Matthew Tkachuk from Elbo Room via Spittin Chiclets

[Volica]

People who shit on hockey about teams creating a culture need to think long and hard about this.

 

[MikeFolignosHelmet]

Conner should take his talents to South Beach and go for the 4-peat.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

Winning the cup requires a full team top to bottom with full buy in. Not two superstars with a bunch of cast offs. There's a reason why teams don't want Podkolzin, Kapanen, etc.

 

[TheBeard]

He's right. When they were down everyone on Edmonton's goal it seemed was to force feed Connor or Leon. It was easy to neutralize them knowing every time they were in the offensive zone the goal was either Bouchard from the point or the other two. Whenever anyone else was on the ice it felt like it was just to give McDrai a rest.

Florida seemingly had a different line, a different guy want to take control every game.

 

[landy]

Nah. Lol

I see taking contracts to stay with your team as putting team needs before personal needs.

Here’s another contract related choice that translates to on ice.

I’m sure Marchand could have gone to a different team. He waived his NMC. He could have chosen a team that would play a Captain like him higher in the lineup and given more ice time that could lead him to more points and raise his value for his next contract.

Instead he chose a team that told him he’d be a 3rd line guy. I don’t like the rat side of him. Never have. But that choice and the way he played in the lesser team role made me like him a lot more.

Tkachuk, to me, comes off as a douche on and off the ice.

Now he’s a 2 cup winner douche. Hahaha. Good for him

Draisaitl taking $14M and McDavid taking $15M+ or Tkachuk taking $9.5M after a 104 point season....

This doesnt get better when you spin it your way either.

 

[geebster]

People might misconstrue things to be about McDavid or Draisaitl being a problem. They arent. This just isnt an era where pure superstar power is what wins. You wont find any era more than 20 years ago where two guys that clearly better than everyone else wouldnt have won, but nowadays it takes a very deep team to do it.

If you have generational superstars they have to be the ones to get you over the top, not the ones to get you level with the opposition. If with them your lineup barely breaks even then the deeper team is going to win because they win 3 out of 4 line matches (minimum) and can focus on shutting down a couple guys. The assignment is so much easier.

The problem that Tkachuk is pointing to is the culture around the team and the locker room. It is one of those two guys will get it done, and everyone else is just out there doing nonsense or overly deferring to those 2 and not doing anything themselves. How many giveaways leaving the zone were forced passes to Drai or McD? Florida knew they would only try to play through two guys so those two guys werent open...

You take that Oilers team and drop them into the 90s and they wouldve won, I am convinced of that. They wouldve gotten beaten up but the average player was so bad that McDavid and Draisaitl wouldve walked them all night. But today the average guy isnt like that, you need a TEAM.

With Bouchards contract and all the NTCs and NMCs... No idea how they even fix this. Especially in time for McDavids extension.

 

[Bounces R Way]

The Oilers really bought in on the whole McJesus thing. Like all the way in to an almost cartoonish degree, even more than fans do. And hell it almost worked for them twice so maybe that was the move.

They hired his agent to be President of Hockey Ops.
They hired his coach from junior.
They made him team captain as a teenager.
They bring in guys that he played with in junior.
They ask him about roster construction and who he wants in the locker room and who's ok to trade.
They play him and Draisaitl 80%+ of every PP they get and they play most PKs.
They play him and Draisaitl together over and over again despite years of evidence they don't have the depth to have that be sustainable.
They play him and Draisaitl 22+ minutes a night whether they feel like playing defense that day or not.

They gave him the keys to the franchise and basically said this is yours now. He's a great talent, the best I've watched come in to this league but at the end of the day he is just a player on what is supposed to be a team of them. When you have that kind of interior power dynamic in a locker room of course the entire team just looks to him and the other guy to be their everything. If McDavid misses his backcheck in a Sunday afternoon game in February and the Oil lose oh well he's out there next shift. If Jeff Skinner or some young guy trying to break into the league does it they're benched and scratched for a week. Talent is just one part of the puzzle, if you're going to be captain and have the 100 million dollar contract and all the other stuff you need to set the example every single day on the ice and off. Lot of pressure to place on a teenager.

