There is no point in hammering each other senseless about the impact of Connor McDavid’s injury. This team is bleeding goals through 10 games, and nine of those included the best player in the world. McDavid is going to miss some time, and that might give the coaching staff an opportunity to tighten up defensively. I’d like to address two things today: The possible recalls, and what Stan Bowman might be thinking.
The Athletic articles today: 5 RH defencemen who should be targets and who will be the first recall?
RECALL
The article I wrote (link above) about recalls from Bakersfield revealed some impressive performances in the early days of the season. Jayden Grubbe isn’t going to get the recall if/when McDavid goes on IR, but he has been quality this year for the the Condors. Matt Savoie has been putting up points, but one suspects the Oilers will want him to get comfortable in pro hockey, then dominate, before getting the call.
My guess is Noah Philp will be the name elevated. He’s a RH center, can help on the penalty kill and one of the current Oilers (Derek Ryan) really seems to be struggling. I think Philp for the fourth line would make sense. Coach Kris Knoblauch could run his 4C as Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Adam Henrique and Philp. I’m not understanding Henrique’s game so far this season, so Philp may quickly take on more minutes if he can perform well.
STAN BOWMAN’S WHITE BOARD
We are 10 games in to the season and the record (4-5-1) isn’t fab but it could be much worse. This Oilers team is allowing 3.5 goals per game and scoring 2.2 per game. The average goals-per-game scored and allowed? 2.9. Edmonton is reeling from poor play in all areas. The special teams goal differential is 4-11!!!
The first thing that needs to be done is for the general manager to find six defensemen who can play. The second thing that has to be done is the coaching staff has to find a way to make things go with all three pairings. Here are the five-on-five goal differentials for each defenseman so far this year (via Natural Stat Trick): Mattias Ekholm 10-8 (56 pct); Evan Bouchard 7-6 (54 pct); Troy Stecher 3-4 (43 pct); Brett Kulak 3-6 (33 pct); Darnell Nurse 3-9 (25 pct); Ty Emberson 2-6 (25 pct); Travis Dermott 0-4.
The Oilers are 4-13 five-on-five goals with Mattias Ekholm off the ice. This can’t go on.
What to do? Ekholm-Bouchard are 7-6 together in 166 minutes. Kulak-Nurse are 0-1 in 22 minutes but have a 72 percent expected goal share. In the last three seasons, including this one, that pairing is 10-7 goals with a 53 percent expected goal share in a small sample (125 minutes).
Stan Bowman has to get this team help and he doesn’t have much in the way of assets to get it done. Josh Brown recall? I think that could happen. Trade for another Emberson? Maybe.
Once upon a time the Oilers traded a couple of picks for a struggling defenseman named Jason Smith. That worked out damn well. That’s Stan Bowman’s task today. Now.
The Lowdown at noon on Sports 1440 is going to be rage in the cage I expect. Oilers fans are not happy, worried sick over Connor McDavid and that usually means a melting pot of expletives and wild ideas. I cannot wait!! We’ll have Daniel Nugent-Bowman at The Athletic with us today, and all of Declan Krueger, Donovan Paulson and Kate Gullekson will chime in early and often with their takes. It’s a wild eyed Tuesday on the Lowdown! I’m at Lowetide on twitter, in the comments section here and on the Sports 1440 text line at 1.833.401.1440 directly. We can be heard at sports1440.ca; iHeartRadio; Radioplayer Canada, we tweet out the show after it’s done and you can catch us on Apple and Spotify.
St Lou got their butts kicked by Ottawa, 8-1. The lone goal was on a PP, scored by guess who and assisted by the other guess who.
Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman?
Nailed it!
I thought they played for Winnipeg?
and the guy w/ the apple had a +/- of 0
Holloway and Bro point was a PP goal in an 8-1 loss that cut the lead to 7-1.
Bro changed as the puck turned over and Stutzle buried the 4th goal. No minus but no help.
Bro screened the goalie on the 6th goal on the PK.
They played fine relative to their peers but fine in 8-1 is still bad.
I would suggest that the Oilers are at the top of the league in regards to skilled roster.
They are at the bottom of the league in regards to hits at 134. Panthers are at 313. And that is the difference. If your team can shut down the rushes and defend the house, the Oilers don’t have much else to throw at you. .
Its unfortunate. They can’t clear the net front and if you go all high skill roster, those players are generally not as good defensively.
