Post-Game Talk: Welcome to the Boneless Oiler Ranch

[Arpeggio]

This isn't even the same team we were watching in December. They're getting handily outshot and outplayed every single game. Earlier in the season they were losing games where they were outshooting teams 40-20. That's acceptable.

It's difficult to reconcile considering nothing has really changed with the roster. Either adjustments by opponents were made that the team is having a difficult time accounting for, or the team has collectively decided to take a month off.

 

[belair]

He’s under contract to play for the Edmonton Oilers, how the f*** is that tying the teams hands?

Nuge is also on the 3rd line, the pk is ranked 26th and on the pp anyone can do whatever it is he does (basically a back pass to Bouch) but go ahead and give him the special teams props.

He'd be tying the team's hands because it doesn't allow them to use Kane's LTI space at the deadline. Instead we'd be getting a winger we don't really need who hasn't played a game in eight months.

I don't know what's so difficult about this line of thought. Kane is a 33 year old regressing winger, who now has a significant injury history in his brief time in Edmonton.

Trade his ass.

 

[Stoneman89]

He'd be tying the team's hands because it doesn't allow them to use Kane's LTI space at the deadline. Instead we'd be getting a winger we don't really need who hasn't played a game in eight months.

I don't know what's so difficult about this line of thought. Kane is a 33 year old regressing winger, who now has a significant injury history in his brief time in Edmonton.

Trade his ass.

Sure, trade an important piece that this team needs and will need going forward. Give the guy a chance before throwing him under the bus. He's undergone some significant surgeries to correct things that have been plaguing him for a while. Let's see how things shake out on March 1 before making rash decisions.

 

[belair]

Sure, trade an important piece that this team needs and will need going forward. Give the guy a chance before throwing him under the bus. He's undergone some significant surgeries to correct things that have been plaguing him for a while. Let's see how things shake out on March 1 before making rash decisions.

He's been given numerous chances since his one playoff run that earned him the extension. He's proven to be a luxury depth scorer that ties up necessary cap space.

That being said, nothing is going to happen prior to March 1st. But if he's rushing his return, you make that move when he gives his 16-team list.

 

[K1984]

This isn't even the same team we were watching in December. They're getting handily outshot and outplayed every single game. Earlier in the season they were losing games where they were outshooting teams 40-20. That's acceptable.

It's difficult to reconcile considering nothing has really changed with the roster. Either adjustments by opponents were made that the team is having a difficult time accounting for, or the team has collectively decided to take a month off.

Its this. They take a sabbatical for a month every season, this is the one this time I guess.

 

[Stoneman89]

He's been given numerous chances since his one playoff run that earned him the extension. He's proven to be a luxury depth scorer that ties up necessary cap space.

That being said, nothing is going to happen prior to March 1st. But if he's rushing his return, you make that move when he gives his 16-team list.

When he's healthy he's proven to be an important piece, not a "luxury depth scorer". This team has nothing close to him in terms of what he can bring. Again, let's see what happens when more info is given. I doubt he'll rush a return if he' not ready. But if he's ready, then we're paying him to play, so he plays. Not his fault management has screwed up in so many other areas.

 

[oXo Cube]

This isn't even the same team we were watching in December. They're getting handily outshot and outplayed every single game. Earlier in the season they were losing games where they were outshooting teams 40-20. That's acceptable.

It's difficult to reconcile considering nothing has really changed with the roster. Either adjustments by opponents were made that the team is having a difficult time accounting for, or the team has collectively decided to take a month off.

The Oilers are top heavy at both forward and defense, and McDavid, RNH, Hyman, Ekholm, and Bouchard have all performed somewhere from poor to awful for a month now.

When something like that happens the team simply cannot function the way it's been constructed.

 

[K1984]

The Oilers are top heavy at both forward and defense, and McDavid, RNH, Hyman, Ekholm, and Bouchard have all performed somewhere from poor to awful for a month now.

When something like that happens the team simply cannot function the way it's been constructed.

When I see blame tossed at the bottom 6, although it isn't unfounded, it doesn't make a difference.

They could all be in their individual top form, but we would still lose if the top pair is a turnover factory and the #1C goes -3 every game without pissing a drop of offence 5v5. Although production is extremely poor, it isn't like the bottom 6 is getting blasted 5v5 the other way.

Bottom 6 over their individual last 5 games:

Henrique +1
Brown +3
Janmark -1
Kapanen -5 (he needs to get gone)
Perry -1
Podkolzin -2
Skinner +1

Conversely, the Top 6 over their individual last 5 games:

McDavid -12
RNH -3
Hyman -8
Draisaitl -1
Arvidsson -3
Savoie E

Bottom 6 is generally not getting blasted on the scoreboard even if producing nothing. Other than Leon, the Top 6 is producing nothing while getting absolutely murdered on the board. Nobody is batting an eye at the Bottom 6 if the Top 6 was playing remotely close to their level, but they aren't. \

It makes no sense to me whatsoever that the Bottom 6 can generally be playing how they mostly always play, but they are the ones that take the heat the moment our top players all collectively decided to implode. Unless they have the very best of Bottom 6's, no team is surviving their top 6 posting the results I highlighted above.

