One thought on “CBC Edmonton News (TV): Bounce back win against Montreal, McDavid-Draisaitl tandem and more”

1. What went right in the Habs game was easy to see…the second intermission of the prior game was a turning point where the Oilers began to shoot the puck from the blueline ASAP and into traffic around the net where support was setting up on the periphery of the net waiting to battle for pucks , NOT in the crease but the 10 foot periphery….in the Habs game Lines were adjusted to more accurately accommodate the strengths of specific players…Milan was put into a much better position to succeed as was Nugey…..there were other line and tactical adjustments to mention…..Connor and Leon are no more potent than Connor and Nugey…but the ways they execute as Pairs are very different….Connor and Leon spend so much time together 3×3 that they simply extend this to their 5×5 play HOWEVER Connor does NOT play this way with RNH which he COULD AND SHOULD instead together they set-up structure before they go to work together and Nugey is a designated shooter from the left side coming in late like Kurri used to do for the cross-ice pass from Gretzky….set plays coming out of structure with an East/West focus are what you get from Connor/RNH and Creative Pairs with a quickstrike North/South focusd execution is what you get from Connor/Leon…. the Coaches need to set their bar higher now , have let the men find their comfort zones and now its time to elevate their evolutions and get Leon and Connor learn to play like Connor and Nugey but with Connor taking Nugeys role…..then teach Connor to play with Nugey like he does with Leon but have Connor take Leons role…the first and second and fourth lines are forming personalities…the 3rd line is seemingly always in LIMBO and this could be due to how the Coach views that line in terms of it being a tool to use to possibly shelter players who need to be shelterted in specific games….normally Coaches use the 4th line for this but the Oilers 4th line has become possibly the NHLs BEST and it looks like they are seriously holding it together….they are like the Shaggin-Wagon line with their 70s moustaches…lol…and they are playing LOW RISK hard honest clean KISS 2-way hockey hockey that is always very difficult to defend in the NHL…it seems to me that rolling 3 lines would make everything much more streamlined and productive….there will be games where running 4 lines might be better to do but by and large IMHO the Oilers should drive to become an offensively predatory Club that runs 3 offensive lines down your gullet…and distributes the 4th lines minutes evenly. and carrying extra defencemen on the bench to spell out the top 6.This means fresh legs to jump into the playactions from the backend ..available all the time….kind of like the historic epic perfect usage of Petr Klima.

   The verbology connected to the phrase..puck moving defenseman….is to generic.Chia is blowing wind….every single Player who makes it to the NHL level can move the puck fast…does Chia mean a FAST SKATING D-man??….or does he mean one with an upgraded harddrive like Boosh who is still a Kid but can snap off deadly accurate perfectly timed first-passes on an NHL level all night long for you because he is an anomaly…..puck moving defenseman is an EXCUSATORY TERM created by Hockey Managers to protect themselves…Systems move pucks…team play moves pucks…every NHL D-man is a puck moving defenseman…LOL.

   The PP needs to go back to using the late upspeed supports on their zone traverses and entries…like they had perfected last year with the exception that this season they COMPLETE THAT FOCUS by using the o-zone entry to facilitate an immediate strike on net catching the opponent in their FIRST defensive transition in their own zone and trying to drive it right to the bucket and deke the Goalie or snap a short shot in close….last season they perfected this elite zone transition tactic but failed to use it for deep penetrating immediate quickstrike goal scoring…instead they used it to set up on the 1/2 wall as they traditionally have done.That was a critical mistake that IMHO cost the Asst.Coach his job.Needlesly IMHO.Now the Oilers are using a PP focus with much less upside a more traditional predictable stoppable focus….they will continue to overpass and to view PPs as a slow-down focus when they should be an anerobic HURRY-UP then slow down then HURRY-UP focus….remember in NHL hockey you score by catching opponents in TRANSITION or out of position or you Superman it like McDavid and a few others can do.When the opponent is a man short you can force these transitions out of them IMMEDIATLY AND REPEATEDLY…meaning you have a huge anticipatory advantage one in which all roads do not lead to Rome they lead to DEEP PENETRATING TERMINAL QUICKSTRIKE OFFENSE LOCKED IN ON THE OPPONENTS VERY FIRST D-ZONE TRANSITION YOU FORCE THEM TO MAKE…AND THERE SHOULD BE 2 MORE BASIC PLAYACTION PRESSURE OUTLETS ATTATCHED TO THAT FIST STRIKE in terms of recovery and rebooting.

   Every single game is important and critical..the Oilers will not be a team with a cushion to fall back onto until they demand consistency from the opponents in terms of demanding they LOSE.There is a NewAge level of Parity in the NHL now that has grown to include top teams in both Conferences now…this hasn’t been seen in the NHL for several DECADES IMHO….since 2012/13 the NHL has evolved towards an across the board level of tactical and systems PARITY…there used to be an Eastern Conference Style and a Western Conference Style….now there is simply a NewAge Hockey System style developing and growing across the entire NHL.

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