Just saying “they have to get going” is only half true. Few more goals would certainly help but better defending would as well. You don’t have a Connor and Leon and complain about defense, its not their strength, its not what they bring. You have to add that to your roster in other spots.
The skill is on the team, we have it. But somebody has to be hard to play against. Please find us some players who are hard to play against.
Exactly. Not many guys willing to muck it up and be hard to play against. Not sure but guessing they have been out hit every game so far?
Warchin’ the games, the boys are gettin’ er done with their chances, but this is the oldest team in the Chel.
The problem with this team boys is age-related verticality deficiency. They simply can’t get it up.
Too many damn grey ballz.
lol
Need a more flex in their shaft.
After the callups, my preference would be:
Podkolzin Drai Arvidsson
Skinner Henrique Hyman
RNH Philp Perry
I’ve generally liked Pod and Arvi with Draisaitl and I think splitting up Hyman and Nuge is for the best for now. Let them rebuild their feel for the game apart from one another for a time.
Looks good
Nurse Bouch
Ekholm Stecher
Kulak Emberson
Interesting
https://oilersnation.com/news/darnell-nurse-is-being-considered-for-team-canadas-roster-at-four-nations-faceoff
I find it funny that often articles talking about Connor’s injury say they are recalling his ‘replacement’ from the AHL. Not sure that’s how I’d phrase it
Everyone knows Nurse is terrible.
Per Friedman, sounds like both Philp and Caggiula will be called up.
They don’t have to send anyone down to do this – they’ll use the LTIR reserves they have.
Calling up one will take their daily cap accrual down by ALOT – they’d still accrue some, daily, but not much.
Using the LTIR reserves would halt the accrual but, as long as its temporary, when they get out of LTIR, they’ll pick up where they left off.
I would be happy for the Drake to get a call up, he worked hard in camp.
He goes all out and has dam high give a darn factor. What you would expect from a call up.
Philp hopefully the same with a long term spot.
Caggiula will skate around fast, try and hit some people, accomplish very little – hopefully be able to not make mistakes that hurt the team.
Lets not forget what this player was 5 years ago when he was an NHL player…
Skate around fast and hit people… sounds like some things the Oilers are lacking.
Well, I said “try and hit some people”.
I’m not sure what people remember of his time as an Oiler, he wasn’t a huge banger and he isn’t in the AHL.
I was sick in bed yesterday. First the website goes down all day, but finally the game comes on. Mcdavid gets hurt after 37s and Columbus does a dance on our grave all evening. It all felt like a feverish dream!
Caggiula and Philp called up.
I think you have to give the next start to Pickard. I do think Bowman will get a goaltender if Skinner can’t find some consistency and Pickard is average but not great. If we’re going to play Jacque Lemaire button down hockey you need your goalie to make the average saves all the time.
I think they should have given the last start to Pickard. What were they thinking?
I think they’re committed to getting both goalies lots of ice and expect them to go back and forth this way fairly often.
It was back to back on the road and Skinner had a shutout his previous game…..
Lowetide Said: “The Oilers are 4-13 five-on-five goals with Mattias Ekholm off the ice. This can’t go on.”
Brogan Rafferty’s Uncle Steve also did some nice work digging up Nurse’s numbers on the season and it’s not looking good.
Using the stat lines from NHL, Nurse on the season is 10 GP, 0G, 3A, -6, which extrapolates to 82 GP, 0G, ~25A, ~-49, which would be by far his worst performance in a season. Nurse was poor in the playoffs and not performing well so far this season.
We’re now 1/8th of the way through the season, and Nurse still isn’t looking like he can anchor a *good* second pair.
Is Nurse injured? If he is, shame on the team. Put him on IR and get him healthy. Physio therapy, mobility rehab, reflex training, mental health training… Nurse seems to be a tremendous athlete who used to be a serviceable top pairing defenceman, and he seems too young to have fallen off a cliff in terms of performance the way he has.
If he’s really not injured in any way, his cap hit unfortunately makes his poor play an absolute team killer from the perspective of construction. I really believe that Nurse making $9.25M will make it more difficult for the Oilers to re-sign Bouchard at season’s end for closer to fair market value.
Options (in my humble opinion, and assuming he’s 100% healthy):
Staple him to McDavid… maybe Nurse’s play improves to previously established levels in part due to “the McDavid Effect”.Not available at this time.In all of the options I’m proposing, I don’t see Nurse as an option anchoring a good 2nd pairing. Try the hail mary and try him with Bouchard for a bit. Or bury him on the 3rd pairing and start trying to trade him. At second pairing, he’s nowhere near getting it done and they have to stop simply hoping he gets better.
