The Edmonton Oilers have games like last night every couple of years. The referees, or some ridiculous downbeat moment puts them in a hole. After that, it’s breakneck speed to the end of the story, will the hero smash through the window of the car before water fills the entire vehicle and robs him of oxygen? Edmonton has had more exciting games like this in the past, the Nail Yakupov slide game a clear example. Last night was fun, but the Oilers are too good for real drama in these situations. A win seemed inevitable. There’s just too much.
Patrick Kane in the summer, Jakob Chychrun early season and now Bo Horvat suggested as an Oilers target. There are several reasons why the Oilers are unlikely to make an early-season trade. Here they are. https://t.co/nbAiDjqoUm
At home to: VAN, CGY, BUF, CAR, STL, PIT (Expected 4-1-1) (Actual 3-3-0)
On the road to: STL, CHI, CGY (Expected 1-1-1) (Actual 2-0-0)
Overall expected result: 5-2-2, 12 points in 9 games
Actual October results: 5-3-0, 10 points in 8 games
Oilers in 2022-23: 5-3-0, 10 points in 8 games
The two road wins are part of a three-game winning streak that saved the month. A win on Saturday would mean my original bet (12 points in nine games) would be covered. It’s a tall order, but the Oilers are rolling now.
THREE IN A ROW
The recent wins by the Oilers could prove vital as the season rolls along. This team is built to contend for the Stanley Cup, but needs some answers before the deadline. What are the questions? I covered them here, and honestly the early results are strong. Miles to go, but good signs.
SUMMARY
Warren Foegele one shot, a hit and his line played in the Chicago end all night. The trio’s first shift of the game set the tone, relentless pursuit of the puck, bedlam in the streets.
Ryan McLeod had a takeaway, spent almost a year on the PK, 60 percent on the dot. His speed is a tremendous weapon and Chicago’s blue had a difficult time handling him. He gave the Oilers 5:18 clean PK minutes.
Jesse Puljujarvi had one shot, one HDSC and drew a penalty. He’s feeling it on this line, forechecking well and even had a sequence without a stick where he played well. I’m liking this line for a playoff trio.
Evander Kane drew the ire of the fans, ‘Hawks and refs on the night. His production remains a wonder: Two assists, three penalties, three shots, seven attempts, two hits. The stripes caught him for some verbal, that’s not a good thing. Needs to be cool. A penalty like that in the playoffs could be devastating.
Leon Draisaitl scored the winner, went 1-2-3, three shots, a takeaway and an (unreported) giveaway. Played more on the power play than even strength. On pace for 150 points.
Kailer Yamamoto picked up an assist, and drove to the net a couple of times. Three takeaways, spent significant time on the PK and drew a penalty. He has some utility. Showing signs of making things rhyme.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins went 1-2-3 with three shots, two HDSC and drew a penalty. What if he’s better in his 30’s than he was in his 20’s?
Connor McDavid was on another level against Chicago. He went 3-1-4 on four shots, now has 8-7-15 in eight games on the season. Drew two penalties. I don’t think there’s an NHL team that could have held him off the scoreboard on this night. I think his third goal was the most impressive, but they’re mostly Rembrandt quality so vase vase.
Zach Hyman had a goal, four shots and a giveaway. He’s a fine player across 200 feet, had two HDSC and played big minutes in all disciplines.
Devin Shore played 2:49 evens and just seven seconds on the PK. Since he’s a veteran who the previous admin admired because of his PK work, this doesn’t bode well.
Dylan Holloway had two penalties, a hit, a blocked shot, and is back after some time on the injured list. I know it’s a slow start, but he could have a strong season in the NHL this season.
Derek Ryan played 2:16 clean on the PK, and his line was 4-0 shots at five-on-five. That’s a good night.
Darnell Nurse had seven shots, one HDSC, took and drew a penalty. Seven PK minutes, he was 12-12 shots at five-on-five. Played just shy of 25 minutes. I liked his game very much. He’ll get slammed online for leaving Ceci alone on the AA goal, but Nurse’s offensive instincts were rock solid there. He was in the slot and ready, Hyman’s pass missed him.
Cody Ceci had one shot, a hit and was 0-1 on the PK, 0-2 at even strength. He is an effective NHL defenseman and was 0-4 on the night in all disciplines. Needed to be aware of Athanasiou (Nurse had committed and no forward recognized in time) and did not execute. Flames used to make that play work three times a night back in the 2000s.
Evan Bouchard had two assists, one terrific and the other glorious. Two shots, one HDSC and drew a penalty. He’s posting assist consistently now, I genuinely believe he’s the next impact player on the Oilers during this era. It’s all set up for him. He was late for the sky on the second Hawks goal, the Oilers were outnumbered in the slot.
Brett Kulak had an assist, two shots, blocked a shot and had some promising moments involving the puck, but it didn’t come to anything. He looked comfortable with Bouchard, a good sign.
Tyson Barrie had an assist, three shots, took and drew a penalty, blocked a shot. Reasonable possession numbers, 2-1 goals at five-on-five.
Markus Niemelainen got the start over Ryan Murray, that’s notable. 1-0 on-ice goals at five-on-five, he had a shot, three hits, took a penalty and got some poor guy in a headlock that looked severe. Played 10:52 all-in. He’s underwater in possession in some areas, above sea level in others. He is staking a claim. That 2016 draft may reveal two NHL players after all.
Jack Campbell saved 31 of 36, six of 10 HDSC and I thought it was his weakest effort of the season. He won, and that’s a tell. I would start him on Saturday, because it was a weird game in Chicago, and Campbell’s defense heard Sinatra sing against Nelson Riddle’s strings, and took a permanent vacation on at least two goals. He’s the starter, Saturday is a big game. That’s the job.
LOWETIDE AND JAMIESON
A big Friday show, we have plenty of guests 10-2 and lots to discuss. Victor Cui from the Edmonton Elks will discuss the season and the future. Steve Lansky will chat about the Oilers, world series, and why national broadcasts focus on the Leafs. 10-1260 text, @Lowetide on twitter.
Pens have a back to back tomorrow night in Seattle. Then they fly across the continent home to greet the Bruins Tuesday night, then play in Buffalo Wednesday night. That will be their 3rd back to back in 10 days. What a brutal stretch in their schedule. Show up in Edmonton 5 days ago, undefeated in regulation, first in their division and 2nd in their conference. By next Wednesday, they could be looking up at the playoffs.
Truly is amazing. The NHL schedulers are bonkers this season. For example Edm playing Cal only three times.
Munny 2.0
October 28, 2022 10:30 pm
Avs lose one of those 1-0 games Spector keeps telling us championship teams win.
That’s a sweet result for the Oilers and puts them in control of their own destiny as far as third place in the conference goes.
Tarkus
October 28, 2022 10:25 pm
Summarizing!
Not a plethora of offense on the night, though Petrov picked a pair of apples in North Bay’s win, earning 2nd star honours.
Schaefer earned an assist with 5 SOG as Seattle improved to 9-0. (Fun fact: 5 of the CHL top 10 teams this week are from the Dub, including the T-birds steady at #3.)
While Wanner didn’t find the scoresheet, he did get into a scrap and dispense this fine hit.
Chiasson, Munzenberger, Maatta, Mazura and Lachance also were held pointless.
Why stand them up at your blue line when you can crack them at center!
SayItAin'tSo, Gretz, SayItAin'tSo!
October 28, 2022 10:12 pm
Anyone notice that “The Greatest Goal Scorer since Ovie” has two pathetic goals this season?
Meanwhile the epic bet on Murray managed a loser point against (checks the stats) San Jose last night. Loser .500 for the Laughs.
Everyone is saying Dubas is on his last strike but maybe the Shanaplan is the rotten apple. One guy oversaw the Abusive Coach and then handed the keys to a Man Boy maybe his head should be on the Rogers Chopping block and not the kid? Just thinking out loud tonight.
€√¥£€^$
October 28, 2022 8:14 pm
For those interested, Matej Blumel was called up to Dallas yesterday. In 5 games for AHL Texas he has 5 goals & 8 points. He leads the team in both categories and has played 1 less game than the bill of the roster. Great start to his NA pro career!
Meanwhile his best bud, Tomáš, got 3 shots and was -1 in his NCAA game (a 6-0 loss).
“Ethans #1 destination through this process was to come to Vancouver… he is extremely excited to join the Canucks organization. He works out with Luke Schenn in the off season, he is very excited to get to Vancouver.”
Harpers Hair
October 28, 2022 6:51 pm
VGK win 4-0 over ANA.
Knights now 7-2 with only 16 goals against.
Goal differential +14
Early days but it appears their bet on Logan Thompson is paying off.
Vegas remains a good team and adequate tending will get them in to the playoffs but, yes, the dementor’s team is what it is and I look forward to the Oilers also playing games against SJS and ANA – all wins are earned, of course, but LA/ANA/SJS isn’t quite CAR/PIT/STL
Wow a bunch of odious tools jumps out to a 10 game stretch. Clap clap clap clap. We’ve seen this before and the collapse will be fun.
Vegas is like Detroit but without the upside. Soon all the sore backs will kick in and they’ll maybe sorta kinda fight for a playoff spot lol.
I understand though. I’d be seriously pissed if I cheered for that loser team in the lower mainland and needed to pick a winner three weeks into the season to lol.
How’s Rafferty doing these days?
Funnybird
October 28, 2022 6:40 pm
Haven’t posted since last year but saw the title of today’s blog and thought I should give it the “Je guru deva um”. First thought I should check to see no-one else did, Jethro Tull did in the third post of the morning. What a dork I am to think that only LT and I knew of this band called the Beatles. It was worth scrolling through the posts though to learn the origins story on the whole Nuge- 50 point season thing, classic, haha
teddyturnbuckle
October 28, 2022 6:09 pm
Nuge on pace for 51 goals and 112 points just saying.
Tarkus
October 28, 2022 5:54 pm
Petrov with an aPPle as North Bay trails 2-1 after 1.
Nuggies said he would work on his shot this summer
Felt he needed to cash more. I commented he should have years before. Truth, but at least he did, finally. I do give him some leeway as the shoulder surgery can be a problem, but it was a while ago now
Anywho, he is shooting better. A pitcher with one pitch gets hit a lot after time. A shooter with one shot (low blocker) gets saved on a lot
Perhaps sniping a few has given him some confidence there. He’s hitting the net and getting the puck up. Maybe that’s the jump some have noticed in his game so far. Feeling you can score would juice anybody up
I hope he keeps it up, and scores more than he ever has ongoing. Especially since he’s all locked up and the goals are bought and paid for in full! It will be great fun for him
No question goal scoring wise, Nuge had a very off year last year. Eleven goals in 63 games is not what anyone including he expects. But in the 4 seasons leading up to last season, 2017/18 through 2021/22, Nuge’s goal scoring was pretty good for the number 3 guy on the team.
In that 4 year window before last year, Nuge scored 90 goals in 261 games. That translates to a scoring rate of 28 goals per 82 games. His individual seasons ranged from 25 to 32 per 82. Over that time span he was 53rd in the league in goals per game among all forwards. That’s top 10% of all forwards who played at least 50 games over those 4 seasons. Maybe more is expected of him since he was drafted number 1, but he is also not asked to be the teams scoring star.
His shooting percentage during that span was 13.5%. Last season, it dropped to 7%. This has basically been a one year issue. His bigger problem has been playing more games. Would we like him to get 35 to 40 goals, sure. But even if he returns to the range he was in during that 4 year span and stays healthy for close to 82 games, 25-30 goals is pretty good especially if Kane, Hyman score like they can and others come along.
The Oilers schedule is busy enough in the next two weeks that I would just alternate the goaltenders till after the road trip, starting Skinner in Calgary. And Campbell would tougher opponents overall.
Not only busy but the walk through murderers row continues through next month. Lots of tough matchups.
