Slip Kid

by Lowetide

It’s never a good thing when news arrives half an hour before game time that pertains to your best shutdown defenseman. No matter what you think of Adam Larsson, there was no dispute about his ranking before last night’s game and there sure as hell isn’t any debate after that game.

Oilers missed an opportunity last night. A big one. Tipped pucks, bad luck and a parade to the penalty box. Bitter pill. How will this team perform on Friday? Perhaps we’ll see 60 minutes of complete hockey.

THE ATHLETIC!

Great perspective from a ridiculous group of writers and analysts. I am proud to be part of The Athletic. Here are the most recent Oilers stories.

TIME ON ICE

Always listen to the coach after a game like this one, you’re going to get some raw emotion. However, another thing to observe is time on ice. Here are the forwards five on five, I’ve placed in bold the lead stories:

  1. Kailer Yamamoto 15:39
  2. Leon Draisaitl 15:28
  3. Connor McDavid 13:36
  4. Andreas Athanasiou 11:28
  5. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins 10:58
  6. Josh Archibald 10:07
  7. Jujhar Khaira 9:58
  8. James Neal 9:34
  9. Alex Chiasson 9:25
  10. Zack Kassian 6:19
  11. Tyler Ennis 6:12 (injured)
  12. Riley Sheahan 5:42

When a coach faces an injury, he can double shift one of his best players or drop two forwards (usually penalty killers in my opinion) and run three lines. Tippett, who needed that win, ran three lines and benched two veterans. There’s no way to mistake what happened here.

THE GOALS AGAINST

Olli Maatta’s first period goal began with Patrick Kane retrieving the puck from behind the net, Kris Russell and James Neal having won the battle but losing the war. Kane sends a pass right to left and Maatta grabs it at the blue line. Maatta’s shot finds the net, with Dach, Highmore and Russell all providing a screen for the goaltender.

The first Jonathan Toews goal was a fluke but still counted. Darnell Nurse couldn’t stop the pass nor the shot (it wasn’t really a shot) with Koskinen and Draisaitl also in photo. A damnable goal, the Gods must like Jim Cornelisonson.

The Matthew Highmore goal saw Nurse poke the puck to Bear who sent it along its merry way to Riley Sheahan. Sheahan not only didn’t get the puck out, he booted it to Hawks’ forward Ryan Carpenter. Carpenter to the point, Maatta across the ice to Koekkoek, who hammered it (fly-by from Kassian was disappointing), nice tip, Koskinen had no chance.

The second Jonathan Toews goal, Toews wins faceoff, nice little move from Kubalik to get the puck back to Duncan Keith, over to Connor Murphy and a perfect tip by Ethan Bear for the GWG. Credited to Toews, no idea why.

MAKING SENSE OF IT

The Oilers took too many penalties. You can blame the ref and there were some ghastly calls for sure, but the lack of discipline (Yamamoto, Archibald, Athanasiou) was incredible. The call against Russell was silly, especially when the team was already down a man. The non-call on Dach versus Ennis was ridiculous. None of it matters today. The game is in the history books, the Oilers lack of discipline derailed any chances of the team rolling four lines and three pairings.

THE LINES (Numbers five on five)

Athanasiou-Draisaitl-Yamamoto: 7:37, 3-4 Corsi, 2-0 shots, 1-0 HDSC. The line cycled well on a couple of shifts and had two good looks. I expect we’ll see this trio on Friday afternoon. Athanasiou gives this line a completely different look.

Nuge-McDavid-Archibald: 7:25, 7-3 Corsi, 5-1 shots, 1-0 HDSC. I liked this line but would have loved it if there was a five on five goal. Nuge played a strong game, he’s a different player this year. He could always be counted on to be in the right place and right time, but now he’s impacted the plays more and it’s more obvious how smart he is. McDavid is such a talented player, his goal showing off superhero hands. Archibald was a little filthy on the night, took a penalty and gave Kirby Dach the scare of his life.

