Post-Game Talk: Welcome to the Boneless Oiler Ranch

[CupofOil]

I think it’s called “being correct”. Anyone not blinded by their fandom knew our goaltending and defense were not enough to hang with the big dogs, and here we are getting embarrassed nightly during a stretch of playing contenders. It’s not complicated.

No it's called being a miserable fan, the opposite of fair weather. They revel in pessimism and feeling down, I wonder if they're like that in real life too, I hope not. Are you guys like that in real life?

It's called frustration and this is a platform to share it. When things are good all is well. When things are bad, passionate fans get angry. Nothing new here.

Nope, they largely disappear when things are going good and post a lot when things are going bad. Everybody knows who they are.
You're right, nothing new but it's kind of sad actually.

 

[CrazyJoeDavola]

Just aquire a No.1 goalie and you will suddenly see the team running through the league again...they need a boost and this would be the best to give them, whether it's fair for Stu or not...

Just do something to get them going when other things do not help rn.

It's time to go all in and show the team that it's now on the them to deliver.

We could see pissy Drai last game again...must be the first time this year that says it all.

I think stablized goaltending would help, but I also think the new season energy has worn off for our old and slow fwd core, and this is what we're going to get because we decided to part ways with all of our youth and speed in the off season. It's no secret that we've hit the half way point of the season and our team can't skate because they look tired and worn out. This isn't going to magically change in playoffs or with a solid tendy.

WE CAN'T KEEP UP WITH THE BEST TEAMS IN THE LEAGUE. Almost all of them have destroyed us this season other than a depleted Minny team. We are constantly facing an onslaught because we're too slow to move, break out, make decisions.

 

[McDoused]

I haven't seen Knoblauch talk like this. Thinks the team is fragile. Team doesn't have confidence. Team is discouraged. Teams putting pressure on themselves and needs to put the adversity behind themselves and start playing their game.

We always hear about how great the leadership group is but like come on guys. We know that this team is capable of more.

 

[FlameChampion]

It does kind of seem like Knoblauch's McLellan is starting to show.

Great at getting guys to play his system, but good luck if he needs to adjust anything. Just throw the lines in a blender and see if that helps instead.

I don’t know what’s going on with him this year. He used to make good adjustments.

But it does feel like hes been incredibly stubborn with his system. Whatever he is doing, its not working. I think the team in general needs to play more simple in the offensive zone. Get more pucks and traffic to the net instead of all the perimeter/cycling stuff. I just don’t think the team is as skilled as the coaching/management thinks they are. I feel like a lot of the team’s problems have been there all year and management/coaching are in denial mode.

 

[K1984]

This team plays like this everytime we have a break.

Off for the summer? Play like shit.

Allstar break? Play like shit.

10 days off between Conf finals and Cup finals? Play like shit

Off for summer? Play like shit

Off for 4-Nations? Play like shit.



This team is hates extended breaks. It kills our flow and rhythm.

It’s infuriating because you watch teams across the league and it seems like a lot of them are juiced up after the break. There’s and excitement to get back, get going, and win down the stretch.

Here? Ho hum. Oh we have to play hard? Geez, why are the other teams playing so fast, didn’t they know there was a break?

Clown culture on this team, and always has been.

 

[VeteranPresence]

No it's called being a miserable fan, the opposite of fair weather. They revel in pessimism and feeling down, I wonder if they're like that in real life too, I hope not. Are you guys like that in real life?

No one revels in this, believe me. But there were numerous arguments all summer and into the season from the fanatical fans that everything was perfectly fine. Trying to make this into some psychoanalytical thing is just further masking that. You guys just can’t admit you were wrong.

 

[bone]

Oilslick941611

All 3 teams are struggling. Vegas is 4-4-2 in the last 10. We are 5-4-1. La is 5-3-2. No one is pulling away from anyone or catching up yet. The season isn’t over, the sky isn’t falling and a win tonight cures a lot of stuff you say and a loss isn’t devastating.

