Words don’t always convey the thrust of a thought or concept accurately. That’s how we get misunderstanding and disappointment into our daily lives. Words should always be viewed through the lens of the individual delivering them and their own established past. Words are the damndest things.
THE ATHLETIC
- Lowetide: Why Edmonton Oilers fans should be worried about waivers
- DNB: Jack Campbell is determined to win in Edmonton: ‘I’m ready for this’
- DNB: What I’m hearing on Oilers’ looming roster crunch, Ryan McLeod contract and more
- Lowetide: How will Oilers deploy free-agent addition Ryan Murray?
- Lowetide: Making the early call on Edmonton Oilers’ 2018 draft haul
- Lowetide: Edmonton Oilers’ most likely recalls from AHL Bakersfield in 2022-23
- Lowetide: Is the Edmonton Oilers’ 2022-23 lineup balanced?
- Lowetide: Oilers prospect Reid Schaefer and what math tells us about his future
- Lowetide: Oilers’ opening night roster will be influenced by salary cap, waivers
- Lowetide: Edmonton Oilers’ European, college and junior prospects for 2022-23
- Jonathan Willis: The Edmonton Oilers are rapidly approaching their “all-in” moment
- Lowetide: Why Oilers trading for Patrick Kane makes more sense at the deadline
- Lowetide: 9 Bold Predictions for the 2022-23 Edmonton Oilers
- Lowetide: Edmonton Oilers reasonable expectations for every player in 2022-23
- Lowetide: Oilers math shows 41 candidates for 23 (or fewer) jobs. Who could play where?
- Lowetide: Who will the Oilers trade for cap purposes?
- Lowetide: 5 Edmonton Oilers training camp surprises
- Lowetide: Four Oilers defence prospects applying for one job. Who wins?
- Lowetide: For Oilers forward Dylan Holloway, the future may come early
- DNB: Oilers’ Brad Holland on AGM role, analytics, working with his dad: Q&A
- Lowetide: Oilers top-20 prospects, summer 2022
WORDS
In September of 2009, Oilers head coach Pat Quinn said “I do know as we go through we have a good level of skill, and some size on some people, when I came here I didn’t think we had any size but I see a couple of boys who do have size. We may be able to put together some lines that have real balance. We may be able to have 3, maybe even 4 lines that can play some good time. It doesn’t even mean–we may not play even Hemsky and Horcoff together.”
That all seemed to make sense, but on opening night 2009-10, Quinn’s top line housed Ales Hemsky, Shawn Horcoff and big man Jean-Francois Jacques in what was a bizarro top unit. To that point, JFJ had played in 60 NHL games and had one goal, zero assists. Befuddling, perplexing, confounding, nonplussed, it was very strange. The second line was populated by big Dustin Penner, and smaller skill in Andrew Cogliano and Gilbert Brule; the third line was skilled with Mike Comrie, Patrick O’Sullivan and complemented by rugged rookie Ryan Stone. The fourth line was veteran Ethan Moreau and Zack Stortini, who had size, with Sam Gagner in the middle.
Quinn’s priorities, and opening night lineup, were baffling to all who watched Craig MacTavish build a team every fall.
The lines quickly shuffled, but the Jacques-Horcoff-Hemsky trio played together for 70 minutes, had a 44 percent shot share and a 4-3 goal advantage. Quinn liked Jacques-Horcoff, they spent 92 minutes with Patrick O’Sullivan, going 2-9 goals.
THE BOOK OF LOVE
There’s a song called book of love and the lyrics go ‘the book of love has music in it, in fact that’s where music comes from; some of it is just transcendental, and some just really dumb” and I think that’s true in all walks of life.
I’m looking forward to seeing the words (and deeds) of Jay Woodcroft in the season to come. Last year, he arrived to Dave Tippett’s team (plus Evander Kane) and created beautiful hockey with the pieces made available. I think he might be closer to transcendental than dumb, is what I’m saying.