Were saving the easy matchups for later in the season
Nugent-Hopkins scored critical goals in big games in a deep playoff run, and was exceptional in his all around game. Any lingering self-doubt or regret from the decade of darkness and previous playoff underperformance has been washed away.
I think we are going to see something a lot closer to the full potential of the player that was drafted #1 overall.
I’m not sure we should expect RNH to become a different player based on a 7 game sample size to start the season.
He’s fine though.
Oilers still need some internal growth. Bouchard hitting is huge. They still need another forward and D man to pop. Holloway and Broberg please come on down.
jtblack
October 28, 2022 3:33 pm
i do remember when many on here were claiming BEAR was a Top 4 D Man on Carolina ….
Yup this was the height of “Kenny doesn’t know a winner if it kicked him in the teeth,” level of Oiler fandom.
Thank goodness we have a GM that knows when to cut a maybe for a bunch of winners.
remmeber when Caleb Jones plus a pick that would matriculate in 2028 was a horrible overpay for that bum Keith and his stupid intangibles?
Yea that was a fun time.
Bag of Pucks
October 28, 2022 3:33 pm
Amidst the hundreds of women on Twitter today declaring Gisele Bundchen in the right with her divorce proceedings, because her husband had the audacity to want to work at the age of 45, I came across one lone voice of reason.
“Imagine the roles were reversed and this was a man demanding his wife quit her job to stay home with the kids? The Internet would explode.”
Thank you voice of an alternative perspective. Thank you.
Agreed. Science has proven that once a human being’s basic needs are met, their level of happiness essentially plateaus and any material or status gains beyond that do not appreciably increase one’s level of happiness.
Oddly enough, I would still trade my desk job to be an NFL QB in a heartbeat.
More importantly, I could land a golf ball in her backyard (at least when the construction is completed!) from my place in Florida. I also had a crazy thought that half the Russian and Ukrainian divorcees in Miami must be rushing to rent condos in Tampa for the NFL offseason!
There was never a time in history where Magnus PRV came even close to looking like Ryan McLeod with the puck on his stick out of the defensive zone, through the neutral zone and in to the offensive zone – never.
Yeah you shouldn’t fall in love with young prospects who are putting up potentially unsustainable numbers in early days.
So tell me what you think of the guy who made this post:
“VGK win 4-0 over ANA.
Knights now 7-2 with only 16 goals against.
Goal differential +14
Early days but it appears their bet on Logan Thompson is paying off.
GAA well below 2.”
What a fool, am I right? He’s going to be disappointed when Logan Thompson comes crashing down to earth.
How about that star prospect from LA, Quentin Byfield with 0 goals in 5 shots plus 3 whole assists in 8 game? 50 shots in a complete season gets you zero goals with that shooting average.
Here’s Flamer Kelly trying to take an eye out by blowing out his button at warp speed with that much too tight suit jacket he used to wear. His shocked response is hilarious.
Hrudey grew up in the West End. You’ll never hear Hrudey give the City of Edmonton kudos because he’s to busy sucking a golf ball through a garden hose for the Flamers and their organization.
theDjdj
October 28, 2022 1:38 pm
Also, I think Blake Wheeler was better in his late 20s and 30s wasn’t he?
Perhaps the poster child for better in his late 20’s and 30s’ is Brad Marchand.
Up to age 28 (2015/16): 454 games played, 289 points (.64 ppg) and his best season in that range was the last one 77gp 61 points. No end of season all star votes and the occasional Selke vote.
Since age 28 (2016/17 forward): 421 games played, 509 points (1.21 ppg) and consistently well above 1 ppg every season even at 34 (1.14 ppg). First team end of season all star LW twice, second team twice and Hart trophy votes in 5 consecutive seasons.
While there may be other factors, 16/17 was the season Pastrnak came into his own, and got put on the line with Marchand and Bergeron (Marchand/Bergeron had been together already for several seasons). They played almost 90% of their time together until Pastrnak was moved to another line last season for about 2/3 of his time on ice.
Marchand is one of those guys who had to play on the edge (and often over it) to get into the NHL.
But then he couldn’t stop doing it the stupid stuff (e.g. literally licking other players) once he got really good.
I wonder if his ‘rat’ persona, which probably got him an NHL job, will now keep him out of the NHL Hall of Fame.
(His closest career comparables are Stamkos, St. Louis, Datsyuk, Malkin, Lindros – all guys very much in the HOF conversation. (In the case of Lindros, already in the Hall after a long wait due to dim views of his character – perhaps like Marchand will face?)
Brad Marchand does not yet have the resume of any of the players you listed and probably never will. Lindros’ delay was likely less about his character and more about the shortness of his career.
No he was drafted in 2006, but Boston sent him back to Juniors for his 19 & 20 year old seasons. He played for Team Canada in the WJHC as well those 2 years, winning gold twice. He then spent his 21 year old season playing for Boston’s farm team in the AHL and effectively got called up permanently to the Bruins halfway through his 22 year old season. He was 23 and still technically and NHL rookie helping the Bruins win the cup in 2011.
theDjdj
October 28, 2022 1:33 pm
Nuge is feeling it at the moment. There was a moment in one of the 50 power plays last night where he skated it in from the half wall and rather than seek to push it across the ice to McDavid or Drai he just zinged it to the top corner. Solid wrister that Stalock had covered but was a dangerous shot. It’s a snipers goal and I loved every second of RNH having the confidence to try.
It was a small thing but to me symbolic of a player who could be starting to have his best year. His shot looks good at the moment. Our boy is growing up
Teams over compensate that Nuge is going to pass it to Barrie or McDavid which leaves a lane open for a high danger shot. The prime shooting lane has been there for a few years, Nuge could have 30 if he just hit the net when he does choose to shoot. They ask Bossy what made him arguably one of the best goal scorers ever, his answer was simple Hit the Net.
He’s dialled in at the moment that’s for sure. He’s always had a filthy wrister. Just either lost faith in it or struggled with it through injury. Either way, he could get 30 if his form continues. Especially if he gets more shifts with the two best players on the planet
OriginalPouzar
October 28, 2022 1:07 pm
Tomorrow evening, in Ontario (California):
Broberg plays hockey
Savoie plays hockey
Janmark plays hockey
Accounts are Lavoie should be ready for next weekend (and possibly Deharnais as well).
Its getting crowded in Bakersfield (Engras sent to ECHL yesterday) and I’m not sure what’s going to happen when Lavoie is ready, I mean, they can’t sit McKegg or even Kambietz, can they? No chance they sit Esposito (and, no, that has nothing to do with Messier, Esposito is one of the “heart and soul” Condors – he’s “not great” but he’s the first to jump in to defend, he is good on the PK, etc.).
The following top two lines are what Chaulk said they are going with tomorrow and I’m thinking in real time about what happens when they are full (if no other injuries occur):
Me too but I’ll be very guarded in expectations – I mean history shows players rarely look normal coming off major knee surgery. I don’t know if it was a torn MCL/ACL/PCL type injury but often players need months after returning to look close to normal (and like a year plus from injury) – that is somewhat speculation.
Not to mention, no camp, starting the season behind and, lets not forget, likely no “hockey training” over the summer, just rehab type work.
General Manager Patrik Allvin announced today that defenceman Ethan Bear and forward Lane Pederson have been acquired from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for their 5th round pick in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. Carolina will retain a portion of Bear’s salary.
If they waive him, likely no one takes him at his $2.2 million cap hit, and they only shed $1.125 million from their cap leaving them with a buried penalty of $1,075,000 vs the $400,00 retained. Not a problem for them now, but when Pacioretty returns, they’d be within a million of the cap if he was buried.
Also hard to say what was discussed in the off season with Bear when he was an RFA and signed for less than his QO prior to arbitrations. Maybe to get him to sign that deal Carolina made a commitment to trade him if by early in the season it was clear he would not be in their long term plans.
Essentially by giving Bear a QO rather than letting him walk, right now they have a $400,000 cap hit for this season to get a 5th round pick. The loss of the 25 year old Lane Pederson is probably almost inconsequential to them (he was a throw in in the Burns deal), but hey, maybe he will be a late blooming star for the Canucks. His chances to help the Canucks appear better than for Carolina.
He could benefit from increased ice time and find his game, or he could sink lower on an already drowning Canucks team that’s talking about rebuilding and has reported locker room issues.
I recall talk of Bear saying how he felt like he was lacking support from his teammates on the Oilers. It will be interesting to see how he does on a cliquey Canucks team.
More than any other player, goalies take time. On a garbage team there strength is noticed because they stop more of the HDSC than a bad one. Campbell has an insanely quick glove. He saved some sure goals last night but let up some bad ones (those bounces of the chest need to be smothered).
It will take some time for the D/team to adapt to Campbell’s game and visa versa. He doesn’t look bad and he got the W last night. I’d say 10-15 games he should find the rhythm.
This is true but, for clarity, I was talking about his penchant for taking “stick infraction” type penalties that have little to do with his impact skill set. Hooking, tripping type penalties all over the ice.
Last night was a bit of a different beast. At least Kane’s penalties were part of that “presence” that he brings – cross-checks in a net front battle – sure, I don’t want to be short handed but I’ll take that more than a reach in hook PIM in the neutral zone.
Coyotes home opener tonight at Mullet areana. Best hockey areana name ever. Had to look it up. There really is a Mullet Family. Imagine the family photos
Lots of empty seats on display. They know it’s rebuild time.
jonrmcleod
October 28, 2022 11:07 am
What if he’s better in his 30’s than he was in his 20’s?
I feel like a Nuge year is equal to about 0.75 regular human years, so he should be just entering his prime now!
RT26
October 28, 2022 10:48 am
I am increasingly of the opinion that Holloway should go to the Bake and play more meaningful minutes. Since he does not play on special teams and may not have the tightest claim on a top 9 role, I think he has been great but needs time on the ice.
I would switch him and Janmark.
Run 11 F’s
Nuge McD Hyman
Kane Drai Yamamoto
Foegele McLeod Puljujarvi
Janmark Ryan
I don’t believe the Oilers have the cap space to make that move. Demoting Holloway’s $925,000 added to the space they have now, $13,333 isn’t enough to bring up Janmark’s net $1,125,000. Short of sending Ryan down instead, they’d have to also send either Shore, Neimalainen or Murray down along with Holloway and only run with 20 on the roster, which they are very unlikely to do.
Janmark is also playing his first game this weekend and was essentially off for the better part of three weeks.
Chaulk spoke about some tough practices for him – I think they/he are working on getting his conditioning back up. Probably needs a few games before he’d be ready for call up, without even taking in to account the cap issues.
TruthHurts98
October 28, 2022 10:41 am
Something is off with Campbell, he didn’t play well. Sure it was a weird game, but his rebound control and movement didn’t seem dialed in. If it was just one game, I wouldn’t be worried, but it’s been multiple and Skinner is outplaying him by a decent margin. Stu has looked way calmer in net and pucks are sticking to him. I would start Skinner in Calgary. If Campbell starts, I can understand the reasoning. I won’t expect him to last the whole game.
In the last game against Calgary Skinner came in relief of Campbell and was perfect. It’s comforting to know Skinner has their backs if needed. The reality is they have a #1 & #1A protecting the net. Good to know.
This. Also, the Oiler D aren’t used to clearing rebounds – Smith would deflect them wildly away or clear them himself and Koski, well… it’s an area that can be tightened up for sure.
Just listened to an in depth interview with Jeff Marek and Shayna Goldman who does deep dives on advanced scoring stats.
She’s convinced the Oilers biggest weakness will be goaltending due to Campbell’s inconsistency and Skinner’s performance thus far being a bit of a mirage due to the type of shots he has faced.
So do you have a general media filter that searches for anything remotely associated with Oiler negatives so you can come and share? Skinner has been incredible and his rebound control is very good. She obviously has no clue.
