Rumor: Rumors & Proposals Thread | Post Deadline Apocalypse: 3rd Time's a Charm? Stu, Stu, Stupider Management, May the Schwartz Be With You!

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Yup. Still fairly young for a D, probably get another 4-5 good seasons out of him, if not more. Seems to like it here already, a bit of a connection with core guys like McDavid and Hyman, etc.

If Frederic pans out and signs long term, pretty savvy trades with minimal capital going out. The biggest issue, of course, is the lack of goaltending reinforcement

This feels like an offseason thing, or they've decided it is. I wonder, depending on how Gustafsson performs in Minny down the stretch and into the playoffs if he becomes someone they spend a bunch of capital on trying to acquire and extend, because Minny has a high end young tender in the pipeline.

 

[foshizzle]

Interesting

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Interesting

I've been saying this for a while. Nobody's frightened of our offensive strategy when it's just to cycle the puck for a few minutes then float an unscreened muffin from the point on net.

 

[Soundwave]

Interesting

Unfortunately not too shocking. The downside to defensive-"low event" coaches like Knob is they often suck balls at offensive strategy. "Gain the zone and then pass back for a shot from the point!" seems to be his entire offensive strategy and/or "just do McDavid and Drai things".

Definitely he's an upgrade on Woody, offensively he's a downgrade.

 

[K1984]

Interesting

Our offensive zone system that forces pucks high with the D men taking a large bulk of the shots is 100% without a doubt part of the problem scoring goals. Also a major contributor to the high zone turnovers and odd man rushes that we are addicted to giving up. We don't even drive low before sending it high either. Get to the hash marks then rip it high.

That system would work great if we were Florida and had a guy on every line that's great at tipping pucks and getting inside defenders, but we don't so its f***ing stupid. Would be like forcing the 80's Oilers to play the trap. Makes absolutely no sense with how our roster is built up front.

 

[guymez]

Our offensive zone system that forces pucks high with the D men taking a large bulk of the shots is 100% without a doubt part of the problem scoring goals. Also a major contributor to the high zone turnovers and odd man rushes that we are addicted to giving up. We don't even drive low before sending it high either. Get to the hash marks then rip it high.

That system would work great if we were Florida and had a guy on every line that's great at tipping pucks and getting inside defenders, but we don't so its f***ing stupid. Would be like forcing the 80's Oilers to play the trap. Makes absolutely no sense with how our roster is built up front.

I agree....Kane and Frederic should help that though.

 

[K1984]

I agree....Kane and Frederic should help that though.

Theoretically with net front presence, but I don't think it changes that it's an ass backwards system for this group.

Forcing pucks high and holding pucks high when we don't need to is part of the odd man rush problem too. The system is full of massive risk, but little in the way of likely reward.

 

[guymez]

Theoretically with net front presence, but I don't think it changes that it's an ass backwards system for this group.

Forcing pucks high and holding pucks high when we don't need to is part of the odd man rush problem too. The system is full of massive risk, but little in the way of likely reward.

Oh okay...I got you.
That really does account for a lot of turnovers creating odd man rushes the other way.

I cant imagine thats part of Knoblauchs system though. It seems to be this team just likes to take the easy/lazy way out far too often.

It seems to be just about their level of commitment. Might expalin why they seem to miss so many empty nets.
If they were really commited to detail and dialed in that wouldnt be an issue.
If that were committed to details and dialed in then I suspect most of their issues would go away.
The goaltending would be better too IMO.

 

[K1984]

Oh okay...I got you.
That really does account for a lot of turnovers creating odd man rushes the other way.

I cant imagine thats part of Knoblauchs system though. It seems to be this team just likes to take the easy/lazy way out far too often.

It seems to be just about their level of commitment.

I think it's a combo of bad system and incompetent execution.

 

[MessierThanThou]

Pissed away 3PPs against lowly Sabers. McD is hardly a plus player 5on5. I don't think he can demand anyone's apologies.

