Post-Game Talk: Point taken

[K1984]

You're not following my main point or avoiding it. The team with the constant Ozone pressure isn't going to be the one getting a lot of breakaways. The Wings played a Stinky McLellan game, same swill the Kings were serving up under him.

The Oilers were leading shot count 24-8 about 30some minutes into the game. Wings had a brief window in the 2nd when they were getting a lot. The Oilers outplayed the wings in first and third periods and maybe had a 5min lapse in the game.

Sloppy? The Oil were trying out Klingberg in an absolutely nothing game that means zilch in the standings. Non divisional non conference club that doesn't matter in the slightest.


Of Course Wings are on cusp and looking outside of a WC and had to have this game. How the ball rolls. Oilers generally could care less playing the Wings and given that, overall I think the team gave a reasonable account of themselves. Better finishing, sure, I'd like to see that. But several of our players are goal scoring incapable.

I'm fine with the breakaways if the "constant o zone pressure" actually resulted in goals. Finishing is a legitimate problem with this group.

Right now we might need to back off the pressure, because we aren't scoring with it and are just bleeding freebies back the other way as a result.

 

[iCanada]

Skinner played reasonably. On the whole probably one of his good games. That said the two shots from outside zone that gave him trouble scared me. The shootout was a loss soon as it happened.

But to your post, and a lot of people stating this "The OIlers giving up breakaways" and not getting any. Well this is the run of hockey. The team pursuing the game that has the puck and Ozone pressure almost constantly isn't the team getting the breakaways. The Oilers are the team playing extended stretches so dominate that it looks like a man advantage all the time. The ONLY thing the Wings were trying for last night was jail break counters. So yes they sprung a couple. They were inept even at that.

Lets not pretend in some way that other clubs are playing better. Cory Perry setup an ice fishing tent on Center Ice last game and we fed him and there wasn't an opponent within 30ft of him. Sure Skinner see's a breakaway once in awhile. So does Pickard. At least Skinner got one of them yesterday, he's not very good at those.

The meter was quite representative of the game I saw. The Oilers ran the Wings show almost all night. The Wings were making puck errors that were horrendous compared to what the Oil were giving up.

Thing is EVERY meter suggested the Oilers dominated last night. They did. This isn't football where a breakaway or odd man rush should be considered almost an automatic goal. Most of them get stopped. We just don't see that here with our goalies.

I mentioned this last night - but I'll note it again - I watched the game last with a group of highly educated management types that are certified Oilers haters.

Their take away was that the Oilers are the class of the league. They're basically all but sure the Oilers will make another deep run unless Skinner plays like he did against the Canucks.

That said - I agree that Skinner was pretty good last night. Both of them, tbh.

 

[Drivesaitl]

And they played pretty damn well considering.

There's only two things I can see stopping them.
1. Our goaltending.
2. Our finishing.

As often as Stu can get cold/ordinary this team kind of does the same with their goal scoring chances.

I think overall they're the best team in the league. If they got above average tending or finishing they'd be crushing it.
If they got both... nigh unstoppable haha.

Either way they're a ton of fun to watch and I'm just going to try and enjoy this time and keep yelling them when they gas a scoring chance.

Good post. Overall were spoiled to have McDrai. But as per the org they seem to have the roster fleshed out with a lot of less than ideal support for the entire duration of McDrai career here. Particularly at forward and goal theres a lot of players I wouldn't have bothered with that are here. The org in constructing roster very guilty of this is good enough thinking. Reflects a basic laziness of the org to really do hard scouting and find some gems like other clubs do.

Our finish aside from McD, Drai, its pretty much what I expected from a lot of the forwards. Its not crazy that its as ordinary as it is. Several of the players we got are old or came in here snakebit and just don't have much scoring left in them, or ever did.

We essentially have only Hyman and Nuge as legitimate scoring support as forwards. Henrique would be younger, but he's not. J Skinner was never going to be a significant piece here.

