Take Me To The River

by Lowetide

I am a fan of clarity. Craig MacTavish had it, it was a pleasure to hear him discuss prospects and project them into NHL roles.

I especially enjoyed his take on Marc Pouliot back in the day (March 2007): “From what I’ve seen from him, he plays a responsible game. There’s no reason he can’t play a third-line role if he can’t fill a top-two line spot. There are a lot of players, of which we have a few, who have to play on your top two lines, otherwise they’re not going to play. He’s not one of those guys. He’s a guy who can play that third-line centre spot.”

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, check it out here.

  • New Lowetide: Craig MacTavish’s most important Oilers moment? Picking Leon Draisaitl
  • Daniel Nugent-Bowman: If play does not resume, 5 notable questions that will go unanswered in Edmonton
  • Lowetide: Making the call on RFA and UFA players on the Oilers’ 50-man roster
  • Jonathan Willis: The 2020 NHL broadcast rankings: The best and worst markets to watch the games
  • Daniel Nugent-Bowman: Q&A: Scott Howson on new AHL job, Oilers’ unsung prospect and development updates
  • Lowetide: A look back at reasonable expectations and the Oilers fantastic special teams in 2019-20.
  • Lowetide: Will the Oilers rocket to Russia during free agency this summer
  • Lowetide: Will Oilers drafts be less reliant on the WHL under new management?
  • Daniel Nugent-BowmanConnor McDavid on a ‘fair season’, working out and picking quarantine teammates
  • Lowetide: Dave Tippett deploys unproven talent expertly in first Oilers season
  • Lowetide, Daniel Nugent-Bowman and Jonathan Willis: Oilers ABC: Picking the best players in franchise history, from Anderson to Zuke
  • Jonathan Willis: If the Oilers need to clear money with a buyout, they have one real option
  • Daniel Nugent-Bowman: The 5 games that define Leon Draisaitl’s Hart Trophy-worthy season
  • Lowetide: Final Oilers report cards: Second-half impact defines a successful season
  • Jonathan Willis: Does Filip Berglund’s new SHL contract mean he’s done with the Oilers?
  • Daniel Nugent-Bowman: Evolution of a star: Why Leon Draisaitl was our Hart pick
  • Daniel Nugent-Bowman and Jonathan Willis: Which former Oiler has the best argument to have his jersey number retired?
  • Lowetide: Which Oilers veterans are in roster peril?
  • Jonathan Willis: How good is Anton Slepyshev and what will an NHL return mean for the Oilers?
  • New Lowetide: Oilers’ challenge could be finding relief with a low cap ceiling

POULIOT AND MCLEOD AT 20

Pouliot was the superior offensive player at 20, although it has to be noted that his team (Hamilton Bulldogs) was a shared unit (Habs, Oilers). That said, the 2005-06 Bulldogs averaged 2.81 goals per game; this year’s Condors averaged 2.89, meaning they delivered similar numbers.

At even strength, and it’s important to compare these men in the same game state, Pouliot posted 65, 9-12-21 (.323) and McLeod 56, 5-13-18 (.321).

Pouliot’s linemates included future NHL players like Andrei Kostitsyn, Maxim Lapierre, Brad Winchester and J.F. Jacques. McLeod played most often with Kirill Maksimov and what appeared to be a revolving door (Tomas Jurco, Benson, Jakob Stukel, Anthony Peluso) on the other wing. Pouliot absolutely played with superior options to my eye.

Yesterday I wrote that Tyler Benson needs a skill center to make it in the NHL. I’m tempted to say double it and double it again with McLeod, but he has blazing speed and I suspect his chances of an NHL career are better because of the foot speed. If the Oilers can find a way for this young man to score 12 goals a year, I believe they’ll have a player. The player MacT thought he had in Pouliot.

BACK STORY ON SCORING

Do you remember a story I told you years ago about one of the old timey Habs wingers who was a shy scorer? His name was Gilles Tremblay. Legend has it that Toe Blake took him aside after his rookie season and talked to him about his game. The legendary coach lauded Tremblay’s defensive game, but told him he’d need to score more goals. “Take care of the checking and I’ll show you how to score enough to stay in the league” said coach Blake.

I suspect the coach talked to him about spending more time in the scoring zones. Jay Woodcroft had McLeod play on the wing for a time this past season and it’s my guess it was the Gilles Tremblay treatment.

Let’s be honest about this: McLeod’s speed and position on the ice (center) make him a compelling prospect. If the club can get him to go to the dirty areas and cash a dozen passes, with a couple more in off his ass? Music! If they can’t? Ryan Martindale.

POLITICS AND THE CORONAVIRUS

So, I’ve tweaked the words that will get caught in the moderation trap. There are just two names that will hold up your post, the Canadian Prime Minister and the American President. After that, feel free to share whatever you wish about the virus. As of now, we’re on the “we’re all adults” system, I once again request that we do our best not to lower ourselves into angry back and forth about things no one is going to change their minds on. Post away, and be safe.

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New Improved Darkness

I’m a person who self-quarantined by accident for weeks at a time many, many times over the past three decades. Most of this was driven by my N24 sleep condition, some of it was driven by severe allergies, and the rest can be attributed to various flurries of (or flirtations with) workaholism—many of these also driven, deeper under the hood, by my N24 sleep condition.

