BUFFA-OH NO! Post-Game Fan Reaction: Oilers vs Sabres

BUFFA-OH NO! Post-Game Fan Reaction: Oilers vs Sabres

Oh boy. Oh boy. Oh boy. Oh boy. There’s a lot that I want to say, but I also don’t want to have this video demonetized. There’s a lot that I could say. I don’t know if it would be worth it. I feel like I’m just screaming into the void half the time. Let’s have a conversation. Let’s just have a conversation. I have a question for all of you before I start talking about whatever this game was that we just saw between the Oilers and Sabres. What’s everyone been up to lately? What have What are some fun, positive things that you’ve all been up to lately? I’m going to tell you something fun that I’ve been doing lately that has been much more fun than watching the Oilers. Uh, I started up a new Pokemon Emerald File back on the Game Boy Advance SP. Man, look how old this thing is. Hey, a lot of you watching probably weren’t even born when this thing came out. There’s a lot of you youngans out there, but uh if you happen to be of the age that knows what this is, that’s what I’ve been doing. It’s been a lot of fun. I’ve been naming Pokemon after different Oilers. Like we got Ike Howard the trio. That that’s that’s fun, right? Like this this is significantly more fun than whatever the Oilers currently are. The state of the Oilers is really bad. The state of the the roster construction is not great. Their five on five play continues to be abysmal and there’s just no life in the team. They’re very boring. I’ve talked about how boring this team is all year long. Uh Chris Knobblock has completely sucked the life out of this team. The the way this team generates offense is I mean if it’s not Connor and Leon and if it’s not on the power play, they don’t do anything. They just do that weird skate into the offensive zone, button hook play to the blue line. Forwards are all wide. There’s nobody in front of the net. Nobody in the inner slot. Darnell Nurse will throw 1,500 wrist shots from the blue line and kill all zone time and pressure every single time he’s on the ice. It’s it it just hasn’t been fun. This team has not been fun this season. So, that’s why I want to ask and why I am asking everyone, what are some fun things that you have been doing while the Oilers continue to struggle and uh be very frustrating for me? Playing some old school Pokemon. Getting that nostalgia hit is always a good time. Hopefully you are all up to some fun things. Uh the Oilers tonight, they lost 5-1 to the Buffalo Sabres. Welcome in. Welcome back if you’re tuning in. If you’ve been here before, uh welcome if you are a first-time viewer. If you like today’s video, hit the like button. If you really like it, subscribe to the channel as we continue to discuss the ups and downs of the Edmonton Wlers. It’s been mostly like they are just skidding along. I like I know Nan Hopkins is not in the lineup. I know Caspberry Kappa is not in the lineup, but honestly, even if they were in the lineup, yeah, maybe Lazar comes out. Sure. Um, and then Noah Phelp is probably out of the lineup, too. Do Noo and Kenan add enough to this lineup to instill any confidence that the Oilers would be playing better? Probably not. This is just how the Oilers play. The Chris Knobblock system, very perimeter, very boring. Uh, they don’t generate a lot of high danger chances. In fact, heading into the third period in this game, the Oilers had one high danger chance at five on five and Buffalo had 11, at least according to Natural Statrick. So, uh, there was that. That’s that’s a lot of fun. Uh, Steuart Skinner after two consecutive strong starts tonight, didn’t have his best game. Uh, the team in front of him obviously did not even remotely have a good game. One of the worst defenseman in the history of the NHL over the past few weeks here. Just just putting it out there. Darnell Nurse. I don’t know what it’s going to take to get Darnell Nurse healthy scratched. But then you you get into this problem. This is a problem with Em. If you healthy scratch Darnell Nurse, who do you replace him with? Who are you replacing him with? It’s like when fans were calling for Buchard earlier this season to get healthy scratched, who who’s going out there and replacing the minutes that he plays? Like that’s that’s the problem right now. At least Bousard can provide a little bit of offense. Darnell Nurse provides literally nothing at this point. He is below replacement level in terms of his performance. I used to think Darnell Nurse’s big problem was he never had a proper top four D man to play next to. Early in Darnell Nurse’s career, he had Chris Russell to play next to. And love or hate Chris Russell. Uh there’s a lot of people in the analytics community like myself did not really