Post-Game Talk: Parental guidance advised

[CupofOil]

These guys and management better forget about the division

They aren't serious. Too many holes in net etc.

I'd be shocked if they went back to the finals. Won't be an easy path like last year

Easy Path? They had to beat the top 2 seeds in the west to get to the finals and played the #2 seed in the east (a 110 pt team) in the finals.

I get that yesterday was a bad loss but the hysterics around here are absurd. They were 11-2-1 in their previous 14 before yesterday beating some elite teams along the way, crushing a few of them. Some folks just need to take a break from hockey for a while.

 

[oilers4life5]

For the love of god give Skinner a real chance in the top 6.

 

[bobbythebrain]

Hyman plays with McDavid because McDavid inflates his goal totals massively. With Leon, Hyman maybe scores 35 last year, not 50+. Hyman benefits massively from McDavid's ability to back defenses off on the rush and suck them in towards him when he is in the zone leaving Hyman wide open.

RNH sucks and has been sucking for a bit, this is the second season he's now on pace for sub-20 goals while getting the best deployment possible in hockey (tied to McDavid at 5 on 5 and full PP sessions). Even McDavid may not be able to get him to hit 20, but Knob won't let the love affair with this player go. Skinner should have been given a lengthy look here, he would probably have anywhere from 8-10 goals by now if he was given some of RNH's minutes.

If McDavid and Draisaitl have a valid criticism towards them versus say Crosby and Malkin, Crosby and especially Malkin worked better with a wider variety of wingers. Malkin led the Penguins to their first Cup winning the Conn Smythe with mediocre wingers like Max Talbot and the team got critical goals from Talbot. Later on he would be able to team up with players like Rust and still get great production, these aren't star players.

Leon hasn't really been able to find long lasting chemistry with anyone. Foegele is on pace to score more in LA than he did here with Leon, Arvidsson and Skinner both haven't clicked with him yet, Podkolzin is so-so in terms of net results, Evander Kane no longer really works with Leon and is largely now a bottom 6 player because of that. Didn't look like anything special with Holloway. Yamamoto + RNH were a good line for a stretch and then some how completely forgot how to play with each other.

We don't have money sitting around to bring in a Rantanen or Marner for him to play with, at this point what it is going to take to have some reliable offence at 5 on 5 from that 2nd line? Like who is the player we have to bring in and how do we afford that?

You really should be careful criticizing RNH.
@Jimmi McJenkins might blow a gasket

 

[Messrules11]

I was flipping through the Oilers players stats for the season and I just have to laugh.
Most here know my disdain for RNH, I’ve wanted to trade his ass for well over a decade. But there he is 3 points up on Connor f***ing Brown, one of the biggest whipping boys on this forum. His 7 goals are one more than such studs as Skinner, Brown and old man Perry. Seems like these 3 are the biggest whipping boys on the roster yet Nuge gets the free pass, 5M bucks and is stapled to McDrai at evens and on the PP.

I know the rebuttal is always “oh but his coaches love him” yeah, and every one of those coaches never won jack shit here, and every one of those coaches was also fired.

Just the facts.

 

[K1984]

I was flipping through the Oilers players stats for the season and I just have to laugh.
Most here know my disdain for RNH, I’ve wanted to trade his ass for well over a decade. But there he is 3 points up on Connor f***ing Brown, one of the biggest whipping boys on this forum. His 7 goals are one more than such studs as Skinner, Brown and old man Perry. Seems like these 3 are the biggest whipping boys on the roster yet Nuge gets the free pass, 5M bucks and is stapled to McDrai at evens and on the PP.

I know the rebuttal is always “oh but his coaches love him” yeah, and every one of those coaches never won jack shit here, and every one of those coaches was also fired.

Just the facts.

The play of RNH usually follows the play of the team. Like it or not, he touches a lot of key areas and when he's off so is the PP, PK, and even top line production at times. Other than December where he seemed to maybe find his footing, he's been bad for pretty much the rest of the year and at times really bad. I would even classify December as just ok.

If someone actually found a way to track it, I bet our win % in games where RNH was "good" is like .850 and when he's "bad" probably like .400.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

You really should be careful criticizing RNH.
@Jimmi McJenkins might blow a gasket

This seems stupid there bob, not sure the point, but good luck with that?

 

[McBeastMode]

The short time frame where Jeff Jackson was interim GM is looking more and more like a setback for the organization. Replacing Foegel and McLeod with Skinner and Arvidson was a mistake..

 

[Coffey]

For the love of god give Skinner a real chance in the top 6.

Stuart?

Replacing Foegel and McLeod with Skinner and Arvidson was a mistake..