The first question to ask a person such as myself is not whether I’ve found this difficult so far, but whether I’ve even noticed it yet.

I have.

Life is tougher without my daily dose of Bruce and Woodguy.

Unfortunately, life without hockey has a mirror image: hockey without life.

I had a therapy encounter after my mother passed, age 50, from pancreatic cancer. This was long ago. My lemon tree had her own therapy encounter at a tough juncture in her own life.

We laugh about this now, because for $x-thousand, we both got one word out of the deal. And now I can’t even recall what my word was. But it was one word that reframed quite a bit of my life, and I got pretty good value out of that word while it remained in my cognitive possession. Still, a damn expensive word, all things considered.

My lemon tree has a family history of anxiety disorders. She got the small serving, unlike many in her preceding generations. In the CBT approach, a term that comes up all the time is “extremizing”, where some moderate negative thing instantly presages the end of life as we know it. One of the words they teach you to help you beat your response back down to size is “and”. I’ll take “and” for $3000, Alex.

Original version: “Either I nail this down today, or I’m going to die in fire before I awake tomorrow.”

Updated version: “This is really serious shit and there’s a lot I can do today to cope with it and there will still be problems to tomorrow, but tomorrow is a new day.”

That’s the general spirit.

We still remember her word.

For myself, I don’t really feel like I’ve forgotten my word. I feel like I made an eggnog with fifty raw eggs, and guzzled the whole thing down. I haven’t actually forgotten the eggnog, I’ve only forgotten the precise name of the special spice.

Over the years, I’ve tried to practice a fair amount of “and” here on Lowetide. Hockey and life. Or the other way around. I wasn’t always as successful as I should have been at hitching compatible horses. There was always a bit of madness involved in adopting “pushing the envelope” as therapy.

But you need to understand, at one juncture in my time here, I put in 18 straight months of social distancing all by myself, long before it was all the rage. This is when I decided to see if I could make my sleep thing work with no melatonin at all, by allowing my body to drift around the clock, “sleeping in” another 1.5 hours later, every day of the year. Five days out of fifteen were pretty good. The other ten days involved a lot of quiet hours (many in the dead of night) with my brain not quite working right. At first, I didn’t know that my brain not quite working right was a side effect of drifting through night mode. That was, in fact, my most important discovery out of this terrible 18-month stint: my true dysregulation ran quite a bit deeper than merely wanting to sleep at the wrong time of day.

Writing with half your brain working is quite a bit more forgiving than cranking out code. In improvisational writing, a slip of the finger (or a slip of the mind) is just another opportunity to heed off into the weeds. I like weeds. I like weeds a lot. Writing code, a slip of the finger (or worse, a slip of the mind) does not cause your compiler to stifle a guffaw. or spit coffee onto your keyboard. Not at all. Your technology “stack” has a different fate in mind. “Come over here, little boy, and inspect element.”

Noooooooooo!

My Firefox right-click menu contains “Inspect Element”. I think it comes stock, but I’ve only experienced stock Firefox for about five minutes of my entire life, so don’t quote me on that.

I was deep into “Inspect Element” yesterday on the CTV web page that tracks all the coronavirus statistics in Canada, so as to write a clever one-liner to better summarize the data.

I haven’t cleaned this up yet, but the core of my solution involved the following line of code I developed interactively in my R console:

s %>% html_nodes(xpath=”//h2[@id]”), function(i) { prov_id %>% html_attr(“id”); path <- paste(sep="","//h2[@id='",prov_id,"']/following-sibling::table"); tables %>% html_nodes(xpath=path); t <- list.cbind(lapply(tables,html_table)); rownames(t) <- prov_id; print(t); t })

This grabs all the pertinent tables inside that abomination of HTML and CSS and J-script and munges the essential bits into a single R data structure. It involves the use of xpath query syntax, which I hadn’t really looked at since it was the new kid on the block, circa 2005.

Two things.

First, at least this particular nasty bit of “Inspect Element” was not self-inflicted. I wasn’t spending hideous hours inside an HTML hairball because of some silly slip of the finger (or mind) four hours ago.

Second, I won.

I haven’t really coded in R for years now, other than the odd 20-line hobby project (far less sophisticated than this one). I’ve never used the R package “rvest” to scrape the web before. If I ever wrote an xpath query in my misguided youth, it was fifteen years ago. This CTV document contains three separate HTML tables for each province and territory, to encapsulate one row of data with nine distinct columns. I had to beat this hard with the xpath ugly stick.

The worst of navigating through the thickets only took about 1.5 hours last night—and not a single tool involved was precisely in my fingers at the time. I was remembering-it-up as I went along.

This is my mind on consistent day-mode. My mind on consistent day-mode rocks the world.

It wasn’t entirely an exercise in the blind leading the band. I did have one über-elite skill which I hammered on really hard: writing exactly the right search query to bring up a StackExchange post that I could actually follow with the precise line of code inside that I needed to copy or emulate. 90 minutes elapse. Thirty Stack Exchange tabs opened, thirty Stack Exchange tabs closed. (I was using rvest for only the second time, and I still don’t even know what the rvest man page looks like, so I sure didn’t want to stumble into a Stack Exchange solution for the cognoscenti. But they were helpful anyway, after I muttered to myself “now let’s try to find roughly the same right answer again, this time in rvest as second language, so I can actually hum along”.)

