Post-Game Talk: The biggest game of the McDrai era

[FlameChampion]

Nurse is an interesting case (as he always is) because I thought he played his best hockey all season throughout most of the first 3 games then he overcommitted on the Kings GWG and carried that into Game 4 with one of his worst performances of the year in the first half of the game.

I find it interesting because it seems like the Oilers go as Nurse goes in a way. The Oilers controlled a good portion of the first 3 games as Nurse did controlling his game then chaos ensued in Game 4 as Nurse's game turned chaotic. If he simplifies again, the Oilers have a good chance of winning this series but who knows with him.

The thing that I find frustrating with Nurse is that so many goals are scored on him that should just be routine plays. He doesnt get beat by great skill plays or wow plays. He gets beat by mundane reads and decisions where he tries to do more than he should. Hes honestly just a bizarre player to analyze (to me anyway).

 

[guymez]

The thing that I find frustrating with Nurse is that so many goals are scored on him that should just be routine plays. He doesnt get beat by great skill plays or wow plays. He gets beat by mundane reads and decisions where he tries to do more than he should. Hes honestly just a bizarre player to analyze (to me anyway).

That sums it up for me as well. So many WTF moments from Nurse defensively.
Far too many for a dman that is supposed to be very reliable.

 

[Drivesaitl]

For the record, I don't believe that the NHL explicitly targets certain teams that they want to win. I do think that there are real biases that may well be subconscious in some part and circumstantial in other parts. My sense is that the NHL wants things to be as close as possible and that game management is often designed to even out teams advantage over their opposition.

That said in the past there were definitely "favoured teams" by the refs. Montreal was notorious in this regard as were Boston and Detroit.

For sure. But you can see it in game management and series management. If one team is too far up the other team will get PP's case in point the Oilers getting PP's in 2nd period.

If a team is down 2-1 in series the NHL wish would be an evened up series. As I mentioned earlier there are 56 potential games in first round of playoffs. Its the playoffs gold mine. its the bonanza of games. Its when the NHL gets the most gate, the most revenue, the most time slots and coverage. So the NHL should want series to go 6-7 games rather than 4-5 and due to parity, divisional series, and some game management the NHL gets exactly that result that they want.

 

[OfCorsiDid]

The NHL has done it though. They've done it several times. What the NHL has written in book and what they do are sometimes different things. I've seen that exact boarding play be a double minor more times than I remember.

Oh I’m sure they have. Might’ve been different years though. It seems like the league enjoys changing the book just because they can.

 

[Mav3rick07]

I CANT BELIEVE WE TIED THE SERIES I HAD GIVEN UP LAST NIGHT AT 3-0

 

[McBeastMode]

 

[FlameChampion]

Amazing and embarrassing all in one lol

 

[bellagiobob]

Yup, classic can opener. Not sure why LA is bitching about this call. Guess they just must be used to having no penalties called on them that pretty much anything called on them seems outrageous.

 

[Fixed to Ruin]

The NHL has done it though. They've done it several times. What the NHL has written in book and what they do are sometimes different things. I've seen that exact boarding play be a double minor more times than I remember.

In the hockey canada rulebook, the only double minors that exist are for butt ending, head butting, leaving the bench, head contact, kneeing, slew footing and spearing.

The kempe cross-checking penalty is either a 2 or a 5.

I imagine the NHL rulebook would mirror hockey canada's rulebook.

Appendix D » Rule Book Admin

 

[bellagiobob]

 

[oXo Cube]

Fiala tripping was absolutely the right call. Stick was in the skates.

The Oilers have been getting(correctly) called for that all series long.

 

[Drivesaitl]

The thing that I find frustrating with Nurse is that so many goals are scored on him that should just be routine plays. He doesnt get beat by great skill plays or wow plays. He gets beat by mundane reads and decisions where he tries to do more than he should. Hes honestly just a bizarre player to analyze (to me anyway).

But you're essentially describing the water of what is NHL D play facing topsix opposition. In difficult minutes mistakes get made.

But on the whole Darnell was +26 this season with low EVGA. In some respects sometimes we remember the struggles. Darnell struggled last season with the coaching change. He hasn't struggled as much, or even, this season.

Darnell is another D we have where the schemes don't match what would be ideal for him. That said he makes mistakes you mention but because he is a gamer. he wants to win pucks, he has a tendency to venture too much at times.

Not comparing, but its the same problem Doughty has at times. When Doughty is off its because he's trying to do too much. It happened to doughty in game 4. its happened a lot to him in recent seasons. Red blooded competitive D, its their nature, they're trying to make plays. As a team you get the good and bad in that.

The OT winner should have been the bed collapsing. Just my editiorial take.

 

[CupofOil]

Its kind of hard for me to explain - I dont think hes fully a #3 either. I just think he swings wildly through being at his best a #1 to at his worst looking like #6. It makes it hard for me to classify him.

Either way, we need him to play well and hes an important player for us going forward.

I don't think you'd see these mistakes at the volume we do if he had more support. Generally, since Ekholm arrived, Nurse has played the best hockey he's played in a few years simply because he has some lineup supportt but he's still paired with a real 2nd pairing Dman played the toughest of minutes, there are going to be mistakes made due to overcompensation trying to do too much at times. Sometimes his mistakes are solely on him but it's also due to his supporting cast.

Like I said before, Nurse is a tough guy to get a read on because he's never been given proper support like most #1's on good teams get so you get this mixed bag but the reality is that he's been one of the top even strength producers consistently and outscores tough opposition consistently throughout his career. Those are indisputable facts. I do worry what happens if his skating starts to wane with age because he depends heavily on his footspeed to cover errors but we're not there yet.