James Neal-Jujhar Khaira-Alex Chiasson: Played 6:28, 9-6 Corsi, 3-4 shots, 0-1 goals and 1-1 HDSC. I’m so happy with this line I hope to see it in December. Khaira’s faster, Neal’s healthy and Chiasson knows how to work. Khaira found iron, Neal had a couple of fine chances and Chiasson had a couple of lesser opportunities.

Ennis-Draisaitl-Yamamoto: 3:58, 4-3 Corsi, 3-0 shots, 1-0 goals, 1-1 HDSC. This line scored at five on five and I wonder if we’d be having a different conversation if Ennis had played all three periods. Draisaitl had a fine game, scored twice and had an assist. The success was tempered by a lost faceoff to Toews and the emerging pain in the ass that is Kirby Dach. Yamamoto is one of my favourite players, love his buzzing around but he can’t take penalties 10 miles from his net.

Athanasiou-Sheahan-Kassian: Played 2:40, 2-0 Corsi, 1-0 shots, 1-0 HDSC. Sheahan-Athanasiou had a nice look early, could have been a difference maker. Kassian was physical and didn’t take any penalties, but he didn’t accomplish much. His ole on the Koekkoek shot that resulted in the Highmore goal was poor form.

DEFENSE (Numbers five on five)

Darnell Nurse-Ethan Bear: 14:13, 13-12 Corsi, 6-8 shots, 0-2 goals, 3-5 HDSC. Definitely too high event, and the duo played in some bad luck. Nurse was part of the slow-mo first Toews goal, Bear tipped in the winner. Nurse had a tough night. He had three giveaways and seemed out of sync. Bear, despite doing many good things, was a major factor in the winning goal. I stan both of these players (my kids say stan means good) but they struggled on the night.

Oscar Klefbom-Kris Russell played 13:55, 7-14 Corsi, 5-4 shots, 1-0 goals and 1-0 HDSC. Klefbom played well, lacking only his usual offensive flair. Russell won the battle behind the net that preceded the first goal against, but he and Neal couldn’t secure the puck. Russell did have enough time to screen his goaltender. Made a fantastic block on a Dach point-blank chance later in the game. The penalty against Russell isn’t called by a referee familiar with hockey.

Caleb Jones-Matt Benning: Played 8:16, 10-2 Corsi, 5-1 shots, 1-0 goals and 2-0 HDSC. I thought this pair should have played more. Jones played a safe game and I thought he did well. Benning picked up and assist on Draisaitl’s second goal by coming off the bench and sending an excellent shot on goal.

GOALIE

Mikko Koskinen stopped just 21 of 25 (.840) but the only goal he played poorly was the Toews power-play marker (he was out of position). I have no quarrel with his game beyond that play.

THE FUTURE

I wanted to give you a head’s up on the next few days. I’ll have GDT’s up each morning the Oilers play, followed by a postmortem the following day. After that, I’ll be spending time on the offseason shuffles and the draft. Do you have a preference? Let me know.

LOWDOWN WITH LOWETIDE

At 10 this morning, we have a great lineup loaded with hockey talk on TSN1260. Daniel Nugent-Bowman from The Athletic joins us to talk about last night’s game, including penalties and the injury to Tyler Ennis. Frank Seravalli from TSN will pop in at 11 to give us a world view of the playoffs and a big weekend for the seven remaining play-in series. 10-1260 text, @Lowetide on twitter.

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OriginalPouzar

digger50: When you lay it all on one player then by removing that player they should win the game. That wasn’t the case, the whole team was awful in real time.

I am not, and was not, laying it all on one player and have spoke about how bad the team has been since Saturday. At the same time, that does not mean that the plan, negative or positive, of any particular player, and his role in the next game and going forward, cannot and should not be discussed.

Kassian has been bad and hurting the team. Its a discussion point and a story line. One of many.

GordieHoweHatTrick

€√¥£€^$:
It’s do or die time, as I posted before game 1, Kassian is not one of the top 12 players on this roster.He clearly needs to sit.

AA is not a good fit with Drai or McDavid, he needs to be stapled to the 3rd line.