Into this moment, we drop the idea of what player Edmonton will trade this week or next in order to become cap compliant. I’ve looked at the numbers as best I can, and truly believe Jesse Puljujarvi is the guy you keep. That’s sincere. I don’t know the room or the personalities or any of those things, but do know that hips and shoulders impact performance and when healthy JP has contributed to making his line a possession winner. I don’t see Kailer Yamamoto going anywhere, nor Tyson Barrie, and honestly Warren Foegele gives the team tremendous depth. Where do you go when there’s no place to go?
I am glad that Jay Woodcroft is in Edmonton. I don’t know what’s coming, but am heartened by Woodcroft’s knowledge, ability as a coach and choice of words. Clarity is important in all walks of life.
Not many chairs left and 27 unsigned UFA’s and 7 RFA’s with over 41 games played in the NHL last year still without contracts.
Plus Virtanen who played in the KHL last season.
Should be quite the scramble for spots this coming week.
The remaining UFAs without PTOs that would be good fits (RW with some skill, RD), from my vantage point, are Subban, Stralman, Rodriguez and Milano. All these guys except Stalman have been talked about at length here. If we could get 1 of the wingers and 1 of the D cheap, we could trade Barrie, get cap compliant and have one hell of a roster.
I agree and add Virtanen as a possibility. Where do you trade Barrie?
1) I also had the established vet on a one-year deal “stop-gap” approach as my preferred for the tending. It is interested as defmn noted that the Leafs and Avs have, seemingly, down-graded and/or taken on more risk with their tenders. Now, looking at the 3 situations, its very reasonable to suggest the Oilers have the more “solid” starter and will likely have the bets and more stable tending but, at the end of the day, its not out there to suggest that ANY of Campbell, Georgiev or Murray could have the “best” season – it seems there is SO much variance from season to season with all tenders (but for the elite).
Don’t get me wrong, Campbell has my full support and I definitely want him on my team over Georgiev or Murray, each and every day.
2) Thinking this morning at the gym….. remember the last time we saw McDavid (and Leon) in an NHL game? Historic (transcendent) playoff performances. Holy Hell we get to watch these two play hockey on our team again very soon. Amazing.
3) All but no doubt we’ll see one or two right shot forwards in camp (on PTOs) – both Stauff and Gregor are all over that. I can’t remember if it was one of them, or maybe Gazolla, but someone has said they have offered Virtanen a PTO for sure.
4) I am definitely in the Wanner fan club and, thank you, defmn for the highlight – that was a bomb of a hit with little effort – amazing. We are going to be talking about his kid heading in to camp next season.
5) I think its a BIG stretch to parlay Yamamoto not being in Edmonton two full weeks before camp to him missing not less than 24 days AND 10 games of the NHL season with injury. I think Yamamoto not being in town yet means absolutely nothing and I think him missing a big part of the season would be a horrible way to solve the opening night cap crunch (and would be a short term “fix”).
6) Further to 5 above, Kailer going on LTIR doesn’t help with signing anyone unless he’s going to be out for the entire season. Also, from accounts, Rodrigues has a number of contract offers – I think he’s mulling and can’t imagine he’s going anywhere on a PTO with real contract offers out there.
7) IR doesn’t bring any cap relief – it only opens up a roster spot (but that doesn’t help at all with no cap space). LTIR provides cap relief but only so long as the player is on LTIR – once deemed healthy, they must be activated and cap relief disappears.
8) I wonder if Jack Campbell is a goalie as we know that Mike Smith “is not a goalie”.
Same. Was personally hoping for Matt Murray @ 50% retained tbh.
Campbell hasn’t even played a game of his 5 year contract and already we have the doubters.
I don’t see any doubters about Campbell. How to spend cap space is not questioning Campbell’s ability.
It is about roster priorities with limited resources.
The rebuild is over the stop gaps are over the window is now. We weren’t winning with Smith everyone knew Smith was done after the first game against the Av’s. Holland is banking on Campbell being his Osgood. Sometimes you just have to go for it especially when you have 2 Aces in the hole with Leon and Connor.
I have no idea what that has to do with your post that people were doubting Campbell. Personally I think Skinner will surprise a lot of people in a good way in net this season. Hopefully Campbell will as well. Nobody has said otherwise.