Nurse’s issue was never his athleticism. It was always his ability to process the game. Unfortunately now that he’s getting a little older and his physical skills eroded just a little bit his defensive awareness problems are getting more and more exposed. Which was all predicted.
One final comment on Nurse. I feel really bad for him.
It’s not his fault Holland signed him to his disastrous contract. If the Oilers hadn’t kicked the long-term extension down the road twice, Nurse could have been a $6.5M defenceman, and more importantly, they could have afforded to bring in a strong complementary RHD to partner him with… instead of Ceci or whoever, Nurse could have had a legit top 4 RHD to work with and support him.
Also, I can’t imagine how he feels. I can only imagine the sense of imposter syndrome he may feel, being one of the highest paid blueliners in the league, but not at all playing like a strong 2nd pairing player. Nurse seems really close to his teammates and the community (he seems like a genuinely wonderful person). I’m sure he doesn’t want to let his friends down, and he wants to help them win the team.
On the other hand, if he agrees to waive part of his no-movement clause and THEN the Oilers win the cup, how crummy would he feel about missing out on the big win?
He’s truly in a no-win scenario. I hope he can work through whatever’s been bugging him for the past 2 or so years and return to form.
Nurse’s two possible positive outcomes would appear to be either as A) the clearly #4D playing the right hand side so that a strong #3 LHD can be acquired, solidifying the D crew or as B) a hard forechecking forward (I’m not joking).
Since the ingenuity of a Sather would be required and is lacking to convert him to a winger, hopefully they staple him to the right hand side and he figures it out, allowing the team to choose from a much wider array of available D this season and going forward.
And no – he’s not a $6.5/yr man either. He’d hit his peak and this current regime probably would’ve let him walk and gotten on with their lives. He’s athletic and talented, but deeply flawed. You don’t spend either term or annual $$$s on deeply flawed.
Wait so your solution to Nurse’s struggles is to move him to his offside (a more difficult position)? The solution is to get Nurse a wayyyyy better partner or play him at 3LD. Or trade him but that’s obviously impossible.
They can’t get him a better partner because he’s making half that guy’s salary and better D need to get paid. Catch 22
I think the answer is play him with Connor when he’s back and shelter him. Probably with Bouch. For now D balance is better than overloading a pairing. They can do the 5 main power shift when need be, but that’s not most of the time
Agreed, SS. Nurse’s salary makes it difficult to find this mysterious “better partner.”
Can’t play Nurse as 3LD as Kulak – Stetcher would get killed as 2nd pairing.
It seems Nurse-Bouchard is the sensible option.
I think most of us wish the best for others. I am sentimental by nature, but this journey with the Oilers and hanging around here for a bit has lead me to not be regarding pro athletes when it comes to playing the game. I hope their personal lives are good, but
I’m on the record with how I feel about this contract and Mr Holland’s work as GM (I have said his work building a more professional organization overall was good and so needed), but if you get to the point that the salary on the table – warranted, current market, whatever – is more than you should pay for the good of the team, you move on because that is good management in any business or endeavour
I have heard so many former or current players talk about things that happened, and they get over things and are fine. Even Ryan Whitney got over his time with the Oilers and he was foul on his way out and it lasted a few years, took some accountability for things
The one thing I have heard a few times this season is that losing in the SCF, especially in a game 7, they never get over and it doesn’t go away. MacT said he thinks it gets worse over time
Really the best thing for all involved is build the best team you can. It doesn’t matter who likes who, who is buddies, it’s about winning championships and that is the way it should be in pro sports. You have to build a team that is tight and works together, but keeping guys around that are popular or fans like always goes sideways unless they can do what they are paid to do at the level required
The best thing for the team right now, if there weren’t so many movement clauses, would be to move some incumbents and jolt the team, and better balance it. But the guys that are on my list are going nowhere unless things get pretty ugly
Some guys might have to go down, liked or not whatever is best for the team overall should be done. Is any other sport like this? I’m not sure there is that much that can be done in season, without some slick work by management
