jjgallow Posted May 16, 2015 Report Share Posted May 16, 2015 Just win a Cup and it's worth it. Yup. And they're going for a lot more than that. We can disagree on what happened and how it happened. But I think we can all agree that it Shouldn't happen the way that it has. The current system, whatever that system is, is not right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wreckening Posted May 18, 2015 Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 Sportsnet is reporting that Todd McLellan could be named Head Coach of the Oilers as early as Tuesday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_People1 Posted May 18, 2015 Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 I said competitive. Every year 16 teams have a chance @ the SC. Being in the lottery to see who selects the next potential superstar means you are not 1 of those 16. Lose to win has such of a negative connotation. I'll try to rephrase it. Sewer to street level? After that if you move to the penthouse without bathing you still carry that stench. To hockey fans any Pens cup carries an "*". From the old days does hang around to member work (Carty will understand that & likely agree that is a promotion you don't want). ************************************** Regarding the rest of my post which of the current lineups/management (even if the Oilers land Babcock as their head coach) do you see most likely to be playoff bound next season? I'll even let you pick 2 of the 3. Jets, Flames, Oilers. It's never worth it to go through what the Oilers did to be simply competitive. It's worth it only if they win the Cup. I would say everything is worth it if you win the Cup and nothing is worth it if you only become competitive. I would never cheer for the Flames to get McDavid to only be competitive. Anyways, agree to disagree FF. It's going to be tough to make the playoffs in the Western Conference as is. The Avs seem to be good one year and bad the next, and they were bad last year so... I think they will be in the playoffs next season. Dallas didn't have Seguin for much of the stretch drive, otherwise, they could've been the 8th seed. I'm thinking LA will re-tool and be refreshed with a long summer break. They will be right back in the playoffs again. This makes 3 teams in next season that wasn't in this year and i can't even take 3 teams out of the playoffs that made it this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travel_dude Posted May 18, 2015 Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 It's never worth it to go through what the Oilers did to be simply competitive. It's worth it only if they win the Cup. I would say everything is worth it if you win the Cup and nothing is worth it if you only become competitive. I would never cheer for the Flames to get McDavid to only be competitive. Anyways, agree to disagree FF. It's going to be tough to make the playoffs in the Western Conference as is. The Avs seem to be good one year and bad the next, and they were bad last year so... I think they will be in the playoffs next season. Dallas didn't have Seguin for much of the stretch drive, otherwise, they could've been the 8th seed. I'm thinking LA will re-tool and be refreshed with a long summer break. They will be right back in the playoffs again. This makes 3 teams in next season that wasn't in this year and i can't even take 3 teams out of the playoffs that made it this year. Every year there are risers and fallers, and those that stay the same. The Flames managed to be one of the risers. We toiled near the bottom for two years before we managed to get stable goaltending and have our systems start to have some effect. Sure, getting back in the playoffs will be tough. We need to fix some issues that are fixable. We are well aware of the issues. Since this is about the Oilers, I can't imagine that they could think about winning the cup without first becoming competitive. You first have to learn how to win, then do it consistently, then be competitive in the playoffs, then win the cup. The Oilers are so far from being competitive it is not funny. They have nothing in place that makes that transition possible. So, take the first three years to start to become competitive, then add two more to get out of the first round. The other WC teams have issues too: AVS - No decent defense Stars - Should be better than they are, but are missing something Sharks - Declining core, should have started rebuilding long before now LA - Losing key players, slight decline inevitable Nucks - Barely made it this year, goaltending and older stars declining Minnie - Dream season based on Dubie's outstanding season CHI - Cap Hell is on its way Expect to see more turmoil this coming season... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StarkRaving Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 The Oilers won't make the playoffs next season, and I doubt they'll make the playoffs the year after either. The Flames were middle-of-the-pack this season and they squeaked into the playoffs with 97 points. Meanwhile, the Oilers were 35 points behind them. For the Oilers to make the playoffs next year, they'd have to pull off a miracle akin to - oh, I don't know - winning the draft lottery 4 times in 6 years. The Oilers will be the most interesting team to watch over the summer. They have a lot of assets to bargain with, and a lot of holes to fill. Meanwhile, they're restricted by a number of bad contracts. Someone is going to wrestle some good, young players away from them. I came across a clever quote from Scott Cullen -> "When the Oilers inked Justin Schultz to a one-year deal last year, Craig MacTavish talked about Schultz’s “Norris Trophy potential”, which remained well-hidden last season". