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Edmonton Oilers

kcantor said:
While it would be nice to see the Oilers win in four and for everyone on the team to be well rested going on to round two, the Ducks, unlike teams like the Avalanche and the Oilers, have absolutely nothing left to prove this season. While inexperienced, they don't know what they don't know, and they have speed and talent. They also don't have the same question marks in goal that the Oilers will carry until proven otherwise.
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Not to tell anyone I told you so - and yes it’s only 3 games into a series that needs one team to get 4 wins before it’s over - but I told you so…

Although they won one of them, that’s three straight games where the Oilers played the very game they can’t afford to play if they’re going to get past the first round.
 
IanO said:
My take. It's coming, they will respond, smarten up, adapt and get going. Spilt the away games and get on their horse.
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I think so too. Last night we outplayed them, but couldn't get the breaks, and goaltending didn't make the big saves when needed. I expect we'll outplay them every game, but I'm worried goaltending might be the difference.

My prediction, we win game 4 and we win the series.
 
For anyone still wondering why Bouchard wasn't on Team Canada and why he won't win the James Norris Memorial Trophy, his play in last night's game was described as having "some good on the attack but two brutal sequences in the third, utterly brutal" which in turn led the team's play being described as "... the younger, healthier and faster Anaheim Ducks ripped them apart with two rush goals in the third off Evan Bouchard turnovers for a 7-4 win.
 
I wonder if there’s a problem with some players not listening to the coach. It seems there are some careless plays on a regular basis.
 
The_Cat said:
I wonder if there’s a problem with some players not listening to the coach. It seems there are some careless plays on a regular basis.
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I think they listen but I also think there are two problems with their ice time that we've seen all season and that we're continuing to see:

The elite players on the team get so much ice team with the expectation that they'll deliver that they're too worn down to deliver on an everyday basis.

There isn't enough ice time left for the rest of the team for them to be involved to the degree that they can meet those same expectations.

I also think the constant line shuffling that sees players moving back and forth from too much time to not enough time exacerbates the problem of being able to find and maintain a rhythm.

If I had to name it, I might call it the "teacher's pet" syndrome. There are those that deserve to be teacher's pets - McDavid, Draisaitl, Hyman, Podkolzin etc. - but it's not fair to them or to the rest of the team to reward them with minutes that belong to the rest of the team. They're too committed to refuse it but everyone needs sufficient time to do their job if they're going to do it well ;just as everyone needs to recover between stretches of providing maximum effort during a game.

Even those who are "teacher's pets" know this isn't good for them or for the team and they probably know how many of those careless plays result from that. That's why there's still so much camaraderie and respect between them (thinking back to Draisaitl's comments on the coaching...) that I believe is honestly felt and not just lip service.
 
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