And we’re back. When we last left this year’s story, the entire Pacific Division was in a tie with 33 games to go. As soon as three teams gain clearance, they fall back and three more emerge. It’s a pennant race filled with conflict, like a gorgeous melody married to cynical and angry lyrics. The Oilers are in a good spot, have a good coach, are saying the right things and boast the best player in the game, plus a guy who is among the best players in the game. Wins. Strong performances McDavid OFF. Tonight’s the night.
THE ATHLETIC!
The Athletic Edmonton features a fabulous cluster of stories (some linked below, some on the site). Great perspective from a ridiculous group of writers and analysts. Proud to be part of The Athletic, less than two coffees a month offer here.
- New Scott Wheeler: Wheeler’s 2020 NHL prospect pool rankings: No. 15 Edmonton Oilers
- New Corey Pronman: Ranking the 2020 NHL Draft top prospects at midseason
- Lowetide: Why the Oilers are more likely to trade Adam Larsson than Kris Russell
- Jonathan Willis: PHWA Midseason Awards: Stars, snubs and what they mean for the year-end NHL Awards
- Lowetide: Is there real trade deadline value in the Edmonton Oilers’ prospect pipeline?
- Lowetide: ‘Connor McDavid: Whatever It Takes’ works as breaking news, drama and personality profile
- Lowetide: Oilers prospects Evan Bouchard and Tyler Benson deliver best minor league performances in 20 years
- Daniel Nugent-Bowman: ‘Hey, Sparky, can you do that?’: How the Oilers’ AHL video coach got his start as the Islanders’ mascot.
- Eric Duhatschek: ‘He’s special’: The people who know him best tell the story of how Leon Draisaitl took the NHL by storm
- Pierre Lebrun: Where all 31 teams stand one month before the trade deadline
- Lowetide: What do Connor McDavid’s best lines tell us about his optimal linemates?
- Daniel Nugent-Bowman: I was an AHL coach for a day: Here’s what I learned
- Daniel Nugent-Bowman and Jonathan Willis: Oilers player poll: From the serious to the silly, the players weigh in on best dressed, most superstitious and more
- Thomas Drance: Inside how ‘Okanagan boy’ Ken Holland helped bring back the Penticton Young Stars tournament
- Jonathan Willis: Oilers minor-league defenceman Brandon Manning suspended five games for racial slur
- Jonathan Willis: An updated list of which Oilers are most likely to be traded in 2019-20
- Lowetide: Kailer Yamamoto gives Oilers a midseason spark, one of the best in team history
- Lowetide: With the Oilers’ minor-league goaltending not good enough, Ilya Konovalov might be the answer
- Daniel Nugent-Bowman: Josh Archibald, Riley Sheahan show the upward trend of Ken Holland’s offseason moves for the Oilers
- Lowetide: Post-Christmas performance spike has Evan Bouchard pushing for an NHL job with the Oilers
- Lowetide: Central Scouting’s midseason list offers Oilers some strong draft options
- Jonathan Willis: The Oilers’ road forward — and perhaps to a Stanley Cup — requires trusting the kids on defence
- Daniel Nugent-Bowman: Deciding what to do with Darnell Nurse, Mike Smith, Tyler Benson and Evan Bouchard
- Lowetide: Ken Holland’s targets for his first trade deadline with the Oilers.
- Lowetide: Ken Holland’s trade deadline options for the Oilers
- Jonathan Willis: Zack Kassian’s breakout performance presents Oilers GM Ken Holland with a familiar dilemma
- Lowetide: Complete Oilers top 20 prospects list, winter 2019
OILERS AFTER 50 GAMES
- Oilers in 2015-16: 19-26-5, 43 points; goal differential -26
- Oilers in 2016-17: 27-15-8, 62 points; goal differential +15
- Oilers in 2017-18: 22-24-4, 48 points; goal differential -30
- Oilers in 2018-19: 23-24-3, 49 points; goal differential -13
- Oilers in 2019-20: 26-18-5, 57 points; goal differential +1
As we glance again at these numbers it’s clear the current edition is neither a lock for the 103-point season of 2016-17, nor the 70, 78 and 79-point seasons of the three non-playoff teams. Currently on pace for 95 points, this group has a real chance.
