This group is honestly unique in the piss poor way they respond to any sort of adversity or how they respond to anything that normal teams respond to in general. Not just a Woodcroft problem, this dumb group has been doing this since McLelland.
Normal teams respond to timeouts and win the next few shifts. Not this team. Normal teams simplify when they are having trouble breaking out and in. Oilers like to make things more complicated. Normal teams respond with top tier efforts when they embarrass themselves. Oilers just keep doing the same thing. Normal teams make concerted efforts to correct when they develop bad habits/make mistakes. Oilers just keep doing the same thing and often it only gets worse.
There is something culturally very wrong with this team. No idea what the source is. No idea if its some form of curse. We can blame the GM and the coach all we want, and a lot of that criticism is very valid and very earned. But 95% of the roster has basically turned over twice in the past 5 years and we are on coach #4 in that same time frame. The same f***ing stupid traits still remain.
Still essentially only play loose, embarrassing hockey at home exclusively.
Still have severe issues with consistent work ethic.
Still implode every December.
Still have the same commitment to team defense as a single A pewee team.
Still can't start games worth a damn.
Still can't motivate themselves to be better.
Still can't defend a d-zone faceoff.
Four coaches. Probably around 50-60 players of a bunch of different backgrounds, reputations and stripes. Same f***ing result. At this point I'm not sure if there is any true solution here, they perform the same no matter what. The only hope we'll ever have to win anything is if they catch lightning in a bottle at just the right time. This group of pissant morons will never at any point be a normal team that plays an 82 game season in a coherent manner. It will always be a circus and that is honestly infuriating.
The culture problem on this team stems from there being no accountability to the top end players. It has been this way since the Oilers drafted Hall. Hall/Eberle/Nuge/McDavid/Draisaitl all can do whatever they want without consequence. lay up a pizza on the power play, opponent goes down and scores. No problem stay out there and then go right back out after. Unable to backcheck due to staying on too long in the offensive zone. Its ok no worries, you will get them next time. Then on the other hand, Ryan, Yamamoto, Pulijarvi (just about anyone) does the exact same thing, and they get stapled to the bench. I get that McDavid and Drai should have some leeway, as without them the Oilers are in serious trouble,
McDavid has 73 points and is +4
Leon has 55 points and is +3
Tage Thompson has 55 points and is +14
On the Saturday Panel, they highlighted JT Miller not backchecking and a bad change going slowly to the bench. Bieska said I can't even defend that. Honestly that has got to be how the bottom 6 on this Oilers team feel.
I have never played any sports at an elite level such as the NHL, but I can tell you I have always played better and been more engaged when I am getting regular/consistent shifts then when I am sitting on the sidelines for long stretches at a time. The Oilers bottom 6 barely play any minutes and then when they do, they likely play scared as if they make a mistake they will be playing even less. Except JP cause for some reason, he is stapled on the top line.
When McDavid and Draisaitl start playing 18-22 minutes per game and playing at both ends of the ice, backchecking as hard as they do when they have the have the puck on their stick or want the puck on their stick. That is when this team will be a contender.
The Oilers bottoms 6 is not great, but I feel if they were not playing afraid and getting regular consistent minutes, they would be more productive. There are definitely holes, but I think the culture and Ice time is a major factor. Oilers down by a couple goals 10 minutes left= Leon and conner playing about 7-8 of those 10 minutes. Everyone on that team knows it. Even if Ryan is having the game of his life, he likely won't see the ice in that situation.
Exactly this... except he never will be.
I watched Broberg chase his man TO THE BLUELINE after a defensive draw TWICE, only to see guys in front of our net when the shot came from the point.... and they scored on one. Who could see this coming?
I didn't play D at a high level, so I have no idea if that's a thing, but I would LOSE MY $#!+ if any of my defenders ever did that.
Anybody play D? Is this something that you would ever do depending on the system? Am I absolutely crazy or is that such a HUGE lack of defensive IQ that he'll never be properly taught? I just don't see how that can happen at the NHL level (oh wait, Nurse did it 3 mins later).
I'm thinking he's Nurse 2.0 in terms of puck chasing, but without any of the redeeming physicality.
He should be on the plane to Phoenix with whatever else it takes TODAY.
I had stuff to get done last night, so I only had the game going on in the background and wasn't watching intently. So, I did not notice the play in question here. However, there are times when the defenseman should stay on his man even up to the blue line if he has the puck. Typically, this is in a man-on-man type system. When Bouchard follows his man up top, someone else should be covering that lone man in front of the net.
You actually see this happen a fair bit when teams are trying to contain McDavid. If the defenseman just lets him go and circle around by the blue line and cut to the middle across the blue line, McDavid will have too much time and space to make a play before the forward picks him up. Or if the D and the winger try to switch, it likely leaves someone open while the defenseman tries to get to him, not to mention that winger is probably flat footed already at the top of the circle and McD is going to burn him if they switch. So, when that is the coverage/system teammates should rotate the winger on the side he is up needs to drop down and add coverage down low, with the other D and the Center. That said I am not really sure what Woody's system is so no idea if Bouch was doing the right thing or not.
Many of us have been constructively critical of him in the past, but have been blasted for it, always with the excuse that it was other people's fault. Drai is a supreme talent with incredible vision, passing and shooting abilities. What he isn't, is a horse with a motor that can run smoothly and efficiently with skating strides that require maximum effort. Unlike McDavid, and similar to most mortals, he needs regular rest in between shifts, but has shown he'd rather stay an extra 20 seconds for his shift than he should be, and in this league, that will get you eaten alive. Maybe the worst thing that could happen to him, was having an out of body experience last year, where he produced a raft of points while being barely able to move due to his wonky ankle sprain. He told himself that he could still produce and help the team with limited skating, and this seems to have carried over at times this year.
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