Monday Mailbag – Does Connor Pass Too Much?

We’re three games into the McDavid era and you fine folks have questions that need answers. As always, I’ve gathered the Nation writers and sent them your questions. Don’t hesitate to store these little wisdom seeds in your brain garden and let them blossom. If you have a question for next week’s mailbag you can email me at baggedmilk@oilersnation.com or hit me up on Twitter at @jsbmbaggedmilk. Until then, it’s time to learn something.

It’s probably helpful. Like any No. 1 pick I’m sure he’s used to the spotlight and knows how to handle it. There obviously shouldn’t be any question in his mind that he can play at this level.

Don’t see any reason it hurts him. He has been under spotlight for many years. Elite players like him aren’t afraid of the pressure and being in the spotlight, they crave it. It can only help his confidence.

I thought it was outstanding. I was also impressed by his postgame, where he seemed more concerned about his mistake on the winning goal. He is an insane talent, and a mature young man.

Very impressive start to the season. He has scored his first goal and the pressure to do that is off. I remember Taylor Hall and his rookie season, it took him a while to get the first goal. You could see he was starting to get worried about it. Having four after one game makes it a lot easier to get to 20 for the season in the next 81.

The debut was incredible. Nobody has done that in the modern era and the second goal in particular was ridiculous. Yeah, that will increase the pressure on him for sure, but more so in the long run. It definitely bought him a week of freebies. But if he goes 4-5 games without another goal that’s going to turn into a massive story.

It’s a terrific way to break the ice. Might be a one-off — could be the only four-goal game of his entire career — but it certainly doesn’t hurt to start that way.

I thought his four goals were amazing and cool for the game, however I wish it happened on a different team so I didn’t have to hear about Leafs fans talk about it so much. It hypes him up even more so when his first slump comes, Leafs fans will be that much more disappointed.

It was impressive to say the least. What else can you say? The kid popped four goals in his first ever NHL game and I think it was awesome. I assume it will give him confidence moving forward and that will only help. Unless of course Leafs fans get on him for getting in a goal drought here and there.

 

 

It’s a modest victory for the Flames, a modest loss for the Oilers, and a story line broadcasters can bring up whenever they play this season.

He looked at the best opportunity for him to play and earn another contract.

A grown man made a decision based on what was best for he and his family. Fin.

It was a bad choice because I believe there is more opportunity here for him to play in the top six this season.

Both he and the Oilers should have been able to see they needed him to be more than a part-time player and now he’s stuck on Calgary’s sinking ship.

Business. He saw Calgary as a better opportunity.

Third line in Edmonton or first line in Calgary, Versteeg made the right decision for himself but I still hate him for it.

Kick rocks, smurf boy.

 

 

3) Cory asks – As much as I love to watch Connor McDavid play I think he could still learn to be more selfish with the puck. Do you think he looks pass first too often?

I remember a story that I think I read in one of Don Cherry’s books which I’m going to relate here and hope I get right. In any event, Cherry was coaching the Bruins, and Bobby Orr came up to him one day to ask him to criticize him a little more in front of the team, something that cherry had been understandably reluctant to do. Cherry agreed, and at some point Orr made a positional play defending rather than taking the body. It worked just fine, but in keeping with his request Cherry yelled at him for passing up the hit. The next time an opportunity arose, Orr crushed the opposition forward and gave Cherry a cocky grin from the ice. The point in all this is that if you really look you can find something to criticize, but these transcendent players have such a grasp of what they’re doing that there isn’t much point. Or, put another way: No.

NO. NO. NO. He has played fewer than 50 NHL games and he’s already dominating. He had six shots in the first game and two goals. What else do you want? Sorry, but he knows when to pass. A non-issue.

Six shots in game one, two goals? Heh. I see your point and do think players should shoot more often, but me telling Connor McDavid what to do about hockey is not a good idea.

No. Don’t ever ask this again. You don’t tell Picasso to paint or Wanye how to meet the ladies.

