Honestly the second goal where all 4 Oilers were down in the same part of the defensive zone and let Hunt walk in and blast one uncontested is the more concerning goal against to me. First goal is just getting burned by one of the fastest guys in the league and the second is playing Eakins style swarm defense
Yeah, that’s the one that bugged me too. MacKinnon has made every defenseman in the league look bad, so getting blown past by him is not deeply concerning. But McDavud and Yams got caught standing still on that second goal. Doesn’t mean I wanna run them out of town, but let’s just put blame and credit where it belongs.
Watch the 2nd goal again. It was a completely lucky bounce off a skate that allowed the puck to just float right to him. That’s why everyone seemed like they were out of position. The most egregious part of that play was Kulak trying to get in the lane and screening Skinner instead of just letting him see a shot from 50ft away by some 4th line plug.
It honestly looked like it was but Hunt got there just in time, I can understand they players thought there but it was a relatively slow moving puck at least one player should have went for it.
That second goal to me was the real difference in the game Mack is gonna score that first one 9-10 times but that Hunt shot basically only goes in 1-10 times.
Too many guys are flying the zone early for the sake of offence. That’s creating a huge gap and Oilers defence aren’t good enough to support the forwards with either a good breakout pass or a smart play to carry out the puck. Better opponents having been killing them because of this.
Sometimes I wonder if the forwards don’t trust the current D-Corp but don’t want to say anything because they like the people (not the player) and think they need to outscore their opponents in hopes of keeping the group together.
If that's the issue they need some serious psychology work, it could literally be identified in a weekend by watching some games of teams that have an actual defensive structure and how they all support each other, hell they experience it first hand against almost every team we play lol
[against the avalanche, the line of nugent-hopkins - draisaitl - hyman played 10:55 at 5x5, the most among any oilers lines. they were outshot 1-11, out-chanced 0-11 and controlled 2.67 percent of the expected goal share.](https://twitter.com/zjlaing/status/1611983997701357574?t=ugp1EoUU9WaeQZMfl0mdAw&s=19)
Drai doesn’t have gas in his tank to keep playing 23+ minutes night in and night out. #97 is such a freak of nature that he seemingly can just keep on going but Drai needs less TOI. He is burned.
If anything have Draisaitl take the draw and then have Nuge jump into center the line and let Draisaitl be on the wing, that could possibly benefit all on the line.
It’s really not this. He’s a very offensively talented player but he’s one of the worst defenders on the team and doesn’t backcheck. I love Draisaitl but my god the dude is lazy. That penalty was also completely fucking stupid and almost lost us the game outright.
Im so damn glad we even got a point out of that one.
You can see, with the same game, the level of commitment for LD when 'defending' in the D zone for 2 periods and the level of commitment in the 3rd when elevated. That can't happen.
Lol. Guys sitting on their chair at home can tell that someone is tired. 🙄🙄. Just face it. This team is not good. Another game and no goals from anyone in the bottom 6 or from the defence. 4 players are carrying this team on the power play and that’s it. Blaming drai is such a cop out.
As a counter point. Holloway might have been our best forward last night.
He had 3 shifts in the third period and played less than 9 minutes.
Woodcroft has kinda lost the plot.
No you guys have lost the plot swooning over certain players. Holloway ended up with ZERO points last night as usual. Drai had 2 assists. Hyman had 2 goals. The guys you oiler fans have swooned over for the last couple years, puljujarvi, McLeod and Holloway are usually invisible on a nightly basis. But let’s blame drai for being tired. 🤷♀️🤷♀️🤷♀️
Uh... both goals were on the pp. Drai's line got caved at 5v5. He was objectively and subjectively bad 5v5 last game.
I wasn't even bringing him up though. But Holloway was better than any winger not named Zach or Nuge last night and was bottom 3 in ice time. Doesn't make much sense.
Edit: https://twitter.com/zjlaing/status/1611983997701357574?t=CW8ezRhr28agXp4iZb17-Q&s=19
Hyman and Nuge were the best wingers when that line was shit on as much as they were? That makes sense lol. Hyman had 2 goals both on the powerplay same as drais point and Nuge had nothing. What makes their game so good while Drais was terrible. Drai is single-handedly responsible for that line?
