Post-Game Talk: McDavid took that personally

[Draiskull]

We may go with both Frederic and Kane, it being playoffs and us wanting more physicality. We didn't trade for Frederic to scratch him, and are we saying no to a healthy and motivated Kane?

Of course this assumes that either player is fully ready of course.

I'd think we go with Kapanen as 14th on the depth chart unless Philp keeps playing great.

IMO when Kane is ready to suit up Skinner will be scratched.

Podz-Drai-Arvi
Frederic-McD-Brown
Kane\Skinner-Nuge-Hyman
Janmark-Henrique-Perry
Kapanen
Jones

 

[Frank the Tank]

I can just imagine the Oilers locker room before the game. The tension that must have existed when the medical staff/management decide that RNH and Walman will sit for the benefit of their health, leaving a short-benched Oilers team even more depleted. Then McDavid decides to suit up to so that the team has a much better chance to grab an important two points and alleviate the pressure from the slight chance of Calgary going on a run over the last 5 games. McDavid then delivers a great performance against the Blues with 3 assists and now all of McDavid's ailing buddies have more stress-free time to recover before the playoffs.

That's leadership...

 

[Draiskull]

Did you see what the Leafs gave up for Carlo? What a waste of assets for a 3RD. This team's defense is great, especially when healthy, now.

a late 1st + prospect while we gave them a 2nd +3rd for 7 mins of Frederic
In playoffs you are as good as your worst dman. Carlo may be slotted as 3RD but could still have gotten 17-20mins \ night without any PP time here. He is also not a pending UFA.

Our defense may look good when Skinner isnt in net but banking on Stecher\Kulak\Emberson might be a bit too much for a contender. Carlo was just an example, we should have picked up another RD knowing how back Klinberg's outage could be.

 

[bobbythebrain]

IMO when Kane is ready to suit up Skinner will be scratched.

Podz-Drai-Arvi
Frederic-McD-Brown
Kane\Skinner-Nuge-Hyman
Janmark-Henrique-Perry
Kapanen
Jones

I doubt it. No way they scatch him come playoffs. That in itself will be a locker room focal point.

Also, he is the only winger this year who has shown chemistry with McDavid

 

[popo]

The first goal against could have sent Skinner to the press box for the rest of the season. I think he purposely took a misconduct to avoid facing the music back on the bench.
Although you want your top offensive guys to have license to be creative, that kind of turnover is something you coach out of kids at a young age... over handling the puck on the blueline in traffic - get it deep!

Broberg had a quiet effective game for the Blues. His most noticeable shift saw him handle a 1:1 situation against Hyman with ease, strip the puck and move it up the ice. NHL defensemen shoudln't get beat 1:1, but the play was impressive to see how effortlessly Broberg skated backwards and stripped the puck.

 

[Jarvi]

I think they are a pretty different team without oreilly

Maybe they are also due for some regression

I didn’t say they were bad. I just said they don’t have what I deem to be gamebreakers like Drai and McDavid.

Time will tell. And we shall see

Blues fan I take it?

No, not at all. Maybe a bit when they had Pronger back in the day, was a huge fan of him.

I just found it funny, because that was the narrative back when they won the Cup. Not that I think they will this year, though I can see them making some noise or maybe upsetting someone.

Also Thomas is having a pretty awesome year, and leading his team into the hunt in the final games here. I know we hate them because of HolloBerg, but I can still appreciate a good player when I see one.

 

[stewy04]

What makes you think Jones is capable of running anyone? Outside of his first game he hasnt really dished out any big hits that I can remember. He hasnt been a + player in any game as an Oiler.
What a waste of assets for us and a waste of a 1st round pick for ANA.

Podkolzin on the other hand has been a monster physically.

Podkolzin has been good!

 

[Frank the Tank]

I had to just laugh this morning. I have a coworker who is from Missouri and is a Blues fans, but definitely a casual one. Here in the US you find many fans who only follow his/her team (not the NHL as a whole) and typically it's only when the team is playing well. So after not saying a word all season this guy is pumped and talking hockey during the Blues 12-game winning streak, and yesterday he sought me out to talk a bit of trash before last night's game.

Anyways, I ran into him in the hallway this morning, and (I kid you not) he said that if only the Blues had Parayko and Holloway they would have beat the Oilers. The statement was so ignorant of the Oilers situation that I realized arguing back would be lost on the listener, so I just said we'll take the 2 points so you guys can now worry about Calgary instead of us.

 

[Draiskull]

Podkolzin has been good!

Podz and Brown are the only 2 forwards on the team that havent missed a game this season. No way either of them is getting scratched for J.Skinner or anyone else in playoffs.

 

[Draiskull]

I doubt it. No way they scatch him come playoffs. That in itself will be a locker room focal point.

Also, he is the only winger this year who has shown chemistry with McDavid

I dont think scratching your 10th(or 12th) best forward would be locker room focal point in playoffs.
especially if that player is a small defensively suspect winger and we are playing LA.

Chemistry with McD could be a factor if there is a such thing. Brown-McD looked like a thing last night. I dont know how many Skinner goals were assisted by McD .. Dont think there would be many.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

a late 1st + prospect while we gave them a 2nd +3rd for 7 mins of Frederic
In playoffs you are as good as your worst dman. Carlo may be slotted as 3RD but could still have gotten 17-20mins \ night without any PP time here. He is also not a pending UFA.

Our defense may look good when Skinner isnt in net but banking on Stecher\Kulak\Emberson might be a bit too much for a contender. Carlo was just an example, we should have picked up another RD knowing how back Klinberg's outage could be.

I think you're hung up on what you think the defense is vs. what the defense actually is. I can't fix that for you. But giving up what amounts to 2 firsts for a 3RD is dumb.

