Hall was brutal. Not sure what game you were watching. His worst game of the season by far, but I guess he was due after all the really good games he's played so far. Not ragging on him, but them's the facts. He gets a season pass for this because otherwise he's been great.
Disagree. He was the one who got the stick in on Zetterberg's break, and he had some great end to end rushes. He was the only we reason we gained the offensive zone on a lot of shifts.
A bit of overreaction by some, but yes it was a poor game by the Oil. At the same time, I thought Detroit was strong, with Dats and Z dominating. As much credit should go to their team as criticism to ours. Anyway, my take is this.....
The Good: Khabby was spectacular. It would be great if he can keep this up because it will push Dubie and maybe net us a 2nd/3rd rder at the deadline. Nuge was great and it is criminal that this kid hasn't had one go in yet. Ebs came very close to having the goal of the year and was solid throughout. Harti was solid. Paajarvi was good defensively and on the PK. Schultz pairing was solid. Gagner gets a passing grade. Eager looked all right.
The Bad: Where to start? I read these weird line combos in the pre-game, then see Kreuger start with his usual top 2 lines. We roll 4 to start the game and have 4 solid shifts. Then for some reason he goes to the weird line combos??? He got out coached by Babcock due to in game adjustments that the Wings made and we failed to do. As for the players, Hall has incredible skill but made nothing but poor decisions with the puck. Ryan Smyth is not any type of leader with how he handles officials (not the first time he's tapped to much). He is way too slow and at this point a waste of a roster space. Hemsky was a turnover machine. Potter belongs in the AHL. Whitney shouldn't be getting any PP time.
The only other thing I saw at the end that I liked was Gagner skating between Hall and Ebs for a shift. I think that may be a better fit, with Nuge being a better compliment to Yak, with Harti on the other wing. Hemmer needs to play on a line with guys that go to the net, maybe Smyth and Eager (until Jones is cleared). Just my take.
Again somebody explain why this club keeps trying the pairing of Gagner/Hall.
Anybody?
Guess it makes sense, Gotta end Gagners hotstreak, can't have the kid throwing up all these pts in his one year contract season.
Maybe to see who's driving the bus there? If they commit to Gagner they had better be damn sure that he isn't a Brendan Morrison type and the 3rd wheel on any 2nd line that we throw out there.
__________________ Treat Others As You Would Like To Be Treated
The good news is CBJ is pretty ****ing awful at defending at ES(2nd most ES goals given up), so if there is any team that could help us break out against this ES GF slump, it's that franchise.
Detroits PK is 26th and they made our vaunted PP look stupid. so I'm not going to hold my breath
Gagner did make some weird plays today but he is not in a great situation. I swear Whitney is out there for 90% of his shifts. Not easy to look good when you don't get any support from your D.
Actually I decided to pay attention and check that out in the first period, and the Whitney/Potter pairing was out there nearly the same with 2 of the other lines. Whitney is not his problem. Whitney is everyone's problem.
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Losing so many 1 goal games means the Oilers are close but are missing something. When a team is this close the GM need to make a move.
This is simplifying things (and glossing over other issues) but there's a modicum of truth to it.
if we finished this year .500 i'd call that an improvement.
it's only the purely delusional who think this team is a lock for the playoffs.
On pace for 82 points in an 82 game schedule. That is a 4 win difference over last year (74 points). We keep this up we might claw our way into 8th place in 3 years
Funny thing is that after 12 games last year the Oilers were 8-2-2 and we still managed to finish 29th in the league. We are only 11 in this year and we've already seen our first extended losing streak.
Disagree. He was the one who got the stick in on Zetterberg's break, and he had some great end to end rushes. He was the only we reason we gained the offensive zone on a lot of shifts.
And then as soon as he gained the zone he'd try to throw it to a corner we were outmanned in. He was also the reason the puck was cleared from the zone on the PP.
Again somebody explain why this club keeps trying the pairing of Gagner/Hall.
Anybody?
