The Edmonton Oilers face the expansion Seattle Kraken tonight, in a game that has importance for both teams. A win tonight and the Oilers will be solo first place in the Pacific Division. The team has been there before, but it’s been 35 years since Edmonton won a division title, and it’s good to own top spot at regular intervals during the regular year.
For the Seattle Kraken, it’s a chance to push close to a playoff spot after a slow start to the inaugural season for the franchise. Kraken played the New York Rangers tough last night, quick turnaround and maybe they have heavy legs in the third period. Jordan Eberle and Adam Larsson return to Edmonton, the former Oilers were valuable members of the home team not long ago.
THE ATHLETIC!
- Lowetide: Will Xavier Bourgault be the best Oilers’ QMJHL pick this century?
- Lowetide: What Evan Bouchard’s move up the depth chart means for the Oilers’ defensive pairings
- Lowetide: How hot streaks, shuffles and slumps will determine the fate of the Oilers’ second line in 2021-22
- Jonathan Willis: Evan Bouchard’s evolution, in context
- Lowetide: Zach Hyman’s buzzsaw style makes him an instant Oilers fan favourite
- DNB: Comparing the Oilers’ 5-0-0 start this season to their 5-0-0 start in 2019-20
- Lowetide: Oilers prospect Philip Broberg showing his potential
- Lowetide: Should Jesse Puljujarvi drive his own line for the Oilers in 2021-22?
- New DNB: He’s a one-shot scorer’: Oilers prospect Carter Savoie thriving at DU
- Lowetide: The Oilers finally have an effective third line — so how should they deploy it?
- Jonathan Willis: Success or failure for the Oilers could depend on their Duncan Keith-Cody Ceci tandem
- DNB: Evan Bouchard subscriber Q&A
- Lowetide: First impressions of 2021-22 Oilers — is this strong start sustainable?
- 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.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN NOVEMBER
- At home to: SEA, NAS, NYR (Expected 2-1-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- On the road to: DET, BOS, BUF, STL, WPG (Expected 3-2-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- At home to: WPG, CHI (Expected 1-1-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- On the road to: DAL, ARI, VEG (Expected 2-1-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- Overall expected result: 8-5-0, 16 points in 13 games
- Actual November results: 0-0-0
- Oilers in 2021-22: 6-1-0, 12 points in seven games
I think my projection is aggressive, but after the Oilers just smashed October 6-1-0 it seems silly to predict a month barely over .500. There’s plenty of road on this schedule, so a losing streak is possible. I like the odds of this Edmonton team having 10 or more wins by Game 20 (end of November).
OILERS VERSUS (KRAKEN)
- Five on five goal differential: 48.2 (43.6)
- Overall goal differential: 59.6 (45.1)
- Overall save percentage: .925 (.885)
- Five on five shot differential: 48.1 (51.3)
Oilers are great at special teams, so get a big boost in goal differential overall, and have more elite talent so the goal differential is a hair above five on five shot differential. But those Kraken are winning the shot share and their five on five expected goals (51.3 percent) is close to Edmonton (52.3 percent).
EXPANSION TEAMS
In my life as a sports fan, no area of sport has held my interest like the draft. If you visit this site often, you know talk of the draft (this year, last year, 1971) is never far from dominating.
One day, many years ago, I was researching (no, not google, microfiche at the downtown library) the 1967 draft and came across this passage from the Montreal Gazette (June 5, 1967):
- “Players who were active in pro hockey for the first time in 66-67 are exempt from being drafted until the eastern (established) clubs have 2 goalies and 18 other players on their list. Hence the Canadiens do not have to protect rookie Rogie Vachon until they’ve lost a goalie, or players such as Bob Lemieux, Carol Vadnais, Serge Savard and Danny Grant until they are nearing completion of the 18-man roster.”
Such a small thing, really. I wonder if any of the expansion teams noticed. Sam Pollock, who won several Stanley Cups during the 1967 expansion draft by tailoring the expansion rules to the most minute detail in order to benefit the Montreal Canadiens, delivered a master stroke that flattened competition until at least 1979.
I’m going to write a book about it one day, but Pollock’s use of the words “round” and the timing of pullbacks allowed him to protect Jacques Lemaire with his final pullback after other teams had given up more talent. Shrewd? Beyond that. Diabolical? Morning to night. Genius? Probably.
