Post-Game Talk: Oilers win in Minnesota, go find an Ark and get in it before the fire and brimstone start raining down

[TopShelfGloveSide]

Oilers should pick up Erne and have him hit Hartman with his patented flying elbow. Take a suspension for the team and back to the AHL.

 

[JeffSkinner53]

We beat the Wild. The Wild seethe. "I know", their GM says, twiddling his thumbs. "We will claim their worst defenseman on waivers." The staff all maniacally laugh and give each other high fives.

 

[PaPaDee]

It's an everyone problem, even though the record is not too bad and the team is doing well, like 2/3 of the forward roster are under performing.

I think Hyman is barely on pace for 20 goals himself (last night's "goal" credited to him was hilarious).

The whole team needs to come together and get it going in that regard, it shouldn't be this difficult to find offensive chemistry. I get the feeling if Jeff Skinner was on Vancouver he'd have like triple the shooting percentage and be on pace for 30+ goals.

We need to figure out why that isn't happening here. If it's one underperforming forward, ok, two, alright, but we have currently like 6-7 guys and then we also have Kane who was trending out of the top 6 last year too ... some questions need to be asked.

That and S. Skinner's up and down play are actually the central issues for the team, all the hysteria and crying over how the D was going to collapse because Emberson/Dermott weren't sexy enough names, finding a partner for Nurse, team speed, Corey Perry!, etc. etc. largely have all been fine. Those haven't been problems at all.

There’s an expectation and commitment to playing better on defensive side, no cheating for offense.

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

It's an everyone problem, even though the record is not too bad and the team is doing well, like 2/3 of the forward roster are under performing.

I think Hyman is barely on pace for 20 goals himself (last night's "goal" credited to him was hilarious).

The whole team needs to come together and get it going in that regard, it shouldn't be this difficult to find offensive chemistry. I get the feeling if Jeff Skinner was on Vancouver he'd have like triple the shooting percentage and be on pace for 30+ goals.

We need to figure out why that isn't happening here. If it's one underperforming forward, ok, two, alright, but we have currently like 6-7 guys and then we also have Kane who was trending out of the top 6 last year too ... some questions need to be asked.

That and S. Skinner's up and down play are actually the central issues for the team, all the hysteria and crying over how the D was going to collapse because Emberson/Dermott weren't sexy enough names, finding a partner for Nurse, team speed, Corey Perry!, etc. etc. largely have all been fine. Those haven't been problems at all.

The team has started getting it going…

 

[Stoneman89]

Great game last night, Wild can suck it.

Hopefully Hartman gets his and soon. Guy has always been a Grade A shithead and one of the dirtiest players in the league.


Finally, going to give a bit of love to Jeff Skinner, who looks like he's finally coming out of his funk. The goals haven't been pouring in, but he's been really hard on the puck and dependable defensively. I think if he continues to play like this, the goals and points will start to come.

 

[jesusbuiltmyhotrod]

There’s an expectation and commitment to playing better on defensive side, no cheating for offense.

He thinks teams have every player on a hot streak the same time. Best to block him he is insufferable. Prob only watches the oilers

 

[JordanGalhanth]

That’s one thing that concerns me with this team. We tend to get outhit by a mile and shy away from the physical stuff. I think we will need to add a bit of toughness at the deadline as we will need to ramp up the physicality come playoff time.

The other thing too...at the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist...is that with the obvious officiating inequality across the league, how do we know that we wouldn't get punished by the officials (or especially Parros) for pushing back?

After all, this is the same NHL who suspended McDavid for a fluke knee-on-knee incident a season or two ago.

 

[Gordy Elbows]

I don’t accidentally drink bleach, I drink it on purpose and have over many years in slowly increasing amounts until my body has built up an immunity, like I’ve done with so many other toxins so that my wife can never poison me, I secretly put arsenic on everything I eat. It takes a strong mind to force this type of evolution in body, unlikely to be achieved by a child like mind stimulated by such things as video games and corny

Al Buddy has entered the chat.

 

[Soundwave]

There’s an expectation and commitment to playing better on defensive side, no cheating for offense.

That's true but that doesn't mean there should be this level of scoring drop off after two players especially when those two players are playmakers.

We should at least have two offensive lines that are really cooking, so that aspect has to come up.

We only have one player outside of McDavid/Drai pacing for 20 goals and that's Hyman and that's just barely (I don't even know how the goal yesterday counted as his). That needs to change, there's enough talent here that it shouldn't be just a tiny handful of forwards having a good season.

It shouldn't be that multiple players come here and there offense just dies and/or guys leave and go elsewhere and score more somewhere else.

Everyone in the org, the leadership group of this team included, need to figure out what the problem is and how it can be addressed. Do minutes need to be more evenly spread out? Are we playing some line combinations too long and not giving other combinations a chance? Does the PP concept of only having the same 5 players on it and locking everyone else out make sense when the PP itself isn't working as well as the past? Do we need to change up our practice drills (ie: more net front battle drills)?

 

[Drivesaitl]

I'm not really looking long-term though I'm looking this season. And tbh I really don't even think about the regular season as anything but a primer to get this team ready for playoffs. I think the two players can both be beneficial when playoffs come around. Arvidsson falls down a lot, but he's also a puck hound and he plays with pace. Kapanen brings a lot of good qualities that can also help this lineup.

I think with the players available this team can run a very deep 4 line system similar to Dallas last year. The only difference is the Oilers have the two horses on top of that, and this team's built exceptionally well for not only 5 on 5 play, but to have elite special teams when the playoffs roll around.

All good points. Right now everthing is working like a charm, team is relatively healthy except for Kane and now Booch, oof, and the team is playing some peek hockey right now. My worry is whether some of the players can keep up, Only time reveals that through a long season playoffs but I'll enjoy the ride.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Don’t forget that the NHL’s partners, the NHLPA believe it is their duty to protect the rats.

I don’t think the NHL does a particularly good job but I don’t suspect it will ever get better until the NHLPA takes anything other than and adversarial role. Yes, that means they have to resolve a conflict of interest but seems important to me.

Yeah. The NHLPA's take on all this has always surprised me. They should be looking after their own players health. You'd think they'd try to protect the plurality of players, but they get bogged down in the nonsense of defending infracters. They oddly adopt a legal defense view, instead of an ideal view on what is good for all players. I could see the NHL dragging knuckles on player safety but its worse that the players association does as well. Maybe wholescale change in its operations is needed. Should be representing the 99% of players, not the 1% that are dirtbags. I'm being charitable with the numbers.