Oilers 2018-19 General Thread

[JR Ewing]

On 11/7/2018 at 1:05 PM, yave1964 said:

I have always been VERY skeptical of any player who suddenly bursts on the scene after around the age of twenty two or twenty three, let alone thirty one years old which is why in his late twenties coming off a year with 20 something good starts with the Rangers I felt that the Oilers overpaid for Talbot.

 

One thing I will say about Cam Talbot: he's the smallest LOOKING 6'4" in net that I've seen in a long time. That, of course, is not a compliment.

 

[Hockey-78]

@yave1964 Koskinen is certainly making a case to McLellan to give him more minutes. 5 starts, 4 wins, .918, not too shabby whereas Talbot has played below average, a four game losing streak. Maybe at this point a tandem would be a better solution than Talbot as the clear cut #1 goalie...?

[JR Ewing]

Point-form nonsense...

 

-Mikko Koskinen continues to play well. Save percentage is in the top 10 now, and the team is 6-2 with him on the ice.

-Cam Talbot has been absolutely horrible. His Quality Start% is now at 33, and has 5 Really Bad Starts. And no, I'm not making up the existence of those stats.

 

-Darnell Nurse can't see available outlet passes like I can't dunk a basketball. He can defend and he can skate, but if he carries the puck past his own blueline, it will end with him laying a muffin of shot into the goalie's crest. Personally, I think his best value for the Oilers lies in what he interest other teams might have in him.

 

-Hitchcock just might have found a home for Milan Lucic, partnered up with Brodziak and Kassian. Last night, he put them out against the Benn-Radulov-Seguin line and and won the possession and scoring chance battle.

 

-Andrej Sekera is practicing again, but my guess is that he's done, at least as beiong an effective player. He's 32, was always injury prone, and in 2018 he missed most of the year with a blown-out knee, and has been out all year so far with an Achilles injury. Too bad, and I would love be wrong.

 

[Hockey-78]

Interesting points, JR. Keep'em coming!

[JR Ewing]

Jesse Puljujarvi making friends...

 

[OccamsRazor]

@JR Ewing

 

 

Just so unfair...

 

 

[Podein25]

@JR Ewing

 

What's the scuttlebutt on Zykov who they grabbed off waivers? I didn't see him on the bench last night, wasn't a scratch. He's got serious offensive upside and is a big body, curious as to how he might do in EDM.  - Pods

[JR Ewing]

Just now, Podein25 said:

@JR Ewing

 

What's the scuttlebutt on Zykov who they grabbed off waivers? I didn't see him on the bench last night, wasn't a scratch. He's got serious offensive upside and is a big body, curious as to how he might do in EDM.  - Pods

 

Visa problems have kept him playing games. He's been practicing with the team. Being a one-shot scorer, if he could work out, it would be a big deal.

 

[JR Ewing]

-The Oilers played the dangerous Flames, and choked the life out of the game for Calgary. The Flames had difficulty with entries, and an aggressive Oilers forechceck forced numerous turnovers. David Rittich made saves on several breakaways, and kept it 1-0 going into the 3rd. In that 3rd period, the Oilers allowed only 4 shots, and held on for a 1-0.

-With that shutout, Mikko Koskinnen moves into 3rd in the NHL in Save Percentage. He's a big and really unspectacular looking goalie who lets the puck hit him and has (so far) controlled his rebounds. Very modern goaler.

-I grabbed a screenshot last night which shows an improvement in structure which isn't by any means groundbreaking, but shows something which was badly needed in Edmonton:

The Oilers are playing tighter than before, have sticks in the lane, and are moving as a 5-man unit. Other than putting the puck around the boards in the hopes that a teammate can recover it, there's nothing that Andersson can do with the puck. I will contrast that with:

And no, that wasn't a PP. A picture showing all defensive players with a massive gap in the middle of the ice (the Dangerous Chance) and all skating in different directions just screams chaos. The changes aren't a re-writing of the game or an attempt to be the smartest guy in the room, but a return to what always worked. It's so good to see.

 

[Math]

At least they had their true jerseys.

