So the old Boston Bruins had this winger named Wayne Cashman and he was a load. Although he lacked the skill of high-end players, he could dig the puck out, score some goals and play a fierce brand of hockey. On those Orr Bruins teams, if the crowd made a loud “OH!” noise, chances are Cashman did something to someone which may or may not have been caught on tape.
THE ATHLETIC!
I’m proud to be writing for The Athletic, and pleased to be part of a great team with Daniel Nugent-Bowman and Jonathan Willis. Here is our recent work.
- New Lowetide: Jay Woodcroft oversees a spike in Oilers prospect development
- New Lowetide: The 2020-21 Oilers and value contracts: Career opportunities
- New Eric Duhatschek: For one season only, bring on the NHL’s Canada Division
- New Jonathan Willis: Oilers’ organizational depth chart: Where does Edmonton stand today?
- Lowetide: Dmitri Samorukov’s KHL impact and what it means to the Oilers
- Lowetide: How many goals will Tyler Ennis score in 2020-21?
- Lowetide: Oilers extend Kris Russell, solve expansion issue
- Lowetide: Can Kyle Turris centre an outscoring No. 3 line in Edmonton?
- Lowetide: Tyson Barrie’s skills and how Oilers coach Dave Tippett will deploy him
- Jonathan Willis: Can Oilers unlock James Neal’s scoring potential at five on five?
- Lowetide: Why is Ilya Konovalov no longer starting in the KHL?
- Lowetide: Oilers Top 20 prospects, post-draft edition.
- Lowetide: Finding Connor McDavid’s optimal linemates among 2020-21 Oilers
- Jonathan Willis: A cautious free agent period boosts an Oilers team still on the upswing
- Lowetide: Oilers bring back Mike Smith for another year.
- Lowetide: Oilers sign Tyson Barrie to a team-friendly deal.
- Lowetide: Oilers sign Kyle Turris, Tyler Ennis in early hours of free agency.
- Lowetide: Jesse Puljujarvi signing overshadows a strong day for Oilers at draft
- Lowetide: Oilers draft Dylan Holloway on Day 1, with trades possible Wednesday
RYAN SMYTH
Ryan Smyth arrived in the NHL about one dozen seasons after Cashman, and fighting was done by enforcers. Still, the corner work and relentless pursuit of the puck was the same, and passing even more important. Cashman scored 22-41-63 per 82 games during his career (in a high scoring era) while Smyth scored 25-29-54 in 82 games in a less offensive era.
Most of you are familiar with Smyth and his style, so there’s no need for an explanation.
Smyth didn’t have a great shot but scored a bunch of goals by being a master of the net front tip and slamming in rebounds by the bushel. Patrick Maroon did much the same thing when he was riding shotgun on Connor McDavid’s line.
Last season, coach Dave Tippett used James Neal and Alex Chiasson in the net-front presence roles on the powerplay and McDavid’s line didn’t have a five on five Smyth clone. Who tipped the most shots last season for the Oilers as a percentage of overall output? It’s a surprise!
Nygard showed some exciting possibilities during what was a brief debut season with the Oilers. In 54 minutes with Connor McDavid, the shot differential was 59 percent and the goals for percentage 75. Nygard scored just 0-1-1 in those minutes (1.11 five on five points-per-60) with McDavid scoring an impressive 2-4-6 (6.68 five on five points-per-60).
POSSIBLE LINEUP
There’s about $2.5 million in cap still available, this includes Oscar Klefbom on LTIR. If Edmonton wanted to get Klefbom back on this roster, general manager Ken Holland would need to send down Kailer Yamamoto and waive William Lagesson. A trade, perhaps Alex Chiasson, would be more likely.
As for Nygard, he was hurt but is now back playing in the SHL, four games so far and no crooked numbers.
