Kailer Yamamoto took a couple of penalties on Saturday, and in his media avail Dave Tippett said he mentioned to the young winger “you’re a penalty killer, not a penalty taker.”
The story of Oilers wingers who have had “the talk” about penalties with the coach is a long and winding road, from Dave Hunter listening (or not listening) to Glen Sather about penalties late in periods, to Benoit Pouliot effectively sealing his fate as an NHL player with a series of penalties that added grey hairs to Todd McLellan’s head in real time.
Yamamoto has a lot of pressure on him, but owns the skill set to succeed. This is a big year for him, he needs to post offense, kill penalties and not take those reach-in fouls that mean you’ve lost your mark. I believe in him. KY has to stay healthy.
THE ATHLETIC!
- Lowetide: Which Oilers AHL players are most likely to be called up in 2021-22?
- DNB: The Battle of Alberta gets heated
- Lowetide: Evan Bouchard is going to be the Oilers’ secret weapon in 2021-22 — and he’s already showing why
- DNB: How the Oilers’ new-look second line wears down opponents and makes a difference.
- Lowetide: Amazing opening night facts on players, past and present, from Oilers opening night rosters
- DNB: New Oilers forward Zach Hyman may have a higher pay grade, but his style isn’t changing
- Jonathan Willis: Oilers final roster cuts
- Lowetide: How Ken Holland is increasing the Oilers’ talent pool, and why fans are nervous about it
- Lowetide: Oilers prospects thrive as junior, college and European seasons begin
- Lowetide: Does Dom Luszczyszyn’s 2021-22 preview mean math hates the Oilers?
- Lowetide: When will the Edmonton Oilers fully embrace analytics?
- Jonathan Willis: How the 2021-22 Oilers mirror their coach’s best teams from the past
- DNB: Maxing out LTIR
- Lowetide: What might Oilers do if Kailer Yamamoto’s goal scoring slump continues?
- DNB: Oilers’ Mikko Koskinen much happier with family by his side again
- New DNB: Duncan Keith’s decline, by the numbers and video
- Lowetide: 9 bold predictions for the 2021-22 Edmonton Oilers
- Lowetide: Why Colton Sceviour could be an important addition for the Oilers
- DNB: Derek Ryan Q&A
- Jonathan Willis: How can the Oilers find a long-term solution in net?
- Jonathan Willis: Darnell Nurse, in context
- DNB: Warren Foegele Q&A
WHAT TO EXPECT IN OCTOBER
- At home to: VCR, CAL, ANA (Expected 2-1-0) (Actual 2-0-0)
- On the road to: ARI, VEG (Expected 1-1-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- At home to: PHI (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- On the road to: VCR (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- Overall expected result: 5-2-0, 10 points in seven games
- Actual results: 2-0-0, four points in two games
The Oilers have an inviting October schedule, 5-2-0 seems a reasonable expectation from here. I saw the Calgary game Saturday and the Vegas road game as being the most challenging, and would offer the Flyers game and the coast trip to Vancouver as the next toughest games for the team. A 5-2-0 month would be a fine result. Anaheim won in overtime last night against the Flames, the Ducks are 2-1-0 entering tonight’s game. Anaheim’s team save percentage, .958, is just a little better than Mike Smith’s (.953) so far this season.
KIRILL MAKSIMOV
The Oilers have ended relationships around this time of year before. Todd Strueby left camp in 1985, and was traded in December for Mike Rogers. Bogdan Yakimov was unhappy about not being in the NHL and bolted to the KHL. Toni Rajala, coming off an impressive AHL season, sought the opportunity to return to Europe for a lucrative contract. The organization waived him and then terminated the contract.
Maksimov is a talented player, but the current management group didn’t draft him and based on the last 24 hours weren’t convinced he was a player they wanted to spend another year (final season of entry) on in an attempt to get him to the NHL.
He wasn’t on a trajectory to the world’s best league but he could do some things and maybe he develops some offense and things come together. Going back to his draft year, Maksimov’s offense fell of at a point when many forwards hit a wall.
The two seasons after his draft, notorious for being peak seasons for teenage OHLers, look like outliers today. I don’t think we’re dealing with a future NHL player, it would have been nice to see him for another year. I did not have him ranked among Edmonton’s top 20 prospects for The Athletic during the summer.
Edmonton isn’t the only team dealing with unhappy Russian hockey players and I do think this is a time (after the pandemic) when people are making life choices that would have been unlikely two years ago.
For Maksimov, I wish him well, while also wondering what it will take to crack the Russian talent vault for this Oilers organization. The curse of Nail is real.
