Post-Game Talk: Oilers suffer from narcolepsy again to start the season

[Bryanbryoil]

The team has no sparkplug. There is no Mike Grier on this club. On this roster that nature of player doesn't exist. Its why some of us recognized the importance of a player like Kostin in the lineup. Or Kane. We don't have either. Ask yourself what player o this lineup would go over to the bench and instill some kind of fear or detente. That player doesn't exist here. The Hawks have multiple players on roster that would do that.

Some people were pissed that McD took a liberty after Kaiser nailed him. I thought McD was more just trying to avoid injury and that he might have fallen back on play and hit his head on ice. I think Kaiser took liberties on the play, I think Maroon did when he put an Oiler in the bench, I thought another Hawk did when he put RV's head into the boards.

At best the response of this roster is to pretend to respond to that. It may as well be the boys standing on the bus stop. All our players have potential targets on backs and not a thing this roster will do about it. How do people not see that all the stars on this club are on their own? Physically they are left on their own to fight their own battles. Thus both Mc and Drai becoming chippy players. They have no choice.

The Hawks have Patrick Maroon, Foligno, Kaiser, Vlasic even Seth Jones that were taking liberties out there. Anybody here name one tough that is presently in the Oilers lineup.

If we truly want to win the cup we need to have Leon, Connor, Ekholm and Bouchard as close to 100% as possible come playoff time. If they are being roughed up all season long that will be a very tall task. We banked all of our toughness on Brown who showed poorly in camp. Kane is out, Desharnais is gone, yet we are relying basically on Nurse as our deterrent? A guy that was banged up enough that he missed the first 5 or 6 preseason games? We need some snarl up front and on the blueline.

 

[Duke74]

Look what players we lost and what we brought in. How was it going to look different than this? The guys will figure it out and do enough to make playoffs but this is going to be a slow and tired looking club in a lot of games. Still can't see Drai getting all the criticism tonight from some here. He's the forward with two new wingers trying to figure it out and he scored, set up several plays and hit a post. You read the board and its him getting the gears again. I thought he was off in first game but pretty good in this one. He wasn't the problem. The standpat first line doesn't even have a goal yet this season.

Criticism of Draisaitl in a GDT? You don't say...

Glad I missed this one. Not sure if I'll even catch the highlights.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Just here wondering where the Fire Knoblauch thread is.

Give it 10 more games like this and we won’t need one. Bowman will parachute Quennville in here and we will be paying for 2 coaches not to coach here.

 

[K1984]

Well he's not getting caved so far. He's got a goal and 2 assists, 3pts, and is walking the line like a good D on Blues 2nd unit PP. He could be doing the same here and we could have a 2nd unit PP. As it is we leave our top guys out on the ice until they fall down.

Broberg has looked good so far in STL. Ain't nobody there disappointed. Its early but he's continuing where he left off here in playoffs.

You’re right he is. Playing mediocre at the very best, but has a few points to shield it.

 

[McTonyBrar]

I watched them and he’s been getting his dick kicked in more often than not.

Comical that anyone thinks that the existence of Broberg on this team would have produced a different result in the first two games.

It's comical that you guys think players like Stecher and Dermott can fix this team lmfao I think that's a bigger joke than what I said

 

[Stoneman89]

There are no hits in this lineup though. No hitters, no fighters, no grit, Teams are gonna take advantage of this and take liberties. How could they not? Maroon kept looking around laughing that there is nobody in our lineup that would do anything no matter what he did. He actually even toned it down, not sure why. he could/ve done anything he liked all night. Same with goons like Foligno.

Watch what happens when a team WANTS to take liberties against this roster. Not sure what Jeff Jackson was thinking. This dog won't fight. Oh but the analytics!

So much over reacting now from yourself after you scolded everyone last game for it and told them to calm down.

 

[McTonyBrar]

People kept not believing me that RV was one of the worst Kings in the first round playoffs. Defensively he's done. he's higher GA now. Doesn't score much either now.

People will get predictably seduced by how busy RV will look but there isn't really much cashing going on. He's a worse player than Foegele now just banging at pucks. RV used to be good.

Man you just hate small players lol

 

[ManByng]

No physicality, poor goaltending, PK and defense. Not even remotely good enough.

I guess they’ll go 2-9-1 again like last season before they wake up?

 

[Bryanbryoil]

I guess they’ll go 2-9-1 again like last season before they wake up?

Hopefully not because we shouldn't need a new coach bump to get our heads out of our asses.

 

[Drivesaitl]

You’re right he is. Playing mediocre at the very best, but has a few points to shield it.

He has as many pts as all the Oilers put together so far. Look. we're just talking about so far, but Broberg is playing well in STL early. It seems a function of denial to have to say otherwise. I watched two of the Blues games. He's got a much bigger part there than he had here and its possibly going to continue.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Man you just hate small players lol

"hate, hate, hate" heh

nah. Hockey more than realized, especially in WC is not a small person game invariably. if you have too many smallish players you run the risk of teams running you. Its one of the very basic notions of hockey and for instance the reason that in all rungs prior to pro hockey you have tight age classifications so that its not bigger players running smaller players out of the rink.
All things being equal skill or skating size always pick the bigger dawg.

To wit a Patrick Maroon always having way more value than a Kailor Yamamoto, and not even close.

Criticism of Draisaitl in a GDT? You don't say...

Glad I missed this one. Not sure if I'll even catch the highlights.

The usual posters here were crying about his game all night. despite Drai having more imprint in offensive end than anybody.

