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

[Coffey]

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.

Hahaha like something out of peewee “ok guys, we’re gonna try to get Milan a goal today!”

 

[McTrashBoat]

Ken "THICC DADDY" Hitchcock

don't give me ideas

 

[Cloned]

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

It’s a good thing Hitch doesn’t give a crap about attractiveness.

 

[Soundwave]

Karlsson looks quite a bit slower to me. Still pretty dynamic but definitely not quite the same.

 

[Canada Drai]

HOT TAKE:

Where is Flash97 with his "fat POS" comment @? Eat crow, at least for one game, dude.

 

[JayE]

They were actually told to maintain cycles and wear down the other team instead of constantly forcing the puck back to the point in order to be shot into shinpads. That alone makes guys like Kassian and Lucic at least potentially effective players.

 

[rboomercat90]

Already feel like there’s a new energy with the team under Hitch. His post game was so good. Basically hit the nail on the head on everything, made a nice little implicit threat against the refs with the 5on5 talk talk, lol.

Soooooo good.

I missed it. Can you recap what he said?

 

[Ritchie Valens]

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

...you could also take Lucic's name out and sub it with Kassian's and it still means the same. Don't worry about the offense do what you do to be effective.

 

[Cloned]

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)

He’s basically the NHL equivalent of a miracle worker (until the players tire of his grinding style). Chia hopes so, anyway.

 

[KarmaPolice]

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

Amazing, thank you.

Hitch's ability to not just coach, but manage the team in all ways on an off the ice, already looks to be a VERY clear cut above Todd. That's my first real impression so far from him. He wasn't my first choice, but he may just be a good fit.

Hope he remembers that player's name next time, lol. Wonder who it was.

 

[Cloned]

I missed it. Can you recap what he said?

I think CycloneSweep did a recap a few pages back.

 

[CycloneSweep]

I missed it. Can you recap what he said?

I recapped it a bit earlier.

On the 5v5 he said if we are going to keep only playing 5on5 I'll just keep double shifting McDavid in the third no problem.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

...you could also take Lucic's name out and sub it with Kassian's and it still means the same. Don't worry about the offense do what you do to be effective.

Agreed, although Kassian has been much better since his trade request rumors surfaced.

 

[Cloned]

I recapped it a bit earlier.

On the 5v5 he said if we are going to keep only playing 5on5 I'll just keep double shifting McDavid in the third no problem.

They was my favourite part. It was him calling out the refs without actually calling out the refs. So crafty.

 

[CycloneSweep]

Amazing, thank you.

Hitch's ability to not just coach, but manage the team in all ways on an off the ice, already looks to be a VERY clear cut above Todd. That's my first real impression so far from him. He wasn't my first choice, but he may just be a good fit.

Hope he remembers that player's name next time, lol. Wonder who it was.

About halfway is the start of it. Great to listen to.

 

[FlameChampion]

I thought Draisaitl was great in this game. He just makes some plays that very few can. McDavid cashed in.

Didn’t care for second line too much. Key goal by RNH there. I will let spooner get some practice in before I analyze him too much and honestly its not on him, I just feel like theres a bigger hole in the lineup without Strome.

I actually liked the Lucic - Brodziak - Kassian line. I had actually been calling for this line. I think it plays to more of Lucics strengths. I actually thought Kassian was pretty good tonight. I dunno why McLellan never tried it.

Third line didn’t seem to play too much but i liked what i saw from Khaira.

I actually thought the defense wasn’t that great tonight. Lots of errors. I thought Russell was good though.

Koskinen let in some so so goals. I didn’t like his positioning on some. Thing i liked though is that he doesn’t seem to get rattled. He just plays.

I thought the Oilers were pretty good in the second and third. Seemed like Hitchcock made some adjustments. I liked what he did with Lucic. I also liked that he tried to get McDavid some favorable matchups.

The coaches don’t seem to have a lot of faith in Marody. I thought he was decent in the second. I just think theres a bit of a hole without Strome.

 

[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.