I'd keep Holloway over Skinner.

 

[Duke74]

Hyman plays with McDavid because McDavid inflates his goal totals massively. With Leon, Hyman maybe scores 35 last year, not 50+. Hyman benefits massively from McDavid's ability to back defenses off on the rush and suck them in towards him when he is in the zone leaving Hyman wide open.

RNH sucks and has been sucking for a bit, this is the second season he's now on pace for sub-20 goals while getting the best deployment possible in hockey (tied to McDavid at 5 on 5 and full PP sessions). Even McDavid may not be able to get him to hit 20, but Knob won't let the love affair with this player go. Skinner should have been given a lengthy look here, he would probably have anywhere from 8-10 goals by now if he was given some of RNH's minutes.

If McDavid and Draisaitl have a valid criticism towards them versus say Crosby and Malkin, Crosby and especially Malkin worked better with a wider variety of wingers. Malkin led the Penguins to their first Cup winning the Conn Smythe with mediocre wingers like Max Talbot and the team got critical goals from Talbot. Later on he would be able to team up with players like Rust and still get great production, these aren't star players.

Leon hasn't really been able to find long lasting chemistry with anyone. Foegele is on pace to score more in LA than he did here with Leon, Arvidsson and Skinner both haven't clicked with him yet, Podkolzin is so-so in terms of net results, Evander Kane no longer really works with Leon and is largely now a bottom 6 player because of that. Didn't look like anything special with Holloway. Yamamoto + RNH were a good line for a stretch and then some how completely forgot how to play with each other.

We don't have money sitting around to bring in a Rantanen or Marner for him to play with, at this point what it is going to take to have some reliable offence at 5 on 5 from that 2nd line? Like who is the player we have to bring in and how do we afford that?

I agree with most of your points, especially the Hyman-McDavid chemistry and the relative redundancy of RNH on the first line as well as the lack of opportunity to J. Skinner.

However, I disagree with most of the bolded. I think that Draisaitl has meshed with several players, including Foegele and Kane. I don't know the raw numbers but Foegele, similar to Holloway, is getting more opportunity with his new team, which leads to more scoring. Arvidsson is still a work in progress, marred by an injury setback, but he and Draisaitl have combined for some goals. Skinner was on the second line for what, two or three games? Hardly an opportunity to form any kind of chemistry, something that takes time to develop. My suggestion is moving RNH down to play with Draisaitl and Skinner up with McDavid and Hyman. I think this small change creates two reliable scoring lines, but the problem is, as I think you actually mentioned, Knoblauch's obsession with the RNH-McDavid-Hyman line.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Maybe you should try to take a step back from this blind hatred and ask yourself what it is you want from this player and how you think he delivers on that based on his role and deployment?

He has 8 points in the last 8 games and is a valuable penalty killer.

Your single-minded tirades over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again on certain subjects are kind of draining for the rest of us to read, you know.

I don’t have you on ignore because I actually find you make a lot of good points too, but I've certainly learned to scroll past most of the stuff you put out.

Often you can really be like that uncle who pops a vein every time some sore subject from 1973 or something comes up.

Imagine being so moved to write a response like this to just what was a quirky post. Some of my shtick is over the top, like it is for a lot of posters online. Sports fans tend to do this. So that when I say stuff like Stewed Skinner or Connor Shit Brown its part of that and I don't expect or know that anybody would be offended. I'm not talking about peoples moms here.

My droning on players that I feel add very little is not by accident. I'd rather be that then posters here that would blame McD or Drai for everything. When I'm dissing Connor Brown or any other player its just meant as some harmless fun. I'm like the uncle that laughs at something instead of it becoming a boil.

But you asked so I'll try. Wow I'm so glad we retained Connor Brown costing average of 2.5M /season when we let go Holloway and Foegele who we could have for similar price. Wait, it didn't work.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Of all the people to complain about, a cap friendly cheap pick up podkolzin barely making enough to pay for rent is who we have to complain about. For a million bucks, I guess he should be outscoring the likes of Pavel Bure and mogilny because podkolzin's making more.

Scoring more than a 6 goal season pace would be nice for a starter considering he's playing with arguably the best passer and 2nd best player in the world. I think its a problem when we or the team decides "this is good enough for Drai" The same team that let players go that would be better options.

I don't look simply at the contract sticker price. Thats par for the course when you're gettting players that have nowhere else to land. Pods is occupying a roster spot (and he's earning that much but comensurate with bottomsix results) Trouble is he's playing topsix with a guy feeding him an average of 5 sweet feeds a night and botching almost everytime.

