Post-Game Talk: The summer of our discontent

[Jimmi McJenkins]

I feel like Mike Grier could help us with a nurse trade. He's about 5 years out from being ready to contend with his young team.

Do your old team a favor

Trade Nurse+ for Vlassic, buyout Vlassic

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Rough outline of changes that should happen:

GG out
Stuart Skinner out
Henrique, Arvidsson out
Kane out if upgrade is available
Coffey possibly out (I think he’ll choose to bow out)

Changes that should be considered:

Mark Stuart out
Ekholm trade if his decline is real

Change that needs to happen but won’t:

Nurse out

I’d actually sign Jeff Skinner to a cheapish contract but no way he’d want to come back.

Ekholm is clearly injured...not even close to 100%

I wanna see him fully healthy before I punt him

 

[Tarus]

Its a fireable offense.

Not just because he didn't address the biggest spot in hockey, but because he said we were set and he didn't need to et a goalie. f*** him.

GMs don't reveal their hand in interviews. While he was saying they were set in net, they were inquiring on Swayman, Saros, and Gibson.

Sometimes you can't get things done during the season, especially when your boss spends most of the cap on small, soft wingers right before he hires you.

 

[Canovin]

Enough with the experiments and cutting corners. You faced a team that was better than you at every position. Enough with the Nurse experiment, I don’t care how beloved he is. Enough with cheaping out on goaltending year after year. Enough with relying on geriatrics like Henrique and invisible players like Janmark and Brown to anchor your bottom 6. Enough of expecting Mcdavid and Draisaitl to carry a roster year after year. 97 and 29 certainly were not great this series, but the lack of depth, defense and goaltending were a major part of it.

I disagree on the depth. The depth is the reason we made it to the finals. McDavid and Drai didn't show up when it mattered

 

[DrDrai]

Hold on, I just read that the Ekblad suspension allowed the panthers to free up cap space. Does the NHL allow suspended players cap to not be applied?!

That’s bullshit if true.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Ekholm is clearly injured...not even close to 100%

I wanna see him fully healthy before I punt him

It's kind of ironic that the team defense was actually better without him.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

I think with our big contracts coming up in the next couple of years, and even with the cap going up, that we may end up taking a couple of year break of being as competitive a team as we've been the past two years. Just too many holes to fill with not enough cap space. And then load up again in a few years when the cap and contract situations are more favorable for us. I expect us to still be competitive next year, but a rung below where we are now.

I totally agree. A dip, let the prospects we have mature and develop and then 2-3 more runs in 3-5 years time. Allows to backfill the roster with a rising cap and praytell- get a starting goalie which will not be cheap.

 

[bellagiobob]

Why would Nurse agree?

The only way Nurse agrees is if there is a falling out between him and his Bros, which is unlikely.

 

[TheBrew]

Broberg drafted and developed by the Oilers. Broberg under 25. Kulak and Nurse were blockers- can’t trade Nurse- had to move Kulak. That how you get better.

Am I the only one who remembers Broberg getting roasted on these boards as a horrible draft pick? Kulak did not block Broberg, Kulak could have been moved to the right side if necessary, Broberg wanted the payday. Honestly he would of been stupid to turn down the offersheet.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Yup, just a lot of avoidable mistakes between penalties, turnovers, overpassing....

"I think we still haven’t seen our best, and now it’ll be a great time to show it."

Well you didn't. At all. Might pin that on the wall of infamous Oiler quotes.

Way, way too many unforced errors. Add the terrible penalties often 200 feet away from your net. Alot of controllable factors the Oilers left on the table. I'm not going to slag Oiler leaders for trying to will their team with bold statements. But I wish they had not been said. A very simple strategy this series included throw a blanket of 2 or 3 guys with layered defending on McDavid and let leftovers like Connor Brown beat you.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

It's kind of ironic that the team defense was actually better without him.

we has getting worse as the series wore on too

got torched in Game 5 by Marchand and then Reinhart tonight

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

I totally agree. A dip, let the prospects we have mature and develop and then 2-3 more runs in 3-5 years time. Allows to backfill the roster with a rising cap and praytell- get a starting goalie which will not be cheap.

What prospects?

This team is terrible at drafting.

