God knows the Oilers have tried during the Daryl Katz years. It’s difficult to build a winner in sports, the amount of luck required to win it all is mind boggling. For instance, what if the Golden Knights go down by two men in a critical game that has a massive impact on that series last spring? Still, the business of sports is intoxicating and the men and women who own teams are constantly searching for that northern star to guide them. I think Katz found his northern star in Jeff Jackson.
THE ATHLETIC!
- New Lowetide: Can the Edmonton Oilers ice a balanced roster in 2023-24?
- New DNB: Inside the Edmonton Oilers hiring Michael Parkatti to run an analytics department
- Lowetide: Were the Edmonton Oilers’ summer moves supported by analytics?
- DNB: 10 pressing Edmonton Oilers questions entering training camp
- Lowetide: The Oilers’ best prospect is Xavier Bourgault. Will he play in the NHL this year?
- Lowetide: Edmonton Oilers prospects preseason stock watch
- Lowetide: Previewing the Edmonton Oilers’ roster ahead of 2023 training camp
- Lowetide: How will Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft deploy rookie Raphael Lavoie?
- Lowetide: Why Oilers’ Ryan Nugent-Hopkins remains key to Stanley Cup pursuit
- Lowetide: 5 Oilers assets that could get moved early or late in 2023-24
- Lowetide: What to expect from Oilers rookies, led by Raphael Lavoie
- Lowetide: Edmonton Oilers 2023-24 complete reasonable expectations
- Lowetide: What should Oilers fans expect from new scouting director Richard Pracey?
- Lowetide: Unpacking Oilers’ decision to hire Rick Pracey, part ways with Tyler Wright
- Lowetide: 9 bold Edmonton Oilers predictions for 2023-24
- Lowetide: New Oilers CEO Jeff Jackson promises innovation. What will it look like?
- Lowetide: For Oilers in 2023-24, a more aggressive in-season approach is likely
- Lowetide: Edmonton Oilers top 20 prospects, summer 2023
ACTION JACKSON
Jeff Jackson is destined to replace Kevin Lowe as the Oilers best general manager of this century. The Katz era has seen some things in the front office, as the organization careened from luck (good and bad), astonishing self inflicted wounds, poor assessment of talent and some of the wildest cap decisions in human history.
There have been times when I endorsed a general manager (Peter Chiarelli) and it went sideways. The pressure to win immediately led to disaster.
The Ken Holland era has been better. The free-agent signings at the top end have worked out more often, the drafting has been solid despite a lack of draft picks.
Still, there’s a mountain of worry over the organization’s pipeline and enough holes in the roster to make one ponder a future scenario no writer in his right mind would author as a prediction.
The Jeff Jackson hiring appears to be the charm for Katz and his Oilers. As a player, Jackson was a reasonable comparable to Glen Sather’s playing career. As an executive for an NHL team, his arrival in a prominent role is almost as surprising as the Slats elevation.
There’s logic and reason to the hiring. There’s also mounting evidence. You will hear people rip analytics in the days to come, fall back on the old and tired verbal we’ve heard before. In hiring Michael Parkatti, Jeff Jackson kicked the shit out of the Oilers own past, placed the sins of the past in the public square, and told the world the Edmonton Oilers have joined the game finally.
It is the sweetest of music, it’s voices soaring and strings exploding with violent beauty. It’s morning in Edmonton. Finally. Bring on the empty horses.
It’s a big day on Sports 1440, with Steve Lansky in studio for the one o’clock hour. We’ll talk Oilers, hockey in general and sports media innovations. Tyler Yaremchuk will pop in from Daily Faceoff and Oilers Nation, and John Horn (tennis expert, Freelance Commentator, Reporter, Producer with ESPN WTA FIBA CBC GBE MLB TSN) will discuss the Laver Cup in Vancouver. You can leave comments here, @Lowetide on twitter or text us 1.833.401.1440 directly. It’s Friday!!
LT has been talking about Broberg as possible trade bait for a while. Spector’s article today says the same, if he doesn’t perform that is.
I didn’t think the team/staff would start him in the top 6, and my biggest concern re: Broberg was whether he’d get enough playing time. It sure sounds like he’s going to get a push into to top 6 next to Ekholm though.
