Well, no one got hurt, so that’s a positive. The Oilers continued the sleep walk that has plagued the team in recent games, and the Los Angeles Kings had beaten and frustrated the home team before Connor McDavid took a major and left the game. Dave Tippett’s post-game avail was frank, honest and complete in describing a team that has played well at times during this injury-riddled period of weeks, but is running out of steam and losing form.
What’s next? Well, I had the homestand at 3-3-0 and that included a projected win last night. The Oilers appear headed for the first real downbeat of the 2021-22 season. This despite the fact the club has 32 points in 23 games, trails only the Calgary Flames, and that by three points with two games in hand. Edmonton is in a great spot this morning, where will the team be one week from now?
NEW for @TheAthleticNHL From developing defencemen to signing college men, coaching turnover and management ascension, the Oilers may find inspiration from 1993-94 Detroit Red Wings. https://t.co/fz0EEKFu7O
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WHAT TO EXPECT IN DECEMBER
At home to: PIT (Expected 0-1-0) (Actual 1-0-0)
On the road to: SEA (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 0-1-0)
At home to: LAK, MIN, BOS, CAR, TOR, CBJ (Expected 3-3-0) (Actual 0-1-0)
On the road to: SEA (Expected 0-1-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
At home to: ANA (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
On the road to: LAK, SJS, CAL, STL, NJD (Expected 3-2-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
Overall expected result: 8-7-0, 16 points in 15 games
Actual December results: 1-2-0, 2 points in 3 games
Oilers in 2021-22: 16-7-0, 32 points in 23 games
I thought Zach Hyman played well, Markus Niemelainen is moving up the depth chart and McDavid, Foegele and Yamamoto had great looks but couldn’t cash. I don’t think this game needs analysis really, it’s a continuation of the flawed group we’ve seen at times since the Rangers game and that was some time ago.
The best line to my eye was Benson-McLeod-Kassian and the worst one was the Derek Ryan line. Man, I feel bad for Ryan, he’s having a ghastly season and it could mean the end of his NHL career. I don’t know if Tippett can play him again. He’s 3-16 at five-on-five goals and they go in from the moon as soon as he steps on the ice. If I was his corner man, I’d throw in the towel. This is unfair, and certainly not all his fault, but it’s his resume until further notice. The complete game summary via Natural Stat Trick has the disturbing news.
One thing we can’t answer is this: WHY does this keep happening with third- and fourth-line centers? Is it because they don’t play enough, is it because the ice time is tailored to 97 and 29? I don’t know. However, in the two seasons previous to this one, Ryan was 49-36, plus-13 at five-on-five. My answer has been erosion, but he’s one season removed from 18-12 goals five-on-five. It could be Ryan, but I think the role asked of these men going back to Mark Letestu is just too much. Too much sitting followed by too much ask. Has to be. Can’t prove it.
ALLAN WALSH TWEET
Mr. Walsh is an agent who cares about his players, but I’m not sure calling out Dave Tippett on a night when he’s already miserable is going to help William Lagesson. Back in my days of outside sales, we’d call that a career limiting move. Lagesson is under pressure without the publicity, Niemelainen is eating his lunch.
OILERS AT THE TRADE DEADLINE
I’ve done this in fits and starts but like to have one-stop references marbled through the blog for future use. It is not complete, I gathered the information over several years and omitted some because of uncertainty over what constitutes the deadline window, but will update as time goes on. This has been a bother.
1980—GLEN SATHER
March 11, 1980—Oilers traded L Cam Connor and a second-round pick (Peter Sundstrom) to the NY Rangers for R Don Murdoch. Sather was always trying to find difference makers, and Murdoch had an amazing early career. It didn’t work out, but was worth the risk.
March 11, 1980—Oilers traded C Ron Chipperfield to Quebec Nordiques for G Ron Low. One of the most famous trades in team history, Chipperfield was wildly popular and was experiencing a devastating family situation. A painful, if necessary, trade. Low was fabulous after arrival.
March 11, 1980—Oilers traded G Jim Corsi to the Minnesota North Stars for future considerations. Probably cash, but it might have been a bus for the minor league team—you never know.
1981—GLEN SATHER
March 10, 1981—Oilers traded D Pat Price to the Pittsburgh Penguins for C-R Pat Hughes. This was an interesting trade at the time and turned into an impactful one. Hughes was a big part of the first Stanley Cup team, probably more important than history suggests just by looking at the numbers.
March 10, 1981—Oilers traded R Blair MacDonald and the rights to Lars-Gunner Petersson to the Vancouver Canucks for C Ken Berry and D Gary Lariviere. Well, Blair MacDonald was building a house while scoring a bunch and wanted a raise, and Slats didn’t think scoring on 99’s line was all that difficult. I always like Lariviere, he was not an Oiler for long but played well in his one full season.
March 10, 1981—Oilers traded seventh-round pick (Craig Hurley) to Los Angeles Kings for C Garry Unger. It is important to remember that Unger was one of the NHL’s biggest stars of the 1970s. Sather had been after him since Edmonton entered the NHL, finally getting the center for not much at all. He didn’t hang around long enough for the Stanleys, but he was a favorite of mine and I enjoyed watching him play for the town team.
1982—GLEN SATHER
March 8, 1982—Oilers trade C Walt Poddubny and R Phil Drouillard to the Toronto Maple Leafs for C Laurie Boschman. This trade didn’t work out, but Boschman was a big name. Toronto took him early in the 1979 draft and he never did work out, but his value was still high in 1982. He played in three playoff games that spring for the Oilers, and was in Winnipeg by the 1983 postseason.
March 9, 1982—Oilers trade C Stan Weir to Colorado Avalanche for L Ed Cooper. Weir was struggling for the second year in a row, and for Sather that meant a trade. Cooper, from Loon Lake, never made it as an NHL player.
March 9, 1982—Oilers trade D Doug Hicks to the Washington Capitals for C Todd Bidner. The Oilers badly needed Hicks in the early days, but 1982 deadline were ready to send him along. Bidner did not spend much more time in pro hockey.
1983—GLEN SATHER
March 7, 1983—Oilers trade C Laurie Boschman to Winnipeg Jets for R Willy Lindstrom. One of my favorite players when he was a Jet, thrilled to see him succeed as an Oiler. He played on the first two Stanley teams, and scored 10 postseason goals in those years.
1984—GLEN SATHER
March 6, 1984—Oilers traded D John Blum to the Boston Bruins for D Larry Melnyk. This is a typical deadline deal, Oilers acquired a player who could help now for a player who had a little higher upside. He played six playoff games for the 1984 team, and was used sparingly on the 1985 winner.
March 6, 1984—Oilers traded a 1985 fourth-round pick (Larry Shaw) for the rights to Finnish forward Risto Jalo. This trade did not work out, but is the reason I always liked Sather as a GM. If this trade had worked (Jalo retired in 1998), Edmonton would have been far richer than the risk.
1985—GLEN SATHER
Oilers were inactive at the deadline (March 12, 1985), but did pick up Mark Napier in January from the Minnesota North Stars. He was a terrific Oiler.
1986—GLEN SATHER
Oilers were inactive at the deadline (March 11, 1986).
1987—GLEN SATHER
March 2, 1987—Oilers traded second-round pick (Link Gaetz) to the Minnesota North Stars for C Kent Nilsson. This was a fantastic pickup, Nilsson had a major impact on the team upon arrival. A ridiculous talent, he finally got with the right team. Magic man.
March 6, 1987—Oilers trade D Lee Fogolin, Mark Napier and fourth-round pick (John Bradley) to the Buffalo Sabres for Normand Lacombe, a fourth-round pick (Peter Eriksson) and the rights to Wayne Van Dorp. Two of my favorites heading out, Lacombe a young prospect who the Oilers felt could provide them with that patented two-way grittiness that made up Slats best teams. Lacombe delivered, but was not here a long time.
March 10, 1987—Oilers trade L Raimo Summanen to the Vancouver Canucks for L Moe Lemay. This was acknowledgement that Summanen—once highly touted—was not going to have a big NHL career. I always liked him. Lemay was fun to watch.
1988—GLEN SATHER
March 8, 1988—Oilers trade G Andy Moog and L Moe Lemay to the Boston Bruins for G Bill Ranford, L Geoff Courtnall, F Alan May and a second-round selection (Petro Koivunen). This might be the best deadline trade in Oilers history, suspect it would get my vote almost 30 years later. Courtnall played 19 games on the 1988 winner, Ranford won the 1990 Conn Smythe and emerged as the Oilers starter for the first half of the 1990s.
1989—GLEN SATHER
March 7, 1989—Oilers trade LW Greg Adams (the lesser) and C Doug Smith to the Vancouver Canucks for L John Leblanc and 1989 fifth-round pick (C Peter White). Lots of deadline deals are names without much of a future, this one didn’t move the needle.
March 7, 1989—Oilers trade D Jim Wiemer and L Alan May to the Los Angeles Kings for D John English and C Brian Wilks. Sather had flare most deadlines, not so much this time.
1990—GLEN SATHER
March 6, 1990—Oilers trade D Cam Brauer to the Hartford Whalers for D Marc Laforge. A small deal, Laforge played five NHL games with the Oilers and was a productive enforcer in the AHL for several years.
March 6, 1990—Oilers trade C Brian Wilks to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Probably cash.
March 6, 1990—Oilers trade D Jeff Sharples to the New Jersey Devils for D Reijo Ruotsalainen. One of my favorite Oilers, Ruotsalainen is a walking advertisement for why trade deadlines are a great idea. I bet he can still skate like the wind.
1991—GLEN SATHER
March 5, 1991—Oilers trade R Kim Issel to the Pittsburgh Penguins for L Brad Aitken. The takeaway here is the continuation of a disturbing trend—failed first-round selections. It would eventually ground a very proud franchise.
1992—GLEN SATHER
March 10, 1992—Oilers trade L Martin Rucinsky to the Quebec Nordiques for G Ron Tugnutt and L Brad Zavisha. This is the beginning of the difficult time, where Edmonton bled talent trying to shore up leaks and good players were just passing through. Rucinsky was a helluva draft pick, gone for 29 games of Ron Tugnutt. Why? Edmonton lost Tugnutt to the Anaheim Ducks in the expansion draft.
1993—GLEN SATHER
March 17—Oilers traded L Esa Tikkanen to the New York Rangers for C Doug Weight. Tikkanen was one of my favorites—still is—and my initial reaction to this deal was heartbreak. The Boys on the Bus expired in either September or October 1991, two massive and devastating trades put it all to rest. By the time they got to dealing Tikkanen, it was more museum than arena, but legends walked among us. The Tikkanen trade was the death rattle. This was a brilliant trade by Sather, maybe the best deadline deal he ever made.
March 22—Oilers traded D Craig Muni to the Chicago Blackhawks for C Mike Hudson. Another trade that didn’t work worth a tinker’s damn. Edmonton kept Hudson for only five games, and he was in Manhattan the next fall, and would play 150 more NHL games. Muni kept on ticking, finally retiring in 1997.
1994—GLEN SATHER
March 14—Oilers traded D Dave Manson and 1994 sixth-round pick (D Chris Kibermanis) to Winnipeg Jets for D Boris Mironov, C Mats Lindgren, 1994 first-round pick (C Jason Bonsingore) and 1994 fourth-round pick (R Adam Copeland). A fantastic trade, BoBo is one of my favorite post-Stanley Oilers and Lindgren was a decent center. The first-round botch hurt like hell, but the general manager was on fire with this trade.
March 21—Oilers trade C Craig MacTavish to the New York Rangers for C Todd Marchant. Another terrific trade for a building team, MacTavish did a fine job for the NYR, helping them win a Stanley. Marchant was an outstanding support center for nine years, a little more than that towards the end. He was a quality player for a long time in our town.
March 21—Oilers traded D Brad Werenka to the Quebec Nordiques for G Steve Passmore. At the time, Werenka was a fringe player for Edmonton, in between the AHL and NHL over a couple of seasons. A former second rounder, my recollection is that we thought he would be a player. Passmore was a goalie the Oilers liked a lot, he was part of a fairly successful Kamloops Blazers team at the time. He never made it as an NHL starter, but at the time it seemed like a solid deal.
1995—GLEN SATHER
April 7—Oilers trade L Scott Pearson to the Quebec Nordiques for D Ken Sutton. Pearson was a rugged winger who was shy on offense, although he did score 20 goals in 100 Oilers games. Sutton was a good NHL defender, one of many who passed through town quickly during the decade.
April 7—Oilers trade F Roman Oksiuta to the Vancouver Canucks D Jiri Slegr. Oksiuta was a huge forward with a good scoring touch, Edmonton had him in the minors for a couple of seasons and then brought him to the NHL—where he scored well. Vancouver liked him enough to trade Slegr for him, and Slegr played pretty well for Edmonton before going back to Europe for a time. Oilers won this trade, because they eventually received a third-round pick for Slegr’s rights.
1996—GLEN SATHER
March 20—Oilers trade F Kirk Maltby to the Detroit Red Wings for D Dan McGillis. Maltby played for one of the most famous teams of the modern era as a quality checker and role player. McGillis was no slouch, providing Edmonton with a couple of solid seasons on the blue before being sent away for another impressive player.
1997—GLEN SATHER
March 18—Oilers traded F Miro Satan to the Buffalo Sabres for D Craig Millar and L Barrie Moore. Well, it didn’t work out too well. Among the all-time trade blunders in Oilers history, Satan ended his career with 363 NHL goals. His numbers before the trade were all stunning.
March 18—Oilers trade D Jeff Norton to Tampa Bay Lightning for D Drew Bannister and sixth-round pick (used on Peter Sarno). Banniser was a fringe NHL defender and Sarno didn’t develop as an NHL player, while Norton hung around the league for a few good seasons.
1998—GLEN SATHER
March 24—Oilers trade D Dan McGillis and a 1998 second-round pick (Jason Beckett) to Philadelphia Flyers for D Janne Niinimaa. One of my favorite trades because it fetched one of my favorite players. McGillis had some good years, but Niinimaa was terrific in five Oilers seasons.
1999—GLEN SATHER
March 20—Oilers trade D Bo Mironov, L Dean McAmmond, D Jonas Elofsson and a 1999 second-round pick (RW Dmitri Levinsky) to the Chicago Blackhawks for F Daniel Cleary, C Chad Kilger, L Ethan Moreau, D Christian Laflamme and a second-round pick in the 1999 draft (D Alexei Semenov). A massive trade to kickoff the busiest deadline of Sather’s time with Edmonton. Mironov was a wonderful player, McAmmond was a bullet on skates and I liked both of them. The return was mostly Moreau in the early years, but Cleary contributed later on. I think Chicago did well.
