Kapanen?

Since January 1st:

Jeff Skinner: 17GP 5G 4A +5

Mattias Janmark: 24GP 1G 2A -6
Connor Brown: 25GP 1G 3A -4
Kasperi Kapanen: 20 GP 1G 4A -3

He’s literally out produced the 3 of them combined in fewer games than all of them.

How the team has performed with them on the ice since Jan 1:

Jeff Skinner on ice: 3.08GF/60, 1.37 GA/60... 3.15xGF/60, 2.67 xGA/60

Mattias Janmark: 1.12GF/60, 2.9GA/60... 2.28 xGF/60, 2.57 xGA/60
Connor Brown: 1.25GF/60, 2.5GA/60... 2.45 xGF/60, 2.5xGA/60
Kasperi Kapanen: 2.98GF/60... 3.86GA/60... 2.8 xGF/60, 2.15xGA/60

So since Jan 1st when Skinner is on the ice compared to any of those three they score more and get scored on less. Even if you want to look at expected results instead of actual results Skinner still has wildly better expected results than Janmark and Brown.

And maybe you could argue that Brown and Janmark PK and Skinner doesn't. Well our PK sucks. Since Jan 1st its 24th in the league and Janmark and Brown have been our worst forwards on the PK.

Considering how much difficulty this team has in getting secondary scoring. There's zero justification to not have Skinner in the top 9 every. single. game.

 

[WhiskeyEE]

Why don't you go ahead and list the names of players Janmark, henrique, brown, arvidsson, hyman, and nuge have elevated.

I was just kidding around.

On the topic of tonight's game, I didn't realize Ceci is in the Star's top 4. Is it just Heiskanen who's injured?

 

[CrazyJoeDavola]

Does Max Jones get another game?

 

[LTIR]

I don't mind Pods as a third wheel, but please, give Draisaitl someone that can score or at least make plays on the other wing. If J.Skinner isn't an option, maybe move RNH or Hyman down from McDavid's line. It's not like the first line is lighting the league on fire. Hell, I'd even take Henrique or Perry in that spot over f***ing snowpants. I think even Max Jones would be better.

To be fair, Arvidsson is the only Oiler who is willing to shoot before looking for 3 passing options.

 

[LTIR]

Does Max Jones get another game?

Max Jones will continue to get games if he plays like how he did in last one.
Jones-Perry duo was the brightest spot

 

[LTIR]

Hopefully Walman gets the opportunity to play at least 2nd pairing soon. Would be a shame to under utilize a top pairing D'man. Knob is famous for it tho.

Pairings don't matter. Walman will get his 18+ mins tonight.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I was just kidding around.

On the topic of tonight's game, I didn't realize Ceci is in the Star's top 4. Is it just Heiskanen who's injured?

Lundqvist out as well. Not gonna be back at all. Out for season. I thought Hakanpaa was out too for stars but he's a Leaf now and injured with them instead now...

 

[MessierThanThou]

Look, I know Knob's calm and nice, and coached us to Game 7, and the season is almost over...but if this team keeps playing like shit, he needs to go. A win in regulation seems impossible now. All of these once productive players have totally dried up, and he's making objectively stupid decisions with blending lines, scratching performers, and rewarding non-performers.

The way I see it, either he's totally lost this team, or they are in fact listening to him and he's just an idiot. I refuse to believe that all of these players just suddenly washed up at the exact same time.

 

[bellagiobob]

 

[OfCorsiDid]

Davo just said he's excited 4 times in a row. If he's that excited, I'm excited.

 

[McHelpus]

I thought this was AI altered lol.

 

[guymez]

Does Max Jones get another game?

Is this really in doubt?

Jones was one of the best Oiler players on the ice on Thursday.
I would be shocked if he doesnt play tonight.

 

[McJadeddog]

nope

Make this lineup make sense! It's beyond infuriating how Knobs is treating his 4th highest scoring winger, 10th higher scoring player, 3rd highest goals/60 player, and 4th highest points/60 player. Drai has no wingers that can score, yet he continues to sit Skinner, who is, by far, the best scoring winger available for Drai. Skinner also has the 12th best xGF% on the team since Jan 1, ahead of Arvidsson, Henrique, and Janmark, who all continue to be inserted in the lineup over him, while not pissing a single drop of offence.

I have generally defended Knobs, and think he's a good coach, but this makes ZERO sense.

 

[Spawn]

Make this lineup make sense! It's beyond infuriating how Knobs is treating his 4th highest scoring winger, 10th higher scoring player, 3rd highest goals/60 player, and 4th highest points/60 player. Drai has no wingers that can score, yet he continues to sit Skinner, who is, by far, the best scoring winger available for Drai. Skinner also has the 12th best xGF% on the team since Jan 1, ahead of Arvidsson, Henrique, and Janmark, who all continue to be inserted in the lineup over him, while not pissing a single drop of offence.

I have generally defended Knobs, and think he's a good coach, but this makes ZERO sense.

Yep. It’s very clear he just doesn’t like the player for whatever reason. Earlier in the year the healthy scratch made some sense because he was leaking goals against. That just hasn’t been the case the last 2+ months

There’s no excuses for him to not be a mainstay in the top 9.

 

[Bring Back Bucky]

Make this lineup make sense! It's beyond infuriating how Knobs is treating his 4th highest scoring winger, 10th higher scoring player, 3rd highest goals/60 player, and 4th highest points/60 player. Drai has no wingers that can score, yet he continues to sit Skinner, who is, by far, the best scoring winger available for Drai. Skinner also has the 12th best xGF% on the team since Jan 1, ahead of Arvidsson, Henrique, and Janmark, who all continue to be inserted in the lineup over him, while not pissing a single drop of offence.