They will get better. Reactions are hot here be it win or lose. Woodguy would have reminded us pre game it was a scheduled loss (or close enough) in a city they are jinxed in to boot. I didn’t put much weight on the win against Sidney because of how bad the Pens were, nor much on the CBJ game. Rob Brown was saying the same thing before last game, the Pens was a feel good game for a few guys to finally get a point, but no measure of anything that matters because the Pens were so bad
Losing Connor is the big bummer. And Stu being unstable again. A good starter bails the team out at times, I don’t think Stu has done that as much as had games well below a SV% that is acceptable. It’s a chicken and egg thing, the team can play poorly and hurt the goalie, but if the team doesn’t expect the goalie to make tough saves enough, don’t fully trust him, it really messes them up and is a massive momentum killer
Holland built a STANLEY CUP finalist that would won without significant injuries.Jackson Bowman have broken up that team so they could put their own mark on the team…a pure EGO move.Why break up a contending team?This new team has no chemistry which occurs when the team is together long term!Traded McLeod for a possible rookie who is small.Lost speed and an excellent PK player.Let Fogele get away for a few dollars.Let Desarnais escape for a few dollars.Let Holloway and Bromberg get away for nothing while they were spending all their time making a big splash in signing Drai.Should have dealt with them first!And then didn’t match the blues offer.Even if they had matched,they could have traded them if they didn’t want them for picks or players.Traded Ceci who wasn’t perfect but was an NHL second pairing defencemen.Replaced him with three or four low payed players who are AHL D.All are low priced players because of this.By all of these idiotic moves they have put their mark on this team.We are older,smaller,and older.Good move with Skinner,and Arvidsson…..two small players who are older…just what we need in an NHL that is getting bigger every day.No,surprise we are not the same team who almost won last season.We are smaller,older,slower,and have no chemistry.If we make the playoffs,we will never get out of the Pacific!Nice job Jackson and Bowman.This is your team now,so live with it.Oh,did I forget,we also gave away Lavoie,when we could have put Ryan,or Perry on waivers with no chance anyone would have picked them up.And who cares if they had.Should have kept the good team together!!!
It depends on from which direction you look. Holland built a team that got to game 7 SCF, or, Holland built a team that CMD and Bouch dragged to the finals that had multiple players struggling, many of the same guys who struggled the previous playoffs
To me if they had upgraded the two D and two F that were not playing well, again, despite injuries they would have won
In terms of his imposter syndrome, you missed a glorious chance to discuss it with him in person when they were all signing autographs at WEM.
Point taken about “imposter syndrome”… let me try to get back on track.
Ok, let me try to reword this… Nurse seems like a good guy based on interviews and community work. Nurse knows he’s getting paid a huge chunk of the team’s cap. Nurse from all accounts is friends with his team mates. Friends don’t like to let friends down.
I am willing to bet Nurse feels bad about underperforming while getting paid so much that the team can’t get better in other areas.
Connor hasn’t looked right all year I wouldn’t doubt something else is bothering him besides the suspected dreaded high ankle sprain. There’s going to be some juicy minutes available it’s time for the committee to step-up.
— This team isn’t built so that McDrai can be 80 point players.
— By order of magnitude: this has mattered the most in the first 12% of the season.
— We don’t know how the regular season ends: we can be highly confident that unless they put up points like in previous years, no material improvement will occur. Doesn’t matter what moves get made.
— If we knew they would be 10 points each after the first 10 games: the current record would not be surprise. They have been very disappointing.
— I suspect they will score more : and the attribution of more success will be incorrectly assigned to the moves made” rather than their improvement.
Eh. I would say the complete lack of complementary scoring is a bigger issue.
RNH 4 points
Hyman 1 point
Arvi 3 points
Skinner 4 points.
If someone said those 4 would all be on pace for less than 40 points the teams record would not be a surprise.
Throw in Henrique and Brown both with 1 point.
The downgrade in speed from McLeod to Henrique is very visible. That Henrique contract will probably not age well
— I mean I hope it’s all about McDrai mostly. If this team has reverted to “stop McDrai” as a result of new roster composition…yikes
Another good move by Bowman.Also affected the PK.
It’s a short contract and at a far lower AAV than others were offering Henrique. Even if Henrique ages poorly I think it will be a value deal.
— Yeah : that’s because McDrai not playing to previous standards. They are the derivative
— They aren’t the drivers. What will happen is McDrai plays better then these guys put up more points
— 80 point McDrai = not very good rest of roster. Those guys need McDrai. Not the other way around.
