If Raphael Lavoie plays in his first NHL game today, he will be the third Oilers selection from the 2019 draft to play in the world’s best league. Philip Broberg was the first, followed by Matej Blumel (now of the Dallas Stars).
THE ATHLETIC!
- Lowetide: Can Connor McDavid come from behind to win another Art Ross Trophy?
- Lowetide: Will Edmonton Oilers redeem themselves after baffling October?
- Lowetide: Can the Edmonton Oilers make room for Raphael Lavoie?
- DNB: Oilers rewarded for their season’s most complete game in Heritage Classic win
- Lowetide: Oilers top prospect Xavier Bourgault is spiking in an important area
- Lowetide: Edmonton Oilers’ injuries already a major story in 2023-24
- Lowetide: Can the Oilers count on any short-term help from AHL Bakersfield?
- Lowetide: Can defenceman Noel Hoefenmayer help the Oilers?
- DNB: Connor McDavid’s injury only adds to gloom for Oilers
- Lowetide: Edmonton Oilers’ third line showing promise but not scoring yet
- DNB: Oilers, in early-season disarray, left searching for answers: ‘It’s just unacceptable’
WHAT TO EXPECT IN NOVEMBER
- At home to: DAL, NAS (Expected 1-1-0) (Actual 0-1-0)
- On the road to: VAN, SJS, SEA (Expected 1-1-1) (Actual 0-0-0)
- At home to: NYI, SEA (Expected 2-0-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- On the road to: TBY, FLA, CAR, WAS (Expected 1-3-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- At home to: ANA, VEG (Expected 1-1-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- On the road to: WPG (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- Overall expected result: 7-6-1, 15 points in 14 games
- Actual November results: 0-1-0, 0 points in 1 games
- Oilers in 2023-24: 2-6-1, 5 points in 9 games
There isn’t much to say here, Edmonton’s hockey players are not winning at expected levels. The lack of clarity, from management (cap), coaching (not using youth) and players (lack of attention to detail over and over) makes this edition of the Oilers the most baffling since Pat Quinn was coach.
They’re a talented group of hockey players who are vulnerable against teams who are committed to contesting every puck under the sun. The Vegas Golden Knights adhere to the plan, the Edmonton Oilers haven’t learned their lessons. In a way, they remind me of the Chicago Blackhawks of my youth. Major stars on the roster, but too reliant on them to win the day.
The Edmonton Oilers play the Nashville Predators today. They should win. Preds have a good goalie though, and that’s been a hurdle this year.
WHAT CAN THEY DO?
Connor McDavid isn’t scoring at normal levels. Until he gets healthy, I think the plan should be cutting down on 10-bell chances. Mattias Ekholm isn’t 100 percent, and he’s an older player now. It’s my opinion his play must improve. I’d sit him for a week in an effort to get him right. Ryan McLeod isn’t himself. He’s young, will figure it out. These are tough days for the Oilers.
Where to play Lavoie? Well, I’d run him with a skill centre. I don’t believe we’ll see it, honestly. Something happened to Jay Woodcroft’s action plan between February of 2002 and this morning. When he took over, Ryan McLeod was averaging 11:22 per game. In Woodcroft’s 2021-22 games coaching, it moved to 14 minutes.
He trusted young players. Stuart Skinner was a Calder finalist on his watch. Vincent Desharnais is an emerging NHL defensemen for this coaching staff. The first rounders (Philip Broberg, Dylan Holloway) are not finding their way, and part of that (in my opinion) is lack of opportunity.
Raphael Lavoie is in the NHL this morning. That’s a big damned deal. Will he play much, or at all? I think Jay Woodcroft’s calculations have changed since he arrived. I understand he has a short-stack roster and I understand Holloway and Broberg will make mistakes. You have to play the kids, even in the cap era. Especially in the cap era.
Wow the Canucks are playing inspired hockey under the fierce competitor Tocchet. He will go straight for the jugular on Woody and his coaching decisions.
Nurse.
https://x.com/hockeystatcards/status/1720919033699012758?s=61
Why single him out specifically? the entire first unit is the bottom 5 on this scorecard.
Summarizing!
Day did indeed get the net and had his finest outing of the season. He stopped 30 of 31 SOG in beating league-leading Mississauga 5-1. He was named 3rd star.
Copponi and Lachance each had an assist in losing efforts.
Mazura and the Vermonters did not earn soup.
Gleason steps up on Fleury coming across the defensive zone – big and clean hit – Gleason is jumped by Lind who did win the fight but it was spirited.
Lind gets 2, 5 and 10.
