I wrote about Leon Draisaitl yesterday and about his importance to the Oilers organization. The big man marched in to Nashville and flattened the Predators again. One never knows why these things happen, but LD owns Nashville in a way no one has since Johnny Cash. Regression is a thing, but not for Leon.
He wasn’t alone, as the Oilers delivered their strongest game so far this season. There’s plenty to discuss, all of it positive.
The Athletic article today focuses on Jeff Skinner, who is productive despite not getting a push in terms of his center. That should change based on merit and optimal deployment. Article is here.
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM OCTOBER
- At home to: WPG, CHI, CAL, PHI (Expected 3-1-0) (Actual 1-3-0)
- On the road to: NAS, DAL (Expected 1-1-0) (Actual 1-1-0)
- At home to: CAR, PIT (Expected 1-1-0) (Actual 1-0-1)
- On the road to: DET, CBJ, NAS (Expected 2-1-0) (Actual 2-1-0)
- Overall expected result: 7-4-0, 14 points in 11 games
- Actual October results: 5-5-1, 11 points in 11 games
- Oilers in 2024-25: 5-5-1, 11 points in 11 games
After the disastrous 0-3-0 start, this Oilers team found a way to crawl from the wreckage and finish 5-2-1 over the rest of the month. I think some credit is due the organization for not overreacting to the loose defensive work early. This was pure “Crazy Horse at the Fillmore” for most of the month, and the tweaks resembled madness at times, but they came through the fire to the limit, to the wall. Helluva job.
THE NUMBERS
The conversation has to start with Leon Draisaitl. He was absolute fire against the Preds again, and is both an active player and an actual icon in team history. Draisaitl ranks No. 6 on all-time Oilers scoring, and his 1.18 pts-game is actually ahead of the No. 5 player (Glenn Anderson 1.07) and not far behind the No. 3 man (Mark Messier, 1.215). Wayne Gretzky (2.4), Connor McDavid (1.51) and Jari Kurri (1.38) lead the way in pts-game as an Oilers player (among the top five points men).
Calvin Pickard is the next player I’d like to mention. He has settled things down in goal, and once again proves his value. At this point, it’s completely reasonable to conclude he gives Edmonton the best chance to win. That doesn’t mean flushing Stuart Skinner is a good idea, but it does mean the net situation is a little more fluid than it was during the period when Skinner-Pickard were the tandem one year ago. There’s a tendency to fade the struggling goaltender, but the team will need Skinner this season. Running Pickard more often in the immediate future makes sense to me.
Ty Emberson is settling in now, I was impressed with his positioning and physical play. In the last seven games, he is 3-2 goals, 58 percent expected goals and shot share. He’s an important part of this team, representing the department of youth, unicorn division (he’s a RH blue).
Vasily Podkolzin shattered Jeremy Lauzon, picked up an assist and played well on the Draisaitl line. He has a 25 percent goal share five-on-five, but a 65 percent expected goal share. If regression blesses, the actual goal percentage should improve in the days to come. Podkolzin has yet to score, but the play doesn’t die on his stick as MacT used to say. I like him.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is worrying me. I think he might be taking longer to get over the long run last spring than the others, makes sense since he is a smaller player. Still, he has an 0.83 pts-60 at five-on-five while playing a prominent role, and that’s in significant minutes (142). I wrote about Jeff Skinner in my article for The Athletic today, but also discuss the Nuge. He’s an emerging story for this team.
Noah Philp looked like an upgrade at No. 4 center out of the box and I doubt he gives that job up any time soon. He’s bigger, faster, quicker, and he’s pretty smart although I don’t think there are many hockey players smarter than Derek Ryan. Philp looked comfortable and had an impact, that’s a credit to him but also Colin Chaulk and the coaching staff in Bakersfield. Plug-and-play recalls who hit the ice and perform is a major positive.
Zach Hyman scored finally, suspect the floodgates will open now. A nice feed by Darnell Nurse, by the way, I doubt he receives 10 kinds words online today but I liked his performance very much.
