travel_dude

Retooling is one thing. It doesn't mean a step completely backwards. It's about staying close to where you were. Rebuild is a different story; he might or likely would waive. He's probably shell shocked right now. Never thought his play would drop off that much. The summer will turn his game around, assumng we don't go too far towards rebuilding.

Fair enough. I think he also has a bit of a point. 🙂 Too bad if that's what it came to. We should have been doing things to make the team better. Must be tough to watch your team implode after you get a lead. Why we insist on trying to turn a attack on the rush line into a dump and chase line is beyond me. It was well intentioned to have depth at C, but the impact is that Lindholm is supposed to be the shutdown C as well as the scoring line C. The Monahan line is dump and chase. Backlund is defensive starts and sump and chase. You want Monahan's line to sump it, send in Mangiapane. He's one of the best at flying into the zone.

I think you are thinking I am pumping up the Flames and trashing the Oilers. I am not. This was not a us vs them post to begin with. I am pointing out the flaws with the team and you are suggesting that somehow they are a top team. Top teams are not shut out regularly. Did they improve from last year? Hard to say in 38 games against 6 teams isn't it.

Care to elaborate what you imply? As far as posting videos, right click and copy video address. It shows up like below:

I think he signed here cuz we offered a NMC. Having buddies here may have helped, but I think he felt he would do well with a decent D in front of him. Lindholm isn't the problem with this team, so packaging him and Markstrom isn't going to help. Let's see whether we have the 1st half Markstorm to start next season. He isn't going to bring back much right now, and we lose the only starter we have had in years.

The NHL isn't a development league for sure. Every young D-man is prone to mistakes. Pairing them with aging marginal players isn't good for their play. We don't have a single D-man that hasn't made glaring mistakes like Valimaki. This is too much like Kylington. The guy was waived and played for a few games. His mistakes have been not as blatant, and we have only lost 1 game with him in the lineup (beatdown by EDM). It benefits neither player to sit on the taxi squad. They practice with the team with no chance to change opinions. They get no game action. Neither is any worse than Nesterov or Stone.

Look, it's no big deal. I find it odd that they singled out one player, when there are a lot more issues than Gaudreau. He may have his faults. I think the least of the worry should be him playing safe. He's the least likely to take a hit to make a play. Dump and chase and retrieve is not a wise idea to protect a player like that. And after Pionk railed him into the boards, nobody was sent out to deal with him. That's not doing anything to send a message or protect the player. TBH, if he is being labeled as a cancer, there is old vs young issues on this team. Gio and Lucic on one side and Tkachuk/Gaudreau on the other. Just my opinion, but I think there are bigger issues than one player.

You are bang on with that assessment. At the very least Valimaki should be in the AHL getting tons of minutes. Playing with future players, not has beens. I'm of the belief that Valimaki either should be playing with Ras or Tanev only on this club right now. Nesterov and Stone are poinson. Dube was misscast as a top RW IMHO. He is well below Mangiapane's level right now. He was able to do well in the playoffs because he was on the 3rd line with grinders. Allowed him to use his speed to get open and finish. You can't do that when you are playing against Matthews or EDM's top players or against Sheifele. Coming back to accountability, it's only being used in games not between games. Even then, it's sporardic depending on how the game unfolds. I must have missed how Valimaki was a negative against the Oilers. Seeing as he was on for a goal for and none against, and we failed on the PK, I'm missing something. Stone (-2), Nesterov (-1), Gio (-3) and Ras (-2) were a combined -8 against WPG. This season is a write-off. There was little chance Sutter hockey would turn the corner. At best, it's a long term strategy. Weed out the soft players or ones that can't raise their game. Build a team that teams actually hate to play. Develop a team that wins on home ice much more often. Well, we are some distance from that type of team. Pace and execution are severly lacking. I've noticed us going backwards in the D-zone. What used to be a strength is now our weakness.

And yet, it's on the internet now. What happens if TSN reads this thread? They might try to interview that coach. I'm not saying she is telling you lies, just that some of it may just be her opinion or filling in the blanks. People are free to talk all they want in their free time, but this is also considered inside information. You generally don't say things to outsiders unless you have no concerns about that information becomming public. If it was me and I told a friend, I would tell her to never repeat it to anyone. I would protect my job first.

No complaints about Gio or Ras's skating or decision making? Valimaki's most consistent partner was Nesterov. I'm not saying Sutter is wrong in his assessment, but every D-man on this team would struggle with a partner like that.

A top 6 that consists of McD and Draisailt should have more than just 3 players with 10 or more. Nurse plays with either of those two lines for the majority of his minutes. They have the option to split up the big two or play them together. It's a nice thing to have, and playing two players 25 minutes a night works in a short season. Every blowout game they had featured a struggling Ottawa goalie. I watched those games and was shocked how bad they were. Yes, Ottawa is a better team than those blowouts showed. But it goes to my point that EDM beat a team with struggling goalies. Every other team EDM have faced has them playing closer to 500 hockey. You seem to be very sensative about criticism of the Oilers. I have no blind hate to them, just pointing out where they are not the team to beat this year. They are a middle of the pack team that still hasn't addressed the issues of last year. Goaltending and playing without the puck. PP chances dry up as the playoffs start, so they need to win games without PP chances. The Jets are a deeper team than the Leafs, but the Leafs have a much better D corp. The Oilers have neither.

