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

[Senor Catface]

And November, December, January, February….well, I’m sure you get the point.

So you're saying I can unblock the usual 4-5 guys in March?

 

[brentashton]

So you're saying I can unblock the usual 4-5 guys in March?

Perhaps Senor, but do so at your own risk.

i got tired of typing the names of months and I figured not everyone on here is f***ing stupid. Take care.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Lmao, 1 game in and the core led by the best 2 players in the league (also the best 2 playoff performers in...2 decades? more?) are the problem. Never change HF.

Some thoughts without digging too much through the predictable sky is falling mess of a PGT:
- Winnipeg (or more specifically Hellebuyck) has always had our number. While everyone could have been better, we also weren't bad. We carried the majority of the play and the goaltending difference was, as it always is when we lose vs Winnipeg, See: MoneyPuck.com (not end-all be-all but I always like Moneypuck as a sanity check for my eyes)
- The loss of team speed and weakening of the D was painfully obvious. Hope Emberson can learn to deal with Nurse's foibles because jesus christ do we ever need him to. We also need to adapt our system to be more about puck control rather than fast dump-ins now because we moved from blistering speed to older skill guys.
- I like Podkolzin so far, but given how he always seemed to fall off a cliff for the Canucks, I'll be watching to see if he can be at least as consistent with his effort as Foegele was (which is to say, not that consistent but good enough).

This is the thing. Thanks for posting. One poster had attempted to allege that McDrai are off limits and that posters get offended when they are c ritiqued. That is NOT the issue and its dull to think it is. Its the utter inanity of people blaming and scapegoating the superstar and core players that are the only reason to watch this club.

Some posters will seemingly not comprehend the nuance that defending players that have earned that respect for a decade is valid, and that blaming players that are underperforming useless fill on this team continually, is also valid.

All players are public figures and free game. Any comments can be made. But to specifically scapegoat the top players is errant beyond belief. In this game particularly, the criticism is valid, but people were making many statements that were general criticism of our top players, who are always our top players.

Again its like Argentina fans blaming Messi for the first several WC failures. On the other hand anywhere else the same superstar succeeds immensely.

 

[Ibanez]

A classic!!! Love it

 

[K1984]

You are a very balanced poster, you will comment on when a player is playing great, and call them out when they aren’t, regardless of position or stature on the team. Seems normal to me, much more than certain posters who will pick on one or two players, call out every bad play they make, never mentioning when they have good games, and idolizing other players so much that they cant see when they have poor games, and get upset if any other poster even mentions their hero in a bad light. I know myself I’ll heap tons of praise on McDavid during the year, but the odd time that he has a crappy game, especially in a key home opener when more was expected from him, I’ll give him shit. But it’s probably a 95/5 praise over giving shit percentage over the year.

Amen. I love McDavid more than some members of my family and I’ve never even met him. If my wife allows me and I happen to have a Son, I’m gonna lobby to name him Leon. I love these players.

Facts are facts though. Last night wasn’t good enough. I am certain we’re gonna eventually win one with them, which makes it even more frustrating when they’re dropping the ball. I’m not going to simply excuse inexcusable bad performance just because.

If they had that game on February 4th against the Blue Jackets I’d be annoyed, but wouldn’t be pissed off about it. Doing that on opening night as everyone and their dog is harping on last season’s opener again? After being tagged as the hands down Cup favorite? Not acceptable for a leadership group, no matter who it is or what team they are on.

 

[Soundwave]

Amen. I love McDavid more than some members of my family and I’ve never even met him. If my wife allows me and I happen to have a Son, I’m gonna lobby to name him Leon. I love these players.

Facts are facts though. Last night wasn’t good enough. I am certain we’re gonna eventually win one with them, which makes it even more frustrating when they’re dropping the ball. I’m not going to simply excuse inexcusable bad performance just because.

If they had that game on February 4th against the Blue Jackets I’d be annoyed, but wouldn’t be pissed off about it. Doing that on opening night as everyone and their dog is harping on last season’s opener again? After being tagged as the hands down Cup favorite? Not acceptable for a leadership group, no matter who it is or what team they are on.

