The two main teams for the Edmonton Oilers franchise play on Saturday, giving us a complete view of the depth chart for the season to come. This is the pool for NHL games in 2021-22. There are no guarantees among the Condors, but there’s talent there, some of it available to the Oilers later in the year when healthy. It’s a long, long road. It starts Saturday.
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Mike Smith.He was brilliant in the opener and I think the Oilers are committed to him for this and next season. It’s like having a 40-year old in the pitching rotation who is on a nice run. Like Jamie Moyer, who just kept pitching, Smith appears to be an anomaly, and he will appear to be one until he isn’t anymore. Moyer’s first MLB appearance was June 1986, and his final appearance was in May 2012. Yeah.
Mikko Koskinen. I asked Joacquin Gage about backups and rest on the Lowdown yesterday, and he liked to work. That’s the problem, goalies never say no and then when they play badly people forget the coach ran them ragged. I like the originally stated tandem, the games cut in half but also divided at times by two then two starts. Mike Smith will talk the coach into running with the hot streak is my guess.
Stuart Skinner. One thing this training camp proved, Skinner is next in line. They like him for an NHL job as soon as next season. Would they run Smith-Skinner next year? I think others will have an impact on the story before next year’s training camp.
Ilya Konovalov. I like him for the starter’s job eventually, but that’s me from the counting room and he is so not Stuart Skinner tall. It’ll be an interesting battle, and remember there’s a third runner in the race.
Olivier Rodrigue. The youngest of the group, he’s two years behind both Skinner and Konovalov. His AHL season was pedestrian but we’ll have a better idea about him in the spring.
LEFT DEFENSE
Darnell Nurse. He’ll played monster minutes all year, in all three disciplines, and will be a key player for Edmonton. Nurse is a more interesting player offensively now than ever, unusual for a player of his age and experience. Better tape-to-tape passer, gets shots on net that produce rebounds more often, drives to the net more often. I do not think he’ll score 16 goals, but do believe he’ll be productive.
Duncan Keith. We’re one game in, so let’s refrain from saying much beyond he hasn’t been scored on in 13 five on five minutes as an Oilers player. I liked his aggression in meeting and trying to isolate the rushing forward, he needs to protect against the seam pass up the middle.
Kris Russell. He defends effectively if you use GA-60 at five on five. That is going to be enough to get him into many NHL games when healthy this year.
Slater Koekkoek. He won the NHL gig and we’ll see if he plays 50+ games. Koekkoek was not strong last season for Edmonton, but can play either side and his Chicago numbers were good two years ago. I’m uncertain he will spend the entire season in the NHL.
William Lagesson. He’s on IR now, will eventually find the AHL and would be the first recall option all things being equal.
Markus Niemelainen. He’s a shutdown defender whose story is on the upswing since arriving in North America. He’s still 6.05, 203, we knew that when he was in Finland. However, he’s a more mobile player and can pass the puck, and there’s a chance he’ll have an NHL career on a third pairing. A big season to come for a big man.
Philip Broberg. In 41 preseason five on five minutes, all of his possession numbers (and expected goals) are well over 50 percent. I don’t know if he’s close or far from the NHL and he looked like Bambi early, but his physical tools (speed, size) are impressive and I saw some passing acumen. I don’t know how high he’ll climb but Saturday is going to be a good opportunity to see where he is compared to the other Bakersfield blue.
Dmitri Samorukov. He’s injured, but I think he’ll be the first recall among defensemen this year. A strong KHL season sets him up as the next logical recall and a possible partner for Ceci later this season.
Yanni Kaldis. AHL contract, chaos but effective puck mover.
RIGHT DEFENSE
Tyson Barrie. He had a tough first game, but he can play better and Barrie is a points producer from the blue line. Many Oilers fans are down on him, but he’s a fine passer and looks a little quicker this year. He’s a chaos blue, but at the top end.
Cody Ceci. He is a better passer than expected, and his defending has improved since the Sens days. I expect he’ll be a third-pairing option at some point this season and he should be quality there.
Evan Bouchard. I wrote about him for The Athletic today, he’s going to steal minutes from men listed above him. Bouchard’s first game was quality and there’s plenty more to come. How do I know? He’s the only man on the current roster with room to grow.
Filip Berglund. He’s an older prospect, so his time is now. He impressed everyone in the preseason but I don’t see a clear path to the NHL at this point unless there’s injury and Tippett decided not to move Russell or Koekkoek over to the right side. Good two-way player.
Phil Kemp. Another eye opener at training camp, we knew he had shutdown qualities but his puck moving was a pleasant bonus. Kemp is 6.03, 203 and has a nice range of abilities. He could play, but unlikely it’s this year.
Mike Kesselring. A tall, rangy defender with more potential than other prospects but we’re not certain he’ll deliver on all the promise. He’s 6.05, 205 and when he joins the rush it’s entertaining. He’ll need some time.
Vincent Desharnais. Whenever I watch the Condors, it’s a mystery why the 6.07, 228 defender is without an NHL contract. Someday, an NHL team is going to steal him.
CENTER
Connor McDavidhas two points in one game, clearly an indication we’re about to see a season that rivals Phil Esposito’s legendary 1970-71 campaign. The fact McDavid will do it without Bobby Orr means he gets extra cool points.
Ryan Nugent Hopkins. That’s right, Nuge doesn’t push the river but he can still the waters and battle the rapids with two impressive and aggressive buzzsaw wingers. He looked like a new man on Wednesday.
Derek Ryan. He’s a smart player and he doesn’t get himself in trouble by dipsy doodling. You’re going to love him.
Devin Shore. Well, you can get as mad as you want but Shore played better than McLeod. Now his possession numbers are still well below 50 percent and he ran luck like mad at five on five, but there can be no surprise he’s the No. 4 center now.
Ryan McLeod. He hasn’t played well. Remains a solid prospect with a large chance to have an NHL career of some length. He’s so fast!
RC Adam Cracknell. I’ll admit to not knowing what Woodcroft and company will do at center, it may depend on one of the young prospects and how they feel he’ll progress. I’m running four veterans down the middle on this list, beginning with last year’s leading scorer.
LC James Hamblin. I was a little surprised they didn’t sign him to an NHL deal, there was a rumour running around for a week or so during preseason. He’s a speedster and highly effective in the AHL, I’m not enough of a scout to know if he has NHL potential. Math says no.
LC Brad Malone. He can still play, showed that in preseason with the big club. Malone won’t see the NHL again, but he’ll help several wingers on their way to the show. Think hockey’s Bull Durham.
LC Luke Esposito. He also showed well in a small sample during training camp.
LC Dylan Holloway. He’ll be top of the Condors depth chart once healthy, unless the injury limits him. A big part of Edmonton’s story this year will be Holloway’s production and possible recall.
LEFT WING
Leon Draisaitl. The year Esposito had 156 points, Johnny Bucyk posted 116 and Ken Hodge 105. Ironically, Bucyk played his five on five minutes on the second line. Draisaitl had an uneven debut to his 2021-22 season, but count on him to deliver another big year.
Zach Hyman. The most obvious roster upgrade on Wednesday was Hyman, who will finally educate Oilers fans about the true meaning of relentless. 30 goals? How much power-play time does he get?
Warren Foegele. He’s an important fit on a roster trying desperately to send a legit line over the boards on the second change. Early results are encouraging.
Brendan Perlini. Big man romped through preseason, and didn’t get much time on Wednesday. He’ll get his opportunities over the long season.
Tyler Benson. I’m the only one who sees waivers as possible. It’s unlikely, especially with McLeod’s performance, but Benson is in some danger. A fine passer and a player who could move the needle offensively from the bottom-six.
Kirill Maksimov. This is it for the Russian, who showed well as a depth winger and PK man two years ago in Bakersfield. Edmonton needs him to emerge as a productive scorer in pro this year.
Tim Schaller. Former NHLer played 276 games in the league, he’s a strong checker winger who should be able to slide on to a middle-six line and be effective in Bakersfield.
Ostap Safin. He’s 6.05, 191 and when I saw him good last season there’s reason to get excited. Safin needs to be consistent this season in order to progress through the system.
Matteo Gennaro. He had a productive season in the ECHL, Gennaro might fly over some of these names and play in Bakersfield this year.
Graham McPhee. Checking winger, he hasn’t delivered much offensively since his draft day.
Tim Soderlund. He has some skill but is unlikely to spend time on a scoring unit in Bakersfield.
Devin Brosseau. He scored four goals in 26 AHL games last season, likely to spend time in the ECHL this season.
RIGHT WING
Jesse Puljujarvi. He’s dynamic, effective and confident. Scored the first goal of Oilers season in front of the net, if he stays on the top line and gets power-play minutes we’re looking at a massive season. I think he can drive his own line, unusual for a winger. I don’t know he can but would welcome a Hyman-Nuge-Puljujarvi trio at some point this year.
Kailer Yamamoto. He looked good in preseason and I liked him plenty opening night. Creative player with the puck on his stick and a sliver of time to make a pass, he’s going to post some numbers if he can find the room and stay healthy.
Zack Kassian. He’s big, fast and can score goals when playing with high-end skill. His role to start the season will be on a depth line. Rambunctious player, his fighting days should be over. Kassian doesn’t mark his man well, and that, along with low scoring totals (unless they put him with McDavid) will make him a buyout candidate during his contract.
Kyle Turris. He has a quicker step and has good hands, this could be a value contract (as with Keith, let’s not get ahead of ourselves). Turris’ shootout goal won the opener for Edmonton, the team would benefit from getting good production from him.
Colton Sceviour. The veteran winger turned his PTO into an NHL deal and he’s a nice fit for a team that needs a utility player to replace Josh Archibald. I’m not sure about how much offense he’ll bring but he looks solid elsewhere.
Josh Archibald. A quite useful player when healthy, there’s no timeline for return.
Cooper Marody. Lost in the flood again, and with injuries galore he doesn’t get a massive look. At some point, I think Europe will be an option. If I’m Marody, I try to wiggle my way to free agency and see if there’s a team out there that can help.
Seth Griffith. He’ll be a valuable part of a skill line in Bakersfield.
Rafael Lavoie. One of the most important prospects in California this year, Lavoie’s scoring ability is going to get him an NHL chance if he can bring most of it with him to pro. He was on pace to score 20 in 76 AHL games one year ago, and that was playing a variety of roles. Excited to see him over an entire year.
Dino Kambeitz. He has size and some skill, expect the ECHL will be his home for much of the season but there’s bite in his game and that may get him work in Bakersfield.
