I believe Jay Woodcroft will be an excellent NHL coach. The fact he is beginning his journey with the Edmonton Oilers is encouraging, but is by no means a guarantee he will find his success in this city. Woodcroft has an “interim” contract and the hockey Gods laugh with delight when bets are made on 38 games.
Still, this is better than watching him find the range with the Dallas Stars and it’s a reasonable bet that Woodcroft (and Dave Manson) can make the playoffs if things break right and the goaltending holds. I’m glad to be around for the beginning of what should be a coaching career worth tracking.
THE ATHLETIC!
- New Lowetide: 7 Oilers players poised to benefit most from Jay Woodcroft becoming head coach
- New DNB: Oilers coaching change clears the way: Ken Holland’s roster construction will now have to stand up to scrutiny
- Lowetide: Oilers pro forward depth chart about to get overhauled
- DNB: Three Oilers questions that will define stretch run
- Lowetide: Hard-target search to address Oilers roster needs before trade deadline
- Lowetide: Four RH defence prospects looking to impress while pushing for the NHL.
- DNB: Why Oilers prospect Xavier Bourgault is ‘a player that everybody wants to play with’
- Lowetide: Oilers’ bizarre January ended on a high note
- DNB: Oilers’ Zach Hyman is compelled to speak up about antisemitism when he sees it
- Lowetide: Revisiting Oilers’ choice to take Kailer Yamamoto in 2017 NHL Draft
- Lowetide: Why prospects stall in the AHL
- Lowetide: Grading the first 3 years of Ken Holland’s Oilers trades
- DNB: Adam Cracknell is now a Canadian Olympian.
- DNB: Dylan Holloway resumes road to Oilers after frustrating injury interruption
- New DNB: Oilers’ flaws can’t be ignored as losing skid goes from bad to worse
- Lowetide: Why can’t the Oilers win a trade in the Connor McDavid era?
- DNB: ‘We’re finding ways to lose’
- Lowetide: Midseason review of Oilers reasonable predictions for 2021-22
- Lowetide: What to expect from Dylan Holloway in Bakersfield and Edmonton this season
- Lowetide: Oilers top 20 prospects, winter 2021
WHAT TO EXPECT IN FEBRUARY
- On the road to: WAS (Expected 0-1-0) (Actual 1-0-0)
- At home to: VEG, CHI, NYI (Expected 2-1-0) (Actual 0-2-0)
- On the road to: SJS, LAK (Expected 1-0-1) (Actual 0-0-0)
- At home to: ANA (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- On the road to: WPG (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- At home to: MIN (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- On the road to: TBY, FLA, CAR (Expected 0-2-1) (Actual 0-0-0)
- Overall expected result: 6-4-2, 14 points in 12 games
- Actual January results: 1-2-0, 2 points in 3 games
- Oilers in 2021-22: 23-18-3, 49 points in 44 games
All bets are off! I’ll run this because they were my predictions for the Tippett team, but there’s zero chance my predictions will match the totals we’re about to see over the next nine games. Edmonton’s new hires tend to have severe results early. Bryan Watson was 2-6-1 in his first nine games in 1980-81, John Muckler went 3-3-3 in his first nine games in 1989-90.
Ted Green was 3-5-1 in 1991-92, George Burnett was 3-5-1 in 1994-95, Ron Low was 4-4-1 the same season. Kevin Lowe was 2-3-4 (two OT losses) in 1999-00, Craig MacTavish was 5-2-2 the following year because of course he was (he’s a favourite of mine). Pat Quinn was 6-2-1 in 2009-10, Tom Renney was 3-4-2 the following season.
Ralph Krueger was 3-4-2 in 2012-13, Dallas Eakins was 2-6-1 the following season. Todd Nelson was 2-3-4 in 2014-15, Todd McLellan was 3-6-0 in 2015-16, Ken Hitchcock 6-3-0 in 2018-19, Dave Tippett 7-1-1 in 2019-20. Oh, and Glen Sather, 1979-80? 1-4-4. What will Woodcroft’s record be? As I said, all bets are off.
JAY WOODCROFT
I’ve written about Woodcroft 11 times here and 16 times for The Athletic. I recently wrote “During his first trip to Bakersfield to meet the media and the Condors organization in 2018, Jay Woodcroft said his AHL team would be based on pace, puck possession and playing a connected brand of hockey in all three zones. How the hell were we to know he was telling the truth?” and that’s kind of how I feel about him. At the same time I wrote the following:
The point of today’s post is to prepare you for the loss of Jay Woodcroft to another organization. Now, I know some of you think that if you yell about Dave Tippett long enough, Woodcroft will be hired in Edmonton, but history is an excellent forecast for the future and Ken Holland likes to hire a coach once every decade and that’s a long, long time.