Well we have seen McDrai with the likes of Kahun and Yamo. They definitely score more playing with Hyman, RNH, etc. I don’t think the relationship is as parasitic as you suggest.
OK now for something completely different.
Last night I spent some time with my daughter listening to Arlo Guthrie. I may have peed a little from laughing so hard. So without further comment I give you ….. Reubens Clamzo and his strange daughter in the key of a.
https://youtu.be/5N920UYc3Y0?si=ZeiUoDBwyWXdnxlU
Don’t worry it’s only a 2 minute song.
If it is a high ankle sprain, Connor could realistically be gone more than a month. Let’s say its more.
Between now and then, the team has an opportunity to get down to fundamentals. Become a responsible, predictable hockey team. They can tick along at .550 or so like that and learn a lot of good things about themselves.
97’s defensive side of the puck has been awful so far this year. The worst of his career. It is quite possible that then both Connor McDavid and Evander Kane reenter a lineup that is attuned to, and practiced in, the little things.
I hope to in February or so look back at this stretch, however long it is, as a fundamental reason the team looks so good.
I believe this team will eventually start to score some goals, they are getting chances.
What puzzles me is how bad the hands and puck management have been. I thought the tradeoff with going from young and fast to experienced and slow would be better hands and decision making? That has not been the case so far.
And yes, the defense is a serious downgrade from last year. The Oilers “upgrade” was adding 4 guys from bottom feeding teams. The guys from Arizona were established bottom pairing guys and saying Emberson was a top pairing guy with San Jose is kind of like bragging you were the leading scorer on your rec team. Its obvious the coaching staff only trusts 4 guys(why else are we seeing the Nurse Kulak pairing).
Jackson’s spending spree is going to haunt this club for a long time.
Sometimes you liberate a player from a bad team, play them in a lower spot in the batting order, and they find more success. This happened to a few of our overhyped prospects during the DoD.
Sometimes the player is just not a good NHL player.
I’m as disappointed/angry as anyone at the current state of affairs, but I offer two facts:
1) Last night was the back half of back-to-back games.
2) The last time McDavid missed an extended period of time, Draisaitl won the Hart.
That being said, I’m really in agreement with LT’s assessment that the floor is much lower with this current roster. Injury to McDavid or not, Bowman is the person responsible for solving the wobble we’re seeing.
also, 3 games in 4 days.
On the plus side – it wasn’t McDavid responsible for the wins they have thus far. He’s been hot garbage by his standard – even in the games where he put up #s.
Time for players to step up and Knoblauch to find combos that work.
I’m quite annoyed that he seems enamored with Arvidsson but can’t see the Jeff Skinner staring him in the face. That’s not good. He’d better be on PP1 going forward.
And someone please tell Connor Brown to stop shooting at the goalie’s center of mass. Please.
This team needs to score. Period. They’ve been in the crapper since the Dallas series offensively.
Wait, I thought a “logo shot” was a first down, line of scrimmage play in the CFL?
Too many passes from 97 early in this season.
To the extent that even on the PP the pass-first default has become so baked in that they don’t seem to naturally whip it around, they process first so that naturalised playmaking which used to sometimes involve shooting is a mechanical “who do I pass to now” which has slowed their decision making completely. The magic is gone, as such I think there is benefit of 97 not being in the lineup. Look at last two PP goals. Both from Ekholm, both a result of doing basic things that are taught. Fundamentals.
Everyone standing around watching McDavid whirl around the offensive zone knowing that he’s not going to attack the centre of the ice, and is looking for the pass to Leon, has made the PP very stale. The executioner shot isn’t there anymore … every team’s PK and goalie has scouted it and knows it’s coming.
Everyone knows that on the pp only Drai and Bouch will shoot the puck. And every Oiler is puck watching when Mcdavid has the puck
I’m not sure this is true. They’ve used it for years. Teams knew it was coming and still couldn’t stop it.
Combine this with the general NHL coach tendency to wait WAY too long when something that had been working stops working, as if they can never go back to it later.
PP1 should have been altered in the finals when it started to misfire and Leon was physically unable to shoot…that fact that it STILL hasn’t is ridiculous. Now it will happen by force – but I still don’t see the coach doing things that need to be done. For instance – Hyman is lost and wandering. He needs out of there for a minute.
The fact he’s getting chances (gifted by #s 97, 29 and 2) is not a good thing on its own. He’s a converter on that unit and line, not a driver. If he isn’t executing – he needs to have things changed up.