So that’s a battle won, and it was kind of amusing to navigate the thickets as I was doing.

The same two-hour battle after making a stupid slip of the finger sometime before lunch is not fun in any dimension. Typical outcome: you’re deep into building a towering edifice about how rvest was authored by a colony of drunken monkeys, then you suddenly notice: whoops, that pair of statements inside a condition block really needed to be surrounded by curly braces, so as to be governed together.

Now it may be that aspects of rvest really were written by a colony of drunken monkeys (any sufficiently complex technology is indistinguishable from a colony of drunken monkeys at the first hiccup). Only your entire mental edifice is now shot through with your own self-inflicted finger foul. And you don’t precisely know which part is which. And in fact, portions of your misguided critique will linger on like zombies for days or weeks.

You are now cursed with the and/or problem: Either this was the part of rvest that really was written by a colony of drunken monkeys or this was the misguided belief I formed while diagnosing my own self-inflicted finger foul OR it’s actually some combination of drunken monkeys and finger foul at the same time.

I’ve trained myself for thirty years not to steer myself too deep into this particular quagmire. When I was in the night-mode portion of my free-running eighteen month sojourn, none of those mental capacities were reliably operative.

I don’t really care about beating my head against a bewildering non-design. Shit happens. The tough carry on. What I did care about was maintaining clarity about which was which: keeping my shit and their shit in entirely different buckets, never the twain shall meet. I fuck up a lot at the keyboard. The only thing I demand is to know the correct score after the dust settles.

Home boneheads: 10
Away boneheads: 9

That’s a day-mode score card.

Home boneheads: 9 ± 5
Away boneheads: 10 ± 6

That’s a night-mode score card.

Intolerable to a person such as myself, so I ceased to write code. If I’m not batting 0.900 on bonehead attribution after the dust settles, send in the fat lady.

My free-running 18-month sojourn was not governed by the magic word “and”. It was not coding and writing. Very early on, it became writing only. For my own sanity, I had to kick the word “and” up the street: hockey and life. That was an “and” I could still—sometimes—make work. And if it didn’t work, there was no two-hour session in the “Inspect Element” Room 101 to leave a permanent scar on my soul.

I’ve known near-to-a-fact for two weeks now that the present campaign of social isolation was an 18-month deal. Yesterday I came across an academic paper which introduced the term “dynamic social isolation” in its summary’s concluding paragraphs.

Here and there we will get a coveted weekend pass to Tokyo, and then the numbers will inch dangerous upwards again, and we’ll soon be confined again to the swamp, precisely 6″6′ away from the smug, pining, baby-faced Charles Winchester, a minimally bearable distance to be maintained at all cost.

For myself, it won’t be the first time. And it won’t be the harder time, either.

I’m pretty damn happy cooped up in my corner basement office with my anxious lemon tree in full possession of my rock-the-world day-mode brain, once again. Over the past year, I’ve been increasing dividing my sustained release pill into two separate doses, taken two hours or three hours apart, so as to increase the “sustain” pedal. Now my daily grogginess is half as bad, and my stability is twice as good. Before I was fairly stable already, but each day was potentially different than the previous day. Would I bake out with fatigue in the late afternoon, after taking my pill? Would I get a solid eight hours sleep, or would I get four hours sleep, followed by four hours doing elementary math in my head in the dark, followed by another four hours sleep? Or would I get a solid four hours and go “fuck it” and get out of bed anyway, and then function really well for eight hours, before turning into hell-on-wheels for the entire second half of my day?

Until recently, every day was potentially one of those days. Now I’m down to about one day a week where I go “bah, humbug!” today is going to suck a bit. There are always enough ambient chores to take up the slack one day a week. It’s an entirely workable system.

If I maintain my recent run of success, this 18-month social distancing thing is going to be a cake walk compared to my unmedicated 18-month adventure. I got out of the house during those months for five days out of every fifteen. I was already practicing a form of “dynamic” social distancing. The difference now is the caliber of the days I’m shut in. Now: fabulous. Then: frustrating as all hell.

So here’s my advice to those of you who are suffering through social distancing for the first time: hang onto the word “and” as hard as you can.

Yeah. I know. Fatuous advice is easy to swallow; sage advice does not have “this side up” embossed anywhere on the magic capsule.

Hopefully we can let a little bit of “and” back into the room as this begins to settle out into a new normal. Because if we can’t, I’m going to miss my daily dose of Lowetide, Bruce and Woodguy something fierce. It got me through my last desperate stand, and I hope it gets me through this one, too.

defmn

meanashell11:
This. I like this. A great philosophical question.

I’m going to go dust off my old philosophy books, give me something to read over my next two weeks of quarantine!

Its the ‘Hobbes or Machiavelli’ question reformulated. 😉

OriginalPouzar

jp:
You’re right the initial point doesn’t really matter. But AHL rookie of the year might be a worse trophy to win than the Jack Adams. Luckily Brogan may not be a favourite anyway.

https://www.eliteprospects.com/awards/ahl?name=AHL+Rookie+of+the+Year+(Red+Garrett+Memorial+Award)

Nothing like turning 25 and winning the AHL rookie of the year.

Skyer Brind’Amour is a huge long shot prospect for the Oilers – In his 20 year old season we made Quinnipac and was their rookie of the year. In his 20 year old season, Rafferty was in the USHL, not ready for college.