Holland’s first coach in Detroit was Scotty Bowman, who left after winning the 2002 Stanley Cup. It was his ninth, incredibly. Poor Buffalo. His next hire was Dave Lewis, who lasted just two seasons and won just a single playoff round.
Mike Babcock was more successful, he spent a decade in Motown and won a Stanley there. Jeff Blashill was chosen by Holland in 2015, never won a round of playoffs and remains the coach for the winged wheel.
I don’t see Tippett as being similar to Lewis. Perhaps I’m wrong. I see the Holland-Tippett relationship as running together through 2025 summer, when Leon Draisaitl’s contract is done. That’s four more years.
Any change in direction now will involve reassessing, retooling and a period of transition. This train is headed for glory. It doesn’t mean it will get there, ask Emile Francis how the 1972 New York Rangers busted rails and didn’t finish the job.
That said, the train is populated and the die is cast. Whether it’s headed for Stanleytown or over a cliff, we don’t know. The train does have Dave Tippett at the controls and I don’t see that changing. Godspeed, Jay Woodcroft. My God you have done a stunning job in a previously impossible situation. Pick a good team and a GM who believes in you.
WOODCROFT’S FIRST AHL SEASON
I don’t run the season reviews for players and coaches anymore, but back in 2018-19 it was still something people enjoyed reading. Here’s my review of Woodcroft’s work in Bakersfield at the end of the season.
What was the most impressive thing about Woodcroft’s first AHL season as coach? He had nine rookies and all nine had a positive story to tell about their game. From Marody and Benson (who were stellar) to Hebig, Yamamoto, Day, Starrett, Wells, Skinner and Vesel, each found an area of the game in which they could flourish. Impressive.
You say that, but all nine guys can’t make the NHL. Sure, but the first step in allowing the cream to rise is competition for playing time and usage in prominent positions. Tyler Benson, Cooper Marody and Cam Hebig started out as a line together, but the three men finished in different spots. Woodcroft is giving everyone a chance, and they ride ’til they can’t no more. He is giving each new hand a chance to find his level.
How did Woodcroft do it? Well, he had some veterans and some high end rookies and decided on a kid line. They were fire to start the season, the line had a strong 14-game stanza: Marody (14, 5-12-17) was the catalyst, with Benson (14, 3-11-14) and Hebig (14, 7-6-13) not far behind. Now, the trio didn’t hang together and didn’t finish in the same way. In their final 14 games of the season, Marody went 6-13-19, Benson 5-14-19 and Hebig 1-6-7.
So Hebig is out? No, he had to find a different role in 2018-19 but he could emerge as a scorer this coming season. Remember, they were all rookies.
What did Yamamoto do in his final 14 games of the AHL season? Before getting shut down with the wrist injury, he went 6-4-10 in his final 14. That was good, but he had only 17 shots. In his first 13 AHL games, Yamamoto went just 4-4-8, but he had 28 shots. When he’s shooting the puck a lot, good things happen. The wrist had an impact. Yamamoto had 31 shots in the final 10 games of his WHL regular-season career.
How did Woodcroft bring along the veteran forwards? I think he tried to build two lines made up of veterans and or college men. Brad Malone and Josh Currie were staples, with Joe Gambardella and Patrick Russell major players. It’s kind of incredible, all of the forwards who had success were, at least marginally, legit NHL prospects.
What did Woodcroft run in the playoffs? He went with Benson-Marody-Currie before Marody’s injury and that line was very effective. The No. 2 line was Gambardella-Malone-Russell, but that line would often get the top opposition (to my eye). Polei-Vesel-Gust and Hebig-Esposito-Callahan also appeared but I will tell you Esposito pushed up the depth chart during the playoffs.
Defense and goal? Lagesson-Jones top pair, Lowe-Bear played second pair and Stanton-Day also played a lot. Evan Bouchard got a push during the final eight games and Brandon Manning was a ghost. Shane Starrett was the starter early in the playoffs, Wells had one strong game and Stuart Skinner had a game to remember. As I said, every rookie had at least one story to tell about his season.
Who will stick in Edmonton this fall? Don’t know. My guesses include Caleb Jones plus Tyler Benson and Joe Gambardella. They are guesses.