Here is the line-up (less Ennis, AA takes Nygards spot, Nygard in the Ennis spot) that I proposed before game 1 and my opinion hasn’t changed.

Nygard – McDavid – Haas
Nuge – Drai – Yamamoto
AA – Sheahan – Archibald
Neal – Khaira – Chiasson

Haas and Nygard play well together and have the speed and defensive conscience 97 needs.Besides, they are on great contracts for next year, so why not find out what they can do with 97.

Reuniting the DYNamite line is a no brainer.

C’mon Tip, dontchya read this blog?

Tesla’s Hair….Dave?Dave?Dave!!

Are you there?C’mon let me in man!Dave?

That is a reasonable line-up. I like. I doubt the coach will experiment with the first line on a do or die game, but it would be very nice to see at some point

hunter1909

These clowns were schooled in 2017 by the Quacks so it won’t exactly be surprising.

Still we can argue the pressure of performing to the hometown fans could have got to them lol

Tesla's Hair

Does anyone know the moment when we lost Pouzar? Woodguy? Andy? Dave? Any analytics on what caused their last game at LTs.

Is there a succession plan in place if LT decides to go on a holiday? When you follow a charismatic leader usually the place burns down when they leave the building or go over the hill and far away.

Does LT have a board of directors to make sure LT lives on and on and on even when the founder moves on to white on white and takes take a sabbattical with his family?!

This place is so fricken awesome baby!!!

€√¥£€^$

Fuge Udvar:
I doubt Tippett shakes the lines up much. Scoring hasn’t been the problem and it risks making Tippet look bad if it is a disaster. I wonder how much the ice times for Sheahan and Kassian were. Kassian’s lack of special teams ability may cost him.

Nuge-McDavid-Archibald
AA-Draisaitl-Yamamoto
Neal-Khaira-Chaisson
Nygard-Sheahan-Haas

If you are not familiar with the Edmonton Journal’s Cult of Hockey, they do player grades after each game. There is usually a table of stats that go with it and you can see each player’s TOI.

https://edmontonjournal.com/sports/hockey/nhl/cult-of-hockey/player-grades-bounces-finally-go-against-edmonton-oilers-in-4-3-loss-to-chicago-blackhawks/

Fuge Udvar

I doubt Tippett shakes the lines up much. Scoring hasn’t been the problem and it risks making Tippet look bad if it is a disaster. I wonder how much the ice times for Sheahan and Kassian were. Kassian’s lack of special teams ability may cost him.

Nuge-McDavid-Archibald
AA-Draisaitl-Yamamoto
Neal-Khaira-Chaisson
Nygard-Sheahan-Haas

Scungilli Slushy

godot10: It is easy to understand Kassian.He plays well for two months before he signs a new contract.Otherwise he is clueless and lazy and unreliable.He is the same guy he has always been, except he’s sober (which is a credit to him).

This is nothing new or not surprising.I have been saying this since the playoff loss to Anaheim when I didn’t want to re-sign him, and more vociferously as his last contract neared completion, and he began playing harder just to get a new contract.

He was gifted a position with the Sedins and he pissed it away.He was gifted a position with McDavid and he pissed it away.

There is no Kassian that is a good hockey player.It is a figment of your alls imagination.

Kassian isn’t consistent enough to be a true top 6 player.

How you view his worth depends on what you consider to be valuable play.

Kassian when forechecking well has value. He can disrupt a team’s system with his speed and the opponent’s fear of getting caught by him. He’s far better than Archibald. Arch is easy to like bcs he’s a game rooster, but he has 4th liner skill.

Kassian also was placed with McDavid to protect him as much as can be done. Tippet said as much.

However Kassian’s terrible D zone coverage has cost him, and his ineffectiveness offensively. Chicago isn’t running Connor so the deterrent factor whatever it’s worth doesn’t matter.

Against a dirtier team he’ll be back up there.

Connor needs another winger that has top 6 skill. It’s a shame he has to drag a 4th line forechecker around.

