What is the Oiler Achille’s Heel to a Championship

[independent observer]

Achilles heel(s)

-woodie still not trusting players
-disastrous goaltending
-nurse contract
-not sold on def corps
-Brown
-health of Ekholm

So fire woodie, waive brown, recall lavoie, pray that the goaltenders find their game or do later an in-season trade for a new goalie (by giving up assets), also in season trade to upgrade defense…

 

[Missing smitty]

They kinda do.

No one's saying they have to be the 90s NJD, but you have to be able to play some freaking defense.

And this is coming from someone who doesn't like defensive hockey and would rather the league revert back to the 80s of just pure run n' gun pond hockey.

You can't win the sloppy way the Oilers play D and we don't have the high end no.1 puck moving D to play a puck moving style. Our D are brain dead half the time with the puck on their stick, last night in one memorable sequence Nurse had McDavid revving up and ready to receive a pass and instead he looks off McDavid and aimlessly drifts into the zone and fires a nothing muffin wrister towards the goalie.

Totally brain dead. We don't have the puck movers on the back end to play transition hockey. It doesn't help that our D crater under any kind of pressure, especially Bouchard so that even if we tried to play a transition game the opponent can easily adjust and take that away just by forechecking hard.

Lol, what else would call them? None of them are stay at home defenseman. They're constructed to move the puck, playing the man-to-man system they play stops them from doing that.

 

[WaitingForUser]

Salo
Roloson
Talbot

All were number 1's for a period of time.

Hence why CUJO was the last number one. Being an inconsistent starter puts you as a 1A in my books.

 

[BlackDogg]

Fragile and likely at least somewhat arrogant leadership. Good when things are good but...

Bad goaltending.

 

[fuswald]

Middle of the pack goaltending.
Goaltending is half the battle on its own. The teams are getting so close to each other now with game management reffing and strong defensive systems a top team needs top notch goaltending to clear the hump. One bad goal can loose a game.

Obviously would like better d and a more balanced offence but this is the style the Oilers have purchased and could be good enough to win it all but one bad goal can sink a game.

 

[Lacaar]

High skill team whos will comes and goes for reasons unknown to the fans. You never know what kind of effort they'll bring. Very very polarizing team on display each night. Complete Jeckyll and Hyde team.

As the intensity in a game ramps up their low IQ shows up.
Tons of skill.. itty bitty hockey sense.

For the Oilers it's next man up. Not to take charge and win a game. But to f*** it up.