We’re going to be waiting at this stop for some time, friends. We can waste as much time as we want on that big blue Alberta sky, find a girl to dance with, uncover the demon liquor Grandpa hides in the shop, fix the fence, take back the empties, play those damn sad songs that make us blue and fret about the worries for days. There’s also a little time to talk hockey. Here we go.
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 Lowetide: NHL season on hold might impact Oilers evaluations, summer plans
- New Daniel Nugent-Bowman and Jonathan Willis: Key questions surround Oilers in wake of NHL’s coronavirus suspension
- New Daniel Nugent-Bowman and Murat Ates: ‘It hits you so hard’: Health crisis puts vital Oilers-Jets game in perspective
- New Jonathan Willis: Mikko Koskinen vs. Mike Smith: Who starts Game 1 for the Oilers?
- Lowetide: Oilers’ Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has found a home as a winger
- Daniel Nugent-Bowman: Q&A: GM Ken Holland on Oilers’ playoff push, offseason plans and Hart thoughts
- Daniel Nugent-Bowman: Oilers observations: Mikko Koskinen comes through in offensive power outage
- Jonathan Willis: Evan Bouchard, Tyler Benson and more: 20 observations on the Bakersfield Condors
- Lowetide: Caleb Jones represents Oilers template for development success
- Jonathan Willis: Rookie pros Dmitri Samorukov, Kirill Maksimov learning in Oilers’ system
- Lowetide: Oscar Klefbom’s return and usage a key element for Oilers stretch run
- Daniel Nugent-Bowman: How ‘little firecracker’ Josh Archibald went from unknown to vital with Oilers
- Daniel Nugent-Bowman: Determining Connor McDavid’s linemates remains a pressing and perplexing problem
- Lowetide: Reasonable expectations for Andreas Athanasiou and Tyler Ennis over the next 15 games.
- Jonathan Willis: Ryan McLeod offers the Oilers size and speed. But will he score in the NHL?
- Jonathan Willis: Which players pose the biggest threat to Leon Draisaitl winning the Hart Trophy?
- Lowetide: How the Oilers deadline deals might alter summer plans
- Jonathan Willis: Splitting Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl saved the Oilers’ season
- Lowetide: Is the OHL still the Oilers’ primary resource at the draft?
- Lowetide: The Oilers’ 2017 draft and the value of waiting five years
OILERS PROSPECT NHLE’S
Players in yellow are outside entry deals and older players. Players in red are either in junior hockey or AHL, and their NHLE’s suggest that they may bring enough offense to the NHL for that area of their game to be considered a strength. Evan Bouchard would certainly be at the top of that list. All of Bouchard, Benson and Lavoie should have feature roles in Edmonton or Bakersfield.
I would look for major spikes from Samorukov, McLeod, Maksimov and possibly Safin in Bakersfield 2020-21. The goalies are an interesting group, curious about where Rodrigue lands and what the team does with Konovalov summer 2021.
THE GRADUATING CLASS
As you know, I have been doing a summer and winter Top 20 prospects list since the early part of the century. From my summer 2019 list, several players have graduated: Kailer Yamamoto, Ethan Bear, Caleb Jones and John Marino all eclipsed 50 NHL games during the 2019-20 season.
That means we’ll see the weakest Top 20 list in at least a decade coming up the day after the draft in 2020. Evan Bouchard, Philip Broberg, Tyler Benson, Dmitri Samorukov and Raphael Lavoie will be the top prospects in the system, along with the first-round selection in 2020. I do think we’ll see Ken Holland add some picks on draft weekend.
THE 2020 DRAFT
I’ll be able to give better updates on the 2020 draft with this extra time but Edmonton has only five selections at this time: No. 20, No. 82 (Neal trade unlikely to include a pick now), No. 144, No. 175, No. 206.
The No. 20 selection is extremely likely to be a scoring forward and I wouldn’t be surprised if it is a center.
LOWDOWN WITH LOWETIDE
We hit the air at 10 this morning, TSN1260. Steve Lansky from BigMouthSports will talk about the media’s handling of the early hours of leagues suspending play, and about how to produce major sporting events without an audience. Matt Iwanyk will pop in with a list of 10 things to do while we wait for normal. 10-1260 text, @Lowetide on twitter. Talk soon!
defmn,
Totally understandable. And quickly checking Wikipedia, they agree with you!