Coachela Valley just coming in waves – its ugly out there but its only 2-1 with Pickard standing tall (the go-ahead goal was a snipe on the PP).
Broberg with a nice outlet pass off the wall to McKegg who enters the zone and sets up Erne for a one-timer to tie the game a 1 half way through the 2nd.
Tough sledding out there for a depleted Condors’ forward group.
Small sample sizes and all that, but some fun statistics.
Oilers against #1 goalies
2-3-1
with them saving 140/156 shots (.897)
Oilers against backup goalies
0-4-0
with them saving 167/177 shots (.944)
Coaching like a scared over-matched rookie after losing a few games in a must win season. Looked the same in the playoffs. Dump him now and damn the optics. Get Gallant.
Changing the defensive scheme cause of a some of bone headed blunders by Nurse in the playoffs, instead of hammering down on Nurse and getting him to provide defensive play commensurate with his contract … Jay Woodcroft lost me before the season even began.
Gallant or Trotz. No more rookies. Krueger, Eakins, Nelson, Woodcroft. Then the worst old school coach of all mixed in – Pat Quinn. Sheesh.
Paul Maurice was available when Tippett was fired. It would have been good timing for us. Paul’s a good coach.
While I don’t disagree, the Oilers receiver with those two goaltenders.
PP1: Bourgault, Hamblin, Petrov, Griffith, Dineen
Petrov in Lavoie’s spot
Griffith in Pederson/Gagner’s spot.
Kings win 5-0 in Philly and retake the goal scoring lead pending the Dallas-Vancouver game.
Talbot with the shut out.
At least Griffith is back from injury.
I’m not enthused they split the Gleason/Kemp pairing.
Petrov-Hamblin-Griffith
Malone-McKegg-Kambeitz
Erne-Grubbe-Bourgault
xx-Wright-de Jong
Dineen-Wanner
Broberg-Kemp
Niemelainen-Gleason
Hoefenmayer
Pickard
Just Wow. They will not make the playoffs and it’s Nov. just like that the season is done. When your leaders don’t score and your tenders don’t goal tender ….well here we are.
The Oilers started the season 7-3 last season and then went 3-7.
They went 3-7 and still finished the season with 109 points.
They looked very bad during that 3-7 stretch and that was with McDavid near the top of his powers (which he is not now).
The season is not lost but they need to flip that switch soon.
Maybe they won’t be able to – they certainly don’t look like a team that can go on a run but, then again, they didn’t look like a team that could go on run when they were in a 3-7 stretch last season either.
Not sure that would be a prospective coaches main concern.
They’d be replacing a coach with a top 10 all time winning percentage who didn’t even get two full seasons in the role (Woodcroft is still 6th among coaches with >100 games behind the bench).
Draisaitl remains under contract for more games than Woodcroft has coached in the NHL.
Bit of a conundrum either way though.
Vegas kept flipping coaches until they found the right fit, despite far better results than Woody showed.
Woody’s 1.5 seasons behind the bench are just as meaningful as the fact that the teams he has been head coach for have never won anything.
Right now any available coach would take the job – they would have 72 games to turn things around.
But the longer they dither the less appealing the job will be.
Just noting that the itchy trigger finger would be at least as much of a concern for any prospective coach as contracts that expire in 2025 or 2026.
The two coaches Vegas has fired both got 2+ full seasons in their role. And zero clue what you mean by them having ‘far better results’ than Woodcroft has.
I’m not even trying to defend Woodcroft’s job. Something has got to give very soon here. I just blame the players as much/more than the coach for a 109 point team starting the season 2-7-1.
Player deployment is a huge issue that’s the coach. You can’t fire the team.
Player deployment is one of the many things that has been put out there as a huge issue (virtually every possible thing has been, through 10 games).
It’s true you can’t fire the team, but I’m not seeing any notable change in player deployment year over year.
Certainly nothing that would suggest a Cup favorite being tied for 30th in the league today.
Even if it’s an issue I’m having a hard time seeing how it’s relevant to the Oilers shit start to this season.
Gallant got the Knights to the Cup Finals – he was gone two seasons later. DeBoer got them to the 3rd round twice in a row. He was fired the next season after a brutal string of injuries torpedoed their season.
Those are ‘far better results’ than Woody has ever accomplished at any level of hockey as head coach.
Honestly the love affair for this thoroughly mediocre coach is beyond me, and the defense Woody is getting is becoming more and more thin all the time.
There are far better coaches out there than Woodcroft … some are even available for hire.