Honestly, that’s pretty exciting. While there’s risk he could fail and open up the possibility of a trade, it looks like he’s going to get a really good chance to play more and higher leverage minutes and grow his game. Here’s hoping he can grab the opportunity.
Not sure what is with the handwringing around Broberg. He hasn’t shown a lack of progress yet. The Oilers are no longer the team that plays rookies in the top four and hopes for the best.
In fact, Broberg was showing really good progress last season, in particular in Jan-Feb.
The awful PK cratered his deployment (due to Vinny being added for PK purposes).
Broberg was also 4-1 goals in the playoffs – should have played more.
I think Broberg being a likely trade candidate has been pretty obvious all summer, no? As Godot10 has stated repeatedly all off season it is time for the team to find out what his ceiling is so they can be ready for the TD one way or the other. Spector’s article is about 3 months behind the conversation here.
And, of course, Broberg emerging is the best possible scenario but the team has only so many trade options and he has to be high on the list if he doesn’t grab a top 4 role by January.
Yeah, we’ve talked about this a few times. The line of thinking makes sense, but there are quite a few items (I guess: 1st, 1st, Bourgault) that could be deadline trade bait instead of/before Broberg. That’s of course assuming the team still believed.
The verbal from Spector (and DNB) today has a more do or die feel though, which IMO isn’t necessary. Perhaps it got lost in the preamble, but the main reason I posted is that I’m very interested (optimistic I guess) to see what Broberg does with the legitimate push it sounds like he’ll be getting.
I am pulling for Broberg and optimistic. But I think we all know that the team is no longer in potential territory. It’s ‘everybody into the pool’ year is all I’m saying. He has 3-4 months to prove he is the guy they thought they drafted,
Just wanted to address the comment by OP yesterday that he was 90th in AHL scoring last season. But wasn’t mentioned is that he was 32nd in goal-scoring.
There were 3 players younger than him in that group.
1 – Tye Kartye, 20, 28 goals in 72 games.2 – Graeme Clarke, 21, 25 in 66
3 – Will Cuyle, 20, 25 in 69
Lavoie, 22, scored 25 in 62.
Only 5 other players 22 or younger were in the top 50.
Focusing on these 4 players:
1- Kartye, an undrafted player, was 3rd in goal scoring on his team, which also boasted a 25 goal scorer and 8 players with 40 points or more, 2 of whom scored over a 1 point pace. Team scored 257 goals, Kartye had 5 PP goals.
Great story! Is he the reason that Seattle let Sprong walk?
2 – Clarke, a 3rd rounder, led his team in scoring by 17 points and only had one teammate at 40 or more points and no pt/g players on the roster. Team scored 215 Goals, Clarke scored 3 PPG (look out for this guy!).
3 – Cullye, a 2nd rounder, led his team in goals and was 2nd in points. He had 4 teammates with 40 or more points and one who scored at a point/game pace. Team scored 227, Cullye had 5 PPG.
4 – Lavoie, a 2nd rounder, led his team in goals and was second in points. Only one teammate scored more than 40. 7 PP goals, team scored 212.
Lavoie certainly has a chance, if not Edmonton, he’ll get it somewhere. If he is placed on waivers I think he will get claimed, he took too much of leap last year to go through.
Stuffer things 12F is a battle between Sutter and Pederson – a center.
Or a trade.
Maybe with Ottawa involving Lavoie once Staios gets his new Title.
In going through the exercise above I noticed that Pederson led the AHL in Average Goals Per Game (but only in a 22 game sample).
Pederson is 26.
On the edge of the cliff next to McDavid!!
Neither is at the moment but extend either for 8 years and you’re done.
By ‘you’re done’ I take it you mean ‘in a better situation than the Kings are currently with Kopitar and Doughty’.
The Kings have TWO former cup winners on retirement contracts both playing at a very high level.
The Oilers already have SIX with the potential of TWO more on astronomical extensions and haven’t won a damned thing.
Most of the Oiler players in question hadn’t even played an NHL game when the Kings last won the Cup. What on earth does them being Cup winners almost a decade ago have to do with anything?
Some cup winners get rewarded for being champions.
Some losers do too.
