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Oiler are they good enough?

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Since Hitchcock arrived the Oilers have become one of the best in our division and one of the better teams in the NHL.  Often a coaching change results in a teams fortunes changing (part a result of the actual coaching, and pairtly to do with the players themselves aware of the fact trades might follow so they play harder) and Hicth has a good record for this.   A year and a few months ago; Vegas has the Oilers as the highest odds to win the cup before the year started and many in the hockey world pegged them as contenders.  Fast forward half a season and McDavid was way behind Kucherov the scoring leader at the time, and they had dug an impossible hole, the second half nobody scored as many points as McDavid and they had a respectable record.  Much had been written and talked about as far as their defense goes, and now Klefbom is out for at least a month...do you think they can keep it up and show the real team was the one that almsot went to the conference final, or do you think they simply don’t have enough parts and are doomed to mediocrity.

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After all the luck that the Oilers have had at the lotto draft 4- 1OA PLAYER PICKS ,yes 4 in the last 10 years and they still suck,McJesus or not. The Canucks have not had 1 -1OA pick in almost fifty years,so the Oilers can bite my bum.

I hope they suck for years to come because they have had several Stanley Cup teams with Mr. Gretzky and all.

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I hope they make the playoffs and face the Lames in the 1st rnd - anything to kepp Chiraelli as their GM - with a competent GM and Hitch they could actually do soemthing - with Chiarelli they will be on the cusp and might even trade more assets aka RNH for fillers aka the Larsson Hall trade.  (Hey I can dream)

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4 minutes ago, Toyotasfan said:

They are too thin and not good enough. They have Hitchcock and McDavid though, they can pretend their way through the season and maybe be a 1st round sweep for a good team if they hold on to a playoff spot . The Canucks have more depth.

Hitchcock loves to rely on McDavid - honestly in a playoff series I see the other team focusing on him and Draisaitl - Lucic is not going to solve their goal scoring problems. Totally agree they lack depth and wait until they get the wrath of Hitchcock and see how they respond. He seems to be treating them with kid gloves atm.

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Whats the old hockey adage..?...Show me a great goaltender and I'll show you a great head coach. I know Chiarelli gets a lot of flack and rightfully so but Mikko Koskinen is slowly becoming one of the stories of the year in the NHL and Chia took a ton of grief for signing him after 5 years in the KHL. I'd say MK has saved the season for the Oilers (so far) more than Hitch.

 

14 starts 10-3-1 2.20GAA (2nd in the league) .927SV% (4th in the league)

He keeps this up until the new year and hes definitely in the Vezina convo. Not to mention hes given Talbot a push recently as CT had a rough start but is much better in his last 3-4 starts.

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They are one injury away from being a bottom 3 team...........

 

Living in Alberta, I have to watch these guys play a lot and I can tell you that they are playing very, very well right now. Their work effort at both ends of the ice is as good as anyone's right now but I do not believe they can play any better than this in the 2nd half of the season when the going gets a little tougher. Their PP is much improved but I suspect it will take a hit with Klefbom's injury.

 

Bottom line, I think it will probably be touch and go to make the playoffs and they will only go as far as McDavid can take them.

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5 minutes ago, MikeBossy said:

Hitchcock loves to rely on McDavid - honestly in a playoff series I see the other team focusing on him and Draisaitl - Lucic is not going to solve their goal scoring problems. Totally agree they lack depth and wait until they get the wrath of Hitchcock and see how they respond. He seems to be treating them with kid gloves atm.

The Canucks only have 10 more goals on the season than the Oilers and they have played 2 more games. If they both played 33 games they would be roughly 3-4 goals apart. So are the Canucks having goal scoring problems? and how are they going to solve that?

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3 minutes ago, GritGrinder said:

The Canucks only have 10 more goals on the season than the Oilers and they have played 2 more games. If they both played 33 games they would be roughly 3-4 goals apart. So are the Canucks having goal scoring problems? and how are they going to solve that?

Except we are supposed to be rebuilding, Edmonton is not. They should be much better than this, especially with McDavid on their team.

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3 minutes ago, GritGrinder said:

The Canucks only have 10 more goals on the season than the Oilers and they have played 2 more games. If they both played 33 games they would be roughly 3-4 goals apart. So are the Canucks having goal scoring problems? and how are they going to solve that?