€√¥£€^$

It’s do or die time, as I posted before game 1, Kassian is not one of the top 12 players on this roster. He clearly needs to sit.

AA is not a good fit with Drai or McDavid, he needs to be stapled to the 3rd line.

Here is the line-up (less Ennis, AA takes Nygards spot, Nygard in the Ennis spot) that I proposed before game 1 and my opinion hasn’t changed.

Nygard – McDavid – Haas
Nuge – Drai – Yamamoto
AA – Sheahan – Archibald
Neal – Khaira – Chiasson

Haas and Nygard play well together and have the speed and defensive conscience 97 needs. Besides, they are on great contracts for next year, so why not find out what they can do with 97.

Reuniting the DYNamite line is a no brainer.

C’mon Tip, dontchya read this blog?

Tesla’s Hair….Dave? Dave? Dave!!

Are you there? C’mon let me in man! Dave?

BONE207

SVR: He lost another bet to you and now he’s Tesla’s hair, isn’t he

I doubt it’s Tesla. I offended Tesla last night with a post. Woodguy would have straight up told me to Foff. He’s laying low around here. He finds the mask stifling…

digger50

godot10: Kassian has done massive damage.Big mistakes and lack of effort on goals 3 and 4 in game 1.Total disinterest in the tying goal in game 3.

All goals against are not equal.

I have been arguing that Kassian has been a significant net negative on the team for years.

And well, we have Connor’s reaction to the tying goal on national TV after watching the replay.“F. O. K.”

Yes, you have been arguing that. And now you want to
Prove yourself right.

I’m not arguing zacks performance itself, I’m saying you are hanging him when he does not hold sole responsibility.

digger50

OriginalPouzar: The thing is, yes, even in the limited minutes, he is doing damage – directly culpable for 2 goals in the first game and that “get out of the way” last night was egregious.

Right now Kass isn’t just “not helping the team”, he’s actively hurting the team.

When you lay it all on one player then by removing that player they should win the game. That wasn’t the case, the whole team was awful in real time.

Material Elvis

pts2pndr: You are like a pimple on your ass that never goes away.

Harper’s Ingrown Hair.

Gerta Rauss

Calgary with an empty netter and a 3-0 lead with 2 min left

WPG is out

*edit 4-0

Material Elvis

Jets join the discarded pile. Will karma win them the lottery?

Material Elvis

SVR: He lost another bet to you and now he’s Tesla’s hair, isn’t he

I think Tesla’s Hair is Andy Dufresne.

Jaxon

JOFA: Calm down Jaxon?

How can I call down!?!? It’s starting me right in the face. The best 3rd line in hockey: Benson / Nugent-Hopkins / Neal!!
Hahaha. I’d love to see it just for how great a story it would be. The local kid, Benson, gets his chance, the longest serving Oiler find his groove with a fellow highly touted Albertan Junior. Older veteran,
The Real Deal, mentors new talent and reinvigorates his career. 2 very responsible players in Benson and Nugent-Hopkins, paired with a goal scorer. Benson shows his vision and passing skills now that he finally has 2 legit goal scorers on his line. Do it Tippet!!!

Munny

These Playoffs are like NHL Survivor or Big Brother.

Get kicked off the island.
Get kicked out of the house.
Get kicked out of the bubble.

godot10

digger50:
Godot you are single handedly hanging Kassian out to dry.

There is no way you can hang these losses on one player. Contract value right now is poor, but he’s only playing 5 minutes, hard to do too much damage. If he was playing, there is no way these refs let him make a single hit without calling a penalty.

Kassian has done massive damage. Big mistakes and lack of effort on goals 3 and 4 in game 1. Total disinterest in the tying goal in game 3.

All goals against are not equal.

I have been arguing that Kassian has been a significant net negative on the team for years.

And well, we have Connor’s reaction to the tying goal on national TV after watching the replay. “F. O. K.”

JOFA

Two of my family members have/had Vitiligo. I wondered last year if Nurse may have it. It seems more noticeable this year. If he does happen to have it, I hope he embraces it like my family did.?