People keep point at how they had some horrendous 10 game strings but still made the playoffs last season. But that glosses over how the Oilers went on an unsustainable heater after Ekholm was acquired to do so. They were a borderline to miss the playoffs before that, and Woody got a stay of execution.
Good coaches get their teams to buy in to being hard to score against and their teams consistently execute their game plan well… this team is Jekyll and Hyde from one period to the next … a pattern that has been ongoing since last year’s playoffs … and they are butter soft in the D-zone.
Things are not turning things around with Jay Woodcroft as head coach.
Pssst…..Jay Woodcroft got to the third round and then the second round. That’s one less than DeBoer and his three playoff round wins are the same as Gallant’s total over two seasons. Not exactly “far better results”
Woodcroft has a considerably better regular season winning percentage than either DeBoer or Gallant did.
In terms of playoffs:
Woodcroft has won 3 playoff rounds in his 2 years as HC (Conf Finals, 2nd Rd).
Gallant also won 3 rounds in his 2 playoff years (Finals, 1st round exit).
DeBoer won 4 rounds in 3 years (2x Conf Finals, missed playoffs).
That aside, I’m not suggesting Woodcroft needs to stay (as I said). The team is clearly not executing his game plan consistently. I’m just not at all sure that’s on the coach rather than the players (as I said).
We certainly are reaching ‘do something, anything’ territory though.
Whatever … the season’s finished anyways. Aside from Dallas, we haven’t even played any of the good teams from the West yet (Vegas and Colorado) and haven’t faced any of them from the East, aside from the Rangers. They had four days off to prepare for the Stars, who were on the 3rd game in 4 months, against their backup and Nashville, against leaky Lankinen.
But don’t let that stop you from defending our thoroughly mediocre coach. When the Oilers are in the bottom 5 after 20 games, reality will sink in.
10 games in? As you like, I disagree.
Super disappointing start, but it’s not over after 10 games.
Do the math on what it would take to get into a wild card (98-100 points) from where they are right now.
There’s a reason something like 85% of teams out of it by American Thanksgiving don’t make the playoffs.
The wild card teams got in with 92 and 95 points last season. And the Oilers have 8 more games before Thanksgiving.
Someone make another updated version of this lol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t79pQ-OMYpU
How is it Lavoie and Holloway both play less than the lowest TOI for Nashville….with 11 skaters. Woodman are losing me
He’s like a bad pee wee coach who only knows the names of the first and second line players, and has no idea who the other kids are that are riding the pine all game.
Post game comments.
https://sportsnet.ca/
SOG/GP
Oilers 33.2
Vegas 28.5
SA/GP
Oilers 29.8
Vegas 30.0
Shot differential
Oilers +3.4
Vegas -1.5
Actual goal differential
Vegas +19
Oilers -14
Talent?
Hah I’m guessing it’s been a while since you played any sport, card game or had any grasp at life at all. You can always put in the work and lose, case in point the Oilers with expected goals for.
You really think anyone on Vegas has the same talent as the Oilers top two players?
No, but they have about a dozen with more talent than their Oiler counterparts.
So you’re saying your initial comment was incorrect?
Not at all.
Vegas has far more talent.
I gave it 10 games. The zone system in the D zone is not only costing them goals against it is costing them goals for. They have No transition game because they are standing still at all times. When 97 has to start from a stand still it is easier to catch him, maybe it’s the injury but he is not beating opponents with speed on the rush at all. And if 97 can’t beat guys from a stand still who else has a chance? No one. Time to go back to man on man.
The longer we wait the further back we go. When Holland gets back from his weekend fishing trip with Bowman and Stevie he needs to put his big boy pants on and fire Woody who had lost the plot beginning in the 1st game. If Holland doesn’t want to do it fire him back to Detroit and bring in Coffey who will stir the ship to a playoff spot
Coffey? Lol
You think Coffey went into the dressing room with Holland for a pep talk with the boys at the heritage classic for shits and giggles. As we speak Holland is transitioning his authority over to Coffey and Jackson. Booook it…..
Do we put that “boook it…” right beside the Jack Campbell boooook it?
No put it beside Gagner scores a Goal in his debut.
Oh, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Coffey is in hockey operations / management shortly.
Wait, I thought he was on an African Safari?
Such childish commentary.
How do you know Holland hasn’t checked out already like Treliving did before he left Calgary and Peter in Edmonton? Why was Erne a PT0? Why was Erne signed? Why did Woody play Erne? Was Woody forced to play Erne? Did anyone do their due diligence on Connor Brown who was playing on half a leg during training camp? Why is Holland doing nothing? What is he waiting for? The window is closing fast. Bye bye Leon than Connor thank the heavens it’s not going to be Holland making these trades.