Oh, and, yes, age matters when talking about prospects, it matters alot.

Thinking it doesn’t leads you to takes like Rafferty is a better prospect than Bouchard and isn’t worth Ethan Bear or Oscar Klefbom in a trade.

defmn

hunter1909: Speaking as a Celt, someone with massive pro experience in winding others up – you can get just about anyone riled up in a hurry so long as you try hard enough; but on the other hand people have a tendency to return to their original way of seeing things really fucking quickly.

It is an interesting question to ponder whether human nature reveals itself most clearly in an audience exhaling at the end of a Bach concerto or in the very next moment as the usher in the back of the hall yells “fire”. 😉

meanashell11

This. I like this. A great philosophical question.

I’m going to go dust off my old philosophy books, give me something to read over my next two weeks of quarantine!

N64

@karenerrichetti
Apr 1
When #COVID19 is defeated, we will have learned many things: including:
1. There are truly selfish people in the world who do not value life. Except maybe their own. AND
2. There are truly extraordinary ORDINARY people who value YOUR LIFE over their own.
#medtwitter

As always we’ll be surprised by both

hunter1909

defmn: As Hobbes argues very convincingly most people will choose personal safety and comfort over any other aspects of political life.

Speaking as a Celt, someone with massive pro experience in winding others up – you can get just about anyone riled up in a hurry so long as you try hard enough; but on the other hand people have a tendency to return to their original way of seeing things really fucking quickly.

N64

Yes. People are very adaptable and they’ll try something if they think it can help. But then they carry on and deal. Welcome to the 20s again. We’re trying the easy sacrifices for a few months, but people will deal with the harder ones if we can’t dodge this thing by going to ground for the sake of getting off easy.

hunter1909

OriginalPouzar: work ethic itself is a talent that sets professional athletes apart

You can argue this for any walk of life.

Read the biographies of the great. None of them were 9 to 5 types.

defmn

N64:
No one. Just checking.

I’ve lived and traveled in a number of countries where soldiers with automatic weapons stood in groups at every street corner and in all public buildings.

I have been through 3 coups in various countries.

People get used to just about anything as long as it doesn’t interfere with their personal lives.

I wouldn’t rule out anything if this goes on long enough. As Hobbes argues very convincingly most people will choose personal safety and comfort over any other aspects of political life.

Harpers Hair

jp:
leadfarmer,

SwedishPoster,

All the best to you both. This is a difficult time for everyone but so many more fold for folks like you in the medical system. Thank you.

PS – updates like these are very much appreciated by at least some of us.

I would think almost all of us.

jp

I hope so. There’ve been a few vocal nays, just wanted to be sure the yays are heard.

Harpers Hair

OriginalPouzar:
Skyler Brind’Amour named Quinnipac’s rookie of the year…..

We can hold out hope he takes over from Rafferty as
Quinnipiac’s most famous player…..

Doesn’t matter much…Rafferty is the AHL rookie of the year.

jp

You’re right the initial point doesn’t really matter. But AHL rookie of the year might be a worse trophy to win than the Jack Adams. Luckily Brogan may not be a favourite anyway.

https://www.eliteprospects.com/awards/ahl?name=AHL+Rookie+of+the+Year+(Red+Garrett+Memorial+Award)

Harpers Hair

Kinger_Oil.redux:
Victoria Oil,

– I don’t get how anyone thinks there is professional live sport with attendance

–it’s just a business. Sure do a NBA playoffs all in Vegas with no attendance but TV pays for it

– This site is crazy IMO. – nothing matters. The rules have changed and we don’t what the rules are going forward. It’s basically a waste of time IMO.

– Bu the way the soup a garlicwith modification was awesome from HH.

– And the family was well dressed!

If you have leftovers, it makes super pasta sauce.

defmn

N64:
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/feds-to-offer-full-time-work-to-all-military-reservists-as-part-of-covid-19-response-1.4881452

Floods, icestorms, pair of serial killers on the run in the North last year. Lots of examples of using military here without martial law.

Who mentioned martial law?

The veneer of civilization is not strong though. Commercial buildings that are not in use are already being looted in numbers that are growing daily.

Desperation is a dangerous mood once it takes hold.

N64

No one. Just checking.

Munny

OriginalPouzar: One would think but yet history is littered with talented players that were able to, or willing to, put in the work.

I truly think that work ethic itself is a talent that sets professional athletes apart from those that can’t make it.

This is what they test for in the interview process at the combine… call it what you want: dedication, commitment, motivation, ambition… but basically the drive to improve/succeed.

Gonna be a tough draft without that there combine, but hopefully the Oilers’ past experience with Skype will stand them well in this task…

N64

Munny: hopefully the Oilers’ past experience with Skype will stand them well

lol

defmn
N64

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/feds-to-offer-full-time-work-to-all-military-reservists-as-part-of-covid-19-response-1.4881452

Floods, icestorms, pair of serial killers on the run in the North last year. Lots of examples of using military here without martial law.

who

OriginalPouzar:
No, in response to a long-detailed thought out potential plan for a playoff for this season you respond with “I think we should forget about this season” – the implication that others should stop posting about the current season is clear.

Okay.
I guess this is one way to pass the time?
I’ll let you have the last word. Don’t see any way of preventing it. Lol.

jp

OriginalPouzar: One would think but yet history is littered with talented players that were able to, or willing to, put in the work.