So long as you acknowledge that Doughty and Kopitar are being paid based on their (distant) past accomplishments rather than their current/future levels of play.
Yes, Pederson seems to be a high end AHL producer – can’t produce at the NHL level, of course (and his time in Vancouver last season was with Petterson and Kuzmenko).
Pederson’s point per 60 when playing with Petterson was 2.95 and 2.63 with Kuzmenko. Both solid numbers, but he only played a total of 70 minutes with both or either, so not a lot of time to rack up a lot of points. that was just over 50% of his time with the Canucks last season and less than 25% of his time in total for the season. Don’t know if he could have done more with those two had he not been sent out on waivers then claimed. And as a line they had a an 83% goal share and 58% expected goal share. Again, small sample size. It is fair to say he hasn’t produced much at the NHL level, but it can’t be said for certain that he can’t produce at the NHL level. Maybe he will never get another extended chance, but maybe he will. And there is more to being an NHL player, especially for bottom 6, than just producing.
Apparently Woody has never mentioned Sutter so I do wonder how Stuffer comes about this Intel.
Now or never.
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/oilers-need-broberg-to-start-realizing-his-potential-or-trade-bait-fate-awaits/
Spate of click-bait grates
If you’re wondering about a 22 year old top 20 pick there’s a pretty good chance you’re doing it wrong,
Worked out ok for Bouchard.
But please tell us which plug in the Canucks system is better than Broberg.
Rafferty it up. That was hilarious last time.
Quinn Hughes is better than both of them put together.
I do wonder about Alex Turcotte……
Broberg is arriving right on schedule like the rest of the D class in his draft. Really only Seider and Byram have fully established themselves. Broberg has a June birthday, so is one of the younger players in his draft class. And he spent two years in Europe.
not sure I agree that Holland has been that good. who has he drafted? MacT got Leon
Woody mentions that they have a few coaches go over to Sweden this summer and meet with Broberg and see how his on and off ice training was going etc.
Matty asked about him on the right side and Woody did speak about his experience playing both sides, etc.
He also acknowledged that Ekholm seems to be a very good d-man to play young developing d-men with and they now know that they can always “go back to Ekholm/Bouchard”.
When it comes to analytics, I’m not really sure “who” matters so much as how it’s presented and who’s actually listening.It’s about how that information is being deciphered, more than anything, you can have the best analytics minds around, but if it falls on deaf ears to the people actually making the decisions, it’s irrelevant.
From what little I know about Parkatti, he seems to be able to communicate and translate the math in meaningful ways, which, IMHO, is half of the battle.
To me, this is exciting news, but we also had serious boners and hope² when Dellow was hired, it could have been glorious, but instead it seemed to not matter at all, not because the Intel was bad, but because the Intel seemed to fall on deaf ears.
So, for that reason, I’m cautiously optimistic that this is, in fact, a new Era. It definitely “feels” better this time around though.
Have hope in that Woody is not an old timey hockey coach.
Well, yes, I actually have faith in Woody from a coaching perspective, I meant more in the realm of player procurement and pro scouting. Re: identifying talent.
The only issue now is, IMHO, we’re so far behind some other teams, it can’t really even be seen as gaining an advantage, as opposed to just trying to keep up.
“I think Katz found his northern star in Jeff Jackson.”
Wondering – who councils/advises Mr. Katz? Who’s council does he respect and listen to?
Never really thought Mr. Katz was so actively involved in the actual operation of the Oilers, and NHL hockey in general, that he would identify an Jeff Jackson.
If he did select Jackson personally, whom might he have asked to confirm his selection?
Based on stories at the time of Jackson’s hiring, Paul Coffey seemed to have a significant role in the hiring and has been an advisor to upper mgmt and above for some time now.
I think Coffey has been an advisor directly to Katz (as opposed to upper management)….
It is shown here clearly:
https://www.nhl.com/oilers/team/hockey-operations
Congratulations LT and the large crew of folk that have been banging the analytics drum since the beginning. It’s morning in Edmonton, finally.
Funny thing is that this community has been integral to the development of hockey analytics across the league, but the team has ultimately been a late adopter. We all deserve to cheer for informed decisions and maybe that trend will hold now.