At the end of May in 1968, MLB pitcher Bob Gibson was 2-5. He finished the year 22-5.
Many of the greats have their times of stumbles.
And maybe these Oilers are not in the category of the “greats” but they have proven they are a heckuva team in the last couple of years.
These Oilers have had stumbles in the 2 prior seasons but they were a pretty damn good team when each story (season) was written.
Yeah, the start to this season has felt like those dreams in which you are starting the 100 M dash but your pants are at your ankles and you end up doing a face plant out of the blocks.
Oilers will recover, they will go on a few runs. We will eventually laugh at this start.
Never let the highs get you too high, never let the lows get you too low.
So lower than a snakes belly in a wagon rut too low????
Comparing a pitcher from 55 years ago to this current Oiler’s team, and hoping for some sort of miraculous turn around, is really grasping for straws.
Fresh blood can help infuse energy into otherwise stagnant teams. Might be time for just such an infusion.
1.) Jackson steps in and “promotes” Holland and puts in-place a GM (and perhaps coach) of his choosing
2.) New GM sends Campbell to the AHL in an attempt to help him rediscover his game
3.) Explore a trade to potentially shakeup the mix of the backend (Kulak as salary out in a deal for a goalie w/ Gleason & Kemp being called up)
May not be the answer but I’d like to see it.
Cal Pederson got demoted to the minors after posting an .868 in 10 games with LA last year (was .895 in 37 games the season prior)
Jack Campbell is .868 after 6 games this season …
What it took to get rid of the Peterson contract is also instructive.
When is the next forensic audit?
Right after the red wine summit
2015, when the Oilers drafted McDavid they already had
RNH
NURSE
DRAI
2023 roster who are their Good Players?
HYMAN – Free Agent
KANE – Free Agent
EKHOLM – Trade
Players on the roster that were Drafted and Developed by Edmonton over McDavid’s 8 – 9 year career.
Holloway – 0 Goals 0 Points
Lavoie – 1st NHL game
R. McLeod – 0 Goals 0 Points
Bouchard – 9 Points in 9 games
Desharnais – 1 Goal
Skinner – on the Bench in favor of Captain Jack. Skinner rockin’ .861 SV% this year.
So maybe you can argue they have drafted 1 impact player (Bouchard). Maybe a Starting Goalie. Outside of that there is just a bunch of filler here after 8 years …. no impact players
I’ve been saying for years that I’ve wanted the Oilers to shop in the emerging talent aisle.
Other than Foegele and Athanasiou, Holland’s only acquired very established vets.with this strategy, you pay full price in cap hit for players on the decline. Your team gets old fast.
For example, Devon Toews, acquired for two second round picks, is in his last year of a contract with a $4.1m cap hit. He’s 29 and Colorado has had him for four years for the heart of his career.
Kirby Dach, acquired for a first and a third, 22 years old, $3.36m cap hit.
Dach and Toews are extreme examples, but there are a myriad of others.
Burskovsky (Avs). Grubsuer (Avs), Graves (Avs), Durzi, Bennet, Reinhart (Sam), Gustafson, Georgiev, Forsling, Segenthaler, Lehkonen…
Oilers are only 5 points out of a wildcard spot with a game in hand.
“you don’t want to peak too early”
and
“never bet against McDavid”
Actually 6 points since they would need to finish ahead of the posse.
Jets win
7 points out now.
An interesting way to say the Oilers have two wins in 10 games.
My guess is that Gully takes over as interm coach until they figure it out. Holland should NOT be involved in picking next coach (but of course he will) Wonder what Katz’s blood pressure is like these days????
interim
If the coach is fired, so should the GM.
Can’t disagree with that!
And it better not be Gullly, but I agree there is a high likelihood that this would be the move.
If we send down the entire coaching staff, defense, and goaltending, and call up the entire Bakersfield coaching staff, defense, and goaltending, how much extra cap space would we have?
At first, you think he’s joking.
Would we still have to give Calgary a 2nd round pick?
After the Oilers took the Ducks to the brink in the 2nd round of the playoffs in 2017 that offseason many picked the Oilers to go to the Final the next year. It’s deja vu all over again. Thanks for that Yogi.
It is shocking the inaction this team shows when the last gasp of the McDrai window is about to expire with a whimper. Oh they have no cap? Oh they don’t trust their young players? Oh, they have no goaltending?
Ken Holland failed. Jay Woodcroft failed. Dustin Schwartz failed. They all deserve to be fired based on results. Would be nice if one could fire players too.