March 20—Oilers trade C Mats Lindgren and an eighth-round pick (Radek Martinek) to the New York Islanders for G Tommy Salo. Any trade that brings you a starting goalie for several years is probably a good one, although Lindgren was a good checking forward.
March 23—Oilers trade RW Kevin Brown to the New York Rangers for F Vladimir Vorobiev. A classic trade of a guy one team already decided wasn’t part of their future to another team for a guy who that club had decided wasn’t for them.
March 23—Oilers trade fourth-round pick in the 1999 draft (Jonathan Zion) and round 2 pick in the 2000 draft (Kris Vernasky) to the Toronto Maple Leafs for D Jason Smith. A great trade for the Oilers, picking up their future captain and the heart and soul of the team’s defense for the next several years.
2000—GLEN SATHER
March 9—Oilers trade D Christian Laflamme and D Matthieu Descoteaux to the Montreal Canadiens for D Igor Ulanov and D Alain Nasreddine. A noteworthy trade for several reasons, including the inspiration for one of the truly iconic Oilers blogs back in the day. Ulanov was a personal favourite, he was all borscht and broken bones 24-7.
March 14—Oilers trade F Josef Beranek to the Pittsburgh Penguins for F German Titov. I liked both players but Titov didn’t get much done in Edmonton.
2001—KEVIN LOWE
March 13 Oilers trade LW Dan Lacouture to the Pittsburgh Penguins for D Sven Butenschon. I liked Lacouture, he scored a fantastic goal against (I think) the Bruins that was memorable but not much else. Butenschon wasn’t especially memorable.
2002—KEVIN LOWE
March 19 Oilers trade D Tom Poti and F Rem Murray to the New York Rangers for F Mike York and a 2002 fourth-round pick (Ivan Koltsov). Poti was the target of boos at the Coliseum and had some chaos, so he was packaged with Murray (an effective depth forward) for skill C-W York. It was a good deal because Edmonton was getting a talented forward, but New York did well getting the young Poti.
March 19 Oilers trade D Sean Brown to the Boston Bruins for D Bobby Allen. I liked Brown, he was a tough as nails defender who gave no quarter. It was a trade of depth blue but for me Brown brought more.
2003—KEVIN LOWE
March 11 Oilers trade RW Anson Carter and D Ales Pisa to the New York Rangers for RW Radek Dvorak and Cory Cross. Dvorak was a wonderful Oiler, fantastic two-way winger with surprising skills. One of my favourite Oilers. Carter was too, but Dvorak was a MacT type and a perfect fit.
March 11 Oilers trade D Janne Niinimaa and a 2003 second-round pick (Evgeny Tunik) to the New York Islanders for LW Raffi Torres and LW Brad Isbister. I loved Niinimaa, but Torres was a high pick with great skills and could be deployed up and down the depth chart. He was kind of a lethal Tikkanen.
2004—KEVIN LOWE
March 8 Oilers trade G Tommy Salo and a 2005 sixth round pick (Justin Mercier) to the Colorado Avalanche for D Tom Gilbert. A great trade for Edmonton, one of Lowe’s best. Gilbert was an excellent defenseman for Edmonton.
2006—KEVIN LOWE
March 8 Oilers trade 2006 first-round pick (Trevor Lewis) and a 2007 third-round pick (Spencer Machachek) to the Minnesota Wild for G Dwayne Roloson. I’m against trading first-round picks but Roloson’s acquisition was part of a fantastic run so this is an exception. What a dream spring.
March 9 Oilers trade C Marty Reasoner, F Yan Stastny and a 2006 second-round pick (Milan Lucic) to the Boston Bruins for LW Sergei Samsonov. I loved this trade, Samsanov was a favourite and he was money for the Oilers down the stretch. Boston made out like bandits.
2007—KEVIN LOWE
February 27 Oilers trade LW Ryan Smyth to the New York Islanders for R Robert Nilsson, C Ryan O’Marra and a 2007 first-round pick (Alex Plante). Signing Smyth was the right play, but the return for a rental was better than Lowe gets credit for in my opinion. That was a mid-first, the club choose poorly. The actual return was solid.
2009—STEVE TAMBELLINI
March 4 Oilers trade L Erik Cole and a 2009 fifth-round pick (Matt Kennedy) to the Carolina Hurricanes for L Patrick O’Sullivan and a 2009 second-round pick (Jesse Blacker). A big steal by Carolina, although O’Sullivan had little chance in Edmonton (the team had five undersized skill forwards before he got to Edmonton, and he had to join the checking line).
March 4 Oilers trade 2009 second-round pick (Jesse Blacker) tothe Buffalo Sabres for F Ales Kotalik. He played well for Edmonton but didn’t warrant a second-round pick.
2010—STEVE TAMBELLINI
March 3 Oilers trade D Lubomir Visnovsky to the Anaheim Ducks for D Ryan Whitney and a 2010 sixth-round selection (Brandon Davidson). Lubo being dealt was painful, but Pat Quinn wasn’t using him properly anyway. Whitney had sublime passing skills and was a big defender with grit, but various injuries derailed his career.
March 3 Oilers trade D Steve Staios to the Calgary Flames for D Aaron Johnson and a 2011 third-round selection (Travis Ewanyk). Staios was a solid player for Edmonton and it was tough to see him go. Ewanyk was highly touted as a checker but was unable to deliver enough offense.
2011—STEVE TAMBELLINI
February 28, 2011 Oilers trade LW Dustin Penner to the Los Angeles Kings for D Colten Teubert, a first-round pick in 2011 (Oscar Klefbom) and a third-round pick in 2012 (Daniil Zharkov). I said at the time it was a good deal but that the Oilers shouldn’t be selling. The return was substantial based on what was surrendered.
2012—STEVE TAMBELLINI
February 27 Oilers traded D Tom Gilbert to the Minnesota Wild for D Nick Schultz. This was a difficult time in Oilers history, as one realized the team was trading one player type for a completely different player type but that it didn’t make one bit of difference.
2013—STEVE TAMBELLINI
April 3 Oilers trade 2013 fourth-round pick (Matt Buckles) to the Florida Panthers for C Jarred Smithson. The Oil Change deadline 2013 exchange explained this better than anyone else could, please watch that episode.
2014—CRAIG MACTAVISH
March 5 Oilers trade RW Ales Hemsky to the Ottawa Senators for a fifth-round pick in the 2014 draft (Liam Reddox) and a third-round pick in the 2015 draft (Sergey Zborovskiy). Painful trade to make, the return reduced due to a string of injuries to an impact player.
2015—CRAIG MACTAVISH
March 2 Oilers trade D Jeff Petry to the Montreal Canadiens for a second-round pick in the 2015 draft (Jonas Siegenthaler) and a fourth-round pick in the 2015 drft (Caleb Jones).
2016—PETER CHIARELLI
February 27: Traded Justin Schultz to the Pittsburgh Penguins for No. 91 overall pick in 2016 draft (Filip Berglund). I was in favor of this trade and was pleased with the return. Schultz has thrived in his new surroundings and the Oilers received a solid prospect. Both teams a winner.
February 27: Traded Edward Purcell to the Florida Panthers for No. 84 overall pick (Matt Cairns). Another good deadline deal for a team still building.
February 29: Traded Martin Gernat and No. 93 (Jack Kopacka) in the 2016 draft to the Anaheim Ducks for Patrick Maroon. A monster win, the kind of trade that can alter careers (and has in the case of Patrick Maroon).
2017—PETER CHIARELLI
February 28 Oilers traded Brandon Davidson to the Montreal Canadiens for C David Desharnais. This is the kind of trade general managers should be making at the deadline. Desharnais scored one of the biggest goals in recent team history.
2018—PETER CHIARELLI
February 25 Oilers traded C Mark Letestu to the Nashville Predators for F Pontus Aberg. This was a reasonable trade at the time, Edmonton didn’t have much cap room and was looking for skill wingers. It didn’t work out but was worth the try under the circumstances.
February 26 Oilers traded LW Patrick Maroon to the New Jersey Devils for F JD Dudek and a 2019 third-round selection. The return was a little shy for such a quality rental, but Chiarelli wanted the pick so he could acquire college man Cooper Marody from the Philadelphia Flyers. Same deal as Aberg, inexpensive skill forward with a chance. Maroon was Chiarelli’s best trade acquisition.
2020—KEN HOLLAND
February 24 Oilers traded a 2021 fifth-round pick (Gage Alexander) to the Ottawa Senators for W Tyler Ennis. This was a productive trade by Holland, Ennis would score a playoff goal and then sign for another season.
February 24 Oilers traded C Kyle Brodziak and a 2020 fourth-round pick (Jan Bednar) to the Detroit Red Wings for defenseman Mike Green. Green was injured right away and didn’t play again, choosing to retire before the playoffs in 2020.
February 24 Oilers traded F Sam Gagner and a 2020 second-round (Brock Faber) plus a 2021 second-round selection (Aatu Raty) to the Detroit Red Wings for LW Andreas Athanasiou. The skill winger got hurt, and that’s bad luck. But the Oilers also didn’t qualify him because the cap was heading downward due to the pandemic and money was going to be tight. An expensive 13-game rental, as it turned out.
LOWDOWN WITH LOWETIDE
A busy morning on the Lowdown, begins at 10 on TSN1260. We’ll have rage over the Oilers, Israel Fehr from TheAthletic will give us the latest on the massive news from the Vancouver Canucks last night, and Jason Gregor will pop in at 11 to discuss the McDavid hit, the lost weekend against the Kraken and Kings, and the tough schedule ahead. See you on the radio!
Liam Reddox the return for Ales Hemsky? Is that a typo or an easter egg? 🙂
SwedishPoster
December 6, 2021 11:22 pm
The transition game and the overall passing game has gone to utter crap the last couple of weeks. The combo of Russell-Barrie and the younglings was bound to lead to the D playing with a larger margin of error and more glass and out stuff but the bad passing goes beyond that. It’s both sloppy and overly simplistic. Players aren’t buying themselves time, either with skill, poise or flat out battling for space, to make a good pass which puts the recieving player in a bad spot which makes the whole team game scrambly and slow. Which in turn makes it difficult to find room offensively.
Broberg has had two so-so games in a row, he’s to hesitant ever since Ceci went down, he’s at his best when he plays a very active style, he’s very efficient when he disrupts plays early, aggressively tightens gaps and defends the blue lines hard. The last couple of games he’s been more conservative and he tends to lose his timing when that happens. He’s also gotten away from the quick puckmoving he showed off in his first couple of games.
Outside of the last two I’d say he’s played pretty well, showing his strengths, skating obviously, his very underrated passing, his gap control, the ability to disrupt plays before the even happen with a quick stickcheck, the still raw but budding offensive upside.
We’ve also seen the parts that needs work, he has a tendency to be too passive around his own net, he needs to box players out more aggressively, tie up sticks more consistently, he’s gotten better compared to two seasons ago but he still has lapses that needs to be ironed out, board work is also improving but he’s still way to friendly in battles, offensively his shot needs work, he gets his wristers through but they need more oomph, if he could add a quick quarter/half slapper I think he’d be a much more dangerous player from the blue line, hopefully Bouchard can teach him a thing or two in that area.
The main thing he’s improved since last season is that his game looks cleaner, he seems more grown into his body, more confident in his movements, I wouldn’t be surprised if his in-season trajectory looks skywards post-christmas.
I maintain that the right play is to send him down once players start returning. As I mentioned he’s at his best when playing an aggressive pro-active style defensively and he’s also a much better player when he plays with some risk with the puck on his stick. I think the risk with him playing in the NHL where he can probably tread water at this point but not really dominate is that he falls back to more conservative, less risky style to avoid getting burnt, as I’d argue happened these last two games.
I understand Lagesson being somewhat frustrated, he got pressboxed after imo two solid games where there were other D who played worse, it’s a reasonable mindset for a pro athlete, but doubt Walsh swinging his twitter sword does William any favours. I assume both agent and player are seeing him quickly turning into an Oiler orphan. Lagesson needed this stretch of games to buy himself some NHL rope, to show that he can be a defensively solid 6/7/8 D somewhere, put himself on the map. If I were to guess that’s where the frustration stems from.
Niemeläinen has certainly put himself on the map, wonderful player type, three games in and he’s already having forwards backing off when he comes trucking. Quickly building a nice little highlight reel. Once the honeymoon phase is over I think his limited puckmoving and lack of offensive game might get a bit frustrating so a little more AHL tweaking is likely beneficial but he’s showing he’s a real NHL option going forward and an ingredient this team is lacking at that.
And if you’re going to have a D-man who’s not all that strong moving the puck forward on your third pairing it’s definitely nice if he hits like Neemo.
In the same way that Hass and Khaira and Sheeahan were worth a try, right?
I actually don’t disagree, even though his on-ice results haven’t been great.
At the same time, that would clearly be a band-aid for a game or two and simply more of the same.
childishzamboni
December 6, 2021 10:02 pm
Our author is starting to mention some things that have been rattling around in my tiny sports mind for while so I am compelled to comment. Rather than attempting to write a bad dissertation, I’m going to keep myself simple and stupid, it suits me fine:
We have a consistent 1 C
We have a consistent 3 LW
We have a consistent 1 LD
We have a consistent 2 LD
We have a consistent 2 RD
I think we have A LOT of really good players.
I’m a behaviour analyst so I often look for strong patterns, structure and consistency. I’ve had a hard time seeing much of it with the Edmonton Oilers for an extended period of time. On the other hand, I’m not going to assume this approach translates well to creating a good hockey team.
You folks bring up stuff that I wouldn’t even dream of.
On a lighter note, the guy who got banned for using the “C” word… that was funny. Both comments on that thread were hilarious. Anyway, I have made the same mistake myself and paid dearly for it, much worse than a one month exclusion. NEVER say the the “C” word. LOL
The C word always sounds worse without the Australian accent…someone had to stick up for Gino Principe.
Scungilli Slushy
December 6, 2021 8:48 pm
Honestly the best thing Tip could do at this point is say what will be rewarded – period – is sticking to the game plan and shift length asked.
You cheat you pick slivers.
Leo and Connor pick a few and the team will get the message. Nothing like Torts level, but you get it.
It will teach all of them. Discipline instead of desperation.
Leo and Connor are not above this critique as I see it. Despite their greatness and their streaks, the team overall is playing poorly and their stats are indicating they aren’t on an island of excellence there.
But that means you take some pain now instead of in the playoffs when it is too late.
Some sort of attention getting wake up call needs to happen. Tip doesn’t seem to have the words in between games to convince them.
It’s not the 2 losses, this is an ongoing issue healthy or not. And the rookies haven’t been that much worse than others. Really only one D down last game.
