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A thread on McDavid's defence, something I've seen pop up a lot yesterday and today. #Oilers
First off, I think it's pretty obvious that McDavid isn't good defensively, at all. His EVD in the past three years is actually dead last in the league, and the Oilers improve defensively with him off the ice by a lot. He needs to improve a lot, he can't be this bad.
But I've seen people put 100% of the blame on him, say he's part of the problem,and that he's not even worth his contract by a lot, and I simply disagree with that. This thread briefly goes into his defence and why it may be this bad. And I think it might start with the coaching.
Below are McDavid's RAPM charts under McLellan, and his charts in 18-19 and 19-20. The one on the very left is under McLellan, and the other two are 18-19 and 19-20. What they show is that McDavid has regressed in the past two years: offensively, and especially defensively.
McDavid's xGA still wasn't that good in the left chart, but it wasn't as bad as it is now, and his xGF and GF were so incredibly high that it wasn't even that big of a problem.
This is a thing I made a while back, and it shows most players under McLellan, Hitchcock and Tippett, and every player, with the exception of Kassian, Nuge (by a small margin), and Bear (small sample), did worse without Mclellan, especially guys like Nurse, Drai, and McDavid.
This shows that while McLellan wasn't a good coach (never made adjustments, no timeouts, line shuffling, etc), his system was good.
McDavid's:
xGF% from 15-16 - 17-18: 55.56%
xGF% from Oct 6 - Nov 20 in 2018: 55.40%
xGF% for the rest of 18-19: 46.41%
xGF% for 19-20: 48.29%
McDavid's:
xGF% from 15-16 - 17-18: 55.56%
xGF% from Oct 6 - Nov 20 in 2018: 55.40%
xGF% for the rest of 18-19: 46.41%
xGF% for 19-20: 48.29%
It's that obvious;McD did good at 5v5 in 18-19 when McLellan was here and then regressed under Hitchock. It's funny how his worst defense has come under two coaches with a reputation of being good defensive coaches.
McDavid's defense is also impacted but playing with Draisaitl.
McDavid's defense is also impacted but playing with Draisaitl.
This year:
McD's GA/60 with Drai: 3.9
McD's GA/60 w/o Drai: 2.63
Drai's GA/60 w/o McD: 2.56
I think that when they play together, they do great offensively but cheat defensively. This season, they were a negative at 5v5 together. That's why I want them on their own lines.
McD's GA/60 with Drai: 3.9
McD's GA/60 w/o Drai: 2.63
Drai's GA/60 w/o McD: 2.56
I think that when they play together, they do great offensively but cheat defensively. This season, they were a negative at 5v5 together. That's why I want them on their own lines.
I also think that he cheats for offence because the Oilers need it. They haven't won a game without McD or Drai getting a point since 2017 (!). If McDavid played on a competent team, I doubt he would cheat this much defensively, as he was actually good defensively in 16-17.
The point of this thread isn't to make excuses for McDavid's defence. It's no secret that he needs to improve. But my point is:
A) The full blame shouldn't be on him
B) He could do much better if he got better coaching and if he played on a better team
C) He isn't the problem
A) The full blame shouldn't be on him
B) He could do much better if he got better coaching and if he played on a better team
C) He isn't the problem
I just don't see how some people can look at this team, and instead of blaming the 39 year old with the 6th worst 5v5 SV% in the league, our bottom 6 that was -20, our horrid management in the past, or our mediocre defense, they blame the league leader in WAR in the past 3 years.
