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

[CycloneSweep]

Even the most effortful and hungry teams can lay a 1 game egg. But yeh their effort blew tonight. But in general, these guys care and want it bad. If we fail to lift Stanley it won’t be on their lack of effort, it’ll be our roster just wasn’t good enough.

They say they care and want it bad. Playoffs last year and games like this prove otherwise.

 

[Senor Catface]

Skinner > Campbell

 

[guymez]

Clearly some things to iron out with the new defensive system.


If I was going to point fingers I think the D let us down more than the forwards or goalies. Kulak very much looked like a guy who didn't play any games in the pre-season.

Switching from a man on man to a zone system might be a rough transition for Nurse, not the best at reading and reacting, he's much better at marking one guy and playing them hard.

For all the bitching about Desharnais in the off-season, was one of the more reliable defenders amongst a group that didn't defend well (the only d-man without a negative +/-). Also Broberg tonight looked like he had zero business being in the NHL, he was lost and uncertain for the majority of his mins and was deferring at times when he should of been handling it himself.

Only semi-bright spot was our 3rd line which was on the whole getting good looks and pushing back the momentum.

Agreed. Deharnais takes a lot of heat and he was just fine in this game. The Player that needed to step up was Nurse.
Removing Ekholm created a hole that this defence couldnt recover from.

 

[OiledUp]

Them beach balls. So darn difficult to stop.

 

[McTonyBrar]

Yup. Thats smart on your part.
A $9.25M top 4 defender.
Thanks Holland.

Sorry you can't use this excuse anymore.

 

[Soundwave]

Yeah whenever we lose badly, fire the coach!! It's worked the last 10 times right?

If Woodcroft's much balleyhooed "defensive system" turns out to be a fraud ... his ass gonna be gone, doesn't matter how many coaches have come before him.

 

[rboomercat90]

No reason to panic, lots of reasons to worry.

After watching this past season of the Toronto Blue Jays, the “it’s only one game“ or the “plenty of time to turn it around” platitudes ring pretty hollow. Sometimes the team really is as bad as they look.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

this is on you Woody, you're a fraud

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

The first 4-5 minutes were good.

 

[TheNumber4]

The team as composed seriously lacks battle. I was told all offseason that players like Bjugstad, Kostin, they didn't even matter.

We're depending on guys like Foegele, McLeod, Janmark, ancient Ryan etc to be battle energy players.

Anybody remember the Kidline here starting in 90? That line is the reason that team got its mojo going and won the cup that year.

You're not going to find a lot of infectious youth energy on this lineup because its not there. We have 30 something yr old energy players without energy.

Don’t worry Bjud and Kostin will be easily replaced. Next man up, Sutter. Wait no, next man up Gagner. Wait no, next man up Pederson. Wait no, next man up Erne.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I know it’s blasphemy (not just to this fanbase) but I’m kind of tired of the same bullshit from this core. They have the talent and have shown that they can battle through adversity but the lack of consistent effort is difficult to ignore. Not sure what the solution is at this point

Its gonna be tougher than expected. We had our whole core basically give it all they got last year, and the year before, and.

But we had several career bests last season. Those kinds of things aren't always repeated. We're probably not gonna get another Hyman Unicorn year like that. Nuge has NEVER had two huge seasons in a row. Never. We don't have much in net.

We have guys like Kane, Ryan, Janmark just aging on a vine.

That said Ekholm is probably such a huge piece of this club, and out, but if he is, and I suspect he is thats also very troubling.

We absolutely know by now that NUrse will bring zero leadership. Ceci looks worse every year. Kulak looked bad too. But Nurse doesn't even pretend to play hard now.

 

[guymez]

Ceci was good that first year but was brutal tonight
Kulak was our most consistent d-man in the playoffs last year..I'd cut him some slack

as for Nurse, he has no choice but to overpay him...imagine lost Klefbom, Larsson and Nurse? the Oilers would be screwed

The thing is Ceci and Kulak (on a good defence) would be playing no higher than #5.
They didnt solve anything and then he overpays Nurse and handcuffs himself even more.
To make matters worse he then decides to give an unproven starter in Jack Campbell $5M.

Holland has dropped the ball when it comes to the back end and that more than anything is hurting this team IMO.

 

[Senor Catface]

this is on you Woody, you're a fraud

 

[guymez]

Sorry you can't use this excuse anymore.

Please explain.

 

[oobga]

Calling what Bouch did there a “battle” is generous.

But your zone defence critique is apt.