Team is still overly reliant on seeing if Connor is going to carry them or not.

The Leafs won tonight, yes? Fairly easily too against a New Jersey team that I'm sure Keefe had revved up to try to win that game.

Wanna guess how many points Matthews had? 0. Shots on net net? 0.

How come that isn't an autoloss?

The Oilers are a contender because of McDavid. They damn near almost won a Cup because they fluked out in getting him.

The rest of the team too often does f*** all on nights where he is not going. Other teams game plan for McDavid, we know no one puts more pressure on themselves than Connor does. It would be nice for a change if any game where he isn't on isn't an auto-loss basically.

 

[iCanada]

I'm watching his pregame warmup and I'm going oh no, this again. Its like he pretends at goalie warm ups, stretches. That a goalie in the top league in the world doesn't even have a proper warm up routine, makes you wonder about all the rest of his preparation routine. Of if games are it....

This is the worst starting goalie I've seen here in decades. In terms of form, movement, ability.

It was kind of funny juxtaposing Skinner's pregame ritual with that of Swayman on the Amazon documentary.

Swayman is in Jedi reflex mode for hours before the game, Skinner looks like me when I suit up in net for beer league because our regular goaltender can't make it and no one else wanted to.

 

[Soundwave]

It was kind of funny juxtaposing Skinner's pregame ritual with that of Swayman on the Amazon documentary.

Swayman is in Jedi reflex mode for hours before the game, Skinner looks like me when I suit up in net for beer league because our regular goaltender can't make it and no one else wanted to.

Hate to say it but Skinner gives off the air of a very lazy athlete. He is lucky to be on a team that gives him the kind of run support he gets here because if he was on a more middle of the pack team I think he'd get shredded out there.

 

[MessierII]

Team is still overly reliant on seeing if Connor is going to carry them or not.

The Leafs won tonight, yes? Fairly easily too against a New Jersey team that I'm sure Keefe had revved up to try to win that game.

Wanna guess how many points Matthews had? 0. Shots on net net? 0.

How come that isn't an autoloss?

The Oilers are a contender because of McDavid. They damn near almost won a Cup because they fluked out in getting him.

The rest of the team too often does f*** all on nights where he is not going. Other teams game plan for McDavid, we know no one puts more pressure on themselves than Connor does. It would be nice for a change if any game where he isn't on isn't an auto-loss basically.

Game 6 of the finals?

 

[Soundwave]

Game 6 of the finals?

Once in a while they can do it. Sadly it's like 9/10 times it goes the other way and it's a loss. You're not going to have the adrenaline rush of a Stanley Cup Finals home crowd at your back all the time either.

You look at other teams and the Penguins have a winning record without Crosby even in the lineup. The Leafs are the same without Matthews.

Now those teams have their own (big) issues but at least folding up shop almost automatically just because 1 guy isn't going isn't one of them necessarily.

We'll have to see if the Oilers can outgrow this problem, based on game 1 that was a resounding no.

 

[iCanada]

Hate to say it but Skinner gives off the air of a very lazy athlete. He is lucky to be on a team that gives him the kind of run support he gets here because if he was on a more middle of the pack team I think he'd get shredded out there.

Honestly, I don't even care what his preparations like - I don't think it really matters. He should do what he needs to do to be his best. If he was taking over games Allen Iverson style it's a total non-issue.

The thing is, if you don't go out there and dominate, or worse if you let in 5 goals on 12 shots, and you verbally aren't ready for the game... It's atrocious optics - makes you and the team look bad, and creates kind of an issue when you prepare lazily.

And he did prepare lazily - knoblauch basically asked everyone on the main team how much they wanted to play and he played them that many person games. Skinner got 1 full preseason game. When McDavid plays 5 and Draisaitl plays 5... You have to ask why that is. Certainly the coach isn't shy to let his guys get the reps.


And it's worth noting that this is the third year of this in a row.

 

[VainGretzky]

Love how some posters have summed up the season 1 game in you've outdone yourself this time

 

[rboomercat90]

I felt like this team actually DID show up up to play for the first 10 minutes, then the wheels fell off. Hopefully they move on and can just beat up on Chicago on Saturday.