ON THE TENS
- First 10 games: 7-2-1
- Second 10 games: 5-4-1
- Third 10 games: 5-4-1
- Fourth 10 games: 3-6-1
- Current 10 games: 6-2-1
Edmonton has had only one poor 10-game stanza this season, with an equally (actually better) brilliant run to begin the season. Tonight we see if the current group can match that impressive start to the year.
OILERS IN JANUARY
- Oilers in January 2016: 4-2-2, 10 points; goal differential 0
- Oilers in January 2017: 5-3-0, 10 points; goal differential 0
- Oilers in January 2018: 4-4-0, eight points; goal differential -8
- Oilers in January 2019: 5-3-0, 10 points; goal differential 0
- Oilers in January 2020: 5-1-1, 11 points; goal differential +7
No matter what happens tonight, the 2020 group has posted the best record in January. There’s a tightness and urgency to this group. The 2019-20 Oilers don’t win every game and don’t pass every test, but it’s clear coach Dave Tippett and general manager Ken Holland are building something here.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN JANUARY
- On the road to: BUF, BOS, TOR, MTL, CAL (Expected 2-2-1) (Actual 3-1-1)
- At home to: NAS, ARI, CAL, STL (Expected 1-2-1) (2-0-0)
- Overall expected result: 3-4-2, eight points in nine games
- Current results: 5-1-1, 11 points in seven games
Two games left in this month and the team has already put the boots to my projections. I counted the two games this week as the toughest in the home stand. A win tonight would be massive.
OILERS 2019-20
There was some thought (me, others) that Tyler Benson might be here by now, it looks like we’ll see the group who delivered all those January wins stay together. William Lagesson to Bakersfield, Matt Benning back up to the Oilers was the big transaction over the All-Star break.
This is (I believe) the fourth edition for me, always a blast and a great interaction. I make sure to get around to everyone and we’ll answer ALL questions. If I don’t have the answer, I’ll get it for you. We also look for feedback, so don’t be shy and The Rec Room is an excellent spot for these events. It’s free but you have to click on the link to register so they can get a head count. I hope you can join us!
TERRY HARPER
I was thrilled to interview Terry Harper on the Lowdown yesterday, made my day and probably this one, too. Although he played for the Montreal Canadiens, I loved his shutdown style and all-out effort. Harper was a fine backwards skater, and his long reach allowed him to knock the puck off the stick of oncoming rushers. Always enjoyed that type of player, Harper was a fine one. I’ve been blessed with many great interviews over these years, from Fernando Pisani to Grant Fuhr, from Reggie Leach to Darryl Sittler to Damon Allen. Harper ranks right up there. Enjoyed it thoroughly.
CALGARY FLAMES 2019-20
I think the Flames are trying to spread out the scoring, and applaud the movement of Mangiapane while being confused about the usage of Ryan and Dube. There was much line juggling last night by the Flames, my guess is we see the same tonight. Flames came out flying last night and played a hard, physical game. Oilers can win this game, but must start on time.
LOWDOWN WITH LOWETIDE
Oilers are back in action and that will be the main topic today, along with #BellLetsTalk. We start at 10 and fill the airwaves with many words, most intentional. Bruce McCurdy from the Cult of Hockey at the Edmonton Journal is first up, we’ll chat about tonight’s game at 10:20. Keegan Matheson from MLB.com gives us a Jays update as well as an inspiring story about the week he spent in Blackfalds and why it’s pertinent today. Joe Osborne from OddsShark will answer myriad questions about Super Bowl prop bets, it’s absolutely insane. 10-1260 text @Lowetide on twitter. Talk soon!
You honestly couldn’t be anymore wrong, Kassian challenged him right then and there and Gio balked
Pull your head out of your ass, since you like to speak bluntly.
