Now you know why fans don’t run the team
If I knew who Doug Olive was I’d track him down and smack him across the back of the head.
He actually had the gall to call Darnell Nurse a “third pairing defenceman:”
Darnell is at best a third pairing defenceman…..
What part of Darnell Nurse is a third-pairing defenceman, exactly? The part where he leads the Edmonton Oilers in both ice time (23:58 per game average), and +/- (+13)? Is it the part where he’s the second leading scoring d-man on the Edmonton Oilers, second only to Tyson Barrie who plays easier competition?
How about the part where he’s fourth on the team in hits (79)? How about the part where he leads the Edmonton Oilersin blocked shots by a country mile with 86 (the second is Brett Kulak with 70)?
Or the part where he’s second on the team in PK TOI/game with 2:54, second only to Cody Ceci? How about the part where he’s eighth on the team in PP TOI/game with 57 seconds a game?
Maybe it’s the part where he’s tied with Klim Kostin for PIMs on the season with 38?
How about the fact that he’s a monster 6’4″ and 221 lbs in size? Or the fact that he’s 27 and in the prime of his career?
This is one of the stupidest takes on theEdmonton Oilers I’ve ever read. If that’s a “third pairing defenceman” then 30 teams across the NHL are going to have to get permission to clone Cale Makar or Quinn Hughes because those are the only two players who would qualify as top-pairing d-man in old Dougie’s world.
“Need (Mike) Babcock to get the bottom six going in the right direction. Coach needs to take ownership of the player’s focus. Woodcroft always has excuses and things that are learned from a loss…That doesn’t amount to points on the standings. Time for a change…” — Dennis Ejack
This one actually made me LOL hardcore. So not only does Dennis here want to fire a coach who literally turned the Edmonton Oilers’ season around last year, who’s popular with the players including your two best ones, but he wants to replace him with Mike Babcock….
Mike….Babcock.
MIKE….BABCOCK.
Yes, the very same Mike Babcock who literally bullied his players in both Detroit and Toronto.
Ever wonder why Gretzky didn’t re-sign with St. Louis after his partial season there? Because Mike Keenan was a hard-nosed coach just like Babcock who bullied his players the same way, and Gretzky didn’t want to put up with that – and rightfully so, who would? He chased the G.O.A.T out of St. Louis when he still had a few useful seasons left in his career.
If you want to ruin the Edmonton Oilers by having Connor Mcdavid, Leon Draisaitl, Darnell Nurse, Zach Hyman, Tyson Barrie, Jack Campbell, and Stuart Skinner all demand a trade out of Edmonton at the same time, then yes I agree hiring Mike Babcock would be the way to go.
No one wants to work under a bully, and NHL players are no exception.
Then there’s also the fact that Holland and Babcock have a history in Detroit where Babcock was his coach for a long time. If he wanted Babcock to coach here don’t you think he would’ve hired him by now? Holland has been the GM of the Edmonton Oilers since 2019, he’s had time to hire Babcock and didn’t, so what does that tell you? Obviously, Babcock was fired for a reason.
Not to mention the black cloud that was lifted over the Maple Laffs in TO when Babcock was fired there three years ago.
Did Woodcroft suddenly forget how to coach? I think not.
These would be the worst two moves you could possibly make in our coaching ranks. Woodcroft hasn’t done anything that deserves a firing, and hiring Mike Babcock would be the worst possible thing you could do.
It appears the rest of the NHL agrees with me and not Dennis, since Babcock hasn’t been hired by another NHL team since being fired by the Leafs. Babcock had since got to the CIS to bully university men at the University of Saskatchewan, but “resigned” and “retired” last August.
Right…..I’m sure that had nothing to do with the fact that Babcock is a good tactician but human garbage as a person.
*voice of comic book guy* WORST…..SUGGESTION…..EVER.
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.