Adam Henrique continues to be challenged by the speed of the game this year, I’ll include Nuge and Derek Ryan in that category, especially when they are playing center. Noah Philp is going to eat someone’s lunch in a helluva hurry here if these veterans can’t find a little more torque.
A busy show on the Lowdown, noon to 2pm today on Sports 1440. Guests include Steve Lansky, Tyler Yaremchuk and Declan Krueger will have Declanations at 12:40. We’ll chat Oilers, Elks, NFL weekend, MLB off season (what are the Jays going to do?) and more. 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.
Fun game in Bakersfield – 45 saves for Rodrigue (but the Condors were not getting caved – they earned the 2 points).
Wild scramble in front and the Firebirds jam one in. A mask-less Rodrigue is VERY upset and in the refs’ faces – he was definitely pushed in to his own net but it was just a mass of bodies.
Goal will count.
Savoie with a great high to low cross ice pass to Wright who one-touches to Jarventie but he’s robbed – diving save.
Jarventie has evened Lavoie’s season point totals (and is +2, not -5)
He was traded for Bougault who is 7 gp 1-1-2 and minus 1 in Belleville so far this season. Good early returns on this trade.
Who’d we get for Lavoie?
Nothing could be got for Lavoie – any team trading for him would need to waive him to put him in the AHL and, as we know with certainty, zero teams were willing to keep him on an NHL roster.
Should have kept him then
Should have done what all 31 other franchises refused to do and keep him on their NHL roster?
Yes, wait for a better use of the asset
32 NHL franchises chose not to do what you suggest.
Oilers are the only team that had fewer assets than prior to the Lavoie transactions. No other team lost anything
Totally irrelevant – make the “next right decision”.
No NHL team things Lavoie is an NHL assets. Zero NHL orgs attribute any value to him on their NHL roster.
The Ducks have over $20MM in cap space and an open roster spot – wouldn’t take him for free.
It is very relevant. Can you name an example of another team putting one of their top prospects on waivers twice, the second time knowing they would be claimed and lost for nothing? Maybe its happened but it damn sure isn’t common. If it’s a good move, why aren’t 32 other teams doing it?
It’s Ok to admit when Oiler management makes a mistake. Asset management is an area that appears could be improved. The Lavoie, Broberg, and Holloway situations all could have been handled better. The Bourgault and Schaefer trades are examples of better use of assets
Lavoie is now a non-asset, 32 NHL teams made that clear.
2 days before the Oilers lost him on waivers, the Knights owned his rights and lost him on waiver.
Oilers management clearly made the decision that they were not willing to keep this player on their NHL roster, knew he had zero trade value and were willing to lose him on waivers – he was not in their NHL plans.
Every single other NHL team made the exact same evaluation – the Knight’s had his rights, he was in their organization and they put him on waivers knowing they’d lose him – the exact same thing the Oilers did.
Bourgault and Shaefer are not comparable in the least, not even a little.
Those were both players on their ELCs that were waivers exempt.
So which team put their guy on waivers twice to ensure they lost him? If your so sure the Oilers wanted to get rid of him, why did they claim him back in the first place?
I’m not saying Lavoie is any kind of difference maker as a player. Most likely he will be a tweener his entire career. There is still value in that and it’s not zero. Bourgault and Schafer were traded for fair value. Lavoie was not. It was a mistake
So providing the answer to your question with the FACT that another team did exactly what the Oilers did is not good enough for you and you need evidence that they did it twice – come on man.
The Oilers, like the Knights, would have liked to have the player in their minor league system, hence why each team claimed him back, but were not willing to keep him on their NHL roster – no team was willing to do so. The player had zero value until being able to be assigned to the AHL.
Lavoie had no value as a player that could not be send to the AHL – this is very different than Bourgault and Schaefer – I already explained this but you ignore that fact.
It’s not the same. The Knights were playing with the house’s money at that point. They had nothing to lose as they didn’t have anything to begin with. The Oilers were the only team that lost anything in these transactions.