I truly think that work ethic itself is a talent that sets professional athletes apart from those that can’t make it.

I agree with this.

OriginalPouzar

Scungilli Slushy: A kid with that much NHL potential shouldn’t be hard to convince of changes to his game.

Would you like to do hard work for a few years and be set for life, or not?

Really.

I’d do it especially in this player favourible environment.

One would think but yet history is littered with talented players that were able to, or willing to, put in the work.

I truly think that work ethic itself is a talent that sets professional athletes apart from those that can’t make it.

Kinger_Oil.redux

Victoria Oil,

– I don’t get how anyone thinks there is professional live sport with attendance

– it’s just a business. Sure do a NBA playoffs all in Vegas with no attendance but TV pays for it

– This site is crazy IMO. – nothing matters. The rules have changed and we don’t what the rules are going forward. It’s basically a waste of time IMO.

– Bu the way the soup a garlic with modification was awesome from HH.

– And the family was well dressed!

jp

leadfarmer,

SwedishPoster,

All the best to you both. This is a difficult time for everyone but so many more fold for folks like you in the medical system. Thank you.

PS – updates like these are very much appreciated by at least some of us.

defmn

Yes they are.

Klima's_Bucket

When I think of MacT, I think of him challenging Petry.

OriginalPouzar

Skyler Brind’Amour named Quinnipac’s rookie of the year…..

We can hold out hope he takes over from Rafferty as
Quinnipiac’s most famous player…..

Scungilli Slushy

godot10:
Allegedly, 3M has some blame too for allowing unconcionable behavior by some of their distributors.

Some accounting forensics on who has financial interests in 3M’s distributors should be part of the post-mortem a year from now.

No

Business is business

Governments need to have control of essential services and many other things always.

Then younger now don’t necessarily have knowledge of not so distant examples of leaving control in other countries hands.

Like the US.

Every free country needs to be able to act in its own citizen’s interests first, and then extend charity.

jp

Rickety Cricket:
I think politics in Rwanda are quite progressive. That being said, the demographics of parliament are also largely a function of the number of young men/boys that died in the civil war/genocide.

That’s a sobering thought, but I’m not sure it’s true. The male/female ratio in Rwanda today is 95.9 males per 100 females. In Canada it’s 96.2 males per 100 females.

It’s quite possible those in the age range that’s being elected to office were more affected by the genocide but it seems unlikely to the 60/40 extent. I’m no expert but I don’t think the genocide wasn’t directed particularly at males either.

Maybe they are just progressive?

Scungilli Slushy

dustrock: I think the knock in junior was the compete level and being a bit of a perimeter player. I’d prefer him to be more like a poor man’s Marchand.

A kid with that much NHL potential shouldn’t be hard to convince of changes to his game.

Would you like to do hard work for a few years and be set for life, or not?

Really.

I’d do it especially in this player favourible environment.

OriginalPouzar

No, in response to a long-detailed thought out potential plan for a playoff for this season you respond with “I think we should forget about this season” – the implication that others should stop posting about the current season is clear.

who

OriginalPouzar: I agree that starting next season in October is all but a surety and I can’t imagine this season being continued in any respect but I would suggest you let people post about what they want, in particular if its related to hockey.

He wants to post a potential plan and timeline to still give the cup out this season, why can’t he?Let him enjoy devising and posting and there may be others that want to discuss with him.

Geez. you are not the forum policeman.

I was merely stating my opinion on the season restarting.
I guess you’re having a bad day. No worries.

who

OriginalPouzar,

I probably agree with 80 percent of the things you post. Honestly.
But there’s no point in acknowledging you when you are right because you’ve already made the same point TEN times in each thread.
And now you are actually accusing me of being repetitive? Take a look in the mirror sonny.

OriginalPouzar

who: I think we should just forget about this year.
Seems to me we’ll be lucky to start next year on time.

I agree that starting next season in October is all but a surety and I can’t imagine this season being continued in any respect but I would suggest you let people post about what they want, in particular if its related to hockey.

He wants to post a potential plan and timeline to still give the cup out this season, why can’t he? Let him enjoy devising and posting and there may be others that want to discuss with him.

Geez. you are not the forum policeman.

OriginalPouzar

who: You actually pulled this from the last thread? Why didn’t you just answer me there?

Because it would be great to have an actual conversation about the failed opportunity and the potential for what the team may look like if Strome did get a chance at top 6 wing and who goes and reads the previous day’s thread the following afternoon?

Actual Oilers talk…

I look forward to your next post criticizing something about me or my behavior – it is a multiple time a day thing.

Munny

Your criticism of what you perceive as criticism from Who is likely unfounded.

I believe Who is simply expressing what our generous host has said many many times… that we are not supposed to carry conversations forward from thread to thread, but reply to them in their original thread.

You’ve stated you didn’t reply there because you wanted to have a conversation about it with Who… but replying there doesn’t preclude that. All you do is cite the person and let them know you’ve responded to their post in the prior thread.

Even better if you’ve seen that they’ve posted on the present day’s thread… then you simply reply and let them know the same. Piece of cake.