 

[Drivesaitl]

In the hockey canada rulebook, the only double minors that exist are for butt ending, head butting, leaving the bench, head contact, kneeing, slew footing and spearing.

The kempe cross-checking penalty is either a 2 or a 5.

I imagine the NHL rulebook would mirror hockey canada's rulebook.

Appendix D » Rule Book Admin

Again I'm not going by the rulebook. the NHL has applied double minors instead of majors in that exact boarding situation because the NHL has a sometimes habit of making it up as they go along. Several times and with telecasts saying the same thing. How did they make that a double minor instead of major. The NHL goes to weird inbetweens sometimes in this situations where they don't want to give a major, but figure an infraction deserves more than a minor. The NHL being the NHL.

The thing I noticed about the Kane, Hyman and Leon goals is they shot the puck. They didn't pass, they didn't deke, they just shot it. And look what happened.

More rubber on Korpisalo and hopefully we can start putting up 4-5 goals per game.

All due respect the Oilers have been firing a ton of rubber. The last two goals were Korpi fatigue setting in and LA fatigue as they didn't work their 1-3-1 in those plays. Both Oilers suddenly had more room in EV play than they generally been getting. But Oilers are getting 40 shots a game. Thats firing pucks. heh

 

[5 14 6 1]

I think McDavid might be sick

 

[Kerberos]

I think McDavid might be sick

A game 5 win and a 3 day break may be just what the doctor ordered then.

I am hoping for, and expecting, performances like games 2 and 3 from last year's series. Fire everything at Korpisalo and channel last night's 2nd period for a full 60. No more excuses, they've got to run with the momentum.

 

[guymez]

They should show that on the Jumbotron at Rogers Place.

 

[oXo Cube]

All due respect the Oilers have been firing a ton of rubber. The last two goals were Korpi fatigue setting in and LA fatigue as they didn't work their 1-3-1 in those plays. Both Oilers suddenly had more room in EV play than they generally been getting. But Oilers are getting 40 shots a game. Thats firing pucks. heh

This is correct. The Oilers are 1st in the playoffs in both corsi for and shots on goal(also scoring chances and HDSC). Both by pretty wide margins. Korpisalo has been by far the busiest goalie so far.

A lot of people not really understanding how good he has been through 4 games here.

 

[Fixed to Ruin]

Again I'm not going by the rulebook. the NHL has applied double minors instead of majors in that exact boarding situation because the NHL has a sometimes habit of making it up as they go along. Several times and with telecasts saying the same thing. How did they make that a double minor instead of major. The NHL goes to weird inbetweens sometimes in this situations where they don't want to give a major, but figure an infraction deserves more than a minor. The NHL being the NHL.

Again, you won't be able to provide an example of this because it doesn't exist. The referee's job is to apply the rules in the rule book. The rule book clearly defines what types of infractions can be called as a double minor. I'll never believe an NHL referee will make things up as they go along.

 

[McJadeddog]

Yup, classic can opener. Not sure why LA is bitching about this call. Guess they just must be used to having no penalties called on them that pretty much anything called on them seems outrageous.

I actually don't think its a really obvious penalty myself. I likely wouldn't have called it if I was the ref, and even on replay I'm not sure that I do (even though it might technically be a penalty).

 

[bone]

Realistically LA got 3 penalties that were as weak as the type the board has been complaining about in the series. But on the other side people feeling like Kempe ought to have had a double minor instead of a minor on the board hit. Still, its OT (afairc) and not many majors or doubles are called there.

My take is the NHL responded somewhat with all the notices that the Oilers were getting jobbed in the series. I expect game 5 to be the same with Oilers getting some better treatment.

Kinda fits with my theory that the NHL would want the Oilers to advance, but that they were helping to try to make it a longer series as more games is more revenue.

Officiating was Even, I thought the Oilers got the edge from it, and the game evenly played.

One theory I've seen floated out there is that since all these games need to be shown so late to accommodate double headers and such, they'd want there to be a Game 6 and Game 7 as there's a better chance (especially with Game 6 being on a Saturday) of getting these games into a better timeslot for the national audience once a bunch of eastern series are finished off.

Seems hokey, but who knows.

 

[gordonhught]

I think McDavid might be sick

He looks off and sounds off.

Win next game and he can rest for a few days.

 

[bellagiobob]

 

[McJadeddog]

This is correct. The Oilers are 1st in the playoffs in both corsi for and shots on goal(also scoring chances and HDSC). Both by pretty wide margins. Korpisalo has been by far the busiest goalie so far.

A lot of people not really understanding how good he has been through 4 games here.

This image says it all really

 

[guymez]

I don't think you'd see these mistakes at the volume we do if he had more support. Generally, since Ekholm arrived, Nurse has played the best hockey he's played in a few years simply because he has some lineup supportt but he's still paired with a real 2nd pairing Dman played the toughest of minutes, there are going to be mistakes made due to overcompensation trying to do too much at times. Sometimes his mistakes are solely on him but it's also due to his supporting cast.

Like I said before, Nurse is a tough guy to get a read on because he's never been given proper support like most #1's on good teams get so you get this mixed bag but the reality is that he's been one of the top even strength producers consistently and outscores tough opposition consistently throughout his career. Those are indisputable facts. I do worry what happens if his skating starts to wane with age because he depends heavily on his footspeed to cover errors but we're not there yet.

The question for me though....why is it that a dman of Ekholms caliber can carry an inexperienced (or lesser) player and Nurse cant?
Shouldnt there be an expectation of that from Nurse considering his pay grade?