Players are put on waivers and lost sometimes. This is not unique. Reclaiming a player then turning around and losing him again for nothing IS unique. If you can’t see this, then where’s your example.
I mentioned that Lavoie’s value was less than the other two prospects. That does not mean his value is zero. No body claimed Caggiula, and now he is back on the team and contributed to the win the other night. A good example for you, lol. Caggiula’s value still isn’t high, but it’s not zero. Same as Lavoie
Yes, his value was indeed zero as no team was willing to take him for free – all teams considered him of zero value if they needed to keep him on their NHL roster.
You are putting way too much value in to him being developed by this organization.
If Lavoie had the exacts same pro career in another organization, you wouldn’t give two craps about him, right. You only care because he was drafted and developed by the Oilers. The cost is sunk and no longer matter. The organization made a decision regarding the player looking at the now and the future and disregarded past costs, as they should. They made the decision that being required to keep him on their NHL roster and eat in to their cap space was not prudent, as did 31 other organizations.
As an aside, he has two points in 7 AHL games and is a -7 this season.
He’s now Tyler Benson.
Same as Cagiulla. No team wanted him when put on waivers, but contributed to a win the other night. Lavoie could have done the same. That has value.
As far as other teams drafted and developed players, I still haven’t heard of another team doing a series of waiver transactions like the Oilers did with Lavoie. If they did, I would call it poor asset management as well. Though I don’t go on other teams blogs to discuss
Summarizing!
As mentioned below, Akey went off in tallying a goal and three assists. He earned 1st star honours for his efforts.
O’Reilly, Nicholl and Fischer each procured an assist.
Day stopped 21 of 24 shots but lost 3-0.
Clattenburg returned to the Flint lineup but was held soupless, as were Mazura, Lachance, Copponi and Berry.
Wakely did not dress tonight.
Savoie wins the offensive zone draw, Griffith dishes back to Jarventie who rips one from the high slot. A set play. Shot is blocked, Jarventie gets it back, in the high slot, moves laterally to create space and feed Savoie in the middle who rips one home from distance.
Beauty!
Condors win the draw (after two CV icings), Carrick with a skilled rush down low and cuts in, there is a scramble, Petrov finds the puck in the high slot and buries if for the 4-2 lead (goal with under a minute to go in the 2nd).
The Jarventie/Savoie/Griffith line is getting a ton of ice-time – they are playing well.
So much for a thought of easing Jarventie in.
Will be interesting to see how Jarventie is tomorrow in the back to back after what feels like a trend towards 20 minutes tonight.
The shot clock has Rodrigue facing 33 shots (33 saves) with 5 min left to go in the 2nd.
I think there is some home town shot counting – Condors have played well.
Can confirm that Jarventie’s instinct is to head to the front of the opposition’s net and set up there…..
Savoie getting PK time, does well to shadow his man and force him to the end boards and rub him out a solid check for a clear.
Wanner with an ineffective/poor step up defending the zone entry and it leads to a Firebird in all alone with speed and they cut the lead to 3-2.
Great forecheck by James Stefan to get possession of the dump, fanastic skill play on the line by Carrick to get it over to Gleason at the left point. While Gleason moves in, Stefan is circling high and Gleason goes cross-ice/seam with a BEAUTY pass and Stefan rips one home from the circles.
A really beautiful looking goal.
Fun first period to watch, partially due to no penalties – AHL games are generally half special teams.
Wanner with a seeing eye shot from the point gives the Condors the 2-1 lead.
Griffith passed it to Wanner coming out from the corner – Jarventie won the battle on the boards to chip the puck low and SHOULD get the second assist.
Never know with AHL scoring though.
Edit: Yup, assist for Jarventie.
Jarventie is hungry. I’m impressed with this young man . . . where’s the rust?
Apparently hiding in the same place as Noah Philp’s.
He’s been the best player on the ice.
Looks to be up near 20 minutes by games’ end.
