[Calgary4LIfe]

Originally Posted by AC

The Oilers media and fans are going to be devastated when they realized Neal is even slower than Lucic.

Reddit user itoadaso1 dug up highlights for every point Lucic and Neal registered, as well as some additional hits/shifts by Lucic.

Lucic: https://www.reddit.com/r/CalgaryFlam...n_video_clips/

Neal: https://www.reddit.com/r/CalgaryFlam...f_every_point/

Once again, I'll point out maybe only 1 of Neal's 7 goals was off a legitimate shot. The rest were deflections (mostly accidental), or partial/flubbed shots.

This dump and chase hit by Lucic is caused by him skating faster than Neal did at any point last year: https://streamable.com/1eavt

I've said it before, and I will say it again - Neal's career low shooting percentage was not based simply on bad luck, and I saw nothing to make me think that way. In fact, when you watch the above, doesn't it make you think that perhaps his shooting percentage was actually INFLATED with some good luck?



Now, maybe he has bad wrists now and maybe some off-season wrist surgery will fix it. I have heard absolutely nothing about this, and he seems to be working out well enough, so I am out of explanations as to why exactly James Neal sucks at shooting the puck. I didn't see some bounce-back in terms of his shot.



Maybe it was a cumulative effect of changing teams, nerves, poor conditioning and poor chemistry that made him totally lose confidence... but this is some Nichuskin-level shooting incompetence that I witnessed last season. It was a whole lot of good luck that resulted in his goal totals being above 1, not bad luck.