Speculation: We have issues - POLE

[Spawn]

Need a goalie that doesn't choke. Need a top 4 d-man.

Nothing has changed from the off-season. The team is still one of the best in the league, recent struggles notwithstanding. But they need those pieces if they want to win a cup.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Overspent on small skill forwards yet still need a top 6 finisher (with size please) and roster is clogged with an oversupply of bottom six players. Defense isn't deep enough with PK taking on water and 2RD still a work in progress. Ideally they would still upgrade the middle pair right side. Kulak's been a godsend plugging the middle pair hole but his game's taking on a bit of water. Goaltending is not good enough and needs a 1A/B tandem who can push for top job, increase floor of this team's goaltending and elevate its ceiling to be able to at minimum occasionally steal games.

Oil don't have the assets to get everything done. Imagine a scenario might be a two-fer situation like last year's Anaheim deal. Lots of work to be done at all position areas.

 

[Whoshattenkirkshoes]

He literally was the first skater in like 5 decades to win the Conn Smythe trophy last season while playing injured. He just scored one of the biggest goals in Canadian history the other night (up there with Henderson 72, Mario in 87, and Sid in 2010) . He's doing fine.

People here don't really understand having a superstar player because most of the people here frankly weren't around when the Oilers actually had one of those types of players in the 80s.

Every year isn't a career year. Ovechkin, the year who put up 3 goals tonight and is having a great season at age 39 has had up and down seasons too.

Draisaitl had a down year by his standards last year, this year is way up because he wants to show he's worth that monster contract.

McDavid has little to nothing to play for in the regular season, and frankly he's probably tired of the same ol shit in the regular season of little help outside of no.29 and shaky goaltending all the time which prevents the team from ever having a truly dominant regular season.

No point in killing yourself in the regular season over that. Better to pace oneself.

Even though he won the Smythe he still wasn't the Mcdavid of the past.IMO He definitely dropped off a bit. Didn't shoot at all.

You are probably right that he is saving himself for playoffs and I'm sure we will get a great performance this year.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

There are issues on the ice, but to my eye the bigger issue with weekend was systems. The forwards gave up on back-checking / applying back pressure, and the Oil got torn to shreds on transition.


They need size upfront, right now the forwards are too easy to play against and can't consistently win battles down low. This is letting teams stay higher in their zone and jump the gun on any turnovers. Mix in a number of dumb turnovers in every zone and you get the disaster that was this weekend.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

It’s funny that there’s not one vote for depth players only, yet if you listen to the media especially Stauffer it seems to me that they almost unanimously think that’s all we need.

 

[Soundwave]

There are issues on the ice, but to my eye the bigger issue with weekend was systems. The forwards gave up on back-checking / applying back pressure, and the Oil got torn to shreds on transition.


They need size upfront, right now the forwards are too easy to play against and can't consistently win battles down low. This is letting teams stay higher in their zone and jump the gun on any turnovers. Mix in a number of dumb turnovers in every zone and you get the disaster that was this weekend.

This is just how they play any time they have a break of longer than 4-5 days off.

It's becoming a tradition to start every season at this point, not sure why there is much surprise, throw on top of that an effective 11 AM Mountain start time for US TV audiences when 2/3 the team was in Cabo or Hawaii (so operating on Pacific time or worse) and ... welp.

Connor is also gassed, MacKinnon and Makar have 0 points since the 4 Nations Tourney, so does Marner I believe ... so there's that element which doesn't help. Perfect storm of shit.

 

[OilersaretheMcBest]

Should have changed the poll to Goalie or top 4 d or top 6 fwd.

Goalie would have won the poll easily.

 

[Messrules11]

There are issues on the ice, but to my eye the bigger issue with weekend was systems. The forwards gave up on back-checking / applying back pressure, and the Oil got torn to shreds on transition.


They need size upfront, right now the forwards are too easy to play against and can't consistently win battles down low. This is letting teams stay higher in their zone and jump the gun on any turnovers. Mix in a number of dumb turnovers in every zone and you get the disaster that was this weekend.

It was a disgusting weekend of hockey. When a team is getting blown out on the scoreboard they usually up the physical play. There we were getting our show run and still they were just stick checking. It was painful to watch, just going through the motions. Knobs no hit hockey might work with a lead but when down multiple goals it’s the ugliest hockey imaginable.

 

[K1984]

A buried headline - here's what McDavid has managed to do since coming back from suspension:

We'd be skewering RNH for these results, but it's McDavid. -3, -3, -3, -2, (a lot of these well earned) and a grand total of 2 5v5 points in that time. All while being unnoticeable in a lot of it.

