Anyone around here still pretending that the incredible immaturity of this team is a massive, massive concern.
We can nitpick the lines, nitpick certain personnel decisions, and nitpick the coaching staff all we want, but that’s honestly wasted breath. Am I happy Ceci was in over Stecher? No. Am I happy he threw that patchwork second line together for no logical reason? No. Was that the problem last night? No. Is that why we lost? No, not close.
Here’s the new cadence of how a majority of Oiler games have gone since the new year:
- Start the first 5-10 minutes ok, but don’t shoot, don’t go to the net, don’t do anything that could possibly produce a scoring result. Normally we will piss an early PP into the wind as well
- After that is over, we’ll normally hand momentum to the other team on the heels of a thrown away PP or something else monumentally immature and stupid. Difference being the other team actually does things that result in them scoring goals.
- After this we start floating around and fighting uphill because the other team knows they have us by the balls and they have the work rate advantage.
- If we’re fortunate that we’re tied or within a goal after 2, we usually find a way to win with a 20 min effort. Or if we’re down multiple embark on a faint comeback hope that allows them to save at least a bit of face.
I’m f***ing sick of it. Sick of the trash breakouts, sick of the embarrassing efforts that only seem to be applicable to us at this point in the season as a “contending” team.
Few other things I need to mention:
- I have no idea who is dictating that we basically exclusively force the one timer to Leon on the PP, but if it’s the players then take Leon off the first unit for a bit. To what should be nobodies surprise, the only time we actually got pucks to the net and created chances was when Leon went to the box during the one PP. If they can’t recognize that this isn’t working, then make them recognize it.
- Tired of seeing Connor repeatedly in the frame on goals against lately where he stopped skating and let his guy free. Our rush defense is a f***ing joke, and it would be nice for our Captain to take the lead on actually committing to back checking with a modicum of effort. 3 assists are cool, but nobody will care about those if we’re eliminated in a Game 6 because he couldn’t bring himself to commit defensively.
At this point I’m going to resign myself to the fact that we will probably have to rely on a goaltending run and good timing to win anything. This group is so far off where they need to be mentally to win that I don’t know it’s possible to change in time. That’s if they even recognize an issue, which based on how they react to games like this I question.