The leaders need to lead and can’t play their own game and others have to cow down. All top players get some leeway, but if that leeway is playing a style that is basically the oppososite of what works long term that isn’t helpful overall.
leadfarmer
December 6, 2021 8:04 pm
This continues to be a very flawed roster that has two future Hall of Famers that patch up those holes fairly well.
there was a lot of people who hated our d corp when season started and that d corp is decimated currently
Tippett gets a lot of flak lately but when you ask for players that can play but instead you continue to get players like Kahun, Turris, Ryan shore well that’s hard to make due.
don’t see anyone in the pipeline that can help out this season or next outside of McLeod either.
Im sure Holland is gonna bring in some washed up vets to help out
"Steve Smith"
December 6, 2021 7:53 pm
Butenschon wasn’t especially memorable.
Bite your tongue! I was in the building for his first-ever NHL goal (of two). Highlight of my career as an Oilers fan.
I thought that Chris Hajt pass to Doug Wajt was your highlight? Pshaw.
"Steve Smith"
December 6, 2021 7:47 pm
Holy crap, what am I forgetting about Dave Manson? I remember him as a fine defenceman, tough as nails, a little (a lot?) dirty, with a rocket of a shot–even as a tolerable return for a trade of the greatest Oilers’ defenceman of all-time–but getting a fourth overall pick (if we ignore that that pick was Jason Bonsignore) straight-up for him seems like it was highway robbery, even before you throw in BoBo and Lindgren. This was a trade deadline deal for a first-round pick in the next entry draft, so surely it was pretty clear at the time of the trade that it was going to be a high one?
A noteworthy trade for several reasons, including the inspiration for one of the truly iconic Oilers blogs back in the day.
I’ll tell The Prez you said so; she’ll be pleased.
(Yeah, there’s some Oilogosphere trivia for you–“Steve Smith” and the President of the Unofficial Igor Ulanov Fan Club are siblings. A lot of weirdness around that dinner table growing up.)
I’m assuming you were the one not making things better?
mirnovsvodka
December 6, 2021 6:53 pm
Being an Oilers Coach is a tough gig. Its funny how things get remembered. Oilers have turned into a consistent playoff team under Tippett. Consistently compete for division titles under Tippett. Hell in recent weeks the Old Dinosaur was breaking in 6 rookies at once while sporting a 4-2 record with 5 of his 6 vet defensemen (and all of the big offseason D signings save for Barrie) being out.
Still sitting 3rd in the West with a couple games in hand but the knives are out.
Tough crowd, tough crowd.
Need to step back and think of the long game.
Pieces are in place for a good run now. Half the roster got turned over in the off-season and it takes a while to gel. Just need to work the kinks out. Vets are coming back. Core players are hitting the groove age. The chaos will recede and the established forwards will start receiving tape to tape passes again.
All that said hell of an audition by the young Dmen so far. The future is bright.
Decided not to bother after turning on the game to be greeted 3 minutes in with another 0-1 score. Goalies maybe?
Then hear about McDavids Major for boarding and after having watched it checked out Mark Messier plastering some poor unsuspecting Soviet Player with a leaping elbow to the head that practically killed him.
Then hear that the LAK were decent enough not to celebrate their 2nd and 3rd goals from that McDavid powerplay. Yikes. Good on them.
If I am McDavid I never complain to the refs ever again.
It does no good.
Take it or leave it, but the refs want the players to police their own games.
Scungilli Slushy
December 6, 2021 5:43 pm
Holland has had success with older players
However, something has changed since those days
For skaters, at one time being smarter than the other players gave you an edge, could succeed
That day is gone. We have seen the same root issue. The gambles on skaters when Holland was capped we get, but they didn’t have NHL skill sets
The NHL experienced guys lost their boots – Turris Ryan
Any new hires have to be able to skate well or it’s the same old. So no Nash. Or anyone like that. The game is different and experience doesn’t mean what it once did, if you can’t use it
Is the game really getting that much younger? Or was it more the fact that 2015 was such a big draft it made it seem that way? Just curious if any one has actually proved its getting younger or is it more just the narrative. And yes I agree on the faster more skilled part.
Dobber has him surrounded I think but his skill would be an upgrade on some.
OriginalPouzar
December 6, 2021 5:02 pm
Finally a chance to listen to Tip today.
Shore is getting close to coming back. For me, I know his possession numbers and goal share and expected goals are all poor but I do think he can help a bit in the bottom six – I think those numbers undervalue him a bit but that’s just to my eye and I could be wrong.
Sounds like, assuming he passes a test, Ceci will be ready to skate on Wed – with 10 days off they probably want to give him a practice or two. It will be great to have him back.
Neither Smith nor Keith skated today but are scheduled to tomorrow. Sounds like Smith is closer than Keith as Smith is available to at least partially participate in practice as opposed to just skating on his own.
I don’t believe that these referenced possession numbers are the be all and end all. We know they don’t tell the entire story, require context and are highly driven by various factors.
If they were anywhere close to definitive, then Lagesson should be playing in our top 4 nightly at this point.
Harpers Hair
December 6, 2021 4:44 pm
Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) Tweeted:
#Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini says the team could potentially be looking for both a President of Hockey Ops and GM – or someone who is a “combination.”
Captain Jared Spurgeon (lower) practiced today. He won’t play in his hometown of Edmonton tomorrow (he got a hat trick last time he was there) but is expected to return on the trip.
Harpers Hair
December 6, 2021 4:35 pm
Pionk gets 2 games for the knee on Sandin.
jtblack
December 6, 2021 4:05 pm
Hockey Reference has Kris Russell (this season) at ….
I’ll take Foggy all day, even with less hands. A big fast forechecker that has a motor will be good later, especially if Tips can get things under control.
Foggy called it after last game, you can’t just try to score off the rush, you have to be able to score ‘down low’. That can’t be stopped with goonery and uncalled obstruction. Also keeps the puck 200 ft the right way.
Foegele all day, I’d slap him with McDavid and Hyman but that will leave either Jesse or Yams with absolutely no one to create with on the 3rd which is currently Foegele situation.
Kassian + something pretty for Eakin
Yams, Barrie, Samu, some draft pick for Giroux and Yandle.
Hyman/McDavid/Pulj
Nuge/Drai/Giroux
Foegele/Eakin/Scevs.. Maybe Holloway sometime in March.
Hell run
Benson/McDavid/Hyman and drop Jesse to run the 3rd line with Foegele/Eakins. They’d make some good noise down there.
I like McLeod but he’s no 3C, at least the version of a 3C that this team needs. He still receiving under 50% defensive zone starts, he’s not near crafty or battle ready enough to contend with the competition he’d see with a +60% defensive zone start that the Oilers would need to feed him to.
Ryan should never see the ice again imo, Turris if injuries have decimated things.
A Shore/Mcleod/Scevoir 4th would be a solid 8 mins of dependable hockey.
McLeod may not be a 3C, but he’s growing into the role. If you don’t move him up, and you banish Ryan, who’s on the roster to play that role other than Nuge?
Well you have to play him at 3C, which is why I’m banging the drum for Eakin. He’s playing that role in Buffalo the exact way the Oilers need the 3C to perform here.
I think if McLeod goes from at 47% Def zone start to a 65% at the current moment.. It’ll get ugly and his growth momentum will suffer.
Eakin is a minus player for all but one year playing with Vegas where he was a plus nineteen. Career wise he is a minus player. At thirty years of age his best years are in the rear view mirror at 2.25 his cap hit is acceptable. He is not ideal given that McLeod needs the at bats! Possible short term gain but questionable.
Someone below asked where the Klopp and Conte’s of the hockey world were?
This brings up a good point. Soccer is by far that most innovative and dynamic sport in terms of diversity of styles. Some of this is inherent to the sport, 11 players and a big field, but a lot of it stems from having a significant number of leagues at the highest level within which to experiment.
This also drives innovation in football and basketball. None of the major innovations in football happened first in the NFL, they happen in college, in high school, and in Canada. Everything happens last in the NFL.
Same thing in basketball, the NBA adopted the 3 point offense last, the coaching innovations all come from lower leagues.
This doesn’t happen in hockey in the same way. It does happen, the Soviets transformed the sport, but it happens a lot slower.
Feem
December 6, 2021 1:35 pm
Riley Nash on waivers. One year at $750K. Bigger right shot centre, with worse faceoff numbers, but might stop the Ryan bleeding?
The 2007 1st round draft pick has no interest in dawning Oilers colors, look elsewhere. He won’t be excited to join the team even if he tries to act like he is.
The biggest building block of the bottom six is a loser. Bottom six guys have enough things to worry about without their overpaid unreliable “leader” being complete deadweight..
The worse he is, the more he gets rewarded with Connor time, instead of exile to the pressbox.
Couldn’t agree more with this post. Terrible accountability from the coach when this guy floats around the ice and is elevated to the Connor line. Where is Foegele’s try with McDavid and Drai? He should have been benched two games ago in favour of a fourth liner willing to show up for games.
At some point if the coaches want to preach accountability they have to watch what they do
At the quarter pole if you keep screwing up and get preference the buyout starts from others
Its human nature
If you are Foegele playing with a struggling C or two offensively, and watch wingers struggling top 6 to score and or make their assignments, how would you feel?
It’s Kassian’s fault that the B.C lower mainland is flooded along with residential schools and racism throughout the world! Who knew!
DevilsLettuce
December 6, 2021 1:10 pm
Watching Niemelainen send Brown 4ft was really all that should be remembered about last night.
I believe they bounce back, also believe Kenny should be tying to pry Eakin out of Buffalo.
His 57.7 on the dot and 7pts in 19 games with about 13mins of time would look worlds better in the bottom 6 then what has been going on. 63.3% Def zone start, he’s got 1.6mil left on his contract which depending on how Kenny ships them out could leave room for a Jeff Carter.
Brown was really lucky to remain perfectly balanced mid air. It had all the makings of a rock em sock em hit. Imagine he carried some backwards momentum and landed on his ass lol
OriginalPouzar
December 6, 2021 1:09 pm
No surprise but Bourgault was named player of the week in the Q.
OriginalPouzar
December 6, 2021 12:58 pm
Fans calling for a bag skate after the Friday and Sunday performances.
Tip says that he watched the video of the games, felt the team had heavy legs, etc., and opted for a video-session today as opposed to an on-ice practice.
Of course, “bag skates” aren’t going to happen in the middle of a heavy schedule of games (and its interesting to me that the many who crave for “new age” systems/analysis/etc. suggest an “old school” coach’s tactic.
Who knows if the video session as oppossed to hard practice will turn out to be the right way to go but, for me, I like it – is shows the coach is in tune with what his team needs, or at least is willing to adapt based on what he feels his team needs.
We’ll it’s not like Chia get rehired, that would be egregious… oh, wait.
FabioRoberto
December 6, 2021 12:29 pm
A few observations. One, Tippett cannot get this team ready to play. Two, the leadership group is also responsible for the team not being ready to play. I do not see any sort of team identity that would lead one to think that this team will be playoff ready. The commitment to team defence and limiting shots on goal is not there. It cannot simply come down to the goaltending needing an upgrade. When opposing teams plan on trapping you, 1-3-1) you need to trap back. Otherwise, you play right into their hands. Last, you have to have more alternatives to the “blender”. Teams that win roll 4 lines. I am more and more convinced that Tippett doesn’t really make many calls on this team.
When a coach doesn’t, or refuses to, adapt tactics and strategy during a game, it indicates to me that they believe it to be a problem with the players.
If you think about it, all Tippett is doing is keeping with whatever his plan is and changing the personnel. Literally shuffling the deck chairs.
Most hockey players seem like smart people. I’m sure that they can adapt and learn different plays to counter the opposing teams game plan. I’m certain they’d understand “only one deep forechecker in” and “wingers to drop 3′ lower on the breakout”.
A few people might say that hockey is too dynamic to affect meaningful change on the fly. Well, soccer and basketball manage it.
I believe systems coaches are great to get you to a base level. With everything, you need to have a little more in your toolbox if you want to go further.
In game adjustments are the sign of a well coached team. I think a team should have at least 2 styles in their bag to counter the system they are playing. There are only a few tactics really defensively. After a couple of seasons the team and coach should be able to handle that, and we’re there.
Especially in the playoffs where you have limited kicks at the can, you can’t waste one and make the adjustment next time. The other coach will probably just do it to you again anyways if it seems the opponent can’t handle it.
I read this AM the Tiger Cats did it to the Argos at some point in the game and they couldn’t handle it.
Agreed. Putting players in the blender isn\t solving the problem unless the players can execute a new strategy. They do need to be able to play different styles even if they do a dump and chase against a 1-3-1 it will open up the trap.
They need to adjust the PP too. Other teams have scouted them to dealth.
Tippett is appeasing his stars. In doing so, the team is going nowhere. Teams that win and have won have an identity. The Oilers have one loook which is easily limited.
Kraz
December 6, 2021 12:28 pm
The Oilers have 3 play drivers for the forwards. McDavid, Draisaitl and Hyman. Hyman has produced consistent results no matter who his linemates are. Even his results last year without Matthews, Marner or Tavares were pretty solid. That said I think the most balanced lineup the Oilers could ice would be
37-97-13
93-29-44
18-71-56
flip Yams and Kassian if you please that would give us a driver on each line and would help players like McLeod and Foegele get their confidence back. Might not be the best long term solution but it would be worth a try.
good for a try maybe…except for 44. He should be on the 4th line until he can figure it out there, and if he can’t figure it out and play consistently for a few weeks in a row, then he can go to PB or some other area code.
McSorley33
December 6, 2021 11:56 am
No idea if LA makes the playoffs.
But if we meet in the playoffs – and Tippett does Tippett and loads up McDavid and Drai.
Philip Danault 2021
CF 55.7%
GF 62.5%
Makes 5.5 million or 1 million dollars more than Tyson Barrie.
I stumped hard for him in the off season and legitimately believe he would have made us a Stanley Cup contender.
Still owning souls of the best players in the game.
He wanted an expanded offensive role in Montreal and that didn’t happen with a thin C group. There’s no way he was coming here to play behind Leon and Connor.
€√¥£€^$
December 6, 2021 11:43 am
Final Perlini 1st Line Proposal, aka what Eff do I know…
A couple things, first the GM is banned from trading with Detroit because its just embarrassing.
Second if the coach and the captain cant get this team going, what good is giving a pile of draft picks away for another player that sleep walks through the first two periods.
This team is now the GM’s and adding a bunch more players is not going to help unless its a real #1 or #2 D man who yells at his team mates to get the lead out.
Maybe the solution is to play the top two lines less and double shift McDavid and Drai, maybe even RNH, in the bottom six. The big guns keep their minutes up – not arguing this should be the case, but the coach seems to think so – while giving more time to the bottom six with better centres. Maybe you even start with three centres and sit Ryan. I’m actually surprised double shifting the two studs hadn’t happened more under our last two coaches.
kgo
December 6, 2021 10:34 am
WE LOST TWO GAMES IN A ROW!!!