But this board has spent the last month wrestling with how to get cap compliant. That’s it. That’s the entire discussion. Nobody mentioned Smith. Nobody questioned Campbell.
If this is in response to my post, I would encourage you to (1) go back and read the post that made, (2) perhaps go back and read my prior posts on the subject and (3) please stop making inferences from my posts because almost every day you attribute opinions to me that are simply not true – its every day.
Either your for the signing of Campbell or your not, anyone yes anyone can be a Fence Sitter. I’m putting my money on Campbell even though you’ll bring up that Smith had a better Save Percentage the last 2 years.
I am trying to limit my posts but its hard not to respond when you read your position misstated (materially) over and over again.
Most things in hockey team building are not as black and white as you seem to think they are – the above statement showing two prime examples
Signing one of the few “starting UFA goalies” for term was not my preferred approach this off-season, I was very clear about that. At the same time, I can fully support the goalie that was signed and believe that he can provide legit starting tending and be an upgrade on the past with more consistent play, including within games.
Team building in the cap world is more than just evaluating player A vs. player B. Allocation of cap resources make this a MUCH more complicated process of putting the pieces together.
I fully believe the despite Smith having better save percentages than Campbell over the last few years, Campbell will indeed be an upgrade for the team for stated reasons – see, again, not black and white
The question is, how long of a slump before you christen Campbell as a sieve or some other such nickname?
You were all over Koskinen and anyone who doubted signing him to such an inflated contract extension. Wasn’t long until you were calling him leaky Mikko. Then, you were Smith’s biggest fanboy. Until you weren’t.
Same pattern as before, just a new name on the back of the jersey.
Since you feel the need to stick your nose in what’s your point? Goalies can be Hero’s or Zero’s especially in a City that has seen it’s fair share of hall of famers.
The point was in the original post. How long until you turn on your boy of the moment?
One minute you’re proclaiming the new guy is the next coming of the anointed one, the next moment he’s Judas.
Oilers have had 59 Goalies that played at least one game in their storied history.
1.Eddie Mio
2.Ron Low
3.Jim Corsi
4.Bob Dupuis
5.Don Cutts
6.Dave Dryden
7.Gary Edwards
8.Andy Moog
9.Pete Loptesi
10.Grant Fuhr
11.Lindsay Middlebrook
12.Marco Baron
13.Mike Zanier
14.Daryl Reaugh
15.Bill Ranford
16.Warren Skorodenski
17.Pokey Reddick
18.Randy Exebly
19.Mike Greenlay
20.Kari Takko
21.Peter Ing
22.Ron Tugnutt
23.Norm Foster
24.Wayne Crowley
25.Fred Braitheaite
26.Joaquin Gage
27.Curtis Joseph
28.Bob Essensa
29.Tommy Salo
30.Steve Passmore
31.Mikhail Shtalenkov
32.Mike Minard
33.Dominic Roussell
34.Ty Conklin
35.Jussi Markkanen
36.Steve Valiguette
37.Dwayne Roloson
38.Mike Morrison
39.Matthieu Garon
40.Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers
41.Devan Dubnyk
42.Martin Gerber
43.Yann Danis.
44.Nikolai Khabibulin
45.Victor Fasth
46.Liya Bryzgalov
47.Ben Scivens
48.Richard Bachman
49.Jason Labarbera
50.Laurent Brossoit
51.Tyler Bunz
52.Anders Nillison
53.Cam Talbot
54.Jonas Gustavsson
55.Al Montoya
56.Anthony Stolarz
57.Mikko Koskinen
58.Mike Smith
59.Stuart Skinner
For the life of me there’s a few Goalies on this list I just don’t recall there’s 3-4 that only played 1 or 2 games.
Since your such a Oiler Goalie expert what’s your take on this list of Oiler backstops? Who’s the Heroes? Who’s adequate? Who’s NA ?(non applicable)Who’s the Zeroes?
what’s wrong with Kailer?
