Post-Game Talk: Tipped Off | Oilers lose series 3-1

[Drivesaitl]

Generally speaking I, and many others, think McDavid is even worse defensively. So... it seems outlandish and rather bias. McDavid was getting called out publicly in this series. If your focus is Draisaitl there is something a bit strange there.

Both need to be waaaaaaaaaaaaay better. As does the whole team.

Thanks. its specious, silly even, to be blaming the player that is shouldering the much harder load with newby players and half baked players like AA and Ennis. That also has the brunt of the pk responsibility. Drai had lots to do in this series and overall did well. Too bad he's not part of a deeper squad with any help.

But lets blame the leading scorer, MVP candidate, that just had a stellar season throughout and who on many nights was the best player we had.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I find it hilarious that Stauffer has been dispatched by the team to damage control. He never used to be a team blow hard. I get that they improved but the fan base if frustrated. Next camp all you will read from Stauffer is how Mcdavid and the team is “back with a chip on their shoulder” and going to “fly out of the gate”. Just to be disappointed again

I'm not a Stauffer fan but he's not all that off, and the 82 Oilers played worse in losing to the LA Kings who were a pretty pitiful club and could only score, and not defend to save their lives. The Oilers figured they would help that club out by playing 5 games in "First team to 10 goals river hockey format" It was a disgusting display by that Oilers club and they learned a lot from it. Nor was that team playing under ANY duress. There was no pandemic, no stress for that young club, they folded against a really bad club, a Kings club that never got anything done.

The Present Oilers lost to the still intact core of a 3 time SC winner, and the Hawks forward depth is clearly better than ours.

We don't have any Dach in the lineup. Nothing close.

We don't have any Kubalik in the lineup.

Hawks have Saad, a very good support player.

Hawks have Debrincat, night and day better than yamamoto.

Of course the Hawks have Duncan Keith, light years better than any D we have in our whole system.


Thing is, if Kane and Toews were going to be able to match McDrai in this series, and be similar factors, the Rest of the Hawks club, better, and deeper, was going to have an edge. I don't see 6-8 scrub players in the Hawks lineup. Hell the Hawks played without Andrew Shaw and still kicked us in the junk.

The series shows how much work still needs to occur here. After McD, Drai, Nuge there really wasn't much of a team here with apology to Neal and Archibald who showed up, and were factors. The Oilers have half at least half a dozen players every game that you can't even expect to be factors.

 

[bellagiobob]

I'm not a Stauffer fan but he's not all that off, and the 82 Oilers played worse in losing to the LA Kings who were a pretty pitiful club and could only score, and not defend to save their lives. The Oilers figured they would help that club out by playing 5 games in "First team to 10 goals river hockey format" It was a disgusting display by that Oilers club and they learned a lot from it. Nor was that team playing under ANY duress. There was no pandemic, no stress for that young club, they folded against a really bad club, a Kings club that never got anything done.

The Present Oilers lost to the still intact core of a 3 time SC winner, and the Hawks forward depth is clearly better than ours.

We don't have any Dach in the lineup. Nothing close.

We don't have any Kubalik in the lineup.

Hawks have Saad, a very good support player.

Hawks have Debrincat, night and day better than yamamoto.

Of course the Hawks have Duncan Keith, light years better than any D we have in our whole system.


Thing is, if Kane and Toews were going to be able to match McDrai in this series, and be similar factors, the Rest of the Hawks club, better, and deeper, was going to have an edge. I don't see 6-8 scrub players in the Hawks lineup. Hell the Hawks played without Andrew Shaw and still kicked us in the junk.

The series shows how much work still needs to occur here. After McD, Drai, Nuge there really wasn't much of a team here with apology to Neal and Archibald who showed up, and were factors. The Oilers have half at least half a dozen players every game that you can't even expect to be factors.

And yet the Hawks were one of the worst teams all year, even with Lehner in net. I think you’re over rating the Hawks a bit. Their D isn’t very good, yet they looked like all stars against us. They had their working boots on and we didn’t.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I needed a few days away after that lol, as a fan this one was particularly devastating for how things worked out. We saw a team take some big strides this season and earn playoff spot only to get jobbed on the format and then not do enough in the short qualifier.

Off ice, I feel like this team has been fighting an uphill battle for decades, no doubt they've been an absolute failure at identifying and developing talent, so many times over the last two decades we've seen players come here and fall apart or guys walk or traded for peanuts only to become productive, useful players elsewhere. We are an undesirable market for many players, no recent success, not a popular city, and a fanatic market where every move you make is analyzed. Often times we are desperate and forced to over pay whatever depth scraps we can get. All of this adds up to us being in desperate positions, taking unnecessary risks and getting taken by bad deals or bad signings. The league picking your pockets of picks every now and then doesn't help either.