Guess it makes sense, Gotta end Gagners hotstreak, can't have the kid throwing up all these pts in his one year contract season.
Gagner should be held responsible for his own dog of a game. He was atrocious defensively and terrible on the face-off dot. I thought Hall played a pretty good game, while Gagner probably played his worst game of the season and repeatedly was exposed in his own end.
Good call on Gagner. I disagree with the rest Paajarvi has a good onetimer better than most of our players IMO. In close to the net he doesn't have much for hands, but the kid can onetime the puck pretty well.
So I'll ask again. When was the last time you saw him unload that one-timer?
I saw MPS out on the PP tonight and he was literally standing between the two point men at the blueline. So of course we lose the puck battle down low and its another easy zone clear.
Holy crap someone tell the oilers that the breakout is team thing. There is literally no support. Just bad coaching. unless you have a karlsson you cant just bolt out of the zone expecting a stretch pass against a team that knows what defence is.
Disagree. He was the one who got the stick in on Zetterberg's break, and he had some great end to end rushes. He was the only we reason we gained the offensive zone on a lot of shifts.
He came back hard and made a nice play on the Zetterberg rush. But he was brutal offensively. Raced into the zone or near it and gave the puck away all game. Still hasn't learned there is a time to dump the puck in and chase it. I love the kid, but he had a bad game. Moving on to tomorrow now and hopefully better things.
And then as soon as he gained the zone he'd try to throw it to a corner we were outmanned in. He was also the reason the puck was cleared from the zone on the PP.
Let me repeat myself: I said he was alright, not good. I think the biggest problem on that top line is Eberle. He's only useful when he has the puck in the slot.
On this anyway your opinion is out to lunch. I think its been over a year since MPS scored a goal in the NHL. He had 2 in around 50GP last season afairc and 0 in 8 this year.
Whats your definition of a good onetimer, making contact with the puck?
As you are well aware a onetimer takes 2 players to complete. You also apparently don't have much for a memory as he scored a nice onetimer from Hemsky last season. I'd rank only Hall, Schultz, and Yakupov as clearly having a better onetimer on this team.
They are learning what it takes to win, how to balance tremendous defense with offense, it's new to most of them. They are playing well everywhere but on the scoresheet, they'll be fine, bank on it.
BS.
They don't listen to jack ****.
Twice in the last week, and once for 15 mins Kreuger was reaming out the topline for staying out too long on shifts. At least 3 times today they're out for nearly 2 min shifts. Bone tired and struggling in own end. If Kreuger was Mike Keenan he'd be throwing their spare sticks at them. Twice for the record on the PP a bone tired topline PP was ragging the puck around with no energy, no movement,and spending way too long on the ice.
lets mention it too. 3 times in the last PP RNH tries a shot. Muffs one completely, another he turns puck away trying to shoot as soft shot right through defender, then, misses the net by a foot when he had all day, and ends up icing the puck around the boards. If Gagner did that we know there'd be 100 posts on it by now.
lol, RNH hasn't scored in 21 GP, nearly a year of NHL play, and he's taking 3 bad shots on a last shot PP. Nice.
So I'll ask again. When was the last time you saw him unload that one-timer?
I saw MPS out on the PP tonight and he was literally standing between the two point men at the blueline. So of course we lose the puck battle down low and its another easy zone clear.
I saw only the 3rd, if you are talking when we pulled the goalie he was on the high boards and set Nail up for the onetimer. The last time that he was looked for for his onetimer was last season in OKC and he scored a handful of goals that way also in Edmonton last year on a Hemsky pass.
Gagner probably played his worst game of the season and repeatedly was exposed in his own end.
I almost fell off my seat when he won that one faceoff clean on the five on three.
No point pretending that Gagner had a strong game ... but he had plenty of company.
Bone tired and struggling in own end. If Kreuger was Mike Keenan he'd be throwing their spare sticks at them. Twice for the record on the PP a bone tired topline PP was ragging the puck around with no energy, no movement,and spending way too long on the ice.