“The Oilers top four up front is as good as or better the any league. If you talk to Ken Holland, he has to give up a lot to get this team a Cup. The two best players are tired of giving it all. They are mentally tired. It’s move time or move out time for Holland. I have been an Oilers fan since the WHA days, was a season ticket holder until I retired out of province since 1984. I was there for the five rings. Those days they had a general manager with vision and a coach with a go-get-them attitude. The main problem is management. Fix it!” — Jack Brooks
Well now, Ken Holland became our GM in 2019. Let’s see what he’s done since then.
He started out by suckering Calgary into taking the Milan Lucic buyout-proof contract in exchange for a guy whose contract was actually able to buy out and save the team money as his first trade.
That’s a win, in my books.
He brought in some new scouts, both pro and amateur, which was needed in some respects although Peter Chiarelli had already started the process.
He hasn’t been here long enough for us to get a true sense of his drafting record but one of his picks, Dylan Holloway, is already paying dividends on the roster.
Another of his picks, Reid Schaefer, recently played on the Team Canada world junior team.
He’s signed Tyson Barrie, Cody Ceci, Zach Hyman, Derek Ryan, Jack Campbell, and Mattias Janmark as free agents, all of whom are contributing at varying levels to the roster.
Let’s also not forget he signed Mike Smith as a free agent as well, someone who was key in our playoff run last season.
He also won out on the sweepstakes for Evander Kane, something no other team in the NHL was able to do, and then signed him to a team-friendly contract after that.
He signed Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to a cap hit that was lower than his previous one.
He traded a guy who had played himself off the roster (Ethan Bear) and then signed Warren Foegele as a free agent.
At the beginning of the season, he traded a left-pairing D prospect who was buried on the depth chart for a failed first-round pick currently earning a regular spot on the roster that’s providing some much-needed truculence in the bottom six. That D was recently called up by his new team but never got into any games. Seems like a pretty big win of trade to me.
He’s established a pipeline from the AHL to the big leagues that are just getting started in terms of it’s potential to constantly bring in prospects to the big league team.
He also made an excellent decision in replacing Dave Tippett with Jay Woodcroft behind the bench.
His teams lost in the play-in series once, lost in the first round once, then went all the way to the third round last season.
His record hasn’t been perfect, but he told us up front when he came here that it wouldn’t be.
And I don’t know about you, but I can handle a Ryan Murray or Slater Koekkoek signing when the wins are so much more powerful, like rescuing Zach Hyman from TO, a move that continues to pay dividends and has been since the day he was signed.
Oh yeah, it makes SO MUCH SENSE to fire the GM who built the team that took us to the conference finals just last season……./sarcasm.
Ridiculously ignorant take, Jack. Ridiculously ignorant.
“Well here we go again. Another lacklustre effort. Not enough desire and the defense is playing like a junior team. Too much watching the puck and not enough taking the man! Too many turnovers! Last year with Keith and Russell we were a much better defensive team. The only ones who I would say are playing equal or better are Barrie, and Kulak. Crazy! — Richard Geleta
Calm your *censored*, Richard.
In case you haven’t noticed, the season is more than one game long. You might want to remember that.
At least you gave Barrie and Kulak credit, so unlike a lot of the other armchair GMs and coaches you’re not completely wrong.
You’re also practising a bit of revisionist history since Russell was the seventh d-man who had lost a step, so his impact on the roster wasn’t nearly as much as you claim it was last season.
Still, though, this is a bit melodramatic, and since you wrote this the team had a player-only meeting and has done some gut-checking.
“Long term plan would not be crumbling had we not lost both Larsson and Klefbom, which would have allowed the current defence time to develop….panic will not solve the problem but perhaps matching the defence pairings with experience and inexperience a little more might help a little!” — Rick Powell
Long-term plan crumbling? Really? The unfinished season after the Edmonton Oilers go to the conference finals the “long term plan is crumbling?”
What an idiotic take.
It’s also pure ignorance to declare that we intentionally “lost” Larsson and Klefbom. Klefbom was taken down by an aggregate series of career-ending injuries, but I suppose Rick here is going to find a way to blame Woodcroft and Holland for that……
He’s also practising a bit of revisionist history with Larsson. Larsson’s father died while visiting him in Edmonton, which understandably impacted him negatively in an emotional well-being sense. Seattle signed him as a free agent which essentially was the Oiler’s pick in the expansion draft. We were always going to lose somebody, and although Holland tried to sign him Larsson wanted out of Edmonton for personal reasons.
