GDT: WCQF | G2 | Oilers vs. Kings | 4.19.23 | 8:00PM-ish | SN

[Mav3rick07]

About 6.5 hours till puck drop. Biggest game of the year. We know Connor will show up, my biggest concern is Skinner. I hate to rip on a rookie goalie but he did not instill confidence in his first playoff game.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

You're probably the chicken little who wrote them off last year after game 1 of each series. LOL

I’m writing them off if they go down 2-0 because they sure as hell haven’t come back the last two times they fell behind 2-0 in a series.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I think he is learning the wrong lessons from Kane. Kane seems really close with alot of the guys and I feel like his hotheaded behavior too is a bad example for the young guys.
Take your penalty, go to the box, make them pay the moment you get out. Being a hot head, getting fumed up just leads to the refs keeping a closer eye on you and calling more and has the other team targetting you to get you going. Happens to Kane all the time.

Not gonna roll on him, and I've been a big Kane supporter here. Just that its hard for him to be what he was last season for us (and playoffs) and I think Kane must be frustrated as hell. In fairness to him he came back from injury a month earlier than expected from a very serious injury. He's also incurred an injury since. Kane can't be the Kane he can be right now and for somebody like him thats really hard. Drai was able to channel that last season and rise above the hurt. But Drai is special. Not all players can.

One thing missing on this team is instigation. We're getting instigated instead of the other way around. We haven't had a good piss off the opponents player for awhile. Right now we have the guys getting angry first. Can't lose those mind games and snap first. Kane is best when he's instigating players.

 

[independent observer]

The biggest mistake that Holland made at the deadline was not addressing the depth on RD. Even just getting a cheap veteran could help if Desharnais can't handle the games.

I actually never understood it. He wasn‘t even a good player in the AHL.

Sometimes playoffs are needed that the glaring weaknesses really get exposed.

Oilers need to address RD in the offseason… by trading Kulak (Broberg is already better imo) to free cap space.

Additionally, move out Yamer and get a top 6 RW if Bourgault isn‘t ready. He is a late birthday… but didn‘t produce in ahl enough

 

[duul]

I know they don't want to rape the depth at the AHL due to their playoffs going on, but what do we do now that Janmark is down? Surely we can't have Shore playing right? Holloway should have been here the moment the regular season ended to get reps in. Seems like a huge error in judgement to not have him up here ready to go for inevitable injuries.

Even a guy like Bourgault looks really good in the AHL. His game sense is on another level, he makes plays only guys like McDrai and RNH do on our club. Bouchard too now. Might not be strong or fast enough to make an impact, but who knows. Maybe he can.

Bring them both up. Shore can't go in man.

 

[dssource]

6 of the 8 road teams won game 1, and we're playing probably the best of them all. And they needed 6 straight PPs and OT to do it, while the refs gave us nothing. I'm not concerned.

Oilers can and will win tonight.

 

[duul]

I actually never understood it. He wasn‘t even a good player in the AHL.

Sometimes playoffs are needed that the glaring weaknesses really get exposed.

Oilers need to address RD in the offseason… by trading Kulak (Broberg is already better imo) to free cap space.

Additionally, move out Yamer and get a top 6 RW if Bourgault isn‘t ready. He is a late birthday… but didn‘t produce in ahl enough

This is the player that Holland was referencing in his interview when he said Woodcroft told him they could find an 'internal' solution during the trade deadline by the way.

I understand the logic, it allowed them to go all out for Ekholm and Bjugstad, but man I'm starting to wonder if we would've been better off skipping out on Bjugstad as good as he has been for another RHD option that can stabilize. Was a gamble that isn't going to pay off this particular time unfortunately.

 

[Mez]

Wow can we give rookie D Vinny more than 1 playoff game?...some of you making it sound like he single handedly lost us the game.

 

[TheTrashMan]

Ekholm isn't stupid to jump into a river like that

Your right

He would f***ing fly into it

 

[K1984]

PSA

Don’t throw shit on the ice tonight
It’s a bad look. Love the passion but still a bad look.

Also if fans could hold off from compulsively starting the wave until the game is actually in hand that would be great too. Trying to start one in the middle of OT was f***ing stupid.

 

[McShogun99]

About 6.5 hours till puck drop. Biggest game of the year. We know Connor will show up, my biggest concern is Skinner. I hate to rip on a rookie goalie but he did not instill confidence in his first playoff game.

He made the saves he needed to but didn't make the big save. Kempe is an elite sniper and had all the time and space in the world for his 2 goals. No one was stopping the third goal, just a perfect pass for a one timer on a 6 on 4. Him getting across on the initial save was impressive enough. 4th goal was Ceci's fault because he let the player get behind him.

 

[independent observer]

Wow can we give rookie D Vinny more than 1 playoff game?...some of you making it sound like he single handedly lost us the game.

No, that was Connor McDavid.

