Post-Game Talk: Preseason Game #9 wasn’t a very good one

[joestevens29]

The Fire Woody stuff is laughable.

I usually don't expect rational behavior on HFOil but after Game 1 to call for his firing is ridiculous even for HFOil standards.

I say this as somebody who sees some flaws in his approach, like pretty every other coach in the league has that fanbases complain about. Don't believe me? Check the Bruins board 2 years ago in regards to freshly Stanley Cup winner Bruce Cassidy.

Woody shouldn't even be talking in the second intermission. The team's leaders should've been doing some yelling at each other and themselves to smarten up.

We were thin with those vocal leaders to begin with and without Ekholm it hurts even more.

 

[bobbythebrain]

McDavid cries to the media about his team getting their ass handed to him "too badly"
A week ago this board was all over Stone for crying to the media over a presason hit

That stings lol

 

[CupofOil]

Woody shouldn't even be talking in the second intermission. The team's leaders should've been doing some yelling at each other and themselves to smarten up.

We were thin with those vocal leaders to begin with and without Ekholm it hurts even more.

Even the complaining about systems. It was 1 game with the new system without one of their lynchpin Dmen which led to a bunch of new pairings playing their first real game together and, yes, it was 1 bad game but it WAS just 1 game.

I get why people are pissed about last night and have every reason to be but.... big picture people.

 

[FlameChampion]

I didnt watch all of the game but seems like a lot of the same old with this team. Offense wasnt as good as usual and had some bad bounces against. But generally speaking:

1) Team doesnt start games well. This has been a problem for forever. Its happened in the Woodcroft/Tippett era. I cant remember as far as back as McLellan days, but the rosters were much worse in those days. Question is can they survive the first 10minutes or so? Well last night they were down 2-0 in the first 11 minutes.
2) Team never works hard enough. Goes back to point 1. They dont start games well and generally its because they get outworked.
3) Team cant defend. You would hope your 9m veteran dman would calm things down, but more times than not, he just creates more chaos. The forwards dont help out. Playing defense and cutting goals down isnt a priority for this team.
4) The team can never simplify things when things arent going well or they arent in sync. This team has one mode. Pass pucks into the net and pretty goals. They cant seem to just volume shoot, deflect pucks, muck it up and play hard when things arent going their way.
5) We dont get the saves that we need. Our goaltenders rarely outplay the other teams goaltender.

Its only one game. The team will start to get more in sync (and at least the offense will come). They will probably come out hard next game (at least). They will improve.

But I'm interested to see if the teams mentality changes and if they can play with more consistency/composure, which requires work ethic. I've thought that the first 10 games were important to buck some of the bad trends (bad starts, bad defense, poor work ethic etc) that its had for many years now.

But so far, its business as usual for this club. They only know how to do things one way, it seems.

 

[bobbythebrain]

McDavid speaking to the press

 

[harpoon]

Oh this. Evander Kane -4 and looking everybit that terrible. Given his usual career trajectory have we already seen all of good Kane?

Man I hope not. I saw a couple good shifts from Kane in the first period. Kinda went to shit after that though. At least he wasn’t out there taking stupid frustration penalties when the game got out of hand like some of the leaders were doing. Kane is a proud man and I’ll be looking for him to come out very hard on Saturday.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Talk is cheap. Action carries the day. Ekholm is a glue guy this team needs for his play but also mature, calm leadership. Draisaitl though needs to get that cheap penalty stuff out of his game. Have to turn the page on this embarrassing lack of effort. Oil looked slow, disjointed and sloppy against a fast and skilled Canucks team.

The Ekholm injury is a bad excuse...the Oilers were a good team before he arrived and should have no problem without him in the line-up
yes he's missed but not like he's the linch-pin of the defense where his absence means the D falls apart

Incredible to think this Oilers began their work two weeks before training camp and then through a league high eight pre-season games. Thoroughly schooled in all facets tonight.

I think what those "captain skates" shows that was media-driven nonsense....every team shows up early now, the Oilers aren't an exception

it's the new "he's coming into camp in the best shape of his life!" mantra

 

[TheOne]

I wonder how familiar Jeff Jackson is with Joel Quenville?

Edmonton would become more hated than the Leafs overnight if that trigger got pulled.

The crying about this from the Oilers is f***ing ridiculous. If that’s what you pull from this game as a player on the Oilers you are living in a different reality, frankly.