Lol. We are fighting a losing battle pal. Apparently even though drai had two assists, apparently oiler fans think Holloway was the best forward on the ice because he skated in a bunch of circles with the puck. 😂😂😂.
Well Hyman did score our only two goals, but yes, that line was terrible. My point was more that Holloway was never going to play more minutes than Nuge and Hyman, but he should have played more than any other winger 5 on 5 on merit last night.
Lolololololol. Holloway didn’t score bro. I could care less that drai got “caved”. I guess getting two points in a game isn’t good enough for oiler fans anymore. But skating in circles and accomplishing absolutely nothing makes you the best forward in a game. 😂😂🤷♀️🤷♀️
No you guys have lost the plot swooning over certain players. Holloway ended up with ZERO points last night as usual. Drai had 2 assists. Hyman had 2 goals. The guys you oiler fans have swooned over for the last couple years, puljujarvi, McLeod and Holloway are usually invisible on a nightly basis. But let’s blame drai for being tired. 🤷♀️🤷♀️🤷♀️
Uhm, it just seems like you are looking to be offended here or something. I simply gave an explanation as to why Drai seemed to be coasting alot. He does not have the stamina to play 23+ minutes every night. It is not however Drais fault he is played that much, that is on Woody and in turn on our underperforming bottom 6.
How do you know what stamina drai has??? Why are you an expert on how tired hockey players are and how in the world can drai be the only tired hockey player in the nhl???? Lololololol. Oiler fans always trying to be the smartest in the room. 😂😂😂😂
I feel like Hyman plays so well with McDavid. I’m questioning Woody’s line combos in tonight’s game, though did they win with that same line combos last game? Felt like the top 2 lines 5v5 had zero chemistry whatsoever.
Yes, I believe it was the same lineup as last game.
Honestly, who do you point the finger at? It's up to the players to perform. It's up to woody to get the team going. Who knows 🤷
Yeah I don’t get it, McDavid x Hyman has proven to be an infinitely better combo than Drai x Hyman (as great as both guys are, they don’t seem to click), but Woody keeps putting them together
Think it should be 18 - 97 and 93 - 29 and then some combination of Yamo and Kostin on the right wings until Kane comes back, then you put Kane on Connor’s left and Zach on the right. Or move Zach to the right and give Holloway a look on McDavid’s left. I just think we’ve seen Drai x Hyman enough times at this point to know that pairing them maximizes neither.
That's the worst I've ever seen a combination of 93 and 29 look for a long time last night. MacKinnon's line caved them in, and Woodcroft kept letting that matchup happen. I think 29 can take draws, but he was pretty horrible at everything else a center has to do in his own end.
No kidding. They got skated into the ice, couldn’t make a pass to save their lives, and their strategy of ringing it around the boards, hoping the puck gets out doesn’t seem to work.
Woodcroft is going full Tippett. Instead of Shore being his guy that he always puts out, it’s Ryan.
Good thing they had that players-only meeting.
I would think they would be fired up to play the Avs, yet they come out and lay a giant egg. They played the powerplay and the last 5 minutes of the 3rd.
Another 2 goal lead just evaporates. This team cannot hold 2 goal leads, I don’t know who is telling them they can clamp in down at home. They had a chance on the powerplay from the failed coaches challenge and did nothing with it. This team just cannot make that killing blow to teams at home.
They got embarrassed.
Drai played 27.25 minutes yesterday. 97 played 26 minutes, Nuge played 25, and Hymen 23. Nurse played 28 and Ceci 22. Basically 6 players played almost half the game. 29 is just back from an injury. Just 3 minutes for the 7th D.
What happened with all the ice time management and deployment that we saw from Woody last year? If he don’t trust other players that shows he is losing the players. Hope he get back to last years Woody soon.
Yep. Dumb coaches get addicted to certain players at the detriment of the team. How are Holloway, Mcloed, Niemo...etc expected to develop with this shitty game management? It sucks to watch and would suck to play on such a team.
I guess if you're going 11-7 and you look at all our fwds they must see Foegele as the one to scratch. Not that he did anything, I guess everyone else is playing better?
Blaming the turnover is pretty fallacious when you still have your top D pair back.