The PP has become a one trick pony. You think they’d practice some different PP setups to get out of the slump.
Need a trigger on the left side that will shoot. Or bring Perry to join Hyman down low
Until Hyman finds it 5-on-5, I want to see Skinner and Perry in for Hyman and Hopkins.
Add a shooter. Perry still blocks out the sun and frankly has better puck skills than #93 and #18. His lack of speed doesn’t matter in that setup.
Shooting gallery with a screen and McDavid as Magic Johnson, with an occasional 3-ball thrown in. Done.
Perry might be the only forward that knows what a screen is for and how to do it
Nuge and Zach aren’t that good at it, and neither finishes that well. When people mention the 50 goals I think he might be the least skilled player that ever got that many. Like the player, but his main thing is being able to play with skill and tap in their set ups
A buddy that played higher level hockey thinks Zach has pretty good tunnel vision. He’s at his best driving the net. I think he needs to play more aggressively and be a bigger problem for the D that way, and create room and rebounds when he has the puck and doesn’t score himself
I think the wingers are better this season than last in terms of ability, despite the start, but still outside of Arvi and Perry, and sometimes Janmark, they can play a pretty vanilla game. It’s not hard to play against that
You are either a high end producer, or you should be a hard nosed NHL player. Things other than that don’t contribute enough. Rob Brown despite being a smaller player in his day also doesn’t think smaller players hold up that well even as the season goes on, because they have to battle bigger guys and so much of the game is mucking along the boards or getting pounded net front (if they go there) or battling bigger forwards there if D
It might be time to split Ekholm and Bouch.
Bouch is still in his traditional early season “puck is a grenade” mode, so the timing isn’t great but maybe the split would help get Bouch in to form.
I have little doubt that second half of the season and playoff Bouch can anchor a top pairing.
Nurse on ice the Oilers are: 50.88% CF; 51.46% FF; 25% GF; 45.7% xGF; 46.55% HDCF.
Nurse off the ice the Oilers are: 61.51% CF; 59.43% FF; 47.83% GF; 59.91% xGF.
Woof! $9 mil per season????
This should be Bowman’s first order of business … find a way to unload Darnell Nurse. I know he has an NMC, but there has to be somewhere palatable that he would consider a trade out of the Edmonton fishbowl for.
It’s time for Bowman to earn his paycheque and move this millstone of a contract … other GMs would find a way. Maybe Nurse finds his game on another team. Might be best for all parties to move on.
I agree wholeheartedly. And I like Nurse too. I find that when he actually plays properly he’s quite effective. More often than not however he tries to do too much. Plus I don’t believe he’s adjusted well to playing second fiddle to Ekholm or Bouchard. Just my feeling on that.
Dubas is who I would be targeting to offload Nurse. He had him junior I believe and there were always rumours in Toronto that he wanted him when he GMed the Leafs.
Nurse for Erik Karlsson
3 more years at 10 (Karlsson) vice 6 more years at 9.25 (Nurse).
Wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world but the Bouchard equation would still need to be solved. He’s an RFA at the end of this season and one would have to think the offer sheet vultures will be swirling.
Why would Nurse move? He has lived and played here for nearly a decade, he has a small family, his best friends are on the team, and he’s an assistant captain. This isn’t even mentioning the gargantuan sweeteners you would need to include to move him. My guess would be at least 4 first rounders, if not more.
There could be any number of reasons why a player with a NMC/NTC would want to move.
6 more years, that saddens me
The special teams goal differential is 4-11
Sure missing Cody Ceci early in the season.
Ceci is -8 playing 2nd pairing minutes for the Sharks. Moving him out was probably a smart idea regardless of how the Oilers have performed in the early part of this season. The only problem is Bowman hasn’t finished the job and moved the other half of that pairing out.
Context is important. Ceci is minus 8 on the hot garbage team known as the Sharks. And he’s averaging over 22 minutes per game
I think we all under-rated his work on the PK.
These 2 statements don’t rhyme
2-2 in his last six, including 0-2 last night. Emberson is coming along.
I agree, just seems strange you didn’t mention this in your blog comments.
He was great against Pittsburg, made some nice plays and was physical.
LT, your assessment of Philp is bang on. Bring him up and you have a chance to help the PK – which is huge. Derek Ryan is a gamer, but at his age and with more 3 in 4 nights and B2B’s coming, he’s going to wear down.