Skinner is predictable. He stops the ones that he is expected to stop.
It remains to be seen if he has a consistent higher ceiling as he settles in but a goalie that is predictable is good enough for a team built for offense like the Oilers.
It will be interesting to see where Colorado, Toronto & Vegas are at around the 20 game mark which is when I think teams pretty much reveal themselves for what they are. Colorado & Toronto chose to take a chance on goal tending while Vegas was pretty much forced to.
I read here, from time to time, that goalie is the most important position in hockey but I am not a big believer. Bad goalies do kill teams & spectacular ones do win games but for me hockey is the quintessential team game.
You can win with good goal tending if you have elite something else and in a capped league it is highly unusual for a team to have elite everything & if it does happen it is pretty much guaranteed that they will lose some of it in the off season.
A Steady Stu is good enough to win with for this team.
Yeah, except maybe in the playoffs. I used to enjoy those Sharks teams with T-Mac at the helm, Big Joe, Cheechoo, Marleau et al. They were consistently good top to bottom, but they never had a single playoff series where their goalies outplayed the opposition.
And in tight games, it made a difference. I think, for example, if they had Roloson, they would have won a Cup.
We’ve seen teams win without elite D before, PIT in their second year in a row. We’ve see teams win without elite F or G before, STL comes to mind.
But when I look at the team that’s a bit of a unicorn in the cap era, it’s TBL. They have elite game breakers up front, such as Kuch and Point (Stamkos is pretty good too), on D in Hedman, and between the pipes in Vas. It’s amazing Briesbois has kept them together this long. That they were finalists three years in a row is no surprise.
Crazy how 17 days ago the team was being hyped up to be one that could potentially lead the division under Bruce!There It Is! to now having “Lots of issues.”
Well maybe they have an excess of forwards, just not NHL forwards. But Bear is probably their second best D, given how poorly OEL and Myers are playing.
You mean the team that had Aman playing 3C and just traded for Strudnicka… excess
Reja
October 28, 2022 10:05 am
I thought Foegele could of easily scored 17-18 last year with him missing wide open nets hitting the post, crossbar or a goalie making a fluke last split second desperation stick or blocker save. This year same thing the man is snake bit as a Oiler he has Tobias Rieder syndrome.
He has hands of stone. Sure the best players miss the net, everyone does. But they also hit more often than not. As a goalie, I love playing against players that have little ability to finish. The puck will find me, not the back of the net.
You always hope for some production but have to agree that when you deploy Foegs it’s not for his finish.
Munny 2.0
October 28, 2022 10:04 am
After a dismal last season offensively, Merriam-Webster has decided to include a picture of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins next to their definition for “regression to the meat.” Our baby carnivore is all growed up!
Nuge now leads Draisaitl, Kane and Hyman in goals.
KnightRain
October 28, 2022 9:59 am
Bizarre, ridiculous and glorious game last night. I’m not going to bother commenting on the refs. I don’t want to get fined.
McDavid was amazing last night. I love it when he get that look in his eye and elevates his game to heights we never thought achievable! Seriously, we’ve watched the kid since the day he entered the league and are Still launched out of our seats by his incredible abilities! Just amazing to watch.
Drai is a beast. Took him all game(last few games, too, really) to reset his sights but he got em fixed for the gwg. His backhand pass to Nuge deserves to be hung in the museum of Awesomeness.
Kane is gonna Kane. He plays on the razors edge and sometimes leaves a blood trail. I’ll take the good and kill off the penalties with the bad any day. He’s gonna have games like this occasionally but I think he’s mature enough to know he can’t hurt the team to often. I imagine the leaders were talking to him during the break about having his back and not throwing him under the bus.
Nuge is having a renaissance season. He’s got the confidence of his early 20’s again and I couldn’t be happier for the guy. Shouldn’t be surprised, really. He Looks like hes 24. Maybe it takes longer for vampires to hit their prime?
Mcleod is so fast and the hands are starting to catch up. Look out when they do, league. Just a few more confidence points needed to level up.
I don’t expect Foggy to get a tonne of goals. He’s just not a natural goal scorer. But he is a natural hard worker and thats what that line needs from him. I think hes faster than Hyman but less skilled.
Puljujarvi is getting better every game. I think he’ll be the finisher on that line. He confidence is starting to rocket and he’s starting to realize just how much bigger and stronger his is than most.
Holloway showed flashes of what he can be for the first time(I don’t watch pre-season). I genuinely thought it was McDavid on one of his rushes. His fired a quick and hard shot in tight that nearly squeaked through. I think once he gets a few breaks he’s gonna blast off.
I could watch Bouch make stretch passes all day long. He looked good with Kulak and I hope they keep them together.
Nurse! He’s a Beast! When he’s ragging the puck he looks like a juggernaught. He’s playing physical and smart. With his speed and ranginess he’s gotta be a nightmare to play against. I thought he was a clear cut about Seth Jones last night.
Soupy needs some help, fellas. Kinda like how everyone busted ass for Skins. That’s not to much to ask, is it?
Bring on the flames. The revenge tour continues.
What Kassian should have done but he couldn’t dial the noggin in and keep enough TOI
No pissing around with the Oilers. Nurse has been edgier as well. It will never be perfect with opponents, but I’m sure they are thinking twice more than they have since CFP days
Kane would not be a fun guy to have thinking perhaps he doesn’t ‘respect your game’. Loose cannon and can back it up. I’m sure with a Messier ‘revenge is better served cold’ temperament as well
For Kane, it was really just the 2nd period for him. When they got back out for the 3rd, right after the tying goal, Tinordi came over and had some words. Looked like Kane did the smart thing and skated away. The hawks kept trying to goad him into bad penalties all through the 3rd, and he kept his cool. He didn’t carry over the crap from the 2nd into the 3rd.
delooper
October 28, 2022 9:41 am
This seems to get mentioned in every thread, but I often mistake McLeod for McDavid. Both skate fast, have roughly the same build and there’s the “Mc”. McLeod looks like he’s at the start of a fantastic season. Occasionally being mistaken for McDavid is no crime.
I saw that last season. he mimics McDavid’s skating and the opposition freezes. its a freaking hilarious as he has little finish. Would be something if he started scoring more.
Kudos to our host who predicted a big step forward for McLeod before the season started. You can see him improving almost shift to shift.
And although my pre-season preference for getting Puljujarvi away from McDavid & Draisaitl was Nuge it looks to me like McLeod is the answer. They fit.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins went 1-2-3 with three shots, two HDSC and drew a penalty. What if he’s better in his 30’s than he was in his 20’s?
For such a cerebral player I think he’ll age like fine wine. Bergeron very lite, Derek Ryan x1000. Smart players last the longest in this league in some form or another. I think the best is yet to come for Baby Nuge.
A decent comp for Nuge is Patrick Marleau. Entered the league at 18. All 7 of his 60+ point seasons came between ages 26 & 34 as a C/LW after starting out as a full time pivot.
Keep one on the ice and put the other upstairs with access to replays and lots of camera angles. Do the same with linesmen. (Maybe have two sitting with the score keeper to break up scrums and fights between whistles). You could have a bunch each with their own task. Offside official, hooking official, etc. We have the technology. Maybe put all of ’em upstairs.
Two refs on the ice just get in each other’s way. Not only that but they seem to be getting into the players way more than they ever used to, maybe it’s by design. A good referee is like a good offensive lineman in football, the less his name is heard the better.
What a gong show of a game. I don’t know if the refs were trying to send a message or were just targeting certain players/teams but that second period needs to be reviewed by the NHL. Simply inexcusable and unprofessional.
I’m glad the good guys rose above it all and won. In year’s past, I don’t think they would have.
Full marks to the PK for fighting the good fight and keeping Chicago at bay for what seemed like an eternity.
Have to say I’m impressed with what Luke Richardson has done with that team. He was a beast as a player and never backed down from anything. I think he’s imparted that philosophy on the Hawks. They went toe to toe with the Oil, western conference finalists and nearly won.
Jack called it “plodding” at one point if I recall. What a terrible second period.
Sometimes feels like the Oilers face an existential challenge. But a Cup win this year would be amongst the greatest and most consequential and important ever. The next Canadian team to win, whomever that is, will be important. But if 97 can do it, everything changes. Nothing before matters. Reset the clock.
yes, lost in all this is Chicago has a terrible roster.
Extreme kudos to Luke Richardson. Those boys compete.
Chelios is a Dinosaur
October 28, 2022 8:58 am
For me the emerging issue is not the mediocrity of the officials. As frustrating as that is, and as it is becoming worse by the year as the sport becomes faster and more intense, poor officiating has always been a hallmark of this chaotic game.
What scares me is the chilling effect the NHL has imposed on teams and seemingly most broadcasters. If hockey is run by old-school types, presumably these are self-styles “tough guys” but turns out, as in hockey as in life: The tough guys are soft and incapable of handling criticism. They would rather suffocate the game with their indecipherable regulatory regime and usher in a new era of conspiracy than admit its not working.
My opinion is that several of the following things and probably more need to happen or we won’t get out of this tailspin:
-Like, way better training.
-Larger window of acceptable criticism, ie no fining coaches who speak out.
-Keep sports betting sponsorship at arm’s length from the league.
-Put name bars back on the ref’s sweaters and make them do press post-game.
-Keep one ref on the ice with another watching form the rafters. Latter can override.
-If not, then we only need one ref. I’m convinced that many of these issues stem from the move to two refs on the ice. There’s less plausible deniability when one ref is accountable to the whole game.
These are great, common sense suggestions!
We see it from a fairness perspective, but I suspect the silent powers see it from an entertainment perspective i.e. some incompetency and inconsistency is baked into this game.
I was going to laud some other ‘fair’ sports – tennis, chess – but they’re going the same way.
Post-truth world?
The best thing about Tennis review system, or something like Cricket’s, is that it’s by and large completely impartial. It relies on technology to catch elements of the game difficult for the ref/umpire to see live. With Hockey, the review relies on other referees concluding that the match ref interpreted the rules incorrectly. The Refs union is a boys club and they stick up for each other. It’s rare to see incidents of subjective rulings overturned.
In an invasive team sport like hockey there is more nuisance to calls. Tennis and cricket are very black and white on the rules they are reviewing making technology the answer. The invasive team sport that has nailed video reviews is Rugby. The TMO (4th ref – Television Match Official) is on top of the game and in constant communications with the ref and touch judges. If the TMO sees something that needs review it is signaled to the ref and they review at the next stoppage of play and same if the ref sees something for the TMO to review he signals and it is reviewed at the next stoppage. The video is shown on the Jimbotron and the dialogue is according to the rule book and is live for the in house and tv audience to hear. Truly exceptional.
A lot of good points here and I especially like the idea of names on shirts.
Don Kocharski comes to mind. A fine referee with a fine Polish last name.
We don’t hear about refs, but I wonder how many have the resume of Don, who officiated 1719 regular season games and 248 playoff games.
It’s a tough job, with constant travel and time away from family.
I’m wondering whether these guys are just not making enough $$ to make a career of it like Don did, and thus don’t have the experience to walk the tightrope of letting them play and maintaining control over a heated game.
I agree that the NHL is definitely dominated still by “old-school” types who have to be pulled kicking and screaming into new ways of thinking about the game.
When it comes to officiating, even broadcasters take the view of “complaining about officiating is a loser tactic — focus on what you can control and not what the ref’s are doing”. And that’s fine when you’re a player sitting on the bench fuming from a call — but broadcasters have a responsibility to identify when the officiating is poor.
If an officiating team has a bad night — and hey, that happens to the best of us — it impacts the game and needs to be identified and addressed in their coverage. And on a macro scale, when a league’s officiating consistently impacts the game — say, allowing its most talented players to be hooked, held, and impeded as a hypothetical example — they need to address that as well.