If he's hurt, take him out of the lineup and get him unhurt because he's doing nothing anyways. If he's healthy, this is not acceptable. It isn't just a matter of "snakebit" either, he looks like he's coasting and disinterested. His play defensively has bordered on embarrassing for a lot of the season.

Leon is currently doing his job, but we have a black hole on the top line followed by black holes on the 3rd and 4th. He needs to wake up, play with a bit of energy, and give us a second scoring line again. He's currently playing like about the 75th best player in the world, not the best. Following up the ass game in Philly with another low energy game in Washington is not acceptable for the captain of a contending team.

 

[Soundwave]

A buried headline - here's what McDavid has managed to do since coming back from suspension:

View attachment 982053

We'd be skewering RNH for these results, but it's McDavid. -3, -3, -3, -2, (a lot of these well earned) and a grand total of 2 5v5 points in that time. All while being unnoticeable in a lot of it.

If he's hurt, take him out of the lineup and get him unhurt because he's doing nothing anyways. If he's healthy, this is not acceptable. It isn't just a matter of "snakebit" either, he looks like he's coasting and disinterested. His play defensively has bordered on embarrassing for a lot of the season.

Leon is currently doing his job, but we have a black hole on the top line followed by black holes on the 3rd and 4th. He needs to wake up, play with a bit of energy, and give us a second scoring line again. He's currently playing like about the 75th best player in the world, not the best. Following up the ass game in Philly with another low energy game in Washington is not acceptable for the captain of a contending team.

He'll be better but the team also needs to learn not to rely on Superman to allows save their bacon. There are other teams that are good without having a McDavid tier player, let alone the luxury of a McDavid AND Draisaitl.

 

[K1984]

He'll be better but the team also needs to learn not to rely on Superman to allows save their bacon. There are other teams that are good without having a McDavid tier player, let alone the luxury of a McDavid AND Draisaitl.

For sure, he's not alone in needing to step up. However, this isn't good enough no matter what everyone else is doing.

Our team is built up the middle, and when one of those weapons is floating, frankly, it has a cascading effect on how the roster works. Hyman is a great player, but he isn't scoring 50, or maybe even 30 on his own. McDavid playing terribly hits that too. Creates a situation where our top line gets killed in matchups against other top lines. Puts pressure on the second line, etc, etc.

Yes, other players need to step up, but it should start with the captain. It is not acceptable to have that game in Philly and then have the captain lead the way with another ho hum effort in Washington. I'll rip the rest of the group when McDavid sets the example, but that hasn't been there for much of this season and especially lately.

 

[Soundwave]

For sure, he's not alone in needing to step up. However, this isn't good enough no matter what everyone else is doing.

Our team is built up the middle, and when one of those weapons is floating, frankly, it has a cascading effect on how the roster works. Hyman is a great player, but he isn't scoring 50, or maybe even 30 on his own. McDavid playing terribly hits that too. Creates a situation where our top line gets killed in matchups against other top lines. Puts pressure on the second line, etc, etc.

Yes, other players need to step up, but it should start with the captain. It is not acceptable to have that game in Philly and then have the captain lead the way with another ho hum effort in Washington. I'll rip the rest of the group when McDavid sets the example, but that hasn't been there for much of this season.

The 4 Nations guys are bagged, it's pretty obvious. MacKinnon and Makar have 0 points and Colorado has lost both games since the break too, this is not just a McDavid thing.

It does say something about the rest of the team though that's been sitting on their ass largely for 2 weeks that they are completely unprepared to step up even in a short little stretch.

They honestly shouldn't have played McDavid in the Philly game at all.

 

[oXo Cube]

I doubt you would find many teams in this league who would be any better than 0-4-0 in a stretch where their best player is -11

And most teams aren't paying their best player nearly as much as we are either.

 

[K1984]

The 4 Nations guys are bagged, it's pretty obvious. MacKinnon and Makar have 0 points and Colorado has lost both games since the break too, this is not just a McDavid thing.

It does say something about the rest of the team though that's been sitting on their ass largely for 2 weeks that they are completely unprepared to step up even in a short little stretch.

That doesn't excuse the play before the break, which was equally as terrible.

 

[Soundwave]

That doesn't excuse the play before the break, which was equally as terrible.

Maybe the rest of the team should figure out how not to be reliant solely on basically 2 players to do everything then. This isn't the NBA and even in the NBA that doesn't literally work.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

He'll be better but the team also needs to learn not to rely on Superman to allows save their bacon. There are other teams that are good without having a McDavid tier player, let alone the luxury of a McDavid AND Draisaitl.

asking the best player on the planet not to be -10 in the last 8 games isn't a huge ask here

Draisaitl is only -2 during that stretch

 

[Soundwave]

asking the best player on the planet not to be -10 in the last 8 games isn't a huge ask here

Draisaitl is only -2 during that stretch

Yeah well it happens, even to great players. If the rest of the team that's had 2 weeks to rest wants to lie down and go to sleep as a result, that is also telling about the rest of the team that you have.