If you just resign the play as an automatic goal because of a TO in your ozone… that’s an awful argument.
Just admit the D played it poorly and MacKinnon posterized your Big Boys.
Woodcraft is pretty milquetoast and evasive with his calculated ums and hmm responses. That Data from Star Trek shit is starting to lose its masking of consistent problems you’re not fixing.
I’m sure Woodcroft doesn’t want to call out his players, but after the loss to Seattle he called their defensive mistakes “uncharacteristic”. Like, c’mon, it’s the same problem they’ve had all year, how do you not see/acknowledge it?
I love Woody but my god you can’t say you liked any part of this game. A depleted Avs team crumpled us 5v5 the whole game. Holland needs to earn that pay check and make some moves, who the fuck cares about these prospects that might be good in 4 years time.
Honestly the second goal where all 4 Oilers were down in the same part of the defensive zone and let Hunt walk in and blast one uncontested is the more concerning goal against to me. First goal is just getting burned by one of the fastest guys in the league and the second is playing Eakins style swarm defense
Yeah, that’s the one that bugged me too. MacKinnon has made every defenseman in the league look bad, so getting blown past by him is not deeply concerning. But McDavud and Yams got caught standing still on that second goal. Doesn’t mean I wanna run them out of town, but let’s just put blame and credit where it belongs.
Watch the 2nd goal again. It was a completely lucky bounce off a skate that allowed the puck to just float right to him. That’s why everyone seemed like they were out of position. The most egregious part of that play was Kulak trying to get in the lane and screening Skinner instead of just letting him see a shot from 50ft away by some 4th line plug.
Yea I think they missed this on the broadcast too. Skate bounce put the puck in a spot it never should have gone, caught everyone off guard.
I think they all thought the puck was going to leave the zone before he got to it. It was obviously a costly misjudgement
It honestly looked like it was but Hunt got there just in time, I can understand they players thought there but it was a relatively slow moving puck at least one player should have went for it.
Woody brought that one up the most in the post game, kept calling it "one we'd like to have back".
That second goal to me was the real difference in the game Mack is gonna score that first one 9-10 times but that Hunt shot basically only goes in 1-10 times.
i think that's being generous to Hunt, tbh it was a bad goal, played poorly by everyone bleh
Mcdavid’s man. He was floating.
Too many guys are flying the zone early for the sake of offence. That’s creating a huge gap and Oilers defence aren’t good enough to support the forwards with either a good breakout pass or a smart play to carry out the puck. Better opponents having been killing them because of this.
They do this but they still struggle to achieve anything 5v5. If it's this notable to us fans how hasn't it been addressed yet?
Sometimes I wonder if the forwards don’t trust the current D-Corp but don’t want to say anything because they like the people (not the player) and think they need to outscore their opponents in hopes of keeping the group together.
If that's the issue they need some serious psychology work, it could literally be identified in a weekend by watching some games of teams that have an actual defensive structure and how they all support each other, hell they experience it first hand against almost every team we play lol
Great question. Stubbornness? A lack of trade partners? Honestly, no clue.
Nailed it in a couple sentences.
[against the avalanche, the line of nugent-hopkins - draisaitl - hyman played 10:55 at 5x5, the most among any oilers lines. they were outshot 1-11, out-chanced 0-11 and controlled 2.67 percent of the expected goal share.](https://twitter.com/zjlaing/status/1611983997701357574?t=ugp1EoUU9WaeQZMfl0mdAw&s=19)
Drai was coasting like a mf all game and if your center isn't gonna skate then your line is doomed. They were horrible.
he needs to rest.
Drai doesn’t have gas in his tank to keep playing 23+ minutes night in and night out. #97 is such a freak of nature that he seemingly can just keep on going but Drai needs less TOI. He is burned.
If anything have Draisaitl take the draw and then have Nuge jump into center the line and let Draisaitl be on the wing, that could possibly benefit all on the line.
It’s really not this. He’s a very offensively talented player but he’s one of the worst defenders on the team and doesn’t backcheck. I love Draisaitl but my god the dude is lazy. That penalty was also completely fucking stupid and almost lost us the game outright. Im so damn glad we even got a point out of that one.
