Tuesday, October 25, 2005
This is fun?
There is nothing enjoyable about watching Oilers games anymore.
I mean that. I don't enjoy myself.
I mean that. I don't enjoy myself.
# posted by sacamano @ 10:02 pm 
Comments:
I enjoyed it in the sense that it doesn't let the team make any excuses. I mean, were you actually surprised? Once that phantom call on Smytty for goaltender interference happened, I was waiting for the worst.
Maybe we can get Sidney Crosby with the number #1 pick in the draft. Oh yeah...
The Schremp piece was like a kick in the groin.
hmm after this one I can say it now... the Oilers are jinxed nice goal Dvorak wrong net... hmm shortening the D after Ulies wonderful pass... I am not sure about that one. I think that cost the Oilers the game not the pass but the decision to go the rest of the game with out him. He is veteran he did a dumb thing he has done it before. Brightside MacT actually used his timeout at a point in the game when it made a difference. But both teams really looked bad and even a point would have been nice.. I am now on the side of Mac T days should come to a close... Call Ted Nolan...he can break these plugs of dumb habits...
I'm not too impressed with Mac-T's approach.
He is simultaneously wanting guys to be more aggressive and try to make more plays, but then he benches them whenever they make a mistake. Ullie's giveaway was bad, but at least he was trying to make a play - it would have been a pretty sweet pass right up the middle to a streaking Smyth. Those are the kind of mistakes you shouldn't mind, as opposed to giveaways because you are too tentative, for example.
Then, after the game he has this to say about the D-vo goal:
"What's your stick doing there?" MacTavish said about Dvorak. "You're right in front of your own goaltender, you have your stick on the ice above the goal-line? It was another mental mistake from a veteran. It can't happen."
Huh? D-Vo's goal was an unlucky fluke. To rip him for that is ridiculous, and will only cause players to try and play it more safe, which will result in even more tentative play, which can only make the problem worse.
This is a bad cycle.
As much as the loss was hard to take, it might keep things in perspective to note that the Oilers are currently 2-4 points away from a playoff spot. What makes it less fun is that the Oilers have lost 7 straight, and some of them were down right awful. But they looked better tonight and controlled much of the play.
I still hold out hope, and said as much on my little weblog.
I am impressed by his approach. I am tired of hearing excuses from the coaching staff. I don't care about "teachable moments." I want a winner. If Kevin Lowe had not signed Pronger, and especially Peca, and stated three months ago that the franchise was going to build from within the system, and that fans would have to be patient for 3-5 years, I could have waited. But he didn't. We were promised a winner. I don't think it is unfair for either Mac T or the fans to have high expectations. He paid ten million dollars for two guys who don't solve what were obviously the Oilers problems in 2003: goaltending and scoring. Subtract Salo for the whole year and add Nedved for the whole year in 2003, and we make the playoffs. Easily. Now, I like the Pronger pickup, but the Peca pick up is beginning to stink to high heaven.
When I watched the Dvorak goal, the first thing I yelled was "why the hell is your stick on that side of the net?" I remember being told where to place my stick in a situation like that when I was in Atom. Sure, you can look at it as a bad break, and the game happens quickly, but it also shows a lack of focus and fundamentals. There is no way that goal, or the two following it, should have happened. Absolutely brutal, and I appreciate a coach who doesn't sugar coat it.
This will sound both lame and desperate, but it really is worth remembering that the absence of ties is going to make winning and losing streaks longer as a matter of statistical course. I'm not suggesting this is relevant to the Oilers, but even a .600 hockey team whose wins are randomly distributed will lose five straight games at some point in more than half (54.3%) of its 82-game seasons.
The odds that a .500 team would lose seven straight just by chance--over a whole season--is remarkably large (44.5%). Of course, the Oilers haven't played a whole season. There is only a 17% probability that a .500 team would come out of the gate 3-7 or worse in its first ten games, so there is decreasing cause for hope here.
"This will sound both lame and desperate..."
You Albertans are always so keen to show off your fancy education, aren't you?
Hey, what the hell do you want us to do instead? Brag about our great NHL teams?
Problem being, Cosh, is that .500 teams won't make the playoffs anymore given how many points are going out in the new system. It'll probably take 95+ points to get into that 7 or 8 spot.
I'm talking about winning percentage, not percentage of possible points earned. We're treating OTLs as pure losses here. 16 of 30 teams make the playoffs, so .500 is the approximate cutoff by that standard.