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

Fowler whining for a call mid game and 100 feet behind the play then brain farting on defence makes me laugh.

 

[tardigrade81]

McDavid and Draisaitl can win almost any game. Without them both, the Oilers are a lottery team.

This

But the worst is. When people say "if you didn't have the two best players in the world you wouldn't be there good "

No shit Sherlock lol. If the Bulls didn't have Michael Jordan they don't win the titles they do. If the colts didn't have Peyton Manning to Harrison and Wayne in 06 they don't win that super bowl. If the Patriots didn't have Brady they don't win the super bowls they do

McDavid and Drai are game changers. They absolutely can take any team and make them all stars. Thankfully we have both, because if we didn't it would be a lot more painful years

 

[FlameChampion]

3/4 goal;s were in close.

It's almost like its easier to score closer to the net.
Might be arvi's first goal where he didnt tickle the rafters while winding up too.

I actually think all 4 were within 10-15 feet of the net.

Partially why their shooting percentage is so low. The forwards generally aren’t in front of the net. Not screeing goals, tipping pucks or putting in rebounds. Nice to see it last night.

 

[McBigYak]

Edmonton scoring with 20 seconds left and Calgary proceeding to choke away any hope they had for a playoff spot in the last few minutes of the game against Anaheim was amazing.

I'm not going to lie, I was nervous as hell for this. Calgary being 4 behind with 4 left and the Oilers being so beaten up they literally cannot dress a full roster would have been painful to endure.

 

[FiveFourteenSixOne]

View attachment 1010491

Lucky I wasn't playing in net otherwise it would look like this

View attachment 1010558

Get a haircut, bro.

 

[bucks_oil]

I'm waiting for the Kane return. Apparently he is starting to look really good in practice.

I expect much joyous celebration.

This is what I'm waiting for too... I'm curious to see how they finagle the cap. It's pretty clear to me (I don't think this falls into conspiracy theory land) that they've held out Drai, McD, Ekholm, even Klingberg, in a rotating fashion, each for a long enough time (14 days) that any one of them CAN be LTIR'd for the last few games of the season.

I like that they've built in that optionality.

With McD coming back, it seems to indicate that Drai would be the logical LTIR candidate, but maybe Klingberg gives them enough? He makes $1.8 and we were using less than $2M of Kane's LTIR pool.

It's tough to know without intimate knowledge of the actual pool of saved cap dollars. It would come down to the day-by-day allocation of dollars and when exactly they expect Kane to return. My guess is they probably have room for Kane if he only plays the last 2-3 games of the season.

If my math and understanding of the cap is correct (and it may not be @Fourier). Assume Kane wants to play the final two games... It works out like this:

Kane = $5.1M / 82 x 2 games = $124,390 actual dollars required.
Klingberg LTIR = $1.8M / 82 x 2 games = $43,902 additional dollars available.

So we only have to have saved ~$80K for a two-game Kane return. We stopped accruing when we acquired Walman, but he's only costing us $37.8K per game and Kane's LTIR covered that and more... which means there should still be some actual non-LTIR dollars available.

 

[FlameChampion]

Big and exciting win.

Anyone else worried about Hyman. I don’t think anyone expected him to come close to repeating what he did. 27 goals this season which is still fairly solid but it just feels like he barely factors into most games.

 

[bucks_oil]

a late 1st + prospect while we gave them a 2nd +3rd for 7 mins of Frederic
In playoffs you are as good as your worst dman. Carlo may be slotted as 3RD but could still have gotten 17-20mins \ night without any PP time here. He is also not a pending UFA.

Our defense may look good when Skinner isnt in net but banking on Stecher\Kulak\Emberson might be a bit too much for a contender. Carlo was just an example, we should have picked up another RD knowing how back Klinberg's outage could be.

I'm a Carlo fan, but the calculus was not Frederic vs Carlo, it was Walman vs Carlo. We could not afford to bring in both Walman and Carlo, even with LTIR... we have Frederic retained to less than league minimum ($580K I think?) and Carlo makes $3.5M.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Fowler whining for a call mid game and 100 feet behind the play then brain farting on defence makes me laugh.

I mean, Jack and Louis, especially Louis, was just blowing smoke up his ass all night, I thought he was "fine", but on the game winner he just abandons the front of the net leaving Brown wide open to score the winner. Elite stuff.

 

[North]

Also the Blues lowkey hate us and it’s hilarious.

Not even the Kings get as agitated against us.

Why do they hate us though??

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

I doubt it. No way they scatch him come playoffs. That in itself will be a locker room focal point.

Also, he is the only winger this year who has shown chemistry with McDavid

I don’t understand how this is even a debate at this point. Skinner has been one of the better forwards for a while now and is always dangerous. Last night he easily could have had 2.

 

[bobbythebrain]

I dont think scratching your 10th(or 12th) best forward would be locker room focal point in playoffs.
especially if that player is a small defensively suspect winger and we are playing LA.

Chemistry with McD could be a factor if there is a such thing. Brown-McD looked like a thing last night. I dont know how many Skinner goals were assisted by McD .. Dont think there would be many.

You think Skinner has been the 10-12 best forward? Might want to check your math on that one.

The focal point will be him in his first playoffs. You can 1000% bet his teamates will be rallying for him.

Skinner isn't suspect defensively. That is a myth. He has been making good d plays for months now. Just like they said he doesn't forcheck well....except every game he stands out with some key forchecks.

He's also been one of our most consistent forwards

 

[tardigrade81]

Why do they hate us though??

Jealousy like any other opposing fan base. They hate that we have the two best players in the world.

 

[K1984]

That's the McDavid we know and love.