Oilers now 13-12-1: THE THREAD THAT'S FUN FOR EVERYONE

[BrendanGaunce4Selke]

It would be incredibly hilarious if they drafted him.

Even if they got 1oa, they really need to trade it, pass on the forward and try to pickup a couple defensemen and a goalie

might be the best thing for them now

San Jose beating them out for 1st overall would be hilarious tho

 

[thaman8765678]

I see quite a few people claim McDavid is playing injured. Is there any evidence of that? Also, why on earth would anyone play injured in early November? Surely, the thing to do now is to get treatment and rest now, so you'll be back at 100% sooner.

Because he is their entire team, outside of Draisatl

 

[Three On Zero]

Because he is their entire team, outside of Draisatl

No no, he IS the whole team, you can even see Draisaitl is suffering without a healthy McDavid.

McDavid would likely be sitting out if he didn’t like chasing personal accolades

 

[GKJ]

I see quite a few people claim McDavid is playing injured. Is there any evidence of that? Also, why on earth would anyone play injured in early November? Surely, the thing to do now is to get treatment and rest now, so you'll be back at 100% sooner.

It only happens like all the time. Players think they’re supposed to do it because they’re supposed to be too tough not to.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

It only happens like all the time. Players think they’re supposed to do it because they’re supposed to be too tough not to.

It's a lot more common in the final stretches of the season and playoffs where the assumption is that it's 'now or never'. It would be silly for Edmonton to risk McDavid being out in February-March just to get some games out of him now.

 

[ijuka]

I see quite a few people claim McDavid is playing injured. Is there any evidence of that? Also, why on earth would anyone play injured in early November? Surely, the thing to do now is to get treatment and rest now, so you'll be back at 100% sooner.

Well he got injured earlier and has been playing terrible since he returned. No evidence I guess, but to me it's pretty obvious that he's injured and got brought back too early.

It's a lot more common in the final stretches of the season and playoffs where the assumption is that it's 'now or never'. It would be silly for Edmonton to risk McDavid being out in February-March just to get some games out of him now.

They could feel that since the team's doing so poorly, they need his help right now. I don't agree with the decision either.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

Because one guy is carrying majority of the load and makes his linemates have career years, regardless of who he's playing with.

Of course McDavid gets a bit of a bump too, but McDavid is easily the driving factor in Edmonton and he is responsible for most of their plays. There's not a single player in the NHL who has as much of an influence as him.

The biggest reason is the absurd powerplay opportunities and percentage of the Oilers. I've outlined it several times in different threads, but they get an insane amount of PP chances, largely because of McDavid. And the PP is highly efficient, largely because of McDavid. Now we remove McDavid from the team, what happens to the PP ? It takes a massive hit, thus dropping Draisaitls points.

Look at Draisaitls even strength scoring, over the last 4 years Marner has a better even strength goal per game statistic than him. He's an elite player that is a beneficiary of an insane PP being carried by McDavid. Not saying he isn't elite, but he gets his numbers inflated pretty significantly because of McDavid.

There is only 1 McDavid in the league, there are several guys who can be compared to Draisaitl and even better than Draisaitl IMO.

No different than Matthews-Marner.

 

[Sasha Orlov]

No no, he IS the whole team, you can even see Draisaitl is suffering without a healthy McDavid.

McDavid would likely be sitting out if he didn’t like chasing personal accolades

Or he’s competitive and refuses to sit out if he still feels he can play

Shea Weber was dead and played the entire 2021 playoffs, these guys are lunatics

 

[ijuka]

Or he’s competitive and refuses to sit out if he still feels he can play

Shea Weber was dead and played the entire 2021 playoffs, these guys are lunatics

Yep, and that's why I for one believe in the team not letting the players play before they truly are ready, rather than letting them decide. Because for some "pride" or "comradery" reasons they keep making stupid decisions and hurting their own recovery.

