Post-Game Talk: Skinned again

[jesusbuiltmyhotrod]

This team despite going to the finals last year but still making the same mistakes. Too cute, and sub par goaltending

 

[Missing smitty]

Oil made a big gamble they could run on a very thin blue line and add some key players at the deadline due to the accrued space.

Clearly not working. If Skinner is playing well it's likely salvageable but you can't have that thin of a back end with a goalie who's not playing well.

I just don't think they're in the position to do anything. Who makes a significant hockey trade at this point of the year. Nobody.

Whole season hinges on Skinner really. If he is playing well the D core is good enough to get them into a solid position to add some big players at deadline.

Defense is hilariously the least of their worries right now. They can't score and are getting bad goaltending. The only bright spot in 21 games is that "statistically" they are playing good defensive hockey.

There is a reason hockey could be called goalie instead. Teams play differently in front of a good goaltender. I've watched a few Jets games and you can tell they are playing with massive confidence. It's a different sport when you can count on your goalie bailing you out 90% of the time.

 

[Tarus]

Sounds like a diplomatic way of saying "goalie can't stop anything unless he has a 30 second warning"

Not exactly a flattering statement to basically state your number one starter goaltender needs to be given the "Make a Wish" cancer kid treatment and have everyone baby him into making stops.

 

[trick91]

Arvidson- 4mill
Skinner - 3mill
Henrique- 3mill

10 million tied up in pretty useless players. Shocking to say the least.

 

[bobbythebrain]

Sooo, where is " the defense has been excellent this year" crowd?

Bouch/Ek are a disaster.

Scary to think that Kulak is the best dman we got

 

[Messrules11]

Woke up this morning and Stuart Skinner is the starting goalie for the Edmonton Oilers.

F***!

 

[FlameChampion]

Arvidson- 4mill
Skinner - 3mill
Henrique- 3mill

10 million tied up in pretty useless players. Shocking to say the least.

I am surprised how poorly all these guys are.

But I honestly think the bigger story is how poor and unproductive Hyman and RNH is.

What’s the saying? Death of a thousand cuts.

Regardless of how this team plays they should probably retool the roster at the deadline/offseason by moving RNH, Henrique, Skinnerx2, Arviddson etc.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

I am surprised how poorly all these guys are.

But I honestly think the bigger story is how poor and unproductive Hyman and RNH is.

What’s the saying? Death of a thousand cuts.

Regardless of how this team plays they should probably retool the roster at the deadline/offseason by moving RNH, Henrique, Skinnerx2, Arviddson etc.

If you're selling at the deadline then nuke the roster, because there's no coming back.

 

[NeverForget06]

It’s just as it’s always been guys…. Skinner can win or lose us games.

Whatever he did to come back after he fell apart against the Canucks needs to happen again

 

[BlackDogg]

The Edmonton Ty Conklins

How much agitprop can fans endure regarding the goalie situation from the team and their media?

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Sooo, where is " the defense has been excellent this year" crowd?

Bouch/Ek are a disaster.

Scary to think that Kulak is the best dman we got

Ekholm has to cover for a partner that has next to zero defensive awareness and is getting worse by the game. This problem is exacerbated by having them play too many minutes because without Nurse we have no effective 2nd pairing.

 

[Kepler 186f]

Ekholm has to cover for a partner that has next to zero defensive awareness and is getting worse by the game. This problem is exacerbated by having them play too many minutes because without Nurse we have no effective 2nd pairing.

Nurse handles a ton of tough minutes. So not only do Bouchard And Ekholm need to play more minutes with him out, they also need to play more tough minutes.

 

[russ99]

When your team gets to this stage this is the exact time you do not want Stan Bowman making decisions. It kind of reminds me of the years after the Blackhawks won their last cup (I know the Oil haven’t won it but as close as you can get last year). He made some desperate moves that sunk the roster, screwed the team cap wise, and cost draft picks and prospects. Now the team has glaring holes, is too old, and has stars desperate to finally win a cup. Bowman could screw the franchise for a decade in this position.

While I'm not a fan and see the parallel to the decline of the Blackhawks, this season isn't on Bowman, it's solely on Jeff Jackson for overspending in FA on older forwards while ignoring a defense that needed fixing before we traded Ceci, and should have had a plan to keep our own RFAs.

Ekholm has to cover for a partner that has next to zero defensive awareness and is getting worse by the game. This problem is exacerbated by having them play too many minutes because without Nurse we have no effective 2nd pairing.

I see things worse than that, how would Bouchard improve that part of the game when we have minimal defensive structure and the leadership core considers defense an afterthought or worse, beneath them as long as they fill the net?

 

[Lacaar]

Please do post that Cult of Hockey podcast in the Sports Radio Podcast thread.
Sounds like its worth a listen.

I really enjoy this podcast and recommend it.

 

[Gunnersaurus Rex]

Sighhhhhh.