Fire Tippett,
Trade Yamo,
Strip McDavid of his “C”
Waive Russell
ARGH!!!!
Just kidding, dog days of winter….we goooooood.
Seriously what’s Alan Walsh’s deal? His client sails thru waivers then gets passed by two players in a week, on merit and pedigree.
Is Walsh just putting a spotlight on his client hoping he gets claimed in the next waiver assignment? Any press is good press theory?
Yeah, this was bizarre. The Fleury sword through the chest was hilarious but maybe justifiable for a probably HHOF goalie getting punted to the side.
Now he’s doing this for…Lagesson? Maybe Walsh just had a few pops during the game and was fired up, hey that’s me most of the games.
The conspiracy theory is Lagesson is the sacrificial lamb to throw heat on Tippett because Walsh’s most valuable client is not happy with the coaching.
The team has lost to a bunch of teams that are not making the playoffs, sure you dont win every game, but look at Championship teams, they dont mess around with weak teams. The Oiler’s are still a wannabe elite team, way too many holes in their game.
Also maybe McDavid should not be captain, give it to someone who is prepared to yell at the players to wake them up.
This team is lacking real leadership, and a quality coach. If it wasn’t for Dria and McDavid the team would be talking about the lottery.
No way you go far in the playoffs when you let the first goal in about 70% of the time.
Haven’t had much leadership time training etc to think yelling makes a difference! When you lose it is one of two things the strategy and or the execution. If the execution is on point with limited positive results the coach loses the room! By what I have watched neither of the above have happened. Lack of calls when McDavid is constantly held and interfered with resulted in what we saw which was a border line call at a crucial time. referees MANAGING A GAME IS BULLSHIT!
McSorley33
December 6, 2021 10:29 am
5th on the team ( forwards ) for TOI – Kailer Yamamoto has 5 points
No idea if any of those came against the AZ Coyotes.
If he doesn’t get hurt he is. Yamo’s full time duty in the top 6 is running out. Yamo is like a Swiss Army knife kills penalties plays in the top 6 as spot duty for injuries. I can’t see Yamo being a Oiler ( salary cap) at this time next year.
I’m not sure how one could be convinced that a 20 year old who has never even had an NHL practice or played a professional hockey game is a legit top 6 forward – we’re not talking about a top 5 pick here, let alone a 1st overall or generational prospect like McDavid.
He could be but I’m not sure how one can be so convinced.
A swiss-army knife middle six forward with top 6 fill in ability who kills penalties, is still developing (pre-prime), etc. for apx $2M – not sure why the org wouldn’t want that player on the team next season.
Because he’s not the right fit in our top 6 unless Leon can learn to pass the puck to himself in the scoring areas. You think Yamo is not replaceable in the top 6 I do. As for a 20 year-old playing in the NHL what the hell are you talking about. l would be here all night listing the 20 year-olds that have played in the NHL top 6 since it’s first game.
My post above was not with respect to him being in the top 6, it was with respect to him being a middle-six swiss army knife who can spot up the lineup while killing penalties, etc. – what you proposed.
I don’t think he’s replaceable in the top 6? That is a laughable statement given I was the one calling him a great 3rd liner in the off-season and this team has championship level depth if we can find another top 6 player to push him down to 3RW.
Yes, there are some 20 year olds that come straight to the NHL with success, not many, but some. More rare are those 20 year olds that come to the top 6 and stand out as your project. Even more rare are those not drafted in the top 10 or top 5.
This is ridiculous their are dozens upon dozens of forwards drafted outside the top 5-10 that have lit up the NHL starting at 20 years old.
Cassandra
December 6, 2021 10:25 am
Pionk has a hearing, so not in person, so no real suspension.
Suspensions should start at five games and come in five game increments. If something is bad enough that it is worth suspending, it should have a real penalty. One game is 1/82 of the season. That’s like suspending an NFL player for a quarter.
Suspending Pionk for 20 games would go a long way to making the NHL a better league.
The NHLPA needs to get their shit together and demand some changes to the league, maybe even threaten to walk out over concerns of player safety due to incompetent and inconsistent officiating and DoPS.
But it’s NHLPA members doing this to other NHLPA members. It’s arguing for disability in your CBA for when you break your co-workers fingers with a hammer on purpose because they work in a different department.
The problem, of course, is who do you replace Tippett with? Who out there is better than him right now? It would be Very Oilers to try to rehabilitate Babcock’s reputation, but is he the right choice? Vigneault? Green? Torts?
You don’t throw this team to Woodcroft mid-season, he needs a training camp.
As I’ve said a few times, the Oilers really need to find their Nick Nurse or Steve Kerr, a positive, intelligent coach who helps the team find an identity.
There is one out of a job, but needs Gary’s ok to come back. Actually the one I wanted when Flat Top wasn’t doing it for me anymore.
Other than that, I don’t see anyone. Gallant is gone. I am not sure Woody is the guy that can persuade Connor and Leon to tweak a few things up, like shift length. Tippet can’t seem to and has more Gravitas than Woody. Or worse maybe he’s not asking.
Vignault Green and Torts are all cut from the tough guy bully coach cloth. No bueno for me. And so is Babcock. He actually has done little to have his rep, got a Cup and ran out what Scotty built.
We need a manipulator, strategist and motivator like Cooper (another one I wanted, or even better like Sather was), one that isn’t greasy like Dementor. Cooper is firm but seems to keep everyone on board. Even when they had a lot of disappointments.
Can’t bully anymore you have to be firm convince manipulate and charm
I don’t know that V is that and over his ways, or Turtle Babs or that woody has the cajones
GordieHoweHatTrick
December 6, 2021 10:19 am
I have said it before and I will say it again, I think the Oilers need to trade Barrie before the deadline. People will disagree on two points. One is “he is a valuable piece of the D” and the other is it “looks bad to sign and trade”.
For the former, I respectfully disagree. He is and always has been a D liability that compensates with O. We have Bouch and others that can contribute O from the D. We don’t need more O from the D. We need more D from the D. I would rather have Berglund at 3D right now than Barrie, but I think Holland can make a trade for a vet RD that knows the basics about playing D on a reasonably consistent basis.
For the latter, I don’t think Holland or anyone else should worry about how future FAs may take the Barrie trade. It is what is best for the team. In the next few years there will be many FAs willing to come to this team if they can continue to play well in the regular season and make it a few rounds in the playoffs, but to get through a few rounds in the playoffs will require a change from Barrie.
Didn’t Berglund have a really good camp? If he isn’t expected to score a lot, my bet is he would be a lot better than Barrie defensively. Is also a lot bigger, and has a lot of pro under his belt, it’s not like bringing up a 20 YO.
Barrie for JT MIller? DeBrusk? In a deal for Gibson?
Exactly. Barrie is someone who can fetch the team something very tangible for the dollars that would be leaving. I know the guy means well but he isn’t built for playoff hockey in terms of his defensive responsibilities.
The team has an in house replacement named Evan. Run with him.
In terms of the optics, players will sign where there is consistent winning taking place. Edmonton trading Barrie would not have any impact whatsoever on potential free agents coming. Vegas has the bad rep on that one. No one else…well, maybe Columbus as well.
You’re absolutely right in that this team needs a responsible, stay at home D-Man who will punish the opposition when they get near the goalie…or McDavid for that matter. A vet who has won, who knows how to instill a winning culture onto a team.
Myself, I would trade Barrie to the Islanders for Chara and Matt Martin. The money evens out and both are solid role players who would fit onto the D and 3/4 lines like a hand in glove. Size, tenacity and long playoff experiences are on their resumes in spades. If Holland is serious about this year, I think that type of trade gives the team a different type of character than one they’ve been showing the masses in the last little while.
I think Barrie should be traded, and I think he will, but I really doubt Holland does it now. Seems like a summer thing. To be fair to Barrie, it’s been mentioned here a few times that his possession numbers are better in the playoffs.
Weird, McLellan was able to get his 3rd and 4th lines to outperform their xG and be over 50%, for a couple of years at least – LT had a great look at The Athletic a few weeks ago on this point.
Some of it is Belanger Triangle stuff by the management and scouting staff, but I’ve never been a Tippett believer, I guess we all know that.
Holland really screwed up the D by letting Larsson go and trading Bear for a replacement level player, which obviously isn’t on Tippett, but I’d bet good money Holland talked to Tipp about resigning Barrie.
We knew the goaltending would be inconsistent, we knew the D was going to be a tire fire, but we all thought this group of forwards was the best we’ve seen in years, I actually thought since the 2006 squad.
But it sure continues to be McDavid, Drai and Hyman scoring 5v5 and nobody else. We know Nuge was re-signed to be a PP wizard. Yamamoto is a fun player but doesn’t score enough to be a top 6 winger. Bison King is still a bit of a mystery.
That may have been his rationale but it certainly wasn’t a good one nor was it one that made any kind of sense.
GordieHoweHatTrick
December 6, 2021 10:14 am
I think there is a very high probability Broberg has a long and successful career in the NHL, hopefully with the Oilers. I view him as the Klef (turned Keith) replacement.
For 3 LD the Oilers need a hammer. That is Neimelainen or Sammy (could have been Lags, but I think that ship has left port). I hope we can see a few more games of N before he gets sent back to Bake. I also hope we get to see Sammy for at least a 5 game stretch. Then management should make a decision on which one gets traded at the deadline for RD support or 3C (bottom 6).
Last edited 2 years ago by GordieHoweHatTrick
GordieHoweHatTrick
December 6, 2021 10:10 am
While there have been some mis-fires on the offseason acquisitions (Ryan, Barrie), Sceviour has exceeded my expectations. Not scoring, but doing other things well. But most importantly working hard every shift. He deserves winning the hard hat most games he is in.
The saddest thing to happen in last night’s game is further proof that it’s much easier to destroy than create. Last year was the grand experiment with teams playing each other enough times to actually make spending football-like time game planning worth the while. Leafs and Habs gave us fits obstructing.
The Oilers are now 6-6 against teams I’d consider likely to miss the playoffs. Four of those wins are against the completely hapless Coyotes and Canucks meaning they are 2-6 against the hard-working, structured but under-talented teams represented by the Kraken. This is on the back of being run over by inferior Jets and Hawks teams in the past two playoff series.
So removing the completely hapless that’s 3-13 against that sub section of teams.
They are 9-1 against teams that are likely to make the playoffs who are more likely to try and best you straight up. Picture how many odd man rushes Connor had against Vegas. We don’t see those against LA or Seattle.
One narrative is that the Oilers are some combination of lazy or over confident. That’s bullshit. There’s more here than Kurt Leavins-type analysis.
I surmise that hockey has a fatal flaw no other sport does. If the coach knows they can’t compete on talent and the players actually buy in to that, you can stifle any player (or two) on the planet if you 100% commit to not trying to create offence when he’s on the ice.
You can do that in other sports but it comes with a price.
In hockey, not only will that decision wipe that player out entirely, in fact, it will likely mean your team creates offence from turnovers as the player and team try to do too much or get frustrated and take penalties.
Other sports? You pay a price to play that way.
Picture basketball, Warriors from earlier these decades. If you want to take away Stef Curry you can double team him so teams load up with Klay Thompson types who will knock down open shots all day.
In football if you want to take away Derrick Henry you can put 8 in the box but that leaves AJ Brown or Julio Jones in 1-on-1 coverage. That’s the price you pay.
In baseball, you can intentionally walk Vlad Guerrero but that lets Teoscar hit with a man on base all game long. Maybe you do that but it’s a price you pay.
In theory, the price you pay in hockey is that “someone should be open” like Jesse or even Leon but to my eye it doesn’t look like that because a commitment to not turn pucks and clogging the neutral zone or defensive zone takes away space from everyone.
I don’t know the solution but I’ve seen this unfold enough times to know how it ends. I’ve often thought doing something crazy like having McDavid stand in his defensive zone corner with Danualt standing next to him and playing 4-on-4 might make sense; 4-on-4 offense is higher goals per 60 with a side effect of the league maybe becoming embarrassed enough to do something.
This is as true as it has always been.
Coaches find a way to limit creativity and win in shootouts. This keeps them employed.
The answer is to build a balanced team that can score more ways than one i.e. Tampa the past number of seasons.
The Oil have had the Jacks, Kings and Aces for a long time but can’t figure our where Mike Grier and Todd Marchant live.
“I’ve often thought doing something crazy like having McDavid stand in his defensive zone corner with Danualt standing next to him and playing 4-on-4 might make sense; 4-on-4 offense is higher goals per 60 with a side effect of the league maybe becoming embarrassed enough to do something.”
Steve Kasper of the Bruins used to shadow Gretzky and had success (relatively speaking of course) doing it. His only job on the ice was to get as close to Gretzky as possible.
Gretzky then realized that if he went and ‘shadowed’ the best Bruin on the ice that took two Bruins out leaving the Oil with a man advantage.
McSorley33
December 6, 2021 10:06 am
Opens door- peaks in ‘Derek Ryan is just unlucky’ room to see if anyone left.
Just a couple of people talking with Dave Tippet.
Night in – night out with this player.
Derek Ryan:
For the year:-3GF / 16GA
Like so many times the last 10 years – it has *long* ago stopped being about Derek Ryan.
Last night:
2 CF / 17CA
1 SF/ 10 SA
0 GF / 2 GA
Derek Ryan is harming the team and has been doing so for some time.
I agree he played big boy Hockey in College and would have jumped straight in to the line-up like so many other successful NCAA Forwards in the past. It’s really only 1 poster that repeatedly keeps saying he needs to spend at least a year in the AHL.
I know you are referring to me but you are, again, misinterpreting my position.
I never ever said that he will need considerable AHL time. What I’ve said is he may very well need some legit AHL time, we just don’t know but based on history, its reasonably likely.
You cite “so many other successful NCAA forwards jumping straight to the NHL” but, of course, the number of 20 year olds that have done that shows its the vast exception.
I’m not saying that Holloway will absolutely need a full AHL year but the position that him needing some AHL development time is just as realistic and valid as a position that he is a no doubt NHL top 6 player this season – as others posit.
That’s not my “wish”, that’s the reasonable projection (and, even if he was healthy in September, AHL time was a more reasonable projection than McDavid’s left winger out of camp).
My wish is that he’s the second coming of Dylan Larkin out of college and, while that may happen, its not the reasonable projection.
Who’s this reasonable projection guy you keep talking about? I don’t see him! Is he over here or over there? You think because you keep saying the same thing over and over makes your opinion right. If Holloway doesn’t get hurt he has a 50/50 shot at making the team out of camp. I was on the Bragg Creek team you weren’t.