 

[viper0220]

And what would that "big trade" look like? Gonna give the Oilers Vlader, with his .844 and 4.00 stats? For who?

And neither team has much salary left to play with, so it's got to be $in, $out. $710k for the Flames, $21k for the Oilers

Seriously, curious what you think the "natural trade" would be.

I think Tanev would solve some issues for the Oilers, it is not a big trade per say.

 

[RetroWinnipeg]

Oilers have become a punching bag. Losing to the Sharks of all teams.

 

[ghostingtaro]

i would like to take a moment and thank the oilers for providing the rest of the league quality entertainment

 

[Aurinko]

What can you do?

Fan base likes offensive hockey and the forwards especially have never been good defensively. Now with injuries (janmark,mcd) they dont even try defending.

Theres lot of shots, but at least the Sharks have soem kind of defensive system so everything doesnt go in.

 

[PainForShane]

What do you even mean by improve if putting the puck in the net more often doesn't count? Should he become their personal trainer or coach or something?

This is where you should've started man. Glad to see you've caught up to your own conversation.

Slightly embarrassed for you that it took this long, incl multiple posts / callouts to do it, but at least we got there eventually.

Also, it's pretty apparent the guy you're talking to doesn't believe that picking up cheap assists is the same as actually improving as a player. Which is basically the point he led with. smh

***

EDIT: Maybe we haven't gotten there actually. Upon review, the message that was replied to said, "I am referring in particular to their play when not on ice with McD." So the answer to this Q was clearly presented in the blockquote that was literally enclosed in the reply.

Sorry Windy River, these conversations happen to us all

 

[thaman8765678]

So have they given up? No firings?

 

[Three On Zero]

Or he’s competitive and refuses to sit out if he still feels he can play

Shea Weber was dead and played the entire 2021 playoffs, these guys are lunatics

Playoffs are a different beast when compared to the regular season, bad comparison

 

[Love]

McDavid is playing at probably 10% health I'd say, he does not look good out there

On this scale would 0% be dead? Because if that’s the case they oughta rush him to the hospital asap

 

[CNeufeld]

I think Tanev would solve some issues for the Oilers, it is not a big trade per se.

And who are they getting back from the Oilers?

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Playoffs are a different beast when compared to the regular season, bad comparison

???

His team is not in the playoff picture and he’s the best player in the nhl, of course he wants to try and play to get them back on track lol

 

[The Panther]

The predictable over-reaction by fans (mostly Oilers' fans, sadly) to 12 regular season games.

It's a horrible start, with a rare combination of (a) incredibly bad puck-luck, (b) poor goaltending, (c) superstar slumps co-occurring, (d) injuries to key players, (e) the Power Play suddenly getting mediocre for the first time in four years, and (f) loss of lesser-but-serviceable players (Yamamoto, Puljujarvi, Bjugstad, Kostin) who didn't win games by themselves but served a purpose.

Mathematically speaking, it's very unlikely the Oilers can make the playoffs now. As a fan, I basically concede the season is over in that regard. But I wouldn't be surprised at all if the club is back to winning a month or two from now, when bodies are healthy and some kind of normality has been restored.

For all those saying Holland is an idiot, etc., etc. --- Holland is clearly a guy who does things his own way. He makes moves slowly, doesn't like to fire people, likes to give players long-term contracts, and likes his grey-beards. I would say in his Oilers' tenure he's made a fairly even mix of great and bad moves. He solved the Lucic problem as soon as he arrived, and absolutely nobody saw that coming or any way out of it. He signed Hyman indirectly as a result of that, and acquired Kane and Eckholm. He has failed to come up with a good goaltending solution, and I think both he and Dave Tippett were both enamored with Mike Smith, for reasons I've never understood. (In fairness to Holland, though, he inherited 3.5 years of Koskinen's crazy contract when he started -- the Chiarelli gift that kept on giving).

More important that all of that, however, is this:
13 years before Holland = 1 playoff appearance (1 series win)
4 years under Holland = 4 playoff appearances (3 series wins)

So, say what you want about Holland, but I will take the past four years over the 13 previous!