care for Chris Russell. Uh always top five and block shots and all the the different defensive stats. But my argument is he’s blocking shots because he’s stuck in the defensive zone all game and not ever generating anything on offense. Now, I know there are roles. It is okay to play defense. You don’t always have to generate offense. There are player types, player roles. The Chris Russells of the NHL don’t really exist anymore. Um, you do have to figure out how to play with some kind of offensive instincts if you want to make it in today’s NHL. But I used to think, okay, Darnell Nurse’s big problem here is he plays next to Chris Russell. And Chris Russell, he his style of game doesn’t suit Darnell Nurse, who likes to skate with the puck, use his feet, uh can be physical as well. Nurse used to be much more physical than he is now. And then Darnell Nurse got paired with Cody Cece. Ken Holland went out, signed Cody Cece to a long-term extension or contract as a free agent. Oh my goodness. Cody Cece, we all know the Darnell Nurse and Cody Cece dynamic. Uh I almost turned into the Joker during the playoffs a couple years ago because of Cody Cece and Darnell Nurse. So, you know, a lot of fans like myself and others out there, you’re like, “Okay, well, Darnell Nurse, his metrics and his performance isn’t good because he’s stuck next to Cody Cece, right? He’s got to babysit Cody Cece.” And then we head into this season. Now, last year, Nurse did actually have a pretty decent year. Um, he had a different couple different uh defense partners throughout the season. Uh, him and Ster were pretty effective last season. Um, and then they picked up Walman mid-season or I guess near the trade deadline. But last year, Darnell Nurse for the most part held his own above water at five on five, which was great. Love that. This year has not been the case. Uh, and he is playing primarily next to Jake Walman and he gets most of his ice time with either Connor or Leon. It’s not like Darnell Nurse is out there when the third and fourth line for the Oilers is out there. Um, so you can’t even make that argument like, oh well, Nurse is getting shelled because he’s out there with like Frederick and Mapani every single shift. No, no, no. Darnell Nurse gets a lot of ice time with Dry Cidle and McDavid. He gets a lot of ice time next to Jake Welman. Jake Wellman is a legitimate top four Dman in the NHL. And what we’re seeing from Darnell Nurse right now is not top four type defending. And used to think, okay, well, it’s Chris Russell’s fault. It’s Cody Cece’s fault. What? We’re going to blame Jake Walman now? Maybe we have to start actually looking at Darnell Nurse as a probably a big problem here. And a lot of us have known this, right? It’s not like this is a new conversation that we’re having with nurse. Um and I don’t mean to just pick on nurse specifically. It’s just this this game today. A lot of the issues um were a lot of the issues that Nurse has had this season came out once again tonight. So that’s why I’m talking about nurse. I know we can talk about the goalending till we’re blue in the face. We can talk about Stam Bowman’s roster construction. We can talk about Trent Frederick being just invisible every single night. Uh for what it’s worth, I thought Frederick played okay today. I didn’t think he was the worst player out there, but I didn’t think anyone on Edmonton really looked good. I thought Conor McDavid maybe had one of his worst games as an Oiler after playing a really good game against Carolina. Darnell Nurse, not good right now. Not good. The goalending situation not good. Uh they have a backtoback coming up here uh on Wednesday and Thursday. They play Washington and Tampa back toback which means Calvin Pickard is about to get a start on one of those games. That’s not good. We we like Calvin Pickard’s save percentage the season 830 over four goals against average. He’s one of the worst goalies in the league in goals saved above expected. It’s not going to be a good game whichever one he plays whether it’s against Washington or Tampa. And then on the second half of backto back or I guess not the second half you have three games in four nights. The game on Saturday against Florida is also going to be probably abysmal to watch. We needed the Oilers to go 500 on this road trip. They have two wins, both in overtime. They haven’t had a regulation win since October 28th. Four regulation wins in 21 games this season, is not good. And the schedule has not done them any favors. I’m assuming that there’s probably some form of fatigue factor going on with some of this. But at the same time, if there is fatigue, Chris Knobblock, you keep running McDavid and Dry Settle into the ground, playing them a ton of minutes. But like I