When discussing Lucic I meant if the Oilers make the playoffs he can't be relied on to contribute in the goal scoring department. I have watched most of the Oiler games since Hitch took over and he has relied heavily on McDavid and Draisaitl - I don't see where they will get secondary scoring from in the playoffs was the point I was making.

 

I will say I agree Chiarelli founf a gem in Koskinen. But I have also noticed the team plays different in front of him than they do when Talbot's in net.

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1 minute ago, The Great Canucks said:

Except we are supposed to be rebuilding, Edmonton is not. They should be much better than this, especially with McDavid on their team.

That's a lame response and strawman at best. Forget where "experts" and "pundits" say the 2 teams "should be". Answer the question...if the Oilers are having scoring problems and have a similar goal total to the Canucks then why aren't the Canucks viewed as having goal scoring problems?

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Just now, GritGrinder said:

That's a lame response and strawman at best. Forget where "experts" and "pundits" say the 2 teams "should be". Answer the question...if the Oilers are having scoring problems and have a similar goal total to the Canucks then why aren't the Canucks viewed as having goal scoring problems?

You just love making garbage replies, don't you? Edmonton is supposed to be farther ahead than us. That's a fact, whether you want to admit it or not. The fact that they aren't proves how poorly run they are.

 

Here's a better question for you: if Edmonton isn't that much farther ahead than us, if at all, then are they a rebuilding team, too?

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2 minutes ago, MikeBossy said:

When discussing Lucic I meant if the Oilers make the playoffs he can't be relied on to contribute in the goal scoring department. I have watched most of the Oiler games since Hitch took over and he has relied heavily on McDavid and Draisaitl - I don't see where they will get secondary scoring from in the playoffs was the point I was making.

 

I will say I agree Chiarelli founf a gem in Koskinen. But I have also noticed the team plays different in front of him than they do when Talbot's in net.

Yes I agree those 2 have been used more, but I saw an interview with Hitch and he brought up a good point that neither of them really have any PK time and most of the PP time which is a bit "easier" on the body. And just looking at the forwards TOI throughout the league McDavid and Draisaitl are right in there within a shift or 2 of 30-40 guys including Bo and the whole first line in Colorado. RNH didn't show it last playoff but he could be the secondary scoring, hes at ppg clip right now and plays in all situations.

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3 minutes ago, GritGrinder said:

That's a lame response and strawman at best. Forget where "experts" and "pundits" say the 2 teams "should be". Answer the question...if the Oilers are having scoring problems and have a similar goal total to the Canucks then why aren't the Canucks viewed as having goal scoring problems?

I think what you might be missing is that the Oiler 1st line has scored over half of all the goals for the team - the point I made earlier and I think others have made is that in the playoffs when teams focus on shutting down the other teams top line there's an expectation of other lines contributing - the Oilers second line has RNH on it and his line has contributed but the 3rd line is basically non existent and with a guy who was paid to score goals like Lucic on it I don't see them going far enough in the playoffs - are they good enough to make the playoffs - ABSOLUTELY - do they have the horse to go far - I don't think so.

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1 minute ago, The Great Canucks said:

You just love making garbage replies, don't you? Edmonton is supposed to be farther ahead than us. That's a fact, whether you want to admit it or not. The fact that they aren't proves how poorly run they are.

 

Here's a better question for you: if Edmonton isn't that much farther ahead than us, if at all, then are they a rebuilding team, too?

What the hell are you even talking about? I responded to a post about goal scoring and it wasn't even your post. Then you start whining about where the 2 teams are at in terms of the organization and re-building. You are literally the definition of a troll right now. You respond to a post that didn't even include you and then try and change the subject and then get all whiny. Trolling defined.

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6 minutes ago, MikeBossy said:

I think what you might be missing is that the Oiler 1st line has scored over half of all the goals for the team - the point I made earlier and I think others have made is that in the playoffs when teams focus on shutting down the other teams top line there's an expectation of other lines contributing - the Oilers second line has RNH on it and his line has contributed but the 3rd line is basically non existent and with a guy who was paid to score goals like Lucic on it I don't see them going far enough in the playoffs - are they good enough to make the playoffs - ABSOLUTELY - do they have the horse to go far - I don't think so.

Yes the top 3 Oiler goal scorers account for half of their goals. For the Canucks its the top 4, not a huge difference. Other teams its even more so like Colorado and Boston etc. I don't think the Oilers are that unique in that department league wide.

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