We are not, as a group, electric when it comes to nuanced conversation. I don’t know when it happened, but at some point the internet tooK ‘subtle’ out behind the barn and shot it dead. We tend to argue our point with wording that doesn’t allow for thoughtful retort. “There’s no damn way this team wins with Robin Alfalfa playing defense. It’s not even blue!” is met with “Robin Alfalfa’s feces has a higher IQ than you” and on we go.
Last night was a tough game for the all or nothing gang. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins spent an entire shift being ‘also in photo’ and it was painful. He tracked his mark without ever impacting the play in any fashion. God Almighty! That’s hard to watch. Later, he sent an other-worldly pass to Zach Hyman for his beautiful goal and all was well again. If you look across the roster, this year, you can see veterans playing well in moments and unwell in others.
Are they sick? Tired? What the hell man!!
The Athletic article is about the real worries for Stan Bowman and the Edmonton Oilers in the months to come. It is here.
THE NUMBERS
Leon Draisaitl is herding cattle, catching strays, shooting varmints and striking gold every night with his giant oar and lion’s roar. My goodness what a wonderful player. Remember him when he is like this. Hold him in your mind’s eye forever. I still have Bobby Orr memories (aided by crappy video) of his wild changes of gears and directions and low shot along the ice that often found the net. Draisiatl is a special player.
Stuart Skinner is not a player we can have a nuanced conversation over, and that’s fine. Oilers fans have never been especially sophisticated in their view of goalies (stop the effing puck, idiot!) so we’ve seen this movie since the days of Grant Fuhr. Skinner did save the season in 2022-23 and 2023-24, and backstopped the Oilers to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final a year ago. He also played well last night, and this season remains (so far) a small sample. I suspect regression has already begun.
Darnell Nurse made some dandy plays, a couple you’d like back, and it’s pretty clear Brett Kulak is his partner when the shifts matter. I’m not sure how that impacts Ty Emberson and the third pair, I only know that it does. Emberson needs 40 more games in the NHL or he’s a free agent next summer, one hopes Oilers management makes that happen and the young man avoids injury.
Vasily Podkolzin has been impressive with Draisaitl. I don’t know how long that tandem will last, but it’s looking good so far.
Jeff Skinner is quickly becoming my favourite new winger, and that’s a tough chore because Viktor Arvidsson is golden. Both veterans are so damn good at the hockey, in different ways, and it’s clear Jeff Jackson did some good work over the summer to upgrade the roster.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN NOVEMBER
- On the road to: CAL (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 1-0-0)
- At home to: NJD, VEG (Expected 1-1-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- On the road to: VAN (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- At home to: NYI, NAS (Expected 2-0-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- On the road to: TOR, MTL, OTT (Expected 1-2-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- At home to: MIN, NYR (Expected 1-1-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- On the road to: UTA, COL (Expected 1-1-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- Overall expected result: 8-5-0, 16 points in 13 games
- November results: 1-0-0, 2 points in 1 game
- Oilers in 2024-25: 6-5-1, 13 points in 12 games
The Oilers are 6-2-1 after the early-season disaster and are crawling from the wreckage with aplomb. I don’t see tonight as a win, the New Jersey Devils are going to skate the Oilers to the edge of forever tonight. I’ll go further: If the Oilers win tonight’s game, they should put Robin Alfalfa in the Hall of Fame tomorrow morning. It’s the right thing to do.
A busy show today, the Lowdown hits at noon on Sports 1440. Rachel Doerrie from Betalytics and ESPN will join me to talk about the uneven performances of veteran Oilers, and I’ll ask about the potential for Vasily Podkolzin if he has sustained time with Leon Draisaitl. Jason Gregor will pop in, I want to find out what he thinks of Kulak-Nurse as a viable second pair, and we’ll check on the Elks (some encouraging happenings there). NFL, CFL playoffs, MLB signings and more will be part of the show. 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.
Lack of finishing is a thing but I have a hard time getting in to feelings after that game.