Reasonable projection would be decades examples – orders of magnitude more common that these straight to the NHL at 20 college players cited.
I know which team you are on and I know you base that on watching zero of his NCAA games and on his numbers and the “Golden Retriever” moniker you heard.
Not that it makes me an expert or anything of the kind but I watched about 80% of his games last year and I became VERY high on his potential and his NHL floor.
He very well could have made the team if not hurt, maybe even 50/50. Of course, even before he needed a 2nd surgery he was already coming in off an injury that, if nothing else, no doubt negatively effecting off-season training, etc.
If he was never hurt and was able to play AHL games to finish last season that would have been a totally different situation but that was never the case or part of the discussion.
What are you trying to say? Spit it out do you think your the Nav Bratia of the Oilers? Who scored the last goal for the Oilers in the WHA? If Holloway doesn’t get hurt he’s on the team right know like some of his peers around the league who by the way don’t have the same tool kit as Holloway.
I think my posts are pretty clear on the subject – we are both speculating on things that will be never known. Of course, as stated, one is speculating based on decades of history and reasonable projections.
The top 6 could use a hard checking physically capable forward that has hands. I think you’ll selling short on Holloway and long on Yamo. Opinions are like assholes everybody has one.
The two things, “needing some AHL development time” and “no doubt NHL player this season”, aren’t mutually exclusive though. He’s on track to be cleared by Christmas and trade deadline is late March. That gives him up to 3 full months of AHL development time before being recalled. I have never suggested that Holloway start in the NHL mid-season cold. Only that, based on the timeline for return that Holland has given us, I guarantee that Holloway will be recalled to the NHL by the deadline, barring further injuries.
and he very well may be recalled near the NHL deadline on merit, and I hope he is.
We don’t know that though – he had great up arrows 10 months ago but has had a series of set-backs and we’ll have to see how it goes. Many a prospect of his caliber have found the transition to pro hockey more difficult than projected. Again, we just don’t know if a couple of months of AHL time is enough.
We also will never know if he would have fit right in as McDavid’s winger in October if he didn’t need the second surgery. I posit that was a very unlikely outcome even while others feel it was a lock and we could have “booked it”.
JimmyV1965
December 6, 2021 10:05 am
The bottom six situation really sucks, but it’s fascinating in a way as well. Why do we keep getting caved, with a group that looks like it should be better? I’m sure the lack of lack of playing time is an issue. Maybe the lack of PP time. A couple garbage points on the PP can do wonders for a slump. Maybe if half your ice time comes on the PK, that impacts the way you play 5 x 5.
Someone talked about this last season, I think Georges. They theorized that the lack of pp for bottom roster players has a negative impact on their 5v5 scoring.
The issue though is that the Oiler’s bottom-6 are also consistently terrible defensively/checking.
flyfish1168
December 6, 2021 9:58 am
I enjoyed watching Reijo Ruotsalainen. When we got him back for a 2nd go around I felt strongly we would win the SC.
Brogan Rafferty's Uncle Steve
December 6, 2021 9:53 am
The Tip situation is so confusing to me. When he was brought in I was cautiously optimistic. He seemed to get the most out of mediocre Phoenix teams. His teams were also quite successful 5v5.
In Edmonton, he has been opposite George. The bottom of the roster has underperformed. The Oil have been middling at best 5v5.
Very confusing.
Woodguy v2.0
December 6, 2021 9:53 am
EDM Goal Diff 23 gp (16-7-0)
EV Only (5v5,4v4,3v3) 97 w/o 29(12-10) 55% 29 w/o 97(13-7) 65% 97&29 On(13-7) 65% 93 w/o either(3-4) 43% 71(4-5) 44% 10(3-16) 16% Other(2-5) 29% Net EV -4
Special Teams:28-11 Net ST +17
Empty Net:6-5 Net EN +1
SO/PS 2-0 Net SO/PS +2
Goal Diff +16
5v5 EDM is +9 when Derek Ryan isn’t on the ice and -13 when he’s on the ice. That’ incredible.
His 4v5 GA/60 of 8.2/60 is an outlier as well. Next highest is Hyman at 5.6, then Scevior at 4.6, the rest are under 4/60.
Time comes for us all and seems to have come for Derek Ryan.
I hate to say it, but the Ryan signing was a very classic Oilers type signing. Find a guy with an established level of ability who’s on the precipice of the cliff in terms of age, sign him for two years and cross your fingers and hope he doesn’t fall off of it. We’ve been doing this since the days of Eric Belanger.
You wonder if Holland even spoke with a Kampf?
It’s on the fringes of the roster where you really see the impact of not having a strong analytics department.
Not sure I agree. There were many who thought the Ryan signing was solid specifically because of his underlying numbers. What metrics pointed to Ryan being on the precipice of the cliff? Maybe his scoring numbers but otherwise he looked OK, no?
Why do we need so sign bottom six guys to two year deals? I get that’s probably the only 2-year offer they get and that entices them to sign but these guys should always be on one year contracts (Turris, Ryan, etc.)
Derek Ryan’s cap hit is $1.25MM and he doesn’t have a NMC so can be assigned to the AHL for a lasting cap hit of, I believe, $50K.
Devon Shore fully buryable for no cap hit.
Katz has proven that he doesn’t have an issue with these types of expenses (i.e paying NHL salaries while the player is in the AHL) so, given the 50 contract limit isn’t an issue at this point, there is no real issue with these contracts.
I also don’t think signing Devon Shore early had any adverse implication on team building during the off-season, zero. It was a zero risk move.
Turris’ contract, given its for a higher AAV, was a bit of an issue.
Yup, we’re on the same page. The only real additional risk is the 50 contract limit and the org isn’t close to that currently.
I guess the other risk would be a non-willingness to waive/assign a veteran but I don’t think that’s an issue – Holland waived Turris (and Shore) last year.
After last night’s game, the downvotes I had collected pre-game took on an even more sumptuous quality. I fried them up and ate them with a 6 oz rib eye, medium rare of course, with a glass of Sangiovese. Perfection. There has always been something magical about a nice Sunday dinner, no?
I don’t know how long you can be a top 5 NHL team with a defence core that has one regular (Bouchard) plus two depth guys (Russell and Lagesson) at a 50% + goal share. I was shocked — dare I say gobsmacked — by the rousing support for Barrie, he of the FF% of 42, he of the SCF% of 46, the GF% of 47, the xGF% of 46. Sure hope that PDO of 1018 holds. Maybe when everyone is healthy Tipp can dress 8 D and play Barrie on the fourth pairing to get him some better matchups 🙂
Foegele is at a 34 percent goal share, just a smidge ahead of Devin Shore (33). I do hear that Foegele, he of 3 points in his last 18 playoff games, will come through when the chips are down. For Foegele, when will those chips be down? He’s at 1 EV goal in 23 games, do we wait until game 30? 40? Call me old fashioned, but I like it when a player performs at a high level throughout a season, you know, the way Bear is doing right now in Carolina.
I will say this of Spec: his post-game article threw some shade at Foegele and Kassian and it’s about damn time, particularly with respect to the latter. Good for you, Mark. Thumbs up, credit given. He had a good line about Kassian not being able to string 3 games together, guy must be a Godot fan 🙂
I would say I am very upset about what the Bear trade meant in terms of process. It means that they just didn’t value the D properly. You don’t look at Bear in isolation, you look at it also with respect to Barrie being brought back, Keith being brought in, etc.
Barrie wasn’t brought back until Larsson decided at 11:59 to take his ball and leave.
If Larsson informs the Oilers earlier about his decisions, Kenny probably looks around before swinging back Barrie. But by the time Larsson decided to bail there was no one left to bring in other then Barrie.
Kenny could of not signed Barrie at that point sure, but does that instill confidence in the group? Yea we lost Larsson and sure I could of brought Barrie back but we got a gluten of unproven rookies were going to roll with in an season where we expect a deep playoff drive..
Liam Reddox the return for Ales Hemsky? Is that a typo or an easter egg? 🙂
The transition game and the overall passing game has gone to utter crap the last couple of weeks. The combo of Russell-Barrie and the younglings was bound to lead to the D playing with a larger margin of error and more glass and out stuff but the bad passing goes beyond that. It’s both sloppy and overly simplistic. Players aren’t buying themselves time, either with skill, poise or flat out battling for space, to make a good pass which puts the recieving player in a bad spot which makes the whole team game scrambly and slow. Which in turn makes it difficult to find room offensively.
Broberg has had two so-so games in a row, he’s to hesitant ever since Ceci went down, he’s at his best when he plays a very active style, he’s very efficient when he disrupts plays early, aggressively tightens gaps and defends the blue lines hard. The last couple of games he’s been more conservative and he tends to lose his timing when that happens. He’s also gotten away from the quick puckmoving he showed off in his first couple of games.
Outside of the last two I’d say he’s played pretty well, showing his strengths, skating obviously, his very underrated passing, his gap control, the ability to disrupt plays before the even happen with a quick stickcheck, the still raw but budding offensive upside.
We’ve also seen the parts that needs work, he has a tendency to be too passive around his own net, he needs to box players out more aggressively, tie up sticks more consistently, he’s gotten better compared to two seasons ago but he still has lapses that needs to be ironed out, board work is also improving but he’s still way to friendly in battles, offensively his shot needs work, he gets his wristers through but they need more oomph, if he could add a quick quarter/half slapper I think he’d be a much more dangerous player from the blue line, hopefully Bouchard can teach him a thing or two in that area.
The main thing he’s improved since last season is that his game looks cleaner, he seems more grown into his body, more confident in his movements, I wouldn’t be surprised if his in-season trajectory looks skywards post-christmas.
I maintain that the right play is to send him down once players start returning. As I mentioned he’s at his best when playing an aggressive pro-active style defensively and he’s also a much better player when he plays with some risk with the puck on his stick. I think the risk with him playing in the NHL where he can probably tread water at this point but not really dominate is that he falls back to more conservative, less risky style to avoid getting burnt, as I’d argue happened these last two games.
I understand Lagesson being somewhat frustrated, he got pressboxed after imo two solid games where there were other D who played worse, it’s a reasonable mindset for a pro athlete, but doubt Walsh swinging his twitter sword does William any favours. I assume both agent and player are seeing him quickly turning into an Oiler orphan. Lagesson needed this stretch of games to buy himself some NHL rope, to show that he can be a defensively solid 6/7/8 D somewhere, put himself on the map. If I were to guess that’s where the frustration stems from.
Niemeläinen has certainly put himself on the map, wonderful player type, three games in and he’s already having forwards backing off when he comes trucking. Quickly building a nice little highlight reel. Once the honeymoon phase is over I think his limited puckmoving and lack of offensive game might get a bit frustrating so a little more AHL tweaking is likely beneficial but he’s showing he’s a real NHL option going forward and an ingredient this team is lacking at that.
And if you’re going to have a D-man who’s not all that strong moving the puck forward on your third pairing it’s definitely nice if he hits like Neemo.
This is a spectacular post, well done
& thank-you SP!
Cheers Swedish.
Sceviour might be worth a try at 3C.
I like Sceviour well enough, but he’s getting a LOT of love for a guy who’s 41% in shots and 14% in goals (1-6).
In the same way that Hass and Khaira and Sheeahan were worth a try, right?
I actually don’t disagree, even though his on-ice results haven’t been great.
At the same time, that would clearly be a band-aid for a game or two and simply more of the same.
Our author is starting to mention some things that have been rattling around in my tiny sports mind for while so I am compelled to comment. Rather than attempting to write a bad dissertation, I’m going to keep myself simple and stupid, it suits me fine:
We have a consistent 1 C
We have a consistent 3 LW
We have a consistent 1 LD
We have a consistent 2 LD
We have a consistent 2 RD
I think we have A LOT of really good players.
I’m a behaviour analyst so I often look for strong patterns, structure and consistency. I’ve had a hard time seeing much of it with the Edmonton Oilers for an extended period of time. On the other hand, I’m not going to assume this approach translates well to creating a good hockey team.
You folks bring up stuff that I wouldn’t even dream of.
On a lighter note, the guy who got banned for using the “C” word… that was funny. Both comments on that thread were hilarious. Anyway, I have made the same mistake myself and paid dearly for it, much worse than a one month exclusion. NEVER say the the “C” word. LOL
The C word always sounds worse without the Australian accent…someone had to stick up for Gino Principe.
Honestly the best thing Tip could do at this point is say what will be rewarded – period – is sticking to the game plan and shift length asked.
You cheat you pick slivers.
Leo and Connor pick a few and the team will get the message. Nothing like Torts level, but you get it.
It will teach all of them. Discipline instead of desperation.
Leo and Connor are not above this critique as I see it. Despite their greatness and their streaks, the team overall is playing poorly and their stats are indicating they aren’t on an island of excellence there.
But that means you take some pain now instead of in the playoffs when it is too late.
Some sort of attention getting wake up call needs to happen. Tip doesn’t seem to have the words in between games to convince them.
It’s not the 2 losses, this is an ongoing issue healthy or not. And the rookies haven’t been that much worse than others. Really only one D down last game.
The leaders need to lead and can’t play their own game and others have to cow down. All top players get some leeway, but if that leeway is playing a style that is basically the oppososite of what works long term that isn’t helpful overall.
This continues to be a very flawed roster that has two future Hall of Famers that patch up those holes fairly well.
there was a lot of people who hated our d corp when season started and that d corp is decimated currently
Tippett gets a lot of flak lately but when you ask for players that can play but instead you continue to get players like Kahun, Turris, Ryan shore well that’s hard to make due.
don’t see anyone in the pipeline that can help out this season or next outside of McLeod either.
Im sure Holland is gonna bring in some washed up vets to help out
Butenschon wasn’t especially memorable.
Bite your tongue! I was in the building for his first-ever NHL goal (of two). Highlight of my career as an Oilers fan.
I thought that Chris Hajt pass to Doug Wajt was your highlight? Pshaw.
Holy crap, what am I forgetting about Dave Manson? I remember him as a fine defenceman, tough as nails, a little (a lot?) dirty, with a rocket of a shot–even as a tolerable return for a trade of the greatest Oilers’ defenceman of all-time–but getting a fourth overall pick (if we ignore that that pick was Jason Bonsignore) straight-up for him seems like it was highway robbery, even before you throw in BoBo and Lindgren. This was a trade deadline deal for a first-round pick in the next entry draft, so surely it was pretty clear at the time of the trade that it was going to be a high one?
A noteworthy trade for several reasons, including the inspiration for one of the truly iconic Oilers blogs back in the day.
I’ll tell The Prez you said so; she’ll be pleased.
(Yeah, there’s some Oilogosphere trivia for you–“Steve Smith” and the President of the Unofficial Igor Ulanov Fan Club are siblings. A lot of weirdness around that dinner table growing up.)