@Oilslick941611

Since February 1st, LA is 5-0-1 and Edmonton 2-5-0 with both wins being OT Wins. LAs 6 game stretch included wins vs. Vegas, Dallas and Carolina, the Oilers' seven game stretch included a loss to Philadelphia and two nearly blown games vs. St Louis and Chicago. LA has 3 games in hand to make up their 3 point deficit. Projections models are now starting to show LA favored for the 2nd seed in the Pacific over Edmonton.

I agree it isn't panic time, but the runway for this slump is starting to run out if they want a secure path to home ice in the playoffs. I'm not at all concerned about playoffs yet, but I believe home ice for at least 2 rounds will be crucial to make a deep run so they have to figure this out quickly and likely have already created the need for at least one if not 2 big winning streaks of 5 games or more to lock up home ice.

 

[Soundwave]

I haven't seen Knoblauch talk like this. Thinks the team is fragile. Team doesn't have confidence. Team is discouraged. Teams putting pressure on themselves and needs to put the adversity behind themselves and start playing their game.

We always hear about how great the leadership group is but like come on guys. We know that this team is capable of more.

The problem is the Oilers want to feel like they are a top team ... and they should. The issue is there are critical roster flaws that most top teams don't have, so it's this constant back and forth of feeling like you've "arrived" as a team and then getting dragged backwards by the same shit roster holes that have existed for years.

This is the result this management gets, we want to just pretend those problems aren't still problems and everything is good now because we proved ourselves with a Cup run. That's not how it works.

There's only so much top players can do, they can't hide massive roster holes forever. What's happening is when times are good and the top players are peaking people are getting tricked into thinking the roster issues have resolved themselves. They haven't.

 

[frag2]

It’s infuriating because you watch teams across the league and it seems like a lot of them are juiced up after the break. There’s and excitement to get back, get going, and win down the stretch.

Here? Ho hum. Oh we have to play hard? Geez, why are the other teams playing so fast, didn’t they know there was a break?

Clown culture on this team, and always has been.

Every single year. Doesn't matter if its All Star break or the stupid mandatory week off, they always come back playing like shit for who knows how long.

Side note: does Skinner never do post game interviews after a loss anymore? lol

 

[CupofOil]

No one revels in this, believe me. But there were numerous arguments all summer and into the season from the fanatical fans that everything was perfectly fine. Trying to make this into some psychoanalytical thing is just further masking that. You guys just can’t admit you were wrong.

What do you mean "you guys"?
The board was almost universally at least ok with the moves this offseason even with some concerns about getting older and slower, mainly before the offer sheets, so that's some serious hindsight shit to be throwing around "I told you so" as if it was some obvious thing that JJ and Bowman had terrible summers and rubbing that in when the team is down and everybody is frustrated isn't a great look. I don't think anybody is happy with the current state of the team.

 

[FlameChampion]

What do you mean "you guys"?
The board was almost universally at least ok with the moves this offseason even with some concerns about getting older and slower, mainly before the offer sheets, so that's some serious hindsight shit to be throwing around "I told you so" as if it was some obvious thing that JJ and Bowman had terrible summers and rubbing that in when the team is down and everybody is frustrated isn't a great look. I don't think anybody is happy with the current state of the team.

I do think a lot of people who were happy with his July 1 were also under the impression that Holloway/Broberg were going to be signed.

McLeod was still here as well. I think most fans are still fine with that trade though because at least we got something substantial back and is at least trending up.