This was truly funny. Thanks for the early morning laugh. Nurse had 12 hits!!! That’s a spectacular number. When was the last time we saw 12 hits in a game? Archie was next highest with 7. No Flame had 5. Go ahead and move the goal post now.
REALY?
I’m confused what you Kassian to do to Giordano? Should he go over there and start punching him in the face? Then everybody would be on him for taking a penalty in a close game. This whole concept of protecting a player is flawed. What exactly is he supposed to do after Gio throws that knee?
As Kassian said they are in the same division and he has a long memory. Let’s see what happens when they aren’t in a 1 goal game and 1 point apart in the standings
29-years olds who have been given retirement contracts don’t fight or protect anyone. See Lucic. Kassian. It is why Sather traded his enforcers before they got old, and why he never paid them.
Kassian is a loser move by Holland.
Is Side, the Giordano apologist, going to show his face, and do a mea culpa?
Ricki has to be so disappointed in Russell going-a-wandering on that goal. Leaving the Rickibox, and chasing a player to the right boards.
Kassian is totally oblivious to Giordano. He is totally distracted by Tkachuk, instead of doing his job, which is to protect McDavid instead of his own ego.
I’m pretty sure “Side” will continue to say that Giordano is a nice guy who apologizes. As I have been saying Giordano is one of the most sneaky dirty players in the league, and his apology was complete BS.
It is pretty sad when your team’s tough guy is so clueless about who the real enemy is, and chases ghosts instead.
Kassian was the prime culprit on Mangiopane’s first goal. He showed no effort along the wall, and no effort in trying to recover from his mistake.
He also let himself get distracted by Tkachuk again, feeding his own ego and desires, and let Giordano continue to cheap shot McDavid.
So he was one of the main people responsible for the lost, three in the last four games against the Flames, and Giordano has mangled McDavid’s leg and nearly did it again in two of the last four games
Kassian’s contract is Holland trying to outdo Chiarelli for a horrible contract.
There are still a lot of really bad GM’s in the NHL, that’s why. Because other team’s GM’s are incompetent, doesn’t justify Kenny doing dumb things.
Dennis King @DKingBH
Holland’s such a basic bitch. You don’t go more than 3/9 for Kassian and you shouldn’t do that, either. Why do you sign this? Because you aren’t confident enough you can’t replace him. Why aren’t you confident? Because you can’t evaluate players
That’s it in a nutshell. Bad deal but not fatal. The problem is that it’s on top of all of Chiarelli’s bad deals so it’s more of a hole to climb out of …
I guess Holland will have to go for another shotgun round of various Euro tweeners at $1 million hoping to hit the jackpot again next year.
Good call. I bet he’s on the radar now!
Not sure what to think about a game like this other than it was very entertaining and that the Oilers are at least as good as the Flames at the game of hockey at the current time.
I think Tippett managed his players pretty well and in the end the game could have been decided with a coin flip.
Things that stick out from Event Summary…
Draisatl credited with 6 giveaways
Nurse with 12 hits
Yamamoto with 1 shot, 1 goal, 1 hit, 1 giveaway, 1 takeaway, 1 blocked shot. 17:50 TOI. Solid effort.
Rawhiiiiiiiddddeee took 25 faceoffs. 52%.
Archibald with 7 hits. Leads team in Hits/60 (over 5GP).
————————-
How about that sequence where McDavid was skating backwards faster than everyone else on the ice were skating forward. Magic.
Looking forward to Saturday’s game!
If you believe that RNH is actually 6 foot and 184 lbs.
I don’t.
Short of weighing the man that’s all I have to go off.
If one is consistent with sources between players, perhaps the weights are inaccurate in similar proportions.
The Flames will continue this heavy hockey tactic on the Oilers until we fight back. Holland better pick up someone ASAP that’s going to defend our Captain against Gio.
Kind of sick only fully awake for the third
Pretty good is the effort overall
It is beyond question now what sort of player Gio is. He is a dangerous player who can’t stop taking knees out when he gets beaten.
The league needs to address this. Or the Oilers need to bring Tulipov back with 2 clear mandates.
Nuge kicked ass on Monahan, good on him.