Who will be the AHL rookies this time? The likely freshman are Evan Bouchard, Dmitri Samorukov, Kirill Maksimov, Ostap Safin and Ryan McLeod. All should find Woodcroft’s coaching style a benefit. I don’t know what role McLeod will play, his speed is going to be a big asset but his skills might be used on the defensive side if the young man can’t find the range offensively. I worry about Safin basically losing an entire year to injury.
What is Woodcroft’s future? Five years from now, if he’s the head coach in Edmonton and Keith Gretzky is the GM, I wouldn’t be the least surprised.
LOWDOWN WITH LOWETIDE
At 10 this morning, we kickstart the weekend with the Lowdown on TSN 1260. Chris Johnston, TSN Insider will discuss the Oilers next step (goaltender or RHD?) and we’ll ponder what kind of a bounce Edmonton gets with the coaching change. Steve Lansky pops in at 10:40 (not time change) and we’ll talk Tippett, Woodcroft as a long-term solution and what else might be out there in summer. Plus the Olympics. 10-1260 text, @Lowetide on twitter. It’s Friday people!!
SHOW ME THE WAY TO GO HOME
The best team builder in my lifetime was Whitey Herzog. He was a manager (and general manager) of the St. Louis Cardinals at his peak, and he solved a major problem (the Cardinals played in a ballpark bigger than the Grand Canyon in the 1980’s) by finding speed demons who could also hit doubles into the gap, field better than anyone and throw well at all positions (although Vince Coleman didn’t have a wonderful arm). When other managers were looking for home-run hitters, Whitey made do with one (Jack Clark) and found brilliant talents all over baseball for pennies on the dollar.
Jay Woodcroft arrives in the NHL with a similar problem. The Oilers aren’t good when Connor McDavid is on the bench, and some of the numbers are terrible. Currently, at five-on-five, McDavid is 21-16 without Draisaitl, the tandem is 13-11 together. Draisaitl without 97 is 24-24.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is 8-8 at five-on-five without 97 and 29, Ryan McLeod is 8-11, and the rest of the roster is 14-30. As I see it, the job for Woodcroft is moving in players who can help the team outscore in the minutes when McDavid is at rest (and 29 plus 93, although they aren’t outscoring). What are his solutions? We do know that goaltending is a key and defense is too. Tippett got his third and fourth lines to spend more time in the other team’s end (47.9 percent shot differential) at five-on-five, but the scoring percentage was 31.8 and that says you need more skill. Woodcroft gets his chance to figure out the puzzle starting tonight.
MacT getting alot of love on here and I like it – always been a fan of his spoken word.
Its interesting though, if I recall correctly, he wasn’t looked on in a favorable light after his management days. Most liked him as a coach for most of his tenure (at the end, like most coaches, the fanbase wanted him gone) but his reputation went downhill from there.
If all goes well, wouldn’t mind seeing him on Woody’s staff next season.
I enjoy MacT on the panel greatly, but I hope that’s where he stays. Him on the bench next to Woody would give me Todd Nelson assistant flashbacks. Feels like this is a do over for that and I hope we give the new guy a real chance, as in longer than this season no matter what.
I thought on Tuesday the between period segment with him and Bob was one of the best game breakdowns I had ever seen on TV. Both guys were just stellar. Last night’s was pretty good too.
On the panel, there was MacT.
On the ice, there was Niemelainen, who hits like a MackT.
Well this is semi-funny. Okay, its all the way funny. Quite the trailer on the game comments though…
IDK.I thought the team was awful tonight, although they did get better as the game wore on. I gave up trying to count the odd man rushes.
Oh they weren’t great by any means. But they played with verve and composure and physicality. Took a lot of hits to make plays. Never went full tire fire. Got goaltending. Were net front a lot. Got some pucks past the other guy. Some of that is the dead cat in dead cat bounce, but man after the last two games it’s still an improvement, a step forward. The next two days are Jay’s only available break to have a practice for the next 20 or so days. They’re key.
And we’ll see on the other side.
I don’t disagree – as I said, Mike Smith was the 1st start and he was key to the win.
At the same time, they created just as much on the offence as they gave up on the defence – dominated in that area after the first and, in particular, in the 3rd.
Woodguy has posted some numbers regarding the team on Twitter, McDavid shines like a 10x times selke winner if you haven’t seen them.
I swear to Gord the first thing that went through my head when I read the article was no way was WG going to let this pass. Bob brought up the GF stats today to Spec and he basically just ignored them. If it’s not his job to let his guests win, I think Bob would’ve hammered him a lot harder on that point. I would’ve paid money to hear the off-air conversation.