We can expect McD to be better finishing. But most of our forwards are pretty much what they are. Even with Drai we've had inordinate scoring from him. This is not a deep scoring lineup. As the season drags on its not likely to get better.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I'm fine with the breakaways if the "constant o zone pressure" actually resulted in goals. Finishing is a legitimate problem with this group.

Right now we might need to back off the pressure, because we aren't scoring with it and are just bleeding freebies back the other way as a result.

Of course finishing is a problem with this roster. 2/3 of our forward group, it was unrealistic to even expect appreciable scoring from them. If you go back to my offseason posts where I was saying that all of Skinner, Podz, Arvid would amount to nothing here its consistent as my view now. We added these to our already limp scoring of Brown, Janmark, Ryan etc.

Perry has scored more than I expected. Henrique at age a bit less than expected. Hyman having radical scoring correction over an outlier year also not too much of a shock. Nuge has been about usual finishing.

This forward group is so lacking in scoring depth, or depth at all that we've brought in guys like Caggiulia, Philps, Old Ryan etc back to try to fill up a roster.

I look at most of our forward group and simply blame management. We stacked the deck with players that were here to own possession stats and limit opposition pressure. Basically a group to try to own the puck.

Essentially I look at this club and we're the 97 Dallas Stars with a loaded vet lineup but having trouble potting against teams with better goalies.

Which players specifically did you figure would be scoring more here?

 

[K1984]

Of course finishing is a problem with this roster. 2/3 of our forward group, it was unrealistic to even expect appreciable scoring from them. If you go back to my offseason posts where I was saying that all of Skinner, Podz, Arvid would amount to nothing here its consistent as my view now. We added these to our already limp scoring of Brown, Janmark, Ryan etc.

Perry has scored more than I expected. Henrique at age a bit less than expected. Hyman having radical scoring correction over an outlier year also not too much of a shock. Nuge has been about usual finishing.

This forward group is so lacking in scoring depth, or depth at all that we've brought in guys like Caggiulia, Philps, Old Ryan etc back to try to fill up a roster.

I look at most of our forward group and simply blame management. We stacked the deck with players that were here to own possession stats and limit opposition pressure. Basically a group to try to own the puck.

Essentially I look at this club and we're the 97 Dallas Stars with a loaded vet lineup but having trouble potting against teams with better goalies.

Which players specifically did you figure would be scoring more here?

Hyman's finishing relative to the chances he gets are always way off. McDavid won't shoot/defers to lower % options too much, RNH misses the net with a ton of clean looks, Bouchard can't get a shot through or hit the side of a barn with it when he does, Arvidsson has traditionally been a strong rush finisher and he just isn't at the moment. If anything Skinner's finishing relative to the ice and opportunities he gets is probably among the best on the team (without looking). Even Draisaitl, who racks up a ton of goals, leaves some out there with misfires.

All of the above are the guys producing, but not finishing on those looks. Podkolzin, Arvidsson, Skinner aren't the issues.

 

[Canovin]

The Oilers have a lot of finishers. Too guys trying to pass which ultimately making too predictable

 

[Soundwave]

Yes, if the Oilers had a goalie in the tier of Hellebyuck they might have a few more wins. Just like if the Oilers had Mikko Rantanen on the wing with Leon instead of Arvidsson we would have a few more wins. Just like if we had Crosby at 3C we would have more wins. It's all irrelevant because it's a dumb hypothetical, but yes if the Oilers had some better players in some areas they would have more wins. Would we have more wins if he was flipped for a random goalie in the fat middle of the league's goalies? Probably not. Probably wouldn't even make a difference if your BF Hill was in net instead of him. Would probably be worse if anything.

The only thing anyone is smashing their head against the wall about is the insane insistence that Skinner is solely responsible for basically any loss, is the worst goalie in the league, is guaranteed to fail, isn't actually playing well for the vast majority of the season because he was bad in October, and at this point there is really no other reason we lose games than Skinner. It's insane.