#weareallunique

JOFA

Jaxon:
Put Benson in the game! You know I had to say it.

Calm down Jaxon?

Jaxon

Put Benson in the game! You know I had to say it.

Munny

0.3 to go in the period. Unbelievable. Typical Flames.

OriginalPouzar

Kinger_Oil.redux: – Of course.That’s the part of the reason for the success of the team:Many times they both have talked about how they discuss things day to day.

– This isn’t Chia and Coach, where Chia would get players, and Coach wouldn’t play them

– And the coach is part of management.And Holland signed Smith (based on Tipp’s advocacy for him, given their tenure many years ago)

– Its not a point of contention: Holland and Tipp agreed to sign Smith, and they agreed conceptually on howto play him.That a proper GM coach relationship.

– What happens day to day is surely mostly on the coach, who is part of management

– I dont’ get it: no one disputes that Smith’s role on the team requires the buy-in of management.

– We will see what happens to the starter situation next game(s) and we will see what happens in off-season, and how GM evaulates Tipp, and how the goalie composition looks going forward.

– Who do you think starts next game?Is that the same as who you think they should start next game?And why?

I don’t agree that the coach is part of management but that’s not really here nor there.

Of course management (Holland) and coach (Tippett) were involved in team building and player procurement and both were on board with singing Mike Smith and bringing him in.

Since that date, I don’t believe Holland has had a part in who started in goal in any of the 73 meaningful games the Oilers have played. In that regard, I don’t agree with statements such as “clearly management doesn’t rate him” – of course, if you are including the coaches in “management”, that is a different analysis.

I think Tippett likely starts Smith – I think that has nothing to do with management.

Zelepukin

There is some serious lack of concern and general laziness in this Leafs/Blue Jackets OT.

Zelepukin

Todd Macallan:
The Jackets succomb to the Oiler special own goal off a dman. Boy are these “playoffs” turning into hot garbage.

Ya there has been a lot of that and also unobstructed down the wing, cleanly beaten snipes. Not many goalies have been consistently reliable.

Kinger_Oil.redux

SVR: There has been some great posters over the years for sure. The first Pouzar, you know the original guy to have this name, Is another favorite of mine that doesn’t post much any more

– Yeah the Winnepeg based one. He once was looking at a new job, and asked for opinions and got great isnight from a bunch of posters

– There was another funny guy who used to work for Woodguy, and he would post, and Woodguy would tell him to go back to work: that was good stuff

SVR

Kinger_Oil.redux: – Yeah, VOR was great.He also seemed connected in some form to someone who knew what was going on internally.

– He had nuanced insight and was a great contributor on hockey and life. A few other we miss: NYC and Georges and G-Money, Ricki, and a few others I’m blanking on.Plus that angry “bot”, was it maudite, who would send randomly generated hate emails when team lost a few in a row.

– And that guy who would go down rabbit holes and was called out for his BS often who vowed to hate the Oilers forever, and others would trot out his infamous quote

There has been some great posters over the years for sure. The first Pouzar, you know the original guy to have this name, Is another favorite of mine that doesn’t post much any more

OriginalPouzar

digger50:
Godot you are single handedly hanging Kassian out to dry.

There is no way you can hang these losses on one player. Contract value right now is poor, but he’s only playing 5 minutes, hard to do too much damage. If he was playing, there is no way these refs let him make a single hit without calling a penalty.

The thing is, yes, even in the limited minutes, he is doing damage – directly culpable for 2 goals in the first game and that “get out of the way” last night was egregious.

Right now Kass isn’t just “not helping the team”, he’s actively hurting the team.

Kinger_Oil.redux

digger50: I miss VOR

He dissapeared the exact second Hitchcock signed his contract with the Oilers.

– Yeah, VOR was great. He also seemed connected in some form to someone who knew what was going on internally.

– He had nuanced insight and was a great contributor on hockey and life. A few other we miss: NYC and Georges and G-Money, Ricki, and a few others I’m blanking on. Plus that angry “bot”, was it maudite, who would send randomly generated hate emails when team lost a few in a row.