It was weak. He's never gonna be very good defensively. But most offensive D are like that and GM's get them solid partners. I hope Ekholm is back with him. We really should have another good LHD defender for depth though. I see Kulak more as a good transporter, and light as a feather on D. Ceci should have been replaced with a solid defender too. I appreciate Ceci has tried to add D after being drafted for offense, but he's not that good at it. He's kind of just a mediocre at everything kind of player and Nurse-Ceci will continue to be a ticking time bomb pair.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Don’t worry Bjud and Kostin will be easily replaced. Next man up, Sutter. Wait no, next man up Gagner. Wait no, next man up Pederson. Wait no, next man up Erne.

Wouldn’t be a problem if we weren’t abysmal at drafting.

Speaking of, Broberg and Holloway definitely look like Oiler picks.

 

[TheNumber4]

It was weak. He's never gonna be very good defensively. But most offensive D are like that and GM's get them solid partners. I hope Ekholm is back with him. We really should have another good LHD defender for depth though. I see Kulak more as a good transporter, and light as a feather on D. Ceci should have been replaced with a solid defender too. I appreciate Ceci has tried to add D after being drafted for offense, but he's not that good at it. He's kind of just a mediocre at everything kind of player and Nurse-Ceci will continue to be a ticking time bomb pair.

You know this whole partner-mentor thing is a nice thought. I hope it works for some of our younguns… but sometimes none of that shit will fix anything. Like what partner could possibly stop Bouch from being easilly shoved off a puck 1 on 1? No partner in the world is going to leave his assignment to jump in on a battle Bouch should be expected to handle.

 

[Drivesaitl]

The forwards arent this teams problem.
Its the defence and likely the goaltending.

Contenders are built from the back end.
Holland has done this upside down.

The forwards scored 1 goal in this game. How is that not a problem. Outside of one or two games the team had trouble scoring in preseason.

One would have to work hard to devise schemes that limit even McDrai.

The team was outcoached by miles by Tochet. With the Nucks you saw a deplted lineup but still with guys that had a game plan and executed that all night. You couldn't even recognize Oiler schemes out there.

Goaltending is suspect but the biggest question mark is coaching.

 

[Soundwave]

Agreed. Deharnais takes a lot of heat and he was just fine in this game. The Player that needed to step up was Nurse.
Removing Ekholm created a hole that this defence couldnt recover from.

Never put the bolded in the same sentence.

 

[McTonyBrar]

McDavid needs to have messier mentor him. sometimes you can’t just lead by scoring. Have tear someones ass from time to time

Lol tearing someones ass apart will help us score and defend better? It will lead to more penalties. This isn't the 80s now you know that lol

 

[Cloned]

Yep.
The fact that the team lineup is decided before training camp and no one can take a job from anyone else just shows you the message being sent. Vets don’t give a shit and don’t play or work cause their jobs are completely safe.
THEN he spends all preseason playing those young or AHL guys a bunch and then just sends them down. It’s, nonsense.

He literally gets the worst of all worlds the way he runs it.

We don’t know how good the top prospects actually are because he spends all preseason playing them with AHL vets and NHL bottom 6 grinders. Bourgault and Lavoie got like one period with McDrai, that was it.

Then on top of that he doesn’t play his actual expected lines enough for them to shake off the rust.

 

[McTonyBrar]

Here is our new zone defense in action. First everyone goes to their designated area as Bouch battles. The puck gets free and Bouch still has his guy, but no one cares about Miller just skating in there to get it all alone. Then Boeser just skates into the middle of 3 Oilers all just standing in their designated area, and Boeser gets to snipe a perfect top corner shot under zero pressure.

Well done boys. Textbook zone defense

Yeah and did you not notice how badly Bouchard played the puck battle? He needs to put in more then just that. Way more strength and compete

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

He literally gets the worst of all worlds the way he runs it.

We don’t know how good the top prospects actually are because he spends all preseason playing them with AHL vets and NHL bottom 6 grinders.

Then on top of that he doesn’t play his actual expected lines enough for them to shake off the rust.

I’ll spoil the ending for you: our prospects aren’t worth shit. The Oilers suck at drafting.

 

[Soundwave]

Yeah and did you not notice how badly Bouchard played the puck battle? He needs to put in more then just that. Way more strength and compete

Bouchard is a defensive liability. Is what it is.

 

[Drivesaitl]

You don’t build a team around jt miller. Horvat was the guy. They will go on a skid and JT will poison the room. Book it.

that might have been the worst oiler game in 2-3 years. even great teams have stinkers

the sun will rise tomorrow. Onward we go.

For sure. But the Oilers getting burned on rushes times and time againg and losing puck battles and beign 2nd to pucks. That might not go away completely. Our D is nowhere close to being good enough. Desharnais isn't much. Bro isn't ready, Ceci and Kulak have joined the question marks and Nurse just flat out sucks. I've actually tried to defend this guy but he's clearly just collecting pay cheques at this point.

Whens the last time our high paid D was an impact player?