Will be curious to see how he comes through and is tomorrow night.
Condors 4th line with an o-zone turnover and it goes the other way for a 3 on 1.
Rodrigue with a good save on the initial shot but no chance on the rebound (although I think he got piece of it).
Holy Hell, what a goal by D’Amato – strips the d-man in the neutral zone for a 1 on 1, just blows by the second defender, cuts in and buries is shelf.
Goal of the year for the Condors so far.
Griffith sets Jarventie up for one-timer from the top of the circles off the rush – gets good wood but its stopped. 3 shots on net in the first 8 minutes of the game for the new Condor.
Jarventie causing some chaos in front on his second shift – I think he tipped the Gleason shot and then almost banged home the rebound.
Condors game broadcast . . .
https://olimp-video.com/embed.php/?match_id=11969941
The NA prospect update could not be better covered but just saw that Samuel Jonsson is now 5-0 with a .913 on one of the top teams in the Allsvenskan at age 20.
Sure seems like a strong up arrow very early in the season, putting out the Bat Signal for Swedishposter if he has any thoughts on him so far.
Odd/interesting tidbit from Ryan Holt:
I was always pulling for him to succeed, glad he’s still got a career in hockey.
Think we need a shout out to Corey Perry for feeding Philp and trying to get him his 1st G.
Kulak has been great this year.
He had some wobble last night but did not break. There’s. a few times he could be a little more patient with the puck
O’Reilly and Nicholl both draw helpers on London’s opening goal in Period the First.
90 seconds into the match, Akey accepts a cross-ice pass on the rush, makes a sweet move to his backhand and deposits the biscuit into a yawning cage. 3rd goal of the campaign.
A reminder that this game is on TSN+.
Up to the goal and 3 apples now tonight!
Jarventie/Savoie/Griffith – top line.
Don’t really need to post the rest – yikes.
Grubbe 2C.
With 4 forwards out (and one in), Petrov……3LW.
Rodrigue with the start.
I know that we don’t have any “good prospects”. But Maxim Berezkin is absolutely rolling right now. 10 game points streak and near ppg
May 1 – the day he can be signed.
Every day we don’t read/hear about a KHL extension is a day closer.
Oilers are built for the playoffs when the heat gets turned up they respond with aggressive play. There’s no way they can keep up this style for a 82 game schedule. They need 1 more hard to play against forward. It might be a good time to call Uncle Mikey before Christmas and get a roommate for Podkolzin.
Evander Kane
Yes a fresh hungry Kane will neuter the Bennetts of the league.
Do you mean they should pick up Klim Kostin from the Sharks? Then they would have Klim & Podz to stir things up. The bruise brothers.
Also resign Slepshev and they can form the Bratva line. Its been awhile since we’ve had a name for a line like in the good old days.
Well, they would need a center to play with. Maybe Noah Philp and the bruise brothers.
Nuge-McDavid-Hyman
Podz-Leon-Arvidsson
Skinner-Henrique-Brown
Janmark-Philp-Kostin
The dream team and Kane can play too.
POD drives hard the right way. I like Klim’s heart – another true blue Russian that will do whatever for their team. But Klim isn’t Pod
Yeah, Klim is a better shooter.
Klim is.
Podz is better on puck battles and MUCH better 2-way.
Jarentie confirmed in the lineup for the Concors tonight.
I presume the organization will give him a ton of time and rope to get his game up to speed, like pretty much the entire season. He is coming from a long ways back with pretty much a year off, surgery, rehab, missed off season training, missed camp, missed the first few weeks of the season.
Here is hoping the fanbase will also show some patience and not catastrophize a slow start – maybe even Connor Brown style.
Don’t know much about this player? When/if he gets 100% healthy what is his ceiling as a player? Top 6/ bottom 6????
Tough for me to form an opinion as I haven’t really had the opportunity to watch him nightly yet – looking forward to that.