I’m assuming you were the one not making things better?
Being an Oilers Coach is a tough gig. Its funny how things get remembered. Oilers have turned into a consistent playoff team under Tippett. Consistently compete for division titles under Tippett. Hell in recent weeks the Old Dinosaur was breaking in 6 rookies at once while sporting a 4-2 record with 5 of his 6 vet defensemen (and all of the big offseason D signings save for Barrie) being out.
Still sitting 3rd in the West with a couple games in hand but the knives are out.
Tough crowd, tough crowd.
Need to step back and think of the long game.
Pieces are in place for a good run now. Half the roster got turned over in the off-season and it takes a while to gel. Just need to work the kinks out. Vets are coming back. Core players are hitting the groove age. The chaos will recede and the established forwards will start receiving tape to tape passes again.
All that said hell of an audition by the young Dmen so far. The future is bright.
Less negative Rye,
More positive Vodka please!
Decided not to bother after turning on the game to be greeted 3 minutes in with another 0-1 score. Goalies maybe?
Then hear about McDavids Major for boarding and after having watched it checked out Mark Messier plastering some poor unsuspecting Soviet Player with a leaping elbow to the head that practically killed him.
Then hear that the LAK were decent enough not to celebrate their 2nd and 3rd goals from that McDavid powerplay. Yikes. Good on them.
The game was basically over when McDavid was given the five minute major with a little over six and a half minute remaining in the game.
If I am McDavid I never complain to the refs ever again.
It does no good.
Take it or leave it, but the refs want the players to police their own games.
Holland has had success with older players
However, something has changed since those days
For skaters, at one time being smarter than the other players gave you an edge, could succeed
That day is gone. We have seen the same root issue. The gambles on skaters when Holland was capped we get, but they didn’t have NHL skill sets
The NHL experienced guys lost their boots – Turris Ryan
Any new hires have to be able to skate well or it’s the same old. So no Nash. Or anyone like that. The game is different and experience doesn’t mean what it once did, if you can’t use it
All true.
As the game skews younger, faster and more skilled, the cliff arrives increasingly earlier.
Is the game really getting that much younger? Or was it more the fact that 2015 was such a big draft it made it seem that way? Just curious if any one has actually proved its getting younger or is it more just the narrative. And yes I agree on the faster more skilled part.
No, it’s real and it’s accelerating.
https://www.tsn.ca/yost-nhl-rosters-continue-to-trend-younger-1.1465718
The roster age drop probably had more to do with the 2013 CBA and the exodus of tweeners to the European leagues instead of hanging around in the AHL.
Any thoughts on Gabrielle Vilardi? Dobber says middle six skill, but slow boots.
Dobber has him surrounded I think but his skill would be an upgrade on some.
Finally a chance to listen to Tip today.
Shore is getting close to coming back. For me, I know his possession numbers and goal share and expected goals are all poor but I do think he can help a bit in the bottom six – I think those numbers undervalue him a bit but that’s just to my eye and I could be wrong.
Sounds like, assuming he passes a test, Ceci will be ready to skate on Wed – with 10 days off they probably want to give him a practice or two. It will be great to have him back.
Neither Smith nor Keith skated today but are scheduled to tomorrow. Sounds like Smith is closer than Keith as Smith is available to at least partially participate in practice as opposed to just skating on his own.
This made me Laugh OP.
Possession #’s = poor
Goal Share = poor
Expected Goals = poor
But player is decent ……. you may be wrong is right 😎
I don’t believe that these referenced possession numbers are the be all and end all. We know they don’t tell the entire story, require context and are highly driven by various factors.
If they were anywhere close to definitive, then Lagesson should be playing in our top 4 nightly at this point.
Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) Tweeted:
#Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini says the team could potentially be looking for both a President of Hockey Ops and GM – or someone who is a “combination.”
https://twitter.com/frank_seravalli/status/1468002927730114560?s=20
Can you throw my name in the hat?
How badly do you need an ulcer?
I hear Chia is available.
Michael Russo
@RussoHockey
Captain Jared Spurgeon (lower) practiced today. He won’t play in his hometown of Edmonton tomorrow (he got a hat trick last time he was there) but is expected to return on the trip.
Pionk gets 2 games for the knee on Sandin.
Hockey Reference has Kris Russell (this season) at ….
35.8 CF%
-18.6 CF%rel
Those aren’t good #’s 🥸
He suppresses other things
But if he can’t move the puck or help to it’s a net loss – more defending
Especially for a weak 5v5 team
Still gotta love his game rooster
With Foegele in the mix we now have the ability to try the “Centers 3” model with 97, 29, and 93 pivoting their own lines.
Its not like we’re going to sacrifice a lot of 5v5 offence moving Nuge to 3C. Could elevate Benson to a skill line too.
Who plays 2C when after 2 shifts Tipps goes back to the super duo?
I was calling for Tipps head after the Chicago series, I still don’t think Holland axes him during the season unless things completely fall apart.
What exactly Is Foegele in the mix for?
Probably still need one more productive forward. Maybe if Holloway comes and/or we land another C like Eakins or Appleton.
Hate to say this but … I think we need a coaching change. Style of play needs to change or adjust.
For all the Foegel haters.
He’s averaging 0.35ppg with the Oilers, while just last season.. 0.38 with Jordan Stall.
His pp toi is higher then its ever been, his shooting percentage is lower then its ever been. He’s taking less penalties then he ever has.
He’s 2 points off last years pace.
He’s exactly who they were getting, get him a better center.
https://frozenpool.dobbersports.com/players/warren-foegele
Would you rather have Foegele or Kahun? Ennis?
I’ll take Foggy all day, even with less hands. A big fast forechecker that has a motor will be good later, especially if Tips can get things under control.
Foggy called it after last game, you can’t just try to score off the rush, you have to be able to score ‘down low’. That can’t be stopped with goonery and uncalled obstruction. Also keeps the puck 200 ft the right way.
It’s the key to everything right now.
Foegele all day, I’d slap him with McDavid and Hyman but that will leave either Jesse or Yams with absolutely no one to create with on the 3rd which is currently Foegele situation.
Kassian + something pretty for Eakin
Yams, Barrie, Samu, some draft pick for Giroux and Yandle.
Hyman/McDavid/Pulj
Nuge/Drai/Giroux
Foegele/Eakin/Scevs.. Maybe Holloway sometime in March.
Hell run
Benson/McDavid/Hyman and drop Jesse to run the 3rd line with Foegele/Eakins. They’d make some good noise down there.
Foegele McDavid Hyman
Nugent-Hopkins Draisaitl Puljujarvi
Benson McLeod Yamamoto
Shore Ryan/Scevior/Turris
I like McLeod but he’s no 3C, at least the version of a 3C that this team needs. He still receiving under 50% defensive zone starts, he’s not near crafty or battle ready enough to contend with the competition he’d see with a +60% defensive zone start that the Oilers would need to feed him to.
Ryan should never see the ice again imo, Turris if injuries have decimated things.
A Shore/Mcleod/Scevoir 4th would be a solid 8 mins of dependable hockey.
McLeod may not be a 3C, but he’s growing into the role. If you don’t move him up, and you banish Ryan, who’s on the roster to play that role other than Nuge?
Well you have to play him at 3C, which is why I’m banging the drum for Eakin. He’s playing that role in Buffalo the exact way the Oilers need the 3C to perform here.
I think if McLeod goes from at 47% Def zone start to a 65% at the current moment.. It’ll get ugly and his growth momentum will suffer.
Eakin is a minus player for all but one year playing with Vegas where he was a plus nineteen. Career wise he is a minus player. At thirty years of age his best years are in the rear view mirror at 2.25 his cap hit is acceptable. He is not ideal given that McLeod needs the at bats! Possible short term gain but questionable.
If we had given Keith’s $5M per to Phillip Danault, we’d have finally solved the 3C issue, probably without that much of a drop-off on D.
Maybe that blocks Holloway, or is a bad idea for other reasons, but it just goes to show how much you could have done with Keith’s money.
Danault is never a bad idea.
He has sure turned the kings franchise around! Too much money for a defensive centre.
Then what money would we have for 2LD?
I see you don’t have your favourite player even on the 4th line
He’s right, he shouldn’t be playing as it stands, taken off the top line for good reason and has completely mailed it in since.
He was better yesterday. Still a way to go
Someone below asked where the Klopp and Conte’s of the hockey world were?
This brings up a good point. Soccer is by far that most innovative and dynamic sport in terms of diversity of styles. Some of this is inherent to the sport, 11 players and a big field, but a lot of it stems from having a significant number of leagues at the highest level within which to experiment.
This also drives innovation in football and basketball. None of the major innovations in football happened first in the NFL, they happen in college, in high school, and in Canada. Everything happens last in the NFL.
Same thing in basketball, the NBA adopted the 3 point offense last, the coaching innovations all come from lower leagues.
This doesn’t happen in hockey in the same way. It does happen, the Soviets transformed the sport, but it happens a lot slower.
Riley Nash on waivers. One year at $750K. Bigger right shot centre, with worse faceoff numbers, but might stop the Ryan bleeding?
Just coming to post about this waiver exposure.
I’m not sure he makes it to where the Oilers are in the claim order but, with the way Ryan has been playing…..
The 2007 1st round draft pick has no interest in dawning Oilers colors, look elsewhere. He won’t be excited to join the team even if he tries to act like he is.
Sure, why not bring another corpse into the vortex.
Couldn’t get much worse i guess
Throw enough dead cats at the wall and one of them is sure to bounce.
That’s kind of my thinking too. No real risk in making the claim, and at worst that line continues bleeding.
Zack Kassian is the common denominator for the bottom six for the last six years.
Overpaid, entitlred, unreliable, can’t check, weak on board battles, indifferent effort, doesn’t PK.
The biggest building block of the bottom six is a loser. Bottom six guys have enough things to worry about without their overpaid unreliable “leader” being complete deadweight..
The worse he is, the more he gets rewarded with Connor time, instead of exile to the pressbox.
As much as I think you spend too much time on the Railyard,
This is pretty damning
My guess is it’s Nuge who’s the bad example. If not him then definitely Nurse.
It’s Jesse’s smile.
Couldn’t agree more with this post. Terrible accountability from the coach when this guy floats around the ice and is elevated to the Connor line. Where is Foegele’s try with McDavid and Drai? He should have been benched two games ago in favour of a fourth liner willing to show up for games.
At some point if the coaches want to preach accountability they have to watch what they do
At the quarter pole if you keep screwing up and get preference the buyout starts from others
Its human nature
If you are Foegele playing with a struggling C or two offensively, and watch wingers struggling top 6 to score and or make their assignments, how would you feel?
The blender has a bad recipe IMO
It’s Kassian’s fault that the B.C lower mainland is flooded along with residential schools and racism throughout the world! Who knew!
Watching Niemelainen send Brown 4ft was really all that should be remembered about last night.
I believe they bounce back, also believe Kenny should be tying to pry Eakin out of Buffalo.
His 57.7 on the dot and 7pts in 19 games with about 13mins of time would look worlds better in the bottom 6 then what has been going on. 63.3% Def zone start, he’s got 1.6mil left on his contract which depending on how Kenny ships them out could leave room for a Jeff Carter.
Foegele/Carter/Scevs
Benson/Eakin/McLeod
Shoot the rest to the east India, Perlini 1st.
Brown was really lucky to remain perfectly balanced mid air. It had all the makings of a rock em sock em hit. Imagine he carried some backwards momentum and landed on his ass lol
No surprise but Bourgault was named player of the week in the Q.
Fans calling for a bag skate after the Friday and Sunday performances.
Tip says that he watched the video of the games, felt the team had heavy legs, etc., and opted for a video-session today as opposed to an on-ice practice.
Of course, “bag skates” aren’t going to happen in the middle of a heavy schedule of games (and its interesting to me that the many who crave for “new age” systems/analysis/etc. suggest an “old school” coach’s tactic.
Who knows if the video session as oppossed to hard practice will turn out to be the right way to go but, for me, I like it – is shows the coach is in tune with what his team needs, or at least is willing to adapt based on what he feels his team needs.
Sometimes the best bag skate is when you’re forced to sit down and watch yourself shit all over the place.
What would LA want for Gabriel Vilardi?
Is he a potential trade target? Can he skate?
https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=187453
Anyone else in the AHL that can skate, plays centre and is 22 to 23?
Logan Brown?
Tippett doesn’t line match plus the hefty zone d zone starts for Ryan?
The Mike Yeos of the world just keep getting hired.
The guy can’t coach his way out of a paper bag, yet has had multiple HC jobs now.
One of the things that’s wrong with the league. Small circle. Low level executives and retread coaches/scouts. Constantly.
We’ll it’s not like Chia get rehired, that would be egregious… oh, wait.
A few observations. One, Tippett cannot get this team ready to play. Two, the leadership group is also responsible for the team not being ready to play. I do not see any sort of team identity that would lead one to think that this team will be playoff ready. The commitment to team defence and limiting shots on goal is not there. It cannot simply come down to the goaltending needing an upgrade. When opposing teams plan on trapping you, 1-3-1) you need to trap back. Otherwise, you play right into their hands. Last, you have to have more alternatives to the “blender”. Teams that win roll 4 lines. I am more and more convinced that Tippett doesn’t really make many calls on this team.
You beat a trap team by skating through the trap – not setting up a low scoring game.
Hahahaha that’s why they were humiliated last night:)
If you think that sorry display of no effort hockey was “skating through the trap”, you shouldn’t be commenting on systems play.
It’s called dump and chase and works well if the officials call holding and interference but not so much if they put their whistles away!
When a coach doesn’t, or refuses to, adapt tactics and strategy during a game, it indicates to me that they believe it to be a problem with the players.
If you think about it, all Tippett is doing is keeping with whatever his plan is and changing the personnel. Literally shuffling the deck chairs.
Most hockey players seem like smart people. I’m sure that they can adapt and learn different plays to counter the opposing teams game plan. I’m certain they’d understand “only one deep forechecker in” and “wingers to drop 3′ lower on the breakout”.
A few people might say that hockey is too dynamic to affect meaningful change on the fly. Well, soccer and basketball manage it.
I believe systems coaches are great to get you to a base level. With everything, you need to have a little more in your toolbox if you want to go further.
In game adjustments are the sign of a well coached team. I think a team should have at least 2 styles in their bag to counter the system they are playing. There are only a few tactics really defensively. After a couple of seasons the team and coach should be able to handle that, and we’re there.
Especially in the playoffs where you have limited kicks at the can, you can’t waste one and make the adjustment next time. The other coach will probably just do it to you again anyways if it seems the opponent can’t handle it.