NEW LOOK
You may notice a new look on the blog this morning. Poster “Ryan” reached out to me recently and offered to update the blog front and back. I consulted with Danny (who did the original work) to make sure it was okay because this is his baby, too. Ryan has fixed myriad issues, and the hope is that we’re back to being far more user friendly now and into the future. Please let me know in comments or email what you like, what you don’t like, and any issues you are having. Sincere thanks to Ryan for all his hard work and for taking care to make sure this old ship remains seaworthy. Also, many thousand thanks to Danny, a generous soul who answered thousands of emails over the years that began with “HELP!” I promise it won’t be 15 years between changes next time. Probably. 🙂
LOWDOWN WITH LOWETIDE
A busy morning and a fun one, too, we get started at 10 on TSN1260. Steve Lansky from Inside the Truck podcast will join me at 10:20 and we’ll talk about the Masters in November, World Juniors at Christmas and the difficult issues raised by Mitchell Miller’s hockey future. Matt Iwanyk from TSN1260 will come stumblin’ in (that’s a fabulous Suzi Quatro reference that most of you won’t get because you’re too young) and chat Raptors in Kansas City, Blue Jays in Buffalo and why all contests are not created equal. At 11:25, it will be my honor to talk to Mike “Doc” Emrick about his new book, his brilliant career and his decision to retire. 10-1260 text, @Lowetide on twitter. See you on the radio!
Hello.
So are we allowed to attach Diane Lane photos. Asking for a friend.
Apparently, yes
Ryan : who knew you were super poster and website game! Will fiddle around with this as I sit in car with baby sleeping while rest of fam shopping at market. Your a long time poster so you get all the comments. Your doing an awesome job Amd props to LT for the off-season revitalization. Reminds of when players come into training camp and talk about what they worked on. Most of the time they are full of sh$t but LTs off season resulted in legit improvement
I think I read there is a list of “recent posts” like we’ve had in the past but I don’t see these. Where might they be?
I don’t see them on mobile. They were in roughly the normal place on laptop last night, but we can no longer scroll right on mobile.
They’re on the right sidebar if you’re on a desktop or at the bottom if you’re using your phone. They have photos now instead of just text.
Thanks.
Test for some features.
Thanks Woodguy!
I am here often enough anyway, so I might as make myself useful.
I’ve made a minor update to change the appearance of quotes.
With this, it obviates the need to use nested comments.
Really, the only problem with nested comments occurs when we’re replying to an old comment in the thread.
Test.
Good work Ryan.
My minor quibbles are already being addressed as per the thread.
Waaaay better on my phone too.
I still haven’t figured out what the notification icon does to the left of the Post Comment button
It says “Notify of new replies to this comment”..but notify how..?..I took a quick look in my WordPress dashboard but I didn’t see any configurable options ie: a notification feature that can be enabled/disabled
Replying for testing purposes 🙂 NOTIFY!
LoL
Yeah, I got nuthin’ on my end
Just a heads up- you can delete your comment by clicking on the comment bubble on your left-it’ll scroll you to the top, and just below that, you’ll see the total number of comments
-to the right of that, there is a my content and settings icon-click on that and you can select which comment you want to delete
201st comment test
Lowetide
Author
16 hours ago
The comment window is open, if you are having a difficult time logging in please let me know. Some issues might take a little time to address but we’re going to track them down promise
Dammit, Gerta! You’re making me look like I don’t know what I’m talking about! lol
Edit – I see what you’re doing there. Thumbs Up!
LoL
I’ve been farting around for about 30 mins test driving the features
I think the above is a reasonable facsimile of what we had- it’s a manual process but the end result is easy to read for the end user
I’d press the + button to encourage your efforts, but now I’m all-in against the +/-, lol.
Your testing looks good to me. I think this style would be adopted quickly and used well until a quoting feature is possible.
