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 Adam
Messages: 6844
Registered: August 2005
Location: Edmonton, AB
6 Cups
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Pretty good article from Nugent-Bowman in the Athletic today about the Oilers recent struggles. He calls out a bunch of bewildering roster decisions from Tippett, points out his playoff struggles and that he has somehow got a team with McDavid and Draisaitl to now be -10 at 5v5 on the season. But then says he's heard zero chatter that the coach's job is in danger from out of the organization at this point.
He suggests another move that the team could do to spark a change would be to make a trade - but points out that the GM hasn't made a non-deadline mid-season trade in his entire Oilers tenure to date, and that he has very little of value that the team is willing to part with, and that it would be hard to find someone who can make a big impact on the roster and fit under the cap.
So he says the only other option for the Oilers in order to right the ship is for McDavid and Draisaitl to just start scoring more again. Said that they've only been in the 1.0-1.2 points per game realm for the last ten or so games, and that earlier in the season they were scoring ~2.0 points per game. The powerplay was at 35%, but now it is clicking at a more pedestrian rate.
The problem with all of this of course is that this team is supposed to be a contender at this stage. We shouldn't have to rely entirely on super-human performances from our two stars in order to just win games. That should be what allows us to beat teams for fun and what gives us a great chance against the other good teams in the playoffs.
It's disturbing to see the Edmonton media in full defence of both Holland and Tippett right now. Usually, if there is change in the air, then those guys at least start going a bit quiet. The full-throated support from guys like Matheson suggests to me that the Oilers brass is just hoping they can ride this out and hope it just magically gets better.
At least McDavid is playing tonight...better chance of super-human performance with him in the lineup!!!
"Thinking that a bad team's best players are the reason the team is bad is the "Tambellini re-signing Lennart Petrell" of sports opinions." @Woodguy55
#FireLowe #FireBobbyNicks #FireKenHolland #FireKeithGretzky
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