You must’ve seen this done, no? It happens a fair bit…

Munny

SwedishPoster,

Stay safe, SP.

who

Victoria Oil:
IF (and it’s a big IF), the players are back on the ice by July 1st, here is one plan to award the Stanley Cup this year and to have a full season for 2020/21:

– 10-14 day mini-training camp (perhaps with 1-2 exhibition games0
– “Play-in” round for teams 13-20 (bottom 4 of each division) . Best of 3 with the higher ranked team (by percentage) having home ice for all three games. The top 12 teams would get an extra week of practice.
– Best of 3 divisional semi-finals (round of 16) with 1-1-1 format
– Best of 3 divisional finals (1-1-1)
– Best of 3 conference finals (1-1-1)
– Each of the above best of threes could be played in a week (e.g. with games Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday)
– Best of 7 Stanley Cup Final with 2-3-2 format

– The above would take about 7 weeks with the Stanley Cup awarded around August 20th.
– One month for NHL Awards, the Draft, Free Agent Frenzy, etc.
– Training camp for 2020/21 to start around Sept. 20
– Full regular season to start around October 10th

The biggest complaint I would see with this is that some may see it unfair that some top teams would be eliminated in a best of three. (Maybe the conference finals could be a best of five).

I’m skeptical if life will be back to normal by July 1 and I acknowledge that these games may need to be played in front of empty arenas, but this is the best scenario that I can think of for the NHL to accomplish its goals.

I think we should just forget about this year.
Seems to me we’ll be lucky to start next year on time.

who

OriginalPouzar: I am not failing to understand anything.

I provided my opinion that it was curious and odd that Strome never got a shot to play wing in top 6 – he got two games with McDavid in exhibition, the played well and Strome scored a goal.Game 1 of the regular season saw Drai at 1RW and Strome never again.

To this day the Oilers are looking for a top 6 winger and they very well could have had one in Strome.

Strome was traded for Spooner in the name of acquiring a top 6 winger – hence the reference to Spooner.Although we never got to see it, in all likelihood, Strome was a much better top 6 winger than Spooner.

Anyways, I will post about Strome, Spooner, Kassian, options in the top 6, failed opportunities or lack thereof in the top 6 over the years, when I feel relevant even if you don’t agree that I should post and need to “leave Kassian alone”.

Thank you for your suggestions on what to not post about though.

You actually pulled this from the last thread? Why didn’t you just answer me there?

SwedishPoster

Sitting with a sturdy glass of Laphroaig quarter cask watching an old movie. Got pulled off my temporary out of clinic rotation and back to ”my” ER today and tomorrow night I’ll take the night shift as the designated ”covid emergency doc”, basically taking on everyone arriving with severe respiratory problems. So tonight, in a Hemingwayesque fashion I grab a whisky before the war. We’re hitting the peak here in Stockholm(It’s arriving about two weeks later than first estimated which is a good thing), the ICUs are filling up despite scaling up to about triple capacity, last night the ER was absolute hell according to my colleagues who worked that shift. The whole hospital as well as the rest of the hospitals in Stockholm have been gearing up for the last few weeks to take on this beast but we will most likely be hit with more than we can handle. Hopefully we’ll bend but not break. We have a military hospital with 140 beds up and running that is yet to admit any patients since there is still some capacity left in the regular hospitals, as soon as we’re all saturated, and then some, it will start admitting which might take some heat off but this won’t be pretty that’s for sure.

Lots have been said about the somewhat relaxed swedish approach with regards to restrictions, relying more on personal responsibility than a complete lockdown, how relaxed it is has been somewhat overstated but it is far from the martial law of other countries. I’m no epidemiologist so I’m not going to say what’s right and wrong, too many self-proclaimed experts running around already, the truth will be in the pudding and the pudding won’t be done for at least a year(and really more like five years when you count secondary effects) when we’ll start to grasp the consequenses. I will say this, calling the swedish approach an experiment which I’ve seen tossed around is kind of unfair since everyone is experimenting at this point, public health is about more than just surviving the pandemic so every step has to be analyzed with a broad perspective, a total lockdown might be the best route but It’s far from certain. Doing nothing or reacting really slow as some countries been doing is clearly a recipe for disaster though. Most countries including Sweden have been slow to react but some have just been flat out arrogant.

Either way It’s about to get worse before it gets better over here, the blame game and monday night QBing can wait, now It’s all hands on deck and hold on for dear life.

Thus the whisky. I think I’ll grab another. Take care of each other. Keep the distance. Protect your elders and those with medical conditions a little extra. Remember that this also hits the group between 55-70 with a fairly slight medical history pretty damn hard, not just the very old.

LT, sorry to add another covid-infected post, I know everyone is sick and tired of the constant corona chatter. I promise my next post will be about our boys in Skellefteå or this years draftees out of Sweden(the best crop in years if ever btw).

N64

SwedishPoster: . Remember that this also hits the group between 55-70 with a fairly slight medical history pretty damn hard, not just the very old.

Thank you x ∞

Really hard stuff, but if anyone wants an inside look at the fight for lives especially in that age group here’s an article from inside the Brooklyn Hospital “questioned” by #filmyourhospital.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/04/nyregion/coronavirus-hospital-brooklyn.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

tileguy

Thanks for that SP. Am wondering if the Swedish economy will be better off than most when this is over. First hand reports from members of this community are always welcomed, right LT?

N64

Swedish gov’t is pointing out to curious outsiders that differences are being exaggerated:

“Linde said her government had “the same goal as every other government,” the main difference being that most of Sweden’s measures were not legally binding.”

