Post-Game Talk: Oilers dig a self-inflicted grave

[Drivesaitl]

Well said. Unfortunately we won’t find that goalie. Just seems to be what it is

Teach Skinner how to do the splits. WE be depending on you. f***ing lazy ass Skinner in a game 1 with the XXXXL jersey on. Few things are worse than seeing Skinner in early season games. Man, his alltime October GAA is legendary bad. His weight is too. Donut training is hard.

Unfortunately that's gonna be a long ass time. We're pretty much stuck with the boat anchor and his atrocious contract (thanks Holland!) Just amazes me that Nurse who's in his 10th NHL season still needs a defensive partner on his pairing to babysit his ass.

Maybe we could inject Nurse with something. Or make him sniff smelling salts. He just goes through the motions. He's exhibit A all the time and all the players know it. Not just that Nurse is eating up the money but he's bringing down the club. Kulak has been better than Nurse for how long now?

 

[CupofOil]

Right, obviously Nurse is... Nurse.

And yes, it is too early. But it's still a lot to ask of a player with less than half a full season of NHL experience to anchor a top 4 pairing on a team that's expected to go very far in the playoffs. Nurse was bad but Emberson wasn't any better.

He doesn't have to "anchor" it, he merely needs to just be a steadying presence and not produce his own chaos like Ceci did at times.

I knew this would happen and I called it. I knew the Oilers would start slow, I knew that the new guys like Emberson and Skinner would get tarred and feathered because it would take them a while to acclimate. Could see this coming from a mile away. This is going to take time for guys to fit in.

Regardless, I get the frustrations of yet ANOTHER slow start to the season but I think some patience is required AGAIN for this team and the new players to find their footing.

 

[CanadasTeam99]

I agree but I am just stating people are again grossly overreacting off 1 game, the team at times last year looked awful too, and nearly won the cup..it's too early to make many of these statements based off 1 game. The D is a concern no doubt, as is the lack of speed and youth. I'd add goaltending to that list.


The campbell contract and Nurse's deal were big time screwups that really hampered this teams ability to acquire talent.

Well, if they keep Kane out until playoffs, that helps negate it lol

 

[K1984]

Bingo, that's, BY FAR, the biggest crutch for this team now and going forward.
It's too bad because Nurse was still a pretty good player (regular season) up until last year when the wheels fell off. I don't know what this player is anymore and he's not getting any younger. I fully believe that the Oilers win at least one Cup already if that contract wasn't on the books. Not only $9.25m clogging up the cap but he's actually been negative value even at zero dollars the last few playoff runs, he's been THAT bad.

It's funny because you'd think that he would have improved with the Ekholm addition lessening the load and instead he's regressed into a shell of what he was because of pouting with less minutes? Personal stuff?
I don't know, maybe natural regression? I don't know what it is but he's barely a $4m player at this point.

He needs to stop being treated as an established leadership player on the team that can be leaned on to play the right way at the right time. I called for him losing the A, starting the year on the third pair, and earning his way back up the lineup.

I said it after the playoffs last year, but he needs a complete reset, because every aspect of his game is in the gutter. In the past he would have his normal f*** ups, but in the context of "wow he's a wild bull out there, have to take some good with the bad." Now? He's a floater, and his f*** ups aren't because he's overly aggressive, or takes a risk that goes wrong, it's because he's completely incompetent as a hockey player.

At minimum he has to get the jam back in his game. He's always going to be a dumbass with mistakes, but at least play with an ounce of passion for f*** sakes.

 

[McAsuno]

Teach Skinner how to do the splits. WE be depending on you. f***ing lazy ass Skinner in a game 1 with the XXXXL jersey on. Few things are worse than seeing Skinner in early season games. Man, his alltime October GAA is legendary bad. His weight is too. Donut training is hard.


Maybe we could inject Nurse with something. Or make him sniff smelling salts. He just goes through the motions. He's exhibit A all the time and all the players know it. Not just that Nurse is eating up the money but he's bringing down the club. Kulak has been better than Nurse for how long now?

Frank Seravelli said minutes ago on the Oilersnation show that Nurse needs a full reset. How that even potentially happens? -shrug-

 

[bellagiobob]

He doesn't have to "anchor" it, he merely needs to just be a steadying presence and not produce his own chaos like Ceci did at times.

I knew this would happen and I called it. I knew the Oilers would start slow, I knew that the new guys like Emberson and Skinner would get tarred and feathered because it would take them a while to acclimate. Could see this coming from a mile away. This is going to take time for guys to fit in.

Regardless, I get the frustrations of yet ANOTHER slow start to the season but I think some patience is required AGAIN for this team and the new players to find their footing.