On ice there seems to be some weird dynamic at play where having top end guys removes accountability throughout the lineup, sometimes it almost seems like guys are playing like they believe what they do doesn't really matter because McDavid and Draisaitl are just so good they will be the difference makers. I know drafting and developing has been bad but it's absolutely ridiculous that other teams can find ways to get enough contributions throughout their lineups to find success but here no matter how much shuffling we do the result is always the same. The flip side of this is that McDavid and Draisaitl start feeling like the burden is completely on them, because if they aren't scoring we don't have a chance so they abandon a complete game in pursuit of constantly pressing their offensive advantage.

Interesting post. I like it because its reasonable. I think you hit it. We have McDrai and Nuge, and then a bunch of guys just figuring that the big guns can do it all. Nobody wins that way.

I harken back to the 1990 Playoffs. First round. Against the Jets that series the Oilers got off to a shaky start. But I pretty much thought vets like Mess, Anderson, Simpson, Kurri, Tikka, Lowe etc were kind of waiting to see if that team really had any jam to it. If that team had any hope of really doing much. But once the kid line and Ranford turned the corner the Oilers stars responded, and got it done, and then were unstoppable. But they could easily have lost the first round, and clearly would have unless support players showed up and started proving themselves.

With McD, Drai, Nuge, I really think they needed to see some solid contributions from others. Theres so few good players on this roster that we just can't afford to have guys like Kassian, Klefbom, Larsson etc mailing it in. We needed every hand on deck playing to their utmost and that wasn't happening. Even Yama didn't get anything done. Of course AA didn't get anything finished.

The basic surmise of McDrai/Nuge would probably be that they knew "this dog won't hunt". I mean this triad pulled the club all season. Maybe they were a bit fedup doing that.

I mean the Oilers don't win a single game in this series if McD doesn't bag a hat trick in Game 2. I said right there I was very worried that even with McD superheating and cheat coding, that the Hawks were right in that game and hanging around. That was a big concern.

Clearly that if the Oilers were having this much trouble with Chicago, a 23rd ranked club, nothing much was going to be happening for them this playoffs. Probably more of a mismatch in playoff round.

 

[Drivesaitl]

And yet the Hawks were one of the worst teams all year, even with Lehner in net. I think you’re over rating the Hawks a bit. Their D isn’t very good, yet they looked like all stars against us. They had their working boots on and we didn’t.

Nah. I've seen this in the Hawks and the KIngs in previous seasons. The basic problem with these clubs is the core is sated and aging. Both clubs can play well for stints but don't have the jam, drive, or fortitude, even energy to carry through an 82 game schedule. This was perfect for the Hawks. A reprieve season, where they were gifted a play in, and where there older core were 4mths rested and fresh.

Not forgetting they have Debrincat, Saad, laying around. Good players, and frankly a 4 some of Forwards along with Kane and Toews that the Oil don't even have. The dropoff quality wise after Nuge on this club is severe. Hawks don't have that same problem.

The Hawks were a better team than they showed. Add to this club Dach, who is really going to be a fantastic player, and the meteoric rise of Kubalik, and it seemed like the Hawks were finding their way.

Plus that correcting for games played the Hawks were only 10pts behind us, and they had only 3 less ROW W's.

This was nothing at all like say 82 first round where the Oilers were 48pts better than their opponent and choked.

The Hawks had no pressure, nothing to worry about, and got it done.


The NHL f***ed up. In 4/8 of these play in series the underdog won. The NHL basically set up a 5 game series crapshoot where anything could happen. The teams only had one warm up game after 4 months off. This was more rust than teams having starting seasons and on the Oilers it showed. Kudos to the hawks for looking like a more finely tuned engine but I think overall they have more coachable players. They didn't have any passengers like Kassian, Khaira, Klef, Larsson to haul around.

 

[94 Oil Drops]

I'm not a Stauffer fan but he's not all that off, and the 82 Oilers played worse in losing to the LA Kings who were a pretty pitiful club and could only score, and not defend to save their lives. The Oilers figured they would help that club out by playing 5 games in "First team to 10 goals river hockey format" It was a disgusting display by that Oilers club and they learned a lot from it. Nor was that team playing under ANY duress. There was no pandemic, no stress for that young club, they folded against a really bad club, a Kings club that never got anything done.

The Present Oilers lost to the still intact core of a 3 time SC winner, and the Hawks forward depth is clearly better than ours.