said, you run into that problem where no one else is really doing anything. So, who do you replace these minutes with? If it’s not Connor and Leon producing, who’s producing for the Oilers right now? It is ugly. It is very, very ugly. And I think one of the most disappointing things about this game, sorry, I’m kind of I’m kind of scatterrained right now. I think one of the most disappointing things about this game was at the end of the second period, Pud Coulson, he gets into a spirited fight with uh Payton Krebs. Krebs, of course, took McDavid down pretty hard earlier in the second, and Pod Kohl’s was having none of that. He’s protecting his captain, has a spirited tilt with Krebs, lands a bunch of rights, and you know, you give the decision to Pod Coulson. The Oilers should have built off that. There should have been energy from that. You should have been like, “Okay, Pod Coulson, he’s engaged protecting his captain.” If you’re one of the leaders on the Oilers, if you’re a McDavid or Dside or who or whoever, I’m I’m shocked that that wasn’t an inspiring thing for the team. I’m shocked that they didn’t come into the third period just ready to rip and and just get going on offense. I think in the first 10 minutes of that third period, I think the Oilers had two or three shots and I think they all came from the blue line. Like that’s that’s where we’re at. And when the Oilers pulled their net when they were down by three goals, I like almost every shot um every shot that they took was from the blue line. I don’t I don’t understand why they they can’t work the cycle and work pucks into the inner slot or attack off the rush. I know McDavid tried to do a few things off the rush in this game. Didn’t really work out. And then of course you have some out of town um you have the out of town media absolutely making fun of Edmonton’s goalending situation. This is the out of town media and this is what they think of the others goending. By the way, I’m just going to play the clip. I’m going to have the sound up for you. Here you go. Yeah. Empty net for Edmonton. Yeah, it has been most of the night. So, what’s the difference? Um, it has been most of the night. What’s the difference? See how like that should be a wakeup call, right? You have outside media dunking on your goalending situation. If that is not a proper wakeup call for Stam Bowman to address this, I don’t know what is. And for the media also covering this team in in Edmonton, the the Edmonton region. Um, when is Darnell Nurse going to be properly called out? When is Darnell Nurse going to get healthy scratched? I think those are a couple of questions that are important to pose here. Uh, the Oilers were dunked on by a Sabres team that is dealing with injuries, a Sabres team that is I think they coming into the game they were dead last in the Eastern Conference. Now, I know in the Eastern Conference last place and like first place, they’re not separated by a ton of points right now. Uh, it’s a very like compressed standings, but this is a team where supposed supposed Stanley Cup contenders at this point. I’m ready to call them frauds. And maybe not frauds, maybe just poorly coached at this point. It’s and it’s tough, right? Because Nblock two years in a row. Two years in a row in the Stanley Cup final. Chris Knobblock watches his team get dunked on by a Florida Panthers team that constantly forche, attacks off the rush, attacks off a psycho game, strong special teams and pressures on the forche constantly. They always have a forward on the defenseman. Every single second you have the puck, someone is on top of you. and Chris Knobblock went, “You know what? I got out coached in two Stanley Cup finals in a row.” And instead of maybe adjusting my system, maybe trying to tweak it to kind of, you know, match what Florida does, you know, a very successful team that just won the Stanley Cup two years in a row against you, Chris Knobblock, and the Mton Oilers. I’m Chris Knobblock. I decide to make this the most boring team to watch imaginable. I am going to suck the life out of the offense. I’m going to suck the life out of the defense. I’m going to make this team play neutral zone, boring perimeter hockey that puts their fans to sleep every single night and also blow several multi-goal leads throughout the season. This is a team that wants to, you know, commit to a full defensive system, but then when they have leads, they can’t hold on to them either because their system doesn’t work for that and their goalending is not good enough. There are so many things to talk about in this game, man. It is frustrating. That’s why uh that’s why I play Pokemon. That’s why I do other things that are fun because if you let this team dictate how you feel every single time you watch