There is something fundamentally wrong with the Flames. Perhaps genetically. Teams lose 30 games a year, I vote they bank the Flames reg season games as losses and the game plan is all tactics to take runs at their dirtiest 5 players.
Until the league grants fairness.
When Brian Burke of all people agrees it’s a deliberate attempt and worthy of a penalty, what else is there to say.
The league needs a man of character, not a former “tough guy” to head up DOPS and make substantial changes at the organizational level.
Or else Connor will be the next Bobby.
My wife used to work in a law firm. Lawyers at the partner level don’t work that hard.
They’re like anyone that’s got to the corner offices. They’re master delegators. Hence why OP has the voluminous time to post that he does.
The junior partners and legal secretaries push a ton of paper for them. All lawyers claim they work long hours cos they’re that rare breed of professional that’s paid hourly and they have to justify their outrageous bills.
Interestingly enough, AI will threaten huge swaths of the profession. You’re already seeing automation of common legal outputs and more will be coming.
Monahan has at least 20 lbs on Nuge.
He probably shouldn’t fight anymore given the fact that he tried to get the drop on Nuge and ended up being the only guy in the fight to eat punches.
Totally agree, though my math says 16 lbs. Per hockeydb.com
Sean Monahan
Center — shoots L
Born Oct 12 1994 — Brampton, ONT
[25 yrs. ago]
Height 6.02 — Weight 200 [188 cm/91 kg]
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Center — shoots L
Born Apr 12 1993 — Burnaby, BC
[26 yrs. ago]
Height 6.00 — Weight 184 [183 cm/83 kg]
Tough loss. Posts. Own goals. Rittich looked like he could stop a marble out there for the first half.
They still need to find another gear against the FLEGMS. Maybe after such a long break they will have their game legs back for Friday and Saturday. Nice games by a few (e.g., KY). A little disappointed by Nurse and JJ games tonight. Looks like Nyg will be out for a few games at least. Benson packing his bags?? It will be interesting to see how KH moves on this…
Connor has been incredibly tolerant, but now it should be clear to HIM that Gio is dirty. Gio is going to get hurt.
No one got his ass kicked in that fight.
Two bantam roosters crowing.
Ha!
If you watch the replay, Nuge was the only one who landed clean right handers. Plural.
Not to mention you didn’t answer the gist of my comment… that Nuge gave up significantly more to SM than KT did to Kassian. Which you were crowing about being a significant factor the other day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5jAINoVhWw
Also, bantam is very misleading.
“Bantamweight is a weight class in combat sports.
For boxing the range is above 115 pounds (52.2 kg) and up to 118 pounds (53.5 kg).
In kickboxing, a bantamweight fighter generally weighs between 53 kg (116 lb) and 55 kg (120 lb).
In MMA, bantamweight is 126–135 pounds (57.2–61.2 kg).”
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bantamweight
These guys are (literally) significantly bigger than guys like Lomachenko, who is himself much bigger than boxing bantams.
Loma would kill RNH & SM in a scrap, but he’s not even capable of bulking up to their weight class.
“Major world titles:
WBC lightweight champion (135 lbs)
WBO lightweight champion (135 lbs)
WBA (Super) lightweight champion (135 lbs)
WBO super featherweight champion (130 lbs)
WBO featherweight champion (126 lbs)”
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasyl_Lomachenko
Great job boys. That was a solid, hard fought game. Nothing to be ashamed of, despite the SO loss.
Now let’s put it behind us and take St. Louis on Friday.
yep.
Monahans two handed cross check to the face of Nuge deserves a call as does Giordano’s head, shoulders, knees and toes.
Hey DSF
The other night you said that Kassian was picking on Turtlechuck because of difference in size (roughly 1″ and 10 lbs in Zack’s favour).
How about Sean Notaman picking on Nuge, then getting his ass kicked despite having the size advantage of 2″ and 16 lbs (according to hockeydb)?
You guys are crazy, OP can be a bit distracting at times but he’s living the good life and not because someone gave it to him, but because he works his ass off (Sorry I brought you into this OP).