 

That still hurt my eyes when I see the Oilers playing. Why the hell did they ditch their original royal blue jerseys with that ugly orange one with this navy blue that doesn't make any sense?

 

They made the same damn thing like 10-12 years ago with the navy blue and the red trim. And I'm not speaking about the 3rd "Oilman" jersey... But these monstruosities were common to most of the teams at that period.

[JR Ewing]

23 minutes ago, Villette/Lavaux said:

At least they had their true jerseys.

 

That still hurt my eyes when I see the Oilers playing. Why the hell did they ditch their original royal blue jerseys with that ugly orange one with this navy blue that doesn't make any sense?

 

 

The orange jerseys were awful, but a lot of fans liked them. I guess there's no accounting for taste.

 

[JR Ewing]

What a miserable two weeks it's been, and it won't be getting better soon.

 

-Klefbom is injured and won't be back for about a month. Let's put it this way: the Oilers get as much of the Goal Share with Klefbom on the ice whether or not Connor McDavid is out there. It's a big loss.

-Russell is out. I have my complaints about him, but he's an actual NHL defenseman.

-Sekera is injured, as he has been for most of the past decade.

 

Oh, and Peter Chiarelli continues to shed talent from the team like Jared Fogle lost weight at Subway. Don't worry, though: Milan Lucic has two goals since Christmas.

 

 

... of 2017.

 

 

[JR Ewing]

After a 4-0 shut-out to the lowly Kings where one guy not named McDavid, Draisaitl or Nugent-Hopkins had one single shot, I'm as close as I've been to not watching. That says something, because I've been treated to some abysmal hockey over the last decade.

 

The Edmonton Oilers, as they have for about a decade now, don’t have enough NHL players. There is something rotten in the decision making, and it's been going on for years,  that allows this organization to send away good player like they’re junk mail. When they make a decision there’s a sense of certainty that is ill-advised, and a sense that the badly required expertise sadly doesn't exist. The Edmonton Oilers aren't remotely as smart as they think they are, and it bites them in the ass routinely.

 

I know that I'm just a tier-two fan, but I think the owner should poll his hockey operations group and ask if they agreed with

-the Taylor Hall trade

-the Griffin Reinhart for #16 overall

-the Lucic signing

 

Anybody who thought that two out of three were the right moves should be out the door right now. Immediately. Regardless of any other firings, Peter Chiarelli, Kevin Lowe and Craig MacTavish need to be gone. I don't like talk lightly about taking away the means by which people put food on their family's table, but the mismanagement is near-criminal.

 

These idiots were like Charlie Bucket: they had a golden ticket. They were gifted that glorious boy when lord knows that management had done little to deserve him. Connor McDavid is so good that all the Oilers had to do was NOT screw it up. No miracles were required, only a league average job of building around him. Now, four years in, the team is as deep as an Abba hit at forward, and they STILL don't have a blueline to show for it.

 

The Oilers are the worst run team in sports.

They are a joke of a franchise.

They are an embarrassment.

 

What a waste this has been on multiple levels. Books could (and possibly will) be written about this.

 

[OccamsRazor]

Trade deadline approaching quick wonder who gets moved next???

 

[JR Ewing]

2 hours ago, OccamsRazor said:

Trade deadline approaching quick wonder who gets moved next???

 

 

The icing on the cake: on top of everything else, signing Peter Chiarelli cost the Oilers a 2nd round pick.

 

[JR Ewing]

Oilers record with and without Oscar Klefbom during the McDavid era.

 

With Klefbom: 105-86-16

W/O Klefbom: 32-47-8

 

Please hurry back, Oscar.

 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

17 minutes ago, JR Ewing said:

Oilers record with and without Oscar Klefbom during the McDavid era.

 

With Klefbom: 105-86-16

W/O Klefbom: 32-47-8

 

Please hurry back, Oscar.

 

 

Now, wait a minute...hold on...
THAT can't be right!

According to a certain know-all Wizard of Oil, Klefbom was part of the Unholy Trinity whose minuses were the epitome of the Devil himself!!