For me, though, I find that use of Nietzsche by the post-structuralists or whatever we’re calling them today to be a complete mis-reading of N.
Firstly, I think poetry and artistry very nearly come before Philosophy for N.. Psychology might even have preceded Philosophy in N’s mind. And with poetry comes ambiguity, which is not helped by using dichotomy as a way of explicating the world or beingness. He’s almost Manichean in that dualist respect. There are many contradictions in N’s writing,.. where he praises things in one context and reviles them in another.
For me he is not a solid base for anything, other than acting as a herald for what was coming to his contemporaries… which I think he absolutely nailed. I typically approach him as Jung would/did.
Radical relativism – or ‘perspectivism’ – is the lever required to open the window that allows reason to be rejected as just another viewpoint lacking any more validity than any other. From there it is a short step to dismissing truth as anything other than sophism.
Without Nietzsche’s metaphysical base for refuting the permanence of ideas in favour of radical historicism Foucault has no starting point imo.
The break between classical philosophy and modernity that begins with Bacon/Hobbes reaches its logical conclusion with Nietzsche who is then used by the post modernists to dismantle the legitimacy of philosophy.
Or at least that is how I see it.
I just ran across this today and thought you might be interested. The book is by a metaphysicist and the 1st sentence of the preface caught my eye because he is the first writer I have seen who sees Nietzsche’s fingerprints all over post-modernism’s metaphysical base. I can’t copy and paste it here because it is one of the preview pages for a book that Amazon sells.
I also liked the 1st sentence because it mentions Darwin, Freud & Marx as the 3 central pillars of Modernism with Nietzsche peaking over their shoulders. This made me smile since my handle is DEFMN and I am sure you can figure out who the ‘E’ stands for.
https://www.amazon.ca/Dugin-Against-Traditionalist-Critique-Political/dp/1597312193/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1GD36B21RI9E9&keywords=the+fourth+political+theory+dugin&qid=1585078177&sprefix=the+fourth+pol%2Caps%2C202&sr=8-1#reader_1597312193
Lol, yup.
In that Introduction, Upton calls Nietzsche a “Herald”. This coincides with the way I’ve always looked at him. That he was seeing the subtle effects D, F, and M on the world, was describing them and what he thought the consequences would likely be.
How does he go from there to being one of the underpinnings of P-M? Did they merely seize the banners he predicted would charge to the forefront of society, or are they truly basing P-M on Nietzschean philosophy?
The short answer is yes. Post-modernism – a term I dislike because it is nonsensical – is an unholy blend of Marxist epistemology with Nietzschean metaphysics imo.
That is not a common opinion, btw, so you would get a lot of push back if you ever happened to mention it to somebody who considers themselves a post-modernist but I believe it to be true in its most important features.
I agree that AA was underwhelming and his overall performance in his 8-9 games as an Oiler a bit disappointing. Of course we all acknowledge the sample size and I think we can/should all expect a much different player come October (assuming normal 2020/21 scheduling) – not a player devoid of confidence at both a personal and team level and a player that will have a training camp under the current coaches – that can’t be understated I don’t think.
Lets not forget, it took the likes of Sheahan and Archie time to settle in to their roles on the team. They both battled injury early, just like AA has, and it took some time.
His poor season should allow for a contract signing around his QO and, I assume the player signs for one year, betting on himself for next season.
New for The Athletic: What does Jesse Puljujarvi’s Liiga season tell us about his future?
https://theathletic.com/1675206/2020/03/14/lowetide-what-does-jesse-puljujarvis-liiga-season-tell-us-about-his-future/
Thx. I might have to get a console and a game controller. Which console is the most reliable and with most options? I’m new to this.
Xbox and PlayStation.
I’m a fan of the latter, others prefer the former. Camps often seem to be sided largely on controller preference. Try them out and see what fits you best. Can’t go wrong either way.
The PS5 will be released later this year (pending manufacturing delays), not sure about where Xbox is on their production cycle.
