Post-Game Talk: Oilers score 5 goals and an ENG without McDrai

[Drivesaitl]

I meant Jeff. He’s going to score at least one huge goal for us.

I know what you meant. I was not too cleverly shifting it to the other Skinner. Thats my fear. Not feeling it as much this season as last season going down stretch. Don't think we're as good now.

Somewhere in the off season the org reminded me of why I question it so much. Assets not retained properly here and the team seldom getting better in offseason.

 

[Soundwave]

Even 20 goals for J Skinner, if you said that at start of season people would've said failure. There was a plurality of posters here expecting 30. Somehow.

Agreed that the org is awfully dumb. Not gonna argue that point. I did amend my post to say that presently Skinner should be playing and granted minutes, and more minutes. Albeit he had 17 last game and thats pretty good for no pk play. He was on PP too.

I meant he would have 20+ goals like now as in today, en route to finish around 25-30 goals for the season if he was given a fair shake here.

Dylan Holloway for example has 17 even strength goals through 72 games, that's about the same scoring rate as Jeff Skinner with 14 ES goals through only 60 games played (0.233 gpg EVG for Skinner versus 0.236 for Holloway).

And one guy has been given great treatment in St. Louis while Jeff Skinner is treated like dog shit in Edmonton. Holloway gets boat loads of top 6 minutes and extra PP time, Skinner here gets none of either. Score a game winning goal in a game and do nothing negative and get healthy scratched the next game. Rookie needs to come into the lineup? You get scratched instead of like Kapanen, Brown, Janmark (lol) even though you've been one of the few forwards scoring, etc. etc.

If anyone had excuses to quit on this season it's this guy, says a lot to me that not only has he not done that, but he hasn't had even a single sour moment in an interview or something like that (hello Evander Kane).

 

[Drivesaitl]

I meant he would have 20+ goals like now as in today, en route to finish around 25-30 goals for the season if he was given a fair shake here.

Dylan Holloway for example has 17 even strength goals through 72 games, that's about the same scoring rate as Jeff Skinner with 14 ES goals through only 60 games played (0.233 gpg EVG for Skinner versus 0.236 for Holloway).

And one guy has been given great treatment in St. Louis while Jeff Skinner is treated like dog shit in Edmonton. Score a game winning goal in a game and do nothing negative and get healthy scratched the next game. Rookie needs to come into the lineup? You get scratched even though you've been one of the few forwards scoring, etc. etc.

If anyone had excuses to quit on this season it's this guy, says a lot to me that not only has he not done that, but he hasn't even uttered a peep.

J Skinner can't really say much can he. This is the last stop on the bullet train after being contractually bought out from a worst in league team that didn't even want him. There wouldn't be a lot of asks for jeff Skinner. His Career will be over quick as you can say Mike Hoffman. Its what his future looks like barring miracle.

Look, I know you don't get this point or subcribe to it but no coach commits to Jeff Skinner, ANYWHERE, and no coach has, ever, because they know what he's been. Maybe he's seen the light now and he's converted. This guy was coach killer material his whole career and even laughed about it. Coaching is a closer fraternity than you might think.

So again gonna take way more than a few games for myself or the coaching staff to trust this guy is truly a reformed player.

Heres a trivia question. What head coach in Buffalo hated Jeff Skinner?

Answer: All of them. jk but not far from the truth and ample material exists on it.

You keep acting like some knob is the only coach ever questioning Skinners commitment.

 

[Soundwave]

J Skinner can't really say much can he. This is the last stop on the bullet train after being contractually bought out from a worst in league team that didn't even want him. There wouldn't be a lot of asks for jeff Skinner. His Career will be over quick as you can say Mike Hoffman. Its what his future looks like barring miracle.

Look, I know you don't get this point or subcribe to it but no coach commits to Jeff Skinner, ANYWHERE, and no coach has, ever, because they know what he's been. Maybe he's seen the light now and he's converted. This guy was coach killer material his whole career and even laughed about it. Coaching is a closer fraternity than you might think.