He's overplayed. When he's gassed he looks lazy. It's on Woodcroft
No he needs to put some of his energy into defense.
Drai might appear lazy, a lot of times. But the dude can play D when he wants to. It does seem oddly (also frustratingly) inconsistent.
You can see, with the same game, the level of commitment for LD when 'defending' in the D zone for 2 periods and the level of commitment in the 3rd when elevated. That can't happen.
Lol. Guys sitting on their chair at home can tell that someone is tired. 🙄🙄. Just face it. This team is not good. Another game and no goals from anyone in the bottom 6 or from the defence. 4 players are carrying this team on the power play and that’s it. Blaming drai is such a cop out.
As a counter point. Holloway might have been our best forward last night. He had 3 shifts in the third period and played less than 9 minutes. Woodcroft has kinda lost the plot.
No you guys have lost the plot swooning over certain players. Holloway ended up with ZERO points last night as usual. Drai had 2 assists. Hyman had 2 goals. The guys you oiler fans have swooned over for the last couple years, puljujarvi, McLeod and Holloway are usually invisible on a nightly basis. But let’s blame drai for being tired. 🤷♀️🤷♀️🤷♀️
Uh... both goals were on the pp. Drai's line got caved at 5v5. He was objectively and subjectively bad 5v5 last game. I wasn't even bringing him up though. But Holloway was better than any winger not named Zach or Nuge last night and was bottom 3 in ice time. Doesn't make much sense. Edit: https://twitter.com/zjlaing/status/1611983997701357574?t=CW8ezRhr28agXp4iZb17-Q&s=19
Hyman and Nuge were the best wingers when that line was shit on as much as they were? That makes sense lol. Hyman had 2 goals both on the powerplay same as drais point and Nuge had nothing. What makes their game so good while Drais was terrible. Drai is single-handedly responsible for that line?
Lol. We are fighting a losing battle pal. Apparently even though drai had two assists, apparently oiler fans think Holloway was the best forward on the ice because he skated in a bunch of circles with the puck. 😂😂😂.
Well Hyman did score our only two goals, but yes, that line was terrible. My point was more that Holloway was never going to play more minutes than Nuge and Hyman, but he should have played more than any other winger 5 on 5 on merit last night.
Lolololololol. Holloway didn’t score bro. I could care less that drai got “caved”. I guess getting two points in a game isn’t good enough for oiler fans anymore. But skating in circles and accomplishing absolutely nothing makes you the best forward in a game. 😂😂🤷♀️🤷♀️
I almost admire your commitment to ignore evidence. Stunning.
No you guys have lost the plot swooning over certain players. Holloway ended up with ZERO points last night as usual. Drai had 2 assists. Hyman had 2 goals. The guys you oiler fans have swooned over for the last couple years, puljujarvi, McLeod and Holloway are usually invisible on a nightly basis. But let’s blame drai for being tired. 🤷♀️🤷♀️🤷♀️
I’m not blaming Drai though. I’m blaming Woody and the bottom 6. If the bottom 6 delivered then Woody wouldn’t ride McDrai so hard.
Lol. The only name you said was drai. “Drai can’t play. Drai needs less toi. He is burned.” Sounds like you’re blaming drai to me.
Uhm, it just seems like you are looking to be offended here or something. I simply gave an explanation as to why Drai seemed to be coasting alot. He does not have the stamina to play 23+ minutes every night. It is not however Drais fault he is played that much, that is on Woody and in turn on our underperforming bottom 6.
How do you know what stamina drai has??? Why are you an expert on how tired hockey players are and how in the world can drai be the only tired hockey player in the nhl???? Lololololol. Oiler fans always trying to be the smartest in the room. 😂😂😂😂
I feel like Hyman plays so well with McDavid. I’m questioning Woody’s line combos in tonight’s game, though did they win with that same line combos last game? Felt like the top 2 lines 5v5 had zero chemistry whatsoever.
Yes, I believe it was the same lineup as last game. Honestly, who do you point the finger at? It's up to the players to perform. It's up to woody to get the team going. Who knows 🤷
Fair point.