Sidney Crosby lived with Mario Lemieux when he was coming into the league and the Penguins surrounded him with a ton of quality vets who had won before. He's not a 3x SC champ by some accident or entirely due to the depth of his quality of character, he was forged to be that way by a proactive management team that took the long view. The Oilers on the other hand got McDavid a washed up Milan Lucic to show him the ropes and then a string of once great players on the 18th hole of their careers. They've taken reactionary shortcuts due to their own lack of foresight and commitment to an actual plan. They have two of the most prolific playoff scorers in NHL history and still couldn't get past the Florida Panthers. It's because they haven't laid the foundation for a Stanley Cup winning team well enough.

 

[VivaLasVegas]

IMHO, there is at least a grain of truth in this. The Oilers' team is basically built to "feed McDrai". If the downline bums score occasionally, that's fine, but their primary job is again to "feed McDrai". There doesn't seem to be much if any attempt to make the downline bums into a force of their own, but rather they seem to exist for little more purpose than to simply survive while McDrai get their breathers and to "feed McDrai" if they happen to find themselves on the ice with one or both of them. With a system (and I use that term loosely) like that, it seems rather odd to then blame the downline bums for not picking up the scoring slack when McDrai goes cold or gets bottled up by a good defense.

Then you look at the Oilers' defense and you see two of the most highly paid players in the NHL not bothering to develop true 200' games after all their years in the League, but instead frequently cheating for the breakout. So much for the concept of true team defense, but go ahead and blame the downline bums for not keeping the puck out of goal.

The entire Oilers' culture is fantastic for McDrai, but basically sucks for everybody else on the team. Good luck turning that into a championship-winning culture .... and they haven't even with the alleged "two best players on the planet".

 

[StevenF1919]

I could understand it being McDavids team, but I can see a big disconnect when people act as if Draisaitl is an important figure. Draisaitl thrives under McDavids shadow which is what I think the problem truly is.

Hard to imagine Leon being much of a locker room leader either. When the going gets tough, Leon sulks, takes dumb penalties, and acts like a whiny pissbaby. Can't win if your supposed leaders act like that instead of elevating their game.

 

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

It sounds like he's commenting on the over reliance on McDrai. He's right too.

As soon as they were down, the Oilers immediately put 29 and 97 together rather than give them their own lines.

 

[voxel]

The Oilers just are a poorly constructed team. They win from PP opportunities and having 2 top 5 players in the league. when they face a team who not only isn't intimidated, but wants to get after McDavid and Drai, you see that the rest of their team just isn't well equipped to win.

Oiler's best players outside of their big 2 were a billion year old Corey Perry, and Podkolzin, who was a bust of a pick before his hustle came through a bit during the series.

That's a major issue

Oilers PP wasn't that good in the playoffs. They won because of depth scoring but during the finals the Panthers had vastly better depth. How can you compete with a Marchand-Lundell-Lusto 3rd line?

From the comments in this thread... did anybody even watch the Oilers in the first 3 rounds?

 

[voxel]

It sounds like he's commenting on the over reliance on McDrai. He's right too.

As soon as they were down, the Oilers immediately put 29 and 97 together rather than give them their own lines.

Yeah it was bad in the finals and I argue not ideal because you need to win with depth scoring and that dried up in the finals. Hyman and another top-6 forward would go a long way.

 

[Stringer Bell]

I still think that quote makes the Leafs look worse than the Oilers haha.

 

[HugginThePost]

The Culture in the Edmonton Oilers organization is broken and people like Kane don't help.

Wait until they sign Hart in the off season!!

 

[v00d00daddy]

Draisaitl taking $14M and McDavid taking $15M+ or Tkachuk taking $9.5M after a 104 point season....

This doesnt get better when you spin it your way either.

Who’s defending McDrai?

Tkachuk is telling them and all nhl players to take as much as they can get. And I get it. To each their own.

I just don’t see that as a very teammate friendly thing to do and definitely not a humility trait.