I’ve said it before but I feel like ownership/management was upset that Holloway and Broberg teamed up to put them in a bad position. Its never really happened like this before. I don’t think they ever had intention of matching strictly based on principal. I could be wrong though. I think the whole cap space & flexibility rhetoric was fluff. I think the Holloway one in particular has blown up in their face though. Why Jackson didn’t do more especially with Holloway before this happened, I’ll never really understand. (I have my doubts that he didn’t have an inkling about the offer sheets based on what has been reported but hard to prove). I think hes just arrogant.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

What do you mean "you guys"?
The board was almost universally at least ok with the moves this offseason even with some concerns about getting older and slower, mainly before the offer sheets, so that's some serious hindsight shit to be throwing around "I told you so" as if it was some obvious thing that JJ and Bowman had terrible summers and rubbing that in when the team is down and everybody is frustrated isn't a great look. I don't think anybody is happy with the current state of the team.

I don't consider myself overly negative.

The signings would have been fine if it were merely swapping out McLeod Foegele for Skinner and Arvidsson.

But what ended up happening was we lost Bro and Holloway which reframed the UFA's as a horrible tradeoff.

And we're seeing how slow we are as a group.

McLeod Foegele Holloway and Broberg is a LOT of speed to lose in an offseason. And the success theyre all having on their new clubs is a lot of salt being rubbed in.

 

[Stoneman89]

I don't consider myself overly negative.

The signings would have been fine if it were merely swapping out McLeod Foegele for Skinner and Arvidsson.

But what ended up happening was we lost Bro and Holloway which reframed the UFA's as a horrible tradeoff.

And we're seeing how slow we are as a group.

McLeod Foegele Holloway and Broberg is a LOT of speed to lose in an offseason. And the success theyre all having on their new clubs is a lot of salt being rubbed in.

Don't talk about us being a slow team. I suggested it earlier this year and there was a lot of pushback.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Don't talk about us being a slow team. I suggested it earlier this year and there was a lot of pushback.

It was downright scary how much the Flyers in particular blew by us. The Avalanche also made us look really slow the previous game. If you're not going to be fast you better defend well and they haven't done that in a while either.

 

[FlameChampion]

I think the lack or intensity or urgency is as much of a problem as the foot speed. Something I don’t think McLeod, Foegele or Broberg help with.

We have issues lol

 

[bobbythebrain]

It does kind of seem like Knoblauch's McLellan is starting to show.

Great at getting guys to play his system, but good luck if he needs to adjust anything. Just throw the lines in a blender and see if that helps instead.

I don't get the blender excuse. You realize every single coach from the start of the NHL blenders lines in rough patches

It's nothing more than a generic gripe at this point

 

[bone]

What do you mean "you guys"?
The board was almost universally at least ok with the moves this offseason even with some concerns about getting older and slower, mainly before the offer sheets, so that's some serious hindsight shit to be throwing around "I told you so" as if it was some obvious thing that JJ and Bowman had terrible summers and rubbing that in when the team is down and everybody is frustrated isn't a great look. I don't think anybody is happy with the current state of the team.

I agree most of us were excited with the work on July 1st, but ultimately this is where JJ needs to be smarter than us fans. He blew his load and prioritized the older player depth additions over the younger players firstly in trading McLeod to fit them in and secondly in leaving us susceptible to the offer sheets by bringing us too close to the cap with those moves.

His job was to foresee the team deficiencies and agressively go after them. Hindsight shows us that depth defense, goaltending depth and depth scoring are the weaknesses, but it wasn't too much of a stretch to think that a professional hockey mind would have seen these as the potential weaknesses.

Instead he focussed on keeping the older depth players we acquired over the past couple years (who weren't providing much depth scoring while on the wrong side of the age curve) and made all his additions to be smaller top 6 scoring options that wouldn't be useful down the lineup because of their size, when he had a top 6 forward with size bubbling under that could play down the lineup.

As such we actually ended up taking a slight step back in depth defense, standed pat on goaltending and generally treading water with depth scoring in that some of them are worse this year at scoring and some better but overall very similar and our top 6 isn't any better at all (maybe even worse).

Jackson failed and left Bowman in a position where he didn't have much flexibility to fix those errors.