Once again, Stuart Skinner does not score goals for this hockey team. If the Oilers can't score enough goals on Aiden Hill over a 7 game series, that is McDavid, Hyman, Draisaitl, Bouchard, RNH, etc, etc's problem and nobody else's. The goalie does not score goals on the other team. Skinner is not playing Aiden Hill, he's playing the Knights shooters. If we lose 4 games 2-1 because we couldn't score on Hill, that is not Stuart Skinner's fault.

You're not winning a series when one goalie is .930 and the other one is like .875. Even if Skinner has "improved" since then (no real sign of that though as his regular season numbers have gone backwards since 2023) to like say .905 for that series, that's a tough gap to make up.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Complaining about scoring? The player many people on this board were wanting, Connor Brown is exhibit A of non production. This guy now has 150GP as an Oiler, even getting topline looks at times and he has 12 goals as an Oilers. So indescribably pitiful an amount it should presume against him even continuing on the club. This prorates to like 7 goal seasons. Even on the goals he's had multiple have been own goals. Think a couple ENG as well. (I'll check)

Now its not just Connor Brown. Last night we had as forwards Philps who is a scoring virgin, Podz who is a confirmed scoring bust before we even got him. Arvid who can't stay up and not fall all over for a shift, Brown, Janmark who rarely ever scores,

We have 4 forwards on the whole team with as many as 10Goals. The worst thing, and really an indictment on how the org is run is that this is result is really pretty predictable.

In contrast a well constructed roster like the Capitals have 8 forwards in double digit goals. Appreciable difference. Caps also have 7 players with more pts than our 3rd most productive player.

 

[Soundwave]

Complaining about scoring? The player many people on this board were wanting, Connor Brown is exhibit A of non production. This guy now has 150GP as an Oiler, even getting topline looks at times and he has 12 goals as an Oilers. So indescribably pitiful an amount it should presume against him even continuing on the club. This prorates to like 7 goal seasons. Even on the goals he's had multiple have been own goals. Think a couple ENG as well. (I'll check)

Now its not just Connor Brown. Last night we had as forwards Philps who is a scoring virgin, Podz who is a confirmed scoring bust before we even got him. Arvid who can't stay up and not fall all over for a shift, Brown, Janmark who rarely ever scores,

We have 4 forwards on the whole team with as many as 10Goals. The worst thing, and really an indictment on how the org is run is that this is result is really pretty predictable.

In contrast a well constructed roster like the Capitals have 8 forwards in double digit goals. Appreciable difference. Caps also have 7 players with more pts than our 3rd most productive player.

Knob deserves some blame too though.

Skinner has 3 goals in his last 9 games now, 5 points and a +4 ... I mean he is doing everything he's asked of and not even taking healthy scratches personally.

There's not much being tried in the top 6 at all except the same old combinations. Arvidsson immediately scored with McDavid the one game he got to play with and it's never been tried again as an another example.

You can't be this stubborn in your lineup combinations. I can totally see Saad looking at how Skinner has been treated here and said "nah, going to Vegas", the whole "you get to play with McDavid and Draisaitl!" shine as a sales pitch I think is not the pull it used to be partly because of our weird usage of wingers.

 

[K1984]

You're not winning a series when one goalie is .930 and the other one is like .875. Even if Skinner has "improved" since then (no real sign of that though as his regular season numbers have gone backwards since 2023) to like say .905 for that season, that would still be a very tough gap to ask your forwards to overcome.

No shit, and in that case Skinner would have a share of the blame. If we're inventing scenarios to be upset about I can also list out about a dozen that would place blame in various places as well.

 

[K1984]

Complaining about scoring? The player many people on this board were wanting, Connor Brown is exhibit A of non production. This guy now has 150GP as an Oiler, even getting topline looks at times and he has 12 goals as an Oilers. So indescribably pitiful an amount it should presume against him even continuing on the club. This prorates to like 7 goal seasons. Even on the goals he's had multiple have been own goals. Think a couple ENG as well. (I'll check)

Now its not just Connor Brown. Last night we had as forwards Philps who is a scoring virgin, Podz who is a confirmed scoring bust before we even got him. Arvid who can't stay up and not fall all over for a shift, Brown, Janmark who rarely ever scores,

We have 4 forwards on the whole team with as many as 10Goals. The worst thing, and really an indictment on how the org is run is that this is result is really pretty predictable.