 

[Bring Back Bucky]

I disagree on the depth. The depth is the reason we made it to the finals. McDavid and Drai didn't show up when it mattered

I think we had much better depth this time. Nuge looked really hurt and Hyman was a big loss.

 

[Oilhawks]

People talk about trading Bouchard . How many times have teams traded the best player and won the trade? I can think of exactly one, the Lindros trade.

Draft and develop your cheap players to play on cheap ELC contracts so you can pay your stars. But not the Oilers, no.

Death by a thousand cuts and no cap space available to make that trade for that player who you didn't think was available.

Get better goaltending. I've had enough pops tonight I'm contemplating whether we would have won one of the last 2 years with Jake Allen.

I’ve only had one pop (so far), and I’d tell you yes, they probably do (at least one of the two years)

 

[StoveTopStauffer]

It's kind of ironic that the team defense was actually better without him.

Everyone could feel how Ekholm coming back and changing the dynamic was going to pan out.

 

[GMofOilers]

Pickard won 22 in 31 starts on the season .709 winning percentage
Playoffs he went 7-1 in 8 games

Not my fault won 26 in 50 starts .520 winning percentage
Playoffs he went 7-8 in 15 games

This was a SCF team my god he sunk us badly all year.

 

[Bring Back Bucky]

Two players that willl go someplace and be much happier and do better next year.
Stuart Skinner
Mitch Marner.

You heard it here first.

 

[redgrant]

Why would Nurse agree?

We don't want you here. We'll bury you. It will be embarassing for you. Mike Grier want you to lead his young team. He thinks you're a future Norris winner there. It was his idea. Etc

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

You keep both. Nurse is poor for his salary, but he is still a completely serviceable NHL D man. The Oil can work around it.

Trading Bouchard because Nurse is overpaid is the definition of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Your team gets worse in pretty much every practical scenario.

I get your point, not sure they can make it work practically and have 50M tied up in 4 players though. That will be 50% of the cap. Not sure they can be competitive with that type of payroll.

 

[Sra1974]

Its a fireable offense.

Not just because he didn't address the biggest spot in hockey, but because he said we were set and he didn't need to et a goalie. f*** him.

To be fair, at that point saying yeah we tried real hard and couldn’t find anything so we are stuck with this guy may not be the best move for the team or the goalie.

We have zero clue what they did or didn’t try, but he said publically really the only thing he could say.

 

[rboomercat90]

Seth Jones led the Panthers in ice-time during the playoffs and Marchand led their team in goals in the finals. Couple of amazing pick ups.

Both acquired right after Ekblad was suspended 20 games for PED use. What a fortunate break that was for them.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Pickard won 22 in 31 starts on the season .709 winning percentage
Playoffs he went 7-1 in 8 games

Not my fault won 26 in 50 starts .520 winning percentage
Playoffs he went 7-8 in 15 games

This was a SCF team my god he sunk us badly all year.

And yet your God Pickard lost the most crucial game of the series.

 

[Nunymare]

100%

This is big business tarted up as sports entertainment. Driving revenue for cartel members is job 1, 2 and 3. Bettman's made his bosses very wealthy and the latent, yet unrealized future money to be made is south of the border. Separating emotion from stone cold logic the league is shovelling money in its pursuit of the American dream.

A large part of why I am rapidly losing interest in following the league.

It's a damned shame that no Canadian city has had the experience of winning an NHL championship in a generation. I don't even care if it's not my team that wins.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Pickard won 22 in 31 starts on the season .709 winning percentage
Playoffs he went 7-1 in 8 games

Not my fault won 26 in 50 starts .520 winning percentage
Playoffs he went 7-8 in 15 games

This was a SCF team my god he sunk us badly all year.

I thought the Oilers play better under Pickard?

 

[Dradavich]

That was Pathetic, Last year against these same panthers they battled in every game, They just got goalied by Bobrovsky in those first 3 losses, Even in game 7 they were battling to get that tying goal. But this season They had 3 games where they just awful. They had one loss where they actually made the panthers work for it and that was game 2. Blame the goaltending all you want, Blame the Depth but where the f*** was Connor Mcdavid and Leon Draisaitl in these last to games? They want the cup? Than be better there is no excuse for how they played in the last 2 games of this series.