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kehatch Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 The Penguins finished second last the season after they drafted Crosby despite him getting over a hundred points. Of course they saw almost a 50 point improvement when Malkin joined the team the following season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DL44 Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 Lowe moved out of Hockey Ops all together.. MacT relegated.. Peter Chiralli brought in as GM They win McDavid.. They get Todd McLennan as coach... This is probably the best offseason the Oilers could of ever hoped for.... And this even before a single on-ice acquisition or transaction has taken place. Argh. Watching Hall-Crosby-Eberle at the worlds... made me nauseous to realize that will mirror exactly the dominance we'll eventually likely see outta Hall-McDavid-Eberle in a couple yrs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_People1 Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 The Oilers won't make the playoffs next season, and I doubt they'll make the playoffs the year after either. The Flames weren't suppose to make the playoffs this season either but they did. There's still the draft and this summer UFA season to happen before we can really say if the Oilers will or will not make the playoffs. McDavid is the obvious wildcard because if he bursts onto the scene like Crosby did, then we're talking about a 100-point season and then all bets are off. The Oilers may very well be willed into the playoffs by McDavid alone. A coaching change is also a big change. A part of me thinks Mclellan had a great record mostly because he had great players in SJ so i'm not sold that he can take a bunch of average players to the next level. I guess we will see. Chiarelli, i hope falls flat on his face. He hasn't really made a good trade in the last two years with Boston. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travel_dude Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 The Flames weren't suppose to make the playoffs this season either but they did. There's still the draft and this summer UFA season to happen before we can really say if the Oilers will or will not make the playoffs. McDavid is the obvious wildcard because if he bursts onto the scene like Crosby did, then we're talking about a 100-point season and then all bets are off. The Oilers may very well be willed into the playoffs by McDavid alone. A coaching change is also a big change. A part of me thinks Mclellan had a great record mostly because he had great players in SJ so i'm not sold that he can take a bunch of average players to the next level. I guess we will see. Chiarelli, i hope falls flat on his face. He hasn't really made a good trade in the last two years with Boston. The Oilers and Flames are polar opposites of the term "team". We spent the last half of 2013/14 figuring out what the identify was, making moves to bolster that, and selecting players that fit into that type of culture. The Oilers are not even sure what they are, as can be seen by another season of sub-par hockey. Unless the Oilers manage to sign some stud D-men, trade away the selfish or soft players, and find a top-flight goalie to help make it through the transition, expect to see them checking tee-times as early as November. PC may or may not have a totally free hand when it comes to trades and drafting. If he did, everything would be on the table. If not, expect to see some shiny new toys that don't fit the other toys in the toybox. And the old toys will want to go to a new team. Going from a lotto pick to a contender in one year is next to impossible. We went from 77-97 with a lot of hard work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_People1 Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 Going from a lotto pick to a contender in one year is next to impossible. We went from 77-97 with a lot of hard work. If you mean "Cup" contender, then ya, obviously. But if you mean "playoff" contender, then why not? There's enough parity in this league that we shouldn't be surprised to see a 13th seed team contend for the 8th seed within a one season turn around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travel_dude Posted May 20, 2015 Report Share Posted May 20, 2015 If you mean "Cup" contender, then ya, obviously. But if you mean "playoff" contender, then why not? There's enough parity in this league that we shouldn't be surprised to see a 13th seed team contend for the 8th seed within a one season turn around. Well, for one thing they would need to actually have a winning record in their own division. They had a 4-21-4 record against the Pacific. A 9-30-11 record against the west. They had a barely winning record against the east, if you consider a 15-14-3 a winning record. Since they are competing for a spot in the west, they have to beat those teams that currently beat the crap out of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyerfan52 Posted May 20, 2015 Report Share Posted May 20, 2015 2006-07 the Flyers were so bad they even lost the lottery. 2007-08 Conference Finals. Just information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travel_dude Posted May 20, 2015 Report Share Posted May 20, 2015 2006-07 the Flyers were so bad they even lost the lottery. 