So again gonna take way more than a few games for myself or the coaching staff to trust this guy is truly a reformed player.

He can definitely say a lot if he wanted to.

I wouldn't be surprised if Brandon Saad with connections to Bowman was asked to come here and he and his agent studied what has been going on and took one look at Jeff Skinner's treatment and said "yeah ... nope, take the Vegas deal instead". Smart move on their part even though Vegas has no McDavid or Drai to offer.

JSkinner's treatment here has been hilariously stupid, but it's just par for the course with this organization. If you asked this org to go buy milk at the store, they'd some how come home having crashed your car, shot their foot off with their own gun, and forgotten to buy the milk on top of that.

 

[Drivesaitl]

He can definitely say a lot if he wanted to.

I wouldn't be surprised if Brandon Saad with connections to Bowman was asked to come here and he and his agent studied what has been going on and took one look at Jeff Skinner's treatment and said "yeah ... nope, take the Vegas deal instead".

His treatment here has been hilariously stupid, but it's just par for the course with this organization. If you asked this org to go buy milk at the store, they'd some how come home having crashed your car, shoot their foot off with their own gun, and forgotten to buy the milk on top of that.

K Lowe would. He'd come home with a bag of beans.

 

[FlameChampion]

J Skinner can't really say much can he. This is the last stop on the bullet train after being contractually bought out from a worst in league team that didn't even want him. There wouldn't be a lot of asks for jeff Skinner. His Career will be over quick as you can say Mike Hoffman. Its what his future looks like barring miracle.

Look, I know you don't get this point or subcribe to it but no coach commits to Jeff Skinner, ANYWHERE, and no coach has, ever, because they know what he's been. Maybe he's seen the light now and he's converted. This guy was coach killer material his whole career and even laughed about it. Coaching is a closer fraternity than you might think.

So again gonna take way more than a few games for myself or the coaching staff to trust this guy is truly a reformed player.

Heres a trivia question. What head coach in Buffalo hated Jeff Skinner?

Answer: All of them. jk but not far from the truth and ample material exists on it.

You keep acting like some knob is the only coach ever questioning Skinners commitment.

Not really sure you can call him a coach killer. Buffalo is such a mess that I don’t know how much you can even blame on the players.

Will be interesting to see what JS reputation is like after this year. Its been a bizarre year how Edmonton has handled him. I hope for him and for us, he has a strong finish to the year.

 

[Soundwave]

Not really sure you can call him a coach killer. Buffalo is such a mess that I don’t know how much you can even blame on the players.

Will be interesting to see what JS reputation is like after this year. Its been a bizarre year how Edmonton has handled him. I hope for him and for us, he has a strong finish to the year.

He already IS having a strong finish to the year ... he's scoring at a higher rate than Dylan Holloway is this calendar year, with very little top 6 time and no PP time.

I wouldn't be surprised actually is the whole "come to play in Edmonton with McDavid + Drai!" sales pitch starts to lose its luster with players who see how guys get treated here.

Another example of another team that impliments players better than us ... Vegas took Saad and he has 5 goals in 17 games for them (20+ goal rate instantly for no assets given up). Bet he has no regrets about signing there over us.

Other than Hyman our ability to integrate new forwards into the group and get results is starting to look very, very mediocre. It's high time the media started asking a heckuva lot more questions about why that is and the coaches be held to account.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Not really sure you can call him a coach killer. Buffalo is such a mess that I don’t know how much you can even blame on the players.

Will be interesting to see what JS reputation is like after this year. Its been a bizarre year how Edmonton has handled him. I hope for him and for us, he has a strong finish to the year.

Hey, I do the research. There isn't one Buffalo head coach that didn't have multiple issues with Skinner. Or not one I've found yet.

Thing is on rebuilding squats the vet players are supposed to be key positive influences helping out the younger players. Outside of one season Skinner was never that in Buffalo. He just wasn't interested in anything but one dimensionally padding some goal stats. me first player.

Was such a mystery to me why the Oilers went for Skinner and Arvid. I did support the Kane acquisition. yrs ago Evander Kane is a player that makes teams better, always has. Skinner and Arvid have basically never been that. Surprised Kane was so available. People shouldn't have listened to the gossip rags.