A slow start is one thing, but a completely disinterested performance and losing 6-0 at home is a completely different level of a slow start. This loss wasn’t due to a few guys needing time to adjust, it was an entire team completely unprepared to play.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Looking forward we play the league doormats Chicago on weekend and then the godless Flames. Chicago game won't show us anything and unlikely we know where this club is a for awhile. What a shit start to regular season even with this schedule.

Frank Seravelli said minutes ago on the Oilersnation show that Nurse needs a full reset. How that even potentially happens? -shrug-

WE can rebuild him:

 

[CornKicker]

We need a reliable goalie to tandem with Skinner. That should be the second biggest need on the team behind a partner for Nurse.

skinner and nurse for igor..... heard it here first


with igor in net we dont even need defenceman

 

[McAsuno]

'Oilers are missing Cody Ceci.'
Oilers had Cody f***ing Ceci last year game 1 too and look how that turned out!

 

[nafrelio]

Watching that game last night I couldn't stop wondering, "Is our first rounder we traded away in June lottery protected?" Anyone else?

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

He doesn't have to "anchor" it, he merely needs to just be a steadying presence and not produce his own chaos like Ceci did at times.

I knew this would happen and I called it. I knew the Oilers would start slow, I knew that the new guys like Emberson and Skinner would get tarred and feathered because it would take them a while to acclimate. Could see this coming from a mile away. This is going to take time for guys to fit in.

Regardless, I get the frustrations of yet ANOTHER slow start to the season but I think some patience is required AGAIN for this team and the new players to find their footing.

Well Emberson didn't do that either.

But I'm not "tarring and feathering" him. I'm pointing out that he probably wasn't ready for this role. You and I both know whose shoulders that falls on.

The team didn't lose last night because of one or two players. It was a complete team failure.

 

[K1984]

Looking forward we play the league doormats Chicago on weekend and then the godless Flames. Chicago game won't show us anything and unlikely we know where this club is a for awhile. What a shit start to regular season even with this schedule.


View attachment 914720

WE can rebuild him:
View attachment 914722

With this team I think it would be naive to assume that they will just beat the Blackhawks just because. Pretty much every other team in sport (not just hockey) of the Oilers purported stature would come out and paste the Blackhawks, but that's never how it happens with this team specifically. They need to totally crater to the point of utter embarrassment before they decide to show up with any reliability. When we chose to do this last year we were useless against the likes of the Sharks, Wild, and Flyers. It's not just going to magically get better.

I'm predicting something along the lines of winning a circus style 6-5 game against the Blackhawks that we would have lost to any other team, and then get pasted by the Flames as we feel happy with ourselves after the Blackhawks win. The Flames are hungry and work hard. Currently, the Oilers are a bunch of lazy, entitled assholes. The talent disparity doesn't matter at that point. Flames will have something to prove while we f*** around the ice thinking we should win just because.

 

[foshizzle]

Skinner cost us a game or two in the final as well. Have an even close to legit starter and we win the cup.

The Vancouver series doesn't go 7. Dallas series doesn't go 6, and hell, probably wouldn't have needed 7 for the finals. Skinner had one of the worst playoff performances of all time the first two rounds

we traded for a worse player in Emberson..sure he has room to grow but Grier didn't have a problem moving him out of SJ

Wrong.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

The Vancouver series doesn't go 7. Dallas series doesn't go 6, and hell, probably wouldn't have needed 7 for the finals. Skinner had one of the worst playoff performances of all time the first two rounds


Wrong.

??????????????

People really underestimate how good the other teams are when you get to that stage of the playoffs.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Wrong.

I watch games

you read charts

 

[Tarus]

Frank Seravelli said minutes ago on the Oilersnation show that Nurse needs a full reset. How that even potentially happens? -shrug-

You could tell he meant in the context of Nurse's approach to the game and what he's doing on the ice. As they pointed out, Nurse should be carrying the pairing, instead he's the problem and only seems to be getting worse.

 

[Soundwave]

3rd opening night loss in the last 4 seasons, 2nd in a row that's a blow out. Is what it is, this team doesn't know how to start a season on time.

Vegas lost Marchessault and Stephenson, Florida lost like half their blue line, several role players, and Tarasenko, are they crying about it on opening night? Boo hoo you don't have Cody Ceci my ass, that's a garbage ass excuse.

 

[McTonyBrar]

Tony
I think the issue is that we expect (and probably rightly so for an upper echelon player) to carry the play and act as a quarterback in their own end and to compensate for lesser players. More often than not with Nurse, he doesn’t do any of that and, in fact, it’s even hard to know which player is the “lesser of the two” Dman when he’s on the ice. More is expected of him. He can’t run from that.

