Speculation: We have issues - POLE

[Soundwave]

OK so he's playing poorly, but its ok because statistically he happens to be around Barkov.

Got it.

I don't think "Barkov level" is "poor".

If you want to see someone playing poorly there's about a half dozen examples on the Oilers roster, come on down Viktor Arvidsson and Adam Henrique and RNH and Evan Bouchard and a bunch of other guys. Those guys are playing poorly even relative to their general career skill level.

 

[K1984]

I don't think "Barkov level" is "poor".

If you want to see someone playing poorly there's about a half dozen examples on the Oilers roster, come on down Viktor Arvidsson and Adam Henrique and RNH and Evan Bouchard and a bunch of other guys. Those guys are playing poorly even relative to their general career skill level.

Yep. So is McDavid.

Keep repeating the same thing though.

 

[Soundwave]

Yep. So is McDavid.

Keep repeating the same thing though.

I’ve made my point and debunked some of the nonsense (McDavid not being at fault for basically any of the goals against in the past several games).

Must suck to see your teammates other than Drai have zero f***s to give and give you zero support when you were playing high level playoff intensity hockey and they got a vacation for several weeks.

One would think the other guys on the team would say “you know Connor we know you’re gassed from playing just 30 hours ago, it’s all good we’ll step it up for a couple of regular season games here to give you a break” but f*** no does that ever happen here.

 

[K1984]

I’ve made my point and debunked some of the nonsense (McDavid not being at fault for basically any of the goals against in the past several games).

Must suck to see your teammates other than Drai have zero f***s to give and give you zero support when you were playing high level playoff intensity hockey and they got a vacation for several weeks.

One would think the other guys on the team would say “you know Connor we know you’re gassed from playing just 30 hours ago, it’s all good we’ll step it up for a couple of regular season games here to give you a break” but f*** no does that ever happen here.

Maybe he’ll start pissing a drop 5v5 again to help the +\-

Two sides of the equation that you either don’t understand or simply choose to ignore.

 

[Soundwave]

Maybe he’ll start pissing a drop 5v5 again to help the +\-

I guess he has to.

Playing Philly after a 2 week layoff? Help us Connor! We can’t deal with this team unless you are on your A game. The wave pool in Cabo is no joke! Poor RNH is bagged!

That’s freaking lame, it’s like a 12 year old that asks to have their hand held by mommy or daddy walking down the stairs still. The supporting cast of this team needs to grow the f*** up.

 

[K1984]

I guess he has to.

Playing Philly after a 2 week layoff? Help is Connor we can’t deal with this team unless you are on your A game.

That’s freaking lame, it’s like a 12 year old that asks to have their hand held when walking down the stairs still. The supporting cast of this team needs to grow the f*** up.

Don’t need his A game. Haven’t excused his teammates performance either. Also not only talking about the Philly game. He’s just not playing well. Sorry that reality bothers you.

Keep writing novels saying the same thing though.

 

[Soundwave]

Don’t need his A game. Haven’t excused his teammates performance either. Also not only talking about the Philly game. He’s just not playing well. Sorry that reality bothers you.

Keep writing novels saying the same thing though.

McDavid just had one of the greatest months in his career in a moment that will be hockey history forever. The rest of these bozos sans Drai can kiss his ass, they don’t do shit unless Connor is there to baby and spoon fed almost the entire roster.

 

[K1984]

McDavid just had one of the greatest months in his career in a moment that will be hockey history forever. The rest of these bozos sans Drai can kiss his ass, they don’t do shit unless Connor is there to baby and spoon fed almost the entire roster.

Cool.

Maybe he’ll do that in league play again soon. It will come at some point, not there now though and haven’t seen much of it over the last two months.

 

[Soundwave]

Cool.

Maybe he’ll do that in league play again soon. It will come at some point, not there now though and haven’t seen much of it over the last two months.

Actually that moment is probably the peak of his pro career this far. It’s sad he doesn’t have a direct comparable in an Oilers uniform because the franchise is too incompetent.

So for now the peak of his career in the NHL will have to be in a Team Canada sweater. This organization needs to get its shit together.

 

[K1984]

Actually that moment is probably the peak of his pro career this far. It’s sad he doesn’t have a direct comparable in an Oilers uniform because the franchise is too incompetent.

So for now the peak of his career in the NHL will have to be in a Team Canada sweater. This organization needs to get its shit together.

Hopefully he’ll get out of this funk soon and start doing things to make it happen.

 

[Soundwave]

Hopefully he’ll get out of this funk soon and start doing things to make it happen.