BILL TORREY
The following is from Frank Selke Jr (at the time GM of the Oakland Seals) in the book BEHIND THE MOVES: “Sam Pollock offered me Carol Vadnais before the 1968 Intra-League draft. Vadnais was playing for Sam in the minor leagues. Sam said “I can leave him off the protected list on the proviso that when I want him back, whether it is next year or two years or what, I get him.”
Bill Torrey and I were together at this time and we figured ‘how can we lose?’ So we said “sure, we’ll take him, Sam.” So we got Carol and he played like gangbusters. Sam comes to us at the end of the year and says “I can use him now.” I said “well Sam, we can’t just return him. We’ve got to get something for him. He’s our best player, he’s what we’re selling in Oakland.”
Selke Jr continues: Well Sam was in our suite at the annual meetings and he’s chewing on his tie.
- “Well, what would you want?”
- “We’d need someone like Bobby Rousseau”
- “You can’t have Rousseau”
- “Well, we need somebody like this”
- “You can’t have that.”
So then I said to Sam “Well I guess that being the case you can’t have Carol.” Sam said “You made a deal!”
I said “would you like me to go to Mr. Campbell and tell him that we colluded with you to hide a player?” He (Sam) said “you wouldn’t do that” and I said “well, I’d do it before I’d lose Vadnais.”
Selke Jr concludes: He got up and walked out and that was it, but those were the kinds of things Sam did.
Lowetide note: The Intra-League draft makes players unprotected available to teams who finished with poor records. Pollock wasn’t “giving” Vadnais to them, he was “losing” Vadnais to the Seals.
LOWDOWN WITH LOWETIDE
At 10 this morning, the first in-studio addition of the Lowdown on TSN 1260 since the end of March 2020. We’ll celebrate with a strong group of guests, including Andy Eide from NHL.com to talk Kraken, Jason Gregor from TSN 1260 to talk Oilers, and another edition of Crossfire with Hernan Salas. 10-1260 text, @Lowetide on twitter. See you on the radio!!
I wonder if the Oilers celebrated Halloween a little too hard. They looked like they were trying to shake one off for most of the game. haha.
there might be something weird if you try and go back and look to old comments. I can only go back to 7:47 pm then everytime i click show more….it loads post 8 pm comments under the older ones.
Yes, I noticed this on Saturday as well.
The work around I tried was to set the “comments order” to oldest first, rather than the newest as per the default setting, but depending on number of comments you might miss the ones in the middle…
Same
I’ll look into it. Unfortunately, it’s probably a glitch with the Discuz plug-in itself which is not something I am able to fix. Hopefully it gets resolved on an update.
Similar things to the comment loading issues we had last spring have been happening.
Thought i’d check out the 7-1 vibes on twitter but instead my timeline is filled with:
Who was worse Chiarelli or Holland
Turris and Shore are unplayable
Imagine having the top two scorers over 5 years and this is the team
The owners, CEO, GM, coach all have to go
One would expect the Twitterati vibes tonight to reflect the shit-ass game and not the glossy 7-1 record, wouldn’t one?
Absolutely 💯
Dennis King
@DKingBH
·
54m
I would love to see the media’s reaction if someone other than Nurse got walked like he did by Schwartz. People who remember Horcoff’s salary being constantly mentioned will know what I’m talking about
Having the top 2 scorers who put up gaudy numbers on the PP means squat when they they play big boy hockey.
The Oilers have played ONE game against a team that made the playoffs last season and that team was missing its FOUR best players.
You seem drunk tonight.
The same team you are referencing who the Oilers beat when they were missing 4 of their top players, they beat Colorado 3-1.
LOL
You seem as dense as ever.
Colorado was missing 3 of its top players in that game too.
3<4
Where are those math skills you were bragging about?
And the Presidents Trophy winners still lost.
Yikes!
Well there you have it.
The team that has lost no one of consequence to injury is the beast team the league has ever seen.
best*
I guess Klefbom and Smith are of no consequence?
This could be a bitter Calgary Fan’s post any day of the week and twice on Saturday.
Seriously you had best take a break and desist in your trying to rile the entire blog.
Too many sharp minds in here. Eventually you will find yourself overwhelmed. Then you will have to slink away like a fool.