LOWDOWN WITH LOWETIDE
At 10 this morning, we hit the ground running on another weekend, TSN1260. Steve Lansky from Inside the Truck podcast will join us and tell me why Gretzky scoring on Barkley is great television. Matt Iwanyk from TSN 1260 will tee up the weekend, including Elks, Oilers and MLB. 10-1260 text, @Lowetide on twitter. See you on the radio!
Looks like the Flyers are hell bent to destroy another goalie. Carter Hart was not good tonight. He looked lost in the shoot out. Lots of question marks after last season and they bring in Martin Jones as the backup. Feel awful for the kid.
OriginalPouzar
October 15, 2021 9:45 pm
Savoie finishes with the one PP goal in a 4-1 win. Even with six shots (1-0 on the draw).
Max Wanner had a couple of shots and plus 2 in a 4-1 win for Moose Jaw.
Engras with 3 shots and a couple of minors (5 of 10 on the draw) as N. Hampshire is tied at 1 mid-way through the 3rd.
As awful as he was last year (and last night doesn’t provide confidence in a rebound), he was high pedigree when drafted, potential star when turned pro and budding superstar goalie after his first NHL season.
It absolutely went to shit for him last year but the Flyers aren’t going to give him away – it would be a costly trade.
Then, what do you do with him and his $4M cap hit? Should he be in the NHL or AHL? I think he’s still waivers exempt but I could be wrong. Should he get a roster spot of Mikko?
Yes, that was what the lines/pairings looked like at practice. Just listened to Tip and he said that Koekkoek in for Russell as they want everyone up an running. Kass still needs to pass another test but he’s looking good to go.
Speaking of goalies.If you want to cringe, this trade rumor site suggests that the Oilers could be a destination for Jonathan Quick… and pay a hefty price to acquire him despite his $5.8m cap x 2 years, being 35 years of age, and that he hasn’t had a good SV% in four years.
Hopefully Kenny doesn’t try to smoke out Rob Blake.
Khudobin makes more sense if Bishop gets healthy. My hope is our goaltending stabilizes and we convince Getzlaf to come over for a cup run at the deadline.
NO NO NO NO NO. Jonathan Quick is one of the most overrated players in NHL history.
If you remove the 2011-12 season (which was legitimately great), Quick’s career Goals Saved Above Average is ONE.
(For comparison, if you remove career backup Darcy Kuemper’s best season, his career GSAA is 30.)
OriginalPouzar
October 15, 2021 3:19 pm
Gibson out with a lower body injury.
Always lots of proposals to “sell the farm” for Gibson. Sure, the elite tender from 3-4 years ago could be worth a big asset package at his current contract, however, he has’t been that tender the last couple of years. Of course, team matters big time for goalies but ANA’s defence hasn’t been that bad and I would so not be on board taking on the big (and long) contract without seeing some serious bounce-back from Gibson. I have never been on-board with his acquisition over the last year or two. I don’t think the org would go that big either – I think they like Skinner and want to see how things go.
Only 35 games last year and the year prior was not great – but pretty long solid record for
John Gibson. As you mention, coincides with the Ducks team being terrible as well.
I am not advocating selling the farm for him – but I think he is a legitimate top end goalie.
The Ducks haven’t been good but, really, their defence hasn’t been much worse than the Oilers in my opinion.
Yup, he’s young and should have lots of top years left but, after two poor seasons in a row, that contract is too long to take the risk – even without a significant acquisition cost which is what its likely to take.
I would need to see him have a bounce-back year before acquiring him and, if he did, the acquisition cost would be prohibitive if the Ducks were to move him.
What came first, the chicken or the egg? The Ducks were good BECAUSE Gibson was good, now that he’s not, they’re not.
Look at how many shots the Ducks gave up each year and compare it with Gibson’s save percentage:
2017-18: 33.1 SA/GP (26th in the NHL), Gibson’s sv% was .926 2018-19: 33.2 (25th), Gibson .917 2019-20: 32.1 (21st), Gibson .904 2020-21: 30.6 (19th), Gibson .903
Notice how the team tightened up the past 2 seasons, yet Gibson’s sv% tanked? Yeah, don’t blame the defense. He just isn’t stopping pucks with the same frequency that he used to.
We could look at 5v5 SA/60 to see if this pattern holds true:
Similar pattern here: the team isn’t giving up more shots or more high danger shots, Gibson is simply not stopping as many of them as he used to.
The issue with Gibson is, I believe, injury-related. If you look at the 2019-20 season and do the splits by the month, you’ll see he was struggling with something in January / February:
He hasn’t been the same player since. He’s had stretches of good play but overall he’s been worse than Koskinen while facing a similar number of shots / HD shots over the past 2 years.
I’ve always felt they are more than the sum of their parts. I like Pietro and Stone, but they really need all of those mid level guys to play at the top of their game.
Last year Vegas had Fleury in net for 2/3 of the games and Lehner for 1/3. This year Laurent Broissoit is going to have to pick up a big share of the games. No disrespect to LB, but that’s a significant downgrade.
I don’t think Lehner is all that good he’s just big he hasn’t had a heavy workload for years and his security blanket of Fleury got run out of town. Brossoit is alright as a back-up but if he’s asked to play a lot he can be hot and cold. I’m not speaking about D-men, Centre’s and Goalies but when your wingers are older it’s hard to consistently dig in the corners for 82 games without being injured or being less effective then when you were younger.
“The average number of regular-season games for Cup-winning goalies since then is 44, though that includes Matt Murray playing 13 NHL games in 2016 and not the 31 games he played in the American Hockey League before winning the Cup for the first time as a late-season call up in Pittsburgh.”
But I also didn’t dig into all of the numbers for each goalie and each situation. I also just had a quick look at Fluery, Lehner and some other goalies to see where they were at compared to Lehner.
But at the end of the day, I don’t think it would be ideal for your main goaltender to be playing 50-60 games anyway. If that’s expected of Lehner then I wouldn’t blame him if Vegas season goes to shit for it unless he was bad throughout the whole season.
Would edit but can’t. I would change my comment to say that for Lehner specifically, I don’t think 60 games for him would be great. Maybe closer to a more even split with Brossoit. But that’s just my opinion without knowing too much about Lehner’s conditioning going into this seaskn or knowing how much of a workload he and the coaches want.
If you go back to 05-06, cup winning goalies start, on average, 48.9 regular season games.
Murray had the least in 2016, (16ish?) And quick had the most in 2012 with 69.
This is a little disingenuous since that includes a lockout and two pandemic shortened seasons, so Crawford/vasililevskiy would have played more, plus Murray was a rookie in 2016 just bursting into the scene, same with binnington and Ward.
But typically a cup winning goalie played around 48-64 games in a season
It depends who’s your back-up if I’m Vasilevskiy Coach I play him at least 60-63 games. When it comes to Mike Smith more in the 45-50 range. When it comes to Vegas how many games do you want Brossoit to start. Lehner hasn’t played over 33 games in 4 years he has a big mouth and I hope he gets lit up the next couple of games and we get a chance to see Vegas regret dumping Fleury in the fashion that they did.
How can you watch sports when you don’t like or dislike Players City’s are Countries their playing for. Are you one of those Commie I-Robots I’m hearing about?
Will I become an Oilers fan if I bash a goalie who plays for Vegas for speaking up for inappropriate drug use that has encouraged by people in positions of power?
Not with a snarky attitude like that. Sounds like Alan Vigneault didn’t give Lehner enough bum pats. I hope Tippett runs up the score next week and Lehner smashes his stick on the crossbar as he’s getting pulled again.
It’s bizarre to me how emotional you react towards this Lehner situation. Especially with other players coming out in support of Lehner and sharing their own stories about coaches pushing drugs on players – you know, people who are actually in the know and experienced it.
But yes, I’m sure it was the lack of “bum pats” that was the problem.
There’s 2 sides to every story how are so sure Lehner is who you think he is. How are you so sure Alan Vigneault is a dope peddling scum of the earth (also a pimp in the off season) who should be fired immediately. Take it from someone that’s obviously been around and is older than you, everything is not black and white.
There’s 2 sides to every story how are so sure Lehner is who you think he is. How are you so sure Alan Vigneault is a dope peddling scum of the earth (also a pimp in the off season) who should be fired immediately. Take it from someone that’s obviously been around and is older than you, everything is not black and white.
Its really wild how this has transpired.
Reja, you start it with talking about Lehner’s big mouth (implying that you don’t see “two sides to the story” and that it is “black and white”.
After a response about Lehner’s platform you start with this “commie robot bullshit) and then talk about others being snarky, if you can believe that.
Then you take Lehner’s comments and extrapolate meaning to them well-beyond and then the post above implying your position is right.
Its becoming more and more clear that you are typical old mysoginistic and racist white guy that believes being “a man” old-school style, is some sort of macho trait to have.
You have some good hockey opinions but its tough to have conversation with you given your racist and mysoginistic nature.
P.S. No, my panties are not in bunch before you go there.
I don’t know what this has do with you? Sorry to burst your bubble but you don’t have the market cornered on being a Oiler fan. If you want to get personal and rattle off labels on a Oilers blog I have at least a handful of good ones for you but I don’t roll that way young fellow.
This has nothing to do with being an Oiler fan – this has to do with being a person in society and as part of a community.
As far as being getting personal and rattling off labels, I would point to “commi-robot”.
Yes, you have shown who you are over the years (as have I) and I have no doubt you have many lables and, yes, you do roll that way, you have in this very thread.
This thing with Side goes back to another thread. Anyhow if someone disagrees with your stance on a subject they’re not part of the Community and Society that you would like.
Are you sure you are as old and wise as you let on?
Seems you have the emotional range of a toddler at times, on a hockey blog of all places.
If you re-read your own comment you can see how, as you say, there are 2 sides to every story and yet you have clearly chosen a side. A side which you want to see punished because he didn’t get sufficient “bum pats”.
Again, you are letting your emotions get in the way of talking about a goalie who doesn’t even play for the Oilers, on an Oiler blog.
Well, that is what a wise, old sage would do in your situation. They would be thinking of an anonymous stranger on the internet with a newly purchased box of Kleenex next to them hoping that the team they cheer for beats the other team so they could gloat about it on the internet.
Hold on, let me get my notebook before you continue.