Even in the Alberta context seems like most of the social distancing and economic impacts were already in place at the recommendation phase. Closures here are backed by fines now, but no shelter/stay at home orders here.

defmn

OriginalPouzar: Well, its not really Don’s decision though……

Here is hoping he is right about the NFL season as that would mean a full 2020/21 NHL season.

Yeah, I just posted it because you mentioned early on that he would be in conversation with all the leagues. I don’t think anybody knows what is going to happen at this point.

BONE207

Ya but he also thought we’d be singing hymns in church at Easter. If the US wants to get to 100,000 fatalities, that’s going to take some time…hold on to your ass…

OriginalPouzar

defmn:
I’ll believe it when I see it.

BREAKING: President DT told pro sports league commissioners during a Saturday call that he believes the NFL season will happen and fans will be allowed to attend games, according to @AdamSchefter
and @wojespn
.

This is a very positive sign for the college season.

Well, its not really Don’s decision though……

Here is hoping he is right about the NFL season as that would mean a full 2020/21 NHL season.

OriginalPouzar

tileguy:
Yah, I got tickets and a car booked for Ireland in late September and think my chances of going are now less than 50/50.

We are booked in for Rawanda/Uganda/DRC starting July 24 – I’m thinking our chances are getting close to 15% or so…..

And to think, I was concerned that Ebola was the one potential reason to cancel/postpone…..

Shit, my wife and her girls that did the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island last September won their way in to do Rim to RIm in November – here is hoping that can still happen.

Victoria Oil

Fun fact about Rwanda. Over 60% of their parliament is women, highest in the world. Who would have thought that they would have become this progressive 25 years ago?

Brogan Rafferty's Uncle Steve

I think politics in Rwanda are quite progressive. That being said, the demographics of parliament are also largely a function of the number of young men/boys that died in the civil war/genocide.

OriginalPouzar

jtblack:
does McLeod PK a lot?

Have never seen one shift of his … know he can skate …. I think he will be given every opportunity to make the Oilers over the next 2 seasons.

1)A premium is placed on skating in today’s NHL.
2)NHL teams need cheap labor.

McLeod is both of those.

IMO McLeod is a Full Time Oiler in 2021/22 season.

Yes, he (and Maksimov) were on the PK from the very start of the season.

Maksimov was a very good PK guy in junior and Maksi and McLeod often paired on the PK for the Condors.

2021/22 is likely the reasonable time line for McLeod in the NHL – this is big season coming up for his in the AHL – it will likely tell us alot if he’ll be in the NHL at all and, if so, at C or W.

OriginalPouzar

Silver Streak: love the word play….well done.back toMcleod, he always was the plan for 3 C, just a matter of when. Not sure of his face-off numbers, but he has everything else other than a bit of KY !

As of now, yup, he’s the projected 3C of the future but he does have quite a ways to go.

As I mentioned above, with the TOI estimates that we we’ve been provided, his 5 X 5 P/60 was actually quite good this year but he wasn’t a full time center and may have actually played more wing than center.

The coaching staff was working with him on being stronger on the boards and “staying in the play” for longer.

Next year will be a big development year for Ryan (as the 2nd AHL year often is for tier B prospects) and here is hoping he is playing center all year and in the top 6.

Likely battling with Marody for 1/2C to start the year (and I’m hopeful that Malone is re-signed for 3C and to continue his veteran mentorship – Yamamoto sings his praises often).

At this point, I’m not 100% certain he makes the NHL as a center – we should know more in a year.

OriginalPouzar

Darryl8843:
I’ve said before and I’ll say again. I hope I’m wrong but NHL , NBA , MLB and NASCAR. I believe this year gets cancelled. CFL and NFL have a glimmer of hope. USA doesn’t even have a understanding what this is. Several States haven’t even ordered stay at home order. It’s months before they will have gatherings over 50. This is a unprecedented time. Life won’t return to normal until there are no new cases.

I’ve been saying for a few weeks now that I can’t imagine continuing the 2019/20 campaign and, as much as I want to see my Oilers in the playoffs, I’ve been looking forward to the official cancellation so that we can set off-season dates (Qualifying Offer Date, draft date, free agency date, training camps, etc.) and get prepared for a, hopefully, full and normal 2020/21 season starting in early October.

I’ve been 50/50 that there could be the commencement of a 2020/21 season in October and I’m starting to get close to coming off that percentage (and not in a positive direction).

Many (some) are suggesting that 2020/21 will be cancelled. I’m not near thinking that the entire 2020/21 season may be extinguished – I mean, at this point, even if they can’t start on time, starting in January or even February may be do-able for a half season and full playoffs. Its been done.

We are a LONG ways from thinking about the full cancellation of 2020./21

N64

OriginalPouzar: We are a LONG ways from thinking about the full cancellation of 2020./21

Yes. A lot can happen in 9 months. 😉

leadfarmer

Georgexs: You’re on the front lines. Minnesota? I looked up the covid timeline for your state. Growth curves don’t seem New York like. I hope you stay safe as well.

In Wisconsin actually. It’s interesting time as there’s an election on Tuesday and Chicago Milwaukee and Minneapolis are trying to hide in rural Wisconsin

tileguy

Where is Andy these days? Miss his rapid fire #’s

defmn

N64: Upon further review….

