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Oilers » Pregame: Edmonton @ Vegas (Game #75)

Re: Pregame: Edmonton @ Vegas (Game #75) [message #820214 is a reply to message #820213 ]	Tue, 28 March 2023 18:55

Adam
Messages: 7757
Registered: August 2005
Location: Edmonton, AB

6 Cups

welcometotheOC wrote on Tue, 28 March 2023 18:41

Adam wrote on Tue, 28 March 2023 18:21

Oscargasm wrote on Tue, 28 March 2023 18:00

NetBOG wrote on Tue, 28 March 2023 14:04

So much negativity for a team that is 10-2-1 in the busiest month of the year.

It’s MustTM season … need we say more?

And sticking your head in the sand rarely makes your problems disappear.

The Oilers have played great offensively, but the team defence and particularly the goaltending has been sloppy to say the least. We continue to get good results but we have to be aware that as hesitant as the NHL is to call penalties in the regular season, they're likely to call only a fraction of those in the playoffs. It's a major part of our attack. We have 81 PPG, out of a total 291 goals. That's 27.8% of our offence. If we have to rely on our ES play, well, we go from 281-250 in GF/GA down to 172-161 - still above even, but a significant drop-off.

The team should be concerned about it's play, and we should be hoping that the coaching staff has a plan to tighten it up and to compete well 5v5 against some really good teams in the post-season. With Skinner & Campbell as your tandem, you just can't afford to give a lot of good looks to the other side.

A win tonight would be really big for the team - especially if in regulation. These head-to-heads against VGK and LAK are the chance to close the gap if we hope for home ice. Hopefully we can show much stronger than we have the last 5-6 games because we probably need that if we're going to win convincingly.

Now, this team may not be capable of it, but I seem to recall the same criticisms of the glory days teams. They had Fuhr and Moog, though - but perhaps this team can change its style like the Boys on the Bus did? ok, maybe not - flame away haha

It would be great if the team was able to change its stripes and tighten up when the time comes.

The biggest difference I see with the 1980s team though is that those teams were always significant out-scorers at even strength. They played loose defensively at times for sure, but they could go toe-to-toe and come out on top most of the time. When they also committed to playing hard defensively, then watch out (although it's probably over-hyped how much they tightened up. This is a team that won a playoff series against Chicago where in 6 games the Oilers had 44 goals and the Blackhawks had 25.

There are two things that give me some concern heading into the playoffs (other than the general sloppiness described above):

1) Goaltending - we've talked about that lots. Skinner has his moments, and right now, there's just no other option for playoff goalie. Campbell is extremely shaky. I am still all for playing him lots down the stretch to keep Skinner as fresh as a daisy, but man - you'd hate to see him in goal in the post-season.

2) Even strength vs. Power play production - Again, nothing surprising here. We're the best PP team in the league and currently running the second hottest percentage over a season of all-time (oddly, we're about 150th in all-time PP goals in a season, telling you just how tight the NHL has become at calling infractions). If there's less powerplays, that advantage disappears and are we good enough to beat the Knights and Avs if we have only 0-2 PPs per game?

I think we should be fine for the first series at least because the LA Kings are coached by Todd McLellan, and he's a joke. If we lose to them we should just quit. After that things are going to get harder. We may have SOME advantages - VGK have no real goalie if Thompson is out. So maybe we can get out of the division...four series though? Man, the play will have to go way, WAY up to make that happen.

"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
#FireBobbyNicks

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Pregame: Edmonton @ Vegas (Game #75)	By: OilFans on Tue, 28 March 2023 02:00
Re: Pregame: Edmonton @ Vegas (Game #75)	By: tardigrade81 on Tue, 28 March 2023 07:37
Re: Pregame: Edmonton @ Vegas (Game #75)	By: Oscargasm on Tue, 28 March 2023 11:29
Re: Pregame: Edmonton @ Vegas (Game #75)	By: NZ Oiler Fan on Tue, 28 March 2023 12:02
Re: Pregame: Edmonton @ Vegas (Game #75)	By: Dragon_Matt on Tue, 28 March 2023 12:07
Re: Pregame: Edmonton @ Vegas (Game #75)	By: Skookum Jim on Tue, 28 March 2023 17:42
Re: Pregame: Edmonton @ Vegas (Game #75)	By: NetBOG on Tue, 28 March 2023 14:04
Re: Pregame: Edmonton @ Vegas (Game #75)	By: Dragon_Matt on Tue, 28 March 2023 14:54
Re: Pregame: Edmonton @ Vegas (Game #75)	By: Oscargasm on Tue, 28 March 2023 18:00
Re: Pregame: Edmonton @ Vegas (Game #75)	By: Adam on Tue, 28 March 2023 18:21
Re: Pregame: Edmonton @ Vegas (Game #75)	By: welcometotheOC on Tue, 28 March 2023 18:41
Re: Pregame: Edmonton @ Vegas (Game #75)	By: Adam on Tue, 28 March 2023 18:55
Re: Pregame: Edmonton @ Vegas (Game #75)	By: Kr55 on Tue, 28 March 2023 19:08
Re: Pregame: Edmonton @ Vegas (Game #75)	By: Skoobz on Tue, 28 March 2023 19:20
Re: Pregame: Edmonton @ Vegas (Game #75)	By: Skookum Jim on Tue, 28 March 2023 19:48
Re: Pregame: Edmonton @ Vegas (Game #75)	By: NetBOG on Tue, 28 March 2023 18:55
Re: Pregame: Edmonton @ Vegas (Game #75)	By: Adam on Tue, 28 March 2023 19:42
Re: Pregame: Edmonton @ Vegas (Game #75)	By: tardigrade81 on Tue, 28 March 2023 19:56
Re: Pregame: Edmonton @ Vegas (Game #75)	By: Adam on Tue, 28 March 2023 20:04

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