I thought that a bit at the World Cup of Hockey just like I thought he was using the deke move too much on breakaways. Then he started shooting and the pucks we’re going in. What I think is that he creates SO MANY chances that we get tricked into thinking he gives them away too often. In reality, his line mates are the ones we should be concerned about.

No. When he sees an opening, he takes it to the net. When he doesn’t, he looks for the open man.

I always think about this. He does pass first A LOT, and sometimes I wish he would shoot more. At the same time, he is the best player in the world and has gotten to this point doing what he does best, so who am I to criticize?

Listen, man. I’m not going to tell Jimmy Page how to play guitar and I’m not going to tell Connor McDavid how to play hockey. My only criticism of Connor McDavid’s offensive skills is that he’s not physically able to play all 60 minutes, though I’m sure he’d like to.

After what happened in Game 1, I don’t think it’ll be a big issue. Less because of the fight and more because no NHL coach is going to want a player like Engelland on the ice against McDavid. I had a little chuckle Thursday morning as I saw Calgary had reconfigured its defence pairings to load up its top-four in response to that opening game against the Oilers. Having said all that, I don’t think Lucic responds to every single hit the way he did to Engelland and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he was looking for an opportunity to send a message early on.

Precedent for the season. Lucic did that a bit for himself, to get fired up and get in the game, but also to let people know he will be monitoring things. McDavid will take a hit, and most times it will lead to no retaliation, but if Lucic sees a cheapshot on McDavid he’ll take a number or go after guy right away. I don’t see him fighting more than seven times.

Great question, and the answer is probably yes. Edmonton does not have a reputation for standing up, or initiating, so there will be some teams who challenge several times in a game.

Setting the tone! I loved it. He is putting everyone on notice there will be no free passes on 97 this year. I am guessing he will end up around six fights which will be up from his total from last season.

He’ll fight when someone takes liberties with the Captain, but that’s really a precedent setter. The Oilers were going to play the Flames again in a couple days and they were trying to rough McDavid up a bit. I think Lucic was telling everybody there would be consequences.

Lucic only fought three times in each of the past two seasons, so, yes, he could fight “more” this season in comparison, but he won’t come close to hitting double-digits. Opponents already know what the likely outcome is if they get stupid with McDavid.

Definitely set a precedent. I’m sure Looch will have the odd scrap but we were all expecting him to drop the gloves in the first game. Everyone was pumped up enough as it was, being the Rogers Place opener, he wanted to add to that.

You know that Looch was setting the tone for the year. Don’t touch Connor or someone will come for you. Whether it’s Lucic, Kassian, Maroon, Hendricks, Darryl, or anyone else for that matter the Oilers have gotten bigger and they won’t be pushed around as much anymore.

 

 

The two teams that took the last wild card slots last season had an average home record of 22-13-6  and an average road record of 18-17-6. If you figure that those rates hold and you’re projecting the Oilers to finish inside the postseason, you’re hoping for something like a 4-3-2 start to the season as a minimum.

It isn’t just the home schedule it is their opponents in the month of October. Seven of the nine games are against teams who didn’t make the playoffs last year. Oilers need a total of 12 points. Whatever the combination is between wins and OTL doesn’t matter, but they need five wins at least.

I will say 5-3-1 through the first nine.

A good benchmark is to get six points in every five game segment. It breaks the season up into more manageable pieces. That pace should be a playoff spot. So let’s call it 11 points for the first nine games.

6-3 is a pretty good start to the year. They’ve started 2-0 at the time of me writing this. There are winnable games here as long as Talbot keeps his end of the bargain.

That no-show against Buffalo hurts. Five is “acceptable,” but at 2-1, they should still be looking at six wins.

I will be upset if they do any worse than 6-3. Looking at their competition, I could see them doing better than that. Time will tell.

Over the season I would think you’d want to win at least six of 10 games to give yourself a spot in the playoffs so I’ll go with somewhere around there. Five or six wins please.