How big are your hands?
If you have big hands Xbox is engineered for large North American hands.
PlayStation is probably a better overall platform but the controller is not designed with giant poeple in mind.
Just my two cents.
Game Controller
They look like dis:
https://www.google.ca/search?q=game+controller&hl=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjKttOA3ZnoAhWrGTQIHYjBCREQ_AUoAXoECBQQAw
While Hegel is undoubtedly the traditional source for Classical Marxism and presumably much of modern pedagogy (with help from Prussia), hasn’t the more recent shift in Post-secondaries been more greatly influenced by the likes of Derrida and Foucault (et al)?
Honest question.
I admittedly haven’t been watching too closely, but nothing seems to stand out about this guy. I have been assuming it is due to injury. I still hope that is the case.
The life of Lowetide *facepalm*. Thank you for all that you do.
I’m in the same camp as you but what does that say about the coaching staff in Detroit if it is true? And, of course, Holland hired him so that is a whole other path to consider.
I agree that AA had his best game vs Spy, but I don’t like how passive he is, at least JP is an effective forechecker. Whereas AA don’t a lot of standing around and IMO seems to half-assed it when he doesn’t have the puck. When I see that, it gives me the impression he is not a competitor and in my experience does not bode well for success in the NHL.
I am all for giving chances, but I have a hard time with vets who should be able to figure things out fairly quickly. To me I would have no qualms today about trading AA at the draft for a 2nd.
And maybe that was the play, although it goes against the verbal. Still, there’s likely an out there if Holland so desires.
GMs and coaches tend to be far more patient than we-the-fanbase though.
it say the coaching staff in Detroit has :
a) a collection of replacement level forwards
b) a collection of replacement level D
both groups a & b have a few decent NHL talents, they also have mediocre goal tending
C) because of a & b the goaltending is mediocre as well
AA was/is having a bad year…..will be interesting to see what he can do with better talent around him
I thought AA had his best game as an Oiler Wednesday night.
We’re probably won’t know for sure till Christmas next year.
I deleted a bunch of nonsense, and left some other nonsense. Friday the 13th has 45 minutes to go. Can we get through it without something crazy? Please and thanks.
I think I would.
HH does enjoy flaunting his skills as a raconteur.
I don’t doubt his take on her personality, just the rest of it.
I worked at the Alberta Legislature back when Pam was an MLA. HH is not wrong about her other than that I didn’t think she was particularly nice. A pit bull for her beliefs – which I have complete respect for but ‘nice’ would be a stretch.
Considering that all of the social sciences trace their roots to the mid to late 19th century and are based largely on Weber’s fact/value distinction based upon Hegel’s historicism I don’t see how it would be possible for the Arts departments – heavily populated by sociology and its offspring – to not be left leaning since that is their seminal influence.
This is not meant to say anything about whether that perspective is correct or mistaken. It simply traces the perspective to its genesis. Which would be my field of expertise – political philosophy. 😉
Side,
Conference of make belief
I’m pretty late to this. But in terms of the actual numbers you can find them here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_flu_pandemic_in_the_United_States
Yes, 60 million infected with swine flu. Roughly 265,000 hospitalized. How many died? 12,000.
If you don’t like wikipedia the CDC will tell you the same (and the CDC was the source for much of the Wiki info anyway): https://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/estimates/April_March_13.htm
12,000 deaths of 60 million cases. That’s a 0.02% death rate.
Estimates for COVID-19 range from something like 4% to possibly less than 1% (0.7% is the lowest guess I’ve seen).
Right now, today, 3.7% of coronavirus patients worldwide have died. 3 main factors are going to affect that number:
1) A ton of people have coronavirus that don’t know it, so the 3.7% number will get smaller
2) But many of the people who currently have coronavirus will ultimately die, so the number will get larger
3) More or less people who have it will die based on what kind of medical treatment they get. If they get high quality treatment (which can include occupying a hospital bed for 3-6 weeks while on a ventilator) the number will be lower. If they don’t get that treatment the number will get higher.
I think factor number 1 will have the biggest impact, most probably the final death rate from COVID-19 will be considerably lower than 3.7%.