I agree but everyone knows Nurse is not a 9 mill Dman who can carry his own pairing. He’s a 7 mill Dman. Only time i saw him carry a pairing was COVID year.

I’m just saying, just because he makes so much, we can’t pinpoint every mistake on him. Emberson made a lot of mistakes. That third goal was a clear example of him being nervous and not understanding what to do. I know it’s one game but it’s not a good start for that pairing

 

[Soundwave]

I agree but everyone knows Nurse is not a 9 mill Dman who can carry his own pairing. He’s a 7 mill Dman. Only time i saw him carry a pairing was COVID year.

I’m just saying, just because he makes so much, we can’t pinpoint every mistake on him. Emberson made a lot of mistakes. That third goal was a clear example of him being nervous and not understanding what to do. I know it’s one game but it’s not a good start for that pairing

On no planet is Darnell Nurse worth what Mattias Ekholm makes. He's not even a 7 million D.

 

[KCC]

Just throw it under the bus and keep going. The entire team wasn’t ready to play. It’s not much more than that. With Chicago next, maybe they wake up and start playing the way we all know they are capable of. It’s a Stupidly long season. Sooner or later they will find their stride. Let’s hope it starts next game and not a month in like last year.

 

[Soundwave]

At some point it needs to be asked too ... seriously is Stuart Skinner actually any better than Calvin Pickard?

Or is he just a Pickard-tier goalie?

At least we're not paying him much.

 

[K1984]

I agree but everyone knows Nurse is not a 9 mill Dman who can carry his own pairing. He’s a 7 mill Dman. Only time i saw him carry a pairing was COVID year.

I’m just saying, just because he makes so much, we can’t pinpoint every mistake on him. Emberson made a lot of mistakes. That third goal was a clear example of him being nervous and not understanding what to do. I know it’s one game but it’s not a good start for that pairing

On the third goal Nurse also had an opportunity to cut the puck off on the wall, and initially it looked like he was going to do that. Then Emberson started rotating to cover net front, but Nurse let the puck go and Emberson was already in the wrong spot.

Difficult to determine who was truly at fault there, but the whole play dies if Nurse simply cuts that off, which he was in position to do before he decided to just not.

 

[jesusbuiltmyhotrod]

At some point it needs to be asked too ... seriously is Stuart Skinner actually any better than Calvin Pickard?

Or is he just a Pickard-tier goalie?

At least we're not paying him much.

I feel safer with Pickard right now, when skinner is bad is he really, really bad. He nearly cost the oilers the Canucks series. Either way we have not had a good goalie in it feels like forever.

 

[Drivesaitl]

With this team I think it would be naive to assume that they will just beat the Blackhawks just because. Pretty much every other team in sport (not just hockey) of the Oilers purported stature would come out and paste the Blackhawks, but that's never how it happens with this team specifically. They need to totally crater to the point of utter embarrassment before they decide to show up with any reliability. When we chose to do this last year we were useless against the likes of the Sharks, Wild, and Flyers. It's not just going to magically get better.

I'm predicting something along the lines of winning a circus style 6-5 game against the Blackhawks that we would have lost to any other team, and then get pasted by the Flames as we feel happy with ourselves after the Blackhawks win. The Flames are hungry and work hard. Currently, the Oilers are a bunch of lazy, entitled assholes. The talent disparity doesn't matter at that point. Flames will have something to prove while we f*** around the ice thinking we should win just because.

Outside of Nurse I don't see it that way. McD, Drai, Nuge, Hyman, Ekholm, Bouch have carried this team and deserved a modicum of respect, and not stuff like the bolded.

Overall the 6 I mentioned are among the hardest working players in the world and carry this team every year. We have hardly anything this year outside of that group and particularly with Kane out all season.
I wouldn't doubt either that the Oilers are wanting players like Skinner to show up. Actually both of them, and do their part. Nurse seems to be a lost cause, on planet Space.

At some point it needs to be asked too ... seriously is Stuart Skinner actually any better than Calvin Pickard?

Or is he just a Pickard-tier goalie?

At least we're not paying him much.

I already asked. Jimmy got sent to his room over that side discussion.

Oh we're paying dearly to have Skinner as our starter. Not in actual pay or cap but in circumstance he costs an awful lot. Cost us first place, almost cost us the Vancouver series, the Dallas series and cost us the SC. The cost of this doofus in net is enormous and regular actually.

 

[GrumpyKoala]

??????????????

People really underestimate how good the other teams are when you get to that stage of the playoffs.

We were one decent goalie away from a cup and deep down in your heart, you know it.