Thank you sir – Ryan alluded to it earlier in the day but I wanted to get the format straight hence the testing. It solves both problems
– the primary result is a quoted comment that is eas(ier) to read (with the quote in italics and your reply in standard text and indented with the “unordered feature” in the comment toolbox)
-by manually copy/pasting the comment/reply, you’re creating a new post(not a reply), so the post moves to the bottom and “carries on the conversation”. I’m in the no camp for threaded comments as well
It’s a bit of work but I think it’s worth it…it’s just a couple minutes of copy/pasting and selecting your text and applying the relevant features
It would be nice if you could change the color of the italics and leave your reply/text as black but this is a nitpicking
And I’m not against the current Reply format(and subsequent nested comment)…if you’re making a quick LOL to a comment or an attempt at humor the current format of reply/nested comment is perfectly fine
I read through the comments again and Ryan basically covered all of the above(in a discussion with GeorgesX) earlier today..his formatting was slightly different than mine (the italics were indented and reply/text was set against the left margin) but yeah, either format is fine
Ryan! You did it! Awesome! Things are looking pretty slick!
Quick notes…
Hopefully you can find some optimal comments settings to implement. I vote for non-threading, please :p
The quote feature is nice to have, but I don’t think it’s necessary if not immediately possible (text is easily italicized with this comment system). I’d trust people to conform to this. Non-threading is more important than this feature.
The comment form shooting up to the top of the post is super weird. I don’t know how easy this would be to change, but if possible, I would move it to the bottom.
The +/- feature is more useless than the NHL’s version of the metric. Losing it means a cleaner interface and more engaged audience.
I wouldn’t mind seeing the font size increased overall. This may only be a personal preference. I can see how this may effect the mobile reading experience. I am usually reading on a PC.
Pretty busy with the kiddos this Halloween weekend, but I will try to work on a nice banner/title image for you in the coming days! If you are needing any other graphical components, just let me know!
Like the new look. Was there a change in the RSS feed address? I’m not seeing anything since about 10/20…
The floating comment icon is cool.
https://lowetide.ca/2020/10/30/relentless/comment-page-1/#comment-960279
Testing out comment link
Test looking for the edit button.
And there it was. 😉
Nice job and thanks again for all your work Ryan. I’m going to have to figure out how to navigate the nesting but everything else is very smooth and improved.
Ryan,
Bravo. I think this is overall just awesome. Amazing work. I love the new logo/banner, font, everything. Don’t sweat some of the small little details; I think people will adjust and besides, you’ll never make everyone happy.
I honestly believe threaded comments can work well.
Personally, I don’t always care for some of the flame wars and I found that too often good posts would get lost in the mix.
I’m super excited about the show me contract for a very hungry Tyson Barrie who will get every opportunity to rack up some points. Alex I’ll take Barrie finishing in the top 5 scoring D for a $100. I can see Barrie being a Oiler for the next 5-6 years
Agree on everything but I am hoping for 3 years and hopeful 5 is the max. I expect he is McDavid’s defacto left winger this season until a better option comes along joining the rush and potting a few along the way. Could be a dynamite combo.
Ryan and LT, the site updates looks good.
I preferred replies showing up at the end rather than being nested but it’s clear there’s no easy fix for that.
(if that’s where we’re staying maybe more than 5 ‘recent comments’ on the sidebar would be good. I don’t usually use those but will check those more if the comments are going to be nested).
A time stamp would be really nice to find where I was reading.
In terms of quoting a comment by copy/paste, that would work alright but I don’t see any comment formatting features on my phone (italics, etc). The copy/paste reply thing is definitely more of a pain on mobile.
Otherwise, thanks for the effort! Lots of other things appear to be working more smoothly.
I thought Kassian might be our poor man’s Cashman he has spurts where he can be dominant but than he disappears for long stretches and it would be a discredit to compare him to the hard ever hard working Mr. Cashman.
OP: “I think the Khaira and Archibald are every day players on Tippet’s lineup card.
They will be primary PK guys and we know that Nuge will also be a primary PK guy in the first two pairs.
That leaves one more primary PK guy that replaces Sheahan essentially. They used Yamamoto a bit near the end of the year and in the play-in. They didn’t give Haas much PK time but have spoke about it (and, from accounts, he was a plus PK in Europe – it may or may not translate).
