Quote:
Originally Posted by VERVE
He came highly touted during college days and while in the minors had 48 pts (18 goals) in 34 games for half the year. As a 22 yr old playing under Kreuger he had 27 pts (8 goals) in 48 games extrapolated to about 46 pts (82 gms)-not bad in his rookie season but under Eakins, it was disastrous. In other words, bad coaching does matter to his development as well as not bringing veteran dmen playing top minutes to either mentor him or shelter his minutes while playing as a rookie or sophomore (22-23 yr old dman). Schultz was thrusted into playing big minutes -top pairing type of min. while under Eakins. Not good for his growth and development especially as a 23 yr old dman (did I emphazise as a 23 yr old dman again).
Perhaps he could have been close to a Karlsson under the right environment or perhaps he is only a 2nd pairing guy who was fast tracked into playing top pairing minutes with disastrous results. With poor bad coaching and lack of mentorship to sheltor his minutes under tough oppositons, this certainly hamper Schultz's development as a young dman. Howeveer, it is never too late to start new again under better circumstances and right environment. I would not give up on a young dman with potential who just turned 25 playing under terrible conditions to develop and learn the game properly. It is easy to paint with wide brush the word scapegoat but more diffficult to understand the reasons why his development stalled and or regressed.
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College is College and the AHL is the AHL, in both leagues a player has a lot more time to make decisions and those with better physical skills tend to rise to the top as they can hide a low hockey IQ if they have a better physical skills set.
Based on his bone headed play in the NHL, versus his decent play in the AHL and good play in college, its easy to conclude that Schultz like Hall and Eberle don't have a great 2 way hockey IQ, in other words without the puck they're dumb as a post.
Schultz especially, he doesn't even understand basic positioning.
Now you can point to coaching, and Eakins wasn't a very good coach. But under Krueger who was considered a very good teaching coach, Schultz might have put up offensive numbers, but defensively he was still a walking disaster with a feel and IQ for the defensive game without a brick.
Remember that Eakins went away from the swarm. Probably because the Oiler players weren't smart enough to figure it out. Even when he went to a more standard defense Schultz still didn't get it. They bought Nelson in and he still didn't get that.
Frankly there's a difference between a player with instincts and a player with IQ. I would class Schultz as a player with offensive instincts but very little hockey IQ, and when combined with his timid I hate body contact mindset he's probably going to end up as a journey man like MAB who will be picked up by teams that need a pp QB who can sit on the bench at even strength because he actually hurts your team with his defensive game.
Frankly I get that its en-vogue to blame Eakins for everything. But the Oilers have had multiple successive coaches working with your so called young guns and they've failed because the Oilers got enamored with these offensively fancy players and made drafting them a priority. Tom Renney was an excellent coach, he's excellent technically and he was considered to be a great fit with young players, but frankly it didn't take long for the snot nosed brat brigade to basically tune him out.
They bought in Krueger another guy who was considered to be a very good teaching coach, and he had some success and then at the end of the season, the snot nosed punk brigade tuned him out, because by that point they realized that the Oilers management group was always going to side with the players over changing the culture in the dressing room.
Then they bought in hot shot Eakins who frankly and I agree was terrible. But all I hear from Oiler fans is its all his fault, but you know Hallsy has this massive will to win, and RNH is awesome, and Eberle is super talented and Yak has all this potential blah blah blah blag blah.
But frankly I don't see that will to win with Hall who is defensively stupid and incredibly lazy without the puck and makes bad and sloppy decisions with it. Sure he scores, but he's a player that as a coach I wouldn't feel comfortable with on the ice when I'm holding a lead. RNH is very good, I like Monahan better, but at least RNH does work without the puck. Eberle is softer then poop after taco tuesday and doesn't want to play defense or get engaged in hard physical battles. Yak has three things going for him. I think he works hard, he skates well in a straight line and he has a decent release. But he doesn't use his linemates well, he's clueless without the puck, he doesn't see the open ice very well and I think he has a very low hockey IQ and poor instincts with and without the puck. He's a player that seems to come to lige a bit when there's no pressure which explains why he's maybe had two good months in his entire career, the last month of his rookie season, and the last month of last season.
Anyways back to coaching, they get rid of Eakins and bring in Neilson and everyone looks at his record and a 80 point pace, which happened well after the Oilers were out of it and in no pressure land and basically played however they want, because defensively they were pretty much as bad as they were under Eakins, in a new simpler defensive system non the less.
The Oilers need to quick blaming Eakins for everything and pointing to TM as a savior.
The Management is at fault and should continue to feel heat as they've put a soft group of forwards together with only one of them having a decent hockey IQ (not counting McDavid because he hasn't played an NHL game yet)
The players, this is a lazy core with a poor cumulative IQ, plus they have an understanding that its the coaches that are going to pay the price enacted by the fans and media and management and not the players.
Yes the fans, for believing the hype that Hallsy and RNH and Eberle and Yak and Schultz are a uber core, they're not, they're an unbalanced core and not a core with a culture of work ethic. But every year we see the waggling fingers and hear about potential, and about how many cups they're going to win and about how it was all Coach X's fault.
Its not all on the coach. Schultz is bad because he's terrible, he's soft and he's a moron without the puck and he's a princess.
I have this expectation that until the Oilers look seriously at this core and balance out this team with a still lousy bottom 6, a atrocious blueline still and questionable goaltending and seriously get to work on balancing this lineup and flushing this team and rebuilding it culture wise that all that's going to happen is this.
July - Sept - We're going to be awesome, McDavid is going to propell this franchise to the promised land
Sept to Oct - Did you see the 8 million, McDavid clips on you tube in the non contact scrimmage, him and Hallsy and Eberle and blah blah blah blah blah are going to light it up man, woot woot
Oct to Jan - Well this is disappointing, they still can't keep the puck out of the net, we're out of the playoff's again,
Jan to April - We're playing for nothing again plan the draft party I give up. Todd McLellan is a lousy coach look at all the potential and they're still bad fire Todd.
You can't just look at the coaching here, you have to look at the players and everything else.