In contrast a well constructed roster like the Capitals have 8 forwards in double digit goals. Appreciable difference. Caps also have 7 players with more pts than our 3rd most productive player.

"Well constructed roster."

They're basically the same forward lineup as last year that couldn't score anything + Dubois. Dubois alone is not causing all of Ovechkin, Wilson, McMicahel, Protas, Strome, etc to basically all score way above their career (or recent career) averages across the board.

Having luck shine on you is a thing, as we should be more than familiar with after the experiences with the Flames and Nucks over the past few years.

 

[Soundwave]

No shit, and in that case Skinner would have a share of the blame. If we're inventing scenarios to be upset about I can also list out about a dozen that would place blame in various places as well.

Why are the Oilers even taking these stupid risks to begin with. Do the right thing, you have a good core, invest some goddamn money into your goaltending as insurance. You don't need like $15 million invested in all of Arvidsson, Kane, Skinner, Henrique, etc, none of these guys are even having a good season.

 

[K1984]

Knob deserves some blame too though.

Skinner has 3 goals in his last 9 games now, 5 points and a +4 ... I mean he is doing everything he's asked of and not even taking healthy scratches personally.

There's not much being tried in the top 6 at all except the same old combinations. Arvidsson immediately scored with McDavid the one game he got to play with and it's never been tried again as an another example.

You can't be this stubborn in your lineup combinations. I can totally see Saad looking at how Skinner has been treated here and said "nah, going to Vegas", the whole "you get to play with McDavid and Draisaitl!" shine as a sales pitch I think is not the pull it used to be partly because of our weird usage of wingers.

I agree that McDavid needs a long sabbatical from Hyman and Nuge. The line is stale and he's playing poorly.

 

[Canovin]

In order for Stuart to take us to the cup, I feel like we need another good-elite forward. When McDrai are out of gas, chances are the 3rd best guy can still break the game.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Hyman's finishing relative to the chances he gets are always way off. McDavid won't shoot/defers to lower % options too much, RNH misses the net with a ton of clean looks, Bouchard can't get a shot through or hit the side of a barn with it when he does, Arvidsson has traditionally been a strong rush finisher and he just isn't at the moment. If anything Skinner's finishing relative to the ice and opportunities he gets is probably among the best on the team (without looking). Even Draisaitl, who racks up a ton of goals, leaves some out there with misfires.

All of the above are the guys producing, but not finishing on those looks. Podkolzin, Arvidsson, Skinner aren't the issues.

The scoring is issue is quite clearly the amount of forwards we have in here who just don't score squat. The stats clearly indicating that. Should all the forward scoring be 4 guys? Game after game shows us this result and all people say is "the scoring will come" just like winter, lol

I've listed the forwards that ain't scoring squat and can't realistically even be projected to.

Arvid has had a shit shooting % EV for years. In LA his goal scoring was supplemented by PP action. Arvid has also had a lot of career ENG. Inordinate to what average player would have. Arvidsson over last decade has 16 ENG. Accounting for around 10% of his goal scoring. A significant distortion. ftr only 20 NHL players have as many as 20ENG during the timespan.

Finally in 5 last seasons Arvid has had absolutely shit shooting percentages of 6, 7, and 8% so that his current struggles scoring, they not even rare for him, its whats been happening most of the seasons.

"Well constructed roster."

They're basically the same forward lineup as last year that couldn't score anything + Dubois. Dubois alone is not causing all of Ovechkin, Wilson, McMicahel, Protas, Strome, etc to basically all score way above their career (or recent career) averages across the board.

Having luck shine on you is a thing, as we should be more than familiar with after the experiences with the Flames and Nucks over the past few years.