That doesn’t mean they have to disagree with it — God knows, there’s a lot of former grinder / character guys on the air who find value in fourth liners being able to bear hug the league’s best in the playoffs — but the topic shouldn’t be taboo.
So the quality of the game is impacted and there’s a collective shrug of the shoulders as most of those in positions of power — and that includes many broadcasters — are far more comfortable never questioning how things are, or how they could be better.
The refereeing is so terrible in the NHL in fact that youngsters nation wide are throwing down their stripes in protest. Apparently the resultant shortage is even forcing the cancellation of games in some communities- Revolution! What kid would dedicate his life to officiating hockey when the best in the world are so incompetent that they need to be protected from true Canadian hockey fans?
Yes! to interviews with non-partisan, level headed professional reporters post-game.
Yes! to name bars so that we know who these idiots are. Heck- we should even know where they live!
Yes! to more personal responsibility. One ref would suck half as much as two!
And if this doesn’t fix things we should just get rid of them entirely!
For all of the earned criticism they aren’t nearly as bad as the refs in Basketball (or maybe Baseball but I only see the highlights, one of the devotees can correct me there). NHL refs have egos for sure and their mistakes have a more noticeable impact but they are tough. Can’t believe how much of a baby Baskletball refs can be.
You can have way better training, 360 cameras from every angle, slow mo replays to review every call. It doesn’t matter – if anything it will make people trust the refs LESS because they now also have 500 times as many ways to scrutinize the refs and question the call. It’s a lose-lose for the league to really engage on this because the harder they try to “fix” the reffing the more likely it is to blow up in their face.
Michael Lewis (the guy who wrote Moneyball) has a podcast called against the rules where he looks at this. He talks about how, objectively, officiating is the most rigorous it has ever been for sports like basketball, etc, yet trust in referees is at an all time low. It’s basically the theme of his whole series, which he uses to launch into an analysis of ALL the kinds of reffing in society, but the episode where he talks about referees in sports is pretty revealing imo.
Woodguy v2.0
October 28, 2022 8:57 am
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins went 1-2-3 with three shots, two HDSC and drew a penalty. What if he’s better in his 30’s than he was in his 20’s?
With 5-6-11 in 8 games Nuge is now on pace for 21-28-49 for the season.
The kid has found another gear it seems. I haven’t seen this sort of jump to his game since the first few years of his career and I for one am uber happy for him.
He’s on a heater for sure. I don’t think he looks much different than years past myself.
No reason he can’t score 70 points if he plays all season with McDavid and stays healthy.
Chelios is a Dinosaur
October 28, 2022 8:47 am
I hope Bruce or someone can comment…
During Cult of Hockey, they mention that CMD is on pace for 20 hat tricks, which is cute, but Bruce reminds even Gretzky only ever got to 10, which piqued my curiosity so I went to consult the NHL record book for most hat tricks in one season and I am floored to see that, in 1981-82, Miroslav Fryčer scored 5 hat tricks, for an end of year total of a modest 20 goals! At least (was there a 4 goal game in there???) 15/20 goals scored as hat tricks!? Is this nuts? Was it noteworthy at the time? Another 1980s offensive stat that seems as if it came from Pluto.
That was Frycer’s rookie year, in which he scored 24 goals in all — 20 for Quebec, then 4 more after being traded to Toronto (for Wilf Paiement). He was extraordinarily hot & cold that season, from Death Valley (California) to Dry Valley (Antarctica) .
His game log shows that after getting a hat trick in his 2nd NHL game (vs. Toronto) he then went the next 15 games WITHOUT A POINT which was pretty hard to do in the highest-scoring season in modern history (8.02 G/GP). He then scored 5-2-7 in his next 2 games (1 hat trick, obv), followed by just 1-2-3 in his next 7 & 0-0-0 in the 7 after that. Next came a run of 9 GP, 10-10-20 (!) including 2 more hat tricks.
After being traded to Toronto at the deadline Frycer scored 3 assists in his first game and 3-1-4 in his third — AGAINST Quebec I might add. 2 hat tricks in TOR v QUE games in the same season, 1 for each team! Another statistical oddity which may well stand alone.
Fryver would play another 7 seasons, wrapping up with the Oilers in 1988-89, & scored just 4 more hat tricks.
https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/f/frycemi01/gamelog/1982
That was Frycer’s rookie year, in which he scored 24 goals in all — 20 for Quebec, then 4 more after being traded to Toronto (for Wilf Paiement). He was extraordinarily hot & cold that season, from Death Valley (California) to Dry Valley (Antarctica) .
His game log shows that after getting a hat trick in his 2nd NHL game (vs. Toronto) he then went the next 15 games WITHOUT A POINT which was pretty hard to do in the highest-scoring season in modern hisory (8.02 G/GP). He then scored 5-2-7 in his next 2 games (1 hat trick, obv), followed by just 1-2-3 in his next 7 & 0-0-0 in the 7 after that. Next came a run of 9 GP, 10-10-20 (!) including 2 more hat tricks.
After being traded to Toronto at the deadline Frycer scored 3 assists in his first game and 3-1-4 in his third — AGAINST Quebec I might add. 2 hat tricks in TOR v QUE games in the same season, 1 for each team! Another statistical oddity which may well stand alone.
Frycer would play another 7 seasons, wrapping up with the Oilers in 1988-89, & scored just 4 more hat tricks.
What on earth could be the cause of such hot and cold streaks??? We’ll never know but you have to think “more” was going on there. The majority of his scoring was done at home. His only scoring on the road that year was:
To add to Bruce’s info, the young man had defected from the former Czechoslovakia in 1981 where he had been a rising scoring star. Once in his NHL career he did score 4 goals in a game (against the Oilers of course) during his best season when he scored 32 goals.
I do find your reference to Gretzky “only” getting 10 hat tricks in a season somewhat humorous (which he did twice). That’s an average of once every 8 games. And in 81-82, when he did it first, in each of those 10 games where he got at least a hat trick, he never had less than 5 points.
…whereas in 1983-84, his second 10-hat trick season, he only scored 5+ points in 9 of them. He also had 14 2-goal games that season, with the Oilers posting a 24-0-0 record in #99’s multi-goal contests.
Still the record holder for most hat tricks in a season (10), in a regular season career (50) and in the playoffs (10). Nice round numbers.
In the 4 seasons between 1981/82 and 1984/85, when Gretzky scored 323 goals in 314 games, he recorded a total of 28 hat tricks. Only 5 other NHL players have recorded more than 28 hat tricks in their careers: Lemieux, Brett Hull, Bossy and Esposito. Ovechkin has 28 hat tricks in his 1,282 game career. Dionne and Bobby Hull also have 28 hat tricks for the entire career.
High scoring era (blah, blah, blah). It became the high scoring era because everyone was trying to match Gretzky and what Sather was coaching. And in that 4 year span, Bossy (in the prime of his career and one of the greatest goal scorers in history) was number 2, 90 goals behind Gretzky (Put another way, Gretzky was 40% ahead of the next highest goal scorer in that era). And Gretzky dominated goal scoring at the same time as recording 60% more assists than the number 2 player in that 4 year span.
For just goal scoring dominance relative to ‘peers’, Maurice Richard, Bobby Hull, Phil Esposito and Brett Hull in their 4 best season spans outpaced their second closest rival by margins not that far behind Gretzky’s best 4 seasons. In Esposito’s case, had Bobby Hull not defected to the WHL in 72, he might have gotten closer to Phil than Mickey Redmond did. In Brett Hull’s case, while his scoring was phenomenal (in no small part due to Adam Oates passing), his gap would have been a lot less or maybe even not existent if Mario hadn’t missed almost 100 games in that 4 season span.
Neither of the Hulls nor Richard were noted for their play making to go along with the scoring prowess. Esposito’s point total in his best 4 seasons dwarfed the next highest player from another team (almost 60%), but he was only ahead of Orr by 80 points in those 4 seasons or about 20% and Orr played 20 less games.
From 70/71 – 73/74 Orr scored 1.65 ppg and himself was 140 points clear of the highest scoring non Bruin player in the league and 100 points clear of Bucyk who was 3rd over that stretch. Brad Park was the 2nd highest scoring D in those 4 seasons, at roughly half of Orr’s total, and Lapointe was 3rd at 40%. Oh and both in the season before and the season after that 4 year span referenced above, Orr won the Art Ross trophy. I wonder who was zooming who on that team? Stunningly in 74/75 Orr won the Ross, the Norris and the Pearson, but the press picked Clarke for the Hart.
It can’t argue against Wayne as the GOAT because getting to play almost 1,500 games over 20 seasons vs 657 in 10 seasons is a definite factor, but my goodness was Orr dominant when he was healthy.
McDavid has 12 hat tricks in his still fairly young career, and has tied Crosby’s 12 and only one behind Malkin’s 13. Eric Staal (14) and Kovalchuk (13) are the only other active players between McDavid and Ovechkin on the all time hat trick list. Pretty good for a guy who claims he is not a natural goal scorer.
Kovalchuk hasn’t played in the NHL since 19-20, but that aside, still a fine list of comps. Heady company for our young star.
Tarkus
October 28, 2022 8:46 am
Prospectagerie!
A busy night as an octet of amateur prospects are in action on NA ice, highlighted by the Reid Rocket. His 10 goals remain tied with Connor Bedard for tops in the Dub, but in only 7 games compared to Bedard’s 13. Of Schaefer’s 10, only two are on the PP, and one is a shortie. Tracking very nicely for a #32 pick.
Vermont (Munzenberger, Maatta) @ 5 p.m.
St. Lawrence (Mazura) @ 5 p.m.
Youngstown (Lachance) @ 5 p.m.
North Bay (Petrov) @ 5 p.m.
Wheat Kings (Chiasson) @ 6 p.m.
Moose Jaw (Wanner) @ 7 p.m.
Seattle (Schaefer) @ 8 p.m.
All times, at all times, are Riviere Qui Barre time.
I am heartened to see Reid Rocket catching on! Happy to be able to contirbute to the lexicon of this wonderful community.
W
October 28, 2022 8:44 am
Can somebody invite Warren to their house to shoot pucks at the garage door. That third line has the potential to be monstrous if he could start cashing.
The team that came out in the third was not the team we’ve been accustomed to watching since before the iPhone launched. That’s a contending team attitude.
5-1 final in Vancouver and Canuck fans are all smiles
PIT will be happy to put Western Canada in the rear view mirror
Pens have a back to back tomorrow night in Seattle. Then they fly across the continent home to greet the Bruins Tuesday night, then play in Buffalo Wednesday night. That will be their 3rd back to back in 10 days. What a brutal stretch in their schedule. Show up in Edmonton 5 days ago, undefeated in regulation, first in their division and 2nd in their conference. By next Wednesday, they could be looking up at the playoffs.
Truly is amazing. The NHL schedulers are bonkers this season. For example Edm playing Cal only three times.
Avs lose one of those 1-0 games Spector keeps telling us championship teams win.
That’s a sweet result for the Oilers and puts them in control of their own destiny as far as third place in the conference goes.
Summarizing!
Not a plethora of offense on the night, though Petrov picked a pair of apples in North Bay’s win, earning 2nd star honours.
Schaefer earned an assist with 5 SOG as Seattle improved to 9-0. (Fun fact: 5 of the CHL top 10 teams this week are from the Dub, including the T-birds steady at #3.)
While Wanner didn’t find the scoresheet, he did get into a scrap and dispense this fine hit.
Chiasson, Munzenberger, Maatta, Mazura and Lachance also were held pointless.
Why stand them up at your blue line when you can crack them at center!
Anyone notice that “The Greatest Goal Scorer since Ovie” has two pathetic goals this season?
Meanwhile the epic bet on Murray managed a loser point against (checks the stats) San Jose last night. Loser .500 for the Laughs.