 

[v00d00daddy]

People might misconstrue things to be about McDavid or Draisaitl being a problem. They arent. This just isnt an era where pure superstar power is what wins. You wont find any era more than 20 years ago where two guys that clearly better than everyone else wouldnt have won, but nowadays it takes a very deep team to do it.

If you have generational superstars they have to be the ones to get you over the top, not the ones to get you level with the opposition. If with them your lineup barely breaks even then the deeper team is going to win because they win 3 out of 4 line matches (minimum) and can focus on shutting down a couple guys. The assignment is so much easier.

The problem that Tkachuk is pointing to is the culture around the team and the locker room. It is one of those two guys will get it done, and everyone else is just out there doing nonsense or overly deferring to those 2 and not doing anything themselves. How many giveaways leaving the zone were forced passes to Drai or McD? Florida knew they would only try to play through two guys so those two guys werent open...

You take that Oilers team and drop them into the 90s and they wouldve won, I am convinced of that. They wouldve gotten beaten up but the average player was so bad that McDavid and Draisaitl wouldve walked them all night. But today the average guy isnt like that, you need a TEAM.

With Bouchards contract and all the NTCs and NMCs... No idea how they even fix this. Especially in time for McDavids extension.

I kind of agree with this in that it’s not just superstar power that will get a team to the top. That’s what can put you higher.

Where I disagree is that a lot of this is definitely on the guys like McDavid, Drai, Bouchard, Kane, Nurse.

What the oiler stars screwed up on wasn’t the failure to score. Sure that’s big and makes the lack of depth look so bad.

But all McDrai had to do was play more like captain Barkov plays. Play like Kuch played when TB was successful. Play leading by example. Put the scoring on the back burner for shifts and go out there and bust your ass to make your opponent look over their shoulders. Be responsible in your own end. Show your 3rd and 4th line guys “if I can do this…you better do this too”

But McDrai just aren’t like that…yet I hope. They won’t buy in to team play the way the successful teams stars have done in the past.

Hyman is the single oiler that plays the way I’m describing. Thats why he was missed. Not just because he can pot a goal from the slot.

 

[TheBeard]

I kind of agree with this in that it’s not just superstar power that will get a team to the top. That’s what can put you higher.

Where I disagree is that a lot of this is definitely on the guys like McDavid, Drai, Bouchard, Kane, Nurse.

What the oiler stars screwed up on wasn’t the failure to score. Sure that’s big and makes the lack of depth look so bad.

But all McDrai had to do was play more like captain Barkov plays. Play like Kuch played when TB was successful. Play leading by example. Put the scoring on the back burner for shifts and go out there and bust your ass to make your opponent look over their shoulders. Be responsible in your own end. Show your 3rd and 4th line guys “if I can do this…you better do this too”

But McDrai just aren’t like that…yet I hope. They won’t buy in to team play the way the successful teams stars have done in the past.

Hyman is the single oiler that plays the way I’m describing. Thats why he was missed. Not just because he can pot a goal from the slot.

I mean if you look at scoring in the cup finals you can find the biggest passengers
RNH - 1 g, 1 a
Kane 1 g
Henrique 1 a
Connor Brown 1 a

McDrai had no choice but to focus solely on offense because no one else was doing anything. It's not like playing Selke hockey was going to compensate for just how bad Nurse/Ekholm/Bouchard and the goalies were playing in their own zone. They may have not elevated their games, but the reason they lost is because everyone else on the squad regressed at the same time.

 

[landy]

Who’s defending McDrai?

Tkachuk is telling them and all nhl players to take as much as they can get. And I get it. To each their own.

I just don’t see that as a very teammate friendly thing to do and definitely not a humility trait.

Im not talking about that quote. It would help if you posted the source.

This is like someone saying an orange is an orange and youre bringing up their opinions on bananas. Very deflective.

 

[Johnny Concussion]

Wait until they sign Hart in the off season!!

They're gonna sign all them. They'll fit right in with Perry, Kane and Stan Bowman.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

The Culture in the Edmonton Oilers organization is broken and people like Kane don't help.

back to back Cup finals and there's a "culture problem"? lol

I guess there's only 1 team in the NHL with "good culture"

 

[geebster]

I kind of agree with this in that it’s not just superstar power that will get a team to the top. That’s what can put you higher.