Probably a middle six ceiling – he put strong numbers recently in the AHL and got a cup of coffee in the NHL,
I hope the kid’s injuries are behind him, if he can pick up the steam again he’d be a nice addition to the 3rd or 4th lines next season.
There’s a reason we got him cheap if and when he becomes healthy this player will be a functioning N.H.L bottom sixer on a cheap contract. This was a savvy move where we should see him once he’s settled in.
That is good news.
Wonderful if we have a player here
I wonder who gets the Calgary start it’ll probably go to the incumbent Skinner and Pickard will get the tougher match-up against Jersey.
RNH has the third lowest xGF on the team and second lowest among forwards. This includes a decent amount of time with McD. Something is not right.
Nuge has a faceoff % of 62.9 which is the pack leader.
He’s a + player, neither McDavid or Hyman have been playing near their potential.
When he’s been tasked with center duties his wingers have been a rotating cast of folks looking for a home.
RNH played last game with Skinner and Hyman…
This is what aboutism nonsense. I like RNH as a player. His results at centre have been poor for years. He is a winger. No shame in that.
It’s kind of relative. Pretty tough being a center on. Connor- Leon team.
he’s still a fine center and he could drop down line up with time.
You seem to be grabbing one set of numbers and using it to hang players.
Huh? Where have I used one set of
numbers. Away from McD this season, RNH’s numbers CF, FF, SF, with the exception of actual goals, are well below 50%.
The Nuge is probably my favorite Oiler so I am biased in my opinion. Hopkin’s slumps are a perennial topic on this, and other Oilers blogs, warranted or not. He has always returned to form and I would bet he does again this year. Age might be a factor in the severity and length of the “slump”. I believe he comes back and shows his value. I hope it is sooner than later.
Nurse can have three games like this and then he’ll have a game where he ices the puck once and gets caught in between on a goal against and all we’ll ready is “$9.25MM” and how the team will never win with him in the org.
Nurse bossed that game last night. Won a ton of battles, moved the puck well.
Nurse gets his flowers when he plays well like he did last night. Look at the comment section – no one had a bad word to say about him.
Nurse also gets criticized when he plays like crap.
For 9.25 million/season, the expectation is that he plays like he did last night more than when he plays like crap.
But last night’s game has been the exception to his play over the past 1-2 years, not the norm. He’s been a complete liability in at least 2/3 of games this season. He was awful in the playoffs, and he was not great last season either.
Severalli was right … he’s not carrying the 2nd pairing.
Having 1 good game in 10 does not constitute playing well or being anywhere close to value for his contract.
If Bowman has the opportunity to unload him, he should do so with prejudice.
By flowers, do you mean silence?
One mistake and he’s annihilated.
A great game and social media is silent.
This is such BS haha.
Nurse played great last night. Best game of the season. Amazing pass to Hyman.
That said, he had 3-4 straight stinkers before this. And overall this season he has been quite poor.
If they all quit being blinded by his contract and just accept he’s a very good 2nd pairing defender and he never was or will be a #1 defender it will make every game easier to watch. The contract isn’t going away so it needs to be accepted. Just my opinion though.
Everyone here would be okay if he is a good 2nd paring defender. We all want him to do well and can accept an overpay. The problem comes if he’s less than that.
Why does he get a pass for his contract?
If someone is taking up a position in my department and making a ton of money, but failing to deliver and justify why they have that high-paying job, then they will eventually be fired or shuffled off to another department.
He signed the deal, he should take ownership of the criticism that can come when he doesn’t live up to it. That’s what everyone else in every other walk of life has to do. Not sure why all the Nurse apologists think we should make a special exemption for him.
I don’t think there’s a single person who has given Nurse a pass on his contract, to the point it has been named one of the 3 worst contracts in the NHL.
What people are saying is that you can scream and yell, tell him to be better etc, but if that is outside of his capability then it doesn’t do any good. All we can ask of Nurse is to play as good as he can and continue to work on weeding out mistakes.