Everyone is saying Dubas is on his last strike but maybe the Shanaplan is the rotten apple. One guy oversaw the Abusive Coach and then handed the keys to a Man Boy maybe his head should be on the Rogers Chopping block and not the kid? Just thinking out loud tonight.
For those interested, Matej Blumel was called up to Dallas yesterday. In 5 games for AHL Texas he has 5 goals & 8 points. He leads the team in both categories and has played 1 less game than the bill of the roster. Great start to his NA pro career!
Meanwhile his best bud, Tomáš, got 3 shots and was -1 in his NCAA game (a 6-0 loss).
Rick Dhaliwal
@DhaliwalSports
Ethan Bear’s agent Jason Davidson –
“Ethans #1 destination through this process was to come to Vancouver… he is extremely excited to join the Canucks organization. He works out with Luke Schenn in the off season, he is very excited to get to Vancouver.”
VGK win 4-0 over ANA.
Knights now 7-2 with only 16 goals against.
Goal differential +14
Early days but it appears their bet on Logan Thompson is paying off.
GAA well below 2.
The Dementor just keeps dementoring along…
Vegas remains a good team and adequate tending will get them in to the playoffs but, yes, the dementor’s team is what it is and I look forward to the Oilers also playing games against SJS and ANA – all wins are earned, of course, but LA/ANA/SJS isn’t quite CAR/PIT/STL
You mean getting a shutout against a team that has 1 more goal than McDavid has points is not impressive?
Logan Thompson
.943
.1.69
Stuart Skinner
.957
1.44
But neither have proven a thing yet. Let’s talk about this in another 20 games.
Wow a bunch of odious tools jumps out to a 10 game stretch. Clap clap clap clap. We’ve seen this before and the collapse will be fun.
Vegas is like Detroit but without the upside. Soon all the sore backs will kick in and they’ll maybe sorta kinda fight for a playoff spot lol.
I understand though. I’d be seriously pissed if I cheered for that loser team in the lower mainland and needed to pick a winner three weeks into the season to lol.
How’s Rafferty doing these days?
Haven’t posted since last year but saw the title of today’s blog and thought I should give it the “Je guru deva um”. First thought I should check to see no-one else did, Jethro Tull did in the third post of the morning. What a dork I am to think that only LT and I knew of this band called the Beatles. It was worth scrolling through the posts though to learn the origins story on the whole Nuge- 50 point season thing, classic, haha
Nuge on pace for 51 goals and 112 points just saying.
Petrov with an aPPle as North Bay trails 2-1 after 1.
One aPPle is insufficient for his appetite, so he procures another:
https://mobile.twitter.com/OHLBattalion/status/1586148172744695814?cxt=HHwWjICp2f_WkIMsAAAA
Nuggies said he would work on his shot this summer
Felt he needed to cash more. I commented he should have years before. Truth, but at least he did, finally. I do give him some leeway as the shoulder surgery can be a problem, but it was a while ago now
Anywho, he is shooting better. A pitcher with one pitch gets hit a lot after time. A shooter with one shot (low blocker) gets saved on a lot
Perhaps sniping a few has given him some confidence there. He’s hitting the net and getting the puck up. Maybe that’s the jump some have noticed in his game so far. Feeling you can score would juice anybody up
I hope he keeps it up, and scores more than he ever has ongoing. Especially since he’s all locked up and the goals are bought and paid for in full! It will be great fun for him
No question goal scoring wise, Nuge had a very off year last year. Eleven goals in 63 games is not what anyone including he expects. But in the 4 seasons leading up to last season, 2017/18 through 2021/22, Nuge’s goal scoring was pretty good for the number 3 guy on the team.
In that 4 year window before last year, Nuge scored 90 goals in 261 games. That translates to a scoring rate of 28 goals per 82 games. His individual seasons ranged from 25 to 32 per 82. Over that time span he was 53rd in the league in goals per game among all forwards. That’s top 10% of all forwards who played at least 50 games over those 4 seasons. Maybe more is expected of him since he was drafted number 1, but he is also not asked to be the teams scoring star.
His shooting percentage during that span was 13.5%. Last season, it dropped to 7%. This has basically been a one year issue. His bigger problem has been playing more games. Would we like him to get 35 to 40 goals, sure. But even if he returns to the range he was in during that 4 year span and stays healthy for close to 82 games, 25-30 goals is pretty good especially if Kane, Hyman score like they can and others come along.
Just wanted you to know I enjoy your posts. We think similarly but you are much better at putting it on paper. Thanks
The Oilers schedule is busy enough in the next two weeks that I would just alternate the goaltenders till after the road trip, starting Skinner in Calgary. And Campbell would tougher opponents overall.
Not only busy but the walk through murderers row continues through next month. Lots of tough matchups.
Were saving the easy matchups for later in the season
Nugent-Hopkins scored critical goals in big games in a deep playoff run, and was exceptional in his all around game. Any lingering self-doubt or regret from the decade of darkness and previous playoff underperformance has been washed away.
I think we are going to see something a lot closer to the full potential of the player that was drafted #1 overall.
I’m not sure we should expect RNH to become a different player based on a 7 game sample size to start the season.
He’s fine though.
Oilers still need some internal growth. Bouchard hitting is huge. They still need another forward and D man to pop. Holloway and Broberg please come on down.
i do remember when many on here were claiming BEAR was a Top 4 D Man on Carolina ….
Bear’s 25 and he’s already on his 3rd team.
Yup this was the height of “Kenny doesn’t know a winner if it kicked him in the teeth,” level of Oiler fandom.
Thank goodness we have a GM that knows when to cut a maybe for a bunch of winners.
remmeber when Caleb Jones plus a pick that would matriculate in 2028 was a horrible overpay for that bum Keith and his stupid intangibles?
Yea that was a fun time.
Amidst the hundreds of women on Twitter today declaring Gisele Bundchen in the right with her divorce proceedings, because her husband had the audacity to want to work at the age of 45, I came across one lone voice of reason.
“Imagine the roles were reversed and this was a man demanding his wife quit her job to stay home with the kids? The Internet would explode.”
Thank you voice of an alternative perspective. Thank you.
And the funniest comment I saw on this today: “Good God, if the GOAT can’t keep his wife, what hope does that leave the rest of us?”
People are way to envious of so called heroes of society. Everyone has problems even the rich and famous.
Agreed. Science has proven that once a human being’s basic needs are met, their level of happiness essentially plateaus and any material or status gains beyond that do not appreciably increase one’s level of happiness.
Oddly enough, I would still trade my desk job to be an NFL QB in a heartbeat.
true story. I sat on a flight next to her from London to NYC. Had a great conversation the entire way. She’s very intelligent.
Did you get her number? She’s available now 😉
More importantly can she cook?
More importantly, I could land a golf ball in her backyard (at least when the construction is completed!) from my place in Florida. I also had a crazy thought that half the Russian and Ukrainian divorcees in Miami must be rushing to rent condos in Tampa for the NFL offseason!
The funny thing is that’s it’s true.
Been on the blog probably over 6 years??? what is the Full Nuge won’t hit 50 points joke?
I still laugh at all the banter and realized and really don’t know how it started …
One of DSF/HH’s classics. Asking when RNH was going to hit 50 after he’d done it 2-3 times.
Pales in comparison to when he equated Draisaitl to Joe Colborne in 2015. Just atrocious but also par for the course.
He also compared McLeod to MPS last October
MPS scored 15 goals and 34 points in his first 80 games.
McLeod scored 9 goals and 22 points in the same number of games.
Both skate like the wind.
McLeod currently has a shooting percentage of 50%
Calm your tits.
And what happened after the 80 game sample you oddly selected?
Well, McLeod got 3 goals and 1 assist in the playoffs and is 3 goals in 8 games this season.
MPS got 2 goals in 41 games.
There was never a time in history where Magnus PRV came even close to looking like Ryan McLeod with the puck on his stick out of the defensive zone, through the neutral zone and in to the offensive zone – never.
Of course he picks a select sample. That’s what DBs do!
Amazing how a bright prospect can quickly fall off the map if they can’t score, hey?
McLeod has 6 SOG IN 8 games.
60 SOG over a complete season normally gets you about 6-7 goals and considering he hasn’t registered even one assist in 8 games is also a tell.
Yeah you shouldn’t fall in love with young prospects who are putting up potentially unsustainable numbers in early days.
So tell me what you think of the guy who made this post:
“VGK win 4-0 over ANA.
Knights now 7-2 with only 16 goals against.
Goal differential +14
Early days but it appears their bet on Logan Thompson is paying off.
GAA well below 2.”
What a fool, am I right? He’s going to be disappointed when Logan Thompson comes crashing down to earth.
If your in the top 10 percentile of being the fastest in the league you will last many years in the NHL and you already know this.
How about that star prospect from LA, Quentin Byfield with 0 goals in 5 shots plus 3 whole assists in 8 game? 50 shots in a complete season gets you zero goals with that shooting average.
Byfield doesn’t have the hockey smarts or guts to be the 2nd coming of Cam Neely that some folks on this board think.
The dumb just keeps on coming. Hah
THANK you for the insight !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He also mentioned the now AHL seasoned Rafferty and the Norris trophy in the same sentence a few years back.
I thought it was Kelly Hrudey trying to get a dig in on the Oiler forward.
Here’s Flamer Kelly trying to take an eye out by blowing out his button at warp speed with that much too tight suit jacket he used to wear. His shocked response is hilarious.
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/video/broadcast-kelly-hrudey-wardrobe-malfunction/
Hrudey grew up in the West End. You’ll never hear Hrudey give the City of Edmonton kudos because he’s to busy sucking a golf ball through a garden hose for the Flamers and their organization.
Also, I think Blake Wheeler was better in his late 20s and 30s wasn’t he?
Perhaps the poster child for better in his late 20’s and 30s’ is Brad Marchand.
Up to age 28 (2015/16): 454 games played, 289 points (.64 ppg) and his best season in that range was the last one 77gp 61 points. No end of season all star votes and the occasional Selke vote.
Since age 28 (2016/17 forward): 421 games played, 509 points (1.21 ppg) and consistently well above 1 ppg every season even at 34 (1.14 ppg). First team end of season all star LW twice, second team twice and Hart trophy votes in 5 consecutive seasons.
While there may be other factors, 16/17 was the season Pastrnak came into his own, and got put on the line with Marchand and Bergeron (Marchand/Bergeron had been together already for several seasons). They played almost 90% of their time together until Pastrnak was moved to another line last season for about 2/3 of his time on ice.
Marchand is one of those guys who had to play on the edge (and often over it) to get into the NHL.
But then he couldn’t stop doing it the stupid stuff (e.g. literally licking other players) once he got really good.
I wonder if his ‘rat’ persona, which probably got him an NHL job, will now keep him out of the NHL Hall of Fame.
(His closest career comparables are Stamkos, St. Louis, Datsyuk, Malkin, Lindros – all guys very much in the HOF conversation. (In the case of Lindros, already in the Hall after a long wait due to dim views of his character – perhaps like Marchand will face?)
Brad Marchand does not yet have the resume of any of the players you listed and probably never will. Lindros’ delay was likely less about his character and more about the shortness of his career.
I actually thought of Marchand but felt like he played for Canada in his early 20s?
No he was drafted in 2006, but Boston sent him back to Juniors for his 19 & 20 year old seasons. He played for Team Canada in the WJHC as well those 2 years, winning gold twice. He then spent his 21 year old season playing for Boston’s farm team in the AHL and effectively got called up permanently to the Bruins halfway through his 22 year old season. He was 23 and still technically and NHL rookie helping the Bruins win the cup in 2011.