Would also think he can help the team’s 5×5 play as he plays faster than some of the other guys on the roster in the bottom 6.
If McDavid is out 4 weeks (if it’s a high ankle sprain), would they put him on LTIR and then call up a second body to give the team additional cover?
Hyman is about to have his ice time slashed in half, hopefully.
Why would that be?
10 games 1 assist 19:28 a night on the top line.
An 1/8th of the season has been spent with the coaching staff hoping Hyman will find his game.
Let him find his game with 11mins a night, results driven league. His results are screaming for someone else to get a shot.
Skinner/Drai/Arvidsson
Nuge/Henrique/Perry
Podkolzin/Phelp/Hyman
Janmark/Ryan/Brown
Skinner and Arvidsson with Drai that hopefully leads to some PP chemistry.
Hyman can move up into Perry’s spot when he out performs Perry.
Henrique hopefully responds to Nuge and Perry.
Phelp gets a couple of Bulls.
Janmark and Brown maybe rekindle their chemistry.
Agree – I love Hyman’s hustle but the ice time needs to be reduced a bit in favour of players who are having more of an impact on offence. Play the guys that are producing. Hyman has had success being a possession driver against the soft parade in the past … time to move him down the lineup for a while until he finds his mojo.
Hyman may have been the one forward that was not truly awful last game.
Hyman not finishing is an issue, for sure, however, at the same time, is he playing the game any different than last season? He’s all over the scoring chances – and being involved in creation matters, no?
Hyman with Leon has not been a good fit in the past. RNH will have to move back to centre with Connor out, so I can see Hyman staying with Nuge for the next game.
Philp should have been on this team by merit from the start. I hope he arrives, tears the cover off the ball and never leaves.
2RD has been *the* issue for exactly one forever. Bruce Curlock correctly identified the need for off-ice excellence being a far bigger issue for the team than on-ice excellence, and the start to this season with the holes that are there being further evidence that growth is still needed.
Nicholson set this team back farther than it should be. I mean, just imagine if Bill Zito was GM instead of Holland.
On Philp, I understand that position but I also believe the position the Oilers have taken is very reasonable and low risk. Philp is available for call up at any time and I’m not sure Philp over Ryan would have been the difference in any losses – never know though.
I will say that, while he’s been good for the Condors this season, I do think he would benefit for a longer AHL stint prior to call-up. He has found himself on the wrong side of attackers and isn’t playing “mistake free hockey” at the AHL level.
I believe he is the logical call up and will be super excited to see him play – i’ve been tooting his horn since early 2023.
My goodness Columbus plays a fast game. My goodness Edmonton plays a slow game.
Yeah, if the lesson from the playoffs was “we need more slow boots, that will put us over the top”, I guess Jackson & Bowman were watching different games than me.
I don’t recall too many tears shed at the loss of Fogey & McLeod, but adding in the 2 RFA losses and there’s a noticeable lack of youthful energy on the team. They seem to be missing the excitement that the youngins who are still trying to establish themselves bring into the room and on the ice.
I hope the McDavid injury is not significant but the team is good enough to endure a stretch without him. Maybe it will be good for them even, more focus on defence and allowing different players to shine on the PP and on offence.
They should move Skinner up to PP1, instead of Arvidsson.
Their schedule in November isn’t too bad, they should be able to at minimum tread water until McDavid’s return. It’s time for this team to step up without their leader and keep winning games.
I suspect Arvy getting the PP1 look cuz he’s a righty forward in a sea of lefty shooters (skinner also a lefty)
I agree on Skinner vs. Arvidsson.
I think they’ve been going with Arvy due to the right shot but I would add Skinner in the Nuge role and Nuge in the McDavid role (kind of).
Stan is thinking “who the hell signed all these no movement clauses”.
Do we (and/or Bowman) not react/overreact too much since the SF% is 58% overall and 54% with Ekholm off?
I think that’s what I’d like to see from Bowman right now. Some restraint and to bide his time in making the move to address RD rather than doing something reactionary.
last year of the skinner experiment. Just too inconsistent to pay him a starters contract
10 years of one year experience for nurse is gonna be this teams downfall
at some point you would think he would stop chasing players and actually tie up a stick but nope.
Ryan is done. I get giving Phelp more at bats in the minors but Ryan is done
Agreed on all counts. I like Skinner but his play is so inconsistent.
Aren’t all non-elite goalies fairly inconsistent?