Pretty much have to change the coach at this point in an attempt to save the season.
Whether you think it just or not.
What else can you do? Nothing?
So I turned the game off after the 2 nd. Did I miss anything???? (ducks)
Nurse’s muffin shot into the goalie without a screen while the Oilers had all that pressure, had the Preds pinned and on the long change really pissed me off.
Sure there were worse mistakes that cost GAs, but this was a real bad play by Nurse.
Another low hockey iq play.
In what’s becoming a very long line…
Strip it all down. Go back to basics. Deploy the trap until they get this shit show turned around.
So…goaltending, am I right?
I think that’s a big part of it. They haven’t been good defensively either but their goalies have not helped them out at all. They are a team that thrives with the lead, something they’ve chased all year.
Don’t win many games scoring 2 goals.
Sure you can. But you are far less likely to win when you routinely give up 5 goals per game.
Good teams defend.
That’s right, good teams defend.
Anybody good in the draft this year?
Slackin for Macklin … even if we lose, we Celebrini.
To equal last years 109 points (50-23-9), we need to go 48-16-8 in the next 72.
If the wild card is around 100 points again, you’d need 45+ wins in 72.
A massive hill to climb.
Oh, it’s over… and not just this year’s quest but probably this window with 29/97.
The disturbing thing, as LT decries, is that no one involved seems to give a rip.
The Preds broadcast mentioned that only 4 teams in the last 10-15 years have made the playoffs from a similarly bad start.
Well gotta hand the Oilers entity points for drama – I can’t recall a worse year-over-year performance. Time to look at who put big money into shorting them in Vegas…
Campbell and the defence and not being able to finish, etc., etc. – yes, all issues, and big ones, but Connor McDavid being indifferent defensively while not impactful offensively is not something I ever expected – injured or not…
Agreed. And I can’t help but wonder why even dress him right now. Let him heal up.
He’s in a funk, not hurt. Weird to say about McD but anyone can have a stretch of bad games. This is such a stretch.
Ditto with Draisaitl. He had two shifts in the 2nd that had me excited. Crickets afterward. Is he hurt too or maybe in a funk?
Played a bit too much together to start the year. I’m very tempted to keep Kane/Gags together with Draisaitl and run Nuge-McD-Hyman.
I don’t bet against either man. Not good odds, they’ll be back to form soon. This too shall pass.
Plus the PP is back. So that’ll provide a bit of juice the next few games.
Today also showed that Ekholm is rounding into form, he wanted the puck all night, probably a bit too much but it’ll help him. So there goes the injury call there. McLeod looked good, two shots, five shot attempts, music. Now keep doing it.
we don’t know what we don’t know. is McDavid hurt or in a funk.
Doesn’t mean you can’t impact the game in your own end – StevieY won a Cup on one leg playing incredible 2-way hockey. Those two coast on defense – when the offence isn’t clicking for them, they become liabilities with the minutes that they play.
They are wonderful talents, but they still haven’t matured into the kind of two-way players that lead teams to Cups.
I missed the game. Looks like that might have been for the best. How did Lavoie look?
there was a very vocal crowd on here 2 weeks ago about how Great it is to play McDrai together ….
still?
Yes, there were….
dump coaching staff. Dump Campbell. Dump Holland
I’m not sure the Oilers can beat the Sharks.
I wonder if the pundits who predicted the Oilers would go to the Cup final are changing their predictions already.
Zone defence never suited this team the way it was constructed. It was all down hill from the start. Goalies not good enough to bail out the team during the system transition, and McDavid is a shell of himself due to an obvious lingering injury.
Every team and their fan bases are laughing at us.
Nurse couldn’t box out O’reilly, twice
More than twice.
it’s alright, he doesn’t really impact the Cap that much …. oh wait ..
offers good value in relation to what he makes … oh ….. ummmm …
well, he is one of Edmonton’s 4 best defensemen.
The Condors will be without: Caggiula, Lavoie, Gagner, Pederson, Tulio, Griffith and Savoie tonight and I’m positive they put in a better effort than the Oilers and make their game tonight far more enjoyable to watch!
The Battle of Alberta (for the second overall pick) is going to be epic!
If I hear anyone in that dressing room drop an eff-bomb after the game today, I’ll be upset.
Fake emotion.
Their words mean nothing.
Trade Foegle or Kulak for a bucket of pucks, not because the aren’t useful players but because the Oilers can’t afford them. Sign Bear and play the kids with skill until the trade deadline. It’s not foolproof but the current situation is not working.
Foegele is their best player .