Pre-Game Talk: Oilers vs Senators

[Tobias Kahun]

Don bashing McLellan for specifically calling out his "star" players, ie. McDavid. Says keep it in the room, shouldn't point fingers at specific people in the media. Always been part of McLellan's MO though to point fingers in the media, so doubt he will be listening to old Don

How is Cherry still on TV, guy is old, and starting to become quite the idiot, can't even pronounce names properly 90% of the time.

 

[NeverForget06]

Don bashing McLellan for specifically calling out his "star" players, ie. McDavid. Says keep it in the room, shouldn't point fingers at specific people in the media. Always been part of McLellan's MO though to point fingers in the media, so doubt he will be listening to old Don

Personally I liked it. I mean I've seen TMac criticized around here so many times for not being hard enough on the team.

I think I would having a problem if he was putting a spotlight on an individual player, but "stars" gets the point across.

Accountability (or lack thereof) has plagued this team for a long long time. I like the change.

We'll see the response tonight. I'm expecting good things from McDavid, he is rarely off for more than a couple games.

 

[Mr Tadakichi]

How is Cherry still on TV, guy is old, and starting to become quite the idiot, can't even pronounce names properly 90% of the time.

I still like his views on "Lou sick" and "Lelongo".

 

[488fitter]

played Ottawa on Brett Hull '95 with the Oilers. Went to the 6th overtime period before finding the net for a 2-1 victory. Guess that means we are in for a dog fight tonight.

Shoulda just cut behind the net, then back out front. Guaranteed goal lol.

 

[oobga]

Personally I liked it. I mean I've seen TMac criticized around here so many times for not being hard enough on the team.

I think I would having a problem if he was putting a spotlight on an individual player, but "stars" gets the point across.

Accountability (or lack thereof) has plagued this team for a long long time. I like the change.

We'll see the response tonight. I'm expecting good things from McDavid, he is rarely off for more than a couple games.

I think it's more of a problem when you are constantly isolating individuals. I think Schultz is the only guy he's really pointed a finger directly at in a nasty way. Aside from that, he's really equal opportunity. If you sucked, you might take some heat no matter who you are. If you played well, he will probably give you praise.

Chia has done a good job as well filling out the roster with guys that can take that kind of stuff. Roster is pretty low on snowflakes these days.

 

[Delicious Pancakes]

Is it that players aren't stepping up, or players aren't good enough? You can't really expect someone to take the reigns if they just aren't capable of it at the NHL level.

I think Chia probably thought he had enough options that one of them would pan out. Unfortunately that hasn't been the case so far.
- Strome: It's only 3 games in but so far the fit/chemistry hasn't been right. Let's give it some more time. (Regarding the trade, obviously a cap dump but the return for Eberle was poor at the time, and he could've waited for Eberle to up his value to start the season which would have been a good bet given Eberle's poor shooting percentage last year. Then he could've traded Eberle in season to a team desperate for scoring help for assets which he could then package to another team for a suitable top 6 replacement at the deadline. There's the risk though of trying to move a $6M player in season and limiting the teams that can afford him.)
- Puljujarvi: They probably hoped he'd be ready to step in but I don't think they expected him to be a big contributor in the top 6. Not a big surprise he's back in the AHL to start. Needs seasoning.
- Slepyshev: I think a step forward from Slepy was to be expected given his playoff performance but the injury definitely sets him back to start the season.
- Caggiula: Similar expectations for Caggiula especially with the chemistry shown on McDavid's line (small sample size) in the playoffs. He's really struggled out of the gate though and is now injured. Damn sophomore jinx better F off!
- Jokinen: I don't think he was really considered for a top line spot but I think middle 6 depth scoring was expected and he hasn't been very noticable to this point. Not bad, but not moving the needle really.
- Yamamoto: He couldn't have been expected to be where he is now. Pleasant surprise who has struggled with regular season play and barring a change should be sent down sooner than later, ie: in the next

So I can see why Chia felt optimistic that one of these options could step up. To this point though none of those options has produced a single point through 3 games which is concerning. If all of them have to move up one spot higher than they're comfortable with that's going to add pressure, and sink or swim policies tend to produce more sinkers than swimmers.

 

[RandomGuy79]

I expect a hard push from the Oilers in the first 10 minutes, and we need to capitalize on it.

 

[harpoon]

How does Benning sit and Russell stay in. Maybe he bribed TM with some of his 4 million

Because Benning has been the worst Oiler defenceman by a country mile?

 

[rboomercat90]

I just hope this doesn't end up being an appropriate theme after the game

Life of Brian?

 

[ChaoticOrange]

Oilers have come out like gangbusters in pretty much every game so far, and all of the underlying numbers point to the fact that the Oil have simply been unlucky so far.

Push hard, plenty of shots. Sens should have burned retinas from all the red lights they put up on the Flames last night.

 

[PeakMcOil]

http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1068171843807

 

[NeverForget06]

*winces* *crosses fingers*

 

[CycloneSweep]

*winces* *crosses fingers*

Yamamoto, Kassian, Slepyshev, Pakarinen for right wing.... *twitch*

 

[Oilers Propagandist]

Some rando ass GDT tunez 4 uuuuuu





YAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
NO LEEF GAME CUTTING INTO OUT GAME WOOOOooooooobbbbBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOO LEEFS WON.....

 

[Hopelesslucicfan]

I hate how good matthews is

 

[Oilers Propagandist]

Oilers have come out like gangbusters in pretty much every game so far, and all of the underlying numbers point to the fact that the Oil have simply been unlucky so far.

Push hard, plenty of shots. Sens should have burned retinas from all the red lights they put up on the Flames last night.

I agree but according to some, there is no such thing as bad luck.
I hope they play with conviction. Losing Draisaitl is a huge blow, let's see what they're made of.

 

[Space Coyote]

I hate how good matthews is

Meh. Still nothing like McJesus.

 

[Hopelesslucicfan]

Meh. Still nothing like McJesus.

If anybody is close, it's matthews imo.

 

[sepHF]

I hate how good matthews is

That was crazy... such a hard pass to receive and he made it look so easy

 

[BlackDogg]

Feeling queasy peasy.

 

[dem]

Tbh I think Matthews is as good as Mcdavid...

 

[Oilers Propagandist]

Yay, game time!

 

[nexttothemoon]

Yamamoto baby... watch him explode tonight.

 

[GhostfaceWu]

Lucic bodies him

 

[CycloneSweep]

I hate when Lucic fights nobodies. It just helps the other team lol