Both Holland and Coach T. have mentioned Turris in a PK role.
Drai may be used for faceoffs but, notwithstanding he is very good on the PK, will be more of an emergency guy.
I see:
Khaira/Archibald
Nuge/Turris
Fill-Ins – Yamamoto, Haas, -“
——-———
If Nuge is playing 5v5 and 5v4 with Draisaitl, plus PK1, why can’t Draisaitl be a primary PK as well?
Nuge did all that last year and his ice time was still well below Drai’s – Coach T will find ways to get Drai on for extra ice that he doesn’t find for Nuge.
I’d assumed that was from the earlier part of the year when McDavid/Draisaitl played together and got more 5v5 ice than Nuge. I could well be wrong though.
You could be right and I haven’t looked at splicing the data further.
Drai does get the shifts after a PK, the extra faceoff shifts, the odd time coach takes advantage of an icing or linematch availability, etc.
We don’t know that Nygard isn’t “that guy”.
You may be right about why the GFs were happening but, at the same time, the GAs were not happening – one GA in 50 minutes (without Drai on the line). Perhaps the low GA total is a product of Nygard and indirectly leading to the goals scores?
Small sample for sure, but there was a line that played together about three games worth:
Nygard-McDavid-Kassian: 35:55 minutes, 24-16 shots, 3-1 goals.
That’s worth having a longer look, although I think Ennis or Nuge lands there to start the year.
https://www.naturalstattrick.com/linestats.php?fromseason=20192020&thruseason=20192020&stype=2&sit=5v5&score=all&rate=n&team=EDM&vteam=ALL&view=wowy&loc=B&gpfilt=none&fd=2019-10-02&td=2020-04-04&tgp=2000&strict=incl&p1=8478402&p2=8481638&p3=8475178&p4=0&p5=0
I agree with this 100% – all i’ve been saying over the months is that the history of success should be explored not that Nygard should be the 1LW but its something to look at. I also agree, I don’t think he’s a primary or even secondary option in Tippett’s head at this point.
Yes, 2GA against in 54 minutes but, when Drai is removed from the equation, its 1GA in 50-51 minutes.
The Kraken get cracking.
https://www.nhl.com/kraken/news/hockey-operations-hires-12-new-amateur-european-scouts/c-319550330
You can use the comment bubble on the left hand side that floats. Click on it to post a new comment or click reply. The only alternative is to revert to the default WordPress comment system which you saw earlier this am. It does provide for comments at the end. but lacks several other features.
I can turn off that feature. I was waiting for feedback.
Some guy named Allen would win every single day.
I’d be interested in seeing how people use it. Sure, there’s going to be people who get after specific individuals, but it might elevate some thoughtful posters who could get more notice.
I’d like to humbly submit another vote for the post/comment field to be at the bottom of the page. It’s far easier to access that way.
Another observation — if it’s doable, is there a chance to add a sorting button beside the most reacted and most commented threads to have chronological and/or threaded? That may be a big ask, but thought I’d float the idea, just in case it had yet to be explored.
https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c7fa9bedef79f224dd7e7aed6a258867?s=64&d=blank&r=g
Ryan
Admin
Reply to OriginalPouzar
3 minutes ago
You’re up to bat! Contact this guy: https://wordpress.org/plugins/quote-comments/ and pay him to update his plugin and we’re good to go!
————–
I think you are being facetious, however, if you aren’t, I’d be willing to pay a reasonable amount for the optionality – although I don’t think you are talking a couple hundred bucks, are you?
Dammit Jim, I’m a doctor not a programmer. Seriously though, we’ve reached the ceiling of my website design abilities. We’ll need to bring in a hired gun to fix this issue.
Thanks Georgexs. You’re one of my favourite posters here! You should post more. Also, I need your pager number whenever I need data scraped and analyzed for random ideas that cross my mind!
It’s kind of fun watching all the changes happen to the forum throughout the day.
It looks really good!
I do miss the time stamps though, it was an easy way of keeping track of where you were in the thread.
