Post-Game Talk: Oilers 4 Sharks 3 - Hitch a ride to McDavid

[KarmaPolice]

Your gf is not Dakota Johnson.

Okay, that's a good point. You win.

 

[McXLNC97]

Benning was a tire fire tonight once again

Some things never change.

 

[ujju2]

Honestly even if we could get 2 legit wingers for Nuge I'd be happy with our offense. Guys like Gallagher, Zucker, Dzingel, Kreider. Get rid of Lucic's contract somehow, as well as some other dead cap.

I'm just thankful our AHL squad looks like they are developing some forwards nicely down there in Hebig, Benson, Puljujarvi, Yamamoto(I still think he's going to be a player)

I'd be satisfied with just one legit top 6 winger. Guys like Chiasson, Rattie, Rieder, Spooner, etc can compete for the other wing spot.

 

[Cloned]

My guess is on Marody.

McDavid.

 

[Cloned]

Some things never change.

The more things change....

 

[CycloneSweep]

What did he say?

To paraphrase

- it's past my bedtime, didnt know if I would stay awake

- team got better as the game went on cause I told the players what I wanted after a mistake and they went and fixed it

- If we keep not get powerplays then I'll just double shift Connor the whole third and it won't tire him out

- Lucic isn't scoring, let's stop talking about it. If he plays like tonight he can be a very useful player for us and the goals will come

- Mentioned that there was a player that didn't see the ice much for the first bit cause he kept calling him the wrong name

- Thought Khaira and Rattie looked good with McDavid in those few shifts

- Told the media that they will have to guess his PP combos

- talked about how the guys on the bench are vocal and loud and he likes it

- Talked about how the whole bench gets excited when Drai and McDavis get a step on someone cause they know something is about to happen

- How he thinks he is going to have a strong goalie tandem this year. Sounds like he will just play whoever is hot. No real starter

 

[ujju2]

Marody?

Look at the post above yours...
Beat ya to it

 

[North]

Some things never change.

Hitchcock is good but even he can't perform miracles. Benning is a lost cause.

 

[oobga]

God, Hitch's comments about Lucic...that was really nice to hear. McLellan re-organised this entire team for months to let Lucic embarrass himself trying to get his 1 lucky goal. Hitch is telling Lucic to just stop worrying about scoring and try to do other things you know you can to be effective and let the scoring come in time.

Lucic looked the most in his element tonight as he has in 2 years.

 

[Skolman]

I'd be satisfied with just one legit top 6 winger. Guys like Chiasson, Rattie, Rieder, Spooner, etc can compete for the other wing spot.

I'll even take that. We don't need a lot in my opinion, just another legit scoring line that brings it almost every night.

Bouchard & Jones need time, I just hope it's not too much time. Bakersfield has given me some hope this year when it comes to development

 

[Soundwave]

Matt Benning needs to go. I dunno who else would be the solution there, but it can't be him. He very easily could have cost us the game. Klefbom was OK, but what the hell are you thinking on that redirection? I just don't understand what's going in the heads of our D some times.

 

[syz]

- team got better as the game went on cause I told the players what I wanted after a mistake and they went and fixed it

Novel.

 

[North]

God, Hitch's comments about Lucic...that was really nice to hear. McLellan re-organised this entire team for months to let Lucic embarrass himself trying to get his 1 lucky goal. Hitch is telling Lucic to just stop worrying about scoring and try to do other things you know you can to be effective and let the scoring come in time.

Lucic looked the most in his element tonight as he has in 2 years.

It's an interesting strategy to try to build his confidence back up.

 

[CycloneSweep]

God, Hitch's comments about Lucic...that was really nice to hear. McLellan re-organised this entire team for months to let Lucic embarrass himself trying to get his 1 lucky goal. Hitch is telling Lucic to just stop worrying about scoring and try to do other things you know you can to be effective.

Lucic looked the most in his element tonight as he has in 2 years.

I f***ing preached this last year.

When Lucic is in a scoring slump you tell him to stop trying to score, put him with big bodies and get him to focus on the things he can control to be a major factor in the game. Julien figured that out quick, Hitchcocks got it. Todd never figured it out.

 

[rboomercat90]

I know people bang the "he must center his own line!" thing, but Leon is on pace for 100+ points right now.

He simply has great chemistry with McDavid, I think we're just going to have to try to manage the whole one-line team thing.

I don’t see anything wrong with it either providing you have a coach smart enough to get good matchups and manage the rest of the lineup. We didn’t have that when we woke up this morning.

 

[CycloneSweep]

Novel.

Communication is important, who knew?

 

[Cloned]

God, Hitch's comments about Lucic...that was really nice to hear. McLellan re-organised this entire team for months to let Lucic embarrass himself trying to get his 1 lucky goal. Hitch is telling Lucic to just stop worrying about scoring and try to do other things you know you can to be effective and let the scoring come in time.

Lucic looked the most in his element tonight as he has in 2 years.

He looked like he has a whole weight lifted off his shoulders.

Hitch knows how to work with players. Initially, at least. You could argue players get tired of his coaching after a few years, but realistically that usually happens with most coaches.

 

[Soundwave]

I don’t see anything wrong with it either providing you have a coach smart enough to get good matchups and manage the rest of the lineup. We didn’t have that when we woke up this morning.

Well it's not a great thing, you obviously want a team that's more than 1 line deep offensively, but it's probably something we have to accept for a while and try to manage as best as possible. It's obviously not the ideal you would want.

Yelling at a guy to center his own line when there's no good wingers and he's on pace for 50 goals and 100 points playing with McDavid ... I mean at some point you just gotta go with what works.

 

[Ritchie Valens]

What he said about Looch is going to help him so much in the mental department. I think we are going to see a remotivated Lucic under Thiccc Daddy.

 

[Cloned]

Communication is important, who knew?

Koala would have just spent the entire intermission chewing gum.

 

[Canada Drai]

Great game (especially @ the Tank) I thought. Shaky start but they really settled in as the game wore on. Batman and Robin were beasts all game and our bottom six did a hell of a job grinding.

Really loved Hitch's post-game. I recommend people to give it a watch. It was funny but also informative.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

What he said about Looch is going to help him so much in the mental department. I think we are going to see a remotivated Lucic under Thiccc Daddy.

Lucic will probably enjoy having a coach that has his back.

 

[bucks_oil]

I'm on board for the Hitchcock experiment. Reasonable decision under the circumstances, and I'm a huge critic of the organization.

I’ll post more tomorrow, but I was surprised in looking at his career that the LEAST number of points increase during the first years of his tenure with a new team has been +10 points.

Five out of five times the team has increased in points by >= 10

Most relevant to us (we hope): In 2012, Hitch took over the struggling blues. They went from a game below .500 after 13games (5-6-2??? From memory) to 43 wins in the remaining 69 games (and something like 11 OTL). That’s a huge swing (even compared to their prior full season.

This guy rights ships and has never failed to make a significant impact with his new team.

(Obviously tonight was more about emotion/luck as he hasn’t taught them anything yet)

 

[Tobias Kahun]

Koala would have just spent the entire intermission chewing gum.

He was just being respectful, chewing gum and talking at the same time is unattractive.

 

[ujju2]

There's a few more general things I really liked from the Hitch interview:

1) How genuinely happy and excited he seems. He seems to really like the youth and energy on the team. Apparently it looks like so far the players are making an honest effort to buy in too.

2) How direct he seems, both to the players and then to the media. I feel like the team is better going to understand what the coach wants, and that's pretty important...

3) The overall positive, confident attitude he's portraying. That's gotta rub off on the players somewhat.