Well Yeah don’t you have any friends that cheer for the Flames are Leafs. Don’t you love rubbing it in when the Oilers beat them, that’s half the fun. Sounds like you weren’t old enough to witness the greatest team ever win 5 Cups. I’m still in good jest rubbing it in on my buddies and random people that pass me on the sidewalk
I cant speak for Reja but I simultaneously wish Lehner the best especially the work he is doing to get rid of stigma around mental health issues while thinking he is a lock for success this season.
Goalies has to be the toughest position to have continuous successful seasons. What you said is true though and the last time Lehner has had over 50% GP was 3 seasons and 2 teams ago. He had a great season behind a great defensive team as well as a strong performance by Greiss as a 1A 1B tandem.
The next season is a little more fast and loose Chicago team but he is the 1B behind Crawford.
For 22 games over a deadline and shortened season Lehner has been okay in the regular season (hell of a playoff performance) with Fleury giving literal Vezina quality.
This upcoming season will be the first time he will not be in a 1A/1B tandem unless you think Brossoit can eclipse hish career high of 21 GP. With pressure of being a win now team there is no 1B to take over IF things go sideways. This all isnt to say Lehner isnt a good goalie or is destined to fail, hes talented and maybe could have his own Vezina season but theres a lot of risk here.
And the worst part is the Knights took this risk on so they could take on a reclamation project in Dadonov.
To each is his own. How can you cheer for the Goalie of our main rival? I hope he tanks every game except against the Flames. Lehner has been on 5 different teams he’s not a depth D or F that gets picked up at the trade deadline, this is a tell
– But the coach won’t have the strength to do what he knows he has to do
– Mikko starting Tuesday means bad things happened to Smith.
– Hope the team keeps winning and Smith plays well: Mikkos first scheduled start is Fri 22nd (2nd of B2B). It would be a departure in coaching philosophy if he played more than once in October
I think next week will be Koski against Anaheim and Arizona, then back to Smith for the game against Vegas on the back to back. Anaheim and Arizona, at least based on pre-season rankings, are expected to be the weaker teams, plus Koski hasn’t played well against the Flames the last 2 seasons (except for his bounce back game 2 weeks after letting in 6 goals).
OriginalPouzar
October 15, 2021 12:28 pm
Its good to see that Kassian is recovered and good to go – that incident could have had a much worse outcome than it has.
The question i pose is if that 3rd line is better with Kassian on it (than Sceviour). Don’t get me wrong, Kassian has the potential and ability to make that line much better the Sceviour can – if Kass is going, he can use his size and speed to be aggresive on the forecheck, get bangs in and create energy and momentum. He is much more skilled than Sceviour and can help contribute to the offence at a much higher rate.
The issue I have is Kassian’s 2-way game and responsibility – Foegele, Ryan and Sceviour are all very responsible two way players – they put themselves on the right side of the puck and commit to the 2-way game including on the defensive boards. That is simply not Kassian’s game. WIth Kassian on that line, as oppossed to Sceviour, there are simply going to be more defensive zone mistakes and potentially more neutral zone giveaways. This isn’t really a bash on Kass but we have many years of watching him play and its just part of his game.
So, with Kass, the line should be able to have a much more offensive effect on the game and the ability to be a really strong line that creates momentum and energy and chips in. At the same time, the line, with Kass, won’t be as responsible overall and will likely leak a few higher grade scoring chances per game.
Ryan’s line is more of a checking line. The 4th line is going against the other teams 4th line. So in terms of roles, Benson would be a better fit with Ryan, leaving Perlini in a more offensive role on the 4th line. Stylistically Benson fits better with Foegele than Perlini.
Admittedly, this is making a lot out of small differences. I’d just rather leave the two more offensive types, Perlini and Turris, together on the 4th line, and put Benson who is more of a cycle guy, and more responsible defensively with Foegele. Turris is more likely to make a play for Perlini to get his shot off.
Ultimately i would prefer to see 4 balanced lines that can check and score, rather than have a set checking line particularly with a defensive liability.
I’m excited to see this line I think it’s a good combination and they will prove it Saturday.
Kinger_Oil.redux
October 15, 2021 12:00 pm
‘- Re the goalie: here’s what’s going to happen:
1) Play Smith more than any starter
2) Koski will play the 2nd of a B2B and be bad and not gain trust of coach and sit 2 more weeks
GO TO 1
REPEAT
So either Smith be deadly all year, or he gets injured and they go and get another goalie because Koski has no chance. Our org don’t get goalie tandems.
There will need to be a move to activate Kass – probably Shore on IR (likely retroactive).
dustrock
October 15, 2021 10:46 am
Much prefer having Nuge-Drai-Yamo and give McDavid 2 bangers in Hyman and Puljujarvi, we all know 97 & 29 will play together if we’re tied or down in the 3rd but let’s keep them hungry.
If Tippett can’t figure this team out at 5v5 we’re going to continue to rely on the PP.
I know Drai has never looked like the most graceful of skaters but I was super confused why he looks like he’s trying to skate through a hernia by the end of each shift against the Nucks.
I dont agree. Puljajarvi needs to be with McDavid. The only way Yamo moves up is if Hyman – McD – Yamo. You need to balance the lines out better and Drai plays the finesse game so you dont want Yamo to have to bang and get hurt.
McDavid/Drai/Yamamoto had an 83% goal differential last year – 12-2 goals in 134 minutes (and their possession metrics, while not quite that high, back up the dominance).
McDavid/Drai/Yamamoto had a 58% goal differential – 17-12 goal in 176 minutes (and their possession metrics are right in line with that).
Last year, the nuclear option was simply better with Yamamoto and I think we can all agree that Jesse could “help” a second line to a higher degree than Kailer.
These sample sizes are too small but there is a real and substantial argument to have Yamamoto on the load up line.
dustrock
October 15, 2021 10:45 am
LT, you’re exactly right that Smith had an outstanding game, other than the weak 2nd goal in the 3rd.
I’m always the doom-and-gloom guy, but Smith was reading the action very well and there were some pretty decent slot shots and high-danger shots, at least by eye and the Nucks were able to find gaps in coverage.
Every time we play Vancouver I feel like we should dominate and we never do, but really feel that Smith’s performance covered up a subpar performance from the team, other than the 2nd line, which dominated.
What I really liked was that Smith took responsibility for the goal in his media avail yesterday – he said he lost sight of it and missed it and, essentially, took blame for it.
I remember back in November/December 2019, when Smith was the worst goalie the NHL had ever seen, he was really AHL-replacement level, for a long time – he wouldn’t take responsibility and was making excuses – I had never been more “pissed off” at an Oiler player than after one of his media avails during the stretch.
Bruce McCurdy
October 15, 2021 10:36 am
LT: I love that you still use my Broberg & Bouchard pics from Dev Camp.
As for Marody, my understanding is he will be a Group VI free agent after this season unless he plays 74 more games in the NHL, which is about as long a shot as one could find. He needs a new address, for sure.
Harpers Hair
October 15, 2021 10:13 am
Boston signs McAvoy to 8X$9.5 million.
Breaks Boston’s long standing internal salary structure.
I don’t think it’s even possible to answer that question. What if Nurse was drafted by the Bruins and came up with one of the best teams in the league, playing with one of the best defensive teams in the league, being mentored and supported by one of the best dmen in the league in Zdeno Chara?
Here’s what I know, Nurse scored 16 goals last year in a secondary offensive role. That’s very hard to do. He’s one of the best even strength point producers in the NHL dating back a few years now.
But it’s his commitment to excellence that makes him special. When asked a typically lame question about what he watched over the summer, Nurse said game tape. He doesn’t watch movies. He watches game tape. We have a very special guy here. He’s worth every penny.
Another big thing is that McAvoy’s deal includes 2/3 RFA years while Nurse’s is all UFA years.
This is very true but, at the same time, the McAavoy deal likely is all peak/prime years where we may see some age-related regression from Nurse in the last couple of years (although probably not a ton knowing this player/person).
The point made about injuries is real and important though.
*Knocking on Wood”, Nurse has proven to be extremely durable, not missing a game due to injury since that ankle (I believe) in his rookie year. Assuming the continues (PLEASE), that is massive.
Nurse is developing year after year into an excellent player. Furthermore:
Nurse never gets hurt
Nurse is as tough as nails
Nurse keeps improving constantly
MushedPeas
October 15, 2021 10:09 am
When it comes time – and the time will come – the disposition of Kassian needs to be clean. There’s always one GM out there whose players just got sand rubbed in their face, who lets past reputation steer procurement. Package a low pick if necessary, bundle it as part of a larger trade, but make it happen. No more dead cap.
Good day Mr LT and fellow readers.
Looks like the site is working without any hiccups (knocking wood).
For me at least, the one fascinating thing I see from your review is that there are replacement level players coming down the pipeline who have legit chances of impacting the team when they’re going to be called upon or when fortune favours either through a trade, retirement, etc..
I haven’t seen that in this club for some time and it’s certainly encouraging. It’s going to be interesting to see where the club and these players are at the midway point in the season.
knighttown
October 15, 2021 9:42 am
There was a play in the third period…maybe 2-1 at the time…where we had a long defensive zone shift.
The Nucks “transferred” the puck via rim from the left corner out to the right point. Hughes came down the wall and the Oiler winger was going to arrive at the same time.
Best case- chip the puck past Hughes for a line change
Decent case- Hughes pokes the puck in but gets crushed for the cause; takes a hit to make a play
The Oiler player instead completely bailed, Hughes got the puck and zero bruises.
That Oiler player was Ryan McLeod.
Of all the Oilers forwards on the roster there isn’t one with a bigger flaw in their game than McLeods physicality (Kassian’s defense?) and it will keep from the NHL if he doesn’t figure it out.
No bigger fan of McLeod than me, however, this is a very legitimate point about Ryan.
The same issue that caused him to fall in the draft.
My issue that game was his stick fishing – nearly always uses his stick to try to fish it out.
Not his body. ( Meanwhile physical war battle going on on boards)
Ryan is the polar opposite of the Hyman forecheck.
Kyle Turris has never won a puck battle along the wall and his defensive IQ rivals Kassian.
Its getting somewhat frustrating with McLeod given he literally talked to the media earlier this week about needing to finish checks and being more engaged physically but it doesn’t seem like he’s actually willing to do it. This will keep him from being an impact NHL player at some point. He can be so much more than a 4th liner/PK guy but that may end up his ceiling.
He’ll get another chance tomorrow with Shore still out (and likely in a physical game) but it seems like he’s destined for Bakersfield and, frankly, I’m not sure this part of his game will develop at all in Bakersfield – it didn’t last year and, if he’s in Bakersfield, his line will likely be as dominant as last year and one doesn’t need to finish checks and engage physically as much when they have the puck the entire time.
