Oilers Got Wreck'd: A Love Story. 2014-15 Season?

[Melbosa]

Actually I don't know... Oil have taken some real serious beatings in the media and PR spotlight since the Monday game.  Might be a fired up team going into Winnipeg...

[Mr. Analog]

HERE COME the oilers *pift*

[Mr. Analog]

SOMEhow the Oilers are trialing by 1 already

But how can that BEEEE

[Melbosa]

Fast pace game.  Could go either way. Schrims making some good saves!

[Mr. Analog]

Fast pace game.  Could go either way. Schrims making some good saves!

I know! I'm scared too

[Thorin]

Schrims? The @%&# kind of autocorrect is that?! Scrivens.

The game was exciting and fast most of the time. Ference was the goat on two of those goals, I wonder if he's going to complain about himself after the game?

Scrivens made wicked good saves, he worked hard. But because of the lower shot count, he ended up with only an .885 save percentage

[Mr. Analog]

We're getting close to beating a record (for winless streak)

*sad Price is Right music*

[Thorin]

I've been reading an Oilers-centered hockey blog called Lowetide for several years now.  The blogger is smart and insightful and knows a lot more about hockey than he admits.  There are dozens of regular commenters as well, and the intelligence of the comments is amazing (especially so for a hockey blog).  I am always amazed when I see a flame war about to start, and then the two that were going to start flaming each other switch back to a reasoned debate with numbers and clips from the games and even the occasional admittance of the other person being right.  There are also a lot of clever funny posts.  All that said, here's one that I absolutely had to share with you guys.

First, TheGreatMutato asks what it's like to go to an Oilers game nowadays, wondering if it's still as crazy busy as it used to be and if there's anything he should know:

Off topic but I have some quick questions I was hoping you folks could assist with:

I?m making a pilgrimage to Edmonton this weekend to try my hand at being a tier one fan for the Sharks game on Sunday. Was wondering what the experience is like these days as far as getting to the game goes, as it has been a while since I last attended a game.

How early should a person arrive? How is the parking situation? Is traffic still brutal getting to the arena? I guess it depends whether or not more than 5000 people actually show up to the game =(

Anyways, thanks in advance!

A few posts down, Ben answers with a sublime answer:

Well in terms of sweater aerodynamics, you?ll want to make a careful jersey choice based on your seat location.

The ?Ravens? era streamlined Reebok jersey is your best bet to hit the ice from distance. You can probably pick up a 2009 Potulny for $15-20.

For accuracy from shorter distance, go with the McFarlane 3rd jersey, whose 5-bolt design serves well as a by-eye range-finder. This is particularly useful if you are having trouble finding a non-littered part of the ice to hit.

I personally prefer the classic oil drop jersey, as a collection of them thrown at once resembles a gentle rain of orange tears.

Enjoy!

[Melbosa]

lol

[Mr. Analog]

What. A. Swizz.

http://sports.nationalpost.com/2014/12/05/edmonton-oilers-gm-says-everything-in-the-organization-is-under-scrutiny-as-team-flounders-in-last-place/

So basically what was said is the following:

• We have promblembs (DUH!)
• Blaming the Players (yeah, problems on the ICE eh)
• Blaming underdeveloped players (not the system that is supposed to develop them)
• The "Plan" is not Changing

Step 1: Dump MacT

Get him AND his cronies out of the organization, he's not done anything to build this team in the YEARS they've been running things

Geez!

[Thorin]

Yeah, I was listening to the press conference live for a while there.  I turned it off after he started talking about Ference calling out the team in public to stop moping around.

I used to just watch sports and look at the scores, but once I started coaching I found myself looking at more of the technical skills being used and the tactics being used in games.  What I've found is that now that I see the little things being done wrong or right, I don't mind seeing them lose games if they're doing things right but got a wrong bounce.  The Winnipeg game, for instance, there were very few mistakes made by either team and they both quickly recovered from them most of the time.  Hell, I even pointed out a good defensive play by Schultz!  My wife looked at me weird.

[Thorin]

Here's a paraphrased transcript: http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2014/12/05/live-blog-craig-mactavish-addresses-the-edmonton-media-about-the-state-of-the-oilers/

If I were coaching this team, I would stop looking at the win/loss and start putting out specific goals for each game.  Once the players stop focusing on the score and start focusing on achieving the specific goals each game, the wins will start coming.  I've had coaching chats with a couple of former NHLers that live in my hometown now, with a world-class ringette goalie, and with an Olympic-medal-wearing women's hockey goalie.  They all said the same thing - their coaches at the top level of their sport told them to ignore the sport and focus on the things they can control.

So what would be my specific goals?

Game 1: This game would be all about getting Nail Yakupov a goal.  Everyone on the ice is to feed him pucks, and he'll be out for twenty minutes.  This will work wonders for his confidence and it will make everyone work for a teammate instead of themselves or their buddy on the team.

Game 2: This game would be about defensive positioning.  Everyone is to be on the correct side of the player they're covering, and everyone is to be covering a player.  They can indicate who they're covering by pointing and yelling.  I would make it clear that I don't care if we score any goals, but every missed coverage is five pushups for the entire team at practice the next day.  Also, if there are no missed coverages, even if the score is a blowout, the team can pick something embarrassing for me to wear / do at the next game.  Notice this is again about the team working together, not individuals.

Game 3: This game would be all about tipped and screened and rebound goals.  I would tell them I still don't care about the score, I want us to score all our goals on tips and screens and rebounds.  That means if you don't have the puck you have to go to the net, otherwise the guy with the puck isn't allowed to shoot, and that's not fair to him to not be allowed to shoot.  For every time that someone's in a good shooting position but can't shoot because there's no one at the net, it's five burpees at practice tomorrow.  If there's always a net presence, regardless of the final score, I will do wind sprints / lines / laps at practice tomorrow while the players get to watch.

Game 4: I'm still not looking at the score.  But lets remember that we all work together to make our teammates feel better so they play better, and that we need to have sound defensive coverage, and that our shooters want someone at the net to tip or screen or throw in a rebound.  If you forget one of these items you sit for a shift, just so you remember.  If we do win, I will run up and down the stairs in downtown Edmonton once for every goal we win by.

Now, do you think an approach like that might make them gel as a whole team and enjoy playing and also make them do the little things right?  As a bonus, it's clearly spelled out what the punishment is for doing things wrong, but do it all right and you can punish me, the big mean coach!

[Mr. Analog]

Apparently they won against the Sharks yesterday?

Wha?

[Thorin]

Yes, it was a well-played game.  The Sharks were on their third game in four nights, plus they'd played the night before in Calgary, so they were tired (3rd in 4 + b2b, usually teams lose in this situation).  They were also playing their backup goalie, who hadn't played in about a month.  I guess what I'm saying is this was not the Sharks at their best.  But you know what?  It was still the Sharks, and it was still a win against them.

Schultz was on the ice for the lone Sharks goal.  Schultz and Draisaitl were both coasting down to the net while the puck was going in the corner, and Scrivens was yelling at them and pointing at the guy they were supposed to cover, err, in his words "@%&#ing cover that guy!"  They should've listened, the guy that Scrivens was pointing out was the one that scored.  Draisaitl got sat for a shift after that mistake.

I don't know if Schultz was sat, but this was the first game of his career that he played less than 15 minutes in the entire game (other than the one healthy scratch).  Almost like the management stopped telling Eakins they have to play Schultz no matter what.  So, Nikitin out due to injury, Schultz limited in his ice time, and suddenly we're playing sound defensively...

[Mr. Analog]

Hmmm! That a coincidence eh

I hope that win brings up team morale a bit