I read this AM the Tiger Cats did it to the Argos at some point in the game and they couldn’t handle it.
Agreed. Putting players in the blender isn\t solving the problem unless the players can execute a new strategy. They do need to be able to play different styles even if they do a dump and chase against a 1-3-1 it will open up the trap.
They need to adjust the PP too. Other teams have scouted them to dealth.
When something is taken away something else opens up. A team that wants to be ultimately successful has to be able to make the switch.
Tippett is appeasing his stars. In doing so, the team is going nowhere. Teams that win and have won have an identity. The Oilers have one loook which is easily limited.
The Oilers have 3 play drivers for the forwards. McDavid, Draisaitl and Hyman. Hyman has produced consistent results no matter who his linemates are. Even his results last year without Matthews, Marner or Tavares were pretty solid. That said I think the most balanced lineup the Oilers could ice would be
37-97-13
93-29-44
18-71-56
flip Yams and Kassian if you please that would give us a driver on each line and would help players like McLeod and Foegele get their confidence back. Might not be the best long term solution but it would be worth a try.
good for a try maybe…except for 44. He should be on the 4th line until he can figure it out there, and if he can’t figure it out and play consistently for a few weeks in a row, then he can go to PB or some other area code.
No idea if LA makes the playoffs.
But if we meet in the playoffs – and Tippett does Tippett and loads up McDavid and Drai.
Philip Danault 2021
CF 55.7%
GF 62.5%
Makes 5.5 million or 1 million dollars more than Tyson Barrie.
I stumped hard for him in the off season and legitimately believe he would have made us a Stanley Cup contender.
Still owning souls of the best players in the game.
Not a chance LA moves him but what would think the Oilers would have to offer to even get Blake to pick up the phone?
Important to remember they already have the best prospect pool in the league.
Could have gone after him instead of Nuge.
Could have opted to not sign Barrie or Ryan. Keep Bear and sign Danault.
Do you realistically think he would have signed in Edmonton for the same amount of money LA offered him?
He wanted an expanded offensive role in Montreal and that didn’t happen with a thin C group. There’s no way he was coming here to play behind Leon and Connor.
Final Perlini 1st Line Proposal, aka what Eff do I know…
Perlini-97-13
37-29-18
93-70-10
16-71-56
How about
18 97 10
16 29 Lucky 13
42 93 37
70 71 44
Yamo?
OOPS! Ryan top line! I am a troll!
18 97 56
16 29 13
42 93 37
70 71 44
Broberg is going to be a good player and he is learning
But, the 5 minute wind up for the slap shot – will not work in the NHL.
He’ll be sent down before Niemelainen.
A couple things, first the GM is banned from trading with Detroit because its just embarrassing.
Second if the coach and the captain cant get this team going, what good is giving a pile of draft picks away for another player that sleep walks through the first two periods.
This team is now the GM’s and adding a bunch more players is not going to help unless its a real #1 or #2 D man who yells at his team mates to get the lead out.
My kingdom for Drew Doughty for half retained
Maybe the solution is to play the top two lines less and double shift McDavid and Drai, maybe even RNH, in the bottom six. The big guns keep their minutes up – not arguing this should be the case, but the coach seems to think so – while giving more time to the bottom six with better centres. Maybe you even start with three centres and sit Ryan. I’m actually surprised double shifting the two studs hadn’t happened more under our last two coaches.
WE LOST TWO GAMES IN A ROW!!!
Fire Tippett,
Trade Yamo,
Strip McDavid of his “C”
Waive Russell
ARGH!!!!
Just kidding, dog days of winter….we goooooood.
Seriously what’s Alan Walsh’s deal? His client sails thru waivers then gets passed by two players in a week, on merit and pedigree.
Is Walsh just putting a spotlight on his client hoping he gets claimed in the next waiver assignment? Any press is good press theory?
Yeah, this was bizarre. The Fleury sword through the chest was hilarious but maybe justifiable for a probably HHOF goalie getting punted to the side.
Now he’s doing this for…Lagesson? Maybe Walsh just had a few pops during the game and was fired up, hey that’s me most of the games.
The conspiracy theory is Lagesson is the sacrificial lamb to throw heat on Tippett because Walsh’s most valuable client is not happy with the coaching.
Ostap Safin?
https://puckpedia.com/agent/allan-walsh
Sorry, same organization, forgot Walsh isn’t the actual agent. Octagon.
The team has lost to a bunch of teams that are not making the playoffs, sure you dont win every game, but look at Championship teams, they dont mess around with weak teams. The Oiler’s are still a wannabe elite team, way too many holes in their game.
Also maybe McDavid should not be captain, give it to someone who is prepared to yell at the players to wake them up.
This team is lacking real leadership, and a quality coach. If it wasn’t for Dria and McDavid the team would be talking about the lottery.
No way you go far in the playoffs when you let the first goal in about 70% of the time.
Are you suggesting they strip the C from McDavid?
Sorry Lee I know that’s how things are done out in Van.
But we subscribe to such notions,
Signed BruceinEd
Haven’t had much leadership time training etc to think yelling makes a difference! When you lose it is one of two things the strategy and or the execution. If the execution is on point with limited positive results the coach loses the room! By what I have watched neither of the above have happened. Lack of calls when McDavid is constantly held and interfered with resulted in what we saw which was a border line call at a crucial time. referees MANAGING A GAME IS BULLSHIT!
5th on the team ( forwards ) for TOI – Kailer Yamamoto has 5 points
No idea if any of those came against the AZ Coyotes.
Is he beating Kyle Turris? Yes.
Kyle Turris has 2 points. So there’s that…
5 points playing with Leon. The down votes surely must be because of this and not because the poster highlighted this fact.
Yamo is not a top 6 forward on team that wins a Stanley Cup.
and Dylan Holloway is (this season)?
If he doesn’t get hurt he is. Yamo’s full time duty in the top 6 is running out. Yamo is like a Swiss Army knife kills penalties plays in the top 6 as spot duty for injuries. I can’t see Yamo being a Oiler ( salary cap) at this time next year.
I’m not sure how one could be convinced that a 20 year old who has never even had an NHL practice or played a professional hockey game is a legit top 6 forward – we’re not talking about a top 5 pick here, let alone a 1st overall or generational prospect like McDavid.
He could be but I’m not sure how one can be so convinced.
A swiss-army knife middle six forward with top 6 fill in ability who kills penalties, is still developing (pre-prime), etc. for apx $2M – not sure why the org wouldn’t want that player on the team next season.
Because he’s not the right fit in our top 6 unless Leon can learn to pass the puck to himself in the scoring areas. You think Yamo is not replaceable in the top 6 I do. As for a 20 year-old playing in the NHL what the hell are you talking about. l would be here all night listing the 20 year-olds that have played in the NHL top 6 since it’s first game.
My post above was not with respect to him being in the top 6, it was with respect to him being a middle-six swiss army knife who can spot up the lineup while killing penalties, etc. – what you proposed.
I don’t think he’s replaceable in the top 6? That is a laughable statement given I was the one calling him a great 3rd liner in the off-season and this team has championship level depth if we can find another top 6 player to push him down to 3RW.
Yes, there are some 20 year olds that come straight to the NHL with success, not many, but some. More rare are those 20 year olds that come to the top 6 and stand out as your project. Even more rare are those not drafted in the top 10 or top 5.
This is ridiculous their are dozens upon dozens of forwards drafted outside the top 5-10 that have lit up the NHL starting at 20 years old.
Pionk has a hearing, so not in person, so no real suspension.
Suspensions should start at five games and come in five game increments. If something is bad enough that it is worth suspending, it should have a real penalty. One game is 1/82 of the season. That’s like suspending an NFL player for a quarter.
Suspending Pionk for 20 games would go a long way to making the NHL a better league.
Oh we were asking for this back in the days of Matt Cooke, it will never happen.
Neal Pionk has been doing this for a long time.
Many of us in here have been pointing out the interesting things he has done
to the Oilers the last 2 years.
To my knowledge, nobody from the Oilers has ever said a rude word to Neal.
If you are waiting for head office to help out the antelope – you will be waiting a long time.
If you listen carefully, you can hear the Hyenas howling with laughter.
So Spezza gets the in person hearing. This is exactly backward.
The NHLPA needs to get their shit together and demand some changes to the league, maybe even threaten to walk out over concerns of player safety due to incompetent and inconsistent officiating and DoPS.
But it’s NHLPA members doing this to other NHLPA members. It’s arguing for disability in your CBA for when you break your co-workers fingers with a hammer on purpose because they work in a different department.
No. Its arguing for appropriate and consistent enforcement of the rule book.
Spezza had the more egregious hit, a knee to the head is much worse than a knee on knee.
Going after a player in a vulnerable position is way worse.
Both need lengthy suspensions and Pionk needs to be sent a message because of the multitude of offenses.
Overall if the Refs would just get it right in the first place Spezza would not have needed any redemption.
Do you say the same thing if it was Nurse are Yamo.
This post can only be read while rolling one’s eyes.
There is helmet on the head the knee not so much!
The problem, of course, is who do you replace Tippett with? Who out there is better than him right now? It would be Very Oilers to try to rehabilitate Babcock’s reputation, but is he the right choice? Vigneault? Green? Torts?
You don’t throw this team to Woodcroft mid-season, he needs a training camp.
As I’ve said a few times, the Oilers really need to find their Nick Nurse or Steve Kerr, a positive, intelligent coach who helps the team find an identity.
A Conte or Klopp.
Where are these coaches in hockey?
There is one out of a job, but needs Gary’s ok to come back. Actually the one I wanted when Flat Top wasn’t doing it for me anymore.
Other than that, I don’t see anyone. Gallant is gone. I am not sure Woody is the guy that can persuade Connor and Leon to tweak a few things up, like shift length. Tippet can’t seem to and has more Gravitas than Woody. Or worse maybe he’s not asking.
Vignault Green and Torts are all cut from the tough guy bully coach cloth. No bueno for me. And so is Babcock. He actually has done little to have his rep, got a Cup and ran out what Scotty built.
We need a manipulator, strategist and motivator like Cooper (another one I wanted, or even better like Sather was), one that isn’t greasy like Dementor. Cooper is firm but seems to keep everyone on board. Even when they had a lot of disappointments.
How about Barry Trotz? His contract ends in 22/23. Could he be fired? Islanders look bad this season.
Rick Tocchet
I know this will sound crazy, but what about Patrick Roy…..
That is crazy.
Todd Nelson.
Alain Vigneault?
Yes, please.
Vigneault would be a great choice.
I believe the inmates are running the asylum to some degree and Vigneault would never tolerate that.
Agreed
Can’t bully anymore you have to be firm convince manipulate and charm
I don’t know that V is that and over his ways, or Turtle Babs or that woody has the cajones
I have said it before and I will say it again, I think the Oilers need to trade Barrie before the deadline. People will disagree on two points. One is “he is a valuable piece of the D” and the other is it “looks bad to sign and trade”.
For the former, I respectfully disagree. He is and always has been a D liability that compensates with O. We have Bouch and others that can contribute O from the D. We don’t need more O from the D. We need more D from the D. I would rather have Berglund at 3D right now than Barrie, but I think Holland can make a trade for a vet RD that knows the basics about playing D on a reasonably consistent basis.
For the latter, I don’t think Holland or anyone else should worry about how future FAs may take the Barrie trade. It is what is best for the team. In the next few years there will be many FAs willing to come to this team if they can continue to play well in the regular season and make it a few rounds in the playoffs, but to get through a few rounds in the playoffs will require a change from Barrie.
Winning is the best sugar for attracting players.
Didn’t Berglund have a really good camp? If he isn’t expected to score a lot, my bet is he would be a lot better than Barrie defensively. Is also a lot bigger, and has a lot of pro under his belt, it’s not like bringing up a 20 YO.
Barrie for JT MIller? DeBrusk? In a deal for Gibson?
DeBrusk and Gibson don’t add anything to this team. JT Miller has far more value and Vancouver won’t be interested in an offense-only defenseman.
Exactly. Barrie is someone who can fetch the team something very tangible for the dollars that would be leaving. I know the guy means well but he isn’t built for playoff hockey in terms of his defensive responsibilities.
The team has an in house replacement named Evan. Run with him.
In terms of the optics, players will sign where there is consistent winning taking place. Edmonton trading Barrie would not have any impact whatsoever on potential free agents coming. Vegas has the bad rep on that one. No one else…well, maybe Columbus as well.
You’re absolutely right in that this team needs a responsible, stay at home D-Man who will punish the opposition when they get near the goalie…or McDavid for that matter. A vet who has won, who knows how to instill a winning culture onto a team.
Myself, I would trade Barrie to the Islanders for Chara and Matt Martin. The money evens out and both are solid role players who would fit onto the D and 3/4 lines like a hand in glove. Size, tenacity and long playoff experiences are on their resumes in spades. If Holland is serious about this year, I think that type of trade gives the team a different type of character than one they’ve been showing the masses in the last little while.
I think Barrie should be traded, and I think he will, but I really doubt Holland does it now. Seems like a summer thing. To be fair to Barrie, it’s been mentioned here a few times that his possession numbers are better in the playoffs.
Barrie for Toffoli. One-for-one.
Weird, McLellan was able to get his 3rd and 4th lines to outperform their xG and be over 50%, for a couple of years at least – LT had a great look at The Athletic a few weeks ago on this point.
Some of it is Belanger Triangle stuff by the management and scouting staff, but I’ve never been a Tippett believer, I guess we all know that.
Holland really screwed up the D by letting Larsson go and trading Bear for a replacement level player, which obviously isn’t on Tippett, but I’d bet good money Holland talked to Tipp about resigning Barrie.
We knew the goaltending would be inconsistent, we knew the D was going to be a tire fire, but we all thought this group of forwards was the best we’ve seen in years, I actually thought since the 2006 squad.
But it sure continues to be McDavid, Drai and Hyman scoring 5v5 and nobody else. We know Nuge was re-signed to be a PP wizard. Yamamoto is a fun player but doesn’t score enough to be a top 6 winger. Bison King is still a bit of a mystery.
Holland didn’t let Larsson go. He left. And it’s likely the reason Barrie was signed.
Ceci was signed to replace Larsson.
That may have been his rationale but it certainly wasn’t a good one nor was it one that made any kind of sense.
I think there is a very high probability Broberg has a long and successful career in the NHL, hopefully with the Oilers. I view him as the Klef (turned Keith) replacement.
For 3 LD the Oilers need a hammer. That is Neimelainen or Sammy (could have been Lags, but I think that ship has left port). I hope we can see a few more games of N before he gets sent back to Bake. I also hope we get to see Sammy for at least a 5 game stretch. Then management should make a decision on which one gets traded at the deadline for RD support or 3C (bottom 6).