Where I disagree is that a lot of this is definitely on the guys like McDavid, Drai, Bouchard, Kane, Nurse.

What the oiler stars screwed up on wasn’t the failure to score. Sure that’s big and makes the lack of depth look so bad.

But all McDrai had to do was play more like captain Barkov plays. Play like Kuch played when TB was successful. Play leading by example. Put the scoring on the back burner for shifts and go out there and bust your ass to make your opponent look over their shoulders. Be responsible in your own end. Show your 3rd and 4th line guys “if I can do this…you better do this too”

But McDrai just aren’t like that…yet I hope. They won’t buy in to team play the way the successful teams stars have done in the past.

Hyman is the single oiler that plays the way I’m describing. Thats why he was missed. Not just because he can pot a goal from the slot.

I agree that playing playoff style hockey, like old school shut them down and make clutch plays out of the corners etc, is something that McDrai just dont do... and it WOULD be a positive for them if they did play more like Barkov (so I largely agree), but we have seen other stars that dont play that style and succeed in the playoffs too.

Ultimately I think even if you replace McDavid and Draisaitl with slightly better Barkovs... they lose the series. The rest of the team would still lose their matchups. They would be a better team with 2 Barkovs but they wouldnt be good enough to have beaten that Florida team. The real key is that 2 Barkovs would give you the cap space to get a real goalie...to get guys who care more about playing their role and helping their team than about other nonsense.

That all said, I do agree with you and I would honestly have massive respect (moreso than I do) for McDavid if we saw him take his matchup and grind that out and get in lanes and backcheck hard and be relentless on the puck everywhere... that wouldnt be enough given how other guys played. Maybe you are right that if they see McD and Drai doing that the other guys match that energy and the cultural shift in the locker room puts them over the top. But I am not sold on that.

I am on the side of (and could be convinced otherwise) that they'd be better off with only one of McDrai. That would take some good GMing though and I am unsure they have that.

 

[sbhnur]

Easy to say when you are part of such a stacked team.
Tkachuk on the Oilers - nobody would talk about this guy. He's still offended by McDrai bc they owned him nearly every time when he was playing for the Flames.

 

[Tasty Biscuits]

The issue with the Oilers is how quickly they jump to putting McDavid and Draisaitl on the same line. They did it in the 1st period yesterday after falling behind by 1 goal! I know they accomplished some amazing comebacks doing that, but, really, down 0-1 in the first?

As soon as they were down, the Oilers immediately put 29 and 97 together rather than give them their own lines.

It actually happened WHILE they were going down 0-1 this game. They started on separate lines and then the first time they were put together Reinhart scored that goal and then they stayed together for some reason. Made it much easier for the Cats to shut them down just concentrating on one line.

I'll beat this drum 'til the cows come home, Edmonton should have committed years ago to just running Mcd, Drai, and RNH down the middle. That's insane depth. But the team can't operate like that at this point, they've committed too hard in the other direction.

 

[Sol]

Hard to imagine Leon being much of a locker room leader either. When the going gets tough, Leon sulks, takes dumb penalties, and acts like a whiny pissbaby. Can't win if your supposed leaders act like that instead of elevating their game.

I don’t understand why a lot of oilers fans seem to be entranced by Draisaitl when so much of his production comes from McDavid doing so much of the heavy lifting. Draisaitl didn’t have a single shot yesterday. A lot of the fans even said that Draisaitl was better McDavid this year which is just insanity to me

 

[Mattb124]

Who’s defending McDrai?

Tkachuk is telling them and all nhl players to take as much as they can get. And I get it. To each their own.

I just don’t see that as a very teammate friendly thing to do and definitely not a humility trait.

Unless you are referencing some other quote by Tkachuk, there is nothing in the quote in the OP which suggests that. Nothing. It would make more sense in the context of the Panthers winning with depth that he would suggest the opposite. But he didn’t do that either.