 

[oobga]

I'm still laughing at that 2nd goal from last night. I know Bouchard could/should have closed out harder but just isolating Skinner's post to post movement is actually hilarious. Literally a beer-league level read and movement. Absolutely laughable that this non-athlete is anyone's idea of an answer between the pipes.

Someone should check if Skinner has Vaseline all over his equipment. He seemed to have to make 2 extra motions with his body to even start the process of being unstuck and his body moving towards the right post. I don't know what he is practicing with Schwartz these days, but efficiency of movement is definitely not one of them.

 

[fuswald]

How do you build a roster without an energy line? On nights like tonight (most nights recently, tbh) where the offence is struggling, how can you expect to regain some momentum if you’ve got nobody in the lineup that can throw a big hit. It’s not like we’ve got a goalie that can make a big save for an energy boost either. We’ve either “got it” or we don’t and the more we get into the season the more tired we look the fewer nights we “have it”.
Just a terribly constructed roster this year and we’re left to hope that some kind of life can be injected into it at the trade deadline.

We had an energy line and knob for some reason split it up.
Janmark Henrique Brown
Should have kept them together all year.

Had a top line once as well. Might as well split that one up too.
Nuge McDavid Hyman

Gee I seem to remember we once had a good second line as well. Must have traded them away. No wait, just moved about for unknown reason.
Pods Draisaitl Arvidson.

I bet I could come up with a 4rth line as well.


The only line that should be changed about is Ekholm Bouchard pairing to wake up Bouch. The only line coach refuses to split up.

Skinner is not excellent for sure but the losses lately are the whole team looking disjointed and it makes them hold their sticks tighter and downhill from there. Seems like nobody knows where there linemate is going or who is covering who. Odd man rushes galore.

 

[VeteranPresence]

What do you mean "you guys"?
The board was almost universally at least ok with the moves this offseason even with some concerns about getting older and slower, mainly before the offer sheets, so that's some serious hindsight shit to be throwing around "I told you so" as if it was some obvious thing that JJ and Bowman had terrible summers and rubbing that in when the team is down and everybody is frustrated isn't a great look. I don't think anybody is happy with the current state of the team.

Anyone who was okay entering the year with this current goaltending tandem and defense was wrong. No amount of sea lioning changes that.

 

[brentashton]

I don't get the blender excuse. You realize every single coach from the start of the NHL blenders lines in rough patches

It's nothing more than a generic gripe at this point

They should throw the starting goaltender in a blender.

 

[bone]

They should throw the starting goaltender in a blender.

I wouldn't be surprised if they start switching between every game until one gets traction again. That said, Skinner wasn't really the problem last night (stated as someone who's been bitching about him tons over the last month).

 

[brentashton]

I wouldn't be surprised if they start switching between every game until one gets traction again. That said, Skinner wasn't really the problem last night (stated as someone who's been bitching about him tons over the last month).

Perhaps. But again, he had a very weak goal against last night that he needs to stop. He just can’t be counted on to make those.

PS - when I said “throw the starting goalie in the blender”, I wasn’t figuratively speaking.

 

[Soundwave]

I wouldn't be surprised if they start switching between every game until one gets traction again. That said, Skinner wasn't really the problem last night (stated as someone who's been bitching about him tons over the last month).

Team deflated like a balloon after that weak ass 2nd goal in a 1-1 game until that point.

This team cannot have weak goals right now, that's unacceptable. Even Knob said the team was deflated after that goal.

 

[bone]

Team deflated like a balloon after that weak ass 2nd goal in a 1-1 game until that point.

This team cannot have weak goals right now, that's unacceptable. Even Knob said the team was deflated after that goal.

I understood that thought, but this is a veteran team that's played in a lot of big games throughout their careers.

If they completely fold up the tent and give up because of a goal that puts them down 2-1 with 39 minutes left in the game, then these problems go well beyond goaltending or team defense. Particularly when in this specific game, Skinner looked ready to play through the first period unlike most of his last 12 starts.