Here is hoping Woody and his staff are really focussing McLeod on this area.
As far as Turris goes, I think most fans were too busy bitching about him being on the ice in OT to notice that he made the best offensive play of the period by the Oilers – a wonderful skill pass to Barrie (I believe) in the high slot – unfortunately, Barrie couldn’t handle the pass.
Prior to game one, Leon Draisaitl talking to reporters says “Yeah, we really want to get off to a fast start this season; The first 12 games last year didn’t go so well”
Not a single guy says to him, that’s exactly what you said before game one last season. What’s changed? How have you prepared to get a jump start this season? What should we be looking for in game one?
And then the big man goes out and lays an egg in game one.
Not questioning the player at all. Just the inane press process.
Maybe ask Lansky about that part of the process. Why all the inane meaningless chatter? Do the players insist it be that way? Do they ask not to be surprised by gotcha type questions?
Think about that for a second and put yourself in the players skates. Give one reporter a crumb/something juicy and you’re doing interviews on a regular basis for the rest of your career.
Player interviews suck. Really suck. I would rather watch a commercial. But that’s not an appropriate question before a game IMO. If the reporter asks that question, what will be the player’s response? Another platitude of course.That type of question needs to be asked of the GM.
If “laying an egg” includes being the only player on either team who made a pass leading directly to a goal. Leon’s one-touch cross seam pass to Hyman for the tap in after faking the one timer was a thing of beauty. This after making an excellent d-zone poke check on Pettersson that led to the too-many-men call in the first place.
Leon does a lot right even on a so-so night but he makes it look so easy, even nonchalant, that those things often get glossed over. Same thing used to happen to my first ever favourite player, Frank Mahovlich, and to too many other talented big men in the intervening years.
Is Drasaitl flawed? Why, yes. Is he fabulous? Also yes.
As an aspiring young netminder I was a big Johnny Bower fan. Also Dave Keon and the late, great Tim Horton who I had the opportunity to meet as a young lad.
When Leon is picking his spots like Getzlaf does but doesnt have the resume yet of what Getzlaf does, it is a little telling. When Drai puts his mind to being dominant he is. But many times plays a reserved game, which 82 games is a long season and he gets his points and accolades, just not yet Playoff success and Stanley. I hope McD and Drai make it a point to bury teams before taking it a little easier.
What would be an acceptable answer to the question anyway, though?
Play hockey and play it better than the other team?
I am not directing this at you, because I just think it’s a bad question to ask anyone, whether it be the GM, coach or players before the season starts.
At the end of the day the goal for any team for any game of the season is to win. But winning is a process that usually involves many factors which cannot be miraculously figured out prior to the season.
Every team starts with their best guess as to what will work and every team has an adjustment period for what doesn’t work. If something isn’t working then it’s the coaches or GMs problem to figure out.
I’m pretty sure every personnel from every team’s real answer would be
“Play our best, see what works and what doesn’t then adapt and hope there are no injuries”
And for that reason, that’s why the question overall is ass. Because there is no secret recipe for a fast start to the season.
If there was some recipe for successfully starting the season better than other teams, then everyone would be doing it and then it wouldn’t be remarkable and a team wouldn’t have an advantage.
Reporters need to come up with better questions to ask, otherwise you have players like Leon just cobbling together generic answers he probably has in the back of his mind from all of the times he gave generic answers to all of the other generic questions he was asked before to questions that really, the coaches or GM are better suited to answer.
This question would be more appropriate after 20 games or so for a team like Montreal if they shit the bed again after another hot start
“So you got off to a great start AGAIN and shit the bed AGAIN, why is that?”
That blown call was laughable. And I’d agree with you in that the ‘machines’ should take over, the guys that run baseball are such hardcore traditionalists that the likelihood of that to happen would be very low IMO.
Plus, imagine the precedent it would set for the other sports if they did. I could see all of the ump and ref unions screaming bloody murder at the prospect of a computer taking over their jobs.
Ref inconsistency is part of the game, for better or worse. Gives us something to talk about and rail against. Am still smarting from Kesler’s grab of Talbot’s pad…
San Fran won the division on a similar call, Baseball gods enjoy karma.
Brantford Boy
October 15, 2021 9:24 am
Thanks LT… you have this list surrounded… a shoutout to your thoughts on Bouchard, Nuge, Ryan, and Puljujarvi.
Also, the entire Oilers NHL LW list is very encouraging from previous seasons. Hyman seems to be our long awaited lunch pail, work boots guy sliding down the tail of a dinosaur at the 3rd period buzzer. Not to be confused with the other individual in the Jurassic era who posted a .947 in the opener.
Very intrigued to see how Lavoie and Makskimov are deployed during the season.
They should both be top 6 wingers but there is only one “Ovie spot” available on PP1.
Woodcroft spoke at length on OilersNow last week about what they are asking Lavoie to work on and much of it has to do with consistency and impacting the game more – he’s been tasked with that since junior. I hope it starts to come but I don’t presume we see him in the NHL any time soon.
Lavoie is a first round talent who fell to the second round for somewhat different reasons — but reasons nonetheless — that McLeod did. In both cases, until the player. deals with his observed weaknesses he will always leave folks wanting more.
McLeod has talked about those weaknesses recently, and the coach has as well……. of course, we continue to see zero change in his game in this regard at the NHL level (through exhibition and, now, one regular season game).
Similar to McLeod, Lavoie’s deficiencies have been with him since junior and draft day – with that said, Lavoie hasn’t had a full AHL season to work on them like McLeod has (in fact two for McLeod).
Lavoie will get that this year and here is hoping he is a real contender for a middle six, if not top 6, winger next fall. I’m counting on him or Maksimov being a cheap contract on the team next season.
OriginalPouzar
October 15, 2021 8:50 am
I propose a button to turn on the Database Connection issues ever time the LA Kings look like they will have a good game.
There’s actually a glitch there, too. I receive several emails a week saying posts and comments aren’t available on an 8:30am story until after six pm unless you log in. That started happening after I got the SSL certificate.
Hope the comment is welcome LT… it seems to me that the problem might be directly related to the comments section. I’m sure your provider can handle the HTML that you post with images, ads etc. However, because how the comment sections acts currently, you’re forced to reload the page to see the latest comments. This obviously places much more strain on the servers, and with what I would imagine hundreds of hits per hour the site/server simply can’t keep up. I feel a real-time comment section (ie: CBC) could be a solution. It avoids most of the traffic from the client to the server. The posted comments will get sent to the database but the page itself doesn’t need to reload every time. I think this alone would greatly improve the performance of the site. Most companies, when I got out of web programming were transitioning away from the Server-Client relationship web design with the new programming languages available (.NET/Java/JavaScript and many more today). The client (our end) can (and should) be burdened with the extra bandwidth required to run the comments. Anyway, this could be a Captain Obvious post, and I hope I’m not overstepping my grounds here. Cheers!
He’s got 26 teams, he’s a bitter diva that mistakenly believes he’s the star of the show. The Oilers living rent free in his head has done years of irreversible damage. Rest easy knowing he drools on himself watching Law and Order reruns.
After an NHL debut with zero shots on net, zero hits and an expected GF% of apx 40%, as a fan of a rival team, I’m heartened that the coach will be looking to rely on the prospect more.
Am some point, he’ll be on the ice for a goal for and maybe even be in on it – hasn’t happened in the 6 games he’s played but it will at some point.
It is highly annoying when the Condors play at the same time as the Oilers. I’ll have the Condors game on in the background on the other laptop but I like to pay full attention to them – oh well – hockey is back full time and I can’t complain too much, can I?
Yes, I agree that Skinner is next in line but I do think Konovalov will battle him every step of the way. Skinner will play NHL games this year as I don’t imagine both Smith and Mikko are fully healthy for 6 months.
I think Broberg plays almost the entire year in the AHL (or the entire year) – what Playfair explained they are asking him to work on is real and important – its essentially getting used to the smaller ice and the need to make decisions faster – the rink is smaller, the players are bigger and faster – decisions on puck retrieval and when the puck is won in battle need to be made quicker and faster – this will be key for his success but also his health – my goodness did he take alot of hits in exhibition – he needs to move that puck faster. Also, Playfair talked about him needing to learn to pass the puck out of danger, not just skate it out of danger.
On the right side, the only depth d-man in conversation for the NHL this year is Berglund and I presume the coaching staff will want to see a real couple of months of play similar to his NHL play – great 2-way play – get the puck, move the puck – few mistakes. If he does that, he’ll be in the conversation for right side fill-in – as of now Russell/Koekkoek on their off side – less than ideal.
Kemp showed all what was suggested by those that watched him – he’s not a big physical defence only d-man. He’s a great defended by forcing dump ins, positionally, gap control, angles, etc. and he’s an underated puck moved but not overly physical – skating will be his key to the NHL.
Kesselring showed how raw he is and how far away he is – hopefully a full year in the AHL will be big for him.
I’m looking forward to your Bakersfield updates, OP.
Broberg was the player I was most disappointed with in training camp. He seemed like a one trick pony with his skating. Of course that one trick is a hell of a trick and should buy him lots of opportunity to improve elsewhere. But his decision making was meh and his puck handling was worse. Hopefully a year of AHL slows the game enough that he bobbles passes and one-timers less often, but it looks like there is a lot of development needed. It was as if he was playing with someone else’s stick. Hopefully it is nerves and not a lack of puck skills.
He’s also trying to make a contending roster, not lottery team roster. I wouldn’t be surprised if a year in the AHL isn’t enough and he needs two.
He’s got a high, high ceiling, but he also has a long ways to go to get there. I’m cheering for him.
Yes, that comp’s been made for a few years – big lanky ice-coverer who requires refining to get elite – should happen. Nurse had more offence in junior though.
As far as skating the puck out of danger (and needing to develop the ability to make plays out of danger) and offensive zone decision making, yes, there are those similarities with Nurse, for sure.
The other important development area, vis-a-vis getting used to the smaller ice and how much less time there is to make plays, obviously Nurse had to adapt to the speed of the pro and NHL game, all players do, but he didn’t need to get used to the smaller rink in that regard – Broberg got punished multiple times every game and he will need to improve in that area or he won’t have a long career.
Yes, they did make an effort to create the LTIR bonus reserves (although there wasn’t much effort to it and it was simply a no-brainer and good business).