– And that guy who would go down rabbit holes and was called out for his BS often who vowed to hate the Oilers forever, and others would trot out his infamous quote

pts2pndr

Kinger_Oil.redux: – I didn’t realize that there was no day break betwwen game 4 and if there is a game 5

– They ought to have started Koski in game 1

– Clearly management doens’t rate him, and clearly Smith sucks but they rate him higher

– Isn’t it clear that they start Smith next game?And if they win, he gets the next start

– Conversely, they start Smith and he be Smithing and still sucks: what do they do next year?

– Or if team wins with Smith because they play great, what do they do going forward?

– Paying a starter goalie starter money, and he performs like a good starter when afforded the opportunity,but he doens’t get to be the starteris a problem for the organization (and for Koski)

Given that Chicago has started the same Goalie for three straight I would think Edmonton would still have the advantage.

Kinger_Oil.redux

OriginalPouzar: OK, this is twice now over the last few days that you’ve implied management is making decisions involving which goalie starts on a particular night. Do you believe that Holland is involved in lineup decisions and Tippett does not have autonomy on this?

– Of course. That’s the part of the reason for the success of the team: Many times they both have talked about how they discuss things day to day.

– This isn’t Chia and Coach, where Chia would get players, and Coach wouldn’t play them

– And the coach is part of management. And Holland signed Smith (based on Tipp’s advocacy for him, given their tenure many years ago)

– Its not a point of contention: Holland and Tipp agreed to sign Smith, and they agreed conceptually on how to play him. That a proper GM coach relationship.

– What happens day to day is surely mostly on the coach, who is part of management

– I dont’ get it: no one disputes that Smith’s role on the team requires the buy-in of management.

– We will see what happens to the starter situation next game(s) and we will see what happens in off-season, and how GM evaulates Tipp, and how the goalie composition looks going forward.

– Who do you think starts next game? Is that the same as who you think they should start next game? And why?

digger50

Tesla's Hair:
IronGuys
Repent, Repent, Repent, Pay Your Rent, Dont get Bent, Repent, now i know what Leonard Meant
My Oh My
How we miss the Woodguy

I miss VOR

He dissapeared the exact second Hitchcock signed his contract with the Oilers.

digger50

What I witnessed was time and again our defence would get the puck up the boards to the wingers….and time and time again the wingers could not clear the zone.

Then a cycle would start again.

Chicago’s supposedly poor d men are pinching all the time.

Oilers solved this early in the season by going up the middle. Regardless. The hawks choke off the boards. Hammer the puck at the net and hope for the bounces. It’s worked g. Tippet please solve this!!

digger50

Godot you are single handedly hanging Kassian out to dry.

There is no way you can hang these losses on one player. Contract value right now is poor, but he’s only playing 5 minutes, hard to do too much damage. If he was playing, there is no way these refs let him make a single hit without calling a penalty.

Tesla's Hair

IronGuys
Repent, Repent, Repent, Pay Your Rent, Dont get Bent, Repent, now i know what Leonard Meant
My Oh My
How we miss the Woodguy

OriginalPouzar

Kinger_Oil.redux: – I didn’t realize that there was no day break betwwen game 4 and if there is a game 5

– They ought to have started Koski in game 1

– Clearly management doens’t rate him, and clearly Smith sucks but they rate him higher

– Isn’t it clear that they start Smith next game?And if they win, he gets the next start

– Conversely, they start Smith and he be Smithing and still sucks: what do they do next year?

– Or if team wins with Smith because they play great, what do they do going forward?

– Paying a starter goalie starter money, and he performs like a good starter when afforded the opportunity,but he doens’t get to be the starteris a problem for the organization (and for Koski)

OK, this is twice now over the last few days that you’ve implied management is making decisions involving which goalie starts on a particular night. Do you believe that Holland is involved in lineup decisions and Tippett does not have autonomy on this?

pts2pndr

SVR: He lost another bet to you and now he’s Tesla’s hair, isn’t he

He didn’t lose much if he welshed like HH.

pts2pndr

dustrock:
I posted hella lot on twitter last night so I’ll get this one long rant off my chest and then I should be done for day.