Also I’m Scottish as fuck so I’m damn near a ginger.
Tonight was a really good game, quite entertaining, the difference was basically goaltending though I’m a bit concerned it was as close as it was with Calgary having played last night.
I’ll be in the dome Saturday night, and if tonight is any indication of my BAC during the game I’ll probably get hauled out in the second intermission.
Fuck Giordano.
Nuge’s killer face, sign him til he’s 45. From 34 to 45 he’s going to be a gnarly bastard, pulling off triple gordies every other game.
Hate the result but that was an entertaining game. Oil sluggish but fought back 3 times to even it up. Couple of guys really struggled tonight (Larsson and Neal for sure) Conner needs better help on the wing. Pretty obvious we don’t have enough top 6 talent. Time to give Benson a shot???
Would really restore my faith in the league if they handed a suspension to Gio for that heinous cheap shot on Conner’s knee. Would like to see Oilers up by a bunch in the rematch and extract some revenge on Gio. Pretty sure Conner would feed him some stick if he gets the chance. He was absolutely furious on the bench.
Oh yea and we need about 6′ chain to keep Smith in his net!
There’s nothing stopping George “Moustache” Parros from handing out supplementary discipline that the refs miss during the game.
I mean, he was at the game in person… clearly he would have seen it live. And subsequently on replays over the world’s largest HD screen. In person.
Oilers will still get another shot to At minimum to tie the Flames Saturday night. Thought the oilers were the better team tonight but not by much. Could have went either way, shame Drai couldn’t finish it in OT.
Might be good for them to have to focus on another opponent before heading to calgary for the rematch.
Btw, you realize OP is a ginger, right?
No one WANTS to be a ginger.
Wait. That’s a bit rude to people born as gingers.
What i should’ve said is no one WANTS to trade places with a ginger.
Except Maryann. That is factual information.
Except Mary Anne
Mary Ann wants to be a ginger
please do.
With a spoon
Cause it hurts more
You must have a Harper Hair Alarm app on your phone ?
digger50,
Our core player had an opportunity to prove what a 6-7 million should be in the most meaningful game to this point in the season.I didn’t see a thing in his game tonight to make me feel this player is worth the healthy raise he and his agent will be after.Sorry if you don’t agree but the core player had his best opertunity to prove his worth and didn’t do a dam thing to keep the flames in line.This was a game he should have been a physical force no?
I think he was physical all night. He didn’t fight and that’s okay.
He’s going to get paid like a very good second pair s man and he will be worth it. Can’t get everything for a bargain. Lots of discussion over this last few weeks. I do think they keep at an overpay, yet I think he works out more than fair.
I thought Smith was horrific tonight. He did make a few big saves in the 3rd but was positionally unsound through most of the game. Add to that his bonehead puckhandling leading to one penalty and one 5 bell chance. He needs to seriously recalibrate his decision making tree when he gets the puck on his stick.
If he stopped the pucks that I thought he should have stopped, the Oilers win 3-1
What saves? Maybe the Mangiapane 1st goal. Early goal was deflected. Third goal was blown coverage.
I thought Smith was fine, Ridditch was better.
Smith had a beauty save at the end of the last minute of the 3rd (and a few others prior), but I generally agree. He was fighting the puck most of the night and made some big errors trying to be the 3rd defenseman.
First goal: He should have been square to Lindholm along the boards. He was leaning back cheating to the middle anticipating the pass to Tkachuk. When the puck was deflected by Larsson, if he was square and balanced he would have got the puck in the blocker as he pushed off the post to attack Tkachuk. Instead because of his bad body position, he lost balance due to surprise and fell backwards into the net and the puck went past his blocker.
Second goal: Bennett stepped in front of Kassian and stole Bear’s reverse rim around. Watch Smith’s head as the puck gets picked off. He sees Bennett and hugs the post. His head tracks the pass to the slot but he doesn’t push off the post to get square to the shooter in the slot. he’s reading but not reacting. Mangiapane does put the puck high glove. If Smith stepped forwards and cut down the angle, he might have had a chance but all he does is wave his shoulder at the puck. That goal was borderline unsaveable but Smith didn’t do anything to increase his odds.