I was he one calling the Flames and Nucks nothing teams. I certainly wasn't swayed by those clubs.

Caps are solid at every position and they added substantially to their roster.

They're deep at every position. Best constructed team in the East.

These are the players the Caps have recently added to become a contender:

Depth fortified by the additions of centers Dylan Strome, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Eller, wingers Andrew Mangiapane, Brandon Duhaime and Taylor Raddysh, defensemen Jakob Chychrun, Matt Roy and Rasmus Sandin and goaltenders Charlie Lindgren and Logan Thompson over the past few years has been the key to remaining a playoff contender.

Thats some solid, solid work by that org getting back to contention. Was a given that Protas and McMichael Dubois and Strome would find game

 

[K1984]

The scoring is issue is quite clearly the amount of forwards we have in here who just don't score squat. The stats clearly indicating that. Should all the forward scoring be 4 guys? Game after game shows us this result and all people say is "the scoring will come" just like winter, lol

I've listed the forwards that ain't scoring squat and can't realistically even be projected to.

Arvid has had a shit shooting % EV for years. In LA his goal scoring was supplemented by PP action. Arvid has also had a lot of career ENG. Inordinate to what average player would have. Arvidsson over last decade has 16 ENG. Accounting for around 10% of his goal scoring. A significant distortion. ftr only 20 NHL players have as many as 20ENG during the timespan.

Finally in 5 last seasons Arvid has had absolutely shit shooting percentages of 6, 7, and 8% so that his current struggles scoring, they not even rare for him, its whats been happening most of the seasons.

Ok sure, Arvidsson sucks. Whatever. Massive footnote on the issue.

All of the other players are the ones producing the high volume of chances and not scoring on them. It isn't Brown, Janmark, Skinner, Henrique, etc rolling downhill on teams and not producing relative to the chances they create. A lot of that is on 97, 93, 18 and 2. Bouchard doesn't even have a power play goal this year for christ sakes.

Projected to is the key word. If they aren't the ones producing all the opportunities in the first place, how can we possibly pin lack of finish on them? Arvidsson is basically the only guy seeing time with any of the star players that isn't producing close to expectations. Expectations being the key word.

 

[K1984]

I was he one calling the Flames and Nucks nothing teams. I certainly wasn't swayed by those clubs.

Caps are solid at every position and they added substantially to their roster.

They're deep at every position. Best constructed team in the East.

These are the players the Caps have recently added to become a contender:

Depth fortified by the additions of centers Dylan Strome, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Eller, wingers Andrew Mangiapane, Brandon Duhaime and Taylor Raddysh, defensemen Jakob Chychrun, Matt Roy and Rasmus Sandin and goaltenders Charlie Lindgren and Logan Thompson over the past few years has been the key to remaining a playoff contender.

Thats some solid, solid work by that org getting back to contention. Was a given that Protas and McMichael Dubois and Strome would find game

Strome was there last year and so was Sandin. I'm not sure what any of the likes Mangiapne, Duhaime, Raddysh, Eller (who's been there about a week) and Matt Roy do to make basically every other forward they have produce career (or recent career) best seasons, but sure. Chychrun is good (another career year), but I don't think he alone is boosting about 8 player's fortunes either.

Adding a bunch of random bottom 6ers doesn't make everyone else shoot the lights out.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Ok sure, Arvidsson sucks. Whatever. Massive footnote on the issue.

All of the other players are the ones producing the high volume of chances and not scoring on them. It isn't Brown, Janmark, Skinner, Henrique, etc rolling downhill on teams and not producing relative to the chances they create. A lot of that is on 97, 93, 18 and 2. Bouchard doesn't even have a power play goal this year for christ sakes.

The dreg forwards of our lineup are botching tons of scoring chances. Whether that be on topsix or bottomsix. We have Arvid and Podz alone who have been hopeless scoring with the best player in the world this season.