CARTER SAVOIE
The Oilers will need to cast about and find some forwards who can push from Bakersfield next season, and it looks like Carter Savoie is at the front of the line. So far this season, he is 5-6-11 in four games with the Denver Pioneers. That works out to an NHLE of 99 points, perhaps a little high but these are early days with small sample sizes. His NHLE from last season in the NCHC (30) suggests he does have a chance at an NHL career (anything 30 or over is solid).
LOWDOWN WITH LOWETIDE
At 10 this morning, we’ll tee up the Oilers-Ducks and talk at length about goaltending rotations and why both men have to play. We’ll talk Dodgers-Braves and about last night’s Red Sox-Astros game, plus CFL trades with the deadline approaching. 10-1260 text, @Lowetide on twitter. See you on the radio!!
I think Bouchard on the first line is best for the coach but I think his development as a player would be better served by more at-bats against middling NHL competition. Would give Barrie more time to settle in and hope he starts playing better. We know Bouch will eat his lunch one day, would be great if there is a trade market for Barrie when that happens. Recent win-now moves have me concerned for the salary cap over the next few years. I don’t think we have the luxury of trading assets to clear cap space.
That said, if all I care about is winning the next game, Bouchard is on my top pairing. The question is not “is he good enough?” but rather “is he my best option?”
How much better would this team be if we kept Bear, didn’t sign Barrie, and signed a Foegle equivalent? I think a lot better. Holland deserves some credit for his offseason and I like Keith, Ceci and Hyman, but Barrie is quickly becoming a major liability. Bear could have warmed Bouchard’s spot on the top pair until he took it from him. Bear as second pair and Ceci as third is much stronger D corps
I like Foegele on that line. They are scoring 5v5 and that hasn’t happened in forever. Who’s the equivalent FA they could have signed? Your scenario leaves out that critical detail.
Yes, Flea, that is what I was going to say when I read the original post. Who is the Foegele replacement and please note that Foegle is signed for $2.75M for three high peak/prime years.
My post says not using Foegele’s cap hit to replace Foegele, but rather Barrie’s. I think you could have found a 3W replacement for $4.5 million. In this scenario Bear continues to have the value contract instead of Foegele.
Barrie will get up to speed, give him a few games on the 3rd pairing. It’s nice that we have the depth to be able to cover him for a few games while he works out the kinks.
At the start of a season, timing can be a real issue with players. This is a very high skill team, when they round into midseason form and passes are clean and crisp…watch the fuck out.
Barrie does one thing well and has done it his entire career – score points. If he gets 50 pts this year, we can trade him for a second round pick.
Agreed.
Foegele has been a good addition, but is it enough to make up for Barries play so far?
And which is more important, a quality 3LW or a quality 2RD?
You’re right, the team thats 3-0 would probably be something like….. 3-0.
Barrie is having a rough start to the season, but got more points last season that Bear has his entire career. Kind of a knee jerk reaction after 3 games no?
Sometimes you can lose a battle if it will win you the war. I see the bear trade as a clear loss, but I also like what Foegle has brought so far. Early days yet either way.
Tip says Smith tweaked something – likely day to day but will know more after he sees the medical staff tomorrow.
With the Oilers having McDavid your fingers get tired from typing the superlatives…
Tonight he played the most awesome position in soccer – Sweeper – when he blocked the certain goal as Koskinen went on another one of his walkabouts.
In soccer, the best player of the team sometimes plays sweeper – which means he acts like a goal line defender one moment then takes the bal up to the other end of the field and slams in a goal himself. Only the very best can play this position well.
A work of Italian Art, McDavid is becoming.
The tried and true, old adage says … just score one more than they do.
I suspect we’ll see a lot of similar games, far too often this season. Just keep winning.
GO OILERS!!!
Calgary Puck is saltier than ever:
One of the Oilers they call a ‘Deutchland Douche’ lol
They say the NHL has an agenda to help the “little babies” win even if they cheat.
Beautiful stuff.
Was curious and looked at some of their posts. Found some of these posts pertaining to the Oilers:
“Seems like these greasers are always on the PP.
Looks like the McWhining paid off.”
“The NHL. Would never put their little darlings in such a spot. Really, the league has to stop the molly coddling of that pitiful franchise. Butter soft schedules, ridiculous officiating it just goes on and on!!”
and my personal favourite:
“The Oilers get more breaks from the NHL than any franchise I have ever seen.”