Honestly, when it was 8-1 I was hoping it got worse. This perpetually stupid group has proven time and time again that they are truly incapable of playing anything resembling quality hockey until they are shamed or forced to do it. The harder this game landed the more likely it is that they don’t do it again. What do I know though, this team defies any sort of conventional wisdom, so at this point I’d say they’re more likely to do this again Saturday if anything.

I’m far from a panic “fire the coach” person, but this year the grace period for “learning opportunities” needs to not extend past about November 1. If this group can’t learn that effort is required to compete in NHL games get someone here that will teach them quickly.

Torts already has a coaching gig though...

 

[Mez]

McDavid cries to the media about his team getting their ass handed to him "too badly"
A week ago this board was all over Stone for crying to the media over a presason hit

That stings lol

yah kinda pathetic....maybe show up then?

 

[InTheBox]

I waited 4 months for that? Blow it up

I do like the McLeod, Foegele, Holloway line though

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

The Ekholm injury is a bad excuse...the Oilers were a good team before he arrived and should have no problem without him in the line-up
yes he's missed but not like he's the linch-pin of the defense where his absence means the D falls apart


I think what those "captain skates" shows that was media-driven nonsense....every team shows up early now, the Oilers aren't an exception

it's the new "he's coming into camp in the best shape of his life!" mantra

The Ekholm injury reveals what I've long believed. This defense isn't good enough. They are still a top 4 RD away.

This team was steamrolled last night. The breakdowns and undisciplined penalties we agree would not be fixed by one healthy Ekholm.

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

McDavid cries to the media about his team getting their ass handed to him "too badly"
A week ago this board was all over Stone for crying to the media over a presason hit

That stings lol

Well Stone also had a big tempter tantrum on the ice also but sure.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

I PAID BIG MONEY FOR THIS SHIT.

Team caught reading their press clippings. Nurse and Bouchard were awful. All of d corp were slow in their own ice decision making and terrible in their d to d passing. Constantly turned over pucks in their own zone and wilted under Canucks aggressive forecheck. Desharnais might have been their best defender. This is not a Cup level defense corp.

Undisciplined leadership group with Draisaitl terrible all night and two bad penalties. McDavid joined the frustration bad penalty march. Nurse tried to stir things up in garbage time risking another dumb penalty.

No one looked good. Maybe the third like of McLeod, Holloway, and Foegele (who has very low puck poise) looked fast and aggressive though McLeod slipped into perimeter game mode; no finish Foegele; and Holloway looked good but I'm guessing a broken hand ... from my lower bowl toilet bowl vantage point at the game.

Goaltending wasn't good. But this was a completely dysfunctional team in front of them who were beaten to pucks, outworked, and outskilled by the Canucks. Embarrassment.

Oh man that’s a tough one to be at live in a visiting barn.

The Ekholm injury reveals what I've long believed. This defense isn't good enough. They are still a top 4 RD away.

This team was steamrolled last night. The breakdowns and undisciplined penalties we agree would not be fixed by one healthy Ekholm.

Agree with everything you’ve said but I firmly believe that Woody has once again not prepared this team when he had nearly a full month to do so with their systemic play which was as bad as I’ve seen since the unveiling of the swarm.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Oh man that’s a tough one to be at live in a visiting barn.

You's pays your money and takes your chances. Like Luke Skywalker, "I had a bad feeling about this", but thought it might tilt Canuckles in a tight game.

At least I wasn't this guy... who was the real disturbance in the Force


Woodrow's team looked exceptionally disjointed. Draisaitl and McDavid's game 1 undisciplined penalties are not a good look after the post Vegas series talk of need and want to reduce self infliction dumbness out of their team game. There's no entitlement to making the playoffs. Nothing can be taken for granted.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

I want to be snarky, lol, because it is just game one. But that was as bad as possible.

The only saving grace was no one got hurt.

 

[TB12]

The Fire Woody stuff is laughable.

I usually don't expect rational behavior on HFOil but after Game 1 to call for his firing is ridiculous even for HFOil standards.

I say this as somebody who sees some flaws in his approach, like pretty every other coach in the league has that fanbases complain about. Don't believe me? Check the Bruins board 2 years ago in regards to freshly Stanley Cup winner Bruce Cassidy.

The love and applauding of Tocchet is hilarious, too. It's 1 f***ing game.