I am drinking Canadian whiskey in a fancy Swedish glass. It’s been a good day.
— This is the strongest “take down” I’ve read from LT about the OBC with a delicious phrase “kicking the sh?t” out of.
— Kevin Lowe as best GM is damning with faint praise. I never bought what he selling. He had no business being head coach a year out of hockey, and no business being GM a year after.
— The smugness. A high school drop out, calling Brian Burke (Harvard law school) a moron and wanting to fight him. Poor draft record. Threw people under bus.
— By all accounts a great dude. He inherited a franchise that was declining from glory days. Him and the other boys on the bus drove a bus over the Oilers for generations. Then MacT becomes GM : amongst the two least deserving GMs in the NHL over the last 25 years in terms of background, working the ladder to get to that position, acumen, etc. Good organizations don’t hire guys like that as their GMs.
— time and results will tell if he ends up effective as head of analytics: but at least is there on merit…
One summer and season of truly inspired moves.
*pens note to self*
Next time drinking Scotch, use a glass. Straight from the bottle seems uncouth.
Some very interesting and astute comments from Jackson in the DNB article on why it is essential for the Oilers to be able to generate their own algorithms in house.
Kevin Lowe as the Oilers best general manager of this century.
I respectfully beg to differ, good sir. Apart from the 2006 trade deadline, I thought Lowe was mostly a disaster.
I actually think Ken Holland has been the best GM this century. Built up the depth, signed Kane/Hyman/RNH to $5M/yr deals, built the team into a perennial contender. Campbell was a bad choice, but on the whole, with Holland there has been much more good than bad. I don’t think I can say that about any Oilers GM since the Sather of the ’80s.
Lowe was a very good GM when he had no money up to 2006, and then awful once he had money. When he had no money, he would find the gems in the tweener market. One he had money, he stopped shopping there.
Lowe and MacT were traumatized by the Stanley Cup final loss in 2006, and began making bad decision after bad decision.
Could you imagine if we had Leon and Connor back then playing with the lunch pail gang. Multiple Cups with Roloson getting hot at the right time.
I feel Lowe somewhat got forced into a winning strategy. UFA age used to be 31 and he had to trade every good player before they got heavily overpaid but generally brought in reasonably good young guys. Once he thought he was the one with the money the strategy didn’t pan out.
Yup.
I concur. A very good bargain hunter, but got stars in his eyes as soon as he started shopping in stores with wider aisles…
Lowe was GM from 2000-2008 and he had some big wins and some big whiffs (not trading Mike Comrie for Corey Perry because he wouldn’t pay back 3.5M was something). If you attribute the Tambellini era to Lowe it becomes a pretty poor record but overall Lowe did ok. Holland has been pretty consistently ok to good in his choices so I’d say Holland has done better overall.
Hiring someone into an analytics role that is familiar with Oilers fans is certainly good from an optics perspective. However, I hope there was the requisite level of due diligence in this hiring process. He may be the best person for the job, but I’ll be extremely disappointed if we hear there were few people considered for such an important role. I’m cautiously optimistic for the time being.
An Ekholm interview with Marek/Friedman from a few days ago dropped today (32 Thoughts Pod).
Ekholm waxed poetic about how elite Bouchard’s offensive potential is. He even brought up Erik Karlsson and noted that Bouchard had many similar offensive attributes.
They also talked with Woody which I haven’t listed to yet but will shortly.
What if Laurent Brossoit doesn’t get hurt…..?
What if Woody starts Jack Campbell instead of riding a tired Rookie?
What if the salary cap was applied in the playoffs?
And what if suspensions were applied in accordance with convention? What does that series look like without Stone but then Vegas also without their number one D and us with ours for the deciding game?
The sheer amount of “luck” for Vegas, specifically, was mind boggling last year. Must be something in the water isn’t that what we say around here.
This is one statement that I don’t agree with. For me, its not about the salary cap being applied in the playoffs, its about the LTIR rules being enforced.
I believe the Knights’ on-ice lineup was cap compliant. Its practically impossible to require the cap to be complied with in the playoffs given how its calculated. Lets not forget, a team’s cap hit is calculated daily and that daily cap hit counts for apx 1/180 of their overall cap hit. Its done again the next day.