TRouble with both Arvid and Skinner is they are not strong enough to be much of a factor in playoffs. Neither survive close marking all that well. At present age both need pretty open looks to score.

 

[Soundwave]

Hey, I do the research. There isn't one Buffalo head coach that didn't have multiple issues with Skinner. Or not one I've found yet.

Was such a mystery to me why the Oilers went for Skinner and Arvid. I did support the Kane acquisition. yrs ago Evander Kane is a player that makes teams better, always has. Skinner and Arvid have basically never been that. Surprised Kane was so available. People shouldn't have listened to the gossip rags.

TRouble with both Arvid and Skinner is they are not strong enough to be much of a factor in playoffs. Neither survive close marking all that well.

Eh that's pretty revisionist history with Evander Kane. Buffalo was terrible with him, Winnipeg all over the place, and San Jose started going downhill with him after a couple of years.

He also tried to fight the video coach (or vice versa) ... lol.

If Jeff Skinner is such a bad apple he's had every oppurtunity to showcase that this year, instead he's been a complete pro and team player and hasn't gone at Knob in the media at all even though he has all the case in the world to do so ... how many veteran players get scratched from a lineup after scoring a game winning goal and having no glaring defensive mistakes in said game?

You do that to Evander Kane and sure as f*** he'd go to Elliot Friedman or someone else and give them a piece of his mind, lol. That's just straight up disrespect on Knob's part. Knob is lucky Skinner is very polite and amenable, a lot of veteran players that have scored the amount of goals he has would not be.

Jeff Skinner has gone way above and beyond the metric of what it means to be a pro this year for the Oilers. He had all the excuses in the world to quit and whine and pout in the bottom 6 and even more after continually getting scratched with players like Janmark and Podkolzin staying despite not being able to score with a hooker. Good for him. He's tougher mentally than I thought, that kind of treatment from a coach on a new team would break a lot of players, even good ones.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Eh that's pretty revisionist history with Evander Kane. Buffalo was terrible with him, Winnipeg all over the place, and San Jose started going downhill with him after a couple of years.

He also tried to fight the video coach (or vice versa) ... lol.

If Jeff Skinner is such a bad apple he's had every oppurtunity to showcase that this year, instead he's been a complete pro and team player and hasn't gone at Knob in the media at all even though he has all the case in the world to do so ... how many veteran players get scratched from a lineup after scoring a game winning goal and having no glaring defensive mistakes in said game?

You do that to Evander Kane and sure as f*** he'd go to Elliot Friedman or someone else and give them a piece of his mind, lol. That's just straight up disrespect on Knob's part. Knob is lucky Skinner is very polite and amenable, a lot of veteran players that have scored the amount of goals he has would not be.

Jeff Skinner has gone way above and beyond the metric of what it means to be a pro this year for the Oilers. He had all the excuses in the world to quit and whine and pout in the bottom 6 and even more after continually getting scratched with players like Janmark and Podkolzin staying despite not being able to score with a hooker. Good for him. He's tougher mentally than I thought, that kind of treatment from a coach on a new team would break a lot of players, even good ones.

We obvously have diferent impressions of Jeff Skinner. Man watch some of thepostgames in buffalo when not my fault J Skinner is explaining away his latest terrible game. This is a guy that was one of the highest paid players in the league and was half assing it in Buffalo. Think about what he was making in relation to what he' was giving he club. He wasn't even an outscorer. He just didn't care. Lindy Ruff, I doubt he'd ever have Skinner on his club and Buffalo pundits that say that too.

Skinner maybe more polite now. Back then he was a player that would mock a coach as much as anything. He's grown up and matured a bit.

In anycase Kane was an impact player wherever he went, and a key part of the lineup wherever he was. Skinner is just there not ever making any team better.

 

[The Panther]

As it is Skinners goal totals have been underwhelming.