The team played hard, outplayed the Devils quite thoroughly through two and just couldn’t finish and their back-up goalie leaked two meh goals. Given the 3 in 4 circumstances, without McDavid, meh.
Half way through the first it felt like this was just one of those games the team is going to lose no matter what.
Big game on Wed – should be great.
Would it be too much to ask the coach when they get a PP that they consider not keeping guys on the ice who’ve just completed a 1 minute shift and they’re gassed?
Picks didn’t play terrible, but man his team is snakebit, and as terrible as he didn’t play, hard to win a game when you only give up 19 shots and three go in. I’m not sure what the fancies will say, but my eye test says we outplayed them and the shot clock said we had almost double the shots, at some point I gotta believe the pendulum swings the other way and the floodgates open.
Picks wasn’t “terrible” but he wasn’t good – the first two goals were both highly stoppable and Grade C chances. Oilers couldn’t score, and that’s a thing, but the goaltending was the main difference in this one.
Happens!
Lights are out at my place. Guess I didn’t miss much. On to the next one.
Mine were too. I resisted as long as I could and eventually broke down to check the score and boom lights came on. Will have to settle for the highlights and the play by play from the thread. It will paint a 80% picture of the game.
Nuge played great, so did Nurse and Drai.
Not much from Philp, needs more time.
Brown not threat to score against pee-wees
They generated some good chances in the first and second and couldn’t cash. No gas in the third but i admire the fight in them. Still, Jersey did a good job disrupting them tonight, lots of bobbling passes and nothing was clean.
I think they tried for plenty of grease just didn’t get the bounces tonight. Bit of a dud for their big Amazon debut! Go beat the Knights.
This game was never going to end any other way.
Kidding aside, what is going on right now is a perfect example of the Oilers ridiculous silly attack plan. But they won’t change.
Elaborate please?
Guess they aren’t gonna call any penalties anymore…big surprise…
Knoblauch loves Arvidsson and doesn’t like Skinner based on who gets extra time.
Makes zero sense.
We got them surrounded!!
Just got home and the Prime broadcast sure is better.
An announcer actually calling the plays in the game? What a concept.
Seems like. oilers have forgotten how to get a greasy goal.
When they turn it on, absolutely most skilled team in the league. Well, except for not scoring. But other than that…
Damn…Hyman trying to make a cute play. When your down you gotta be sure with the play and not dig a bigger hole…
He does this particular one fairly often. Circles high in the o-zone without a plan. I’d prefer he keep tighter to the circle and shoot.
That was a piss-poor play by Hyman.
Well shit
Hamilton is softer then babyshit.
This feels like one of those games that, no matter how well they play or what they do, they just won’t win – at the same time, they deserve to be rewarded with a couple of goals in this period to tie it up!
Is it just me or is the gameplay picture quality not so good on this Amazon broadcast?
Someone’s gotta tell papa Amazon that Kevin Lowe was GM in 2006. Painful interview for Kevin to have to sit there for.
Oilers will win in OT.
Drai with 3 points!
Again, I wouldn’t change much. Lotta good things going on but they’re goalie has a horseshoe somewhere…
Get the puck to the point and get to the front. Screens, tips and scrums are the tonic for a goalie getting to everything he sees.
Sheldon Keefe looks like a grey-haired Randy from Trailer Park Boys.
Not sure how they are down 2 – frustrating.
We’re playing “Mostly Goalie” tonight?
Allen has been great.
Neither goal against unstoppable.
Imagine if Stuart let in those two?
50/50 chance this game is scoreless if Stu was in net.
Imagine? Seen Stu allow goals like that all the time, no imagination necessary for such a scenario.
Picard has been pretty solid this year but swap goalies (with NJ) tonight and we are up by two at least. Too bad because team putting in a good effort tonight on a back to back against a rested team.
That is probably the game. PK kills Oilers again.
What will also probably be lost in tonight’s loss is one of Nurses best games of the season.
Don’t throw in the towel just yet. If we get one we’ll come on like gangbusters. Just gotta keep plugging away for that first one.