This doesn’t apply to Vegas last year (because they were in LTIR) but it will for many but players acquired in-season only count on the cap for the day’s they were on the team.
A team can be 100% within the rules and honest but also have a roster that has an annual total cap hit of well over the cap.
————–
Now, the issue is the LTIR rules not being enforced properly. Teams are required to activate players promptly upon being deemed ready to play and THAT is what is no adhered to.
Whether they stay on LTIR an extra day, week, month or whatever in order to avoid cap implications, that has been the issue.
There is no realistic way that Mark Stone was out for 3 months, not ready to play for game 82 of the season and then magically ready to play game 1 of the playoffs.
The easy fix is simple. If a player finishes the season on LTIR, he is not eligible for the first round of the playoffs.
Maybe I don’t understand but could Vegas have iced that playoff team during the regular season? If Stone returned for game 82, someone (or 8 million worth) would have had to come out. Dollars out. Isn’t the problem that even in that case they (all 16 million of “them”) would have been eligible for game 1 round 1, when their opponent would have no recourse to counter and add $8 million worth of player.
The annual cap hit of the 20 players dressed for the Knights in the games was under the salary cap but that is not how the salary cap of a team is calculated (as I kind of laid out above).
They could not have activated Stone for game 82 and been cap compliant but, at the same time, per the rules, they were required to activate him (unless, he magically recovered enough in the next 3 days before the playoffs).
He shouldn’t have been eligible for round 1.
Great idea!
“ Pour a scotch in an expensive glass, savor it”
I might even pour an expensive scotch into that glass
“We’re going to use him for helping us figuring out contracts — maximum peak performance of players, when they drop off, aging curves,” Jackson said.
Heh.
Too bad Rob Blake didn’t hire him before his offseason from Hell.
Man I still can’t believe he’s employed considering he gutted his team and signed a Josh Anderson level of useless to play 1C
The Vollman Sledgehammer sure has changed.
Serious sh*t-posters spent the summer at Biosteel, working on their weaknesses, going over video, visualizing success, and getting fit for the season. Others clearly spent a lot of time in the buffet line.
2/10 for this effort, and I’m being generous because it’s pre-season.
Biosteel should be working on some weaknesses.
Canada’s capitalist class – the only folks to ever lose money selling weed.
To be fair to them, as someone who worked with AGLC & Cannabis retailers to try & find ways to legally advertise stores, I can say with some confidence that a major part of the issue is the govt getting in the way of them doing conducting business as most people are used to. (you know, being able to tell people where your store is & what you sell, either online, or with physical ADs).
Another big issue is that farming itself is not as profitable a venture as most corporations would like (and often not profitable at all). I don’t think any of them really took into account how difficult it would be to grow large quantities securely and within government regulations (the neighbours never come over and steal your wheat for instance)
It was my understanding that the only people making out well in all of this was the LP’s (growers).
Alberta has a particularly kooky setup wherein the AGLC (provincial govt) buys direct from the LP’s while the retailers can only buy from the AGLC (which also happens to be the provincial body that governs how, where & for how much it can be sold within AB).
The kicker being that NO retail shop is allowed to offer delivery, but retail customers can also order from AGLC directly, and get it shipped to them, legally! (a practice the retailers should’ve sued the AGLC for years ago).
The govt causes 100% of the issues in the industry (but nobody who’s been around is at all surprised that a high school dropout can figure out how to turn a profit from weed, but a govt bureaucracy cannot).
LOL… LMAO even.
TL;DR
AGLC is acting shady IMO, because they set it up so retailers can only buy from them, but they also set up an online shop to compete with retailers in a way that is illegal for retailers to utilize (online ordering with delivery / shipping).
LMAO and gorging on Doritos I would think…😁
“Heh.” He types, as he presses Post Comment on Lowetide while the soft glow from his computer illuminates his face, and the damp, dark basement he dwells in.
He gets a text message from a friend asking if he wants to go outside today. He turns his phone over, face down and hisses in disgust. “Go outside? When preseason is almost upon us? Heh. I think not. I’ve got 32 fan blogs I need to work on today.” He leans back in his lawn chair and throws a dart at a picture of Mark Messier on his wall. “If you hit Messier between the eyes, is it called a moose-eye?.” He cackles to himself before cracking his knuckles, wiping his dripping armpit sweat with a rag and pressing his face face up closer to his screen.