Scoring depth is the problem. Forward scoring depth is a longstanding problem here. Few other clubs get so much of their forward scoring from so few players.

4 top forwards have 89 of our goals. The rest combined have a lol 50 goals all season. Thats spread out among a dozen forwards that have seen appreciable action in our lineup. Thats like an average 4-5 goals/per.


Your answer to that is somehow that forward scoring support isn't the problem. It very clearly is.

But lol at you blaming our best players for obvious roster weaknesses.

 

[Oilslick941611]

6 pages after a win

17 after a loss

I guess some people had a lot of saved Grady’s they couldn’t use before

Oh calm down old top
I’m allowed to have my opinion even if it’s over exaggerated after a loss. I’m well aware he’s not trash but nice flaming though. What else do you have to say that would take this tread off topic.

Aka “i can call someone trash, but dont dare call me trash”

 

[Drivesaitl]

Strome was there last year and so was Sandin. I'm not sure what any of the likes Mangiapne, Duhaime, Raddysh, Eller (who's been there about a week) and Matt Roy do to make basically every other forward they have produce career (or recent career) best seasons, but sure. Chychrun is good (another career year), but I don't think he alone is boosting about 8 player's fortunes either.

Adding a bunch of random bottom 6ers doesn't make everyone else shoot the lights out.

Ridiculous. The Caps have acquired several blue chip players that could be expected to produce. I never made a timeline statement and the article cited didn't. The Caps have added significantly this season and last to their roster. They have so many high pick first round players on their roster that can play.

Nor is there any smoke and mirrors. Caps are a strong EV club. They're playing hockey the right way. Obviously the skill of a center like Dubois has added an automatic 2nd line for the Caps and helped to unlock Protas and McMichael and Wilson when they've had him on the line. Dubois has always been good with big boys. That 2nd line for the caps is decent. A type of banging big line I like. They're owning EV. Caps are so deep they have a guy like Mangiopane, former scorer playing on 4th line.

Caps are now strong at Center. As recently as a couple seasons ago they weren't.

 

[K1984]

The dreg forwards of our lineup are botching tons of scoring chances. Whether that be on topsix or bottomsix. We have Arvid and Podz alone who have been hopeless scoring with the best player in the world this season.

Scoring depth is the problem. Forward scoring depth is a longstanding problem here. Few other clubs get so much of their forward scoring from so few players.

4 top forwards have 89 of our goals. The rest combined have a lol 50 goals all season. Thats spread out among a dozen forwards that have seen appreciable action in our lineup. Thats like an average 4-5 goals/per.


Your answer to that is somehow that forward scoring support isn't the problem. It very clearly is.

But lol at you blaming our best players for obvious roster weaknesses.

You're talking about scoring depth, I'm talking about team finishing.

The guys producing the vast majority of the chances are the ones not putting them in at a high enough rate.

 

[K1984]

Ridiculous. The Caps have acquired several blue chip players that could be expected to produce. I never made a timeline statement and the article cited didn't. The Caps have added significantly this season and last to their roster. They have so many high pick first round players on their roster that can play.

Nor is there any smoke and mirrors. Caps are a strong EV club. They're playing hockey the right way. Obviously the skill of a center like Dubois has added an automatic 2nd line for the Caps and helped to unlock Protas and McMichael and Wilson when they've had him on the line. Dubois has always been good with big boys. That 2nd line for the caps is decent. A type of banging big line I like. They're owning EV. Caps are so deep they have a guy like Mangiopane, former scorer playing on 4th line.

Caps are now strong at Center. As recently as a couple seasons ago they weren't.

The Nucks have acquired several blue chip players that could be expected to produce. Hronek, Garland, Lafferty, Bleuger and are getting solid contributions from up and coming young players Joshua and Hoglander. Their play has also given a "boost" to Boeser. That's just a boost to their multi-100 point C's and best D man in the NHL. Deep team that scores 5v5 and plays the right way, all of them. Lindholm added an automatic 3C for even more depth, and he can play wing too in the top 6, he's always been good with the skill players. Solid goaltending contributions from Demko and DeSmith, with a stud in the minors too.