If you traded Skinner and RNH for actual players you’d probably have something.

Throw in Poochard

 

[TheNumber4]

Throw in Poochard

No. Never trade Bouch. Ever.

Skinner was shit last night and shit for most of the year. But give your head a shake if you think we lost cause of Skinner last night. The Wild outplayed us in all aspects of the game. And our defence has never looked worse. Offense was completely stifled too.

 

[Salvaged Ship]

While I'm not a fan and see the parallel to the decline of the Blackhawks, this season isn't on Bowman, it's solely on Jeff Jackson for overspending in FA on older forwards while ignoring a defense that needed fixing before we traded Ceci, and should have had a plan to keep our own RFAs.

He certainly has nothing to do with the current state, what I worry about is the moves he might make in a panic to try and fix things. He destroyed the Hawks trying to rebuild on the fly around a few aging players, I have no faith in his decision making in the current state. I hope he proves me wrong.

 

[Gordy Elbows]

I also think that the overpassing in the Offensive zone is another major issue.

WTF is it with this team that they think they can pass the puck into the net?

Watching that makes me miss Kane even more.

 

[K1984]

Lost in all the Skinner talk, and he's been trash, is that the scoring outage continues. It was a Draisaitl goal from a mile away, a Perry goal off a Wild player and a garbage time Skinner goal (thanks for that nothing burger Jeff). Team can't score, again, and when they do it's McDrai.

I'm seeing the offensive issues as systems related, and I don't know if that's on the players for executing a bad system poorly or the coaches for continuing to try and plug a square peg into a round hole.

Want to take away pretty much any and all offence from the Oilers? Stack the blue line on zone entry and pressure the dmen/high forward on the wall. Simple. Here's how 90% of our zone entries go:

If we actually successfully enter the zone with possession:

- Skate no deeper than the hash marks, send it backwards to the D man who is either already covered or basically has no play

- D man sits on it, then either sends it to the other D man who is also already covered, or shoots into a shot blocker or a goalie that already has a firm read on the play and is square

- Occasionally there will be a cycle, but it will be strictly on the perimeter, and no play to the net made. Usually ends when someone throws a hope pass somewhere after skating it around for a while with no easy opportunities available that I'm assuming they think should just appear.

If we dump it in:

- Turnover, these dumps are almost always poorly timed and we are always second to the puck and lose the battle. If we do get it we just rip it up the wall blind to the point anyways, then see above for what happens next.

Other outcomes:

- If the opposition pressures at the blue line on entry we're basically done.

The cherry on top of all this is the slow, plodding, methodical approach to offence. The concept of making plays fast to throw off the opposition is foreign to this group. They get it, sit on it, sit on it, pass up a good shooting look, pass it, miss, rinse and repeat. They will not make a fast play, they will not make any play without looking around for half an hour first.

Every single thing about their approach to offence is f***ed. A starting point has to be getting the puck out of the hands of the defence, but that doesn't seem to be on the radar at all. Bouchard has been a bum all year, but I can't help but think that teams knowing that puck is telegraphed to him on every entry isn't setting him back a few steps.

 

[guymez]

I really enjoy this podcast and recommend it.

I used to listen to it all the time. I enjoyed the content but it just got a little too vanilla.
I'll have to revisit the podcast.

 

[KCC]

Team has work ethic problems lately, can’t score, pk and pp are dreadful and skinner can’t stop a beach ball. And the team is stuck with him as management won’t move him. They are hell bent on keeping him a starter when he’s clearly not. I’ve been banging on that drum annd putting my foot down for a long time now as there’s more than enough of a sample size to show it. Any other team at this phase of a contending team would have shipped him out by now.

 

[gretzkyoilers]

I am surprised how poorly all these guys are.

But I honestly think the bigger story is how poor and unproductive Hyman and RNH is.

What’s the saying? Death of a thousand cuts.

Regardless of how this team plays they should probably retool the roster at the deadline/offseason by moving RNH, Henrique, Skinnerx2, Arviddson etc.

On paper this summer, it looks like the Oilers had gotten better (except goaltending and defense). Losing Broberg and Holloway was a sting, but the offer that the Blues gave them put a squeeze on the Oilers. Problem is that all of the the players have been playing below expected. The Oilers should have gotten much more secondary scoring this season given who they have added. Not sure what the problem is....work ethic? team mentally is not there? lacking chemistry? confidence?

 

[MoontoScott]

Watching that makes me miss Kane even more.

He is supposedly back in late January?? I haven't heard the latest update.

Ironic how so many posters said the club wouldn't miss him during the regular season with all the fire power that was added but now some people are wondering how long till he gets back. The new rifles seem to be missing the firing pins.

 

[Vagabond]

This guy is absolutely right.

 

[oilers4life5]

I agree Skinner is struggling. Given the salary cap he’ll we are in, who are you bringing in to save us? I don’t think that goalie exists.