I have a little trouble believing that an assistant coach would talk that candidly about the locker room or owners or GM. That kind on informations can get a coach fired. I'm not saying she is lying, just that she may have had heard some things and added her own beliefs to the story. I have no doubt that there are problems with this team. If Gaudreau was the only reason, then he would have been traded in the summer. But the strugggles run a lot deeper. Gio has been downright terrible. Ras is struggling with playing with Gio. Dube is not playing at a #1RW level. Lindholm is being pushed into a top C role but is not ready or should be expected to be. Tkachuk is struggling with his game. Backlund is being used as a #3C and his game took a big dive. The best player is Mangiapane who is plaing with Lucic and a struggling C. Gaudreau is playing with a struggling C and a plug. I have no doubt we will see changes, but let's not kid ourselves. JH is not the issue. We may have to use him to bring in assets to help, but he is not the problem. The best players he's had on RW were Hudler (LW playing RW), Ferland (LW turned RW) and Lindholm. The only time he's been a 70+ point player is with those three. Last year was a mix. This year it's been a rotating bunch of lesser players. With a struggling Monahan, it's no wonder he can't produce.

It's pretty thin back on D. We have 4D that I would consider being good for the next 4 years. The pipeline isn't that good right now; we have a few guys that could be 5/6 guys. We have a guy in Europe that could be a decent offensive guy. And a junior player that has holes in his D game that scores a ton.

I dn't see how that would be considered fair. You would need to allow another play-in. That's not happening.

It's very possible you can't fix stupid. I really don't know what to think of Bennett. I watch him play out there and he never seems to make the right decisions offensively. Wrong side of a player on the forechack, so the puck pops out on the side with nobody there. Try to dangle against one or two D-men. Push the puck through defenders at the blueline. Shoot for the top corner when you get a shot on net. At this point, I don't know there is even a fix for Bennett. I doubt he lights it up anywhere else in the league. He could be s strong defensive player and carve out a role that way, but I think he still sees himself as a top 6 player. If that were the case, he would look like the best player on any line he played on. He's shown flashes of that.

I think you are really losing sight of what actually happened this year for them. You pointed to goal differential as proof, yet there are 3 games (7-1, 7-1 and 6-2) that push them into a positive goal differential. Take away the Ottawa games and what are they, 2 above 500. That's not a playoff pace. Lucky to get Ottawa when their goaltending was reeling. It matters not whether I like the Oilers or not. I see what I see. A team with no depth. You suggest they have found the right players? 4 players doing all the scoring and a lot of PP goals, 4 players above 10 goals. Full circle, coming back to what I said in January.... The same problems they had last year are still there. Smith has propped up the win/loss record by coming in fresh in a short season. So, they didn't fix goaltending. Kahun, Turris and Shore didn't move the needle. Barrie brings PP scoring but little else. Big signings. Bear and Jones took a step back defensively. Poolparty and Yammer both are surviving on the backs of the top 2. Does that seem like a team that has it figured out? Or a team with little depth that will be golfing soon enough? Toronto and Winnipeg are the true contenders in this division. Oilers need to model their team more like them. Depth. Team game. Win when your top players are shut down. Win without the PP being the only deciding factor. Some days the Oilers can't even roll 3 lines. Praise them for having the top 2 in NHL scoring if you like, but there isn't much else there to look at.

That's a shame. Nygard is a player I thought would be better. Derailed a bit by that injury last year. Another player that teams had high hopes for, like Kahun this year. Or Reider when he played in EDM. Seems like only certain players can make it in EDM. McD and Draisaitl. The rest get propped up by them. If they don't stick, they get dropped down to crap lines. Poolparty is trending there the same. I think we could use some more speed, so Nygard makes some sense. Don't really see where he fits. Maybe as a RW?

First off, I am a poster as well as a mod. So I do have opinions. I'm simply asking a question to a new poster who decided that their first posts would be related to the Oilers. If you are a closet Oiler fan, fine. No team site that you can post on. Focus on stats a bit much perhaps. You understand that plus minus means that he was on for 40 goals for and 27 against at 5v5. That's a ton. Barrie is an offensive D-man that bleeds goals even strength. The goal differential is deceiving isn't it. Have a few 7-1 games and it looks like your team is killing it.

Doesn't matter. Ritchie is a plug on the 2nd line. He's devaluing Monahan and Gaudreau. No cost to claim, no loss if he picked by Seattle or not. For all the good reasons to make a claim, we will not. We are just spinning our wheels this year. No improvements. Depth at center? Peshaw.

We face the Nucks 4 times. I would not be shocked if we made a trade after the weekend. 7 days between games with the cancelled Nucks games. I hope not unless it;s a core guy going out and a new core guy coming in.

Actually, that win took us out of 3rd. I doubt we pick PLD. We probably would have had Puljujarvi. In hindsight, a RW. I'm sure we could have ruined him. Or perhaps we don't trade for Lindholm.

Evgeny Svechnikov on waivers from Detroit. Any interest in a young, cheap LHS RW?

Interesting waiver move today. Gusev on waivers. Doesn't work for us cap-wise, but he was a player that could score last year. Would he even move the needle here?

The downside is he is a small LW. If he was a natural RW, I would not even worry about size.

I stand by my statements. Poolparty is what? 13 points in 35 games playing with McDavid and now Draisaitl? Barrie is what you expect, an offensive D-man. The dynamic duo are still on for a ton of goals against. Winning by outscoring teams. Going nowhere in a hurry. Out of curiosity, you have just started posting and you chose an Oilers thread as one of your two posts?