Edmonton is No Good VI: Chia•den•freu•de

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Hemmer

Don't forget that McDavid was super ill early last season and lost 10 lbs.

It's a miracle he's still alive.

[Phaneufenstein]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

The point here is that pre-season scoring is almost entirely completely irrelevant. We should as fans treat it with the appropriate level of response—cool, but meaningless. The wrong response is precisely that embodied by the Oilers and their fans: "pre-season" game results are treated like a barometer of regular season success—it's why the Oilers are the only NHL team to regularly and consistently keep running statistical totals and compiles standings for the preseason. It is why at present they have Ty Rattie, Kailer Yamamoto, and Connor McDavid emblazoned in bold typeface atop their list of "2018 NHL Pre-Season League Leaders." It is why they have gone to the trouble of calculating points and compiling a "2018 NHL Pre -Season Standings with teams slotted according to Division.

It's pathetic. It's consummately typical behaviour from any Oilers fan with a massive inferiority complex. It's no good, and it is unbecoming of any self-respecting fanbase in the NHL.

From the links you provided:

Ty Rattie's shooting percentage is 53.8%.
7 goals on 13 shots.

In conclusion, he's amazing.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Phaneufenstein

From the links you provided:

Ty Rattie's shooting percentage is 53.8%.
7 goals on 13 shots.

In conclusion, he's amazing.

Five of those goals and eight of Rattie's points have come in home games which saw the Oilers ice a full lineup against the Jets's C-team, and again in a game with a partial Canucks roster that is loaded with journeymen, rookies and featuring a marginal AHL goalie. Is it a surprise that the Oilers's two remaining games tonight and on Saturday are also on home ice?

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

in a game with a partial Canucks roster that is loaded with journeymen, rookies and featuring a marginal AHL goalie.

Or, as it's otherwise known, the 2018-19 Vancouver Canucks.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by Hemmer

Don't forget that McDavid was super ill early last season and lost 10 lbs.

His crossovers were mighty sick too.

[Textcritic]

Watching Spector and Gene tonight:

Spector: "McDavid has NINE POINTS in 3 preseason games! He is just so much better than every other NHL player. And he knows how important it is for the Oilers to get off to a good start this year... ...NINE POINTS!! NINE!!!"

Gene: "The Oilers are READY! Only one loss in the preseason! What should we make of their impressive play in the preseason?"

Spector: "This is a different situation from last year when the team went 6–2 in the preseason. It's REALLY different this year because the Oilers KNOW they have to get off to a good start this year.

"They are figuring out how to win, Talbot has been incredible, McDavid is amazing, and even some young defensemen look better than anyone expected! Unlike last year when they had the same preseason results the team really, really, really looks ready to start the regular season this year. This time, it's different."

[dino7c]

Ty Rattie played (forward not goal) in a beer league tournament this past May...and didn't win it

[Ashasx]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Watching Spector and Gene tonight:

Spector: "McDavid has NINE POINTS in 3 preseason games! He is just so much better than every other NHL player. And he knows how important it is for the Oilers to get off to a good start this year... ...NINE POINTS!! NINE!!!"

Gene: "The Oilers are READY! Only one loss in the preseason! What should we make of their impressive play in the preseason?"

Spector: This is a different situation from last year when the team went 6–2 in the preseason. It's REALLY different this year because the Oilers KNOW they have to get off to a good start this year.

"They are figuring out how to win, Talbot has been incredible, McDavid is amazing, and even some young defensemen look better than anyone expected! Unlike last year when they had the same preseason results the team really, really, really looks ready to start the regular season this year. This time, it's different."

holy hell this isn't even exaggerated. these are things that they actually said.

they are up their own asses

[FireGilbert]

Wow I couldn’t tell if that was real or satire.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

I just assumed that was some sort of Onion-like article. That wasn't real, was it?

[djsFlames]

Amazingly not an Onion excerpt.

After all these home games against essentially B-squads, playing across Europe then an east coast trip against good teams is totally going to #### their start, I think.

The Oiler media boys always make the mistake of trumpeting from the rooftops before the team hits its first snag in the road, which is typically when their true colours come out, time and time again.

And here we are, just like clockwork..

[1qqaaz]

Detroit is 6-0 in the preseason. Might as well start preparing for a Redwing-Oiler cup final?

[jg13]

Didn't the Flames go something like 7-1 in pre season about 6 years back and start the regular season 0-3?

Reality is going to slap that franchise so hard once again

[Redrum]

Obviously Spector's giant 3-veiner for McCrossover is no secret, so I'm not surprised about the better than everyone else quote. But I thought the thing about being 6-2 in last year's preseason "but this is different" had to be an exaggeration. Nope. Dead serious, without a doubt in his mind.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by jg13

Didn't the Flames go something like 7-1 in pre season about 6 years back and start the regular season 0-3?

Reality is going to slap that franchise so hard once again

In 2010, the Flames went 7-0 in the preseason. Then they started the season with a blowout loss to the pathetic Oilers and stumbled out of the gate, never gaining any traction and Sutter was fired before the end of the calendar year.

[Lanny_McDonald]

Of course the Oilers are going to have a great record in the pre-season. When you have no prospects to play, and have to dress your entire NHL roster every game, you're likely to see a really good record in the pre-season. Can't wait to see Ty Rattie carry that 54% shooting percentage into the regular season and Mc####face continue on his 240 point pace.