Kapanen isn't coming in here and saying well I'm only getting paid 1M I'm not gonna knock myself out producing. Kapanen has 4 goals here and 5 on the season in half the toi that Pods has been granted in topsix here.

ps this is Edmonton, not Vancouver. Yeah a 1M salary pays the rent.

pps Gretzky was on average paid about 1M./ season. Didn't seem to deter him from getting production.

 

[Drivesaitl]

This team sucks after any time off.

This team is allergic to:

- Afternoon games
- Amazon Prime
- HNIC
- former Oilers putting up alltime performances
- Minnesota Wild
- extended breaks

You forgot holidays and playing hockey in sunbelts.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

You forgot holidays and playing hockey in sunbelts.

We could probably add 'October' to that list.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Pods wouldn’t be an issue with that line if the other winger could do something offensively. Arvidsson is barely better offensively than Podkolzin. Like if Drai could find one winger that knew how to score and put up points than Podkolzin is a decent fit there for the rest of what he brings.


Have you ever read your own posts my dude?

Boiled down the wingers are worse than having any of Foegele, Holloway, Mcleod on it. The goal of a SC window club should be putting the best club on ice. Not ditching some and replacing with latest projects. not to mention the amount we're paying Arvid is lol bad considering our cap situation. I don't even know how they would land on injured Arvid as an acquisition project. But its the same org that somehow landed on J Skinner. Alas the frustration is seeing an org make so many obvious mistakes. Been some good decisions too. Emberson and Kapanen. But in the last calendar year the bad roster decisions have outweighed the good.

 

[DavidHasselhoffsFist]

For the love of god give Skinner a real chance in the top 6.

Not arguing that he should be playing in a top 6 role but it shouldn’t be here. Both he and the oilers would benefit from a divorce. I had read someone suggest the Stars. Might be a decent fit for him.

 

[FlameChampion]

I was flipping through the Oilers players stats for the season and I just have to laugh.
Most here know my disdain for RNH, I’ve wanted to trade his ass for well over a decade. But there he is 3 points up on Connor f***ing Brown, one of the biggest whipping boys on this forum. His 7 goals are one more than such studs as Skinner, Brown and old man Perry. Seems like these 3 are the biggest whipping boys on the roster yet Nuge gets the free pass, 5M bucks and is stapled to McDrai at evens and on the PP.

I know the rebuttal is always “oh but his coaches love him” yeah, and every one of those coaches never won jack shit here, and every one of those coaches was also fired.

Just the facts.

The middle 6 players have been awful this year. Basically all the guys making over 2m suck minus McDavid, Draisaitl obviously and can probably add Hyman to the list.

RNH, Arvidsson, Henrique and Skinner are all disappointing.

Our bottom 6 players minus Ryan have been pretty good and I think are earning their paycheque for the most part. Janmark, Brown, Podkolzin, Kapanen have been fine to good. Hell even Perry who I was against has done his thing this year.

 

[Whoshattenkirkshoes]

Easy Path? They had to beat the top 2 seeds in the west to get to the finals and played the #2 seed in the east (a 110 pt team) in the finals.

I get that yesterday was a bad loss but the hysterics around here are absurd. They were 11-2-1 in their previous 14 before yesterday beating some elite teams along the way, crushing a few of them. Some folks just need to take a break from hockey for a while.

LAK and Van would be considered easy. We also avoided the AVS and the Knights

It wasn't easy, but certainly wasn't hard.

Luckily this year (out east also) most teams are weaker. I really think we need to "go for it" at the deadline.

The middle 6 players have been awful this year. Basically all the guys making over 2m suck minus McDavid, Draisaitl obviously and can probably add Hyman to the list.

RNH, Arvidsson, Henrique and Skinner are all disappointing.

Our bottom 6 players minus Ryan have been pretty good and I think are earning their paycheque for the most part. Janmark, Brown, Podkolzin, Kapanen have been fine to good. Hell even Perry who I was against has done his thing this year.

Arvidsson is a tough one to judge, he needs more time and then a fair assessment can be made.

Nuge needs to be our 3C

 

[FlameChampion]

LAK and Van would be considered easy. We also avoided the AVS and the Knights

It wasn't easy, but certainly wasn't hard.

Luckily this year (out east also) most teams are weaker. I really think we need to "go for it" at the deadline.


Arvidsson is a tough one to judge, he needs more time and then a fair assessment can be made.

Nuge needs to be our 3C

I don’t mind Arviddson when hes playing. But that’s the problem. He hasn’t played much and maybe I am too pessimistic but I don’t see it improving. Hes probably going to be injured in the playoffs as well.