Try taking a step back from that ledge you appear to be standing on lol
Maybe Twitter is not such a healthy place to be.
Better to stay in a walled garden far from reality.
Vancouver Island always struck me as such a place.
Is it being healthy or bad teams?
Sloppy game but the Oilers led big early, and I think it affected the flow of the game.
Seattle played a decent game, but they just lack finishers on their team, and couldn’t take advantage. Oilers out skilled that Kraken team tonight, and I’m pretty sure they’ll out skill them for the foreseeable future.
Agreed. The Oilers haven’t trailed a lot this year… they seem better at titrating their efforts; if Kraken had tied it up in the third, I think Tip unleashes the nuclear option and the team ramps up the intensity until they score or get a PP (which is almost the same).
Nashville won’t let in any easy ones to start the game, so different script.
Yeah Las Vegas first yr they are not. I still don’t understand them taking Gio over Kylington that I plastered all over Flames interwebs after I heard here how smart Ron Francis was lol. Boy did I ever end up looking wrong and right.
Koskinen must be the most maligned NHL goalie in history with a .930+ save percentage to open the season. His cap hit is a little high but not exorbitant. I’ve said it before — plenty of famous names with fat cap hits don’t perform the way Mikko does.
He’s always been solid provided that his workload is managed effectively.
I agree with the premise, and thank you for the good vibes, but I can’t agree that his cap hit is no exorbitant – it is highly in my opinion.
You’d be wrong about that. Since his contract started Mikko is 22nd in GP and 14th in save percentage (among the top-31 goalies by GP). His contract carries the 20th highest cap hit. How do you engender that as “highly exorbitant”?
After Two:
3-2 Edmonton
20-11 Seattle (14-7 Seattle in the second)
22-19 Seattle Corsi five on five (11-9 Seattle in the second)
==
Tip asked how he thought the team played:
Thought the 2nd line was good. Thought Keith/Ceci was good. Thought Mikko was good.
End Stop.
Starting to come together. Keith-Ceci were good, both guys are smart players.
I would agree.
End Stop.
Nice to see 3 players get their 1st of the yr. Wish Nuge would have gotten one too tonight
Regulation win against a division opponent. Yam wrestles the monkey off his back. 4th line scores. Bouch had a lot of unscathed learning experiences. Poolparty still finding his physical way.
The rest of that game was a stinker. That Seattle team was gassed and they played a shite goaler. It was great to get the W but there was a lot of bad in that game.
Benson’s two shifts in the final few minutes were significantly better than his first two periods. Hopefully the game slows down for him and he can get those turn overs out of his game. He makes smart plays when he has the time to process the situation.
I would presume he would be able to play better and more consistently if there was a bit more sustained ice time. Tough to get in a real rhythm when played 7-9 min per game but he is showing signs here and there.
Agreed, he needs his reps.
I hope he gets some more at-bats to let the game slow down for him. His passing skill is undeniable. He has potential that Shore/Sceviour/Turris/Perlini don’t have. It’s early-season, against weak teams. We can afford to give him the at-bats.
Maybe even with some skill players. (Tonight aside, look at how Bouch’s development has benefited from playing with Nurse. And the Bison King’s with McDavid.)
On the Turris goal, Ebsy in familiar “also in picture” position.
I might take back my trade Eberle for Yamamoto proposal
Eberle must have thought wtf tonight when he faced his old team.
Great to see Koski focused for back-to-back outings and now four out of five solid solid games.
I will lower the blade on the guillotine. For now, lol.
Wait! Did you take his neck out from under it first?
Evan Bouchard led the team in TOI (including at 5 on 5) at just over 22 minutes. Interesting given he had a tough game.
Nurse only played 21 minutes – super low for him – either the coach’s acknowledged that he was off or the super long/draining day he must have had dealing with NHLPA stuff.
Nurse has been beat a few times on bobbled pucks in the middle of the ice that have ended up in his net. Thankfully, it looks like Tip is taking notice. Bouch isn’t ready for those kind of minutes either.
I’m not worried about those two. Long season and those things will happen. On the whole, they have been excellent.
I remarked a couple weeks ago that Nurse never gets beat laterally any more. Whoops. Jinxed him.
Zach Hyman almost ended up in the net on his assist. I love that guy.