Without looking at any numbers, I would suggest Stu is likely right in the middle of the pack, in the 12-15 range for goalies (that can take on a 50 game workload).
If he is looking for anywhere near Swayman money, forget it but what if it comes in the $4.5MM range for a mid-term?
It is going to be a tough few weeks.
Stan nabbed Oduya for very little and he was a solid top-4 dman in Chicago.
2nd and a 3rd for Oduya was a great trade. He played 20ish minutes a night for 4 years for the Hawks and won two cups.
Apparently, Seravelli is saying best case scenario is a couple weeks for McDavid.
Rumors of high ankle sprain
Ugh. That would be very bad news.
6-8 week recovery for a high ankle sprain. Yikes.
Well a mild one probably so prob 2-4 weeks
At least it’s not his knee, always freaks me out when he hits the boards falling
Players always come back too early from high angle sprains, and it takes them many more weeks to get up to 100%.
Unfortunately for the Oil, every team in the league is looking for a Jason Smith type player.
And what do they actually have to offer to get a player of that type? The asset management of this team has been veeeery questionable in the last little while and I don’t count myself as a fan of all of the summer transactions.
You’ve alluded to it before LT but I would hate to see a Hall for Larsson type trade.
Lavoie has 2 points and is a big minus in 5 games in the AHL. They also need someone who can play center. It wouldn’t have been him in any event.
Of course, both Hamblin and Pederson are out hurt for a few weeks.
Im sure they’d like to keep Philp down for a while longer but he’s the only reasonable choice.
Savoie isn’t near ready and he’s a winger (only one game at center and they was due to emergency.
Caggiula hasn’t been an NHLer in years and isn’t a center.
Probably Philp. Though I wouldn’t be as surprised as you with a Caggiula recall.
Agree, Lavoie wouldn’t be the recall this time as they need a center. Doesn’t change that it was a mistake to let him go for nothing
He could have been an asset as part of the trade LT is suggesting
Zero teams were willing to put Lavoie on their NHL roster, for free, at a league minimum cap hit. All 32 teams were given the option (multiple times) and said no.
Lavoie had zero trade value. He might have the smallest of possible trade value to Vegas given he’s now AHL eligible but he had none before.
I wish Lavoie was still in the Oilers’ organization but the Oilers made the exact same decision on the player that 31 other teams did.
Team needs change all the time. Could be due to injury or other factors. Hell, he could have been a throw in on a trade to make contract numbers work.
No reason to give him away. Poor asset management
A player that is a “throw in in a trade to make contract numbers work” really is the picture of no value.
Is the suggestion that they should have kept Lavoie on the roster in case he was needed for this type of trade?
Zero out of 32 teams wanted him on their NHL roster for free. Every team made the exact same decision the Oilers did.
In fact, Vegas owned Lavoie’s rights and lost him on waivers a few days before the Oilers did – the exact same asset management the Oilers conducted.
It was an example. Like I said, things change. There are many different scenarios that could play out if you simply hang on to the asset instead of giving away for nothing. One of those could even be the player popping and becoming more valuable
Not a single team was willing to do what you suggest – at zero asset out risk and at minimum cap hit. Every team was provided the express opportunity to do so multiple times and said no – “we do not want this player on our active NHL roster even with his league minimum cap hit”.
Other teams didn’t have his rights to begin with. The Oilers did
Irrelevant, all of them made the exact same determination – not worthy of a spot on their NHL roster, at league min – would not take him for free.
Every team turned down an opportunity to take his rights for free (unless they could further place him in the AHL).
As an aside, Vegas had his rights, lost him on waivers
It is very relevant. The 31 other teams didn’t knowingly give up an asset for free. The Oilers did. Players are put on waivers all the time, especially near the end of training camps and beginning of the season. Just because 95% of these go unclaimed doesn’t mean they have no value. What percentage of these players do the parent team think will be claimed? I’d guess less than 5%. The Oilers knew Lavoie would be claimed, 100%
31 other teams did not want the asset, for free – not if they had to keep him on their NHL roster.
Same decision the Oilers made.
Vegas owned Lavoie’s rights and decided to waive him, knowing 100% he’d be claimed.
At the end of the transactions, the only team with less assets than they had prior, was the Oilers
The “asset” you speak of was a player that all teams refused to put on their NHL roster at league min for zero cost. Is there a valued asset there?
Every single team passed on the asset for free.