We don't have any Dach in the lineup. Nothing close.

We don't have any Kubalik in the lineup.

Hawks have Saad, a very good support player.

Hawks have Debrincat, night and day better than yamamoto.

Of course the Hawks have Duncan Keith, light years better than any D we have in our whole system.


Thing is, if Kane and Toews were going to be able to match McDrai in this series, and be similar factors, the Rest of the Hawks club, better, and deeper, was going to have an edge. I don't see 6-8 scrub players in the Hawks lineup. Hell the Hawks played without Andrew Shaw and still kicked us in the junk.

The series shows how much work still needs to occur here. After McD, Drai, Nuge there really wasn't much of a team here with apology to Neal and Archibald who showed up, and were factors. The Oilers have half at least half a dozen players every game that you can't even expect to be factors.

The Oilers have had several top notch quality chokes in their history.

The 82 loss to the Kings, the Steve Smith own goal against the Flames, the 5th game of the 17 playoffs against the Ducks, and this year they did it against the Hawks. For all the glory we had in the 80s, we are sure paying the price for those years... Dearly!

 

[Llamamoto]

I'm not a Stauffer fan but he's not all that off, and the 82 Oilers played worse in losing to the LA Kings who were a pretty pitiful club and could only score, and not defend to save their lives. The Oilers figured they would help that club out by playing 5 games in "First team to 10 goals river hockey format" It was a disgusting display by that Oilers club and they learned a lot from it. Nor was that team playing under ANY duress. There was no pandemic, no stress for that young club, they folded against a really bad club, a Kings club that never got anything done.

The Present Oilers lost to the still intact core of a 3 time SC winner, and the Hawks forward depth is clearly better than ours.

We don't have any Dach in the lineup. Nothing close.

We don't have any Kubalik in the lineup.

Hawks have Saad, a very good support player.

Hawks have Debrincat, night and day better than yamamoto.

Of course the Hawks have Duncan Keith, light years better than any D we have in our whole system.


Thing is, if Kane and Toews were going to be able to match McDrai in this series, and be similar factors, the Rest of the Hawks club, better, and deeper, was going to have an edge. I don't see 6-8 scrub players in the Hawks lineup. Hell the Hawks played without Andrew Shaw and still kicked us in the junk.

The series shows how much work still needs to occur here. After McD, Drai, Nuge there really wasn't much of a team here with apology to Neal and Archibald who showed up, and were factors. The Oilers have half at least half a dozen players every game that you can't even expect to be factors.

Debrincat was a complete non-factor in the series. Yamamoto didn't do much good either, but he provided energy and forechecked with his usual tenacity.

 

[Cloned]

Debrincat was a complete non-factor in the series. Yamamoto didn't do much good either, but he provided energy and forechecked with his usual tenacity.

I think you're slightly biased.

 

[Llamamoto]

I think you're slightly biased.

True lol.

Although Yams was robbed of an assist on the Ennis goal, and he started the play on the Draisaitl goal in game 3.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Heres something interesting as point of Illustration of where these teams were at.

As far back as November 24, 2019 the Oilers had a steller record, 11 games above ,500, 35 pts.

The Hawks started season much more slowly and had only 23pts, a .500 club.


The kicker is that over the last several months of play the Oilers stopped being anything more than a so so club. They already has their stagger, they were having trouble since Nov 24, and were barely holding on at times. The club often looked ordinary.

So that the Oilers had 48pts after Nov 24 to end of season. .500 through that whole stretch.

The Hawks kept being about the same, improved a little as season went on, and had 47pts since Nov 24.

So there really was very little to choose between these clubs as the season went on and Chicago also beat us in the interlocking battle.

The Oilers just had a hot start to the season, and thats all. they were very ordinary since Nov. This just isn't a very good club.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Debrincat was a complete non-factor in the series. Yamamoto didn't do much good either, but he provided energy and forechecked with his usual tenacity.

Well Debrincat is on a whole other level talent wise than Yama. We'll see if Yama ever approaches this kind of level. I mean really both of these players are almost identical age and yet Debrincat has already has a 41 goal season and has 87G 86A. He had a fallback season but hes already a bonafide star player in this league. Yama is still just finding his way.

 

[Todd Parchment]

Kubalick is now so overrated ... 5points one game then one in next games. Good lord

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

And yet the Hawks were one of the worst teams all year, even with Lehner in net. I think you’re over rating the Hawks a bit. Their D isn’t very good, yet they looked like all stars against us. They had their working boots on and we didn’t.

