The Cult of Hockey's “Skinner big but not Oilers in loss to Avs” podcast
Let’s do this! The Cult of Hockey podcast. By the Faithful and for the Faithful, tonight with Bruce McCurdy and David Staples. They dig into Edmonton’s 3-2 OT loss to the Avs of Denver.
This team has no consistency – none – and very little desperation. Crossbars, goalposts and Skinner were all that stood between the Avs (who had 5 regulars out of their lineup) and a well-deserved lead. HALFWAY THROUGH THE 3RD PERIOD, 5 ON 5 SHOTS WERE 29 TO 8 FOR COLORADO. So much for playing 2 consistent games in a row. I don’t think Woodcroft knows how to fix this – and a few trades isn’t going to fix it either. This team is not good enough to be called a Contender. They are barely a contender for a playoff position. Based on last season, they would have to go (at least) 23-12-6 to make the playoffs.
2-0 lead is becoming a guaranteed loss. It seemed to me like it was Connor and Skinner vs the Av’s. We’re not even close to these guys. They have at least 6 or 7 guys that can dangle and we’ve got one. We still have Leon and Kane on the way. Hyman is up there and Nuge a little farther back but the Av’s have 3 or 4 thoroughbreds on Defence and the same up front. We coulda shoulda tonight but the Av’s get the last laugh.
Love how David just strains to say 29 five alarm shots. Draisaitl's line barely made an impact, and he looked slow. Kosten was too slow for this game, lost in the d zone, especially on the top line. And why is our top dmen playing the puck and not taking the man? Makar knows how to do that. Big thumbs up to Mr Skinner's game!
I have no idea how Holland sleeps at night when watching games like this and continues to place ZERO urgency on improving the blue line. No words. Just stunned and baffled with Holland's egregious – and I would even say – malicious indifference toward such a deeply critical situation. Holland's gross misconduct on this issue is absolutely puzzling.
Yzerman took a while to get his defensive game at a high level game-in and game-out, but did eventually get it as he got into his later 20s. Hopefully McDavid gets it sooner than later, and I do think he's close.
Watching this game was never comfortable with the 2 goal lead. The Avs puck possession and relentless pursuit of the puck was impressive, this is the recipe to success. The Avs ability to transition the puck from the D is what we need along with better defensive coverage. Take note Oilers this is how to play the game……
the oilers need to learn how to take the puck into the offensive zone.. they can't make a pass to save their life and at the same time any team can make three tic tac toe passes and blast away on our net. dump and chase is old school.
How many years now since the Oilers have had a good defensive forward line? Spot on analysis saying the Oil need to try and develop/ solidify a line along those goals – a line that can go up against the best of the opposition and slow it down. This has been a hole for so long that you have to wonder what the GM’s are doing … the same holes in the lineup for soooo many years.
On the 2nd Av’s goal it looked like Hunt arrived in the play late as a line change, which added to the challenge for the Oil … not picking up that late arrival may have been a contributing factor on what the forwards were/ weren’t doing, but this was not considered as part of the analysis.
Oh y’a, and also the other day Spec wrote an article about playing as a a team … all players playing … not happening often enough. Coach’s hooked on the drug of playing McDavid, Draisaitl etc too much and having too many others as an afterthought (like it is a basketball team and not a hockey team).
There is no reason not to have McD, Drai and Hyman together in home games when you have last change. I get it when you’re on the road and need to mess with the opposition coach, but not at home, especially when RNH has successfully anchored his own line all year.
The PK is slightly less horrible then it has been but still not great.
Holloway is being ruined as we speak.
There really needs to be some kind of move. If you can’t make a trade, then fire the coach again. If things continue as is, this is barely a playoff team.
The fact that David is even saying “if they make the playoffs” in the weakest division in the league is a clear indicator of how bad defensively this team really is.
Woody seems to always say the right things in the pressers but he’s obviously not getting his message across. Players don’t have team only meetings unless they disagree with a message in some capacity.
Oilers in general just looked lost in their own most of the time throughout the season. Can we pin this on coaching? Or is this the case of players not buying in to the system?
Going against the grain here: I don't think this game was all that bad. Yes, the Avs had a lot of puck control and shots, and were clearly the better team at even strength. Yet it was still a very 'winnable' game from Edmonton's perspective. They still earned a much needed point (50% of a win in the standings), and Skinner proved again he can be a star in the big leagues.