I would note a couple of things:
1) yes, that would permit them to call him up without having to worry about his bonuses vis-a-vis the cap but I wouldn’t say that equates to an expectation that he’ll be recalled
2) the LTIR bonus reserves created also work for other players that could be called up, such as Holloway (who wasn’t on the roster and has performance bonuses, I think in the $400K range, without checking).
On the point about Nurse having more offence in junior that Broberg (that was made earlier), I would respond by saying that its tough to compare Canadian Major Junior to the SHL and, in particular young/prospect d-men in the SHL).
Broberg’s SHL offence is similar to Klefbom’s at the same age – I think Broberg actually produced better than Klef in his draft plus 2.
I hadn’t thought about the bonuses being available for other call-ups.
And while it was an easy transaction to make, they wouldn’t have had to waive one of Lagesson/Turris if Broberg wasn’t there (acknowledging they may have wanted to waive both players with the end of TC rush).
As you point out, I think they wanted to waive Lagesson as indicated by him going on IR the next day (i.e. there was no immediate need to waive him for roster or cap purposes).
Turris, maybe not (although I think they are smart enough to know that noone was going to claim him and, also, see the positives if he was claimed).
Looks like the Flyers are hell bent to destroy another goalie. Carter Hart was not good tonight. He looked lost in the shoot out. Lots of question marks after last season and they bring in Martin Jones as the backup. Feel awful for the kid.
Savoie finishes with the one PP goal in a 4-1 win. Even with six shots (1-0 on the draw).
Max Wanner had a couple of shots and plus 2 in a 4-1 win for Moose Jaw.
Engras with 3 shots and a couple of minors (5 of 10 on the draw) as N. Hampshire is tied at 1 mid-way through the 3rd.
Trade for Carter Hart.
Not joking.
What though?
Its an impossible trade.
As awful as he was last year (and last night doesn’t provide confidence in a rebound), he was high pedigree when drafted, potential star when turned pro and budding superstar goalie after his first NHL season.
It absolutely went to shit for him last year but the Flyers aren’t going to give him away – it would be a costly trade.
Then, what do you do with him and his $4M cap hit? Should he be in the NHL or AHL? I think he’s still waivers exempt but I could be wrong. Should he get a roster spot of Mikko?
Well I’d trade him for Koskinen straight up. Beyond that I have no idea what to add.
But that’s what I was saying, it’s near impossible. Philly would have to want to move him.
Tulio with an assist and was plus 2 in a 4-1 win – no shots.
Petrov has an assist taken away and ended up pointless in a 7-1 win – plus 2 with 3 shots.
Bourgault finished with a goal and an assist and 4 shots but was -3 in a 6-4 loss.
Savoie snipes a PP goal as Denver leads 1-0 in the first.
Podkholzin snipes his first NHL goal.
The Hockey World weeps with OP.
You guys retire his number yet?
Do goals against the current iteration of Carter Hart count as full goals or half goals?
Congrats to the kid.
Man, that’s tough to watch. I feel bad for him.
ziiiiiiing!
Vancouver, farm team for the NHL since… Well forever
So who is he? Sounds a no body
Again, nobody cares about your loveboy and team.
Team Canada predictions from The Athletic (there may or may not be more than one Oiler on Team Canada):
https://theathletic.com/2891842/2021/10/15/duhatschek-notebook-team-canada-olympic-roster-predictions-updated-revisiting-the-pavel-datsyuk-trade/
Oilers 6th in the opening season power rankings and Dom has a prediction:
https://theathletic.com/2890802/2021/10/15/nhl-power-rankings-32-courageous-takes-plus-award-picks-and-full-division-predictions/
Someone, somewhere, is finding a JFresh chart to make the Oilers look bad to counter Dom’s power rankings.
I actually done put much stock in to Dom’s model(s) but I put zero stock in to anything JFresh puts out.
Agreed he is brutally off his rocker.
Bourgault with a first period goal, although he is -1 as Shawinigan trails 2-1 going in to the 2nd.
Here is the goal (he’s since added a 2nd period assist):
https://twitter.com/Cataractes_Shaw/status/1449139081502461957
Kassian is bacK and KK replaces Russell tomorrow.
https://globalnews.ca/news/8269783/edmonton-oilers-zack-kassian-to-return/
Yes, that was what the lines/pairings looked like at practice. Just listened to Tip and he said that Koekkoek in for Russell as they want everyone up an running. Kass still needs to pass another test but he’s looking good to go.
Speaking of goalies.If you want to cringe, this trade rumor site suggests that the Oilers could be a destination for Jonathan Quick… and pay a hefty price to acquire him despite his $5.8m cap x 2 years, being 35 years of age, and that he hasn’t had a good SV% in four years.
Hopefully Kenny doesn’t try to smoke out Rob Blake.
That would be terrible
but I could imagine Holland doing this
Khudobin makes more sense if Bishop gets healthy. My hope is our goaltending stabilizes and we convince Getzlaf to come over for a cup run at the deadline.
Jonathan these say is more slow than quick. I rather develop Skinner and Konovalov
God, and Quick is old, but Holland considers him mid-career!
I was having a good day, Ryan.
NO NO NO NO NO. Jonathan Quick is one of the most overrated players in NHL history.
If you remove the 2011-12 season (which was legitimately great), Quick’s career Goals Saved Above Average is ONE.
(For comparison, if you remove career backup Darcy Kuemper’s best season, his career GSAA is 30.)
Gibson out with a lower body injury.
Always lots of proposals to “sell the farm” for Gibson. Sure, the elite tender from 3-4 years ago could be worth a big asset package at his current contract, however, he has’t been that tender the last couple of years. Of course, team matters big time for goalies but ANA’s defence hasn’t been that bad and I would so not be on board taking on the big (and long) contract without seeing some serious bounce-back from Gibson. I have never been on-board with his acquisition over the last year or two. I don’t think the org would go that big either – I think they like Skinner and want to see how things go.
Only 35 games last year and the year prior was not great – but pretty long solid record for
John Gibson. As you mention, coincides with the Ducks team being terrible as well.
I am not advocating selling the farm for him – but I think he is a legitimate top end goalie.
Further, Gibson is only 28.
I doubt the Ducks move him, though.
Two seasons in a row is something……
The Ducks haven’t been good but, really, their defence hasn’t been much worse than the Oilers in my opinion.
Yup, he’s young and should have lots of top years left but, after two poor seasons in a row, that contract is too long to take the risk – even without a significant acquisition cost which is what its likely to take.
I would need to see him have a bounce-back year before acquiring him and, if he did, the acquisition cost would be prohibitive if the Ducks were to move him.
What came first, the chicken or the egg? The Ducks were good BECAUSE Gibson was good, now that he’s not, they’re not.
Look at how many shots the Ducks gave up each year and compare it with Gibson’s save percentage:
2017-18: 33.1 SA/GP (26th in the NHL), Gibson’s sv% was .926
2018-19: 33.2 (25th), Gibson .917
2019-20: 32.1 (21st), Gibson .904
2020-21: 30.6 (19th), Gibson .903
Notice how the team tightened up the past 2 seasons, yet Gibson’s sv% tanked? Yeah, don’t blame the defense. He just isn’t stopping pucks with the same frequency that he used to.
We could look at 5v5 SA/60 to see if this pattern holds true:
2017-18: 31.11, Gibson .929 SV%
2018-19: 31.21, Gibson .929
2019-20: 31.60, Gibson .914
2020-21: 29.60, Gibson .918
Or even 5v5 HDCA/60:
2017-18: 11.55, Gibson .841 HDSV%
2018-19: 12.30, Gibson .852
2019-20: 11.68, Gibson .818
2020-21: 11.33, Gibson .808
Similar pattern here: the team isn’t giving up more shots or more high danger shots, Gibson is simply not stopping as many of them as he used to.
The issue with Gibson is, I believe, injury-related. If you look at the 2019-20 season and do the splits by the month, you’ll see he was struggling with something in January / February:
OCT: 10 GP, .938
NOV: 12 GP, .921
DEC: 12 GP, .913
JAN: 9 GP, .900
FEB: 3 GP, .822
MAR: 11 GP, .922
He hasn’t been the same player since. He’s had stretches of good play but overall he’s been worse than Koskinen while facing a similar number of shots / HD shots over the past 2 years.
Eakins is the Goaltender plague of hockey in the same way Gase is the Quarterback plague of football.
Judging Gibson in a negative light when Carrot sticks is his coach is pretty abusive behavior.
Worst Coach in our storied franchise.
It takes at least two seasons to purge the Dementor from your system. I still have PTSD.
Just eat a doughnut. Flushes him right out.
Is it just me or does Vegas look vulnerable? Pundits have them as a shoo-in to win the division, but there seems to be some chinks in their armour.
And Mark Stone was injured last night.
Have you replaced Vegas with the Kings in your predictions already?
I’ve always felt they are more than the sum of their parts. I like Pietro and Stone, but they really need all of those mid level guys to play at the top of their game.
Last year Vegas had Fleury in net for 2/3 of the games and Lehner for 1/3. This year Laurent Broissoit is going to have to pick up a big share of the games. No disrespect to LB, but that’s a significant downgrade.
I don’t think Lehner is all that good he’s just big he hasn’t had a heavy workload for years and his security blanket of Fleury got run out of town. Brossoit is alright as a back-up but if he’s asked to play a lot he can be hot and cold. I’m not speaking about D-men, Centre’s and Goalies but when your wingers are older it’s hard to consistently dig in the corners for 82 games without being injured or being less effective then when you were younger.
What do you view as a heavy workload? Since 2016, Lehner has played 215 games
Fleury has played 230.
Average number of games played by a cup winning goalie is 44. Over 5 seasons that would be 220 games.
Seems like his workload is close to average compared to other goalies. Unless you mean he will have to handle a heavy workload for Vegas this year.
“Average number of games played by a cup winning goalie is 44”
Are you sure about that? Cup winning goalies don’t start half their team’s games?
According to Google via NHL.com:
https://www.nhl.com/news/unmasked-ideal-workload-for-starting-goalie-on-playoff-bound-teams/c-303785014
Yes.
“The average number of regular-season games for Cup-winning goalies since then is 44, though that includes Matt Murray playing 13 NHL games in 2016 and not the 31 games he played in the American Hockey League before winning the Cup for the first time as a late-season call up in Pittsburgh.”
But I also didn’t dig into all of the numbers for each goalie and each situation. I also just had a quick look at Fluery, Lehner and some other goalies to see where they were at compared to Lehner.