 

[oXo Cube]

When I see blame tossed at the bottom 6, although it isn't unfounded, it doesn't make a difference.

They could all be in their individual top form, but we would still lose if the top pair is a turnover factory and the #1C goes -3 every game without pissing a drop of offence 5v5. Although production is extremely poor, it isn't like the bottom 6 is getting blasted 5v5 the other way.

Bottom 6 over their individual last 5 games:

Henrique +1
Brown +3
Janmark -1
Kapanen -5 (he needs to get gone)
Perry -1
Podkolzin -2
Skinner +1

Conversely, the Top 6 over their individual last 5 games:

McDavid -12
RNH -3
Hyman -8
Draisaitl -1
Arvidsson -3
Savoie E

Bottom 6 is generally not getting blasted on the scoreboard even if producing nothing. Other than Leon, the Top 6 is producing nothing while getting absolutely murdered on the board. Nobody is batting an eye at the Bottom 6 if the Top 6 was playing remotely close to their level, but they aren't. \

It makes no sense to me whatsoever that the Bottom 6 can generally be playing how they mostly always play, but they are the ones that take the heat the moment our top players all collectively decided to implode. Unless they have the very best of Bottom 6's, no team is surviving their top 6 posting the results I highlighted above.

You could make a case from a macro perspective that this is a bad philosophy, but Edmonton's bottom 6(and bottom 3) has been purpose built to do things:

- Contribute on the PK
- Tread water in soft 5v5 minutes

While the PK thing is a little bit short term dubious they have been pretty consistent about keeping their end of the deal with the exception of Kapanen and the explanation for him is that he simply sucks.

 

[oobga]

There was a stretch of about 10 games before the break where the effort wasn't necessarily bad, but the mistakes, the execution, and the goaltending buried them. The engine was there, but the details were way, way off.

They came back from the break making the same stupid mistakes and the same shitty goaltending, but now the effort is half cocked being generous. Impossible to win with that.

I thought the play was pretty weak leading in the break, but we still did pull off enough wins to get into 1st in the division (Vegas playing bad for a stretch helped). We were giving the team a pass though thinking there were 2 waves of sickness going through the room. Hat tip for still pulling off some wins even going through illness.

But then they come back, likely now all healthy again, and they play even worse.

 

[K1984]

You could make a case from a macro perspective that this is a bad philosophy, but Edmonton's bottom 6(and bottom 3) has been purpose built to do things:

- Contribute on the PK
- Tread water in soft 5v5 minutes

While the PK thing is a little bit short term dubious they have been pretty consistent about keeping their end of the deal with the exception of Kapanen and the explanation for him is that he simply sucks.

And that's how the roster needs to be constructed with our payroll allocated up top.

When you have two superstars in the Top 6, arguably the #1 and #2 players in the world at that, a bottom 6 that pushes the puck in the right direction, kills penalties, and doesn't give up goals is literally all you need. When the top line is getting skull f***ed every game, the house of cards collapses.

I'll never understand why when the top players are playing obviously poor hockey, it's everyone else that gets blamed by some people. For the most part, those players are generally doing their jobs. It makes no sense to be mad that Adam Henrique isn't all of a sudden scoring for no reason other than McDavid is probably playing the worst hockey of his career.

 

[belair]

When he's healthy he's proven to be an important piece, not a "luxury depth scorer". This team has nothing close to him in terms of what he can bring. Again, let's see what happens when more info is given. I doubt he'll rush a return if he' not ready. But if he's ready, then we're paying him to play, so he plays. Not his fault management has screwed up in so many other areas.

'When he's healthy' is the key take away here. And it's been a while since he's been just that. And odds are, in a season where anything short of a Cup is a failure, the Kane coming back early from multiple injuries likely won't be 100% healthy. And the cap he ties up limits the team's ability to add reinforcements.

Sitting the remainder of the season is a strategic play that benefits both the team and the player. Rushing his return would be a selfish move that sees little benefit. And quite honestly increases the likelihood he reaggravates those previous injuries considering his style of game.

 

[Drivesaitl]

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.

You know that I sure wasn't OK with the offseason moves and considered it the worst offseason in quite sometime. Really to the extent of being disillusioning. Unfortunately I figured Arvid would be crap here, Pods was already a bust, and that J Skinner wouldn't fit in well. Meanwhile the forwards we lost all hitting it out of the ballpark on 20something goal campaigns and Holloway confirming that he's a stud topsix player in this league.

Losing the players, particularly Holloway was gutting. That the org somehow continued with old players like Ryan, Perry, Brown, Janmark etc indicated lack of diligence in even bothering to replace them. There wasn't even a plan. Just load up with Vets and pretend its 1990s Dallas Stars with a big name roster. This only continuing as the team adds Klingberg.