I have generally defended Knobs, and think he's a good coach, but this makes ZERO sense.

Man wasn’t he around on July 1 when they signed Skinner. Couldn’t he have said hey boys you can sign him but I ain’t playing him no matter what.

 

[McJadeddog]

Yep. It’s very clear he just doesn’t like the player for whatever reason. Earlier in the year the healthy scratch made some sense because he was leaking goals against. That just hasn’t been the case the last 2+ months

There’s no excuses for him to not be a mainstay in the top 9.

Its beyond crazy at this point. There isn't a stat you can find that would say that Skinner isn't the better option right now. You can't say its the eye test either, as he has looked very dangerous right now. I just don't get it at all. Knobs is being pretty f***ing stupid and stubborn on this one, and its hurting the team.

 

[MessierThanThou]

Can Knob just f*** off at this point? I'm starting to think he's a big reason why this team is worse.

Jeff Skinner would do more on the first Power Play than passenger princess Nuge, but obviously scoring goals is punishable by healthy scratch with this dolt of a coach.

 

[soothsayer]

Is this really in doubt?

Jones was one of the best Oiler players on the ice on Thursday.
I would be shocked if he doesnt play tonight.

He's also a tank at 6'3'' 216 lbs. He looked so good his first game that I wondered what the issue in his game has been. The only thing I would say is that he may lack the offensive ability to be a true top 6 forward, and he doesn't PK, so he's a bit of a Klim Kostin in that he hits and looks good, but doesn't score and can't help you on the penalty kill, so where do you put him? He might be a bottom 6 guy, but generally you wan't those guys to PK. Anyways, I'm looking forward to watching his next few games.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Its beyond crazy at this point. There isn't a stat you can find that would say that Skinner isn't the better option right now. You can't say its the eye test either, as he has looked very dangerous right now. I just don't get it at all. Knobs is being pretty f***ing stupid and stubborn on this one, and its hurting the team.

I’m shocked he didn’t waive his NMC to leave
It’s clear Knob has no intention of using him

 

[soothsayer]

Knoblauch needs to stop acting like a little bitch with the way he's handling Skinner. It's getting ridiculous.

 

[Spawn]

I’m shocked he didn’t waive his NMC to leave
It’s clear Knob has no intention of using him

Bowman said yesterday players not waiving their NMC wasn't an issue for him. Skinner probably happily would have waived his NMC to go to Carolina as part of deal that would have been for Rantanen. We had the opportunity for ample cap space to use yesterday though. There was no point in dumping a player for the sake of it.

 

[tardigrade81]

Might down some IPA for this game and a Mr Sub

 

[FlameChampion]

Seems like that question is only asked about Skinner.

What about Janmark? What about Brown? What about Kapanen?

Since January 1st:

Jeff Skinner: 17GP 5G 4A +5

Mattias Janmark: 24GP 1G 2A -6
Connor Brown: 25GP 1G 3A -4
Kasperi Kapanen: 20 GP 1G 4A -3

He’s literally out produced the 3 of them combined in fewer games than all of them.

How the team has performed with them on the ice since Jan 1:

Jeff Skinner on ice: 3.08GF/60, 1.37 GA/60... 3.15xGF/60, 2.67 xGA/60

Mattias Janmark: 1.12GF/60, 2.9GA/60... 2.28 xGF/60, 2.57 xGA/60
Connor Brown: 1.25GF/60, 2.5GA/60... 2.45 xGF/60, 2.5xGA/60
Kasperi Kapanen: 2.98GF/60... 3.86GA/60... 2.8 xGF/60, 2.15xGA/60

So since Jan 1st when Skinner is on the ice compared to any of those three they score more and get scored on less. Even if you want to look at expected results instead of actual results Skinner still has wildly better expected results than Janmark and Brown.

And maybe you could argue that Brown and Janmark PK and Skinner doesn't. Well our PK sucks. Since Jan 1st its 24th in the league and Janmark and Brown have been our worst forwards on the PK.

Considering how much difficulty this team has in getting secondary scoring. There's zero justification to not have Skinner in the top 9 every. single. game.

I used to be a Janmark fan but hes just been bad for awhile now (he had a decent start to the year). Brown is such a nothing player.

I don’t know why either is in the lineup over Skinner especially when this team is struggling to score. I don’t want to hear because they fill a role on the PK because the PK has been terrible.

For a guy who had his finger on the pulse a lot last year, just stubborn and dumb decisions by Knoblauch all year.

 

[Tarus]

Make this lineup make sense! It's beyond infuriating how Knobs is treating his 4th highest scoring winger, 10th higher scoring player, 3rd highest goals/60 player, and 4th highest points/60 player. Drai has no wingers that can score, yet he continues to sit Skinner, who is, by far, the best scoring winger available for Drai. Skinner also has the 12th best xGF% on the team since Jan 1, ahead of Arvidsson, Henrique, and Janmark, who all continue to be inserted in the lineup over him, while not pissing a single drop of offence.

I have generally defended Knobs, and think he's a good coach, but this makes ZERO sense.

Skinner was still getting into the lineup even when he was playing poorly defensively, and was even getting more looks into the top six just recently as his two way effort improved. Both Ekholm and Klingberg are supposedly out due to an illness that's been plaguing the team, it's possible Skinner is one of the affected and we just haven't heard much about it.