I wouldn’t be surprised if WG changes his bio to something like “Mark Spector is the Lennert Petrell of hockey opinions.”
If I were Lenny, I would sue.
The other things is… Spec has access to Sportsnet’s SportLogiq numbers. Elliotte looks at them all the time. Does Spec? If so, where were they in that article? That’s the kind of sloppy work he’s been doing for years. Much of which time, he beat on advanced stats.
Apologies. My evening went absolutely sideways so had to watch on delay…
–Congrats, Jay. Hope it’s the first of manymanymany.
–So that’s what goaltending looks like
–It’s amazing how different a team will play when they feel like they don’t have to out-score their goalie. Surely some of you know the feeling, have been through it in beer league.
–That said, will they play smarter when they don’t have the lead? We didn’t have to watch the fragile version tonight. Neither did Jay. Will we see that alter ego at some point in the future? Tonight the high forward and the backcheck were present (I was bitching about this Tues night). Will that guy go back to cheating for offense when the chips are down?
–They played a spirited if imperfect game tonight. Much more physical play–not just Capn Nemo, but all through the line up. Stuck up for Smiddy and for Nurse. Played urgent but calm. They also gave Jay plenty of footage for tomorrow’s afternoon matinee.
–Nemo should never come out of the line up again. They so badly need that dimension.
–You can tell that Woody trusts far more of these players than Tipp did. That might’ve been Tipp’s biggest problem. It’s not a fatal flaw and most coaches have favourites but he probably couldn’t see that some of his choices were undermining the team unit and performance. When times get tough coaches make mistakes too, just like players. Some of Woody’s moves tonight were riffs on Tipp’s tactics though, and I thought that was a nice touch.
–Have I mentioned Smith yet? Because, man what a game. I actually wondered to myself before the game whether Smith would be good for a shutout tonight after his buddy got fired with a lot of questions over why he got the b2b start. Well I didnt get to make the prop bet, so I am delighted he let one in. 😉
–Pujo and Hyman, huh? That’s funny because Shauger I think (maybe it was Debrusk) was talking about someone needing to take Pujo under his wing just yesterday. Thought our leadership had disappointed because they had not done this for some of the younger players. And tonight Hyman took that on. Great to see.
–One day with Dave Manson and Barrie looks like a different man. Both he and Boosh looked like they had shed a ton or two of mental weight since Tuesday night. That was desperately needed.
–I thought Lou Lamoriello’s nephews did a wonderful job reffing. How long have they been traveling with the Isles?
–The Bison King is roaming the prairies once again. Did anyone not smile when he scored? Verdad maybe? I’d still like to see him play more direct hockey, and be more physical, impose his will, finish checks… but man, there’s no one easier to cheer for.
–And speaking of cheering… I never want to see that stadium empty for an Oiler game again.
Woodcroft’s first game. It’s a new era. So far the dawn looks good. Still, a long haul ahead.
Good post.
11 minutes at 5 on 5 for Bouch and 13:30 overall. He can play more, and he will, but the coaches put him in a position to suceed.
As Jay W said after the game 11/7 isn’t always going to be possible b/c they have so many games coming up but now they know they can do it.
Whoever the scout was that pushed for Neimelainen needs a beer bought for him and then another.
Hope the kid keeps doing what he has been doing and gets better. Having him and Broberg take steady steps for next season would be the icing on the cake.
Straight up. He was such a distant bell until very recently.
It was amazing to me when I first started watching him as a Condor last season – he was MUCH better with the puck than I had anticipated (and as speculated by Bruce and Dave based off their viewings of him in Europe). As the season went on, his ability to use his size/length and speed to close on players became apparent.
I think he’s one of those guys that is better suited to the NA ice and game as he can close on players so quickly and just get in the way.
Lets not forget he was drafted out of the OHL and he did enough in the OHL to become a 3rd round pick.
Ebs with the late game winner to help his old team as the Kraken beat the Ducks in regulation
Off a beauty backhand sauce pass from Riley Sheahan no less!
Oilers ahead of Ducks via points percentage (and that includes the nine, yes nine, loser points for the Ducks – my goodness).
I’d sign Neimelainen to an 8yr extension now. Like now! 8yrs x $1m get it done?
Is he another Theo Peckham?
Top F ice at 5 on 5:
Kane
Yamamoto
Nuge
McDavid (15:48)
Leon (14:22)
Benson (7:04)
McLeod (5:40)
I think those two got 1 shift in the 3rd – penalties, etc.