Lastly, I would highly suggest that you don’t compare sports players to us regular folk, we don’t live in the same world as them. How we view and interact with the world is so vastly different than most of them have ever had to live in their adult life that any comparison even career wise is something that will drive anyone mentally insane.
Well said
I would be deliriously happy with ‘strong second pair defender.’ Problem is he hasn’t reliably been even that.
This endless search for a partner who won’t ’drag Nurse down’ is really a quest for someone who can prop him up. Salary aside, at his age, size, pedigree, it should be _Nurse_ bricking up any chinks in the second pairing.
Oh well.
I disagree. He’s playing just fine given his partner. Last year many blamed Ceci. Now he’s gone and Nurse plays either a rookie. What exactly do you expect?
It’s crystal clear what is expected from Nurse, and yes his $9.5M factors into those expectations, as it should.
To me the fact that the blueline partner convo goes so far back flushes it out as a red herring. And it’s not like Stetcher’s a raw rook.
Sadly, this is exactly what I expected (actually hoped / am hoping for an inexplicable turnaround by Nurse). What I’m arguing is the cause, not effect.
He played well – but lets be honest, the Preds are not a strong forecheck team, and do not clog up the middle of the ice. Ergo, most of our defenders were able to move the puck freely.
There are many games Nurse is a really good 2 D. There are many games he is less than that. He is a 2.5 D on average. That is a challenge given the team needs and the cap space he occupies.
The comments section often doesn’t take into account the way games played out. If an opponent let’s them play the way they want to, the bad guys will usually lose
If they clog the ice and slot it’s very different. This is the thing the Oilers have to learn to overcome
Nurse often receives both compliments and criticism based, rightly, on his play. Not sure there you are reading this other stuff, but it’s not here.
Nurse has an excellent game last night and it would be wonderful if this was his norm.
I disagree completely and agree with LTs take on this one.
He gets annihilated after every and any mistake (an exaggeration but not much) and the praise for solid or plus play is overly muted in comparison.
Not a Nurse hater at all, but I didn’t like his penalty last night. I was shocked to not see 8 comments on it. Imagine he was the one that cleared it up the middle Kulak style?
And we have confirmation
Nurse cannot even receive one word of praise before everyone jumps on him.
woops – not direct at you whaler but the thread
Are people jumping on Nurse in this thread or are they challenging OP’s, and other’s, comments? There’s a difference.
Challenging OPs comments that we pile on Nurse.
To whom much is given, much is expected. Since the Vegas playoff series, we’ve lowered the bar on those expectations, and Nurse is still failing to meet them other than against the occasional opponent who the Oilers have owned for the past half decade.
He’s tasked with carrying that second pairing now … do that consistently, then I’ll sing his praises. But man alive do the Nurse apologists ever get rowdy when he has the rare good game, and go awfully silent when he’s sucking the hind banana lost in his own zone, or flopping on the ice like a starfish, unable to do simple things like marking the man in front of the net.
When I am talking about the criticism Nurse takes, its not direct to this community but the Oilers’ fanbase, mainly on social media, at large.
Its not even defending Nurse. Its not defending his contract or saying he’s value for contract or that he’s been close to good enough he last 18 months – 2 years, given his established abilities.
Its more about the statement that LT made:
Nurse has bad games, for sure but, for the most part, Nurse will play a very solid game, making 10+ solid defensive plays with his stick or body or skates with zero acknowledgement and then one mistake and he’s shredded. He’s not out there getting beat shift after shift and giving up the puck consistently.
Then there are games like last night where he’s really quite good and, as LT notes, can’t even have a kind word about it without bringing up the contract and everything else.
One other thing worth mentioning is Podkolzin. Yes, the knockout of Lauzon was impressive. But so too was the play he made on the 1st goal of the game. His hit on Carrier along the boards – separating him from the puck was terrific and he’s one of the few on the team using his body to regain puck possession.
A very important element of the game.
He has the Pedigree (skill) and he only just turned 23 he’s still filling out. His aggressiveness opens up ice for Leon.