To add to this, he seems like a really good guy individually but also has the reputation of demanding excellence. I like that. It's a contrast from the typical Torts-types, who are super demanding but also just straight up jerks, and coaches who the players like but who don't seem to get the best out of them. I like the place Hitch seems to be. Only one game in, and I'm already in the process of changing my initial opinions of the hiring (I wasn't sure he was going to be a great fit).

 

[Stauf4Prez]

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 necessarily mind that. Once some of our cap is shredded in the next 2 years, I could see us landing a scoring winger for the second line. That looks like some pretty deadly top 6 duos, and under a competent coach that can get the most out of the team, can get it done night in and night out.

McD-Drai
RNH-Stone/Kreider/Zuccarello/etc.

 

[Heavy Dee]

Hitch is gonna be a cult hero in Edmonton Mark my words Check out twitter and the number of oil fans who are changing their avatars to Hitch pics

Edit... Iam on board!!

 

[CycloneSweep]

Hitch is gonna be a cult hero in Edmonton Mark my words Check out twitter and the number of oil fans who are changing their avatars to Hitch pics

Local guy back home to save the day

 

[Oilhawks]

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.

"We really got on the grind. There's a lot of weight and size in this group, a lot more than I can remember. We started to lean [on them] in the third period and it was very effective" - Hitchcock

I'll say. Lucic, Brodz, Kassian, Khaira, Nurse, Larson should all look a lot more engaged with Hitch. Could see Lucic salvaging his season and getting to 40 points.

 

[North]

I thought Draisaitl was great in this game. He just makes some plays that very few can. McDavid cashed in.

Didn’t care for second line too much. Key goal by RNH there. I will let spooner get some practice in before I analyze him too much and honestly its not on him, I just feel like theres a bigger hole in the lineup without Strome.

I actually liked the Lucic - Brodziak - Kassian line. I had actually been calling for this line. I think it plays to more of Lucics strengths. I actually thought Kassian was pretty good tonight. I dunno why McLellan never tried it.

Third line didn’t seem to play too much but i liked what i saw from Khaira.

I actually thought the defense wasn’t that great tonight. Lots of errors. I thought Russell was good though.

Koskinen let in some so so goals. I didn’t like his positioning on some. Thing i liked though is that he doesn’t seem to get rattled. He just plays.

I thought the Oilers were pretty good in the second and third. Seemed like Hitchcock made some adjustments. I liked what he did with Lucic. I also liked that he tried to get McDavid some favorable matchups.

The coaches don’t seem to have a lot of faith in Marody. I thought he was decent in the second. I just think theres a bit of a hole without Strome.

In regards to Marody, he had some moments but I don't think he's ready for the NHL yet. He should be back in the AHL for now.

 

[rboomercat90]

DISCLAIMER: I am not defending Chiarelli or giving him any credit with the Hitchcock hiring.

McLellan's level of ability to coach a team aside, Hitchcock coaches the way you'd expect a Boston 2011 facsimile to be. I never understood McLellan and Chiarelli being paired together. I think we're already seeing hints of this tonight with the new "third line" Looch-Brodz-Kassian.

I’m not trying to defend Chiarelli either but this is why I’ve been saying for a year that we need to see this team play for another coach before we give up on this roster. Mclellan was such a terrible coach who couldn’t figure out how to get the best out of these guys or even how to use them. We really don’t know what we have.

 

[JayE]

Karlsson looks quite a bit slower to me. Still pretty dynamic but definitely not quite the same.

He's looked pretty off whenever I've watched him this year. His skating in general, not just his straight-line speed, doesn't look the same after those injuries last year, and he isn't given nearly as much of a blank cheque to do whatever he wants under DeBoer.

 

[McIce Whole]

I have a hunch that Hitch will say "Drai is on pace for 100 points if I play him with Connor--yup o.k. that is done. Now let's see what I can do to put the second line in order."

Well when you factor in Chia's comments in his presser earlier in the day along with Stauffer's tweets of Puju being back up here by Dallas game, I can almost guarantee that Puju will be given a top 6 spot and will be someone Hitch works closely with to develop and make an impact.

Spooner - Nuge - Puju as our second line would not be bad at all and has potential to be a very good line if they click. Swap Spooner with Rieder to mix things up if needed.