 

[CycloneSweep]

He has as many pts as all the Oilers put together so far. Look. we're just talking about so far, but Broberg is playing well in STL early. It seems a function of denial to have to say otherwise. I watched two of the Blues games. He's got a much bigger part there than he had here and its possibly going to continue.

Brobergs been mixed.
He was awful defensively in their first game, got ran over. Second game showed his good skating but was not good without the puck.
third game he looked relatively good overall.
I remember him doing this in Sweden. Has a “good start” to the seaon but as the rest of the league got going he falls off.

Man you just hate small players lol

He likes Savoie.

 

[CrazyJoeDavola]

Not to mention this team is currently very boring and predictable to watch. You just know they will give up 5 goals against while on the flip side trying to pass the puck into the net. I’ll eat my hat if we give up less than 5 goals against Calgary in the next one.

Nothing has changed from last year other than getting slower since we lost 4 of our top 5 best skaters in the summer.

We are perimeter petes, we can never change shooting angles and our shots always get blocked. For a highly skilled team, we are piss poor at actually generating dangerous chances in the middle of the ice; not to mention we might be the worst team at shooting in the league lol

 

[Drivesaitl]

Brobergs been mixed.
He was awful defensively in their first game, got ran over. Second game showed his good skating but was not good without the puck.
third game he looked relatively good overall.
I remember him doing this in Sweden. Has a “good start” to the seaon but as the rest of the league got going he falls off.


He likes Savoie.

Savoie isn't inordinately small, he's normal distribution small, and he's young so possibility to round out to close to 200lbs like many young players do when they reach full maturity. What Savoie is however is extremely talented and smallish players need to be that at this level. I have all day for Savoie. He's won me over in short time.

 

[HockeyGuy1964]

Get blown out by a team playing back to back & the third game in 4 nights?
What a terrible game to be in the building for.
Just remember, it's always the coaches fault.

 

[ManOfSteelI]

This is a thing I’ve noticed about the power play that is all of a sudden ass for the entirety of pre season and through two games to date.

The quick strike goals that the Oilers have been wearing simply would not happen here the way they are playing at the moment. Win the draw, slowly move it around, get it to the point, dust it off, slowly move it around, take a 0% shot, dust it off, turn it over on the wall. Rinse and repeat.

Nothing about this team is being done with any speed or assertiveness so far, and it has nothing to do with the “they skate slow” or “they’re old” narratives. These are our top players that can’t do anything at the moment. This is among the most disinterested McDavid has ever looked playing hockey and he has to shake out of it.

Another point to mention is that both Oiler goalies have a 0.00 SV% on the PK so far. So, there will be regression there.. lol.

 

[guymez]

Just finished listening to the Got Yer Back Podcast and towards the end of the podcast they bring up an interesting point...this team doesnt seem to have command of its 'A' game.
Historically it only seems to come out when the situation becomes desperate.
Not a good sign at all.

 

[guymez]

Is there any reason to think that this team will even beat the Flames tonight?
They could well be 0-3 (and a goal differential of over -10) to start the season.

 

[Stoneman89]

Just finished listening to the Got Yer Back Podcast and towards the end of the podcast they bring up an interesting point...this team doesnt seem to have command of its 'A' game.
Historically it only seems to come out when the situation becomes desperate.
Not a good sign at all.

Starting slow last year and then getting to the finals was a double edged sword for them. Showed what they could do when they put their minds to it, but also now gives them a built in excuse to ramp things up whenever they feel like it.

 

[McDNicks17]

Problem begins with Dustin Schwartz end of story

Idgaf what angle people yry to playboy spin. The fact we are 2 games in and the biggest problem so far is goaltending AGAIN is mind boggling esp considering it's been are biggest problem under this guys tenure and he is still fking employed..

I watched Bako's last game and it's terrifying how much Rodrigue looks like Skinner.

Guy was drafted as a hyper athletic guy and looks like he can barely even move in the net now.

Schwartz has to have blackmail on Katz or something.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Really an embarrassing effort. I thought they would reset to beat a road tripping Hawks team and then get outworked by a hard effort Flames team. Now we'll see what happens tonight.

Bad goaltending infront of a weak defense and a team with a shitty PK and no goal scoring is a surprising full range of early problem areas. They look slow and disconnected. Wasn't hard to project some PK challenges and defending concerns with the reworked right defense of career journeymen. But to have all areas sputtering including their two super elites is surprising. The lows and highs of this team carry over from coach to coach to coach. It's baked into the psyche of this team's personnel for whatever reason less a coaching issue.

Lots to work on in all areas. Real roster deficiencies in their own zone defending and goaltending consistencies which will be the fundamental challenge of this year's 'new team.' The Offense will come but their defending, PK and goaltending is where the rubber will hit the road for 2024-25 edition.

 

[K1984]

It's comical that you guys think players like Stecher and Dermott can fix this team lmfao I think that's a bigger joke than what I said

Nobody said that, but keep projecting.

 

[McShogun99]

Well he's not getting caved so far. He's got a goal and 2 assists, 3pts, and is walking the line like a good D on Blues 2nd unit PP. He could be doing the same here and we could have a 2nd unit PP. As it is we leave our top guys out on the ice until they fall down.

Broberg has looked good so far in STL. Ain't nobody there disappointed. Its early but he's continuing where he left off here in playoffs.

They should have just ate the bullet and matched on both players instead of losing them for a 2nd, 2x3rds and a prospect that will never play an NHL game. Worst case, you trade them next summer or buyout Broberg.

Management was to focused on adding at this years deadline instead of what those players can do for us today and long term. Zero point to slow play prospects only to let them walk for nothing when they’re on the cusp of being full time NHLers.