Now you know why fans don’t run the team

"1) Why in heck is Pulijarvi playing?? Showcasing him for a trade? He seems to be a liability on the ice almost every shift. The fans can see it, his teammates must also see it, probably dragging down the entire team. I think it is time to simply move on, send him to the farm, trade him for a draft pick, just unload that problem."

This one actually has some wisdom attached to it, as yes Mr. Bruce here does bring up a good point.

However, calling him a liability is a bit melodramatic. He has played good D at times (albeit not consistently) and currently leads the Edmonton Oilers in hits with 89 on the season.

It’s worth noting that the Edmonton Oilers have taken the first step in perhaps moving on from the Bison King by making him a healthy scratch against Seattle yesterday once Evander Kane was back in the lineup.

It’s also worth noting that in the cap-strapped world of today’s NHL where over half the teams in the league are operating off of LTIR cap space – including the Edmonton Oilers – it’s not quite so easy to just “unload a problem” as he puts it.

Context is important in your opinion.

"2) They definitely need some grit/snarl/truculence in the whole team, not just when they are frustrated. The team needs to allocate ice time based on those who show some grit, tenacity and desire. Reduce playing time for the scorers by a couple minutes and roll four lines. The Oilers should be rotating the bottom six with guys on the farm and or sitting — no snarl, no play."

Roll four lines? Really? This is a ridiculous suggestion that would prove ineffective. In case you haven’t noticed, the way to win hockey games is to outscore the other team. Also in case you haven’t noticed, Connor Mcdavid and Leon Draisaitl are really good at scoring goals, as are other guys that play with them.

Logically you should be feeding the opposition a steady diet of those guys, right?

Mr. Bruce, if you think you can coach the Edmonton Oilers better than Jay Woodcroft you are blatantly mistaken, sir.

Big time swing and a miss.

That being said, in the Anaheim and San Jose blowouts the Edmonton Oilers did do just that, cut ice time to the top six forwards and give more to the bottom six.

Also, do the names Klim Kostin and Vincent Desharnais ring a bell to you? If not, you should do your homework and see the contributions they’re making to the team as of late.

"3) Over-playing the talent will not help in the long run, 0-6 on the power play showed me that they are tired and need to change it up a little bit. The Kings took away Connor and knew that Leon would stop just over the blue line on the PP, so they fired the puck down the ice many times on every PP."

Again I LOL at you Mr. Bruce. The nerve of you to think that you know how to better allocate ice time than Jay Woodcroft is very much laughable.

First of all, Connor Mcdavid and Leon Draisaitl have long since shown that they’ve earned their ice time and routinely burn the opposition for goals or assists. They’ve also shown they can handle playing big minutes. Look at the Edmonton Oilers TOI numbers and tell me who’s right behind Darnell Nurse for ice time.

For players who can produce, it makes logical sense to feed the opposition a steady diet of them.

Also, it’s important to remember that just because these guys excel at playing hockey doesn’t mean they’re robots. Every team in the NHL, even the best, has a bad game once in a while.

If you’re going to crap on the team when they do badly, I hope you give them credit when they do well as they’ve gone on a four-game (and counting) win streak since that Kings game you mentioned. You’re probably like most Edmonton Oilers fans, though, and enjoy the misery more than the success.

"4) On defence, we miss Keith, same thing as the forwards, no snarl, no play. Bouchard and Broberg are big kids, encourage more physical play, Nurse is playing too much, define a role for him and let him focus on that. At least Nemo (Niemeläinen) hits people…."

Oiler fans are hilariously ignorant when it comes to the history between the team and Duncan Keith. First, they didn’t want him on the Edmonton Oilers because “he had bad underlying stats” and now they’re being nostalgic for last season when he was on the team.

You can’t have it both ways, Mr. Bruce.

Also lacking a lot of contexts here. Why does puck-moving D have to play physically? That’s not a requirement and isn’t part of many puck mover’s games. What a ridiculous statement.

Also, if you had the faintest clue of what you were talking about, you mentioned Bouchard and Broberg specifically but Bouchard currently sits fifth on the team in hits with 64.

Also, again if you’d done the slightest bit of homework before making that statement you’d see that Bouchard is also fifth on the team in blocked shots with 43, while Broberg is ninth with 19.

Both are top ten players on the team in that regard.

Ya kinda dropped the ball on that one, didn’t ya?

And look who’s fourth on the Edmonton Oilers in blocked shots over 60? That’s right, Broberg.

Also before you keep whining about physical play does the name Vincent Desharnais mean anything to you? He’s doing pretty well in the physical department, in case you haven’t noticed.

Ouch….how embarrassing for you.