Early days but are we actually having success with a Russian born player? It’s been awhile. I did like Kostin though.
I mentioned it in real time last night, Podz made THE play on the opening goal.
All three players made smart and skilled plays on that one.
Love this player, but he probably should have had a penalty on the play. He basically slewfooted the dman who coughed up the puck.
That being said, I thought he was very good again last night. Don’t understand why he had to sit a few shifts for Perry and Hyman? Why does the coach mess with the line that’s really humming?
I also think he would produce more if his linemates would give him the puck when he’s open. Louie was so busy praising Arvidson for his “shooting mentality” that I guess he didn’t see Podzolkin wide open in the slot when Arvidson was taking his weak wrister from the sideboards
Agreed on the shout out to Colin Chaulk.
Lets not forget, Philp started off as a 4th line winger and healthy scratch his rookie pro-season. He ended up as one of the coaching staff’s most trusted 2-way, high-leverage situation forwards and spent quite a bit of the later part of the season as the 1C/2C.
He was around 0.8 PPG in the second half of the season with little PP time – that was even strength production.
Of course, first and foremost, credit to the player but I think the coaching staff likely had a big role in his development.
Great job by the org, starting with Ken Holland and his staff that brought Noah in to start with – OK, fine, Bob Stauffer!
I know Hyman got a goal, and the pass by Nurse was a thing of beauty, but boy, did I cringe when that puck was passed to Nurse in front of the goalie. Nearly picked off, it had to be perfect. Bearing in mind we were 3 goals up and the puck could have been eaten on the boards or put behind the net. In any sport that involves scoring in a net, you get told by a coach, “nice pass, please don’t do it again.”
The team played a complete game. Nashville had a few 5 bell chances, but some of them were too close in to the goalie, so looked worse than they were.
Pickard was perfect. Make the saves you are supposed to, plus one or two you aren’t. Get run support and you win the majority of games.
That was Jeff Skinner with the balls of steel & the perfect pass.
There is no way Nurse made that pass.
That was the ghost of Oscar Klefbom dressed in a number 25 jersey.
If Nurse plays 2nd pair this year within his capabilities he will be just fine and put last year behind him. I thought he’s been pretty good this year.
I think that’s 10.
Nuge is still awesome, only 3 forwards have more points.
No forward is strapped with as much responsibility. PK, PP, know all center and wing assignments.
There’s one other player on the team asked to wear as many hats as Nuge.
Ekholm.
Is Nuge better on 97 or 29’s wing, yes. Common trend.
I’m going to be a little nitpicky here with Philip – and I really think he had a terrific game last night – but if he keeps his stick on the ice at the side of the net, he scores his first NHL goal. Hopefully it’s a lesson learned.
I’m sure Perry will mention it
Interesting mention by coach post-game about a “meeting with an analytics company” they had before the game.
RNH is not a center. It’s simple. He has not had good results at C for years. There is a reason Woody kept going back to Bjugstad at 2C in the playoffs.
Henrique looks totally disinterested but he has also played a lot with Brown and Janmark who have reverted to regular season form.
He should have gone with McLeod. Small sample alert, but he might have at least tried it. Eichel was killing them.
100%. We never really got to see McLeod as a 2C. He is playing the second most minutes 5v5 for a C in Buffalo. Decent results so far.
Nuge and Henrique – the main two that continue to underperform nightly.
We know Nuge isn’t a “driver” but he’s not even looking like a skilled player at all. He’s not really making mistakes at evens, it’s like he’s not even there. I still think we’ll see him pick his game up.
I liked Philp. Has good speed which the team is lacking. I think we saw his wife’s navel more than we saw him on camera.
I think Lauzon has like 30 plus NHL fights – great job by Podz.
LT talks about credit to the org for not over-reacting – imagine if management took the lead vibes from the catastrophizing fanbase?
Media too. I do think Ken Holland’s patience, although baffling on things like Evan Bouchard and philip Broberg being delayed in NHL arrival, was a net positive in his five years. The Chiarelli ‘jimmy legs’ plan was a non-starter.