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I enjoyed it in the sense that it doesn't let the team make any excuses. I mean, were you actually surprised? Once that phantom call on Smytty for goaltender interference happened, I was waiting for the worst.
Maybe we can get Sidney Crosby with the number #1 pick in the draft. Oh yeah...
The Schremp piece was like a kick in the groin.
hmm after this one I can say it now... the Oilers are jinxed nice goal Dvorak wrong net... hmm shortening the D after Ulies wonderful pass... I am not sure about that one. I think that cost the Oilers the game not the pass but the decision to go the rest of the game with out him. He is veteran he did a dumb thing he has done it before. Brightside MacT actually used his timeout at a point in the game when it made a difference. But both teams really looked bad and even a point would have been nice.. I am now on the side of Mac T days should come to a close... Call Ted Nolan...he can break these plugs of dumb habits...
# posted by 
: October 25, 2005 10:26 pm
: October 25, 2005 10:26 pm I'm not too impressed with Mac-T's approach.
He is simultaneously wanting guys to be more aggressive and try to make more plays, but then he benches them whenever they make a mistake. Ullie's giveaway was bad, but at least he was trying to make a play - it would have been a pretty sweet pass right up the middle to a streaking Smyth. Those are the kind of mistakes you shouldn't mind, as opposed to giveaways because you are too tentative, for example.
Then, after the game he has this to say about the D-vo goal:
"What's your stick doing there?" MacTavish said about Dvorak. "You're right in front of your own goaltender, you have your stick on the ice above the goal-line? It was another mental mistake from a veteran. It can't happen."
Huh? D-Vo's goal was an unlucky fluke. To rip him for that is ridiculous, and will only cause players to try and play it more safe, which will result in even more tentative play, which can only make the problem worse.
This is a bad cycle.
As much as the loss was hard to take, it might keep things in perspective to note that the Oilers are currently 2-4 points away from a playoff spot. What makes it less fun is that the Oilers have lost 7 straight, and some of them were down right awful. But they looked better tonight and controlled much of the play.
I still hold out hope, and said as much on my little weblog.
I am impressed by his approach. I am tired of hearing excuses from the coaching staff. I don't care about "teachable moments." I want a winner. If Kevin Lowe had not signed Pronger, and especially Peca, and stated three months ago that the franchise was going to build from within the system, and that fans would have to be patient for 3-5 years, I could have waited. But he didn't. We were promised a winner. I don't think it is unfair for either Mac T or the fans to have high expectations. He paid ten million dollars for two guys who don't solve what were obviously the Oilers problems in 2003: goaltending and scoring. Subtract Salo for the whole year and add Nedved for the whole year in 2003, and we make the playoffs. Easily. Now, I like the Pronger pickup, but the Peca pick up is beginning to stink to high heaven.
When I watched the Dvorak goal, the first thing I yelled was "why the hell is your stick on that side of the net?" I remember being told where to place my stick in a situation like that when I was in Atom. Sure, you can look at it as a bad break, and the game happens quickly, but it also shows a lack of focus and fundamentals. There is no way that goal, or the two following it, should have happened. Absolutely brutal, and I appreciate a coach who doesn't sugar coat it.
This will sound both lame and desperate, but it really is worth remembering that the absence of ties is going to make winning and losing streaks longer as a matter of statistical course. I'm not suggesting this is relevant to the Oilers, but even a .600 hockey team whose wins are randomly distributed will lose five straight games at some point in more than half (54.3%) of its 82-game seasons.
The odds that a .500 team would lose seven straight just by chance--over a whole season--is remarkably large (44.5%). Of course, the Oilers haven't played a whole season. There is only a 17% probability that a .500 team would come out of the gate 3-7 or worse in its first ten games, so there is decreasing cause for hope here.
# posted by : October 26, 2005 9:46 am
: October 26, 2005 9:46 am "This will sound both lame and desperate..."
You Albertans are always so keen to show off your fancy education, aren't you?
Hey, what the hell do you want us to do instead? Brag about our great NHL teams?
# posted by : October 26, 2005 11:41 am
: October 26, 2005 11:41 am Problem being, Cosh, is that .500 teams won't make the playoffs anymore given how many points are going out in the new system. It'll probably take 95+ points to get into that 7 or 8 spot.
I'm talking about winning percentage, not percentage of possible points earned. We're treating OTLs as pure losses here. 16 of 30 teams make the playoffs, so .500 is the approximate cutoff by that standard.
# posted by : October 26, 2005 2:16 pm
: October 26, 2005 2:16 pm Post a Comment
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