Year end injury, he might be good to go. Just speculation on my part, no info.
thanks
Nothing is wrong with him (as far as I know) – it was a response to a post in the comments citing him not skating with the team yet and thinking putting him on LTIR is an option for cap compliance.
For Max Wanner fans.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1568770446602178560
That hit was Maximus
LAK sign #1LD Mikey Anderson 1X$1 million contract.
Quite a bargain.
ELC’s with no arbitration rights getting squeezed by a lot of teams.
Still Durzi to sign with $1.4 million in cap space but that would have them with 5RD.
Wonder if they’ll make a trade for a forward or another lefty.
I assume Spence goes to the Reign. After that I have no idea.
Spence has already shown he is too good for the AHL with 42 points in 46 games last season.
Nice problem to have I suppose.
LAK are going to be tough to beat this year.
Yep.
If they get their PP clicking (new coach and Fiala) and Doughty stays healthy, I expect they will challenge for the Pacific Division crown.
Well now they are pooched…..
Every team in the NHL is hard to beat. When you go into a game thinking otherwise you loose, like the Avs did to the Coyotes least year.
Odd man out. Minus player in the playoffs. Pretty sure he goes to the Reign to start the season.
4 games is a pretty small sample size especially for such a young player.
His regular season fancies were very good.
But you’re likely right unless LA makes a trade.
Good Morning LT,
Of course something has got to give, there is just no room at the Inn.
Could the band stay together if, say Yamamoto is on LTIR, he has not been seen skating with boys yet correct?
Then Evan Rodriques comes to camp on a PTO and then is sign to something like a $2,000,000 deal?
I am just 100% just pitballing here.
Huge Foegele fall, I can see him potting 15 goals this year, even as a bottom 6 winger. He has Janmark and Holloway in his rearview mirror and can see the obvious road ahead with this franchise.
By all accounts he really likes it here. That should add a lot of fuel to his fire.
Thoughts?
Pretty sure that would only work if KY were on LTIR all season, basically have to pull a Kucherov for that to work.
Yeah, you are probably right. My understanding is foggy and LTIR creates clear benefits, but quite a few handcuffs.
Just wondering how creative they could get. IR brings some cap relief, but LTIR is sort of an “all or nothing” mechanism.
1) JFJ – my goodness whenever that name gets brought up in brings up some “feelings”. I will never forget, a good 60 plus games in to his NHL career, he took a tough breakout pass in the neutral zone, corralled it, took a couple power strides and dumped the puck in for a line change. I thought to myself “that’s the best play he’s ever made in the NHL” – not good 60 games in.
2) I always had a soft spot for Brule and thought there was more there – always thought “the more” would come but it just didn’t. I think the person had some “tough times” in his life, on and off the ice and I’m glad that he was able to manage a very solid career in the KHL.
3) Woody sure does know how to hearten a fanbase when he speaks, doesn’t he? A few off-season verbals we’ve had from him, he spoke about personal growth and development and learning from the mistakes of the past season – how he takes detailed notes of every practice and game and what worked, what didn’t, etc., etc.
Woody himself should be a “better coach” this season and, of course, having not just a few practices but a full training camp, etc. should really. help the team learn and train on the Woody/Manson systems, structure, etc.
What will be interesting as well is how Woody deals with adversity. The team didn’t face much adversity during the regular season after he came but there will be a stretch of longer than 2 games where the team sags, struggles, etc. Can Woody help avoid the annual “December swoon”?
4) I agree, 100%, Jesse is the guy you keep – he can be part of the solution for years. Both Stauff and, now, Gregor, were back on Jesse being the guy traded this past week. I did not enjoy listening to that.
OP. Your post on JFJ pretty much sums that up 100 percent. I look forward to reading LTs book to see if he’s got something about who all was on the draft board when Oilers went for their coke machine type.
Glad to read that after all the debate on this blog, that LT has concurred with and confirmed to what we all know about how the cap compliance thing is going to pan out .. I sure enjoyed the read this am. Coaching is so big.. and I think it’s probably safe to say that the craft of coaching has evolved in the last while.. some coaches will evolve with it and some may end up up hanging out it Drumheller.