Lots of thoughts:

(1) This team truly isn’t great on 5v5, and Drai’s even strength goals came off broken plays from some fine forechecking.When they get in the “halfcourt” offence, they don’t score.If hockey, and playoff hockey in particular is a pinball game from the point, the Oilers are not equipped to win like that.You can see some good cycles by the Drai and Khaira lines in particular, but the forwards end up trying cutesy passes with each other.I don’t think there’s any trust in the D delivering shots from the point, and as much as I like Klefbom as a retriever on the PP, he must only get 1/6 shots through for a tip.I realize it’s boring hockey to blast from the point and have a guy screen Crawford, but too bad, it works.Our best screener through 3 games has been….Kailer Yamamoto, who might be the only hockey player shorter than me.Not ideal.

(2) Someone posted that Keith, Maata and Koekoek for Cocoa Puffs are #1-3 in d-man scoring for the playoffs.The Chicago D, even if they are getting torched sometime on D, are definitely contributing on offence.We have no D who can contribute offensively, and I wonder if someone like Bear, who has the best shot from the point and is a good distributor, is being shut down a bit by Chicago’s speed (and maybe playing too cautious).

(3) I’ve criticized Larsson many, many times, but if he excels at 1 thing, it’s clearing out the blue paint.I’m too angry/lazy to watch video from Games 2 and 3, but the amount of real estate that the Hawks were squatting on last night was outstanding.The overall hustle was fine, but it’s like all the other d-men are incapable of bodying the Hawks forwards.If he’s not back the Oilers lose this series.

(4) I’ve criticized Nurse many, many times, and I’m still not sure what he’s good at.His coverage shouldn’t be this poor and I agree with EH TEAM that the solution is to play Jones/Benning more, not less.

(5) Not sure why Kassian is playing at this point.I’ve been vocal about the extension since before it was signed and every week it seems more and more like a mistake.For a guy that was a pretty great playoff guy in 2017, he looks like he’s going through the motions.

(6) You’re telling me Haas and Nygard couldn’t put on as good a performance as Sheahan and Kassian?

(7) Beautiful hands on the PP otherwise, and lord knows McDavid can’t be blamed for last night, but Chicago was shutting him down pretty good.Not a lot of clean air.We haven’t had a game yet where both 97 & 29 are on fire, and it’s pretty much up to them, so here’s hoping for tomorrow.

</

Watch the hacks, holds and interference on Draisaitl and McDavid with no calls. The calls on the Oilers are for the most part valid however the Refs look the other way on infractions to negate our better players. It has been decided that Chicago moving on is better for the league. The officiating or lack there of is a large part of where we are at in this series. Missing an automatic major and game misconduct to Cagguila which ended in a one game suspension after the fact, to a call on Russel for holding against Russel last game that was egregious are but two examples of either incompetence or fix. The NHL may be professional but the officiating is either sub par or part of a league fix.

SVR

Harpers Hair: Oh, he’s still here from time to time.
See if you can pick him out.

He lost another bet to you and now he’s Tesla’s hair, isn’t he

Harpers Hair

SVR: Speaking of Woodguy, seems like we won a lot of games this year when he did his game day morning analysis.

It’s time to pull out all the stops.

Woodguy, are you out there?

Oh, he’s still here from time to time.
See if you can pick him out.

SVR

Harpers Hair: Woodguy called this many months ago.

Woodguy (@Woodguy55) Tweeted:
Wasn’t one of the benefits of McDavid supposed to be “good wingers will take a little less to play with him”?

How did that change to “let’s pay marginal offensive players for their results with him”? (7/7)

Speaking of Woodguy, seems like we won a lot of games this year when he did his game day morning analysis.

It’s time to pull out all the stops.

Woodguy, are you out there?