HA! The Oilers have been getting the shaft end of alot of BS from the NHL for it seems like forever. From horseshit reffing and Non-calls, to forfeiting draft picks for FIRED coaches/GMs, to even worse horseshit reffing calls (Kesler was holding Talbots leg!), to using PROJECTED Goals scored by James Neal to settle the conditional 3rd round pick to the flames.
NHL darlings my ass!
I have yet to see even an honest attempt at discerning which franchises (if any) are “getting breaks”. It’s always “your” team that is in disfavor and the other teams that get all the breaks. This phenomenon is most aptly explained by the various biases of observation rather than patterns of unfair conduct.
That’s a disgrace. Everyone knows it’s “Deutschland”.
Best game of the season.
Who was complaining about Draisaitl?
The Bison King may just surpass his season high of 25 points this year. 3 games in and almost 1/4 of the way there. I should have taken the over on JP getting 42. Iis great to watch this young man play the game we love.
He’s a lock to double that.
I hope someone lights up Zegras in the next game for that spear.
Ducks play a great game of hockey.
Calgary, and Vancouver both play palooka hockey (unskilled, route 1 lack of creative play etc).
I think I already typed this. I might type this again. And again.
At least the third line looks good. That’s progress – I think.
For the first time in….forever?
That was harrowing but Bouchard was inspiring. Loved his game on both sides of the puck. You can tell he already has a better sense of where people are and how plays are developing than Barrie, and he’s certainly ahead of where Nurse was at the same age.
Hopefully Tippett decides to keep this young RHD that he plays over Barrie when the chips are down, but really who knows 🙂
Nurse + Bouchard = NHL top 5 pairing the minute they get paired together.
Nurse skates like the wind, is as tough as they get, and Bouchard exudes high class Montreal dynasty level defence smarts at 21 years old.
Bouchard is emerging fast. They perfectly compliment each other.
Koski played well in relief.
Barrie was rough tonight.
Bouchard is an absolute beauty.
Draisaitl is equal parts sublime and enfuriating.
Is Russell still injured? Koekkoek is not looking good and he hasn’t played even ten minutes in both appearances.
Smith was atrocious tonight. He had a bunch of company, namely Barrie and the Nuge line. Should have been an easy 2 goal win given remotely competent goaltending.
At least it brings Koskinen into the mix. He looked pretty decent.
Yeah their was a fair share of goat horns to go around tonight. Nice to see them get the win regardless.
Los Angeles also lost tonight so it was an all around great night on the out of town scoreboard.
Oilers will never be a perfect team.
That said, RNH, JP, Hyman, Ceci, Keith, Bouchard + Nurse etc are starting to show that they are the cream of the Pacific Division.
In October.
Think about that. 3 games in and they already playing better than last season.
Draisaitl is possibly warming up for the next playoffs.
He already knows the regular season is like a walk in the park for him.
Smith played two games with big shot numbers – absolutely no need for him to start this 3rd game against the Ducks backup – now he’s hurt. Tip is going to Tip with goalies. Thinking that you’re getting more than 40 games out of Smith is wildly optimistic and he should never start more than 2 in a row. You need to (over)protect the guy at his age even if he’s playing well.
You might be right.
This honestly seems so obvious…. yet here we are.
The evidence is in. Coaches just can’t help themselves.
Well, we knew the Oilers would have to outscore their defensive liabilities this year.
Credit to Anaheim and (oh this is painful) their coach for having good buy-in on a system that stymied the Oilers, clogged up lanes and counterattacked well.
Does Smith get a redemption start next game?
I’d go Koski/Smith on the B2B myself, we’ll see what Tippett does
I just hope he is able to start and hasn’t pulled something!
No
Bouchard with SEVEN blocked shots tonight??
6 SOG and 7 BS.
Bouchbombs
and
Bouchblocks
Jesus, that’s a big swing in shot differential for one guy.
I hope Smith is ok. I just hate teams obv gunning for Koski’s glove, in broad daylight, without shame.
You have to be kidding AA…
The man gave up 1 goal on 21 shots, got the come from behind win, and you’re critiquing the 1 goal?
Apparently without shame?
Like a Devils type?
No no, not a critique of tonight’s performance. He held it together well. I just notice how the opposition is always high glove from all angles when facing Kosk. I see it and just don’t have confidence in the guy. I know, it’s not fair tonight…. but scouting is always looking for that advantage and I believe they know what they’re gunning for.
Not to mention the one goal is a ricochet from behind the net, direct to Shattenkirk who snipes it. Oh and the net was empty.
A win is a win as they say, but I think we’ll read some terms like ‘looser than Crazy Horse at the Fillmore East’ in tomorrow morning’s post
Good for Koskinen to get the win in relief, even though everyone hates him. 😀
He’s pure chaos, but If they win with him its tolerable lol
Definition of an ugly win…..