Bouchard can sure create and he’s getting more confident with his nifty stick handling moves.
I’m seeing Bouchard having a terrible game. Giveaways by trying said moves…..
I am uncertain as to how/why the Oilers are not winning this hockey game at this point….
After listening to the Calgary (spits) crew last night I am quite liking the broadcast tonight.
I have never seen a team so collectively snakebit. It’s crazy.
We need another exorcism.
Someone needs to start a GoatFundMe.
4 on 4 power play????
Podz with a great chance but “No Soup” (*Tarkus*)
Weird how they never actually call just the embellishment.
I guess the zebras don’t want to fully admit the blown initial call.
Good call. Nobody goes down by being slashed on the hands, ffs…
Podkolzin will never score
Podkholzin will never score again.
Jack Michaels will stellar work on the radio broadcast. First full minute of the 2nd period and he describes none of the play by play.
Seriously – why bother putting him on the air if all he’s going to do is ramble about nothing? Completely useless broadcaster. Keep him on TV.
Fun thing to keep track of – how often he doesn’t actually tell you who has the puck before a goal.
He’s also started mispronouncing Podkolzin, so we can add that to the list.
Why sit Cam!? He’s way better than Jack.
The combo of Louie and Jack on TV is absolutely terrible.
That’s not how their contracts work.
Jack does every Oilers game – if he’s on on TV, he’s on the radio.
I know there are some (many) that don’t like Jack but I would suggest that’s a huge minority opinion and he’s very popular among the casual fan.
I don’t mind Jack on TV because I can see what’s happening and don’t need someone to state the obvious.
On radio, he’s just brutal – you can’t get a vision for what’s happening because he’d rather ramble on and serve up male bovine caca than paint a picture of what’s happening.
So Ronnie Attard.
25 year old RD with some size (though not necessarily physical).
Led his USHL team in goals, points, +/- to get himself drafted in the 3rd round as a 20-year old.
Led his college team (Western Michigan) in +/- in 2 of 3 seasons and was close to a point per game in years 2 and 3.
Scored about 0.5 points/game and was 4th on the Phantoms in +/- each of his full seasons (tough 7 games this year it looks like).
And in 29 NHL games over 3 seasons, he’s at 55% shots, 50% goals and 54.5% xGoals (all 2nd among the 12 Flyers D who played at least 400 minutes).
It’s probably nothing (he’s 25 and hasn’t come close to being a regular), but an interesting player for sure.
I could see him getting in to the Oilers lineup, no?
He’s trending very much to be a Group VI UFA.
Of note, his cap hit is $850, not league min.
We just need the first one then the dam will break.
Agreed. Hes lunging all over and flailing away. Hes gonna crack, if we keep on him.
I wouldn’t change much. Their goalie can’t keep this up and, if we keep attacking, we will start popping. Forechecking hard and the backchecking is mostly good with a few timely back checks to disrupt.
Two non calls for obvious holding the sticks and the ref took out Drai at the end.
Guess we’re gonna have to do it the hard way.
The only way we know how, really…
Refs taking a sabbatical tonight. So many trips/holds not called.
Some very noticeable holding of sticks went uncalled.
As much as I would like to see us on the PP I don’t miss watching our PK…..
I like Stetcher. Makes a lot of nice plays with the puck.
Someone needs to abuse Dillon
I was also surprised the holding the stick wasn’t called.
LoL…Keystone Kops by Bouchard and he saves the day with the shaft of his stick
Holy hell. Bouchard with a 1.000 SV% so far.
I think the save was a fluke, but he better have made the save after his giveaway.
Yup on both counts.
If not for Allen, we would have 4 by now. Haven’t be able to keep it up.
Attack!!!
Good lord. The Devils have Dom Hasek in net.
I think Martin Brodeur would also work in this instance
Oilers refuse to put the puck behind Allen!
Great save, Pick!!! Way to stay with it!
and they continue to be fire through five and then one grade C chance the other way and they are down 1.