 

[K1984]

Maybe the rest of the team should figure out how not to be reliant solely on basically 2 players to do everything then. This isn't the NBA and even in the NBA that doesn't literally work.

If my aunty had a dick she would be my uncle.

That stat line is inexcusable for any player making $12.5M and wearing the C. It would be inexcusable for RNH. We pay him to produce at the bare, bare minimum a point per game for us while driving the play in the right direction and being a leader on ice in terms of setting pace. He hasn't been doing that.

Ignore it all you want, but if this continues the play of Henrique, Arvidsson, RNH, etc won't matter because it is not possible to win if your $12M #1C has been playing like has lately.

 

[Soundwave]

If my aunty had a dick she would be my uncle.

That stat line is inexcusable for any player making $12.5M and wearing the C. It would be inexcusable for RNH. We pay him to produce at the bare, bare minimum a point per game for us while driving the play in the right direction and being a leader on ice in terms of setting pace. He hasn't been doing that.

Ignore it all you want, but if this continues the play of Henrique, Arvidsson, RNH, etc won't matter because it is not possible to win if your $12M #1C has been playing like has lately.

It won't continue, every player in the freaking history of the sport has had some bad stretches in a tiny ass 8 game sample. I hate to burst your bubble here but it happens to Gretzky and Lemieux and anyone else you want to name.

The fact that the rest of the team constantly just sits there with their thumb up their ass waiting for Connor as if they're asking for permission to play is also a problem that speaks to the rest of the team.

In an 82 game season you should be able to handle some down stretches from your best player and not completely fall apart.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Yeah well it happens, even to great players. If the rest of the team that's had 2 weeks to rest wants to lie down and go to sleep as a result, that is also telling about the rest of the team that you have.

Nathan MacKinnon was only -1 this past weekend, and he played in the 4 Nations...so that "tired" excuse doesn't fly

 

[FlameChampion]

It’s funny that there’s not one vote for depth players only, yet if you listen to the media especially Stauffer it seems to me that they almost unanimously think that’s all we need.

Its been like this all year and probably longer. The media is useless.

Only question is what SB and JJ think of the team. I hope I am wrong but I’m expecting disappointment. I’m expecting a Henrique/Carrick type of acquisition. Might be a dman though. Good player but not a needle mover.

 

[Soundwave]

Nathan MacKinnon was only -1 this past weekend, and he played in the 4 Nations...so that "tired" excuse doesn't fly

0 points and Colorado has lost both games since the break, only scoring 1 goal in each game.

The rest of the Oilers opting to embarass themselves minus Draisaitl and Savoie and the goalies wanting to show they're AHL material isn't McDavid's fault at least Blackwood is making some damn saves.

 

[K1984]

It won't continue, every player in the freaking history of the sport has had some bad stretches in a tiny ass 8 game sample. I hate to burst your bubble here but it happens to Gretzky and Lemieux and anyone else you want to name.

The fact that the rest of the team constantly just sits there with their thumb up their ass waiting for Connor as if they're asking for permission to play is also a problem that speaks to the rest of the team.

In an 82 game season you should be able to handle some down stretches from your best player and not completely fall apart.

He's been shitty for most of the season by his standards.

There is no team in the league winning games when their #1C gets cooked like he has the last stretch. We're talking about what's wrong with the team here. The team playing like garbage has coincided with McDavid playing like garbage. Not complicated.

I think it's ridiculous to blame the rest of the group for McDavid's individual play.

 

[oXo Cube]

0 points and Colorado has lost both games since the break, only scoring 1 goal in each game.

The rest of the Oilers opting to embarass themselves minus Draisaitl and Savoie and the goalies wanting to show they're AHL material isn't McDavid's fault at least Blackwood is making some damn saves.

Aren't you making the key point though?

When MacKinnon and/or Makar don't produce the Avalanche don't win. This idea that they absorb tough games from their stars better than us is nonsense.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

0 points and Colorado has lost both games since the break, only scoring 1 goal in each game.

I guess the other Avs players were waiting for Mackinnon to do something, just like the Oilers

The rest of the Oilers opting to embarass themselves minus Draisaitl and Savoie and the goalies wanting to show they're AHL material isn't McDavid's fault at least Blackwood is making some damn saves.

being -6 with 1A is his fault though...can't win games when the best player is constantly a minus, no matter how much "depth scoring" you get