If they last any longer than 5 games against the Knights I'll be stunned.

 

[Drivesaitl]

The Oilers have had several top notch quality chokes in their history.

The 82 loss to the Kings, the Steve Smith own goal against the Flames, the 5th game of the 17 playoffs against the Ducks, and this year they did it against the Hawks. For all the glory we had in the 80s, we are sure paying the price for those years... Dearly!

Not really about choking much at all. Since 1990 the Oilers biggest problem is that they often didn't have very good clubs. Before that the Oilers bagged their 5 cups. No club wins every year for an extended time in modern era. The Oilers won 5 times once they got their dynasty going in 84.

In anycase This is the Oilers alltime playoff record after the 1990 season.

Primary team Edmonton:
Wins: 55
Losses: 65
Ties: 0
OTLosses: 0
SOLosses: 0
Goals for Edmonton: 325
Goals against Edmonton: 349

Keeping in mind the brunt of that was precap, when the Oilers were always playing better, and more stacked clubs with bigger payroll.

Choking isn't so much an Oilers thing. More of a Calgary thing. More of a Vancouver thing, more of a Toronto thing.

 

[SupremeTeam16]

Interesting post. I like it because its reasonable. I think you hit it. We have McDrai and Nuge, and then a bunch of guys just figuring that the big guns can do it all. Nobody wins that way.

I harken back to the 1990 Playoffs. First round. Against the Jets that series the Oilers got off to a shaky start. But I pretty much thought vets like Mess, Anderson, Simpson, Kurri, Tikka, Lowe etc were kind of waiting to see if that team really had any jam to it. If that team had any hope of really doing much. But once the kid line and Ranford turned the corner the Oilers stars responded, and got it done, and then were unstoppable. But they could easily have lost the first round, and clearly would have unless support players showed up and started proving themselves.

With McD, Drai, Nuge, I really think they needed to see some solid contributions from others. Theres so few good players on this roster that we just can't afford to have guys like Kassian, Klefbom, Larsson etc mailing it in. We needed every hand on deck playing to their utmost and that wasn't happening. Even Yama didn't get anything done. Of course AA didn't get anything finished.

The basic surmise of McDrai/Nuge would probably be that they knew "this dog won't hunt". I mean this triad pulled the club all season. Maybe they were a bit fedup doing that.

I mean the Oilers don't win a single game in this series if McD doesn't bag a hat trick in Game 2. I said right there I was very worried that even with McD superheating and cheat coding, that the Hawks were right in that game and hanging around. That was a big concern.

Clearly that if the Oilers were having this much trouble with Chicago, a 23rd ranked club, nothing much was going to be happening for them this playoffs. Probably more of a mismatch in playoff round.

As crazy as it is, I find myself missing the late 90’s, early 2000’s Oilers. Never the most talented bunch but they rarely got our worked. They played hard, they played smart systems but most of all they played for each other.

As much as McDavid is the best player and a through and through pro I do find myself questioning his leadership abilities at times. No doubt he shows it in his work ethic and his play but I feel like he’s been conditioned to be such a nice guy that he has a hard time taking guys to task effectively when needed, of course it’s all conjecture on my part but it’s how I feel. A lot of people hated Micheal Jordan but he wasn’t afraid to absolutely embarrass his teammates if he felt they had more to give or weren’t taking it as seriously as he was. Every player in that room might not be as talented as Connor McDavid but every single one of them is capable of working as hard as he does. It starts in the video room, the weight room, off ice training , pushing yourself for more always and it ends with the game to game consistency. Shift to shift every guy is focused, battling as hard as they can, skating as hard as they can, putting it all together to hold up your end because the thought of letting your team down should be absolutely agonizing. We haven’t seen that with the Oilers for a long time.

 

[Fourier]

Heres something interesting as point of Illustration of where these teams were at.

As far back as November 24, 2019 the Oilers had a steller record, 11 games above ,500, 35 pts.

The Hawks started season much more slowly and had only 23pts, a .500 club.


The kicker is that over the last several months of play the Oilers stopped being anything more than a so so club. They already has their stagger, they were having trouble since Nov 24, and were barely holding on at times. The club often looked ordinary.

So that the Oilers had 48pts after Nov 24 to end of season. .500 through that whole stretch.

The Hawks kept being about the same, improved a little as season went on, and had 47pts since Nov 24.

So there really was very little to choose between these clubs as the season went on and Chicago also beat us in the interlocking battle.

The Oilers just had a hot start to the season, and thats all. they were very ordinary since Nov. This just isn't a very good club.

This is skewed by one of the worst months in a long time. Take a look from jan 1 onward.