While there have been some mis-fires on the offseason acquisitions (Ryan, Barrie), Sceviour has exceeded my expectations. Not scoring, but doing other things well. But most importantly working hard every shift. He deserves winning the hard hat most games he is in.
He had the legs pumping last night.
The saddest thing to happen in last night’s game is further proof that it’s much easier to destroy than create. Last year was the grand experiment with teams playing each other enough times to actually make spending football-like time game planning worth the while. Leafs and Habs gave us fits obstructing.
The Oilers are now 6-6 against teams I’d consider likely to miss the playoffs. Four of those wins are against the completely hapless Coyotes and Canucks meaning they are 2-6 against the hard-working, structured but under-talented teams represented by the Kraken. This is on the back of being run over by inferior Jets and Hawks teams in the past two playoff series.
So removing the completely hapless that’s 3-13 against that sub section of teams.
They are 9-1 against teams that are likely to make the playoffs who are more likely to try and best you straight up. Picture how many odd man rushes Connor had against Vegas. We don’t see those against LA or Seattle.
One narrative is that the Oilers are some combination of lazy or over confident. That’s bullshit. There’s more here than Kurt Leavins-type analysis.
I surmise that hockey has a fatal flaw no other sport does. If the coach knows they can’t compete on talent and the players actually buy in to that, you can stifle any player (or two) on the planet if you 100% commit to not trying to create offence when he’s on the ice.
You can do that in other sports but it comes with a price.
In hockey, not only will that decision wipe that player out entirely, in fact, it will likely mean your team creates offence from turnovers as the player and team try to do too much or get frustrated and take penalties.
Other sports? You pay a price to play that way.
Picture basketball, Warriors from earlier these decades. If you want to take away Stef Curry you can double team him so teams load up with Klay Thompson types who will knock down open shots all day.
In football if you want to take away Derrick Henry you can put 8 in the box but that leaves AJ Brown or Julio Jones in 1-on-1 coverage. That’s the price you pay.
In baseball, you can intentionally walk Vlad Guerrero but that lets Teoscar hit with a man on base all game long. Maybe you do that but it’s a price you pay.
In theory, the price you pay in hockey is that “someone should be open” like Jesse or even Leon but to my eye it doesn’t look like that because a commitment to not turn pucks and clogging the neutral zone or defensive zone takes away space from everyone.
I don’t know the solution but I’ve seen this unfold enough times to know how it ends. I’ve often thought doing something crazy like having McDavid stand in his defensive zone corner with Danualt standing next to him and playing 4-on-4 might make sense; 4-on-4 offense is higher goals per 60 with a side effect of the league maybe becoming embarrassed enough to do something.
This is as true as it has always been.
Coaches find a way to limit creativity and win in shootouts. This keeps them employed.
The answer is to build a balanced team that can score more ways than one i.e. Tampa the past number of seasons.
The Oil have had the Jacks, Kings and Aces for a long time but can’t figure our where Mike Grier and Todd Marchant live.
Changing the idiotic points system in the NHL would also make a large difference
Oilers dominated the Jets.
Their goalie was otherworldly.
It’s hockey, or as Woodguy says, mostly goalie.
Really…..looked eerily similar to last night to some.
Other broadcasters keep pointing out Tips loading up the 1st line.
Not many teams terrified of the famous lines 2 and 3 of the Oilers.
I keep reading complaints like this and yet Tampa wins the last 2 Stanley cups.
The rules & regs are applied for all. Terrible or not.
BALANCE
“I’ve often thought doing something crazy like having McDavid stand in his defensive zone corner with Danualt standing next to him and playing 4-on-4 might make sense; 4-on-4 offense is higher goals per 60 with a side effect of the league maybe becoming embarrassed enough to do something.”
Steve Kasper of the Bruins used to shadow Gretzky and had success (relatively speaking of course) doing it. His only job on the ice was to get as close to Gretzky as possible.
Gretzky then realized that if he went and ‘shadowed’ the best Bruin on the ice that took two Bruins out leaving the Oil with a man advantage.
Opens door- peaks in ‘Derek Ryan is just unlucky’ room to see if anyone left.
Just a couple of people talking with Dave Tippet.
Night in – night out with this player.
Derek Ryan:
For the year:-3GF / 16GA
Like so many times the last 10 years – it has *long* ago stopped being about Derek Ryan.
Last night:
2 CF / 17CA
1 SF/ 10 SA
0 GF / 2 GA
Derek Ryan is harming the team and has been doing so for some time.
And people mock when I say Dylan Holloway will be on this roster by the deadline.
I agree he played big boy Hockey in College and would have jumped straight in to the line-up like so many other successful NCAA Forwards in the past. It’s really only 1 poster that repeatedly keeps saying he needs to spend at least a year in the AHL.
I know you are referring to me but you are, again, misinterpreting my position.
I never ever said that he will need considerable AHL time. What I’ve said is he may very well need some legit AHL time, we just don’t know but based on history, its reasonably likely.
You cite “so many other successful NCAA forwards jumping straight to the NHL” but, of course, the number of 20 year olds that have done that shows its the vast exception.
I’m not saying that Holloway will absolutely need a full AHL year but the position that him needing some AHL development time is just as realistic and valid as a position that he is a no doubt NHL top 6 player this season – as others posit.
The kid has basically not played for a year. Jumping to the NHL after even 20 games in the AHL will be a minor miracle.
You’re not asking him to be the saviour. His attributes of skating, physicality and passing will suffice to earn him a spot!
I never said that though. Ever. I suggested that Holloway get THREE FULL MONTHS in the AHL and then get called up at the deadline.
It looks like you’ll get your wish once he’s cleared to play he’s going to need some time to get conditioned in the minors.
That’s not my “wish”, that’s the reasonable projection (and, even if he was healthy in September, AHL time was a more reasonable projection than McDavid’s left winger out of camp).
My wish is that he’s the second coming of Dylan Larkin out of college and, while that may happen, its not the reasonable projection.
Who’s this reasonable projection guy you keep talking about? I don’t see him! Is he over here or over there? You think because you keep saying the same thing over and over makes your opinion right. If Holloway doesn’t get hurt he has a 50/50 shot at making the team out of camp. I was on the Bragg Creek team you weren’t.
Reasonable projection would be decades examples – orders of magnitude more common that these straight to the NHL at 20 college players cited.
I know which team you are on and I know you base that on watching zero of his NCAA games and on his numbers and the “Golden Retriever” moniker you heard.
Not that it makes me an expert or anything of the kind but I watched about 80% of his games last year and I became VERY high on his potential and his NHL floor.
He very well could have made the team if not hurt, maybe even 50/50. Of course, even before he needed a 2nd surgery he was already coming in off an injury that, if nothing else, no doubt negatively effecting off-season training, etc.
If he was never hurt and was able to play AHL games to finish last season that would have been a totally different situation but that was never the case or part of the discussion.
What are you trying to say? Spit it out do you think your the Nav Bratia of the Oilers? Who scored the last goal for the Oilers in the WHA? If Holloway doesn’t get hurt he’s on the team right know like some of his peers around the league who by the way don’t have the same tool kit as Holloway.
I think my posts are pretty clear on the subject – we are both speculating on things that will be never known. Of course, as stated, one is speculating based on decades of history and reasonable projections.
The top 6 could use a hard checking physically capable forward that has hands. I think you’ll selling short on Holloway and long on Yamo. Opinions are like assholes everybody has one.
The two things, “needing some AHL development time” and “no doubt NHL player this season”, aren’t mutually exclusive though. He’s on track to be cleared by Christmas and trade deadline is late March. That gives him up to 3 full months of AHL development time before being recalled. I have never suggested that Holloway start in the NHL mid-season cold. Only that, based on the timeline for return that Holland has given us, I guarantee that Holloway will be recalled to the NHL by the deadline, barring further injuries.
and he very well may be recalled near the NHL deadline on merit, and I hope he is.
We don’t know that though – he had great up arrows 10 months ago but has had a series of set-backs and we’ll have to see how it goes. Many a prospect of his caliber have found the transition to pro hockey more difficult than projected. Again, we just don’t know if a couple of months of AHL time is enough.
We also will never know if he would have fit right in as McDavid’s winger in October if he didn’t need the second surgery. I posit that was a very unlikely outcome even while others feel it was a lock and we could have “booked it”.
The bottom six situation really sucks, but it’s fascinating in a way as well. Why do we keep getting caved, with a group that looks like it should be better? I’m sure the lack of lack of playing time is an issue. Maybe the lack of PP time. A couple garbage points on the PP can do wonders for a slump. Maybe if half your ice time comes on the PK, that impacts the way you play 5 x 5.
Someone talked about this last season, I think Georges. They theorized that the lack of pp for bottom roster players has a negative impact on their 5v5 scoring.
The issue though is that the Oiler’s bottom-6 are also consistently terrible defensively/checking.
I enjoyed watching Reijo Ruotsalainen. When we got him back for a 2nd go around I felt strongly we would win the SC.
The Tip situation is so confusing to me. When he was brought in I was cautiously optimistic. He seemed to get the most out of mediocre Phoenix teams. His teams were also quite successful 5v5.
In Edmonton, he has been opposite George. The bottom of the roster has underperformed. The Oil have been middling at best 5v5.
Very confusing.
EDM Goal Diff 23 gp (16-7-0)
EV Only (5v5,4v4,3v3)
97 w/o 29(12-10) 55%
29 w/o 97(13-7) 65%
97&29 On(13-7) 65%
93 w/o either(3-4) 43%
71(4-5) 44%
10(3-16) 16%
Other(2-5) 29%
Net EV -4
Special Teams:28-11
Net ST +17
Empty Net:6-5
Net EN +1
SO/PS 2-0
Net SO/PS +2
Goal Diff +16
5v5 EDM is +9 when Derek Ryan isn’t on the ice and -13 when he’s on the ice. That’ incredible.
His 4v5 GA/60 of 8.2/60 is an outlier as well. Next highest is Hyman at 5.6, then Scevior at 4.6, the rest are under 4/60.
Time comes for us all and seems to have come for Derek Ryan.
Maybe Tip continues to play Ryan in an attempt to send a message to Holland. HELP!!!
I hate to say it, but the Ryan signing was a very classic Oilers type signing. Find a guy with an established level of ability who’s on the precipice of the cliff in terms of age, sign him for two years and cross your fingers and hope he doesn’t fall off of it. We’ve been doing this since the days of Eric Belanger.
You wonder if Holland even spoke with a Kampf?
It’s on the fringes of the roster where you really see the impact of not having a strong analytics department.
Not sure I agree. There were many who thought the Ryan signing was solid specifically because of his underlying numbers. What metrics pointed to Ryan being on the precipice of the cliff? Maybe his scoring numbers but otherwise he looked OK, no?
Age. He’s 34 turning 35.
Precipice of a cliff?
he already tumbled off the cliff last season
Why do we need so sign bottom six guys to two year deals? I get that’s probably the only 2-year offer they get and that entices them to sign but these guys should always be on one year contracts (Turris, Ryan, etc.)
How does Ken Holland not know this?
Get Devin Shore signed and the rest of the roster will look after itself.
Derek Ryan’s cap hit is $1.25MM and he doesn’t have a NMC so can be assigned to the AHL for a lasting cap hit of, I believe, $50K.
Devon Shore fully buryable for no cap hit.
Katz has proven that he doesn’t have an issue with these types of expenses (i.e paying NHL salaries while the player is in the AHL) so, given the 50 contract limit isn’t an issue at this point, there is no real issue with these contracts.
I also don’t think signing Devon Shore early had any adverse implication on team building during the off-season, zero. It was a zero risk move.
Turris’ contract, given its for a higher AAV, was a bit of an issue.
Seriously, zero risk for Shore.
Zero risk for Koekkoek.
$50k risk for Ryan.
Turris actually costs against the cap so hurts a bit.
The others have essentially no more negative impact on the cap than the AHL signings like Cracknell or Malone.
Yup, we’re on the same page. The only real additional risk is the 50 contract limit and the org isn’t close to that currently.
I guess the other risk would be a non-willingness to waive/assign a veteran but I don’t think that’s an issue – Holland waived Turris (and Shore) last year.
He looked good through preseason and the first 4 games.
Maybe he’s nursing some sort of injury.
After last night’s game, the downvotes I had collected pre-game took on an even more sumptuous quality. I fried them up and ate them with a 6 oz rib eye, medium rare of course, with a glass of Sangiovese. Perfection. There has always been something magical about a nice Sunday dinner, no?
I don’t know how long you can be a top 5 NHL team with a defence core that has one regular (Bouchard) plus two depth guys (Russell and Lagesson) at a 50% + goal share. I was shocked — dare I say gobsmacked — by the rousing support for Barrie, he of the FF% of 42, he of the SCF% of 46, the GF% of 47, the xGF% of 46. Sure hope that PDO of 1018 holds. Maybe when everyone is healthy Tipp can dress 8 D and play Barrie on the fourth pairing to get him some better matchups 🙂
Foegele is at a 34 percent goal share, just a smidge ahead of Devin Shore (33). I do hear that Foegele, he of 3 points in his last 18 playoff games, will come through when the chips are down. For Foegele, when will those chips be down? He’s at 1 EV goal in 23 games, do we wait until game 30? 40? Call me old fashioned, but I like it when a player performs at a high level throughout a season, you know, the way Bear is doing right now in Carolina.
I will say this of Spec: his post-game article threw some shade at Foegele and Kassian and it’s about damn time, particularly with respect to the latter. Good for you, Mark. Thumbs up, credit given. He had a good line about Kassian not being able to string 3 games together, guy must be a Godot fan 🙂
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/oilers-loss-kings-consequence-playing-noncommittal-effort/
Meh. You sound like someone who is really really really upset about the Bear trade – mixed in with a little bit of I Told You So.
I would say I am very upset about what the Bear trade meant in terms of process. It means that they just didn’t value the D properly. You don’t look at Bear in isolation, you look at it also with respect to Barrie being brought back, Keith being brought in, etc.
Barrie wasn’t brought back until Larsson decided at 11:59 to take his ball and leave.
If Larsson informs the Oilers earlier about his decisions, Kenny probably looks around before swinging back Barrie. But by the time Larsson decided to bail there was no one left to bring in other then Barrie.
Kenny could of not signed Barrie at that point sure, but does that instill confidence in the group? Yea we lost Larsson and sure I could of brought Barrie back but we got a gluten of unproven rookies were going to roll with in an season where we expect a deep playoff drive..
You don’t make sense.
I always thought Godot10 was Spector
Hah!
Hoo boy…what you say about Foegle is true.
But he has been saddled with Derek Ryan – a lot.
Foegle is a deck chair – there is a gash below the water line .
If Foegele is just a deck chair, we overpaid for the furniture.