McDavid and Leon were both at 20:30 (give or take a few seconds) overall.
This could have short and long term benefits. I also noticed McDavid and Draisaitl’s shift lengths were reduced.
Nice to see ice time getting spread throughout the lineup, especially the D. And btw, really really like the game of Niemelainen, guy is big and hits like a truck… more please. Lots of room for improvement, but encouraged when we see Woody (and Manson) actually talking to players when they come off the ice.
Truckelainen appreciates you noticing his outstanding service.
I propose “Semi-lainen”. As it rhymes better, and Semi-trucks are moar-bigger!!!
Truckelainen isn’t meant to sound fancy, it’s meant to smack you in the mouf.
Really like Niemelainen’s toughness. It’s possible that, over the next 4 year period overall, he may be nearly as good as Larsson, but at a cap significantly less than $4 x 4.
Canada USA Mens Olympics SNW right now
1-1 late in the 1st
Condors rip it around on the PP – Kemp, down low to Sceviour to Lavoie in the slot and the quick release ripper for a 3-1 lead.
80 goes nowhere.
Give that man a permanent stall. He showed it in the first recall and is right back on it. Knows his game and plays it. Doesn’t give the puck away off the boards like a bunch of physical D do either. Love it.
This is the Manson factor and I love it.
Good showing by a young defense corpse
Now we need the isles to beat up Calgary with all their new found rage and frustration.
When is Koskinen back?
Who?
He might of played his last game you have to consider Woody uses Skinner as the back up since he’s Been grooming him for the last couple of years for the NHL. Mikko is done like the crispy chicken and potatoes I had for din din.
Unless there is a trade, I fully expect Mikko to be on the roster once the team returns from Cali next week.
I have a feeling Woody keeps his boy especially if he wins his starts.
We won a game against a bottom half team. A team like us played us even and Mike Smith won the game for us.
But a win is a win. Something to build on.
So much work to do.
Bottom half but final four?
I’m sure McDavid could of committed to defence just a few efforts more while Nurse could of easily ensured it was a shutout while winning 6 fights.
That is not a bottom half team. The Isles got off to such an unfortunate and shitty start that they likely can’t come out of it and get into the post-season. Make no mistake, that is a top 8 in the Eastern Conference that will miss the playoffs because they started poorly. Solid win for the team and Mike Smith.
Injuries and covid effected their start and near impossible to climb back with the Bettmans.
Their last 20 games haven’t been bottom half…. ours have been. Good to see the Oilers play with some energy and effort.
Both teams played very well tonight, IMHO.
You talk about preventing zone entries. That’s an exclamation mark of a game in that department by Niemelainen. Very impressive.
Larsson was mean. We haven’t had a D this ferocious since Gator.
I don’t know if he’s even mean. He actually see fairly ambivalent, business-like about it. Just hits hard, a lot, because that’s what he does.
This is true – it may be tough to sustain that volume of physicality night after night though – even for a man his size – he does have a decent history of injuries.
So far so good though!
Was he not as physical in Bakersfield?
Also, looking at his history he seems to have been pretty injury free in the OHL and SM-Liiga at least.
He was very physical in the Bake.
He broke his hand this season and was out for a few weeks after his call-up in Dec and last season he was banged up a couple of times and was held out of the line-up for at least a handful of games.
He is so consistently physical, injuries are inevitable, so should be considered part of the package.
Yes, he was very physical in the AHL, although I wouldn’t say quite as much but he didn’t take as much punishment as he did last night – the hits went both ways,
I think he was hurt in his last Liiga season, he was hurt in the AHL last year and he missed a month this year.
Thanks to you both for the answers.
Can’t remember a more enjoyable game to watch in a long time…composure comes to mind. Definitely looked like they had a plan and followed it. Big kudos to Smith for getting rid of the rust. The game sure is a lot easier when your goalie is playing good.
As impressive as the game was the highlight for me was McDavid in all the right spots defensively, He absolutely knew where to be and when tonight. Lost count of how many good plays he made defensively.
I don’t know what Woody said to him but holy crisp did it ever work!
I’m thinking this is gonna be fun!!!
McDavid was excellent tonight – as was Leon. Both of them committed to coming back hard on the back check all night. Hyman and Jesse with strong games.
Niemelainen was a beast.
Agreed, a thing of beauty.
Watch out though, you’ve triggered the lettuce
Nice cheer in Bakersfield as they announce the 3-1 win and Jay W.’s first NHL coaching victory.