While the Oilers weren't controlling play much, I didn't feel they were lost defensively as they had been in several of the recent home games. I saw a good team effort defensively… except by McDavid's line, which got beaten. But the Oilers were battling hard and didn't seem lost mentally. Yes, they lost, and yes, the Avalanche were clearly the better team (which we knew anyway), but against the Avs' best players the Oilers average players were not beaten.
Connor needs to do better against Colorado, though, yes. I think they're sort of in his brain.
It is better to invest now. You will never be younger than you are today and there will never be a perfect time to invest. Due to compounding, which Einstein called the 8th wonder of the world, you can get rich slowly from investing if you do it from a young enough age…
Jay I like you as a coach, but be honest please I hear you want to be positive, but we were not competitive, avalanche completely dominated them, if you can’t see that we have huge problems. Oilers need to play like they give a shit I’m not seeing that. It’s embarrassing I feel for the people at the arena like wtf. It’s same crap night in night out. And they were missing half their team yikes!! I miss mike smith honesty, they need some veteran leadership! It’s not looking good time to sound the panic alarm.
The Avalanche losers of 5 in a row come into our barn and make us look like an AHL team. Jay Woodcroft continues to defend this team in the media when clearly there are too many passengers and a pervasive lack of compete and effort permeating this roster. Jay always talks about wanting to spread out the workload, get 20 guys working together yada yada yada but then employs an 11-7 roster to get McDavid and Drai even more ice time while his seventh d-man gets under 4 min T.O.I. It's time to practice what you preach, roll 4 lines, give everyone an ample opportunity to succeed or fail and hold the failures accountable. Burning out 4 or 5 players is not the answer! Mr. Holland, J.T. Compher was a beast for the Avs tonight, we don't have anyone like that…sure we have 3 million dollar players, but not like that!
When Nathan MacKinnon was rushing up the ice 1 on 2 why did Nurse not close the gap between him and Ceci. Maybe he thought he was going to dump and chase?
The Oilers team issues have been endemic for a few years now. The current team will never win a Stanley Cup and their opportunity window could end in 2025 when Draisaitl's contract expires. In my opinion, the championship team killer contract is Nurse's 9.25 million a year. The AV's Makar earns slightly less at 9 million and the abilities and potential of the 2 players are light years apart. If Nurse were earning what he is worth, about 6 million, the Oilers would have the cap space along with a trade of Puljujarvi to acquire a 6 million dollar rugged 3rd or 4th pairing defenseman, which is their primary need at this point. With the current contracts the Oilers have however,, they are forced to trade a value player like Nugent Hopkins to get that defense man, and the loss is someone like Nugent Hopkins would be a big hurt to the team. As a result, I think we are screwed in terms of winning a championship within the next 3 years.
So glad I canceled my Sportsnet subscription! The blackouts were ludicrous but the performance of the team doesn't make it worth watching on the regular!
I've been listening to Bob and ideally Jack on Ched and doing other things while the others waste another 3 hours of everyone's lives! Bob Stauffer is great at speaking to the thoughts that we're all having! It's a sad state of affairs!!
The PP has changed the last couple of games. The focus is now to move the puck around to set up a shot from the mid slot. The problem is that Hyman is being made the trigger man from there. I know he scored two tonight. However… any time McD/Drai are not featured is a mistake in coaching IMHO. Bruce rightly points out that HYMAN could have/ should have gotten MORE out of the chances he was gifted. I'm confident that that coaching strategy was part of the reason for this loss. Woody has to adapt "in game" to what is working and to what can work better. That Hyman slot strategy has worked to show the opposition a different look, but at some point ALL teams are happy that 97/29 are NOT being the ones expected to score the goals. My two cents.
36 Comments
This team has no consistency – none – and very little desperation. Crossbars, goalposts and Skinner were all that stood between the Avs (who had 5 regulars out of their lineup) and a well-deserved lead. HALFWAY THROUGH THE 3RD PERIOD, 5 ON 5 SHOTS WERE 29 TO 8 FOR COLORADO. So much for playing 2 consistent games in a row. I don’t think Woodcroft knows how to fix this – and a few trades isn’t going to fix it either. This team is not good enough to be called a Contender. They are barely a contender for a playoff position. Based on last season, they would have to go (at least) 23-12-6 to make the playoffs.