But at the end of the day, I don’t think it would be ideal for your main goaltender to be playing 50-60 games anyway. If that’s expected of Lehner then I wouldn’t blame him if Vegas season goes to shit for it unless he was bad throughout the whole season.
Would edit but can’t. I would change my comment to say that for Lehner specifically, I don’t think 60 games for him would be great. Maybe closer to a more even split with Brossoit. But that’s just my opinion without knowing too much about Lehner’s conditioning going into this seaskn or knowing how much of a workload he and the coaches want.
If you go back to 05-06, cup winning goalies start, on average, 48.9 regular season games.
Murray had the least in 2016, (16ish?) And quick had the most in 2012 with 69.
This is a little disingenuous since that includes a lockout and two pandemic shortened seasons, so Crawford/vasililevskiy would have played more, plus Murray was a rookie in 2016 just bursting into the scene, same with binnington and Ward.
But typically a cup winning goalie played around 48-64 games in a season
It depends who’s your back-up if I’m Vasilevskiy Coach I play him at least 60-63 games. When it comes to Mike Smith more in the 45-50 range. When it comes to Vegas how many games do you want Brossoit to start. Lehner hasn’t played over 33 games in 4 years he has a big mouth and I hope he gets lit up the next couple of games and we get a chance to see Vegas regret dumping Fleury in the fashion that they did.
Lehner played 46 games in 2018-2019
He played 36 games in 2019-2020.
But I see the real reason you don’t want Lehner to be successful now and it doesn’t seem to be because of his workload.
I also don’t know why you are so angry at Lehner for calling out coaches pushing benzos on players without subscriptions.
How can you watch sports when you don’t like or dislike Players City’s are Countries their playing for. Are you one of those Commie I-Robots I’m hearing about?
I have no clue what your response has to do with mine on the topic of Lehner. I also don’t know what a Commie I-Robot is.
But I think Calgary is terrible if that makes you feel better.
If you say bad things about the Flames congratulations your on your first step to becoming a Oiler Fan.
Will I become an Oilers fan if I bash a goalie who plays for Vegas for speaking up for inappropriate drug use that has encouraged by people in positions of power?
Or wait.. will that make me a big mouth instead?
It’s so complicated being a fan nowadays.
It’s bizarre to me how emotional you react towards this Lehner situation. Especially with other players coming out in support of Lehner and sharing their own stories about coaches pushing drugs on players – you know, people who are actually in the know and experienced it.
But yes, I’m sure it was the lack of “bum pats” that was the problem.
There’s 2 sides to every story how are so sure Lehner is who you think he is. How are you so sure Alan Vigneault is a dope peddling scum of the earth (also a pimp in the off season) who should be fired immediately. Take it from someone that’s obviously been around and is older than you, everything is not black and white.
Its really wild how this has transpired.
Reja, you start it with talking about Lehner’s big mouth (implying that you don’t see “two sides to the story” and that it is “black and white”.
After a response about Lehner’s platform you start with this “commie robot bullshit) and then talk about others being snarky, if you can believe that.
Then you take Lehner’s comments and extrapolate meaning to them well-beyond and then the post above implying your position is right.
Its becoming more and more clear that you are typical old mysoginistic and racist white guy that believes being “a man” old-school style, is some sort of macho trait to have.
You have some good hockey opinions but its tough to have conversation with you given your racist and mysoginistic nature.
P.S. No, my panties are not in bunch before you go there.
I don’t know what this has do with you? Sorry to burst your bubble but you don’t have the market cornered on being a Oiler fan. If you want to get personal and rattle off labels on a Oilers blog I have at least a handful of good ones for you but I don’t roll that way young fellow.
This has nothing to do with being an Oiler fan – this has to do with being a person in society and as part of a community.
As far as being getting personal and rattling off labels, I would point to “commi-robot”.
Yes, you have shown who you are over the years (as have I) and I have no doubt you have many lables and, yes, you do roll that way, you have in this very thread.
This thing with Side goes back to another thread. Anyhow if someone disagrees with your stance on a subject they’re not part of the Community and Society that you would like.
Are you sure you are as old and wise as you let on?
Seems you have the emotional range of a toddler at times, on a hockey blog of all places.
If you re-read your own comment you can see how, as you say, there are 2 sides to every story and yet you have clearly chosen a side. A side which you want to see punished because he didn’t get sufficient “bum pats”.
Again, you are letting your emotions get in the way of talking about a goalie who doesn’t even play for the Oilers, on an Oiler blog.
Truly bizarre.
After Tippett and the Oilers run up the score and chase your buddy Lehner next week I’ll buy the Kleenex so you can openly shed a tear or two.
Well, that is what a wise, old sage would do in your situation. They would be thinking of an anonymous stranger on the internet with a newly purchased box of Kleenex next to them hoping that the team they cheer for beats the other team so they could gloat about it on the internet.
Hold on, let me get my notebook before you continue.
Well Yeah don’t you have any friends that cheer for the Flames are Leafs. Don’t you love rubbing it in when the Oilers beat them, that’s half the fun. Sounds like you weren’t old enough to witness the greatest team ever win 5 Cups. I’m still in good jest rubbing it in on my buddies and random people that pass me on the sidewalk
Where do you come up with this stuff? Lol
Honest judge I was just joking around but that word seems to have triggered one person.
I cant speak for Reja but I simultaneously wish Lehner the best especially the work he is doing to get rid of stigma around mental health issues while thinking he is a lock for success this season.
Goalies has to be the toughest position to have continuous successful seasons. What you said is true though and the last time Lehner has had over 50% GP was 3 seasons and 2 teams ago. He had a great season behind a great defensive team as well as a strong performance by Greiss as a 1A 1B tandem.
The next season is a little more fast and loose Chicago team but he is the 1B behind Crawford.
For 22 games over a deadline and shortened season Lehner has been okay in the regular season (hell of a playoff performance) with Fleury giving literal Vezina quality.
This upcoming season will be the first time he will not be in a 1A/1B tandem unless you think Brossoit can eclipse hish career high of 21 GP. With pressure of being a win now team there is no 1B to take over IF things go sideways. This all isnt to say Lehner isnt a good goalie or is destined to fail, hes talented and maybe could have his own Vezina season but theres a lot of risk here.
And the worst part is the Knights took this risk on so they could take on a reclamation project in Dadonov.
To each is his own. How can you cheer for the Goalie of our main rival? I hope he tanks every game except against the Flames. Lehner has been on 5 different teams he’s not a depth D or F that gets picked up at the trade deadline, this is a tell
Lehner is almost as big of a question mark as Smith is
Smith starts tomorrow.
No surprise and I think that makes sense. With that said, I do think they need to get Mikko in for the game on Tuesday no matter what.
– I think they should start Mikko as well.
– But the coach won’t have the strength to do what he knows he has to do
– Mikko starting Tuesday means bad things happened to Smith.
– Hope the team keeps winning and Smith plays well: Mikkos first scheduled start is Fri 22nd (2nd of B2B). It would be a departure in coaching philosophy if he played more than once in October
I look for them to win the game on Sat and play Mikko on Tuesday.
Tip has expressed that the load will be shared – it will be similar to 2019/20 than 2021.
Talk is cheap and we’ll see if he does it but I think he will.
Win are lose against the Flames I start Mikko on Tuesday we’re going to need him and Tippett knows this.
I think next week will be Koski against Anaheim and Arizona, then back to Smith for the game against Vegas on the back to back. Anaheim and Arizona, at least based on pre-season rankings, are expected to be the weaker teams, plus Koski hasn’t played well against the Flames the last 2 seasons (except for his bounce back game 2 weeks after letting in 6 goals).
Its good to see that Kassian is recovered and good to go – that incident could have had a much worse outcome than it has.
The question i pose is if that 3rd line is better with Kassian on it (than Sceviour). Don’t get me wrong, Kassian has the potential and ability to make that line much better the Sceviour can – if Kass is going, he can use his size and speed to be aggresive on the forecheck, get bangs in and create energy and momentum. He is much more skilled than Sceviour and can help contribute to the offence at a much higher rate.
The issue I have is Kassian’s 2-way game and responsibility – Foegele, Ryan and Sceviour are all very responsible two way players – they put themselves on the right side of the puck and commit to the 2-way game including on the defensive boards. That is simply not Kassian’s game. WIth Kassian on that line, as oppossed to Sceviour, there are simply going to be more defensive zone mistakes and potentially more neutral zone giveaways. This isn’t really a bash on Kass but we have many years of watching him play and its just part of his game.
So, with Kass, the line should be able to have a much more offensive effect on the game and the ability to be a really strong line that creates momentum and energy and chips in. At the same time, the line, with Kass, won’t be as responsible overall and will likely leak a few higher grade scoring chances per game.
I’d flip Foegele to right wing and play Benson on LW.
Or move Perlini up
Ryan’s line is more of a checking line. The 4th line is going against the other teams 4th line. So in terms of roles, Benson would be a better fit with Ryan, leaving Perlini in a more offensive role on the 4th line. Stylistically Benson fits better with Foegele than Perlini.
Admittedly, this is making a lot out of small differences. I’d just rather leave the two more offensive types, Perlini and Turris, together on the 4th line, and put Benson who is more of a cycle guy, and more responsible defensively with Foegele. Turris is more likely to make a play for Perlini to get his shot off.
Maybe.
hopefully some experimentation
Ultimately i would prefer to see 4 balanced lines that can check and score, rather than have a set checking line particularly with a defensive liability.
I’m excited to see this line I think it’s a good combination and they will prove it Saturday.
‘- Re the goalie: here’s what’s going to happen:
1) Play Smith more than any starter
2) Koski will play the 2nd of a B2B and be bad and not gain trust of coach and sit 2 more weeks
GO TO 1
REPEAT
So either Smith be deadly all year, or he gets injured and they go and get another goalie because Koski has no chance. Our org don’t get goalie tandems.
GO SMITH
I presume/predict that Mikko plays Tuesday.
You need to believe. It may not be like always!