Nucks are strong at centre. As recently as a few seasons ago they weren't.

See how it isn't that hard to spin this tale with basically every PDO queen? Remove the names and fill in with others for whoever the PDO machine is next year and it will read exactly the same.

 

[Drivesaitl]

You're talking about scoring depth, I'm talking about team finishing.

The guys producing the vast majority of the chances are the ones not putting them in at a high enough rate.

Its not clear what you're saying. After Drai who is scoring lights out the core 3 finishers on the club are running 15, 14, 13 shooting % respectively. A bit low but not out of the ballpark low.

I keep trying to tell you, and all the counting numbers do, that its a scoring problem, an appreciable one, when a full dozen of forwards used have a collective 50 goals on the season. Thats horrific production down the lineup.

4 of our forwards have a full 53% of our goals scored. More or less those players are holding serve. Getting 50 goals from the rest of the forward roster is unspeakably bad. Moreso that several of those have had appreciable looks in our topsix and do zilch with it.

The Oilers are 9th in NHL scoring. The only reason they are is the top 4 as well as getting appreciable scoring from back end. With any appreciable scoring from the forward depth we would be top scoring team in league.

Contrast this way to look at it. The top scoring team in the league, the Jets have 70 goals scored by forwards that are not in their top 4 forward core. Thats 20 more scoring depth forward goals. Its the basic difference right there between Jets scoring and the Oilers. I can't come closer to illustrating this indelibly for you.

 

[K1984]

Its not clear what you're saying. After Drai who is scoring lights out the core 3 finishers on the club are running 15, 14, 13 shooting % respectively. A bit low but not out of the ballpark low.

I keep trying to tell you, and all the counting numbers do, that its a scoring problem, an appreciable one, when a full dozen of forwards used have a collective 50 goals on the season. Thats horrific production down the lineup.

4 of our forwards have a full 53% of our goals scored. More or less those players are holding serve. Getting 50 goals from the rest of the forward roster is unspeakably bad. Moreso that several of those have had appreciable looks in our topsix and do zilch with it.

The Oilers are 9th in NHL scoring. The only reason they are is the top 4 as well as getting appreciable scoring from back end. With any appreciable scoring from the forward depth we would be top scoring team in league.

Contrast this way to look at it. The top scoring team in the league, the Jets have 70 goals scored by forwards that are not in their top 4 forward core. Thats 20 more scoring depth forward goals. Its the basic difference right there between Jets scoring and the Oilers. I can't come closer to illustrating this indelibly for you.

Shooting % doesn't factor when you don't shoot.

Walking down Main Street, then throwing the puck away trying to hit someone back door with a low % pass is a finishing issue, but doesn't show anywhere on the stat sheet.

Bouchard isn't not scoring goals on the PP because he's shooting and they're all getting saved. He's not scoring goals on the PP because he's deferring and taking way too long to make decisions with the puck. McDavid's scoring production isn't because he's getting robbed, it's because he's not shooting. Nuge walking down the middle then firing one three feet over the net isn't a SH% issue.

Citing the other PDO queen (Jets) doesn't help the argument. They'll go into the PDO narrative matrix I build above next year.

 

[Soundwave]

Arvidsson should be tried with McDavid, Skinner should be moved back onto the top 6 and given some looks on the top unit PP here and there in place of RNH as a reward for sticking with it and not tuning out. A lot of veteran players would let it get ugly if they were treated as he has been.

Knob is being overly stubborn.

Even as is, Jeff Skinner is scoring at about a 16 goal rate (27 goal rate the last 9 games) from the bottom 6 almost exclusively, I mean that's actually not bad relative to how players generally produce here from the bottom 6.

In the McDavid era we haven't had many guys score 16 goals with bottom 6 minutes exclusively.

It would've been nice to add Saad, but I wouldn't be surprised if he looked at the Jeff Skinner situation here and got scared off.