This what some people don’t get.
We cycled through a few different bottom 6 players and the results were always the same due to coaching.
That's not true. The previous two seasons the Oilers had a bottom six that filled roles. First cup run they had guys that contributed to an elite PK, and could at least keep up at even strength even if they weren't scoring. Second run they got really good production from the bottom six at even strength.
This year's bottom six was way,
way, worse. It was a collection of players that couldn't fill a defensive role, but also couldn't contribute offensively without a catalyst on their line.
This was opening night:
Line 3: Vasily Podkolzin – Noah Philp – Kasperi Kapanen
Line 4: Isaac Howard – Adam Henrique – David Tomasek
That is league's below, especially considering that Kapanen and Podkolzin both had to fill top six roles by the end of the year.
Here's game 41:
Line 3: Mattias Janmark – Jack Roslovic – Matthew Savoie
Line 4: Max Jones – Adam Henrique – Trent Frederic
That's a joke. Then you throw in guys like Mangiapane and Curtis Lazar. That's a massive step down from players like Connor Brown, Warren Foegele, Corey Perry, Evander Kane, Holloway to some degree even though he wasn't here for long, Ryan McLeod, Arvidsson was pretty solid in that role as well.
Not to mention that last year's forward group included a number of guys that actively dragged down their lines defensively (particularly Mangiapane and Frederic, but I think you can include Roslovic in this too). Evander Kane was probably the closest thing to that on the previous teams, and even he found a way to get decent results. Everyone else at least knew what they were doing in their own end.