Nuge is feeling it at the moment. There was a moment in one of the 50 power plays last night where he skated it in from the half wall and rather than seek to push it across the ice to McDavid or Drai he just zinged it to the top corner. Solid wrister that Stalock had covered but was a dangerous shot. It’s a snipers goal and I loved every second of RNH having the confidence to try.
It was a small thing but to me symbolic of a player who could be starting to have his best year. His shot looks good at the moment. Our boy is growing up
Teams over compensate that Nuge is going to pass it to Barrie or McDavid which leaves a lane open for a high danger shot. The prime shooting lane has been there for a few years, Nuge could have 30 if he just hit the net when he does choose to shoot. They ask Bossy what made him arguably one of the best goal scorers ever, his answer was simple Hit the Net.
He’s dialled in at the moment that’s for sure. He’s always had a filthy wrister. Just either lost faith in it or struggled with it through injury. Either way, he could get 30 if his form continues. Especially if he gets more shifts with the two best players on the planet
Tomorrow evening, in Ontario (California):
Broberg plays hockey
Savoie plays hockey
Janmark plays hockey
Accounts are Lavoie should be ready for next weekend (and possibly Deharnais as well).
Its getting crowded in Bakersfield (Engras sent to ECHL yesterday) and I’m not sure what’s going to happen when Lavoie is ready, I mean, they can’t sit McKegg or even Kambietz, can they? No chance they sit Esposito (and, no, that has nothing to do with Messier, Esposito is one of the “heart and soul” Condors – he’s “not great” but he’s the first to jump in to defend, he is good on the PK, etc.).
The following top two lines are what Chaulk said they are going with tomorrow and I’m thinking in real time about what happens when they are full (if no other injuries occur):
Janmark/Hamblin/Griffith
Kostin/Malone/Bourgault
Lavoie/Mckegg/Kambeitz
Savoie/Esposit/Tulio
This sits Philp (and McPhee) but, unless they healthy scratch Kambeitz, I don’t know what to do…..
Pretty excited to see Lavoie get back in the lineup.
Need all of these guys to get some at bats – together- to see what we have.
Me too but I’ll be very guarded in expectations – I mean history shows players rarely look normal coming off major knee surgery. I don’t know if it was a torn MCL/ACL/PCL type injury but often players need months after returning to look close to normal (and like a year plus from injury) – that is somewhat speculation.
Not to mention, no camp, starting the season behind and, lets not forget, likely no “hockey training” over the summer, just rehab type work.
Bear to the Nucks for a 5th
Vancouver Canucks
@Canucks
General Manager Patrik Allvin announced today that defenceman Ethan Bear and forward Lane Pederson have been acquired from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for their 5th round pick in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. Carolina will retain a portion of Bear’s salary.
Carolina retains $400K of Bear’s cap hit.
Hope he can resurrect his career and then go to a better team!
As long as the Oilers continue to torch the Canucks right side in the interim
I don’t get why they didn’t just wave him
They got a 5th round pick in return as well as moving a salary that pays Pederson $750K in the minors.
Dundon is saving $1.5 million in cash.
It’s what they do.
You do know that retaining on a contract 6 games after signing it is not something positive
If they waive him, likely no one takes him at his $2.2 million cap hit, and they only shed $1.125 million from their cap leaving them with a buried penalty of $1,075,000 vs the $400,00 retained. Not a problem for them now, but when Pacioretty returns, they’d be within a million of the cap if he was buried.
Also hard to say what was discussed in the off season with Bear when he was an RFA and signed for less than his QO prior to arbitrations. Maybe to get him to sign that deal Carolina made a commitment to trade him if by early in the season it was clear he would not be in their long term plans.
Essentially by giving Bear a QO rather than letting him walk, right now they have a $400,000 cap hit for this season to get a 5th round pick. The loss of the 25 year old Lane Pederson is probably almost inconsequential to them (he was a throw in in the Burns deal), but hey, maybe he will be a late blooming star for the Canucks. His chances to help the Canucks appear better than for Carolina.
Good for Bear. He’ll likely see heaps of playing time now.
Could be a gift or a curse for Bear.
He could benefit from increased ice time and find his game, or he could sink lower on an already drowning Canucks team that’s talking about rebuilding and has reported locker room issues.
I recall talk of Bear saying how he felt like he was lacking support from his teammates on the Oilers. It will be interesting to see how he does on a cliquey Canucks team.
What is cliquey based on? Just curious
Apparently there are “star players” who do not get along with the rest of the players.
https://canucksarmy.com/news/real-cliquey-dressing-room-canucks-making-league-wide-news-wrong-reasons
The way Pettersson flops on the ice you just know he’s a Prima Donna in everyday life.
Agreed with LT -Campbell was not sharp yesterday.
Campbell has been okay – to start the season.
It will be interesting if Skinner really presses here.
More than any other player, goalies take time. On a garbage team there strength is noticed because they stop more of the HDSC than a bad one. Campbell has an insanely quick glove. He saved some sure goals last night but let up some bad ones (those bounces of the chest need to be smothered).
It will take some time for the D/team to adapt to Campbell’s game and visa versa. He doesn’t look bad and he got the W last night. I’d say 10-15 games he should find the rhythm.
I would rather see him on a 21 game heater in 6 months.
Defense was even less sharp than Campbell
OP talked about it yesterday….but Evander Kane has to ease of on the Penalties.
Yes, I know reffing. But this is getting to be a bit much.
He likely has the attention of the refs now.
This is true but, for clarity, I was talking about his penchant for taking “stick infraction” type penalties that have little to do with his impact skill set. Hooking, tripping type penalties all over the ice.
Last night was a bit of a different beast. At least Kane’s penalties were part of that “presence” that he brings – cross-checks in a net front battle – sure, I don’t want to be short handed but I’ll take that more than a reach in hook PIM in the neutral zone.
Well, one of them was for ‘unsportsman like conduct’ – but your distinction is noted.
I guess my concern is the sheer volume of the penalties, now.
And right now, our PK is near the bottom of the league.
I had no problem with Kane last night. The Hawks were cheap shoters all night. He was sending a message that we cant be pushed around.
As long as the team wins Kane is doing fine.
When the team loses – trade the bum lol
Coyotes home opener tonight at Mullet areana. Best hockey areana name ever. Had to look it up. There really is a Mullet Family. Imagine the family photos
Here is an older family photo of the Mullets…:)
First person to flip a puck and hit the ceiling should win a prize.
Loved LT’s comment about the refs last night.
“If they’d been a horse, I know what would have happened to that ref crew”
Haha!
Anyone notice how the Chicago play by play announcers kept missing McDavid’s goals, then sputtering superlatives because they were so mesmerised?
Hawks and their referee brothers in law did their best to stem the tide, but no dice said Der Kaiser Draisaitl.
I did..also noticed in Chicago, for $50 you get a ticket and 2 free beers. What would a lower priced ticket and 2 beers cost at Rogers Place?
You should see what it costs in Florida!
yeah, they commented on the very low attendance for the hawks last few games as well.
Very different. Cyclical nature of pro sports I guess.
Lots of empty seats on display. They know it’s rebuild time.
I feel like a Nuge year is equal to about 0.75 regular human years, so he should be just entering his prime now!
I am increasingly of the opinion that Holloway should go to the Bake and play more meaningful minutes. Since he does not play on special teams and may not have the tightest claim on a top 9 role, I think he has been great but needs time on the ice.
I would switch him and Janmark.
Run 11 F’s
Nuge McD Hyman
Kane Drai Yamamoto
Foegele McLeod Puljujarvi
Janmark Ryan
I thought Holloway had a good game yesterday. At least one of his penalties never gets called.
I trust this management group with development. So whatever they think is best.
I’m not sure the salary cap allows them to have both of Ryan & Janmark on the roster.
I don’t believe the Oilers have the cap space to make that move. Demoting Holloway’s $925,000 added to the space they have now, $13,333 isn’t enough to bring up Janmark’s net $1,125,000. Short of sending Ryan down instead, they’d have to also send either Shore, Neimalainen or Murray down along with Holloway and only run with 20 on the roster, which they are very unlikely to do.
Janmark is also playing his first game this weekend and was essentially off for the better part of three weeks.
Chaulk spoke about some tough practices for him – I think they/he are working on getting his conditioning back up. Probably needs a few games before he’d be ready for call up, without even taking in to account the cap issues.
Something is off with Campbell, he didn’t play well. Sure it was a weird game, but his rebound control and movement didn’t seem dialed in. If it was just one game, I wouldn’t be worried, but it’s been multiple and Skinner is outplaying him by a decent margin. Stu has looked way calmer in net and pucks are sticking to him. I would start Skinner in Calgary. If Campbell starts, I can understand the reasoning. I won’t expect him to last the whole game.
In the last game against Calgary Skinner came in relief of Campbell and was perfect. It’s comforting to know Skinner has their backs if needed. The reality is they have a #1 & #1A protecting the net. Good to know.
I’m giving Soup most of this season to settle in tbh. Not always a quick fit, goalies and team play.
Campbell is going to need time to get used to being left out to dry by the Oilers style of heart attack hockey.
At least he doesn’t always let in the first goal.
This. Also, the Oiler D aren’t used to clearing rebounds – Smith would deflect them wildly away or clear them himself and Koski, well… it’s an area that can be tightened up for sure.
Just listened to an in depth interview with Jeff Marek and Shayna Goldman who does deep dives on advanced scoring stats.
She’s convinced the Oilers biggest weakness will be goaltending due to Campbell’s inconsistency and Skinner’s performance thus far being a bit of a mirage due to the type of shots he has faced.
So do you have a general media filter that searches for anything remotely associated with Oiler negatives so you can come and share? Skinner has been incredible and his rebound control is very good. She obviously has no clue.
My god, you are an annoying man. Who hurt you?
Skinner is predictable. He stops the ones that he is expected to stop.
It remains to be seen if he has a consistent higher ceiling as he settles in but a goalie that is predictable is good enough for a team built for offense like the Oilers.
It will be interesting to see where Colorado, Toronto & Vegas are at around the 20 game mark which is when I think teams pretty much reveal themselves for what they are. Colorado & Toronto chose to take a chance on goal tending while Vegas was pretty much forced to.
I read here, from time to time, that goalie is the most important position in hockey but I am not a big believer. Bad goalies do kill teams & spectacular ones do win games but for me hockey is the quintessential team game.
You can win with good goal tending if you have elite something else and in a capped league it is highly unusual for a team to have elite everything & if it does happen it is pretty much guaranteed that they will lose some of it in the off season.
A Steady Stu is good enough to win with for this team.
Yeah, except maybe in the playoffs. I used to enjoy those Sharks teams with T-Mac at the helm, Big Joe, Cheechoo, Marleau et al. They were consistently good top to bottom, but they never had a single playoff series where their goalies outplayed the opposition.
And in tight games, it made a difference. I think, for example, if they had Roloson, they would have won a Cup.
I think this is pretty well spot on.
We’ve seen teams win without elite D before, PIT in their second year in a row. We’ve see teams win without elite F or G before, STL comes to mind.
But when I look at the team that’s a bit of a unicorn in the cap era, it’s TBL. They have elite game breakers up front, such as Kuch and Point (Stamkos is pretty good too), on D in Hedman, and between the pipes in Vas. It’s amazing Briesbois has kept them together this long. That they were finalists three years in a row is no surprise.
I know you are a troll…it hasn’t that long for me but I’ll bite (Yes…SSS alert but you said “mirage” so here goes).
GSAE/60
1 Carter Hart (1.940)
2 Jake Oettinger (1.739)
3 Stuart Skinner (1.727)
LOL
Thank you so much for all the trouble you must go through to dig up this trash.
Yamamoto: game winning steal and smart pass to Kane leading to game winner. Hopefully that sparks him and gets him going.
Second in the League in save percentage?
Skinner with a .957.
Third.
Craig Anderson .970
Jake Oettinger .960
For a guy who is a little sloppy with details, you sure like to point out when others are a bit off. Glass houses and all that DB.