LT saying it doesn’t confirm a thing. 🙂
You confirmed it’s a crap shoot for anyone to figure out at this moment.. and that it should be pretty certain that the organization wants Jesse another year. I’ll take that. 😉 Speaking of coaches I wonder what the coach thinks of this team. Is he smiling right now with his team back and a new younger goalie? Interesting to hear what else he wanted added to tweak things.
I don’t see Kailer Yamamoto going anywhere, nor Tyson Barrie, and honestly Warren Foegele gives the team tremendous depth. Where do you go when there’s no place to go?
=========================
Where I went earlier in the summer was in goal, advocating for a $2 – $2.5 M veteran such as Reimer to help break in Skinner as the eventual starter. Of course that would have made the conversation here very different for the last couple of months and I am pretty confident that most regular posters here are more comfortable with the idea of losing Jesse or Foegele or even Barrie than entering the season with a question mark that large over the goaltending.
I know the league pundits agree that the Oilers made the right choice because two of the teams the Oilers most resemble in skill and makeup – Toronto and Colorado – went the other way and have been questioned all summer regarding their goaltending decisions. Two teams who are often cited for their use of analytics in team construction I would note.
Anyway, it is done now and it is as it was always going to be once the Campbell contract was signed – somebody was either not going to be signed or somebody was going to have to be sent away.
We wait but we probably don’t have to wait that much longer.
Oh, and I expect a RW PTO or minimum contract signing this coming week. I don’t think Holland is quite finished.
So, what was that word in Spanish?
My guess: “ojalá”, which sounds like oh-hala, and is frequently deployed with one’s hand out, fingers together, palm upwards. In English it means “let’s hope” or “hopefully,” which is a sentiment we can all identify with around here. What’s interesting is that the Spanish word “ojalá” comes directly from a famous Arabic phrase “inshalla,” or God willing: إن شاء الله
I think this work clearly establishes that everyone is an Oilers fan, regardless of language or country or origin. It’s all about the hope.
(My apologies to native Arabic speakers in our community-did I get the spelling right? The vast number of Arabic loan words in everyday use in the Spanish language deserves its own blog, but algebra, alcatraz, guitara all come to mind.)
I think the Spanish word is “sabrosa”, which is what a construction worker might say to a gorgeous lady: “Que tal sabrosa”, and literally translates to Tasty 🤤!
Its how I would describe the Oilers lineup … before they have to delete a useful player.
I think it’s añoranza.
Inshalla isn’t incorrect, but Insha’Allah is more correct, if that makes sense.
As-salamu alaykum! That makes complete sense, please forgive my amateurish translation!
W ‘alaykum as-salaam.
No no, nothing to apologize for. I wasn’t trying to correct you, you weren’t wrong 🙂
What are the rules around say Benson being a Condor, paid the AHL salary, but living and practicing daily in Edmonton? Which is similar in a rose colored glass way as the many NHL teams with their AHL team in the same city.
I hear people asking same questions at morning coaches corner at my shop. This would be like a one person taxi squad. It sounds possible for a very short few day stint if needed, but I don’t think he would be able to practice with the team so how would he remain engaged and really ready to go if called upon? Not fair to the player either if it was allowed.. He could practice a bit and get some ice time I’m sure. But not a great option. But I hear the question enough it would be interesting to hear from someone who knows the ins and outs.
This happens, could happen.
Paper transactions only.
Has this happened in seasons without a taxi squad though?
Carolina did it the whole Covid season with Ned IIRC, but he was actually playing for the Canes while being assigned between games to save cap space.
In the Benson scenario, the Oilers don’t have space to actually put him on the roster, so he’d be unable to play or practice anywhere.
That’s a tough situation, and I think unprecedented (the taxi squad players that year were allowed to practice with the roster players, were they not?).
As this would be a clear advantage for one team, I can’t see this happening. You’re either on the roster or not, and if you are rehabbing then you are not active.
I am almost positive this cannot happen.
I believe, technically, as soon as a player is assigned to the AHL, they need to start taking steps to locate there. I understand there are “paper transactions” and the league may provide a bit of leeway of the player is literally going to be back on the roster right away but the scenario presented is very much not permitted.