Each even strength goal-per-minute played by forwards on the Oilers this season (maybe be off by a minute or so due to players leaving games mid-way, but ranking is unchanged in any event):

1 goal / 34 min. = Draisaitl
1 goal / 54 min. = Skinner
1 goal / 62 mn. = Perry
1 goal / 64 min. = Hyman
1 goal / 80 min. = Arvidsson
1 goal / 82 min. = McDavid
1 goal / 119 min. = Nugent-Hopkins

 

[The Panther]

Knob is an idiot with his forward deployment, he just relies on McDavid and Draisaitl to overwhelm opponents and calls it a day. Woodcroft was brain dead defensively, but I think he was the only coach here that's really ever tried to get a full compliment of scoring from all the forwards.

This is kind of what it's shaking down to, regarding recent coaches:
Woodcroft / Manson = Good offense, terrible defense
Knoblach / Coffey = Good defense, terrible offense

 

[Pip]

I lol’d when I saw the ‘well rested’ comment. Trying to walk back a whole season of posts calling the player a ‘nothing’ a ‘slug’ etc.

It’s like the ‘bad opponent’ argument he keeps trotting out this year. I’ve lost count of how many times the Oilers have played a team that has ‘given up’ or is ‘playing their worst game of the season’ etc. You mentioned the Jets game after which J Skinner’s game was discounted because the Jets are already in the playoffs and ‘have no reason to even be trying out there’. It’s free comedy at least.

I’m super interested to hear whether Dallas ends up being a “bad opponent” or not.

 

[AddyTheWrath]

The playoffs are set up to be a big dissapointment regardless. This team has never really cared about goaltending in the whole period of McDrai.

Do everyone a favor and don't watch then

 

[Spawn]

No chance. Janmark is a key PKer, he's starting to play better and he was a key playoff performer last year. Assuming Kane is back to being Kane (which I think is a big assumoption), it's likely to be Perry or, lol, Jeff Skinner because....Knoblauch.

It feels really silly to be benching a guy who has 15 goals this year on a team that is dying for depth scoring for a guy who has all of 2 goals (neither of which he actually shot past a goalie). Its not like our PK is any good either. It's like 11th worst in the league and Janmark and Brown have been our two worst PKing forwards.

 

[Soundwave]

We obvously have diferent impressions of Jeff Skinner. Man watch some of thepostgames in buffalo when not my fault J Skinner is explaining away his latest terrible game. This is a guy that was one of the highest paid players in the league and was half assing it in Buffalo. Think about what he was making in relation to what he' was giving he club. He wasn't even an outscorer. He just didn't care. Lindy Ruff, I doubt he'd ever have Skinner on his club and Buffalo pundits that say that too.

Skinner maybe more polite now. Back then he was a player that would mock a coach as much as anything. He's grown up and matured a bit.

In anycase Kane was an impact player wherever he went, and a key part of the lineup wherever he was. Skinner is just there not ever making any team better.

I mean that's ridiculous bar to hold a player to.

Eichel didn't help Buffalo. Neither did Reinhart. Neither has Dahlin. Neither did Ullmark. And certainly not Evander Kane (lol). Or Taylor Hall.

Saying Jeff Skinner was some how supposed to make them a good team is asking for a bit much.

Skinner has been a complete pro in Edmonton and is even now for several months scoring at the rate he was more or less expected to (25+ goal rate) despite very little top 6 time with McDrai and no PP time.

In the last 10 years I can't really recall any Oiler forward scoring at a 20+ goal rate while being given basically all bottom 6 minutes, even Corey Perry gets reps on the PP and with McDavid or Drai.

 

[McDoused]

Despite not being injured this year, Jeff Skinner has seen the 11th highest TOI among forwards this year with 754 minutes.

He hasn't bitched once about it and it looks like he's finally been given the chance to play his game.

I keep saying this. When we signed him he had 371 goals in 1006 NHL games. Pro rate that and he's a 30 goal scorer on average. Meanwhile Holloway had 9 regular season NHL goals to his name and an injury history. Lets stop focusing on what we gave up and start focusing on what we got. Their is a player in Skinner who has been grossly misused. How do we know that Holloway would have been any different under knoblauch? It's not like Holloway didn't make the odd brain fart when he was here.