Koskinen to 1-0, nice relief appearance.
3-0.
NOT a pretty game, but they did what they needed to do.
Hmmm. 🙂
Yes, an ugly but entertaining win.
Yea Baby!!!!!
So Bouch wasn’t good enough to play last year???
He was, but coaches gonna coach.
Man, Drai makes a lot of cheat easy-out plays on the half-board and gets caught on it 1-2x/game. Those plays don’t often result in grade-As anyway. I don’t know why he doesn’t just make the right break-out play.
The whole team has to really clean up zone exits. It’s ugly out there.
This has been a pretty sloppy game by the Oil. I think it will be good for them to get out on the road. Now please lock this game down!
Winning a game like this could mask the bitter taste they should have. I’d take the win, don’t get me wrong. But this needs to be a hard lesson. Tip better bag skate them.
WTF, man.
Are you a Flames fan, by chance?
: p
A bag skate? That’s only needed if the effort isn’t there. Not the issue tonight IMO.
6th PP coming up
Let’s put this thing to bed
wait a sec, I thought this Bouchard guy was gonna be a bust since he didn’t ‘arrive early’ smh I’ve so much to learn
Hey now…. he’s not Brogan…
Or Bogdan.
Totally intentional. Old Man Bouchard is the best pool hustler west of the Mississip’ and that’s his patented bankeroo.
That’s the patented Bouch-Bomb-Him-With-a-Clapper-Then-Bank-One-Off-the-Rail. Brilliant.
Bouch!!! talk about seizing your opportunity
Dad!
Bouchard is the father, Jesse is the son, McDavid is the holy spirit.
Bouchard with what will likely be the lowest-velocity goal of his career to put the Oilers ahead.
Bouch does it all!
Bouchard the pool shark with the bank shot goal
LOL – Bouch banks one in off Stolarz.
Credit Jesse on the area dumb though.
lol
That really looked like it was in to me. Huge break.
Yea almost a Connor own goalie then he makes the save.
There aren’t many players with the awareness and hand eye coordination to keep that thing out.
What a smart fake then shot-pass by Bouchard….
Does Tip go with 25-75 as 1st pair to start next game?
I think so. Barrie is currently experiencing vapor lock.
Very legitimate question, but I’ll guess no (while agreeing with the vapor lock comment).
Huzzah!
Depth scoring, it’s been a while.
Kassian!
Just glad to see him being useful.
Great pass by Bouch too.
useful
That’s the best we can hope for at this point
Well, full contributing member of what *looks like the Oilers best 3rd line since Marchant left town (with due respect to the 16-17 Letestu line, which Kassian himself was part of). That kind of useful, potentially.
That would be a PP2 Goal.
Bouch is a star.
Good thing they bailed out the #1 unit. That top unit was disorganized AF on that PP.
I think I said the new year. It took to game 3, for Bouchard to leapfrog two guys.
See. I admit my mistakes! -).
#CeciYouLater #BarrieBarrieBad
Your favorite player got 2 goals 🙂
He is going to need about 20 of those to make up for all he gives up.
He does make many defensive mistakes but he has been a net positive contributor the last two games and material to both wins.
I hope Zack does get 20 goals. Love to see you give him some LOVE
Perlini up to play with Nuge and Hyman.
Yamamoto is playing his way into Tippett’s doghouse.
At least with bringing Koskinen into the game after the team has already faced 15 shots, he can’t let the first shot of the game in.
Almost posted before the penalty, but Koskinen’s about 50/50 to get a win this evening I’d say.
and Smith is now 0% for a L.
So Smith knicked????? SKINNER!!!!!!!!
Well a good test in the third – ducks should be tired so it’s a matter of effort and smarts. this is where superior skill *should* prevail… but who knows this year in the NHL, it’s all upside down?!?
Sorry but “Should” doesn’t seem to be working this year in the NHL! Underdogs playing well so far. Hard to figure?
Bouchard is my only bright spot tonight. He’s legit NHL top 4 already, to my eye. The rest of the top 4….. not sure.
Armchair coach would sit Kassian Barrie and probably Turris next game
Yama down, Foegele up if Leon stays with Connor
What they are doing is momentum killing despite the talk they will give after
This is the same as always, not different. Despite a whack of new and better players
Have a good evening folks!
Tbh, that top line just has to produce more than 1 5on5 goal/game to justify 2 other lines without any river-pushes (assuming we want to call Ryan’s line good).