I thought they were okay to start the game. They weren’t great and I wouldn’t say they were good either. They were just there and played evenly with the Jets until they gave up the first goal and then everybody looked like they stopped trying from Skinner on out. It was frustrating to watch and we saw that a lot from the team last year. There was no jump from the team at all last night and it looked to me like they knew they were done as soon as they fell behind.

 

[timekeep]

Duplicate

 

[oobga]

Love how some posters have summed up the season 1 game in you've outdone yourself this time

People took that long to know? For smart people it was over the second those offer sheets came.

 

[Missing smitty]

No. Not a fan.

So you're smarter than most of the hockey world?

 

[McFlash97]

Wonder is Pickard gets at least one of the back to back games this week.

 

[VainGretzky]

People took that long to know? For smart people it was over the second those offer sheets came.

And The bus awaits them

 

[bellagiobob]

Honestly, I don't even care what his preparations like - I don't think it really matters. He should do what he needs to do to be his best. If he was taking over games Allen Iverson style it's a total non-issue.

The thing is, if you don't go out there and dominate, or worse if you let in 5 goals on 12 shots, and you verbally aren't ready for the game... It's atrocious optics - makes you and the team look bad, and creates kind of an issue when you prepare lazily.

And he did prepare lazily - knoblauch basically asked everyone on the main team how much they wanted to play and he played them that many person games. Skinner got 1 full preseason game. When McDavid plays 5 and Draisaitl plays 5... You have to ask why that is. Certainly the coach isn't shy to let his guys get the reps.


And it's worth noting that this is the third year of this in a row.

Skinner played in three pre season games, two full games and the other one 40 minutes. Not really any different than most veteran goalies.

 

[brentashton]

So you're smarter than most of the hockey world?

No. Never said anything of the sort. Not sure where that comment is coming from.

Why are you being snarky? People can have an opinion. It might even differ from yours.

 

[CupofOil]

At least he’s being honest, truth be told it was too fast for most of our guys.

Which is insane. This is a team that made it to Game 7 of a Cup finals, games that were as fast and physical as can be and it didn't seem too fast for them then.

This speaks to how poor their preparation (still) is coming off of long breaks, it's been a problem with this core since the beginning and now others like Skinner etc. are along for this shit ride and even admitting that they weren't prepared. One of these years they're going to dig a hole too deep to dig out of, lets hope this isn't the one because the Cup window is starting to close for this group and it's now or never pretty much.

 

[harpoon]

Things to look out for as the season progresses:
1) Podkolzin is a flat out bust
2) J Skinner is worse than useless
3) Pickard > S Skinner
4) Arvidsson is soft, ineffective and terrified

I’ll be watching.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Which is insane. This is a team that made it to Game 7 of a Cup finals, games that were as fast and physical as can be and it didn't seem too fast for them then.

This speaks to how poor their preparation (still) is coming off of long breaks, it's been a problem with this core since the beginning and now others like Skinner etc. are along for this shit ride and even admitting that they weren't prepared. One of these years they're going to dig a hole too deep to dig out of, lets hope this isn't the one because the Cup window is starting to close for this group and it's now or never pretty much.

The reality is we lost a ton of speed in our lineup, and particularly forecheck speed and replaced it with players not known, or no longer adept at providing that ingredient. The jets had tons of time with zone outs in the game and it changed the nature of the game. It meant that most of the night we were chasing pucks. Our own transition wasn't as good The one player we got, Podkolzin, can be a forecheck threat but I didn't see that he was doing much of that in first game. In anycase the amount of speed we lost i lineup is significant.

The other thing is that with Kane missing season there is next to know physicality in our lineup. People can love the additions of Skinner or RV all day if they want. They generally are not that physical (RV was) but even at that lose pucks as much or more than they gain them. I think its the latter that dissuaded LA that RV had lost that touch with the puck. That a lot of plays were ending with him, and they were. But Skinner is far worse losing pucks.

Our bottomsix is much much different this season and quantum older. I think there has to be some lineup adjustments.