them. This is going to be a long season. It’s already a long It already feels like a long season, doesn’t it? I’m sure a lot of you are watching and you you’re all probably pretty exhausted from watching this team right now. I don’t know what the solutions are internally. I don’t know what you do if you’re the Oilers. Is it worth firing the head coach? Maybe that probably kickstarts the team a little bit, but it’s not like you just overhaul the entire system mid-season. It’s not really how that’s going to work. It And who would who would you even replace Knoblock with? You could replace him with DOA, but if you get to the playoffs, you’re probably not going to the cup final. But if you get to game seven, you’re never going to lose. Beat DOA, right? Uh that’s his whole thing. Never loses in game sevens. That’s Dbora, right? Uh you could hire a Tortoella. I don’t think the team needs a Tortoella type coach, but John Tordella is out there. You could hire him. I don’t know, man. Um, when it comes to internal solutions, who do you call it from the AHL? Now, I think there are quite a few players in the Orthers bottom six that you could healthy scratch and then bring up different guys from the AHL. Bakersfield, Quinn Hudson’s been playing really good. Quinn Hudson’s looking pretty good down there. Um, Samansky looks pretty good. I don’t know. I don’t know. You just sent down Ike Howard. How could he be less effective than whatever Trent Frederick and Matias Yanmark and Curtis Lazar are right now? I don’t know. Are there internal solutions? Are there external solutions? If you’re Stam Bowman, too, like you you also want some semblance of stability, I guess, is is the word that I would use. But how much stability are you waiting to be patient on until you’re like out of the playoff hunt, right? like, and I know I I don’t mean to bring up the like the Toronto Maple Leafs here, but they’re they’re also going through a a kind of a similar situation where their their management and coaching has galaxy the way their team is constructed and the way they should play and and taken a lot of the creativity away from the offense. And yeah, Toronto, they lost Mner. The Oilers haven’t lost a player of like Mitch Mner’s caliber in terms of offensive production. Um, the Leafs, they have their superstars and when their superstars aren’t producing, like where would the Leafs be without Tiveras right now? And where would the Oilers be without McDavid and Dre Cidle? Like I’m only comparing the two because those are two teams where they’ve been pretty similar in terms of how they’ve performed in the regular season standings-wise, goals for special teams like Matthews, Marner, McDavid, Didle. Now MNER’s gone and and the Leafs overall they are struggling. They do get caved at five on five just like the Oilers are right now. And I don’t know what the solution is. I I I really don’t. And if you’re a Leafs fan who’s watching, by the way, I don’t sorry for the like the random straight bullet. You’re probably just like looking around like, “What the hell did I do?” I I just wanted to bring that up because like there are similarities and comparisons different teams in the league. This is not just like an Oilers problem, I guess, is what I should say. I was trying to say that this is not just an Oilers problem as fans of this team right now. Yes, it is frustrating. Um, but yeah, I I I don’t even know what to say. I don’t know what the solutions are. Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Uh, tomorrow we’ll try and dissect it a little bit further in the day after discussion. Um, yeah. I don’t know, man. That’s a that’s a tough one. That’s a frustrating loss. Wish I had more to say. Wish I had more to say. I wish I had more solutions to give as a fan. Uh, but I feel like we’ve talked about so many of the same talking points all year long that at this point it’s it’s just up to the group. It’s up to the group in that room. And if they can’t get the job done, if they’re not a playoff team, we’re going to have lots of problems and many, many discussions. Oh boy. Uh, by the way, who who should I catch next? Right. So, I have Evan Bousard, the low tad. I have Ike Howard, the uh the trio. I got Neon Leon, the Talo. Let me know who I should catch next in uh Pokemon Emerald as well. If you’re a big Pokemon fan, let me know in the comment section below. I’ll talk to you all tomorrow and the day after. Uh thank you all so much for watching. Hit the like button, subscribe if you’re not yet subscribed, and uh we’ll see you soon in Oil Country. Tell someone you love them, and as always, fight like a kid, fight like Ben. Let’s go, Oilers.

This team is cringe. #oilers #edmontonoilers #nhl

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