He's more than done his share here. It's time for the management to pull their heads out of their asses and start to actually address some of the major glaring holes on the team that they ask McDavid and Draisaitl to continually make up for over and over again.

2 guys that can only do so much, how many good players did Wayne Gretzky need to win a Cup? Like 6 or 7 other top players? Couldn't cut it in LA with just Robataille, Blake, and even had Coffey and Kurri there too. Mario couldn't even make the playoffs regularly until they completely stacked the deck in his favor.

 

[FlameChampion]

Basically every single player except Leon and Connor Brown are having worse seasons this year than they are last year. IMO, we need decent amount of upgrades, I'll put them in bold.

RNH-Mcdavid-Hyman
Skinner-Drai-Savoie
Podkolzin-Henrique-Brown
Kapanen-Janmark-Perry

Ekholm-Bouch
Nurse-Klingberg
Kulak-Emberson

Skinner

The bottom 6 is currently an offensive black hole. Not only that- they don't forecheck particularly well, they don't hit, they are not that good defensively, and they don't drive play. Perry is the only one who is consistent, and Brown shows up once in a while, but we need at least 3, if not 4 new bottom 6 guys that do something, anything. What is their identity? Mcleod, Foegele, and Holloway were speed and forechecking demons. These guys have nothing, cardio merchants aside from Perry.

The defense was much better with Stecher than Klingberg. Every single metric shows this. Go get a real 2rd, something we haven't had since Adam Larsson left 4 years ago now! How does a contender leave a spot that crucial unfilled for 4 years? Unbelievable.

Enough has been said about goaltending. Skinner is not it. Go get someone.

Agree with majority of post in general but our bottom 6 wasn’t great last year for the most part either. McLeod and Foegele couldn’t piss a drop of offense on the third line either. They were fast but they weren’t very effective. Neither guy really did much in the playoffs either.

Henrique/Brown/Janmark did more than both in the playoffs. I’ll give Holloway some slack because he was young and he did at least show up for the playoffs.

I still wish Holloway was on the team personally. I didn’t care for Foegele, McLeod or Broberg much.

Team just doesn’t have enough guys going this year. Only forwards I would really give a pass on expectations are Draisaitl, Perry and Podkolzin. Maybe Brown.

They can fix the goaltending any day now.

 

[K1984]

He's more than done his share here. It's time for the management to pull their heads out of their asses and start to actually address some of the major glaring holes on the team that they ask McDavid and Draisaitl to continually make up for over and over again.

2 guys that can only do so much, how many good players did Wayne Gretzky need to win a Cup? Like 6 or 7 other top players? Couldn't cut it in LA with just Robataille, Blake, and even had Coffey and Kurri there too. Mario couldn't even make the playoffs regularly until they completely stacked the deck in his favor.

Great. None of that relevant to the fact that he’s been playing poorly lately, but great.

 

[Soundwave]

Great. None of that relevant to the fact that he’s been playing poorly lately, but great.

Well again, I don't consider "Barkov level" to be poor play. Everyone and their grandma knows this shit is temporary, not sure why you insist on acting like a chicken with its head cut off like this is a new normal.

This happens to great players all the time, the fact that you think it's unreal it's happening is actually a credit to how good McDavid is because if this was a 27 year old Crosby or Ovechkin, you'd be used to these kinds of stretches. Leon has had a boat load of them in his career, December Drai damn well became a meme on this board for good reason because he played like a drunken ass for several Decembers in a row.

The fact that this supporting cast has no pride in themselves to pick up the slack for a few games after having a nice vacation is more concerning I would say. That's not something that's not as easily fixed.

The whole mentality that you have even is part of this team's problem ... they sit around waiting for Connor to do everything. Set the tone? Connor's got to do it. Not blow your coverage? Well is Connor scoring? Like what the f*** does McDavid have to do with guys like Kulak getting beat wide, Bouchard turning the puck over 500 times, Skinner not being able to make routine saves, RNH playing with no pulse, Hyman not being able to score anything that's not spoon fed to him, etc. etc.? They all look at McDavid to get going first as if they're waiting for permission to play hard. That's bullshit.

The Chicago Bulls used to be mocked as Michael Jordan + The Jordanaires because they would sit around waiting for Jordan to do everything for them, it wasn't until they shook that mentality that they started to win championships. It wasn't "well hey Michael you scored 37 ppg in your third season, now you have to bump that up to 40 ppg for us to win". In fact they only started winning when Jordan scored less, not more.

This whole mentality is part of the f***ing problem here. "Lets wait for Connor to get us going" needs to f***ing stop. That's not how champions think.