Third goal: Russell makes a bonehead decision to leave the net front when Benning and a Sheahan are already engaged in battle for the puck. Tkachuk spins along the boards and Sheahan looks to seal him off and lets Mangiapane to release to the net assuming Russell is still behind him. Mangiapane skates laterally and Smith belly flops down instead of staying vertical and following the puck and Mangiapane has an easy open net goal.
This goal might seem like it’s not an easy save but Smith has been making this bad decision repeated over the past few games. He ASSUMES the shot is coming immediately and spread eagles WIDE to try cover the lower half of the net. Instead, the skaters have moved laterally and Smith is off balance and flops forward leaving a wide open net. Go back and watch videos on the goals scored on Smith. He’s been beaten this same way for at least 4 goals in the past 10 games.
Of course you don’t want your goalie facing a shooter point blank but Smith hasn’t been technically sound in many of these situations.
Also rewatch the 1st period and focus on Smith’s movements in the net. A couple of times, the puck was in the Flames possession and the puck was carried behind the net . Smith’s leading pad went completely into the net as he pivoted to track the puck. It’s like he’s preparing for the lacrosse style goal and gets off balance pivoting instead of sliding laterally post to post. All this means, he takes an extra second to reset his stance and if he doesn’t get that second before the shot attempt, he’s making an off balance save.
Smith is a big goalie and should be just getting square and letting the puck hit him. Instead you see him flailing in net making easy saves look scary. He’s guessing too often and relying more on reflexes instead of good technical positioning and movements.
I would rather remove my own gall bladder with a cocktail fork.
The Flames are physically a tough team since ward took over. Unless someone tunes in Gio Connor’s leg won’t make it to 30 ask Bobby Orr about that.
Very good hockey game. Great effort and passion that I won’t take for granted after the decade of dark.
Pretty tough to complain. Also pretty tough not to love Smith. He is like a slugger who will either hit a dinger or strikeout. It’s as if that first goal goes in and then he’s in a hurry to play the puck and try to start the rush and get it back. Love the guy but man he’s hard on the ticker.
I apologize, I deleted my comment. I feel like the BOA has got the blood a bit hot and I’ve taken a step too far, I hope you can forgive me.
I’d buy you a beer.
Np. No blood. No foul.
The funny thing about that is that dies a quiet death if I don’t bring it up myself the next day to apologize. People seem to forget that part hence all the barn jokes since.
I was just having fun tonight. Nothing more.
Who’s Nurse Holland? Why wasn’t I able to buy some Nurse Holland before it became sell time? Feels like I’m being weaseled into selling my Nurse Holland before it reaches it’s true heights if I did have some Nurse Holland I’m keeping in my personal stock.
That was exactly the kind of game that Tippett talked about the team needing to figure out earlier in the year.
They didn’t have their best stuff, but they stayed in the fight and eked out a valuable point. Rittich over Smith was the edge.
Flames are a tough matchup for the Oil. They clog up the neutral zone, force the half court game, and really protect the slot well. Hopefully the Oil can get more skating room on Saturday night.
I have no idea what he’s talking about and it surely has nothing to do with me.
I covet no man’s life but mine own.
I don’t understand, why would you want to sell one of our core players?
God I hate their team, guess that means the BOA is full in swing.
I imagine every time MankeyPankey scores a goal LT shakes his head knowingly. You’re gonna get neck pain from how he plays against us.
Damn sharks. Couldn’t hold back the nucks
Time to sell high on Nurse Holland.
Nobody is biting
Derek,
Speak for yourself. I’m quite happy with my life, thanks.
*pokecheck!
On a scale of 1 to 29, how exhausted was Drai by the end of this game?
2 posts in the shootout. First goal was a tip off Larsson’s skate. Frustrating L. But still got a point! And it was an enjoyable game from start to finish (well, not so much start or finish, but yeah…).
Fack.
Rittich the difference tonight imo
well calgary wins
got a point though, better than nothing.