To be clear that part was from the tweet. Not my opinion at all.

N64

Yeah I thought that was from the tweet. The virus has its own review booth:

Fauci: ‘You don’t make the timeline. The virus makes the timeline’

Munny

Delay of game penalty?

N64

LOL.

~ Delay of Game seems severe for putting the puck over the boards. Maybe Icing the Economy is enough. ~

Gerta Rauss

defmn,

Thanks for that story, great stuff

I was at that festival in ’86, a young Robert Cray was the headliner (for me)

I attended several festivals in the 80’s, and when I moved to the West coast in ’88 I still made the point of returning in August to attend for a number of years after

I remember purchasing tickets at the Ticketmaster location in Bonnie Doon – I think it was in the Sears store – and paying about $21 for a weekend pass

Too many highlights to mention them all, but Lyle Lovett in ’88 after a long day of rain (the Edmonton Mud flop) had me down in front of the stage with a sparse crowd remaining

And probably the all time highlight is Michael Hedges in ’89 – my friends looked at me sideways, unaware of who this single guy was, with no band. I guess you had to be a guitar player. RIP Michael.

Good times

https://edmontonfolkfest.org/festival-info/past-performers/

OriginalPouzar

jp:
Pouliot is a nice comp for McLeod in a lot of ways. I’m really surprised/encouraged to see their even strength numbers are a close match.

Though not a C (in the NHL at least) I feel like Chimera is a really nice comp in many ways too. Similar tools, plus he didn’t bring a ton of offense through Jr or his 1st AHL season. But he kept developing and was a damn fine bottom 6 forward for a lot of years. Three 20 goal seasons and six more with at least 14.

Hmmmm, not sure I agree with the Pouliot comp – i mean, if McLeod can develop MAP’s general 2-way responsibility and 2-way game then, with McLeod’s speed and size, he’ll be one hell of a 3C.

McLeod’s skating is his current best attribute – that’s not really something MAP had, is it?

McLeod’s box-cars in the AHL this year don’t jump off the page but I believe I’ve read that, when you dig in to them, he is near the top of the forwards in P/60 (5 on 5). He played bottom 6 with little PP time for most of the season.

jp

Well mostly in the spirit of centers who play a 200 foot game. Their draft year offense was similar as was their even strength scoring in their first AHL season.

Oil2Oilers

Reports are some networks, CW, are already running out of scripted dramas. Network staples in the streaming age, sports and reality TV are even worse shape. Ratings winner The Voice will struggle to go live in the coming weeks.

It seems unlikely that filming will be restarted to fill the traditional fall TV schedules. Streaming services have large libraries to fall on, broadcast TV, already struggling, could be changed forever.

N64

defmn: This is a very positive sign for the college season

Upon further review….

defmn

I’ll believe it when I see it.

BREAKING: President DT told pro sports league commissioners during a Saturday call that he believes the NFL season will happen and fans will be allowed to attend games, according to @AdamSchefter
and @wojespn
.

This is a very positive sign for the college season.

defmn

OriginalPouzar: Its interesting, when NYC banned/suspended public events a week or so ago, professional sports where expressly excepted and, now, when Calgary does it, they are expressly included.

Anyways, for a few weeks now I have come to terms that the 2019/20 campaign is done and my hope, and its jut hope at this point, is that sports are back in the fall for a full 2020/21 season.

I’ve been 50/50 on sports being back for the fall and I’m getting close to moving off that and not in a positive direction.

I think you are right. When I look at what various decisions are being implemented as opposed to what politicians are saying I don’t see a positive direction at this time.

leadfarmer

Munny: Playing the expansion packs as we speak.Finished Heart of Stone yesterday.In Toussaint now and I may never leave.

I tried playing a narrative style sneak game when the pandemic started but it was too repetitive and linear,.. the highly-regarded one with the rats and the plague in medieval France,Didn’t do it for me despite an excellent score and pretty visuals.

Open world, baby..Can lose one’s self for hours.

Truly one of the most enjoyable games I have ever played. I’ve actually finished the whole thing and expansion packs twice

Munny

leadfarmer: The Witcher. If you are familiar with the video game this is a guilty pleasure. If not may be a bit confusing but a lot of fun. Action sequences made by GOT action director

Playing the expansion packs as we speak. Finished Heart of Stone yesterday. In Toussaint now and I may never leave.

I tried playing a narrative style sneak game when the pandemic started but it was too repetitive and linear,.. the highly-regarded one with the rats and the plague in medieval France, Didn’t do it for me despite an excellent score and pretty visuals.

Open world, baby.. Can lose one’s self for hours.

OriginalPouzar

defmn: Interesting. Thanks for posting that. I’m guessing we will hear some news later today but with Nenshi announcing that he will not allow the Stampeders or Flames to play in Calgary until at least July I am not expecting anything good.

Its interesting, when NYC banned/suspended public events a week or so ago, professional sports where expressly excepted and, now, when Calgary does it, they are expressly included.

Anyways, for a few weeks now I have come to terms that the 2019/20 campaign is done and my hope, and its jut hope at this point, is that sports are back in the fall for a full 2020/21 season.

I’ve been 50/50 on sports being back for the fall and I’m getting close to moving off that and not in a positive direction.

tileguy

Yah, I got tickets and a car booked for Ireland in late September and think my chances of going are now less than 50/50.