 

[Drivesaitl]

LAK and Van would be considered easy. We also avoided the AVS and the Knights

It wasn't easy, but certainly wasn't hard.

Luckily this year (out east also) most teams are weaker. I really think we need to "go for it" at the deadline.


Arvidsson is a tough one to judge, he needs more time and then a fair assessment can be made.

Nuge needs to be our 3C

Definitely agree with you here. LA and Vancouver as opponents is about as easy as it gets. To get two in a row like that and avoid Vegas is some gold.

Dallas as well are a team that doesn't have a SC pedigree like Colorado. I don't know if we get out of division this year but it'll be way tougher having to meet Vegas to get out of division. Then probably having a harder conference final opponent than Dallas.

The Oilers had the fortune of facing zero SC winning clubs throughout the playoffs last season. They didn't have to topple even one recent cup winner in their path. its rarely as easy as that.

 

[LeonDraisaitl29]

 

[Pip]

But you asked so I'll try. Wow I'm so glad we retained Connor Brown costing average of 2.5M /season when we let go Holloway and Foegele who we could have for similar price. Wait, it didn't work.

I don’t think you’ll find too many people defending the initial signing and bonus but the decision to re-sign Brown was a separate decision and the bonus would have already needed to be paid regardless.

He’s 6th in team scoring, on pace for 36 points in a bottom 6 role and a key penalty killer. For a million bucks I think that’s a pretty good return.

His statline is basically identical to someone like McLeod

 

[Fishy McScales]

Imagine being so moved to write a response like this to just what was a quirky post. Some of my shtick is over the top, like it is for a lot of posters online. Sports fans tend to do this. So that when I say stuff like Stewed Skinner or Connor Shit Brown its part of that and I don't expect or know that anybody would be offended. I'm not talking about peoples moms here.

My droning on players that I feel add very little is not by accident. I'd rather be that then posters here that would blame McD or Drai for everything. When I'm dissing Connor Brown or any other player its just meant as some harmless fun. I'm like the uncle that laughs at something instead of it becoming a boil.

But you asked so I'll try. Wow I'm so glad we retained Connor Brown costing average of 2.5M /season when we let go Holloway and Foegele who we could have for similar price. Wait, it didn't work.

There you go again with the fallacy that Brown's bonus has any bearing on the contract he signed this summer.

His current contract did not prevent us from signing anyone. Last year's contract did.

 

[bobbythebrain]

This seems stupid there bob, not sure the point, but good luck with that?

Well you threw a hissy fit and name called me when I called him a panzie after he lost his 3rd stick battle of the game. One was pretty brutal where he even had position but simply got out hussled

Nowadays he loses more body battles than he wins , and don't get me started on his 5v5 play.

The play on OT is a rarity for him. He has the ability, you just rarely see the effort anymore

 

[Drivesaitl]

I'll give the credit for the guy granting that press availability in a real difficult moment. That said the answers were painful. Saying I dunno 40X starts to be a problem. A vet should know better. Skinner apparently came here with an attitude that it would be easy to crack topsix here. But a solid guy would come in here as a vet and be trying to impress and obtain confidence of new club from the word go. Skinner did the absolute opposite and it bit him. he was awful in preseason, got next to nothing done and the work rate wasn't there. He didn't do anything to set himself up on a new club. I don't often agree with Spector but he nails it here.

Decision to healthy scratch Oilers' Jeff Skinner a long time coming

As inevitable as Christmas or New Year's Day, Jeff Skinner's seat in the Anaheim press box on Sunday had been waiting for him for weeks now. Mark Spector looks at what's next for the Oilers after healthy scratching Skinner.

www.sportsnet.ca

To wit that if Either McD or Drai wanted J Skinner on their lines it would have been happening regularly by now.

The trouble is Skinner is fooling himself with his effort level and thinking its merely some bad luck and the way it goes. Hyman was legitimately getting bad luck. That player has a determination to keep getting chances till it goes. Theres something in Skinner, I think not serious enough that wouldn't play well to the topsix here. I don't think he's fit in as a person.

Heres something I'm pondering. Was J Skinners mother actually here during the Moms trip? If so this would be a scathing lineup scratch. Basically more than a message.

 

[Drivesaitl]

There you go again with the fallacy that Brown's bonus has any bearing on the contract he signed this summer.

His current contract did not prevent us from signing anyone. Last year's contract did.

Doesn't this boil down to Connor Browns contract costing us contract space. Wasn't the amount deferred? I find that a lot of takes on this which ever side of the deal one is on are creative. In fairness its an unorthodox contract. Bottom line for me is I didn't want the player here at all. He's been significantly better than last season, I'll cede that.