2-0 lead is becoming a guaranteed loss. It seemed to me like it was Connor and Skinner vs the Av’s. We’re not even close to these guys. They have at least 6 or 7 guys that can dangle and we’ve got one. We still have Leon and Kane on the way. Hyman is up there and Nuge a little farther back but the Av’s have 3 or 4 thoroughbreds on Defence and the same up front. We coulda shoulda tonight but the Av’s get the last laugh.
Man this team is such a joke lol
Drai: 27:25 minutes
McDavid: 26:05 minutes
McKinnon: 23:44 minutes
Rantanen: 22:30 minutes
Love how David just strains to say 29 five alarm shots. Draisaitl's line barely made an impact, and he looked slow. Kosten was too slow for this game, lost in the d zone, especially on the top line. And why is our top dmen playing the puck and not taking the man? Makar knows how to do that. Big thumbs up to Mr Skinner's game!
I have no idea how Holland sleeps at night when watching games like this and continues to place ZERO urgency on improving the blue line. No words. Just stunned and baffled with Holland's egregious – and I would even say – malicious indifference toward such a deeply critical situation. Holland's gross misconduct on this issue is absolutely puzzling.
Yzerman took a while to get his defensive game at a high level game-in and game-out, but did eventually get it as he got into his later 20s. Hopefully McDavid gets it sooner than later, and I do think he's close.
Okay this is getting old now. They blow another game they should have won. This was not Stews fault the D should have had his back
Guys your analysis is so dead on it’s scary.
All these blown leads.
I yearn for the good old days when we always gave up the first two goals ….
Watching this game was never comfortable with the 2 goal lead. The Avs puck possession and relentless pursuit of the puck was impressive, this is the recipe to success. The Avs ability to transition the puck from the D is what we need along with better defensive coverage. Take note Oilers this is how to play the game……
The reason why the avs are so good id because they have 6 defenders that activate in the offense and still play solid defense! We miss that for sure!
the oilers need to learn how to take the puck into the offensive zone.. they can't make a pass to save their life and at the same time any team can make three tic tac toe passes and blast away on our net. dump and chase is old school.
How many years now since the Oilers have had a good defensive forward line? Spot on analysis saying the Oil need to try and develop/ solidify a line along those goals – a line that can go up against the best of the opposition and slow it down. This has been a hole for so long that you have to wonder what the GM’s are doing … the same holes in the lineup for soooo many years.
On the 2nd Av’s goal it looked like Hunt arrived in the play late as a line change, which added to the challenge for the Oil … not picking up that late arrival may have been a contributing factor on what the forwards were/ weren’t doing, but this was not considered as part of the analysis.
Oh y’a, and also the other day Spec wrote an article about playing as a a team … all players playing … not happening often enough. Coach’s hooked on the drug of playing McDavid, Draisaitl etc too much and having too many others as an afterthought (like it is a basketball team and not a hockey team).
There is no reason not to have McD, Drai and Hyman together in home games when you have last change. I get it when you’re on the road and need to mess with the opposition coach, but not at home, especially when RNH has successfully anchored his own line all year.
The PK is slightly less horrible then it has been but still not great.
Holloway is being ruined as we speak.
There really needs to be some kind of move. If you can’t make a trade, then fire the coach again. If things continue as is, this is barely a playoff team.
Edmonton was dominated by Colorado's puck control …… no surprises. Oilers are subpar and submissive 5 on 5. This team is 21-20 for very clear reasons.
The fact that David is even saying “if they make the playoffs” in the weakest division in the league is a clear indicator of how bad defensively this team really is.
Woody seems to always say the right things in the pressers but he’s obviously not getting his message across. Players don’t have team only meetings unless they disagree with a message in some capacity.
Oilers in general just looked lost in their own most of the time throughout the season. Can we pin this on coaching? Or is this the case of players not buying in to the system?
Oilers can’t seem to cope under pressure. You can tell by how they struggle to break out of their own zone and make clean passes throughout the game.
Going against the grain here: I don't think this game was all that bad. Yes, the Avs had a lot of puck control and shots, and were clearly the better team at even strength. Yet it was still a very 'winnable' game from Edmonton's perspective. They still earned a much needed point (50% of a win in the standings), and Skinner proved again he can be a star in the big leagues.