Otherwise thanks for all the content, everyone. I think I enjoy reading this site more than watching actual games
Thank you Danny, and Ryan, for your efforts to bring LT’s words to the rest of us. Your efforts are appreciated greatly. You too, LT, I guess 😉
New style will take a bit to get used to — old habits and all — but it seems very smooth and will likely be second nature in no time.
I’ve probably gone too far with the orange Admin badge. I’ll have my fun here until Lowetide kicks me out. Thanks!
It’s funny that when I typed my comment, the theme was green. Naturally, the first scheme that came to mind was copper and blue which I dismissed as being trite or too cheesy. And yet that doesn’t appear to be the case at all with the current iteration. It’s very cozy and natural considering the environs. Mikey likey!
Is it possible to list a quote thread by the last part instead of the first? The thread would then always appear with the new posts.
A quote feature that doesn’t thread would be aces!
You’re up to bat! Contact this guy: https://wordpress.org/plugins/quote-comments/ and pay him to update his plugin and we’re good to go!
Testing 1-2-3
God bless Bobby Orr.
Amen to that.
Ryan
Admin
Reply to godot10
2 hours ago
It’s funny how life is. I remember what about six months ago when for some reason Lowetide switched to threaded comments (for a brief trial). I was annoyed with the threaded comments. I am pretty sure that I complained about them at that time in a thread.
Here I am today serving up threaded comments.
I also don’t like how this comment plugin has the comment post editor at the top of the comment thread (like the Athletic)
Right now we have four choices. WPdiscuz with threaded comments. WPdiscuz with no threaded comments or quotes or reply button.
We can also go back to the default WordPress comment system, with or without threaded comments, but no quote button.
Maybe we can have a vote. Or I can switch to default WordPress comments with no threads and we can cut and past and manually insert code for italic fonts (to quote other people).
On the positive side of the ledger, we have an edit button. Also, I don’t have to re-login and do a math question every time I post a comment.
——————-
I’m with Godot and I vote for the non-threaded comments and losing the quote function – manually quoting (i.e. copy and paste), for me, is much more user friendly then trying to figure out if there are new posts embedded in a giant thread.
If we are looking for “conversation and discourse”, threaded just doesn’t work in my opinion, at least not as well.
Bling
2 hours ago
OP:
Another reason for optimism is that Holloway received meagre PP time in comparison to Caufield and Turcotte. He was not so far behind Turcotte (drafted 5th overall in 2019) at even strength production.
Caufield, despite being the smaller man, dwarfed both.
I’m hopeful of a big step forward from Holloway this season.
————————–
Thank you for that – I guess that would be expected for an 18 year old rookie.
In my mind the jump from the AJHL to a top NCAA conference is probably somewhat as significant as jumping from the CHL to pro hockey and some early struggles were likely to be expected as Holloway got used to a different type of hockey and older/stronger players.
Similar to how Bouchard (and even Sammy) took a while to get their feet wet in Bakersfield but spiked in the 2nd half, Holloway did the same.
Given he’ll be bigger, stronger and more acclimated to the college game, I feel the same as you and do think that he’s going to have a massive spike this year – PPG plus PK, etc. – in that neighbourhood.
Ryan, I agree with whoever posted above about the comment timestamps. An actual time makes it much easier to find where I left off in the comments when I refresh the page.
Another consideration for the comments is to follow what the sbnation series of websites does with their comment section. It allows the users to mark comments as read and advance to the next unread comment. That allows for a threaded comments section that doesn’t require reading all of the comments again to see if you missed any. That being said, I have no idea about the feasibility of doing that on this site.
Anyhow, the updates look great!
Wow, Bob McKenzie really laying in to Lisa MacLeod on twitter with regard to announcement re: no body-checking in the OHL.
If anyone has sway (other than Bettman and the League), Bob McKenzie probably does. I think he might be able to get this revisited by the Ministry.
Love the font change. Much easier to read for these old eyes.
Like the new format and it looks like you are quickly working out the kinks and addressing preferences and shortcomings. Great job Ryan!