 

[FunkyChicken]

Just shows how desparately shallow our depth on D is.
Whatever plagued Ceci last year didn't seem to go away this summer.
Kulak is a 5/6.
Desharnais should be a 7/8 call up.
Broberg is not the answer yet.
Ekholm being out hurt.

 

[McNuge]

That had to have been one of the most pathetic efforts i've seen from this group in a long time. We had 1 player show up. ONE... and it was the f***in rookie.

Were any of the D men even trying to defend??? That Nurse-Bouchard pairing is god awful. They don't compliment each other at all. The defensive scheme looked non-existent.

At least the third line looked pretty solid, but that probably had more to do with Holloway than the other 2.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

The Ekholm injury reveals what I've long believed. This defense isn't good enough. They are still a top 4 RD away.

This team was steamrolled last night. The breakdowns and undisciplined penalties we agree would not be fixed by one healthy Ekholm.

oh ya, Cody Ceci in the top 4 means this is not a championship calibre defense
when Vinny D is your best defender last night, you've got major problems

 

[K1984]

Even the complaining about systems. It was 1 game with the new system without one of their lynchpin Dmen which led to a bunch of new pairings playing their first real game together and, yes, it was 1 bad game but it WAS just 1 game.

I get why people are pissed about last night and have every reason to be but.... big picture people.

I have time for a new system not working perfectly to begin a season, but that isn't the problem here. It's the lack of work ethic, this time on an almost unprecedented level even for this group.

In the big picture this group has had problems with work ethic and starting games/seasons on time forever. Major concern about the big picture of this team is more than warranted, especially when they talked all god damn off season about how they weren't going to do this again and actually play properly for the full 82. Then here we are.

They'll still make the playoffs, hell they may still win the Division, but the big picture goal of winning the cup is not possible if they continue to do this. Stanley Cup Champions don't do this in a first game. Ever. Last place teams don't even do this in a first game.

This team is chalked full of notoriously slow learners, but that can't be a thing this time. The A game better be brought on Saturday and then not look back. We're fooling ourselves if we think this will automatically be the case though, because pretty much at no point over the past 7 seasons have they shown that they can learn anything quickly.

 

[Mowzie]

Thanks Oilers for providing the perfect mix of anger, depression and frustration needed to turn the game off in the second period and spring clean my closet. I have way too much clothes.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

I want to be snarky, lol, because it is just game one. But that was as bad as possible.

The only saving grace was no one got hurt.

Has Holloway been cleared? I was lower bowl Oiler side when he came off after the shot block. Trainer looked at his hand briefly and Holloway went pretty much direct to the room. Looked like a broken hand to my vantage point and internet doctor's diagnosis...

 

[Stoneman89]

Canucks have always played us tough, even when their teams were absolute shyte, so not surprised by a loss, just the shit kicking part.

I thought the new defensive system looked really good. All the work done with the coaching staff paid off. Cleared all the dangerous shots from the slot, and offence was not sacrificed.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Has Holloway been cleared? I was lower bowl Oiler side when he came off after the shot block. Trainer looked at his hand briefly and Holloway went pretty much direct to the room. Looked like a broken hand to my vantage point and internet doctor's diagnosis...

Ah shit, I turned the game off after 5-1 (yes I did, it's late and the game was awful) so that really sucks, because I thought he had some jump.

Sorry.

 

[bellagiobob]

I have time for a new system not working perfectly to begin a season, but that isn't the problem here. It's the lack of work ethic, this time on an almost unprecedented level even for this group.

In the big picture this group has had problems with work ethic and starting games/seasons on time forever. Major concern about the big picture of this team is more than warranted, especially when they talked all god damn off season about how they weren't going to do this again and actually play properly for the full 82. Then here we are.

They'll still make the playoffs, hell they may still win the Division, but the big picture goal of winning the cup is not possible if they continue to do this. Stanley Cup Champions don't do this in a first game. Ever. Last place teams don't even do this in a first game.

This team is chalked full of notoriously slow learners, but that can't be a thing this time. The A game better be brought on Saturday and then not look back. We're fooling ourselves if we think this will automatically be the case though, because pretty much at no point over the past 7 seasons have they shown that they can learn anything quickly.

Not that it’s any consolation, but the back to back SC champion Pens lost their second game of the season in 2017 to the Hawks 10–1. So crazy stuff does happen. As long as it’s a one off, which I expect it will be.