Condors Roster (for now):
GOALTENDERS (3)
32 Ilya Konovalov
33 Olivier Rodrigue*
34 Stuart Skinner*
DEFENSEMEN (7)
2 Philip Broberg
3 Markus Niemelainen*
6 Vincent Desharnais*
8 Yanni Kaldis*
23 Michael Kesselring*
25 Philip Kemp*
43 Filip Berglund
FORWARDS (15)
5 Tim Schaller
7 Ostap Safin*
9 Luke Esposito*
11 James Hamblin*
13 Kirill Maksimov
14 Devin Brosseau*
17 Brad Malone*
19 Dino Kambeitz
20 Cooper Marody*
22 Graham McPhee*
27 Adam Cracknell*
39 Seth Griffith*
46 Tim Soderlund
47 Matteo Gennaro
50 Raphael Lavoie*
*-indicates returner from 2020-21 season
If they are going to go Nuclear, I approve of this including Koekkoek in:
Per Jack Michaels:
Todays practice;
Draisaitl-McDavid-Puljujarvi
Hyman-RNH-Yamamoto
Foegele-Ryan-Kassian
Perlini-McLeod-Turris
Nurse-Barrie
Keith-Ceci
Koekkoek-Bouchard
There will need to be a move to activate Kass – probably Shore on IR (likely retroactive).
Much prefer having Nuge-Drai-Yamo and give McDavid 2 bangers in Hyman and Puljujarvi, we all know 97 & 29 will play together if we’re tied or down in the 3rd but let’s keep them hungry.
If Tippett can’t figure this team out at 5v5 we’re going to continue to rely on the PP.
I know Drai has never looked like the most graceful of skaters but I was super confused why he looks like he’s trying to skate through a hernia by the end of each shift against the Nucks.
I dont agree. Puljajarvi needs to be with McDavid. The only way Yamo moves up is if Hyman – McD – Yamo. You need to balance the lines out better and Drai plays the finesse game so you dont want Yamo to have to bang and get hurt.
May I ask why this is the case?
McDavid/Drai/Yamamoto had an 83% goal differential last year – 12-2 goals in 134 minutes (and their possession metrics, while not quite that high, back up the dominance).
McDavid/Drai/Yamamoto had a 58% goal differential – 17-12 goal in 176 minutes (and their possession metrics are right in line with that).
Last year, the nuclear option was simply better with Yamamoto and I think we can all agree that Jesse could “help” a second line to a higher degree than Kailer.
These sample sizes are too small but there is a real and substantial argument to have Yamamoto on the load up line.
LT, you’re exactly right that Smith had an outstanding game, other than the weak 2nd goal in the 3rd.
I’m always the doom-and-gloom guy, but Smith was reading the action very well and there were some pretty decent slot shots and high-danger shots, at least by eye and the Nucks were able to find gaps in coverage.
Every time we play Vancouver I feel like we should dominate and we never do, but really feel that Smith’s performance covered up a subpar performance from the team, other than the 2nd line, which dominated.
What I really liked was that Smith took responsibility for the goal in his media avail yesterday – he said he lost sight of it and missed it and, essentially, took blame for it.
I remember back in November/December 2019, when Smith was the worst goalie the NHL had ever seen, he was really AHL-replacement level, for a long time – he wouldn’t take responsibility and was making excuses – I had never been more “pissed off” at an Oiler player than after one of his media avails during the stretch.
LT: I love that you still use my Broberg & Bouchard pics from Dev Camp.
As for Marody, my understanding is he will be a Group VI free agent after this season unless he plays 74 more games in the NHL, which is about as long a shot as one could find. He needs a new address, for sure.
Boston signs McAvoy to 8X$9.5 million.
Breaks Boston’s long standing internal salary structure.
Does that make the Nurse deal look better or worse?
Worse. There’s not many d-men in the entire league I’d take over McAvoy
Going to have to disagree, McAvoy picks up injuries like hitchhikers on saltspring. There’s always another one around the bend.
I don’t think it’s even possible to answer that question. What if Nurse was drafted by the Bruins and came up with one of the best teams in the league, playing with one of the best defensive teams in the league, being mentored and supported by one of the best dmen in the league in Zdeno Chara?
Here’s what I know, Nurse scored 16 goals last year in a secondary offensive role. That’s very hard to do. He’s one of the best even strength point producers in the NHL dating back a few years now.
But it’s his commitment to excellence that makes him special. When asked a typically lame question about what he watched over the summer, Nurse said game tape. He doesn’t watch movies. He watches game tape. We have a very special guy here. He’s worth every penny.
Another big thing is that McAvoy’s deal includes 2/3 RFA years while Nurse’s is all UFA years.
This is very true but, at the same time, the McAavoy deal likely is all peak/prime years where we may see some age-related regression from Nurse in the last couple of years (although probably not a ton knowing this player/person).
The point made about injuries is real and important though.
*Knocking on Wood”, Nurse has proven to be extremely durable, not missing a game due to injury since that ankle (I believe) in his rookie year. Assuming the continues (PLEASE), that is massive.
I love the way you say that it’s probably not even possible to answer that question … and then provide a really excellent answer to the question!
Nurse is developing year after year into an excellent player. Furthermore:
When it comes time – and the time will come – the disposition of Kassian needs to be clean. There’s always one GM out there whose players just got sand rubbed in their face, who lets past reputation steer procurement. Package a low pick if necessary, bundle it as part of a larger trade, but make it happen. No more dead cap.
Here is hoping – I don’t see it but I can be hopeful.
Competitive Disadvantage: Oilers never have The Oilers to trade with.
Curious as why Lagesson was not on the depth chart for LD? thx
Because the list was created at 6am BC ? 🙂
*BC Before coffee
He is there now – ignore – my mistake…
Good day Mr LT and fellow readers.
Looks like the site is working without any hiccups (knocking wood).
For me at least, the one fascinating thing I see from your review is that there are replacement level players coming down the pipeline who have legit chances of impacting the team when they’re going to be called upon or when fortune favours either through a trade, retirement, etc..
I haven’t seen that in this club for some time and it’s certainly encouraging. It’s going to be interesting to see where the club and these players are at the midway point in the season.
There was a play in the third period…maybe 2-1 at the time…where we had a long defensive zone shift.
The Nucks “transferred” the puck via rim from the left corner out to the right point. Hughes came down the wall and the Oiler winger was going to arrive at the same time.
Best case- chip the puck past Hughes for a line change
Decent case- Hughes pokes the puck in but gets crushed for the cause; takes a hit to make a play
The Oiler player instead completely bailed, Hughes got the puck and zero bruises.
That Oiler player was Ryan McLeod.
Of all the Oilers forwards on the roster there isn’t one with a bigger flaw in their game than McLeods physicality (Kassian’s defense?) and it will keep from the NHL if he doesn’t figure it out.
Kyle Turris.
No bigger fan of McLeod than me, however, this is a very legitimate point about Ryan.
The same issue that caused him to fall in the draft.
My issue that game was his stick fishing – nearly always uses his stick to try to fish it out.
Not his body. ( Meanwhile physical war battle going on on boards)
Ryan is the polar opposite of the Hyman forecheck.
Kyle Turris has never won a puck battle along the wall and his defensive IQ rivals Kassian.
Credit, where credit due though, the 2122 KT version is an upgrade from last year. Hopefully he keeps it up.
Its getting somewhat frustrating with McLeod given he literally talked to the media earlier this week about needing to finish checks and being more engaged physically but it doesn’t seem like he’s actually willing to do it. This will keep him from being an impact NHL player at some point. He can be so much more than a 4th liner/PK guy but that may end up his ceiling.
He’ll get another chance tomorrow with Shore still out (and likely in a physical game) but it seems like he’s destined for Bakersfield and, frankly, I’m not sure this part of his game will develop at all in Bakersfield – it didn’t last year and, if he’s in Bakersfield, his line will likely be as dominant as last year and one doesn’t need to finish checks and engage physically as much when they have the puck the entire time.
Here is hoping Woody and his staff are really focussing McLeod on this area.
As far as Turris goes, I think most fans were too busy bitching about him being on the ice in OT to notice that he made the best offensive play of the period by the Oilers – a wonderful skill pass to Barrie (I believe) in the high slot – unfortunately, Barrie couldn’t handle the pass.
Agreed.
Under the category “Haven’t had my Snickers yet”
I really dislike hockey platitudes.
Prior to game one, Leon Draisaitl talking to reporters says “Yeah, we really want to get off to a fast start this season; The first 12 games last year didn’t go so well”
Not a single guy says to him, that’s exactly what you said before game one last season. What’s changed? How have you prepared to get a jump start this season? What should we be looking for in game one?
And then the big man goes out and lays an egg in game one.
Not questioning the player at all. Just the inane press process.
Maybe ask Lansky about that part of the process. Why all the inane meaningless chatter? Do the players insist it be that way? Do they ask not to be surprised by gotcha type questions?
Is it some kind of gentlemen’s agreement?
Or is it because it’s live TV and “everyone” wants things to be predictable; No faux pas.
Think about that for a second and put yourself in the players skates. Give one reporter a crumb/something juicy and you’re doing interviews on a regular basis for the rest of your career.
Player interviews suck. Really suck. I would rather watch a commercial. But that’s not an appropriate question before a game IMO. If the reporter asks that question, what will be the player’s response? Another platitude of course.That type of question needs to be asked of the GM.
If “laying an egg” includes being the only player on either team who made a pass leading directly to a goal. Leon’s one-touch cross seam pass to Hyman for the tap in after faking the one timer was a thing of beauty. This after making an excellent d-zone poke check on Pettersson that led to the too-many-men call in the first place.
Leon does a lot right even on a so-so night but he makes it look so easy, even nonchalant, that those things often get glossed over. Same thing used to happen to my first ever favourite player, Frank Mahovlich, and to too many other talented big men in the intervening years.
Is Drasaitl flawed? Why, yes. Is he fabulous? Also yes.
‘The Flawed and the Fabulous’ – I think you’ve penned the title of Oilers’ 21-22 yearbook!
The big M was one of my favorites too, Carl Brewer being the other.
As an aspiring young netminder I was a big Johnny Bower fan. Also Dave Keon and the late, great Tim Horton who I had the opportunity to meet as a young lad.
When Leon is picking his spots like Getzlaf does but doesnt have the resume yet of what Getzlaf does, it is a little telling. When Drai puts his mind to being dominant he is. But many times plays a reserved game, which 82 games is a long season and he gets his points and accolades, just not yet Playoff success and Stanley. I hope McD and Drai make it a point to bury teams before taking it a little easier.
What would be an acceptable answer to the question anyway, though?
Play hockey and play it better than the other team?
I am not directing this at you, because I just think it’s a bad question to ask anyone, whether it be the GM, coach or players before the season starts.
At the end of the day the goal for any team for any game of the season is to win. But winning is a process that usually involves many factors which cannot be miraculously figured out prior to the season.