But if the cases are allowed to get our of control such that a large number can’t get health care when they need it things could be pretty bad.
By the way, if we were looking at 60 million Americans being affected by Coronavirus (like were affected by the Swine flu), what would the deaths look like?
Swine Flu 0.02% 12,000
COVID-19 at 1% 600,000
COVID-19 at 2% 1.2 million
COVID-19 at 3% 1.8 million
Hopefully 60 million won’t get infected, but this is not the Swine flu, no matter what Fox is telling you. It’s simply not in the same ball park. Hence the reaction.
Were you there?
I was.
I liked Pam, she was a very nice person but she was an ideologue whose partisanship couldn’t stand up to even the slightest scrutiny.
What year and where was the conference held? Just curious.
HH, I made an edit before you replied. To avoid confusion I’ve pulled it. The addition was that I could easily believe she was emotive. Also ruined her day was not meant to judge her or you. But wouldn’t is more believable. Couldn’t is opinion. I think we all liked her.
The Lightning got Kucherov at #58 and Palat at 207.
Oh my.
Harpers Hair,
And I’m sure after she came to after her fit of womenly histeria she said no one has ever used this completely non debunked arguement Mr Troll guy and I wish I could have your babies and cook for you while you do the important manly things like thinking for the both of us
If I was from any other province I’d never believe even 10% of that story. I’ll buy that you ruined her day. But you 100% lost me at could not. Try would not.
Pam was an Alberta original. Definitely the type to be taken from us. Unfortunately not to Salt Spring Island. We lost her to cancer.
https://web.archive.org/web/20080114032654/http://www.near-death.com/forum/nde/001/02.html
leadfarmer,
No no Leadfarmer. I’m sure she really did burst into tears and couldn’t continue. And then the whole town clapped. And then Elvis wrote a song about it. From the past. And that song cured all the cancers in the world.
Jesus. Glad I’m finding out about this crazy bias in hiring professors here on Lowetide. Weird that I didn’t hear about it at my job though. My job *as* a professor.
It’a conspiracy theory echo chamber night tonight.
You are just brainwashed through your post secondary education to be left leaning, don’t you know?
Either that or you were only selected because you were left leaning.
There have been dozens of studies that confirm this. I just assumed it was commonly accepted knowledge.
Back to hockey.
The 2011 draft revisited:
https://twitter.com/JFreshHockey/status/1238579343607181318
How good was the Mark Scheifele pick?
It is an interesting list, the 2011 draft was quite strong.
I’ve looked at the a Jets draft history before.
Outside of the first, there’s no magic, but in the first round, they’re stone-cold killers.
Remember. Scheifele was a “walk about “ pick at the time.
I recall people feeling pity for the Jets for selecting him at the time.
If it’s not a joy stick what do you call it than?
AZOIL,
I live in Glendale and hear the same. I think fans see that OEL is not fast enough to be a top D. He was a top 4 D when he came here, but that has changed. I think in one game he was beaten to the net by Riley Sheahan. The Coyotes broadcast team didn’t really beat him up for that, but I noticed it as my boss had been talking to me about that very situation. Maybe a bit like a left handed Adam Larsson (one of my favorite Oilers). Anyway the wife and I love it here and go to quite a few Coyotes games.. Peace.
You only called him out on the CEO bit.
Glad we are in agreement on the rest.
From the Historicist school. Usually traced to Hegel although a case can be made for Rousseau depending on a lot of details most people don’t care about. 😉
I would be shocked if even 20% of my Phil profs were Historicists. I bet less than 20% have read Hegel.
I find the narrative that universities are ‘leftist’ ideological institutions fascinating. It is almost assuredly propagated by people who have not been to university or who have not been to university in the last 20 years.
What does this mean? Left-leaning how?
In the Faculty of Arts I believe left leaning professors are more in the 90% range from all the data that I have read. Almost impossible to get hired otherwise. When they do these surveys profs in Math, Engineering, Computer Science etc. tend to even out the distribution but the Arts are pretty much an embarrassment to themselves these days.