I also believe that, once assigned, a player cannot practice with the team – I am not 100% on that but fairly confident its the case.
Calgary Wrangler, Abbie Canuck, SJ Barracuda and several other NHL teams have a very significant advantage having their AHL in the same city. They effectively have 22 players down the hall. The Oilers have 22 players in another country.
This is true – they definitely have an advantage on various fronts.
With that said, I don’t think a Wrangler, for example, is permitted to practice with the flames, etc.
Yes. That is their choice, they can’t just cheat.
I agree that there is an advantage but I don’t think it is that significant. They may have “22 players down the hall” but they are still down the hall when the team is on the road for 41 games of the season.
Edmonton does play a number of games against their Pacific rivals in Canada where call ups are more difficult for them but they also play a significant number of games against Seattle, SJ, LA, Vegas and Anaheim where callups would be easier than for Vancouver and Calgary.
I am sure there are other advantages to having your farm team in the same city such as management being able to watch more games, coaching interaction etc. and there are more home games plus the short trips to Calgary & Vancouver etc. but it isn’t a clear win or loss imo.
Thank u. And have a good rest of your Sunday !
So much for inane musings on semantics
Puhljujarvi will be gone when the return is adequate
Until then the Oilers are one genuine offensive forward light
Hi Verdad!
Verdad!
Every time I see you, I think of you.
Similarly, whenever I am someone’s guest, I start by insulting the host and then proceed to defile the living room couch, pausing only to declare in attempted poncy iambic pentameter what I consider trenchant analysis but turns out to be silly.
You will all be sorry when the verdad 3.0 model comes out.
Verdad reminds me of my full of piss and vinegar grandmother, she was full of very strong opinions, but short on things like accuracy and facts. My aunt told me that she attended a Tommy Douglas speaking tour in Vancouver decades ago.
In the middle of his speech she stood up and yelled and ranted for 2 or 3 minutes, interrupting his speech. When she was done spewing her opinions, he invited her to speak with him when he was finished his speech.
Nope, not her, she promptly left. I now think of her fondly as verdad1.0
I am very curious to see the next stage of verdad evolution.
If I recall, verdad 1.0 had a lot of unintelligible and angry rants which were borderline spam.
Then verdad2.0 comes out and it’s more coherent, but the message still comes from an angry, ranting place.
What changed between verdad versions? New phone that has autocorrect? Slightly new outlook on life?
Or is verdad2.0 a copycat or imposter?
Makes one wonder.. what’s next?
I’ve been saying it forever, and I’ll reiterate my opinion again.
Verdud is a bot. What changed is that AI speech has leveled up with GPT-3, thus the coherence of those posts has improved over time. If not the accuracy, quality, or level of insight…
I’ve giggled for a long time over this post. I thank you.
Simply put , the extra cap space will be adequate enough , plus whatever conditional draft pick they can get for him .
The book of love is long and boring.
Then you’re doing it wrong!
A propos of nothing hockey related but Scrubs fans would be familiar with Book of Love from the ending of the season 8 finale. Truly one of the most beautiful few mins in TV history.
1) So, the theatre commitment I was going to undertake this autumn has fallen through. As a result, the Sporadic Update Warning is hereby ended. Prospectings to resume with the WHL season starting Friday the 23rd.
2) Ah, Ryan Stone…whose claim to fame was being immortalized in song by Glen Campbell, “Ryan Stone Cowboy”.
3) Words are definitely important in our lives–for without words, we would
Sorry your gig fell threw Tarkus.
Don’t worry, I’m not blaming you. 😀
I now have a chance to whittle down the stack of books I’ve been meaning to read. Oh, and to do that prospecting thing that I do.
That’s too bad. Selfishly however I am excited at the prospect if you continuing your fine update work here.
I’ve always meant to tell you that I appreciate your sTARK USe of words.
I Hope you are correct LT. I would like to keep Warren, Jesse and Kailor. May the 3 take leaps forward this year and hit it out of the ballpark.