“Now where was I?”
This is the best thing you ever posted.
Very inaccurate but poetic.
As I sit out on my sunny deck sipping my morning coffee, I contemplate a sojourn up island for my annual visit to Shelter Point Distillery to stock up for what passes on the island as winter.
With a wry smile, I note how many Lowetide posters find it objectionable that the Oilers new POHO and Analytics head are concerned about aging curves affecting a precarious dynamic that sees virtually the entire core approaching a time when the math shows definitively that skills most often decline.
I am left to wonder if this new dawn will inform future decisions to extend certain high profile stars to maximum term contracts that will take them into the twilight of their illustrious careers.
Will they become latter day versions of the Sharks and Penguins or will they instead hew to the path of the Carolina Tulskys?
We wait.
Again, historically, your position on this topic is all over the place.
When it comes to other teams pursuing the cup, you talk about how developing prospects is not important and prospects and picks are better used as assets to trade for established NHL players. And if you have a gap in your line up? That good teams poach from Europe or sign NCAA players, or watch the waiver wire as depth players are a dime a dozen.
But when it comes to the Oilers, you rail against how they.. well.. have traded prospects and picks for established NHL players. But now you try to lean into the fact that McDavid and Draisaitl need to re-sign, so you turn into chicken little saying the sky will fall on the Oilers and their fandom, while behind you, other teams pursuing the cup, ALSO have old players locked up long term AND they also have shallow prospect pools.
Yesterday you legitimately tried to make it a concern that as of today in the year 2023, the Oilers have a 21st ranked prospect pool and that when McDavid is 37 (11 years from now) when it’s 2034, that the Oilers won’t have any prospects to replace their vets.
The only consistency to your position is that whatever the case is, whether the Oilers have too many prospects or too little, or have too many aged vets or too little, the fact that it’s the Oilers means they’re already doomed for failure and are wrong.
Anze Kopitar signed until he’s 38? You pop the champagne! The Oilers potentially signing Draisaitl and McDavid until they’re 37? You don your finest doomsayer garb and stand on a milk crate by city center shouting at everyone walking by.
I was wondering if DSF was that guy on the corner of Whyte Ave and 104th….
The issue for the Oilers is that the entire core…depending on how you view Bouchard, is teetering on the edge of the cliff.
LA has 2 players in that position and the risk on Kopitar has been reduced significantly.
I have zero doubt he could play 3C @$7 million for 2 seasons and be worth every penny.
Of course the issue is the Oilers will be faced with extending Draisaitl and McDavid at astronomical sums and I’m pretty sure Jackson and Parkatti will have some interesting discussions about that.
The bottom line is Father Time is undefeated.
I hope you haven’t been drinking and driving. McDavid is 26 years old. Draisaitl is 27, 28 next month.
Meanwhile, Kopitar is 36. 3 years older than any Oiler aside from D Ryan. He’s signed for 3 more years and $24M total.
Doughty will be 34 in December (also older than any Oiler save D Ryan) and is making $11M for 4 more seasons.
Talbot (again, older than all but Ryan) looks like he may already have gone off the cliff.
Danault is actually a reasonable comp for a number of Oiler deals. Signed for 4 more years though age 34.
And most of the rest are still in their prime (Fiala, Kempe, Moore, Arvidsson, Gavrikov, Roy, their other goalies), though of course they’re also all older than McDavid.
What a load.
You have to inject youth especially up front. Two veterans can easily shelter a piss and vinegar young lad that’ll do the dirty work in a long 82 game regular season. With all this talk about how all-star Sutter is the missing link is just Holland and Woody fearing for their jobs and not thinking beyond this year. If we don’t win the Cup I’ll say there’s a 90% chance Holland goes back to Detroit Red Wings organization and gets a Cushy high up position from his prodigal son Stevie Y.
I would swear you and HH are related… same end of the gene pool, at least.
Mind if I call you GG (one step below HH)… it makes sense to me.