Besides commitment to Mike Smith, I think Holland created some bad karma with the way he dealt with Tyson Barrie last year. Tyson Barrie came to the Oilers to man the PP, and as soon as he did so, their PP became historically great -- and Barrie was the highest-scoring D in the whole NHL in the short season. Barrie had his defensive issues for a year or more, but during last season he shifted his style at evens and actually became a pretty good defender when properly deployed (maybe the one really good defensive strategy Manson and Woodcroft worked out). Meanwhile, he continued being a total ace on the PP, which was literally the greatest PP of all time. His contract was coming up, and Barrie could easily have gone to the open market and signed a huge contract. But he choose to take a discount and stay in Edmonton. This is hugely significant, because as many of you will know, it's not easy to get name-free agents to sign with Edmonton, and most players completing a contract with the Oilers will sign with the highest bidder and play somewhere else with better weather and less pressure. But Barrie didn't.

However, with the emergence of Evan Bouchard's offense, the Oilers decided to roll the dice and trade Barrie (to a non playoff-team) to acquire Mattias Eckholm, letting Bouchard take over on the PP. Now, don't get me wrong, Eckholm was a total stud last season and (despite a rough start this year) is a great player -- at his best, he's certainly better than Barrie. But I didn't like the smell of it. Barrie was a very popular guy in the dressing room and was emerging as a veteran team leader --- leadership being something the current Oilers seem to have issues with.

Evan Bouchard made an immediate mark on the PP, yes, but his defensive game is, frankly, atrocious. Like, below AHL level bad. (There was a game last season where Bouchard had 5 shifts in the third period, and the opposition scored on every one of his shifts.) Now, Bouchard is young-ish and may yet get his defensive game together, but to be honest I think the Oilers would have better off this and next season (potentially the last two season of both McD and Drai) with Barrie instead of Bouchard. Had they found a way to keep Barrie---the popular player who took a discount and chose to stay in Edmonton, but got booted---but still acquire Eckholm in some other transaction, I think they'd be well ahead of where they are right now in the standings.

Oh, and I don't think Woodcroft is bad at all. I think he should stay. But he'll probably get fired because that's the first thing every GM does when the temperature gets too hot.

 

[PainForShane]

The predictable over-reaction by fans (mostly Oilers' fans, sadly) to 12 regular season games.

It's a horrible start, with a rare combination of (a) incredibly bad puck-luck, (b) poor goaltending, (c) superstar slumps co-occurring, (d) injuries to key players, (e) the Power Play suddenly getting mediocre for the first time in four years, and (f) loss of lesser-but-serviceable players (Yamamoto, Puljujarvi, Bjugstad, Kostin) who didn't win games by themselves but served a purpose.

Mathematically speaking, it's very unlikely the Oilers can make the playoffs now. As a fan, I basically concede the season is over in that regard. But I wouldn't be surprised at all if the club is back to winning a month or two from now, when bodies are healthy and some kind of normality has been restored.

For all those saying Holland is an idiot, etc., etc. --- Holland is clearly a guy who does things his own way. He makes moves slowly, doesn't like to fire people, likes to give players long-term contracts, and likes his grey-beards. I would say in his Oilers' tenure he's made a fairly even mix of great and bad moves. He solved the Lucic problem as soon as he arrived, and absolutely nobody saw that coming or any way out of it. He signed Hyman indirectly as a result of that, and acquired Kane and Eckholm. He has failed to come up with a good goaltending solution, and I think both he and Dave Tippett were both enamored with Mike Smith, for reasons I've never understood. (In fairness to Holland, though, he inherited 3.5 years of Koskinen's crazy contract when he started -- the Chiarelli gift that kept on giving).

More important that all of that, however, is this:
13 years before Holland = 1 playoff appearance (1 series win)
4 years under Holland = 4 playoff appearances (3 series wins)

So, say what you want about Holland, but I will take the past four years over the 13 previous!

