Quote:
Originally Posted by Enoch Root
Was going to mention this in the OOT last night, but it should be in here...
Watching that game, and seeing all the talk during the broadcast and on twitter about the reffing - the mantra last night was "where are the penalties?" - not just from fans, but also from the media the commentators, and even the players, the first reaction is to think what are they whining about? Did I miss something? (spoiler: no, the reffing was fair, and was as balanced as you're going to get in an NHL game)
But then you realize, it wasn't just that game, it's every night. It's every single Oiler broadcast. The team, the commentators, the fans are in a perpetual state of "we deserve/need a PP". And there's the rub.
They NEED power plays. Their entire game plan is to try to survive 5 on 5, and score on the PP. The only way they can hope to win a game is to get at least 2 PP goals. And everyone knows this - the fans, the media, and the players.
So the entire game, the players are trying to draw penalties, and the commentators are calling for penalties, and the fans are outraged every time an Oiler gets touched and there isn't a penalty. They have to be. It is literally their game plan.
It has become their identity.
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To add to this ...
They can't even mix it up and hope for a big special teams game because their PK sucks so badly.
PP is scoring at a 13.6 G/60 rate (4th in the league)
PK is yield at a 12.4 G/60 rate (3rd worst)
And they're in risk of that +1.2 going negative as they're expected splits have them scoring at a greater clip than expected vs preventing at a greater than expected.
They need favourable refereeing, not neutral.