I don’t think I’ve heard Woody mention Brandon Sutter’s name once and I think I’ve listened to every word he’s spoken this off-season that was available to the public, including his spot on 32 Thoughts today, his spots with John Shannon on the Bob McKown pod, etc.
We know Holland is hoping for a 28 year old Brandon Sutter and, truth be told, as unlikely as it is that we see even close to that player, yes, that played on league min deal would very much be a huge “missing link” added.
I’m curious about how SP changes under the new ownership. Try and grab a bottle or two of the new 10 year. I’ve heard great things. Let me know how your visit goes and what, if anything, has changed for the visitor experience.
My whisky club’s cask out there is nearly 3. Was just transferred from virgin oak into an ex-bourbon cask to help smooth out some of the rougher edges. We originally planned to let it hang out for 6 or 7 years, but we might push it closer to 9 now. While age doesn’t always mean quality, a couple extra years certainly won’t hurt.
Sorry I didn’t see your post before heading out.
The visitor experience is pretty much the same.
…and some posters come into the first day spring training throwing 105mph on top of adding a slider and some mustard on their change up. Is this a contract year for Side?
Chirping from Double A ball.
ANAYLYTICS don’t work. We need more fighters. 5 Fighters on the team to kick the crap out of the Flames. The eye test works. 🙂
Perfect! How about icing an all-time Oilers starting lineup of:
Dave Semenko – George Laraque – Dave Brown
Marty McSorley – Jason Smith
Mike Smith
Looks like a Cup champ to me! Bring on Vegas.
Dave Manson instead of Jason Smith.
Oilers get an extra player here too! Mike Bishai fighting from the bench!
that approach worked so well for the Oilers that they had to make a new rule that took away the resulting 4 on 4.
We’ll put LT. I would say the shit kicking is given to the intermediate Oilers past, and they have returned to valuing innovation
The last time they did great things it wasn’t driven by numbers but was driven by looking for new ways that weren’t being used over here. Which is essentially the same thing without using math per se that but using the brain and eyes to see what math would have said if it was around
The Bruins probably started it in the NHL when they let Orr be what he was, and Slats saw and realized and did it himself, along with ideas from overseas, I would think. Of course outrageous fortune getting those players is what made it all work
Slats credits the Avco Cup Champion Winnipeg Jets.
Same thing.
Yes. I’ve read over the years he also took ideas from Tarasov. Playing as 5 man unit with lots of flow as opposed to straight lanes comes to mind. I think he was simply forward thinking and new what he had. Looking for an edge anywhere
Do you mean POHO or GM?
Lowe’s POHO years were the heart of the Decade of Darkness. And if we’re talking GM, I’d think Ken Holland has already surpassed Kevin Lowe among the post-Sather Oiler GMs. IMO anyway.
In terms of Jackson though, so far so good. I have a hard time seeing the logic behind the Pracey hire as Scouting Director, but there’s no question Parkatti and a dedicated analytics department is great news.
Early days, but hopefully it plays out just that way.
Kevin Lowe’s work in the off-season of 2005/06 (off-season 2005 and early 2006) is all time great GMing.
For sure, but even with that the best (2005-06) regular season he presided over was 95 points.
4 of 4 Holland seasons cleared that bar (projecting for Covid shortened seasons).
Hallelujah! What a hire!
Also, have i been doing the scotch wrong this whole time?
I just need a really expen$ive glass?? 🙂
It’s a lot more cost efficient to buy an expensive glass & a bunch of cheap Scotch than the other way round.
ha! true!
The glencairn glass (my preferred glassware for scotch) can be had for a lot less than even the cheapest swill blends the LCBO sells. A pack of 2 can be had for $26 on Amazon these days. Though I’m drinking far less whisky than I used to, I cannot endorse this suggestion. Besides, for those of you still living in Alberta, you still have access to very good Scotch for a lot less than the rest of us.
That being said, it’s the weekend. I’ll pour myself something really nice after work to celebrate this hire, likely something distilled sometime in the mid 90s. It really does feel like a new day in Oilerville, so I’d better make my one dram of the week count.
Good Scotch in a cheap glass still looks cheap to the observer. A diamond set in furnace solder will still look cheap, the say…