With a single point McDavid was able to stay in a co-league leading role alongside Leon’s 4 point outing.
Oilers are now over 50% in goal share to go with the 7-1 record….. and the fourth line scored…. and Ceci is a legit solid 2LD
Just watched the three stars:
Duncan Keith looks like a cult leader.
The Branch McDavidians?
You’re good.
Oil yawn and slop their way to an ugly seventh victory.
Take the points and forget the game.
My stars: Drai, Koski and Tsetse… because he’s pretty fly for a height guy.
Koskinen did good.
yes, yes he did
Doomsday prepper Keith.
Mikko should get a star tonight
got tird
Draisaitl definitely trying to set up RNH. Both he and Puljujarvi have passed up clear shots in the slot.
Leon’s sneakily trying to take his apple juice. Alas he’s still 1 behind the apple leader that is Nuge, who may finally get 50 points with just assists by game 40.
Leon’s Apple tonight was an Ambrosia.
Nuge’s Apple was a Golden Delicious.
So far 3 players with their first of the season. Keith, Turris and Yamamoto. Need Nuge to get one.
Can’t say Drai isn’t trying to feed him…
Sheriff Kassian metes justice out to Giordano.
That was pleasing.
Is Leon the all time leading point getter against the Seattle Weaponized cap space?
I swear, I’ve heard that ad for Predators/ Flames game twice now and all I hear is, “Predators Lames.”
Bouch has looked mortal tonight
Yea not the finest outing for Bouch/Nurse.
Thankfully Keith/Ceci (in particular Ceci) have picked up the slack tonight…. oh ya, and Mikko…. and Leon.
He probably isn’t used to playing non-structured hockey. Even McDavid had bad moments lol everyone did all night long.
should see a lot of the 3rd and 4th line now.
I suppose when the team plays their B or C game, you gotta like the fact that they can pull out wins. This team will be dynamite when they put it all together along with a great effort.
Yeah, a win is a win. I’ll take it. Some great individual skill on display.
Still, they’ll need to pick up the effort. The wins won’t come this easily once they face teams outside the Pacific Garbage Patch.
Leon is one hell of a leader.
Now reserving seats back on the Yammers fan bus
Fun to see for Yamamoto. He’s been playing well. He works so hard digging pucks and drawing traffic/penalties for RNH/Drai, good to see him get rewarded.
He also takes a beating most nights. Seems players run at him all the time. Guess it doesn’t hurt as much to hit little guys.
Finally little Yamamoto.
YEAHHHH BABEEEEEEE!
Yams deep fries this game
Jesse needs to be more selfish
FINALLY!!! OFF THE SCHNIDE!!!
GREAT, GREAT to see that go in for Yamamoto!
Nice on too.
Yamamoto scores!
Yamamoto finally scores! Buy a lottery ticket!
4 points for Drai now.
Yammo Baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There’s that Yama goal!
Yamamoto causes the turnover and scores the goal – gets Drai his fourth point as well.
What is Pujo thinking lol
Jesse what were you thinking????
Smart dump, get it deep, protect the lead. /s
Oh, Jesse…. I think that was a bit of a lack of confidence after missing a couple McDavid set-ups the last few games.
Yeah he needs to one time that pass from McDavid. If he hesitates, players will start looking him off.
Wild shift for JP. He followed that up with a pass to Hyman in the slot for a five bell scoring chance.
This game is the inverse of the Philly game. Mikko should get all 3 stars tonight.
Tonight’s Game is a Modern Art masterpiece.
Pairings seem off, I think I saw Keith/Bouchard and Nurse/Ceci. I presume it was just post-special teams/line changes….
Not scoring on the last powerplay has lulled the refs into a false sense of security.
There are actually Oilers fans on twitter complaining about that last goal, because they want Shore and Turris benched.
Some of them post in this community.
Wild stuff.
I was surprised to see them on for that d-zone draw but I actually liked seeing it, I think they need more rope to show what they have. I’m way less nervous with them on the ice than with most iterations of the 4th line over the past 15 years or so, acknowledging Shore does make me a bit nervous as centre.
Ah yes, back when the 4th line shifts ended in one of two ways; fishing the puckout of the Oiler’s net or Stortini losing a fight.
Doesn’t surprise me. Part of the fanbase thinks Ken Holland is worse than Peter Chiarelli…