Holland doesn’t control what happens in the players’ personal lives. We didn’t lose Larsson, he chose to sign with another team for personal reasons.
Both players have since been replaced by Ceci and Barrie, guys who are just as good if not better than the players who aren’t playing here anymore.
The sky is not falling and the long-term plan is not crumbling. Stop being such a drama queen.
“Trade Nurse and get two proven blue collar defenseman for the price of one overpaid underachiever.” — Dave Ligertwood, Penticton, B.C.
That is quite honestly the worst trade idea I’ve ever heard. I have no idea why some fans hate Nurse so much, it’s 100% unwarranted.
I’ve already illustrated Nurse’s use to the Edmonton Oilers and how he is legitimately a top pairing d-man.
Guys who can play their minutes with his talent are a rarity in the league. You don’t just trade that away unless you’re getting a clear upgrade on the position.
Trading away one player for two is an instant loss for the team.
If you want to make the Edmonton Oilers worse overnight, make this type of shortsighted embarrassing trade.
Huge miss, Dave. Huge, huge miss.
I’m so happy Ken Holland is our GM when I read bird droppings like this.
“Good afternoon from SoCal! The Oilers problems are many & varied, that’s for sure. Firing Woody isn’t going to solve anything. Now firing Holland? Well, this is his team, and it’s a huge mess! Making a trade for just Chychrun isn’t going to fix all the problems. They lack any solid defensive structure, especially on the PK. They lack toughness, big time! They don’t back each other up (Weegar’s hit on McDavid went unchallenged by anyone). Goaltending is average, but I think Skinner would be better with better defensive play in front of him. If they can get a big, tough defenseman who can pass effectively, and a grit forward who can score and play a great 200’ game, it would help, and might get us into the playoffs, but not fix everything.” — David Brockie
Another fan drinking the Holland haterade.
It’s funny you mention the PK, it’s currently 25th in the league but is trending up. It was as low as 30th. Saying the team “lacks any solid defensive structure” is a bit melodramatic.
Funny how the coaching staff comes up with the structure for the PK and yet you want to fire the GM. That makes me LOL.
I agree with you on the Weegar hit on Mcdavid, but that’s just one play in a season. Maybe you should think before overreacting to one play.
It’s also worth noting that since the emergence of Klim Kostin and Vincent Desharnais as well as the return of Evander Kane I doubt you can back up the statement that they “lack toughness.”
Calm down, we’re doing fine.
“Sorry, but Bouchard is a disaster. The league learned he has a big shot and they take it away. He rarely gets a shot through this year. On defence he does not have the skating abilities to recover from some of his risky offensive plays. He is a minus 11 which is 9 more than the next worst defensemen. Puljujarvi looks lost. At minus 13, he tops the Oilers. What gets counted as hits in the stat sheet hardly look like they have any impact on the shifts he plays.” — David Pickrell
You do realize that Bouchard is only 23 and hasn’t even played 150 NHL games yet, right David?
But I suppose you were perfect at everything in your early 20s…./sarcasm.
What a stupid comment. If you were actually in NHL player development you’d be ruining Bouchard’s confidence and soon enough his entire career.
Again, an overreaction lacking context. Young NHLers have more peaks and valleys in their careers than veterans do, which is why Bouchard is currently playing on the third pairing.
Yes, he was -13 but over the last four games that’s improved significantly to -5 – and I would be willing to bet likely to get even better from here.
Yes, the Bison King looked lost but again he was out of the lineup last game and was only in the lineup previously due to injury. I guess you just failed to mention that.
Your comment about hits is just……weird. What qualifies you to know what the definition of a hit is that everyone else in the NHL is in the dark about?
I’m waiting.
*crickets*
*crickets*
*crickets*
*crickets*
I guess you’ve got nothing but the audacity to think you know better than every other stats person employed in the NHL. Wow……