That is harsh, but we pay him 12.5m a year. He needs to deliver, and when he has a 5 alarmer on his tape in the 3rd, the puck needs to be in the net. Plus he was one main reason for goal against.

Vinny didn‘t help and I truly think we should try Broberg or Kulak on their offside instead.

However, that we lost last game was clearly because our big boys didn‘t deliver. Drai scored goals, but I didn‘t like his overall game.

 

[McShogun99]

Wow can we give rookie D Vinny more than 1 playoff game?...some of you making it sound like he single handedly lost us the game.

He was good all game. Just bad luck that he fell and the King's player tripped over a broken stick. If that stick wasn't on the ice there probably wouldn't have been a penalty.

 

[T-Funk]

I actually never understood it. He wasn‘t even a good player in the AHL.

Sometimes playoffs are needed that the glaring weaknesses really get exposed.

Oilers need to address RD in the offseason… by trading Kulak (Broberg is already better imo) to free cap space.

Additionally, move out Yamer and get a top 6 RW if Bourgault isn‘t ready. He is a late birthday… but didn‘t produce in ahl enough

The glaring weakness I saw on D on Monday was Ceci. Use him in a trade to upgrade his spot.

 

[North Cole]

Jan out hurts the PK a little but I think on aggregate, it getting us back to 11-7 has a bigger positive impact.

 

[AddyTheWrath]

Is McDavid injured? He’s looked off for the past few weeks, minimum.

 

[joestevens29]

Is McDavid injured? He’s looked off for the past few weeks, minimum.

He looked fine drawing two penalties to give us a 5 on 3

 

[Mav3rick07]

He made the saves he needed to but didn't make the big save. Kempe is an elite sniper and had all the time and space in the world for his 2 goals. No one was stopping the third goal, just a perfect pass for a one timer on a 6 on 4. Him getting across on the initial save was impressive enough. 4th goal was Ceci's fault because he let the player get behind him.

I agree with your points, and him not making the big save was the difference between him and Korpisalo. Korpisalo made a few clutch saves.

 

[Ibanez]

Jan out hurts the PK a little but I think on aggregate, it getting us back to 11-7 has a bigger positive impact.

Yup. I’m interested to see how this goes tonight.

11-7 allows us to get Drai or McDavid out on mismatches. That can be very effective at times.koala can’t do much to counteract

 

[K1984]

Is McDavid injured? He’s looked off for the past few weeks, minimum.

I think he was off mentally in Game 1 (on account of over passing including two bad ones that lead to goals against), but see zero indication of a physical issue.

 

[T-Funk]

Yup. I’m interested to see how this goes tonight.

11-7 allows us to get Drai or McDavid out on mismatches. That can be very effective at times.koala can’t do much to counteract

I'm sure he could. He just won't. Hopefully Woodcroft channels his inner Carlyle and completely dismantles him.

 

[Navx94]

Vilardi in

 

[independent observer]

I think he was off mentally in Game 1 (on account of over passing including two bad ones that lead to goals against), but see zero indication of a physical issue.

We will soon find out.
I firmly believe something is nagging him… his shot is off for awhile now.

 

[North Cole]

I don‘t know about you guys but my level of concern is very high. And I tell you why:

1) the Kings are much better team than the one we faced last year. Doughty gives them a level of confidence they don‘t have without him and the offense is better as well. Kempe took a step. Byfield is also not getting worse… Vilardi will come back and maybe also Fiala later. I know we improved as well with Ekholm but don‘t tell me that Ekholm is on Doughtys level…

2) Vinny‘s skating (foot speed and mobility) is a glaring weakness got exposed and they will continue to hunt him… his size is great, but you also need to be decent skater.

3) Drai had a horrible turnover last game. Kudo‘s to him that he cleared his mistake but that shouldn‘t happen and these kind of turnovers have been too common by him. I was also not happy with McDavid in that regard. I mean I understand that certain offense is created with risk, but it needs to be calculated risk and they need to improve. It is not only about scoring goals, you need also to make sure that you are not on the ice when the other team scores.

4) McDavid‘s offense execution is somehow off… fumbling on chances in a way that I rarely see… I hope he proves me wrong, but something is not right…

5) I am not sold on our goaltending… at least apart from Helle this should not be the biggest problem until we would face a eastern conference team in a possible final.

Now of course it is just one game and if they manage to stay mostly out of the box, cut their turnovers in half, and McDavid returns to his regular season form, I still believe that they should advance…

My level of concern is actually less now than it was before game 1. I think we handled them very well at 5on5 and we had two gruesome turnovers that resulted in goals, along with zero players in the crease in a 6v4 situation.

This was all in a game where McDavid had zero points and basically gave them a free odd man rush at 4v4. Skinner did quite well in his first game, minus the one squeaker, but again zero D in the crease with two kings there to bang it in is questionable decision making.

I was worried to see if LA would be different compared to what we saw two weeks ago and honestly I dont think they are. I think they have another gear but I really felt we were the much better team for larges portions of the game.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

Plz win

McHatty plz.