 

[Soundwave]

Despite not being injured this year, Jeff Skinner has seen the 11th highest TOI among forwards this year with 754 minutes.

He hasn't bitched once about it and it looks like he's finally been given the chance to play his game.

I keep saying this. When we signed him he had 371 goals in 1006 NHL games. Pro rate that and he's a 30 goal scorer on average. Meanwhile Holloway had 9 regular season NHL goals to his name and an injury history. Lets stop focusing on what we gave up and start focusing on what we got. Their is a player in Skinner who has been grossly misused. How do we know that Holloway would have been any different under knoblauch? It's not like Holloway didn't make the odd brain fart when he was here.

I have serious doubts that Holloway would have developed the same way here. This org clearly treats some players like shit and this organization struggles to integrate a lot of forwards properly. It's not just a trend one can ignore any longer, besides Hyman, the laundry list of under-performing forwards here is becoming a mile long.

Jeff Skinner just is making a mockery of the Oilers stupid forward deployment tendancies because instead of quitting on the season, he chose to work harder, get better defensively, and start scoring again at a 30-ish goal rate with crap linemates even.

 

[Drivesaitl]

The playoffs are set up to be a big dissapointment regardless. This team has never really cared about goaltending in the whole period of McDrai.

My take as well. Nothing addressed in offseason and nothing in TDL. We march to the fate of having Skinner in goal. Tonight we march to 3rd place where we probably land. Knights and Kings flying.

Not feeling it this year with this club. The Edmonton Connor Browns.

hard to see the season as anything but disappointing. We were favored to win SC so said the pundits. We're 10th place in league standings and dropping. 3rd in division. If you told people that at start of season it wouldn't be considered any success.

 

[Drivesaitl]

The people still not sure about Jeff Skinner.. what do you want out of the guy? It’s weird how he’s perceived, like he’s gotta be a perfect player to have any respect.

He’s not bad defensively, nobody ever expected him to be a two way forward either btw.

He scored at a respectable rate even when demoted.

He doesn’t complain.

He’s not getting paid a fortune.

He’s gonna be a loser in a bunch of people’s eyes until he scores the GWG for the Cup lol

To me its that losing players like Holloway and Broberg, your best prospects is a thing an org should never do. Allowing tehm to get bought out. Disgrace.

People develop attachments to players, to our prospects, and then we're expected to love some other players we've never even liked. Thats what it is for me. In recent seasons Oilers have added a lot of players I just didn't want. Lost a lot of players I liked.

Contending teams don't have this much roster changeover. They never do.

That isn't about Skinner specifically I just don't buy the plan. I don't know that there is one here.

Not believing that this team gets to the final this season. We need more than we got.

 

[Dieseloil]

View attachment 998294

WTF is Skinner doing here, break dancing?

 

[Drivesaitl]

WTF is Skinner doing here, break dancing?

He's trying to fart on a Jet to kill him. He's about out of ideas.

 

[Oilhawks]

The playoffs are set up to be a big dissapointment regardless. This team has never really cared about goaltending in the whole period of McDrai.

Yeah, if anything, fans should be worried about goaltending. Last night the roster showed they have some offensive chops without McDrai

 

[CrazyJoeDavola]

To me its that losing players like Holloway and Broberg, your best prospects is a thing an org should never do. Allowing tehm to get bought out. Disgrace.

People develop attachments to players, to our prospects, and then we're expected to love some other players we've never even liked. Thats what it is for me. In recent seasons Oilers have added a lot of players I just didn't want. Lost a lot of players I liked.

Contending teams don't have this much roster changeover. They never do.

That isn't about Skinner specifically I just don't buy the plan. I don't know that there is one here.

Not believing that this team gets to the final this season. We need more than we got.

I believe this is why Bouchard's play has noticeably dropped this year. The guy just watched his three BFFs get cast away by the team in the summer.

 

[OfCorsiDid]

Walman is not better than Nurse.

The jury is still out on that.