Every team starts with their best guess as to what will work and every team has an adjustment period for what doesn’t work. If something isn’t working then it’s the coaches or GMs problem to figure out.
I’m pretty sure every personnel from every team’s real answer would be
“Play our best, see what works and what doesn’t then adapt and hope there are no injuries”
And for that reason, that’s why the question overall is ass. Because there is no secret recipe for a fast start to the season.
If there was some recipe for successfully starting the season better than other teams, then everyone would be doing it and then it wouldn’t be remarkable and a team wouldn’t have an advantage.
Reporters need to come up with better questions to ask, otherwise you have players like Leon just cobbling together generic answers he probably has in the back of his mind from all of the times he gave generic answers to all of the other generic questions he was asked before to questions that really, the coaches or GM are better suited to answer.
This question would be more appropriate after 20 games or so for a team like Montreal if they shit the bed again after another hot start
“So you got off to a great start AGAIN and shit the bed AGAIN, why is that?”
If the media would have asked that question, it would have been very confusing as the Oilers started out hot in 2019/20…..
Nice to see Ottawa’s continued domination of the Laffs.
And Vegas losing.
Baseball is crap. Blown call by the 1st base ump ends San Francisco’s season. The guy behind home plate was wildly inconsistent all game as well.
Time to let the machines make the calls.
That blown call was laughable. And I’d agree with you in that the ‘machines’ should take over, the guys that run baseball are such hardcore traditionalists that the likelihood of that to happen would be very low IMO.
Plus, imagine the precedent it would set for the other sports if they did. I could see all of the ump and ref unions screaming bloody murder at the prospect of a computer taking over their jobs.
Ref inconsistency is part of the game, for better or worse. Gives us something to talk about and rail against. Am still smarting from Kesler’s grab of Talbot’s pad…
San Fran won the division on a similar call, Baseball gods enjoy karma.
Thanks LT… you have this list surrounded… a shoutout to your thoughts on Bouchard, Nuge, Ryan, and Puljujarvi.
Also, the entire Oilers NHL LW list is very encouraging from previous seasons. Hyman seems to be our long awaited lunch pail, work boots guy sliding down the tail of a dinosaur at the 3rd period buzzer. Not to be confused with the other individual in the Jurassic era who posted a .947 in the opener.
Life finds a way..
Blah blah blah http://www.oilersdeathmarch.com/marches/2021-22
Very intrigued to see how Lavoie and Makskimov are deployed during the season.
They should both be top 6 wingers but there is only one “Ovie spot” available on PP1.
Woodcroft spoke at length on OilersNow last week about what they are asking Lavoie to work on and much of it has to do with consistency and impacting the game more – he’s been tasked with that since junior. I hope it starts to come but I don’t presume we see him in the NHL any time soon.
Lavoie is a first round talent who fell to the second round for somewhat different reasons — but reasons nonetheless — that McLeod did. In both cases, until the player. deals with his observed weaknesses he will always leave folks wanting more.
McLeod has talked about those weaknesses recently, and the coach has as well……. of course, we continue to see zero change in his game in this regard at the NHL level (through exhibition and, now, one regular season game).
Similar to McLeod, Lavoie’s deficiencies have been with him since junior and draft day – with that said, Lavoie hasn’t had a full AHL season to work on them like McLeod has (in fact two for McLeod).
Lavoie will get that this year and here is hoping he is a real contender for a middle six, if not top 6, winger next fall. I’m counting on him or Maksimov being a cheap contract on the team next season.
I propose a button to turn on the Database Connection issues ever time the LA Kings look like they will have a good game.
I wonder if it would help the database issue if those who don’t intend on commenting, don’t log in?
You can read the post and comments without logging in. Temporary solution?
There’s actually a glitch there, too. I receive several emails a week saying posts and comments aren’t available on an 8:30am story until after six pm unless you log in. That started happening after I got the SSL certificate.
Look at our gracious host talking about SSL certificates! Next up tik tok! 😉
Hope the comment is welcome LT… it seems to me that the problem might be directly related to the comments section. I’m sure your provider can handle the HTML that you post with images, ads etc. However, because how the comment sections acts currently, you’re forced to reload the page to see the latest comments. This obviously places much more strain on the servers, and with what I would imagine hundreds of hits per hour the site/server simply can’t keep up. I feel a real-time comment section (ie: CBC) could be a solution. It avoids most of the traffic from the client to the server. The posted comments will get sent to the database but the page itself doesn’t need to reload every time. I think this alone would greatly improve the performance of the site. Most companies, when I got out of web programming were transitioning away from the Server-Client relationship web design with the new programming languages available (.NET/Java/JavaScript and many more today). The client (our end) can (and should) be burdened with the extra bandwidth required to run the comments. Anyway, this could be a Captain Obvious post, and I hope I’m not overstepping my grounds here. Cheers!
Or alternatively, log in to say what it is you want to say, and then log out again to continue reading?
Posts (entire article) don’t show up for me if I am not logged in though, until much much later.
He’s got 26 teams, he’s a bitter diva that mistakenly believes he’s the star of the show. The Oilers living rent free in his head has done years of irreversible damage. Rest easy knowing he drools on himself watching Law and Order reruns.
Podkholzin skating with Pettersson and Miller during morning line rushes in Philadelphia.
Thought you would want to know.
After an NHL debut with zero shots on net, zero hits and an expected GF% of apx 40%, as a fan of a rival team, I’m heartened that the coach will be looking to rely on the prospect more.
Am some point, he’ll be on the ice for a goal for and maybe even be in on it – hasn’t happened in the 6 games he’s played but it will at some point.
Really!
It is highly annoying when the Condors play at the same time as the Oilers. I’ll have the Condors game on in the background on the other laptop but I like to pay full attention to them – oh well – hockey is back full time and I can’t complain too much, can I?
Yes, I agree that Skinner is next in line but I do think Konovalov will battle him every step of the way. Skinner will play NHL games this year as I don’t imagine both Smith and Mikko are fully healthy for 6 months.
I think Broberg plays almost the entire year in the AHL (or the entire year) – what Playfair explained they are asking him to work on is real and important – its essentially getting used to the smaller ice and the need to make decisions faster – the rink is smaller, the players are bigger and faster – decisions on puck retrieval and when the puck is won in battle need to be made quicker and faster – this will be key for his success but also his health – my goodness did he take alot of hits in exhibition – he needs to move that puck faster. Also, Playfair talked about him needing to learn to pass the puck out of danger, not just skate it out of danger.
On the right side, the only depth d-man in conversation for the NHL this year is Berglund and I presume the coaching staff will want to see a real couple of months of play similar to his NHL play – great 2-way play – get the puck, move the puck – few mistakes. If he does that, he’ll be in the conversation for right side fill-in – as of now Russell/Koekkoek on their off side – less than ideal.
Kemp showed all what was suggested by those that watched him – he’s not a big physical defence only d-man. He’s a great defended by forcing dump ins, positionally, gap control, angles, etc. and he’s an underated puck moved but not overly physical – skating will be his key to the NHL.
Kesselring showed how raw he is and how far away he is – hopefully a full year in the AHL will be big for him.
One thing I would add about Kemp is he is a smart hockey player as well.
wicked smart!
Everything has to big for Kesselring or it won’t fit!?
Kessel Ring sounds like something Phil eats with his hot dogs.
Is it over or under twelve parsecs?
I’m not sure. But I’ve heard Phil’s mouth is like a black hole for donuts and hot dogs. So I’ll guess under. 🙂
I’m looking forward to your Bakersfield updates, OP.
Broberg was the player I was most disappointed with in training camp. He seemed like a one trick pony with his skating. Of course that one trick is a hell of a trick and should buy him lots of opportunity to improve elsewhere. But his decision making was meh and his puck handling was worse. Hopefully a year of AHL slows the game enough that he bobbles passes and one-timers less often, but it looks like there is a lot of development needed. It was as if he was playing with someone else’s stick. Hopefully it is nerves and not a lack of puck skills.
He’s also trying to make a contending roster, not lottery team roster. I wouldn’t be surprised if a year in the AHL isn’t enough and he needs two.
He’s got a high, high ceiling, but he also has a long ways to go to get there. I’m cheering for him.
I once did the Kesselring in just over 12 parsecs.
Oops, you were first
Finally, FINALLY, I’ve done something better than Bruce. Well, done it first anyway.
Or was he….
https://lowetide.ca/2021/08/18/hello/#comment-1037539
Hearing OP’s comments on Broberg, it sounds a lot like Nurse when he was younger.
Yes, that comp’s been made for a few years – big lanky ice-coverer who requires refining to get elite – should happen. Nurse had more offence in junior though.
As far as skating the puck out of danger (and needing to develop the ability to make plays out of danger) and offensive zone decision making, yes, there are those similarities with Nurse, for sure.
The other important development area, vis-a-vis getting used to the smaller ice and how much less time there is to make plays, obviously Nurse had to adapt to the speed of the pro and NHL game, all players do, but he didn’t need to get used to the smaller rink in that regard – Broberg got punished multiple times every game and he will need to improve in that area or he won’t have a long career.
Not disagreeing on what Broberg needs to develop, but worth noting the team made an effort to get his cap/bonuses on the opening night roster.
Seems that Holland/Tippett expect him to be back up in-season.
Yes, they did make an effort to create the LTIR bonus reserves (although there wasn’t much effort to it and it was simply a no-brainer and good business).
I would note a couple of things:
1) yes, that would permit them to call him up without having to worry about his bonuses vis-a-vis the cap but I wouldn’t say that equates to an expectation that he’ll be recalled
2) the LTIR bonus reserves created also work for other players that could be called up, such as Holloway (who wasn’t on the roster and has performance bonuses, I think in the $400K range, without checking).
On the point about Nurse having more offence in junior that Broberg (that was made earlier), I would respond by saying that its tough to compare Canadian Major Junior to the SHL and, in particular young/prospect d-men in the SHL).
Broberg’s SHL offence is similar to Klefbom’s at the same age – I think Broberg actually produced better than Klef in his draft plus 2.
I hadn’t thought about the bonuses being available for other call-ups.
And while it was an easy transaction to make, they wouldn’t have had to waive one of Lagesson/Turris if Broberg wasn’t there (acknowledging they may have wanted to waive both players with the end of TC rush).
As you point out, I think they wanted to waive Lagesson as indicated by him going on IR the next day (i.e. there was no immediate need to waive him for roster or cap purposes).
Turris, maybe not (although I think they are smart enough to know that noone was going to claim him and, also, see the positives if he was claimed).