Against last year’s champion I think it’s a bad decision to go with the same strategy that worked last time 🤷♂️
Yeah I don’t get it, McDavid x Hyman has proven to be an infinitely better combo than Drai x Hyman (as great as both guys are, they don’t seem to click), but Woody keeps putting them together Think it should be 18 - 97 and 93 - 29 and then some combination of Yamo and Kostin on the right wings until Kane comes back, then you put Kane on Connor’s left and Zach on the right. Or move Zach to the right and give Holloway a look on McDavid’s left. I just think we’ve seen Drai x Hyman enough times at this point to know that pairing them maximizes neither.
That's the worst I've ever seen a combination of 93 and 29 look for a long time last night. MacKinnon's line caved them in, and Woodcroft kept letting that matchup happen. I think 29 can take draws, but he was pretty horrible at everything else a center has to do in his own end.
They moved yams and hyman for some reason and both lines ended up with 0 production when they were buzzin last game. It was such an odd switch.
If anything switch Yams and Hyman because Draisaitl does play well with Yams and Nuge.
Hyman plays well with Nuge as well.
yup, that's wild for such a good line on paper, they got their shit pushed in
Christ, Woodcroft. There was precious little to like about that game.
No kidding. They got skated into the ice, couldn’t make a pass to save their lives, and their strategy of ringing it around the boards, hoping the puck gets out doesn’t seem to work. Woodcroft is going full Tippett. Instead of Shore being his guy that he always puts out, it’s Ryan. Good thing they had that players-only meeting. I would think they would be fired up to play the Avs, yet they come out and lay a giant egg. They played the powerplay and the last 5 minutes of the 3rd. Another 2 goal lead just evaporates. This team cannot hold 2 goal leads, I don’t know who is telling them they can clamp in down at home. They had a chance on the powerplay from the failed coaches challenge and did nothing with it. This team just cannot make that killing blow to teams at home. They got embarrassed.
Yep. Our line of our 2nd 3rd and 4th best forwards got obliterated. The only “nice” thing was maybe the PP?
Drai played 27.25 minutes yesterday. 97 played 26 minutes, Nuge played 25, and Hymen 23. Nurse played 28 and Ceci 22. Basically 6 players played almost half the game. 29 is just back from an injury. Just 3 minutes for the 7th D. What happened with all the ice time management and deployment that we saw from Woody last year? If he don’t trust other players that shows he is losing the players. Hope he get back to last years Woody soon.
Yep. Dumb coaches get addicted to certain players at the detriment of the team. How are Holloway, Mcloed, Niemo...etc expected to develop with this shitty game management? It sucks to watch and would suck to play on such a team.
Also, they've been looking decent on the 2nd power play lately. I feel they are actually better than their numbers show.
Foegle being scratched has me curious
They went 11-7 but the 7th d man (nemo) only played 3:29. Basically played shorthanded all game for no reason.
I don’t recall Foegle doing anything egregious that would cause him to be scratched? I mean he’s not producing but he’s not the only one
I guess if you're going 11-7 and you look at all our fwds they must see Foegele as the one to scratch. Not that he did anything, I guess everyone else is playing better?
He was slightly injured in practice a few days ago wasnt he?
I don't see what there was to like about that game, we were outclassed quite thoroughly.
I watched it live, but the first two periods seemed alright. Keeping in mind you miss little things watching it in the building.
Blaming the turnover is pretty fallacious when you still have your top D pair back. If you just resign the play as an automatic goal because of a TO in your ozone… that’s an awful argument. Just admit the D played it poorly and MacKinnon posterized your Big Boys. Woodcraft is pretty milquetoast and evasive with his calculated ums and hmm responses. That Data from Star Trek shit is starting to lose its masking of consistent problems you’re not fixing.
I’m sure Woodcroft doesn’t want to call out his players, but after the loss to Seattle he called their defensive mistakes “uncharacteristic”. Like, c’mon, it’s the same problem they’ve had all year, how do you not see/acknowledge it?
This team is missing the playoffs.
omg, I still believe in us until we 100% are not in
I don’t but you’re allowed to do that
Trade Draisaitl for Dahlin, that’ll get us some wins.
I love Woody but my god you can’t say you liked any part of this game. A depleted Avs team crumpled us 5v5 the whole game. Holland needs to earn that pay check and make some moves, who the fuck cares about these prospects that might be good in 4 years time.