2007-08 Conference Finals. Just information. I don't know how they went from being a perennial 90+ point team to 56, then back to 95. That's sort of the opposite of the Oilers; perennial 60-70 point team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyerfan52 Posted May 20, 2015 Report Share Posted May 20, 2015 I don't know how they went from being a perennial 90+ point team to 56, then back to 95. That's sort of the opposite of the Oilers; perennial 60-70 point team. Heavy in the UFA market (Snider not noted for patience )& surprising rookies coming of age sooner than expected (they had that extra year in junior due to the missing NHL season). ****************************************************** Oilers will need 3ish years to become a contender & longer to go to conference finals.It's not easy to rebuild the back from a few prospects nor teach forwards that even an iota of defensive play from them could lead to wins. Chia & McLennan are a good start. How they remold a roster that feels entitled is the challenge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kehatch Posted May 20, 2015 Report Share Posted May 20, 2015 A knock against their chances is how often they have recycled coaches. If this was the first time there was a coaching change it would have provided a shock that could kick start a culture. But a new coach is just routine for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
conundrumed Posted May 20, 2015 Report Share Posted May 20, 2015 To be fair, Edmonton is starting to surround themselves in good hockey people for the first time in years. MacLellan's an NHL calibre coach, he'll get them out of the gate, which has long been their problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheersMan Posted May 20, 2015 Report Share Posted May 20, 2015 Congrats to the Oiler's for yet another news announcement. Is that 3 head coaches in 5 months now? Might want to check the record books on that one. Has McLellan won anything in the NHL as head coach? If memory serves me right, he was head coach for arguably one of the most talented teams (regular season wins) in the NHL over the past 7 seasons and won SFA when the real season began. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyDeeds Posted May 20, 2015 Report Share Posted May 20, 2015 It appears that the Oilers are trying to do the right things. It remains to be seen if the experienced people they are bringing in are capable of changing the entitlement & losing culture. I still have this ugly feeling that Klowe and buddies still have their fingers in the cooking. We shall see. As for the fans.. I no longer feel sorry for them. I am past that now. Should the Oilers fortunes improve, I fully expect them to be in here with I told you so stories... They are coming.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cross16 Posted May 20, 2015 Report Share Posted May 20, 2015 McLellan is a good coach and I think is a good hire. I don't think he gets enough credit for the jobs he did in SJ and gets unfairly criticized for not winning a cup but people forget just how hard it is to win one. This is a guy that took a team that always had severe holes in their lineup, and average at best goaltending, to back to back WCF and into the 2nd round in 3 of 6 years. I don't think the problem in San Jose has ever been coaching its been a combination of depth, goaltending, and the fact that Wilson built that team around two "leaders" who aren't actually leaders. San Jose to me was also a "good" team, but never a great team and McLellan got them to a pretty high standard all things considered. So I think you can expect two things out of McLellan, one more structure in their game but we did see that out of Todd Nelson too, but I think you'll get accountability for once too. Having said all of this, coaching is only a small part of what is wrong with the Oilers so if you want to take about them making the playoffs that has way more to do with what they do this offseason then anything else. I don't think just th emove of adding McDavid and McLellan makes them a playoff team because I just can't see the two of them having enough of an impact on both sides of the rink to improve where the Oilers would need to get to in order to qualify. The Oilers need an NHL quality goaltender because last year they did not even get average goaltending they got below average goaltending so that is priority one. I think by developing Kelfboom, adding Nurse, and maybe make a larger Dman type trade you could get an "OK" defence but you still need a goalie. If they manage to get a goalie who can give them slightly better then Avg goaltending then I think the Oilers could very well be a playoff team next year because I think the addition of McLellan and McDavid will get their offence into the top half of the league so its a matter of getting their defence up there too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travel_dude Posted May 20, 2015 Report Share Posted May 20, 2015 It appears that the Oilers are trying to do the right things. It remains to be seen if the experienced people they are bringing in are capable of changing the entitlement & losing culture. I still have this ugly feeling that Klowe and buddies still have their fingers in the cooking. We shall see. As for the fans.. I no longer feel sorry for them. I am past that now. Should the Oilers fortunes improve, I fully expect them to be in here with I told you so stories... They are coming.... The fans (not so much the one that post here) are already planning the parade on an annual basis. Projected scoring for rookies, dominant games against the Flames, awesome FA signings and rape-and-pillage trades, bla, bla, bla. I hate to be the one to break it to them, but teams are not going to bend over backwards to help them. The value of their star players in trades will not be that high. Teams will try to outbid them for any FA players of interest. The only way to eliminate the culture is to establish one, get players to buy into it, and rid the team of those that don't fit. Jultz, Eberle and Hall are all cherry-pickers (or Cookie monsters), so they need to grow up and decide if they want to win as a team or fail as a star. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kulstad Posted May 20, 2015 Report Share Posted May 20, 2015 It appears that the Oilers are trying to do the right things. It remains to be seen if the experienced people they are bringing in are capable of changing the entitlement & losing culture. I still have this ugly feeling that Klowe and buddies still have their fingers in the cooking. We shall see. As for the fans.. I no longer feel sorry for them. I am past that now. Should the Oilers fortunes improve, I fully expect them to be in here with I told you so stories... They are coming.... Will Conner be leading the parade? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjgallow Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 It appears that the Oilers are trying to do the right things. It remains to be seen if the experienced people they are bringing in are capable of changing the entitlement & losing culture. I still have this ugly feeling that Klowe and buddies still have their fingers in the cooking. We shall see. As for the fans.. I no longer feel sorry for them. I am past that now. Should the Oilers fortunes improve, I fully expect them to be in here with I told you so stories... They are coming.... Yeah. No longer feelling sorry for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_People1 Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 Will Conner be leading the parade? You mean ConnorFutureMcDavid? I miss all the Oilers trolls. I'm sure they'll resurface soon enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_People1 Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 McLellan is a good coach and I think is a good hire. I don't think he gets enough credit for the jobs he did in SJ and gets unfairly criticized for not winning a cup but people forget just how hard it is to win one. This is a guy that took a team that always had severe holes in their lineup, and average at best goaltending, to back to back WCF and into the 2nd round in 3 of 6 years. I don't think the problem in San Jose has ever been coaching its been a combination of depth, goaltending, and the fact that Wilson built that team around two "leaders" who aren't actually leaders. San Jose to me was also a "good" team, but never a great team and McLellan got them to a pretty high standard all things considered. So I think you can expect two things out of McLellan, one more structure in their game but we did see that out of Todd Nelson too, but I think you'll get accountability for once too. Having said all of this, coaching is only a small part of what is wrong with the Oilers so if you want to take about them making the playoffs that has way more to do with what they do this offseason then anything else. I don't think just th emove of adding McDavid and McLellan makes them a playoff team because I just can't see the two of them having enough of an impact on both sides of the rink to improve where the Oilers would need to get to in order to qualify. The Oilers need an NHL quality goaltender because last year they did not even get average goaltending they got below average goaltending so that is priority one. I think by developing Kelfboom, adding Nurse, and maybe make a larger Dman type trade you could get an "OK" defence but you still need a goalie. If they manage to get a goalie who can give them slightly better then Avg goaltending then I think the Oilers could very well be a playoff team next year because I think the addition of McLellan and McDavid will get their offence into the top half of the league so its a matter of getting their defence up there too. Thornton, Marleau, Couture, Pavelski, and Burns is arguably equivalent to McDavid, Hall, RNH, Eberle, and Yakupov. The Sharks lack depth forwards and the Oilers lack depth forwards. The Sharks have sub-par blueline and the Oilers have sub-par blueline. The Sharks have average goaltending and the Oilers have terrible goaltending. The Sharks have winning habits and the Oilers have losing habits. Last season McLellan didn't do much given what he had to work with. I don't see how he can take something even worse and better his Sharks of this year. It's a process, i get it. In 2 to 3 years when the Oilers youth mature, then that's when we'll see McLellan's work realized. But in 2 to 3 years, they Oilers also need depth forwards, a new blueline, and star goaltending. We'll see. It's going to be a slow improvement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cross16 Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 I'm by no means arguing peeps that Mclellan is going to make an immediate turn around on that team or that he is the savoir. I'm a firm believe that coaching can only do so much to improve a team the talent has to be there. Save for a few special greats, Lombardi or Bowman for example, a good or great coach can't take an average or so/so roster and turn them into something great. I just think Mclellan is a good coach and a good hire for where the Oilers are right now. The Oilers need a coach who will stress two way play without inhibiting offence, stress accountability and start to install good habits and that's the type of coach Mclellan is. Under his leadership the Sharks always played a strong defensive game without sacrificing offence and at times he had to get super talented players like Marleau and Thornton to buy into that. I think he can do it, but by no means do I think Mclellan takes the roster he has and suddenly reaches the top but I do think the OIlers improve rapidly under his watch because I think he is a good coach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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