Didn’t Holland have both Broberg and Bouchard up for long stretches but the coaches wouldn’t play them.
I believe a theme on here was, if they’re not playing send them to the AHL and have them play 20 minutes a night.
It seems to me that both not playing in the NHL was more on the coaches than Holland.
This was mainly Bouchard and it was the bubble season.
Bouch was mainly on the taxi squad, not the actual roster, so there would have to be “roster moves” to activate him – if coach wanted to play him more, I’m sure they could have made it happen.
They could have sent him to Bako but, given the cross-border issues at the time, and the need to quarantine or whatever it was upon crossing, sending him to the AHL practically meant he was gone for the seasons and they did need access to him if injuries hit – they didn’t hit.
Broberg was shafted early in 2023 due to circumstance. He played 14 minutes nightly as 3LD for six weeks, paired with Bouch and they did VERY well.
Then, they called up Vinny because the PK was cratering the season and traded for Ek because Kulak was drowning at 2LD and Broberg never really got an opportunity after.
He literally got like 2 games after that as an Oilers (before the end of last season and playoffs) in a 6D set-up – he was only played in a 7D set up and yo-yoed through the lineup, etc.
Glad to see Philp play as strong as he did in pre-season. I get the cap accumulation issue but you can’t ice sub-standard lineups. Margins are too small in the NHL. Sadly Ryan’s days as an NHL player are close to over.
Podz bought himself a lot of room with that scrap last night. Middleweights will be treading carefully around him after after watching him KO a bigger man. Like his overall game as he can do the dirty work on a skill line. Need more like him.
Perry can still be good for 40 games. Can’t reasonably expect more so we need another big aggressive RW who can pot a few to give him a blow. Still think Kostin can be that guy and he will be cheap to obtain.
2RD is still a hole and I still don’t see any obvious answers.
Getting McDavid a few weeks off may not be the worst thing in the world after a very short off-season.
The Condors’ watchers are not surprised at all – we saw this potential back in early 2023 when Philp popped in the AHL.
I was convinced that Philp would have taken Ryan’s job last season and I think we are seeing that happen in real time.
Early results:
Philp 1 GP, 0-1-1, +1
Ryan 10 GP, 0-0-0, -3
Impressive debut.
I didn’t really love bringing Perry back and loathed the contract terms (kind of still do) but damn if he hasn’t exceeded my expectations to the point.
He is able to make a positive impact in 8-12 minutes per game, with and without the puck. Has this knack for the little things that make a positive difference, from a fight to getting the puck for Philp, to an arm around a struggling player, etc., etc.
Over leadership isn’t all that common but this player really provides it. M
Good on him.
I love the idea of Philp learning how to play NHL hockey from Perry
Corey also late in the game with the score 5–1 and the game well in hand tried to set Philp up for his first goal rather than shooting from what was a very good spot. Any other circumstance, he would have taken the shot.
I believe it was Drake who fished the puck out of the net to give to Philp the souvenir.
Putting Perry w/Cags and Philp helps that line play with better pace. It was noticeable last night.
Totally agree!
Agree. Although Caggiula grabbed the puck for Philp. Perry and Philp were hugging in the corner
Yeah I wasn’t thrilled with the signing either but he’s delivered what he was signed for. Just can’t expect it for more than 40-50. Need another big aggressive RW on the 4th line to give him some time off.
Really good performance last night but I only managed the highlights. How did Drake play?
Was at the game. Noticed him some but tbh, was paying more attention to Philp when that line played.
That said, I liked how he worked hard down low in both the offensive and defensive zones. Put pucks in the right spot when it was on his stick.
I’d like to see them try this before making any early trades:
Ekholm-Bouchard
Nurse-Emberson
Kulak-Kemp
Emberson has looked better lately, and what do they have to lose?
Vinny Daisharnais’ resume did not look like he was capable of becoming what he has, but that callup worked out pretty well.