So one slump is enough to discredit everything he's done for this team? Good to know the kind of fan I'm chatting with here.

 

[guymez]

I think it's a combo of bad system and incompetent execution.

I am not so sure about the system part.

I say that because its pretty clear that the defenisve system doesnt include uncontested shots from the slot and wide open passing lanes for opposition teams.
Thats what we see a lot of the time though.

So I have to think that its the same on offence...just like on defence they arent properly executing the system.
Just sloppy team play all around.

 

[McShogun99]

Yup. Still fairly young for a D, probably get another 4-5 good seasons out of him, if not more. Seems to like it here already, a bit of a connection with core guys like McDavid and Hyman, etc.

If Frederic pans out and signs long term, pretty savvy trades with minimal capital going out. The biggest issue, of course, is the lack of goaltending reinforcement

I hope he does great here so at least we can say we got him for Broberg.

Oh okay...I got you.
That really does account for a lot of turnovers creating odd man rushes the other way.

I cant imagine thats part of Knoblauchs system though. It seems to be this team just likes to take the easy/lazy way out far too often.

It seems to be just about their level of commitment. Might expalin why they seem to miss so many empty nets.
If they were really commited to detail and dialed in that wouldnt be an issue.
If that were committed to details and dialed in then I suspect most of their issues would go away.
The goaltending would be better too IMO.

I know defence wins championships but I’d rather lose 6-5 over 3-2. Especially against an offensive/defensive juggernaut like the Sabres.

 

[Mr Positive]

I think it's a combo of bad system and incompetent execution.

Knoblauch's system is not the problem. It is the solution. Our players need to execute it. It would be so easy to just switch to the previous man-to-man defensive system. It would probably lead to more success in the regular season. The problem is that when the playoffs happen and the opponents are all great, the man defense system get sliced through just like how Vegas killed us in 2023. Knoblauch's system got us to game 7 of the SCF.

At any rate, just like goaltending there's no sense thinking of changing things now.

There is likely a right mix of roster choices that will get us back to the finals. That's the interesting discussion to me

 

[K1984]

Knoblauch's system is not the problem. It is the solution. Our players need to execute it. It would be so easy to just switch to the previous man-to-man defensive system. It would probably lead to more success in the regular season. The problem is that when the playoffs happen and the opponents are all great, the man defense system get sliced through just like how Vegas killed us in 2023. Knoblauch's system got us to game 7 of the SCF.

At any rate, just like goaltending there's no sense thinking of changing things now.

There is likely a right mix of roster choices that will get us back to the finals. That's the interesting discussion to me

To be clear I'm talking about the offensive zone system that is predicated on forcing pucks high off the rush and the cycle and shooting a significant amount from the point. I think it's poison and completely counter to what this group needs to do to produce offence.

I agree that the D zone system is fine, just being victimized by gross incompetence on the ice.

 

[guymez]

I hope he does great here so at least we can say we got him for Broberg.


I know defence wins championships but I’d rather lose 6-5 over 3-2. Especially against an offensive/defensive juggernaut like the Sabres.

I hear you but the Sabres (as you alluded to) are not a particularily good team and if this team committed to the details (at both ends of the ice) they would have won this game easily...no doubt in my mind.

If they play with even 80% of the intensity (and attention to detail) from the 1st two periods of the Dallas game...this game would have been over after 1 period.

 

[McDNicks17]

Interesting

I see lots of twitter posts get carried away with stats without realizing how miniscule the difference is.

The difference between a 3.99 SH% and 4.73 SH%(the average SH% they listed) on 601 shots is 4 goals.

The Oilers lack of finish isn't because their defensemen have scored 4 less goals than an average shooting D core.

 

[Soundwave]

If Dahlin wants out ... well lets just say I would probably would not be buying an Evan Bouchard Oilers jersey. Think the Oilers would have to be all in on that and Buffalo probably wants him out of the East.