Friedman reporting Ethan Bear likely traded today by Carolina.
Bear, Aho, and a 1st round pick to Vancouver for Rafferty?
Two firsts. Can’t just give away a talent like Rafferty.
That’s not enough.
Rick Dhaliwal reporting the return might be Nils Hoglander from Vancouver.
Wow giving up on Hoglander already I think he’ll fit in with the Hurricanes nicely.
The Canucks are desperate to acquire a RHD and have an excess of forwards….when healthy.
The Canucks are just desperate.
At least they finally found an under 0.800 goalie to get a win against.
After having to part with all star RHD Rafferty, the Cannots have spent an eternity trying to replace and are finally biting the bullet.
Travis Yost did a bit of a dive on Vancouver’s forward group last week. Didn’t look too pretty to me. Excess in numbers maybe, but not in quality.
Lots of issues.
Crazy how 17 days ago the team was being hyped up to be one that could potentially lead the division under Bruce!There It Is! to now having “Lots of issues.”
Well maybe they have an excess of forwards, just not NHL forwards. But Bear is probably their second best D, given how poorly OEL and Myers are playing.
You mean the team that had Aman playing 3C and just traded for Strudnicka… excess
I thought Foegele could of easily scored 17-18 last year with him missing wide open nets hitting the post, crossbar or a goalie making a fluke last split second desperation stick or blocker save. This year same thing the man is snake bit as a Oiler he has Tobias Rieder syndrome.
Come on, I see Kane and Draisaitl, even McDavid miss wide open nets.
He has hands of stone. Sure the best players miss the net, everyone does. But they also hit more often than not. As a goalie, I love playing against players that have little ability to finish. The puck will find me, not the back of the net.
You always hope for some production but have to agree that when you deploy Foegs it’s not for his finish.
After a dismal last season offensively, Merriam-Webster has decided to include a picture of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins next to their definition for “regression to the meat.” Our baby carnivore is all growed up!
Nuge now leads Draisaitl, Kane and Hyman in goals.
Bizarre, ridiculous and glorious game last night. I’m not going to bother commenting on the refs. I don’t want to get fined.
McDavid was amazing last night. I love it when he get that look in his eye and elevates his game to heights we never thought achievable! Seriously, we’ve watched the kid since the day he entered the league and are Still launched out of our seats by his incredible abilities! Just amazing to watch.
Drai is a beast. Took him all game(last few games, too, really) to reset his sights but he got em fixed for the gwg. His backhand pass to Nuge deserves to be hung in the museum of Awesomeness.
Kane is gonna Kane. He plays on the razors edge and sometimes leaves a blood trail. I’ll take the good and kill off the penalties with the bad any day. He’s gonna have games like this occasionally but I think he’s mature enough to know he can’t hurt the team to often. I imagine the leaders were talking to him during the break about having his back and not throwing him under the bus.
Nuge is having a renaissance season. He’s got the confidence of his early 20’s again and I couldn’t be happier for the guy. Shouldn’t be surprised, really. He Looks like hes 24. Maybe it takes longer for vampires to hit their prime?
Mcleod is so fast and the hands are starting to catch up. Look out when they do, league. Just a few more confidence points needed to level up.
I don’t expect Foggy to get a tonne of goals. He’s just not a natural goal scorer. But he is a natural hard worker and thats what that line needs from him. I think hes faster than Hyman but less skilled.
Puljujarvi is getting better every game. I think he’ll be the finisher on that line. He confidence is starting to rocket and he’s starting to realize just how much bigger and stronger his is than most.
Holloway showed flashes of what he can be for the first time(I don’t watch pre-season). I genuinely thought it was McDavid on one of his rushes. His fired a quick and hard shot in tight that nearly squeaked through. I think once he gets a few breaks he’s gonna blast off.
I could watch Bouch make stretch passes all day long. He looked good with Kulak and I hope they keep them together.
Nurse! He’s a Beast! When he’s ragging the puck he looks like a juggernaught. He’s playing physical and smart. With his speed and ranginess he’s gotta be a nightmare to play against. I thought he was a clear cut about Seth Jones last night.
Soupy needs some help, fellas. Kinda like how everyone busted ass for Skins. That’s not to much to ask, is it?
Bring on the flames. The revenge tour continues.
For Kane this is the time of year to set tone
What Kassian should have done but he couldn’t dial the noggin in and keep enough TOI
No pissing around with the Oilers. Nurse has been edgier as well. It will never be perfect with opponents, but I’m sure they are thinking twice more than they have since CFP days
Kane would not be a fun guy to have thinking perhaps he doesn’t ‘respect your game’. Loose cannon and can back it up. I’m sure with a Messier ‘revenge is better served cold’ temperament as well
For Kane, it was really just the 2nd period for him. When they got back out for the 3rd, right after the tying goal, Tinordi came over and had some words. Looked like Kane did the smart thing and skated away. The hawks kept trying to goad him into bad penalties all through the 3rd, and he kept his cool. He didn’t carry over the crap from the 2nd into the 3rd.
This seems to get mentioned in every thread, but I often mistake McLeod for McDavid. Both skate fast, have roughly the same build and there’s the “Mc”. McLeod looks like he’s at the start of a fantastic season. Occasionally being mistaken for McDavid is no crime.
And both of their numbers end in 7. I often do the same.
71 ends in 7?
Yes, the left end
I’ve done this more than a few times with these ‘ol eyes. I like what I’m seeing so far.
I saw that last season. he mimics McDavid’s skating and the opposition freezes. its a freaking hilarious as he has little finish. Would be something if he started scoring more.
Kudos to our host who predicted a big step forward for McLeod before the season started. You can see him improving almost shift to shift.
And although my pre-season preference for getting Puljujarvi away from McDavid & Draisaitl was Nuge it looks to me like McLeod is the answer. They fit.
Last year – most opposition broadcast crews did as well.
Besides our 2 gods. Opposition crews kept talking about McLeods speed.
When that happens, you know you have something.
Looks like Federov out there…YT it kids.
tuned in for the 3rd.
In the two or 3 shifts together, there seemed to be promise in 55-56 together.
I could see them outworking bottom 6 comp and cashing.
They did seem to feed off one another nicely.
For such a cerebral player I think he’ll age like fine wine. Bergeron very lite, Derek Ryan x1000. Smart players last the longest in this league in some form or another. I think the best is yet to come for Baby Nuge.
A decent comp for Nuge is Patrick Marleau. Entered the league at 18. All 7 of his 60+ point seasons came between ages 26 & 34 as a C/LW after starting out as a full time pivot.
Please make it so.
If you cant find two good refs for each game maybe its time to go back to one ref.
Keep one on the ice and put the other upstairs with access to replays and lots of camera angles. Do the same with linesmen. (Maybe have two sitting with the score keeper to break up scrums and fights between whistles). You could have a bunch each with their own task. Offside official, hooking official, etc. We have the technology. Maybe put all of ’em upstairs.
Take the prestige out of it, lose the egos.
Two refs on the ice just get in each other’s way. Not only that but they seem to be getting into the players way more than they ever used to, maybe it’s by design. A good referee is like a good offensive lineman in football, the less his name is heard the better.
Nuge is 50.8% on the faceoff dot.
Has he finally come into his Man Strength?
50% on the dot and finally hitting 50 points?
One of the refs last night was also one of the refs that called Kesler’s leg grabbing crease crash a good goal in that joke of a Anaheim series.
He should probably be looked into.
Definitely worth keeping an eye on moving forward.
He should no longer be officiating
What a gong show of a game. I don’t know if the refs were trying to send a message or were just targeting certain players/teams but that second period needs to be reviewed by the NHL. Simply inexcusable and unprofessional.
I’m glad the good guys rose above it all and won. In year’s past, I don’t think they would have.
Full marks to the PK for fighting the good fight and keeping Chicago at bay for what seemed like an eternity.
Have to say I’m impressed with what Luke Richardson has done with that team. He was a beast as a player and never backed down from anything. I think he’s imparted that philosophy on the Hawks. They went toe to toe with the Oil, western conference finalists and nearly won.
Jack called it “plodding” at one point if I recall. What a terrible second period.
Sometimes feels like the Oilers face an existential challenge. But a Cup win this year would be amongst the greatest and most consequential and important ever. The next Canadian team to win, whomever that is, will be important. But if 97 can do it, everything changes. Nothing before matters. Reset the clock.
yes, lost in all this is Chicago has a terrible roster.
Extreme kudos to Luke Richardson. Those boys compete.
For me the emerging issue is not the mediocrity of the officials. As frustrating as that is, and as it is becoming worse by the year as the sport becomes faster and more intense, poor officiating has always been a hallmark of this chaotic game.
What scares me is the chilling effect the NHL has imposed on teams and seemingly most broadcasters. If hockey is run by old-school types, presumably these are self-styles “tough guys” but turns out, as in hockey as in life: The tough guys are soft and incapable of handling criticism. They would rather suffocate the game with their indecipherable regulatory regime and usher in a new era of conspiracy than admit its not working.
My opinion is that several of the following things and probably more need to happen or we won’t get out of this tailspin:
-Like, way better training.
-Larger window of acceptable criticism, ie no fining coaches who speak out.
-Keep sports betting sponsorship at arm’s length from the league.
-Put name bars back on the ref’s sweaters and make them do press post-game.
-Keep one ref on the ice with another watching form the rafters. Latter can override.
-If not, then we only need one ref. I’m convinced that many of these issues stem from the move to two refs on the ice. There’s less plausible deniability when one ref is accountable to the whole game.
These are great, common sense suggestions!
We see it from a fairness perspective, but I suspect the silent powers see it from an entertainment perspective i.e. some incompetency and inconsistency is baked into this game.
I was going to laud some other ‘fair’ sports – tennis, chess – but they’re going the same way.
Post-truth world?
Tennis stands out as the only sport with a sane replay challenge system. Quick, accurate, limited.
The best thing about Tennis review system, or something like Cricket’s, is that it’s by and large completely impartial. It relies on technology to catch elements of the game difficult for the ref/umpire to see live. With Hockey, the review relies on other referees concluding that the match ref interpreted the rules incorrectly. The Refs union is a boys club and they stick up for each other. It’s rare to see incidents of subjective rulings overturned.
In an invasive team sport like hockey there is more nuisance to calls. Tennis and cricket are very black and white on the rules they are reviewing making technology the answer. The invasive team sport that has nailed video reviews is Rugby. The TMO (4th ref – Television Match Official) is on top of the game and in constant communications with the ref and touch judges. If the TMO sees something that needs review it is signaled to the ref and they review at the next stoppage of play and same if the ref sees something for the TMO to review he signals and it is reviewed at the next stoppage. The video is shown on the Jimbotron and the dialogue is according to the rule book and is live for the in house and tv audience to hear. Truly exceptional.
A lot of good points here and I especially like the idea of names on shirts.
Don Kocharski comes to mind. A fine referee with a fine Polish last name.
We don’t hear about refs, but I wonder how many have the resume of Don, who officiated 1719 regular season games and 248 playoff games.
It’s a tough job, with constant travel and time away from family.
I’m wondering whether these guys are just not making enough $$ to make a career of it like Don did, and thus don’t have the experience to walk the tightrope of letting them play and maintaining control over a heated game.
Namebar: “Donuts” 😈
Wasn’t he the ref who called the phantom Horcoff hand pass after Hemmer tied the game and sent it to OT?
I believe that was Mick McGeough.
I agree that the NHL is definitely dominated still by “old-school” types who have to be pulled kicking and screaming into new ways of thinking about the game.
When it comes to officiating, even broadcasters take the view of “complaining about officiating is a loser tactic — focus on what you can control and not what the ref’s are doing”. And that’s fine when you’re a player sitting on the bench fuming from a call — but broadcasters have a responsibility to identify when the officiating is poor.