Kinger_Oil.redux

Younger Oil:

I realize that many of these are contradictory statements, but it is clear that if the Oilers lose the series, it is a “no win” scenario for Tippett, and he will be heavily criticized with his handling of the goalies. It all started with starting the clearly poorer performing goalie in Game 1.

We need to win two games in a row, and I hate the idea of Koskinen playing three games in four days, but I also hate the idea of Smith seeing the crease again after how he has played. It’s an incredibly dire situation for the Oilers, and they’ll need to play two incredible games to have a chance.

– I didn’t realize that there was no day break betwwen game 4 and if there is a game 5

– They ought to have started Koski in game 1

– Clearly management doens’t rate him, and clearly Smith sucks but they rate him higher

– Isn’t it clear that they start Smith next game? And if they win, he gets the next start

– Conversely, they start Smith and he be Smithing and still sucks: what do they do next year?

– Or if team wins with Smith because they play great, what do they do going forward?

– Paying a starter goalie starter money, and he performs like a good starter when afforded the opportunity, but he doens’t get to be the starter is a problem for the organization (and for Koski)

jp

OriginalPouzar: Assuming Bear on a bridge in the $2M range – would that be better value the way he’s trending?

Yes, of course. I guess I meant guys in their prime, not on ELC or bridge.

It’s very difficult to get a player with an established level of play in a trade for Klefbom who’s better value for money than Klefbom is.

Todd Macallan

The Jackets succomb to the Oiler special own goal off a dman. Boy are these “playoffs” turning into hot garbage.

Harpers Hair

Ryan: It’s the Oiler motto.

“We pay more for less.”

Salic grabs Burakovsky for a second third, and a nobody….

The Oilers pay two seconds for AA.

The Hamilton / Reinhart mirror trades.

Francouz vs Koskinen cap hits.

Holland has done some nice things, but I took umbrage at the Kassian and Chaser contracts.

Mike Smith was a pretty piss poor goalie for what we paid in contract and bonuses too.

Worth noting that Cam Talbot has been excellent for Calgary.

pts2pndr

Harpers Hair: I expect the trade for AA will soon join the list.

You are like a pimple on your ass that never goes away. Have you ever had to have your ass cash a check your mouth wrote! I think not, for you, it has always been have your lawyer talk to my lawyer. Cowered when Messier glared at you and your man balls shrivelled and died that day. I feel very sorry for you!

Ryan

Harpers Hair: I expect the trade for AA will soon join the list.

It’s the Oiler motto.

“We pay more for less.”

Salic grabs Burakovsky for a second third, and a nobody….

The Oilers pay two seconds for AA.

The Hamilton / Reinhart mirror trades.

Francouz vs Koskinen cap hits.

Holland has done some nice things, but I took umbrage at the Kassian and Chaser contracts.

Mike Smith was a pretty piss poor goalie for what we paid in contract and bonuses too.

pts2pndr

JJS:
The games still feel like early season tune-ups.Loose and easy.

I wonder if the Oil would be playing better against a more structured team?

They look a bit casual.

This is where a guy like Lowe, Jason Smith or Pronger would make all the difference.A d-man leader who can galvanize the team and crack the whip.

I can’t think of anyone on the current team who fits that bill

All the above would be in the box by yesterday’s reffing. The Oilers will have to beat the refs and the Hawks to win. 6-2 penalties when they finally made a call on the Hawks. Oilers score and no more calls although plenty of sticks in the hands of McDavid and slashes and holds when convenient.

Tesla's Hair

Enough. Just win next game. Lets go from there.

Harpers Hair

Unfriendly Regional Arachnid Individual:
Harpers Hair,

Agreed. At the time of the signing of Kassian I said:

“Gross contract and typical Oilers. Looks like Ken is more of the same.”

I’m sure many shared the sentiment and still do. Same for Chiasson. Same for Russell, Lucic, the Strome trade, etc. We were still waiting on the 1000 cuts from Chiarelli to close up and Kenny came in and has opened up another one or two while closing a couple.

I expect the trade for AA will soon join the list.