One other thing. The playoffs were not as fast as might typically be the case. We were playing the dead Kings in first round that were playing woeful 1-3-1 and a diamond on pk. They werent' fast and were struggling to play those schemes all series. The schemes ran counter to the lineup they had. The Nucks speed gave this team a lot of problems. The Stars were fairly beat up by third round and the older players, a lot of them, they didn't have speed. Its the young studs in their lineup that were most effective for them in that series. AGain indication that the Oilers had some struggle against speedy players. Brings me to SC final where both clubs are in this final exhausted looking for any ingredients. To with energy bunny Rodriguez being one of the most effective Panthers in that series. He was one of the few that had jam and energy left. So we weren't that great against speed, even last season.

 

[mcdingdong]

Thats fair. I do call out players who I think are weaker links on the team. if thats not your thing thats fine. The Nurse comment was a takeaway. I don't what the skin condition is exactly but was framed as a joke. If you're offended by that fine.

In anycase Skinner stated that the puck and game was moving too fast for him and he couldn't keep up, which is evident. I do feel he's the worst starting goalie the club has had in several decades. Several posters here agreeing with that. Its undeniable he's overweight as an athlete in a position not requiring, or even selecting for weight. Indeed his weight is a problem in the position he plays.

But Skinner fans wouldn't tend to like my posts on him.

But I'll take your feedback because its honestly directed.

Thanks for it.

The gregor aside was in response to anothers post.

There is a difference between calling out players and making needless derogatory comments about them. The Nurse comment being "framed as a joke" doesn't change the substance of the remark. I'm not necessarily offended by it but it does hurt your credibility as a poster. Comments on a hockey board about hockey players should have some small relevance to actually playing hockey, if you mix that up with my being offended that's fine.

The Skinner comment has been blown out of proportion. I'm sure many players at higher levels, myself included, have played in games after long layoffs and been a little bamboozled by the speed. Especially a goalie who faces a clean breakaway 2 shifts in. Worst starting goalie in several decades? Where do you even come up with this stuff.

 

[Drivesaitl]

There is a difference between calling out players and making needless derogatory comments about them. The Nurse comment being "framed as a joke" doesn't change the substance of the remark. I'm not necessarily offended by it but it does hurt your credibility as a poster. Comments on a hockey board about hockey players should have some small relevance to actually playing hockey, if you mix that up with my being offended that's fine.

The Skinner comment has been blown out of proportion. I'm sure many players at higher levels, myself included, have played in games after long layoffs and been a little bamboozled by the speed. Especially a goalie who faces a clean breakaway 2 shifts in. Worst starting goalie in several decades? Where do you even come up with this stuff.

I don't post for virtue or hold that its important to have every comment be credible on a hockey messageboard. Its clear, I think, when I'm shooting hyperbole or just getting some venting out like everybody here does. If you hold me to some different standard than you hold others to then thats on you. You're selective in these kinds of replies to me and said nothing to the other poster that was calling the club "entitled Assholes" or that the club has "bs Culture" or that the club was "embarrasing" last season and that the team has "shitty leadership".

Indeed all kinds of hyperbole exists here and is constant, and again everybody having those days. Is it that I make specific player comments that is the reason for these interventions by you? I used to defend Nurse here in earlier seasons but he no longer deserves that, defense. Skinner its unlikely he wins me over and the comments will keep coming and hockey players are public game. I respect good to great players that have value. I tend to deride players that do not add much to a club.

Finally I'll state what I have before. Public figures are free game. No rules exist here that we can't diss players within reason. The rules are around that we don't do that with other posters. But to the small segment of posters here that think referring to Skinner as fat (he is for a hockey player pro athlete) you sure wouldn't have wanted to see the dozen posters that used to call former goalie, Roloson, a pedophile, and would suggest that they dislike him and don't trust him because he looks like a pedophile. Those comments were offensive, they crossed lines imo, you think I crossed a line calling Skinner fat or a clown after a game in which he was abysmal giving up 5 goals in 13 shots. In a game in which Skinner himself said he would want back and that the loss and goals against were on him. Its nice that you feel that way but I'll post in my own way and somebody will dislike that and others will be fine with it.