 

[McFlash97]

when a quarter of your players are waiver fodder, its hard to execute the coaches plan. Some days they look great, most days they prove why they are waiver material. Knoblauch cant be blamed for the shitshow roster hes been given

 

[iCanada]

I see lots of twitter posts get carried away with stats without realizing how miniscule the difference is.

The difference between a 3.99 SH% and 4.73 SH%(the average SH% they listed) on 601 shots is 4 goals.

The Oilers lack of finish isn't because their defensemen have scored 4 less goals than an average shooting D core.

Also, like if you take our average shots/60 at 5v5 of 31.19, and you take the Twitter post as correct about 36% of our shots being D, then 11.22 shots per game are from D and 19.97 shots per game are from forwards.

If you take league average shots per game of 27.32 and 30% of those are D - that means 8.19 shots per game are D and 19.13 shots per game are from forwards.

So like... Guy is out to lunch. We get more shots from forwards on average.

 

[LTIR]

So one slump is enough to discredit everything he's done for this team? Good to know the kind of fan I'm chatting with here.

It's not a slump, it's just about the season average.
McDavid has been on the ice for 50+ ES goals against this season.
a drop from +35 to just a +2 this season.

Saying he shouldnt be worshipped or the ground he walks on shouldnt be kissed doesnt equal "Discredit him for everything' . Nice try.

If Dahlin wants out ... well lets just say I would probably would not be buying an Evan Bouchard Oilers jersey. Think the Oilers would have to be all in on that and Buffalo probably wants him out of the East.

Another left shot D.
If only we could make Nurse waive his NMC for BUF and keep Bouch

 

[MessierThanThou]

It's not a slump, it's just about the season average.
McDavid has been on the ice for 50+ ES goals against this season.
a drop from +35 to just a +2 this season.

Saying he shouldnt be worshipped or the ground he walks on shouldnt be kissed doesnt equal "Discredit him for everything' . Nice try.


Another left shot D.
If only we could make Nurse waive his NMC for BUF and keep Bouch

Yeah, he's had a disappointing season. Everyone knows that.

Yet he's still sixth in even strength points (after missing 6 games), still fourth in points-per-game, and still fourth in league scoring. A bad season for him is what most elite players would only dream of enjoying.

And don't forget who saved this damn country with that goal in OT. Show some appreciation for our McSavior.

 

[Shanahanigans]

I forgot Colorado added Blackwood as well earlier this season . So they added a #1 goalie, a 2C in Nelson, a 3C in Coyle, a 4C in Drury, a #5D in Lingren, as well as trading Rantanen for Necas who fits in seamlessly while making just 6.5 mill this year and next. Oh yeah, and they won a cup in 2022 and are still going for it.

 

[VeteranPresence]

I forgot Colorado added Blackwood as well earlier this season . So they added a #1 goalie, a 2C in Nelson, a 3C in Coyle, a 4C in Drury, a #5D in Lingren, as well as trading Rantanen for Necas who fits in seamlessly while making just 6.5 mill this year and next. Oh yeah, and they won a cup in 2022 and are still going for it.

I remember being mocked mercilessly for how "much" the Avs traded for Blackwood and then again when they traded Rantanen for a "downgrade". Where are those posters now?

 

[Soundwave]

I forgot Colorado added Blackwood as well earlier this season . So they added a #1 goalie, a 2C in Nelson, a 3C in Coyle, a 4C in Drury, a #5D in Lingren, as well as trading Rantanen for Necas who fits in seamlessly while making just 6.5 mill this year and next. Oh yeah, and they won a cup in 2022 and are still going for it.

Its definitely the best team they’ve had since 2022. Even McDavid mentioned they have basically a new roster and specifically mentioned they have 2 new goalies.

Their management is just significantly better than ours.

 

[McHelpus]

I remember being mocked mercilessly for how "much" the Avs traded for Blackwood and then again when they traded Rantanen for a "downgrade". Where are those posters now?

I said Blackwood trade wasn't going to work... oh boy was I wrong.