This is probably more of a reflection of post secondary schools in general. The percentage of left leaning professors is something like 60% now, and right leaning profs are down to about 10%.
Which minder chooses the minder?
The news industry is so co-opted by corporate and activist influence that finding fairness and balance is almost impossible.
Let me tell you a story…sorry Lowetide for the hijack.
Many years ago, I was covering an Alberta Federation of Labour convention.
NDP leader Pam Barrett was the keynote speaker who gave an impassioned plea for pay equity.
She received a thunderous ovation from the thousands of union members in attendance.
After the speech, I requested a live interview with her and she agreed.
It had to occurred to me that mandated pay equity would require ripping up every union contract in the province since they all contained seniority clauses.
I had done my research and discovered that women interrupt their service in the work force 4 times as often as men…mostly because of child birth and rearing.
Therefore, under seniority clauses, men would always be paid more than men.
Ms. Barrett, after hearing the question, broke down in tears and could not continue the interview.
I was astounded that neither the leader of the NDP nor the Alberta Federation of Labour had even thought about this.
While there is most certainly a case to be made that child care should be valued as much as a year or two on the job, none of those actively involved had even given it cursory thought, instead just demanding more and more money.
The next day, my boss received union complaints and I personally received death threats for asking the question.
Activism is a dangerous drug.
If anyone is interested in an objective, reasonable assessment of the Coronavirus, they should listen to a Sam Harris podcast with Nicholas Christakis.
The first thing I learned is that Coronavirus is a family of viruses. This is not the first strain to infect the world. In fact, there are many strains of the virus. The most noteable is SARS.
Christakis thinks the death rate will reach an upper bounds of 0.6%, which seems low but is 6 times higher than the common flu. He based his estimate on the mortality rate in Korea, which has done the most testing of the illness. Higher mortality rates being reported are most likely due to the fact that only sick people are being tested in some jurisdictions. He thinks 30-50% of the population will contract the virus, with most people not even showing any symptoms.
Christakis says there’s four other common Coronavirus’ that circulate every year – they tend to peak in winter and spring and diminish in summer. Although no one knows for sure, he says it’s reasonable to expect a similar pattern with this strain.
Although he didn’t dismiss the threat of the illness, he says that panic caused by fear could be even more dangerous. People tend to have irrational response to these crises, like stockpiling vast amounts of toilet paper. This can also create a situation where healthy people with minor symptoms run to the hospital, clogging up the system and making it more difficult to treat serious cases.
It’s an excellent podcast that will give people a good perspective on the virus without inciting panic.
That’s low. Not bad. But you need to make 2 serious adjustments that are going to take you to at least the numbers Dr. Fauci uses.
First, 28.7% of cases are age 20-29. But that group only makes up 16% of Korea.
That anamoly is because the #1 gov’t testing target was Shincheonji (62.8% of cases trace back to that group) and Shincheonji’s primary recruitment is women in that age group
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_South_Korea
Second, most cases are still recent enough to be still in progress towards recovery or death. Sadly you have to project more mortality for people in the balance.
1% is a pretty good estimate. That’s the kind of number Dr. Fauci is working with when he says 10X worse than the flu.
The big clog for hospitals is in the ICU and when they run out of respirators that’s where the death rate soars to 30-50x flu.
Certainly important to warn folks not to go to emergency. Don’t know about elsewhere, but Korea and Canada if you have symptoms 1st step you call them. The 2nd step is not normally in hospital. Korea has drive in centres. Alberta is heading there but will currently drive to you to test you.,
The Oilers have been busy since the season pause. These guys really are heroes…
https://www.reddit.com/r/EdmontonOilers/comments/ffjomr/oilers_endgame/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x
Professionalization of an industry always leads to conformity.
In what world was journalism ever ‘objective’? This is hilarious.
You’re not wrong but it’s more complicated.
Journalism schools coincided with the consolidation of the media industry which required a compliant work force with nice hair and shiny teeth.
The movie Network foretold all of this.
This is why to me, especially in our circumstances, the gov’t funded news provider should be mandated to be absolutely neutral and only report facts and information.
Unless they have a highly respected journalist such as Rex that would be explicitly named as editorial and also monitored for balance.