More evidence that “taxes” and “opportunity with the Oilers” don’t seem to be of concern for Lagesson:
Allan Walsh
@walsha
·
3m
Oilers dman William Lagesson has been playing great hockey in Sweden with Vita Hasten awaiting the 20-21 NHL season.
I like the new look, nice work Ryan.
As been mentioned before Lagesson was in action tonight having an assist and 24 minutes of ice in a 7-5 loss against the unbeatable Björklöven(with former Condor Tyler Vesel having a strong second season with the club)
What hasn’t been mentioned is that Jeremias Lindewall made his fourth appearence with Modo’s mens team in their last five games tonight. He’s been getting around 10 minutes of ice/game but a little less tonight, no points yet though in his first game he nearly had a goal as it seemed like he touched the puck last and initially was awarded with the goal but later it was given to another player.
The team is struggling but the fact he’s starting to establish himself with the men’s team is a great early arrow for a 7th rounder. From all reports he’s been playing well. One friend who is a Modo fan said, quite surly, that he was easily outplaying “that all flair no substance weakling (Aleksi) Heponiemi” after an earlier game which ofc has more to do with expectations than truth but still encouraging that he doesn’t look out of place. Now the next step is to start producing.
Thank you very much for this. I keep forgetting about Lindewall and his being called up to the “Big Leagues”. Thanks for the info.
Nice look! Like the custom themes too!
This looks so much better! Great work, Ryan. Great work keeping the old version afloat for so long, Danny. Of the 3 iterations of the blog I’ve commented at, this one feels the cleanest.
Thanks Stephen. Your feedback is much appreciated!
godot10
I can also do this to quote you with no comment thread.
There’s an italics button on the comment editor.
Yup…I like these new changes. Thanks. We’ll get there
Please change the font for the main text. Sans Serif fonts read so much easier online…
The lineup you posted is exactly what I’m thinking (sans any changes in FA or trades) but I worry a bit about Archie being unavailable for PK duties, esp after the departure of Sheahan. Again, his departure was the right move, but it has PK implications. I’d be curious to see you post your thoughts on the lineup (done) as well as PK1, PK2 and PP1, PP2 with this roster.
I agree that the sans serif font is more difficult to read.
how’s this?
Just saw this and also saw that I got my comment backwards. This font is much better & thank you.
Comments are threaded….grrr. Comments aren’t timestamped….grrr.
Hypothesis: People who like threaded comment sections must never read comment sections.
I can’t believe programmers have not figured out how to make it a reader option as to how a comment thread is presented, so everyone can view the comments in their preferred structure.
It’s funny how life is. I remember what about six months ago when for some reason Lowetide switched to threaded comments (for a brief trial). I was annoyed with the threaded comments. I am pretty sure that I complained about them at that time in a thread.
Here I am today serving up threaded comments.
I also don’t like how this comment plugin has the comment post editor at the top of the comment thread (like the Athletic)
Right now we have four choices. WPdiscuz with threaded comments. WPdiscuz with no threaded comments or quotes or reply button.
We can also go back to the default WordPress comment system, with or without threaded comments, but no quote button.
Maybe we can have a vote. Or I can switch to default WordPress comments with no threads and we can cut and past and manually insert code for italic fonts (to quote other people).
On the positive side of the ledger, we have an edit button. Also, I don’t have to re-login and do a math question every time I post a comment.
Bobby Orr
I wondered how long before somebody went there.
For me, the Orr of my youth remains a hero, probably the biggest one I’ve ever had in my life. Whether I’m Republican or Democrat that doesn’t change. I will tell you that in my voting life both national parties have received my vote, and probably will again. I don’t expect Neil Young to share my politics, but still believe Zuma is my all-time album. Doesn’t change.
I find it unfortunate that people in public life feel it necessary to express their political preferences in public. One side does it, the other side feels they need to counter.
There is nothing about being an actor or an athlete that makes their political opinion worth publicizing.
But here we are.