If an officiating team has a bad night — and hey, that happens to the best of us — it impacts the game and needs to be identified and addressed in their coverage. And on a macro scale, when a league’s officiating consistently impacts the game — say, allowing its most talented players to be hooked, held, and impeded as a hypothetical example — they need to address that as well.
That doesn’t mean they have to disagree with it — God knows, there’s a lot of former grinder / character guys on the air who find value in fourth liners being able to bear hug the league’s best in the playoffs — but the topic shouldn’t be taboo.
So the quality of the game is impacted and there’s a collective shrug of the shoulders as most of those in positions of power — and that includes many broadcasters — are far more comfortable never questioning how things are, or how they could be better.
The refereeing is so terrible in the NHL in fact that youngsters nation wide are throwing down their stripes in protest. Apparently the resultant shortage is even forcing the cancellation of games in some communities- Revolution! What kid would dedicate his life to officiating hockey when the best in the world are so incompetent that they need to be protected from true Canadian hockey fans?
Yes! to interviews with non-partisan, level headed professional reporters post-game.
Yes! to name bars so that we know who these idiots are. Heck- we should even know where they live!
Yes! to more personal responsibility. One ref would suck half as much as two!
And if this doesn’t fix things we should just get rid of them entirely!
Wait. What’s broken again?
For all of the earned criticism they aren’t nearly as bad as the refs in Basketball (or maybe Baseball but I only see the highlights, one of the devotees can correct me there). NHL refs have egos for sure and their mistakes have a more noticeable impact but they are tough. Can’t believe how much of a baby Baskletball refs can be.
You can have way better training, 360 cameras from every angle, slow mo replays to review every call. It doesn’t matter – if anything it will make people trust the refs LESS because they now also have 500 times as many ways to scrutinize the refs and question the call. It’s a lose-lose for the league to really engage on this because the harder they try to “fix” the reffing the more likely it is to blow up in their face.
Michael Lewis (the guy who wrote Moneyball) has a podcast called against the rules where he looks at this. He talks about how, objectively, officiating is the most rigorous it has ever been for sports like basketball, etc, yet trust in referees is at an all time low. It’s basically the theme of his whole series, which he uses to launch into an analysis of ALL the kinds of reffing in society, but the episode where he talks about referees in sports is pretty revealing imo.
With 5-6-11 in 8 games Nuge is now on pace for 21-28-49 for the season.
The kid has found another gear it seems. I haven’t seen this sort of jump to his game since the first few years of his career and I for one am uber happy for him.
Firstly, he isn’t a kid anymore.
When you’re as old as I am, they’re all kids. 🙂
I hear you.
Whaddaya mean not a kid? He is still ‘baby Nuge’ in our house.
I’m sorry, he’s “Sweet Baby Nuge”!
He’s on a heater for sure. I don’t think he looks much different than years past myself.
No reason he can’t score 70 points if he plays all season with McDavid and stays healthy.
I hope Bruce or someone can comment…
During Cult of Hockey, they mention that CMD is on pace for 20 hat tricks, which is cute, but Bruce reminds even Gretzky only ever got to 10, which piqued my curiosity so I went to consult the NHL record book for most hat tricks in one season and I am floored to see that, in 1981-82, Miroslav Fryčer scored 5 hat tricks, for an end of year total of a modest 20 goals! At least (was there a 4 goal game in there???) 15/20 goals scored as hat tricks!? Is this nuts? Was it noteworthy at the time? Another 1980s offensive stat that seems as if it came from Pluto.
That was Frycer’s rookie year, in which he scored 24 goals in all — 20 for Quebec, then 4 more after being traded to Toronto (for Wilf Paiement). He was extraordinarily hot & cold that season, from Death Valley (California) to Dry Valley (Antarctica) .
His game log shows that after getting a hat trick in his 2nd NHL game (vs. Toronto) he then went the next 15 games WITHOUT A POINT which was pretty hard to do in the highest-scoring season in modern history (8.02 G/GP). He then scored 5-2-7 in his next 2 games (1 hat trick, obv), followed by just 1-2-3 in his next 7 & 0-0-0 in the 7 after that. Next came a run of 9 GP, 10-10-20 (!) including 2 more hat tricks.
After being traded to Toronto at the deadline Frycer scored 3 assists in his first game and 3-1-4 in his third — AGAINST Quebec I might add. 2 hat tricks in TOR v QUE games in the same season, 1 for each team! Another statistical oddity which may well stand alone.
Fryver would play another 7 seasons, wrapping up with the Oilers in 1988-89, & scored just 4 more hat tricks.
https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/f/frycemi01/gamelog/1982
That was Frycer’s rookie year, in which he scored 24 goals in all — 20 for Quebec, then 4 more after being traded to Toronto (for Wilf Paiement). He was extraordinarily hot & cold that season, from Death Valley (California) to Dry Valley (Antarctica) .
His game log shows that after getting a hat trick in his 2nd NHL game (vs. Toronto) he then went the next 15 games WITHOUT A POINT which was pretty hard to do in the highest-scoring season in modern hisory (8.02 G/GP). He then scored 5-2-7 in his next 2 games (1 hat trick, obv), followed by just 1-2-3 in his next 7 & 0-0-0 in the 7 after that. Next came a run of 9 GP, 10-10-20 (!) including 2 more hat tricks.
After being traded to Toronto at the deadline Frycer scored 3 assists in his first game and 3-1-4 in his third — AGAINST Quebec I might add. 2 hat tricks in TOR v QUE games in the same season, 1 for each team! Another statistical oddity which may well stand alone.
Frycer would play another 7 seasons, wrapping up with the Oilers in 1988-89, & scored just 4 more hat tricks.
https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/f/frycemi01/gamelog/1982
Thanks, Bruce! Awesome info!
What on earth could be the cause of such hot and cold streaks??? We’ll never know but you have to think “more” was going on there. The majority of his scoring was done at home. His only scoring on the road that year was:
@ BOS (3 Goals)
@ HAR (1 Goal)
@ WASH (1 Goal)
@ LAK (1 Goal)
@ NYR (1 Goal)
To add to Bruce’s info, the young man had defected from the former Czechoslovakia in 1981 where he had been a rising scoring star. Once in his NHL career he did score 4 goals in a game (against the Oilers of course) during his best season when he scored 32 goals.
I do find your reference to Gretzky “only” getting 10 hat tricks in a season somewhat humorous (which he did twice). That’s an average of once every 8 games. And in 81-82, when he did it first, in each of those 10 games where he got at least a hat trick, he never had less than 5 points.
…whereas in 1983-84, his second 10-hat trick season, he only scored 5+ points in 9 of them. He also had 14 2-goal games that season, with the Oilers posting a 24-0-0 record in #99’s multi-goal contests.
Still the record holder for most hat tricks in a season (10), in a regular season career (50) and in the playoffs (10). Nice round numbers.
Only 4 cups tho.
In the 4 seasons between 1981/82 and 1984/85, when Gretzky scored 323 goals in 314 games, he recorded a total of 28 hat tricks. Only 5 other NHL players have recorded more than 28 hat tricks in their careers: Lemieux, Brett Hull, Bossy and Esposito. Ovechkin has 28 hat tricks in his 1,282 game career. Dionne and Bobby Hull also have 28 hat tricks for the entire career.
High scoring era (blah, blah, blah). It became the high scoring era because everyone was trying to match Gretzky and what Sather was coaching. And in that 4 year span, Bossy (in the prime of his career and one of the greatest goal scorers in history) was number 2, 90 goals behind Gretzky (Put another way, Gretzky was 40% ahead of the next highest goal scorer in that era). And Gretzky dominated goal scoring at the same time as recording 60% more assists than the number 2 player in that 4 year span.
That huge gap between Gretzky and his ‘peers’ in the league is unprecedented, and IMO is the strongest argument for Wayne as the GOAT.
For just goal scoring dominance relative to ‘peers’, Maurice Richard, Bobby Hull, Phil Esposito and Brett Hull in their 4 best season spans outpaced their second closest rival by margins not that far behind Gretzky’s best 4 seasons. In Esposito’s case, had Bobby Hull not defected to the WHL in 72, he might have gotten closer to Phil than Mickey Redmond did. In Brett Hull’s case, while his scoring was phenomenal (in no small part due to Adam Oates passing), his gap would have been a lot less or maybe even not existent if Mario hadn’t missed almost 100 games in that 4 season span.
Neither of the Hulls nor Richard were noted for their play making to go along with the scoring prowess. Esposito’s point total in his best 4 seasons dwarfed the next highest player from another team (almost 60%), but he was only ahead of Orr by 80 points in those 4 seasons or about 20% and Orr played 20 less games.
From 70/71 – 73/74 Orr scored 1.65 ppg and himself was 140 points clear of the highest scoring non Bruin player in the league and 100 points clear of Bucyk who was 3rd over that stretch. Brad Park was the 2nd highest scoring D in those 4 seasons, at roughly half of Orr’s total, and Lapointe was 3rd at 40%. Oh and both in the season before and the season after that 4 year span referenced above, Orr won the Art Ross trophy. I wonder who was zooming who on that team? Stunningly in 74/75 Orr won the Ross, the Norris and the Pearson, but the press picked Clarke for the Hart.
It can’t argue against Wayne as the GOAT because getting to play almost 1,500 games over 20 seasons vs 657 in 10 seasons is a definite factor, but my goodness was Orr dominant when he was healthy.
McDavid has 12 hat tricks in his still fairly young career, and has tied Crosby’s 12 and only one behind Malkin’s 13. Eric Staal (14) and Kovalchuk (13) are the only other active players between McDavid and Ovechkin on the all time hat trick list. Pretty good for a guy who claims he is not a natural goal scorer.
Kovalchuk hasn’t played in the NHL since 19-20, but that aside, still a fine list of comps. Heady company for our young star.
Prospectagerie!
A busy night as an octet of amateur prospects are in action on NA ice, highlighted by the Reid Rocket. His 10 goals remain tied with Connor Bedard for tops in the Dub, but in only 7 games compared to Bedard’s 13. Of Schaefer’s 10, only two are on the PP, and one is a shortie. Tracking very nicely for a #32 pick.
Vermont (Munzenberger, Maatta) @ 5 p.m.
St. Lawrence (Mazura) @ 5 p.m.
Youngstown (Lachance) @ 5 p.m.
North Bay (Petrov) @ 5 p.m.
Wheat Kings (Chiasson) @ 6 p.m.
Moose Jaw (Wanner) @ 7 p.m.
Seattle (Schaefer) @ 8 p.m.
All times, at all times, are Riviere Qui Barre time.
I am heartened to see Reid Rocket catching on! Happy to be able to contirbute to the lexicon of this wonderful community.
Can somebody invite Warren to their house to shoot pucks at the garage door. That third line has the potential to be monstrous if he could start cashing.
Kane-Draisaitl-Kane
Hopkins-McDavid-Hyman
Puljujarvi-McLeod-Yamamoto
is where we’re headed. With Holloway standing by. LTFO.
There was a shift late in the game where Holloway carried the puck into the offensive zone where his speed was difficult to differentiate from Conner.
This is a squad evolving into one that can play at a pace not seen in this league before.
They probably need one more D that can start those plays – but they’re very close.
Jai guru deva om
Don’t post here often anymore, but felt compelled to today.
As Comic Book Guy would say, “worst 6-5 game, ever!”
In a game that should have been a great advert for the NHL, the refs found a way to make it all about them.
I wonder if they are trying to get footage for a reality show?
Have a great day, everyone!
*compelted*
Good teams find a way to win that hockey game – and keep the attitude that they will throughout.
This is a very good hockey team.
The team that came out in the third was not the team we’ve been accustomed to watching since before the iPhone launched. That’s a contending team attitude.