[CaptainCrunch]

I watched that piece with Spector and that idiot Principe who can't wait to get out his costumes and continue his career of stupid and unfunny, and I flashed back to My Cousin Vinny, when Vinny was talking about the prosecution's case, and I realized how it really linked to the Oilers. So modified for the Oilers

Vinny Gambini: Look, maybe the Oilers had this amazing preseason. Rattie leading the league, McDavid shooting the lights out, Talbot playing 10 feet tall and 40 feet wide, okay? I admit it. But what's most important is winning in the regular season and possibly they could be ok, but I doubt it. Let me tell you why, okay? The GM's got to build a team that the home town fans put their faith in blindly. Building a team is like building a house. Each piece is just another building block. He wants to make a brick bunker of a building. He wants to use serious, solid-looking bricks, like, like these, right?
[puts his hand on the wall]
Bill: Right.
Vinny Gambini: Let me show you something.
[he holds up a playing card, with the face toward Billy]
Vinny Gambini: He's going to show you the the bricks. He'll show you they got straight sides. He'll show you how they got the right shape. He'll show them to you in a very special way, so that they appear to have everything a brick should have. But there's one thing he's not gonna show you.
[turns the card, so that its edge is toward Billy]
Vinny Gambini: When you look at the bricks from the right angle, they're as thin as this playing card. His whole team is an illusion, a magic trick. It has to be an illusion, 'cause they stink. Nobody - I mean nobody - pulls the wool over the eyes of a Gambini, especially this one. Give it the first 20 games and they'll fall apart, their lack of depth and haphazard lineup dictates that.

Look chances are that this is going to be a one line team, maybe Klefbom bounces back and they get a decent 3 out of 6 blueliners, and maybe Cam Talbot bounces back and posts a .929 svpct and Rattie has a 25% shooting percentage, but it won't matter much, because goalies fail. If other teams outmatch 3 out of the 4 Oiler lines and outmatch their bottom 2 pairings on a nightly basis the Oilers will lose.

Do we believe that the top line of the Oilers is going to score 2 goals a game or about 164 goals? Unlikley, If Rattie gets 20 or even 25, which I can't see, Nuge has a career year of 25 and Connor jumps up his best season goal scoring wise of 50 goals or a 20% increase, that's going to be 100 goals at most. Unless Draisaitl scores 50, and Lucic bounces back to 25 and Poolparty gets 25 that team is going nowhere.

They have no real second or third or fourth line scoring option to take the weight off of that first line.

You look at all of the other pacific teams except for maybe Vancouver and they have some semblance of scoring depth that the pathetic trash pile up north dosen't have.

Oiler fans seem to think that somehow everything is going to fix itself.

Oh the PP is going to be great.
The PK is going to bounce back
Lucic is going to bounce back
Talbot is going to bounce back.
Klefbom is going to bounce back
etc etc etc.

They can believe that, but any intelligent, rational fan base is going to tell you that hockey doesn't work like that, that not everything bounces back, and even if they do its like the kid with his finger in the hole in the damn, you might plug one or two or three holes, but then new leaks form.

Its great that they replaced their assistant coaches, even though we know what GG brings to the table, but the coaching problem with the Oilers is still the head coach who couldn't get a good effort out of a crappy team that should have been motivated last year. Instead at the halfway point that team cashed in their last chip at the table, pushed their chair back, walked out of the casino, found the nearest bridge and jumped off.

At the very best scenario, this first 20 game segment for the Oilers kills them. On the other hand I can see them replicated that Flames team years ago with Turek in goal that ripped up the league for 20 games at the start of the season, then their lack of depth and skill through their lineup and teams figuring them out will murder them over the last 60 games.

I mean I know Spector is a completely blind homer who is a terrible writer and an even worse hockey mind is predicting great things. But you would think that even someone with a half formed brain would say "Woah pump the breaks maannnnn, we've been here before and we don't know how good we are"

But this is what makes Oilers hockey so delicious. They give their fan base hope, and then throw them off the cliff to be dashed on the rocks below.

for the Oilers hope might spring external, but the fact of the matter is this. We're not talking about some geyser of awesomeness in terms of how good they are. Its more like the inconsistent stream or an 80 year old man with serious prostate trouble.

Not even fantasy can save the Oilers
No one can.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Watching Spector and Gene tonight:

Spector: "McDavid has NINE POINTS in 3 preseason games! He is just so much better than every other NHL player. And he knows how important it is for the Oilers to get off to a good start this year... ...NINE POINTS!! NINE!!!"

Gene: "The Oilers are READY! Only one loss in the preseason! What should we make of their impressive play in the preseason?"

Spector: This is a different situation from last year when the team went 6–2 in the preseason. It's REALLY different this year because the Oilers KNOW they have to get off to a good start this year.

"They are figuring out how to win, Talbot has been incredible, McDavid is amazing, and even some young defensemen look better than anyone expected! Unlike last year when they had the same preseason results the team really, really, really looks ready to start the regular season this year. This time, it's different."

[N-E-B]

Didn’t Mark Spector have the audacity to claim he isn’t an Oilers fan? As recently as last season?

What a hack.

[Fuzz]

"This time, it's different."



No, no it is not. Always fun to watch them build themselves up so much before the season. The higher they are, the more satisfying the fall.