 

[Drivesaitl]

This is skewed by one of the worst months in a long time. Take a look from jan 1 onward.

Well, my point stands that since Nov 24, 2019, collectively, the Oilers aren't any good. October and early November skewed hot more than December skewed cold.

I mean we could slice time lines, but overall the Oilers created a healthy stagger from pack early in season and were starting to fade as the season went on. By Suspension of season the team was playing badly and running on fumes.

In anycase since Feb 1 the Oilers Won 10 games and lost 10 games. The Oilers were bad in December and good in January. They were lukewarm rest of the way.

Fact of the matter is a club that was 11 games over .500 as early as Nov 24 2019 ended up 12 games over at end of season. pretty much treading water.

 

[Del Preston]

This is skewed by one of the worst months in a long time. Take a look from jan 1 onward.

5th overall and 2nd in the West from NYE until the stoppage. Shame everything got f***ed up by Covid.

 

[frag2]

Anyone catch Remenda today talking about our D?

It's so true what he said regarding our D always affecting puck trajectory. Quit sticking out appendages, sticks, dropping down RIGHT IN FRONT of your goalie. It's a common problem our D have and they always seemingly alter what would've been just a normal shot at net.

Nurse and Russel are horrible with this. Just let the goalie track the puck properly.

 

[Soundwave]

Well, my point stands that since Nov 24, 2019, collectively, the Oilers aren't any good. October and early November skewed hot more than December skewed cold.

I mean we could slice time lines, but overall the Oilers created a healthy stagger from pack early in season and were starting to fade as the season went on. By Suspension of season the team was playing badly and running on fumes.

In anycase since Feb 1 the Oilers Won 10 games and lost 10 games. The Oilers were bad in December and good in January. They were lukewarm rest of the way.

Fact of the matter is a club that was 11 games over .500 as early as Nov 24 2019 ended up 12 games over at end of season. pretty much treading water.

Was the 16-17 team also "treading water"? Identical points total at game 70 for both teams.

 

[Soundwave]

105 point pace from New Years Eve onwards ... lol, I hope they can "tread water" next season too, I'd be more than fine with that.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Anyone catch Remenda today talking about our D?

It's so true what he said regarding our D always affecting puck trajectory. Quit sticking out appendages, sticks, dropping down RIGHT IN FRONT of your goalie. It's a common problem our D have and they always seemingly alter what would've been just a normal shot at net.

Nurse and Russel are horrible with this. Just let the goalie track the puck properly.

You'd think the geniuses who are paid to coach these slugs might say something at some point.

Or are they too worried about “balance”?

 

[bellagiobob]

 

[CravenMH]

Heres something interesting as point of Illustration of where these teams were at.

As far back as November 24, 2019 the Oilers had a steller record, 11 games above ,500, 35 pts.

The Hawks started season much more slowly and had only 23pts, a .500 club.


The kicker is that over the last several months of play the Oilers stopped being anything more than a so so club. They already has their stagger, they were having trouble since Nov 24, and were barely holding on at times. The club often looked ordinary.

So that the Oilers had 48pts after Nov 24 to end of season. .500 through that whole stretch.

The Hawks kept being about the same, improved a little as season went on, and had 47pts since Nov 24.

So there really was very little to choose between these clubs as the season went on and Chicago also beat us in the interlocking battle.

The Oilers just had a hot start to the season, and thats all. they were very ordinary since Nov. This just isn't a very good club.

I feel we were a 2 trick pony this year. Darlings of the PP and PK. We were beating teams we shouldn't have because we were crushing it with the special teams. But the Hawks had lots of time to dissect these strengths, and to make matters worse our PK was not near as polished as it was during regular season. When you're playing regular season against teams, you're debriefed by the coaching team about what to expect and counter but as a player you don't always buy in for a couple games of a regular season. But a playoff series is a different matter entirely.

 

[Soundwave]

I feel we were a 2 trick pony this year. Darlings of the PP and PK. We were beating teams we shouldn't have because we were crushing it with the special teams. But the Hawks had lots of time to dissect these strengths, and to make matters worse our PK was not near as polished as it was during regular season. When you're playing regular season against teams, you're debriefed by the coaching team about what to expect and counter but as a player you don't always buy in for a couple games of a regular season. But a playoff series is a different matter entirely.

It's almost as if not playing hockey for 4 1/2 months and then getting thrown into a short elimination series after only one exhibition game can throw a PK off for a little bit.

Totally idiotic return to play format, to be honest I'm not sure why the players ever agreed to this, NBA players never would have.