That all said, Klef was supposed to be part of the solution in Edmonton.
Yea. I'd want him back too if I were an Oiler fan. 

[JR Ewing]

McDavid out with illness, so here are the Oilers lines from practice today. It's really something to behold:

 

RNH - Draisaitl - Kassian

Rieder - Cave - Chiasson

Lucic - Brodziak - Currie

Gagner - Malone - Rattie

 

Or, put another way:

 

RNH - Draisaitl - Kassian

0 goals - waived recently - PTO

2 goals in 2018 - last contract - 2nd career game

AHL last week - AHL last month - waived recently

 

It's literally an AHL lineup plus two NHL-calibre players.

 

[yave1964]

11 hours ago, JR Ewing said:

McDavid out with illness, so here are the Oilers lines from practice today. It's really something to behold:

 

RNH - Draisaitl - Kassian

Rieder - Cave - Chiasson

Lucic - Brodziak - Currie

Gagner - Malone - Rattie

 

Or, put another way:

 

RNH - Draisaitl - Kassian

0 goals - waived recently - PTO

2 goals in 2018 - last contract - 2nd career game

AHL last week - AHL last month - waived recently

 

It's literally an AHL lineup plus two NHL-calibre players.

 

OMG that is awful. Chiarelli should be crawn and quartered for wasting yet another season of the brilliance that is McDavid with....this. I am speechless to describe how bad this is.

 

  An aside, I do like the addition of Gagner, he is what he is a 40 point guy with cleardeficiencies but he can play the power play quite well when he is on which was evident when he was with the Jackets. He was a fan favorite there in his one year when he had a career high in everything,it is not his fault that Vancouver offered more term than Columbus was willing to do and he chose the three year security for his family, I would have too but Torts saw something and instead of bitching about his weaknesses he took advantage of his strengths, It may have been the only time in his career that he had a real coach who knew how to do this. I wish him nothing but the best in round two in Edmonton.

[JR Ewing]

2 hours ago, yave1964 said:

OMG that is awful. Chiarelli should be crawn and quartered for wasting yet another season of the brilliance that is McDavid with....this. I am speechless to describe how bad this is.

 

Do you remember when I was beside myself because I just knew the Oilers had no interest in keeping Jeff Petry around, and they would continue their long established pattern of draft-develop-dump, and would be left with nothing in return? He's not a superstar, but within just a couple of months of his being dealt to MTL for picks, he was replaced with Adam Larsson at the cost of Taylor Hall.

 

That one is Peter Chiarelli AND Craig MacTavish who, for some reason, still has a job in hockey operations.

 

 

2 hours ago, yave1964 said:

  An aside, I do like the addition of Gagner, he is what he is a 40 point guy with cleardeficiencies but he can play the power play quite well when he is on which was evident when he was with the Jackets.

 

We are where we are. Do I prefer Sam Gagner to Ryan Spooner? Yes. Has there been a criminal mismanagement which brought them to this? Yes. I do think that Grettzky actually swung a decent trade, all things considered, to ring in Gagner for Spooner.

 

a) Spooner has been awful.

b) Hitch was never going to play him again.

 

2 hours ago, yave1964 said:

He was a fan favorite there in his one year when he had a career high in everything,it is not his fault that Vancouver offered more term than Columbus was willing to do and he chose the three year security for his family, I would have too but Torts saw something and instead of bitching about his weaknesses he took advantage of his strengths, It may have been the only time in his career that he had a real coach who knew how to do this. I wish him nothing but the best in round two in Edmonton.

 

This has been a thing for me for a very long time. Well-run teams seem to focus on what players can do, and teams that are usually bad focus on a player's weaknesses. This sort of leads me back to Jeff Petry. Despite the fact that the puck moved in the right direction a lot of the time that he was on the ice, and despite the fact that he's actually quite physical in his own end, the Oilers got it in their minds that he wasn't mean enough. They focused on a lack of snarl, and didn't look at all of the ways that he could contribute, and forced themselves into giving him away for nothing and replacing him at huge cost.