Besides commitment to Mike Smith, I think Holland created some bad karma with the way he dealt with Tyson Barrie last year. Tyson Barrie came to the Oilers to man the PP, and as soon as he did so, their PP became historically great -- and Barrie was the highest-scoring D in the whole NHL in the short season. Barrie had his defensive issues for a year or more, but during last season he shifted his style at evens and actually became a pretty good defender when properly deployed (maybe the one really good defensive strategy Manson and Woodcroft worked out). Meanwhile, he continued being a total ace on the PP, which was literally the greatest PP of all time. His contract was coming up, and Barrie could easily have gone to the open market and signed a huge contract. But he choose to take a discount and stay in Edmonton. This is hugely significant, because as many of you will know, it's not easy to get name-free agents to sign with Edmonton, and most players completing a contract with the Oilers will sign with the highest bidder and play somewhere else with better weather and less pressure. But Barrie didn't.

However, with the emergence of Evan Bouchard's offense, the Oilers decided to roll the dice and trade Barrie (to a non playoff-team) to acquire Mattias Eckholm, letting Bouchard take over on the PP. Now, don't get me wrong, Eckholm was a total stud last season and (despite a rough start this year) is a great player -- at his best, he's certainly better than Barrie. But I didn't like the smell of it. Barrie was a very popular guy in the dressing room and was emerging as a veteran team leader --- leadership being something the current Oilers seem to have issues with.

Evan Bouchard made an immediate mark on the PP, yes, but his defensive game is, frankly, atrocious. Like, below AHL level bad. (There was a game last season where Bouchard had 5 shifts in the third period, and the opposition scored on every one of his shifts.) Now, Bouchard is young-ish and may yet get his defensive game together, but to be honest I think the Oilers would have better off this and next season (potentially the last two season of both McD and Drai) with Barrie instead of Bouchard. Had they found a way to keep Barrie---the popular player who took a discount and chose to stay in Edmonton, but got booted---but still acquire Eckholm in some other transaction, I think they'd be well ahead of where they are right now in the standings.

Oh, and I don't think Woodcroft is bad at all. I think he should stay. But he'll probably get fired because that's the first thing every GM does when the temperature gets too hot.

Great post, thx for sharing this insight. As a neutral, I think I disagree w you on Woodcroft (imo a championship caliber team should have a championship caliber coach), but everything you said in your post makes sense

 

[EdmFlyersfan]

McDavid is playing at probably 10% health I'd say, he does not look good out there

Then why play and risk further injury? Makes no sense. He likely has a minor injury which needs surgery for correction, but he is unable to take any time off due to their standing.

 

[Hank Plank]

I predict 97 will have off season hip surgery.

 

[blundluntman]

This is where you should've started man. Glad to see you've caught up to your own conversation.

Slightly embarrassed for you that it took this long, incl multiple posts / callouts to do it, but at least we got there eventually.

Also, it's pretty apparent the guy you're talking to doesn't believe that picking up cheap assists is the same as actually improving as a player. Which is basically the point he led with. smh

***

EDIT: Maybe we haven't gotten there actually. Upon review, the message that was replied to said, "I am referring in particular to their play when not on ice with McD." So the answer to this Q was clearly presented in the blockquote that was literally enclosed in the reply.

Sorry Windy River, these conversations happen to us all

Congratulations on being unbearably condescending and blindly cosigning weak narratives without providing any reasonable insights whatsoever. As someone who doesn't watch any Oilers games, you sure seem adamant that the hollow arguments of his I've been criticizing are indisputably true. You sure know how to dance around questions without answering them. (Don't bother replying btw, we're done here)

 

[Little Psycho]

McDavid is playing at probably 10% health I'd say, he does not look good out there

He shouldn’t even be playing if that’s the case. Maybe that’s why the coaching staff hasn’t been fired yet cos the big boss knows the situation.