Let’s hope this dead cat has 9 lives
I wholeheartedly agree. That way we get 9 consecutive sets of dead-cat bounces! That should last us until the playoffs and beyond!
meow
And is as bouncy as Tigger
Happy to see Jesse smiling, and where he should be.
What a beautiful game of hockey – yeah the good guys won, but it was quite well-fought and the Oilers found their spine.
Next test – if they’ll be so resilient and scrappy when they trail in a game.
Good vibes, congrats to J-Dub
Would be neat to keep trying this “not trailing” strategy for a bit longer yet before we go back to the resilient loser model.
I thought Smith was the wrong call. Had a huge game.
They gave up too many grade A chances early and those failures to clear at the end are inexcusable but on the whole it was a very strong game. So many players had a great game. The young blue were solid. Smith was great. Loved Yamo and Drai.
We’ve been told all day this team can’t win games like this lol
Keep Specs feet in the fire, that clowns time is up!
He got his clicks. He is paid.
Wahlstrom all full of piss and vinegar giving Nurse a shot in the back, Nurse gets turned around and Wahlstrom decides he don’t want none.
Wahl took a poke at Nuggy that’s what caused the ruckus
Nice to see Nuge come in an nail Wahlstrom after he cheap shotted Nurse in the last 3 seconds of the game. I’m sure he was happy to see Nurse come back to challenge lol.
Was happy to see every Oiler on the ice into the fray, like Louie said its a shame the refs jumped in the middle. Kane had lil Wally dead to rights.
A little bonding experience.
how they had that much trouble scoring an empty netter is beyond me.
they won. That’s all that matters
Patrick Stephan has left the chat.
They need Archie back. “Honk Honk”
No doubt that Mike Smith is first star tonight (even if McDavid didn’t have the 3rd assist taken away).
What a game by Smith!
I guess he’s “up and running”!
I am shamed. I called for a Skinner start. WTF do I know? (not asking for responses on this)
Poor awareness by multiple Fs. 2 goal lead just boards and our!
Throw Benson out there dammit!
Yikes, a VERY TOUGH shift by Jesse there on the 6 on 5 – yikes.
Yeah he’s a special player but a scrappy, quick hands, last minute guy he aint
Wow. Ping-pong puck.
Ah Ceci chasing to the wall with a weak swing. Would like to think he’s beyond that
Isn’t it great to see Bouchard on PP1 over Barrie when Barrie is healthy? Further cementing how dumb it was to resign Barrie.
Yea pretty easy to see why he didn’t get any FA interest. Gotta go in the off season.
He had free agency interest from multiple teams but he was hoping to resign in Edmonton, Larsson took his ball and left and he Barrie got his goal. It’s a easily tradeable contract and the team is one Bouchard injury away from really needing last season’s point leading defender.
Teams need D, lots of em.
It’s great to see Bouchard is good enough the team can move off of a Barrie’s usage. It’s great for depth.
Awww. They took away McDavids assist on that PP.
Huh… NHL app just brain farted. Just got an alert that Puljujarvi scored to make it 4-1. Which never happened… hmm.
If Puljujarvi scores I’m gonna trip.
Niemelainen credited with 7 hits so far (and 4 taken) – get the ice bath ready.
He was outstanding. He is the Larsson replacement. Only a lefty. This team badly needed a player of his type.
Again. Unable to ignore the call the refs are forced to make the call. Surprised they didn’t even it up…
Ref probably hating himself because he couldn’t not call that one.
Truckelainen is amazing.
Good one!
Mack Truckelainen?
Massive pad save by Stalock after Berglund is walked.
What is this? An Oiler donnybrook?
is this 1984? damn next thing these guys are gonna beat their longtime nemesis… NYI
Bruh wtf, Manson’s nickname is Charlie? lmao
Has been for decades, yup.
That’s great lol
Some people (like me) questioned the Smith start. He’s been straight-up fucking great. Mostly goalie.
He’s really the difference tonight as was Fluery
Smith was good against Chicago. Fleury was better.
Condors give one up on a 5 on 3 but get it right back – Berglund dumps it in, Kambeitz retrieves, gives it to Griffith on the goal line – back to Deharnais coming in from the point and he lazers one in.
The 2nd line has looked a little bit better every shift. I like the idea and hope to see them get a 5 game rum to see if they can build some chemistry.
First Benson shift in a while. Seemed like Woody went with three lines for a few rotations.
Niemelainen is a beaut.
Special teams I think…..
Bison strips Big Z
Whatch out!
Niemalainen with another belting, this time on Czikas.
Hammer meet nail.