While the Oilers weren't controlling play much, I didn't feel they were lost defensively as they had been in several of the recent home games. I saw a good team effort defensively… except by McDavid's line, which got beaten. But the Oilers were battling hard and didn't seem lost mentally. Yes, they lost, and yes, the Avalanche were clearly the better team (which we knew anyway), but against the Avs' best players the Oilers average players were not beaten.
Connor needs to do better against Colorado, though, yes. I think they're sort of in his brain.
It is better to invest now. You will never be younger than you are today and there will never be a perfect time to invest. Due to compounding, which Einstein called the 8th wonder of the world, you can get rich slowly from investing if you do it from a young enough age…
Jay I like you as a coach, but be honest please I hear you want to be positive, but we were not competitive, avalanche completely dominated them, if you can’t see that we have huge problems. Oilers need to play like they give a shit I’m not seeing that. It’s embarrassing I feel for the people at the arena like wtf. It’s same crap night in night out. And they were missing half their team yikes!! I miss mike smith honesty, they need some veteran leadership! It’s not looking good time to sound the panic alarm.
The Avalanche losers of 5 in a row come into our barn and make us look like an AHL team. Jay Woodcroft continues to defend this team in the media when clearly there are too many passengers and a pervasive lack of compete and effort permeating this roster. Jay always talks about wanting to spread out the workload, get 20 guys working together yada yada yada but then employs an 11-7 roster to get McDavid and Drai even more ice time while his seventh d-man gets under 4 min T.O.I. It's time to practice what you preach, roll 4 lines, give everyone an ample opportunity to succeed or fail and hold the failures accountable. Burning out 4 or 5 players is not the answer! Mr. Holland, J.T. Compher was a beast for the Avs tonight, we don't have anyone like that…sure we have 3 million dollar players, but not like that!
Oilers dominated by an injury-riddled team. What a surprise.
When Nathan MacKinnon was rushing up the ice 1 on 2 why did Nurse not close the gap between him and Ceci. Maybe he thought he was going to dump and chase?
It's obvious, the D isn't good enough. Maybe Manson has to be replaced by Duncan Keith?
The Oilers team issues have been endemic for a few years now. The current team will never win a Stanley Cup and their opportunity window could end in 2025 when Draisaitl's contract expires. In my opinion, the championship team killer contract is Nurse's 9.25 million a year. The AV's Makar earns slightly less at 9 million and the abilities and potential of the 2 players are light years apart. If Nurse were earning what he is worth, about 6 million, the Oilers would have the cap space along with a trade of Puljujarvi to acquire a 6 million dollar rugged 3rd or 4th pairing defenseman, which is their primary need at this point. With the current contracts the Oilers have however,, they are forced to trade a value player like Nugent Hopkins to get that defense man, and the loss is someone like Nugent Hopkins would be a big hurt to the team. As a result, I think we are screwed in terms of winning a championship within the next 3 years.
It's endemic!
So glad I canceled my Sportsnet subscription! The blackouts were ludicrous but the performance of the team doesn't make it worth watching on the regular!
I've been listening to Bob and ideally Jack on Ched and doing other things while the others waste another 3 hours of everyone's lives!
Bob Stauffer is great at speaking to the thoughts that we're all having!
It's a sad state of affairs!!
The PP has changed the last couple of games. The focus is now to move the puck around to set up a shot from the mid slot. The problem is that Hyman is being made the trigger man from there. I know he scored two tonight. However… any time McD/Drai are not featured is a mistake in coaching IMHO. Bruce rightly points out that HYMAN could have/ should have gotten MORE out of the chances he was gifted. I'm confident that that coaching strategy was part of the reason for this loss. Woody has to adapt "in game" to what is working and to what can work better. That Hyman slot strategy has worked to show the opposition a different look, but at some point ALL teams are happy that 97/29 are NOT being the ones expected to score the goals.
My two cents.
Nurse is the problem in this team
Tell this to coach to give them a chance
Thanks Bruce for keeping David on point
Bruce your mic boom hides part of your face, a little distracting. Really enjoy the analysis each game, thanks.
I agree Oilers should roll 4 lines so all players can learn and top lines can have less ice time and stay fresh !!!
Is Ken Holland alive? Are the Oilers without a general manager?