I would contend that it was journalism schools that started the downward spiral.
Yep.
I once asked a journalism class I was teaching “by a show of hands, would you choose to be considered to be fair and balanced or would you choose to be successful?”
2 fair and balanced…29 successful.
Even in the remaining “journalism” schools, students are being taught to be “activist journalists”.
Feelings trump facts all the time.
Well said. Objective journalism has virtually disappeared in North America. I don’t think it’s a surprise because it basically mirrors the collapse of the MSM. The industry is on life support and the quality of journalism reflects that. In fact, there are very few journalism schools left in Canada. Most reporters now graduate from some form of communications program that blends marketing and journalism. Not surprising that the quality has circled the drain. I just listened to a very enlightening Sam Harris podcast that gives a little perspective on the corona virus. It’s objective with zero political undertones.
Everyone knows that Rex Murphy is the Brogan Rafferty of Canadian journalism.
Older but better.
Get with the program.?
Pretty much and, if they’re not on the dole, they are funded by partisan political third parties.
Huffington Post, the Narwhal, the National Observer, the Tyee among others are all funded by rabid left wing groups.
There are also corresponding right wing “publications” with sketchy funding so I always advise “follow the money”.
The only completely non-partisan news outlet in Canada that I have found is Ottawa-based Blacklocks Reporter that is completely subscriber funded and whose business model is holding governments to account mainly through freedom of information requests. They’re doing yeoman’s work under very difficult circumstances.
Of note, Blacklock’s was founded by former CFRN TV reporter/anchor Holly Doan who I can attest is the most credible, trustworthy journalist who ever worked for me.
After leaving CFRN she spent many years as a foreign correspondent with an extended period reporting from China.
She’s the McDavid of Canadian journalism.
Surely you mean the Brogan Rafferty. Thanks for the recommendation
Yes, of course. Connor McBrafferty.
Thanks for this, I will check them out.
N64,
No one said it wasn’t dangerous.Maybe listen to Bongino
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump Mar 9 So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!
Please stop comparing flu and coronavirus politics. Donald is listening to Dr. Fauci NOW. 10X as dangerous as the flu. Sez the good doctor.
You and I are on the same page now, right?
There have always been outliers but before the massive consolidation of media companies, there were many, many other voices,
Just on a local level in Edmonton, there were the Journal, the Sun (before they merged), the Examiner, St. Albert Gazette, CFRN TV, ITV, CBC TV, CHED, CHQT, CFRN Radio, CKUA Radio and CFCW all with well staffed and aggressive news gathering operations.
They were not beholden to corporate overlords who subtly (or not) dictated editorial slant.
Things have changed dramatically.
The Canadian media is all on the government dole now. Not just the CBC.
Great info regarding Coronavirus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r39ydQcVV_k
Hey Rondo
Get with the program. The cool kids are all hip that the coronavirus is way worse than the flu. Fauci. Pence. Oh and this:
Despite these efforts, Bongino acknowledged, the president’s power had limits – and that the virus was “very dangerous” and “highly contagious”.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51840227
But is it really all that different than say in the days of Hearst v. Pulitzer?
The online drug hasn’t made it better. Sure Hearst readers talked more to other Hearst readers etc. but real neighbours are way more varied than online echo chambers.
Yeah, I’d agree with that. The newspapers in NYC in the late 1800s and early 19s weren’t really echo chambers, but they did lead to a polarization of views.
The online nature of the world has definitely entrenched and enhanced that polarization, and made it relatively cost effective for anyone to put up their own echo chamber.
I would say that the growth of government too has made it much more worthwhile for entities, especially billionaires, to pay attention to political risk and reward. There is more incentive there to be a playa in the MSM and its adjuncts.
I’m kind of astounded that walking around today and talking to others that there are still many people in the camps of “Hoax” or “MSM-generated needless panic” etc.
I went into the local Wal-Mart last night at 8 pm (normally a good time for a quick in and out) just to grab one tin of coffee and was astonished at the scene… every checkout lane staffed and lined up 10 deep with customers. I’ve never seen it like that on a Friday or Saturday afternoon.