Oilers at Kings, G35 2024-25

At some point this weekend in beautiful California, the Edmonton Oilers will get screwed over by any and all of the Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks, bad luck, the black and white stripes, Jack White and Jack Black and the Hand of God. This combination of events will make you and I angry enough to meet Joe Black. You know what? None of that matters. What matters is the Edmonton Oilers reaction to these ‘outside the law and the law is no damn good in this town’ events. This team can win Stanley, but badly needs to stay in the moment, not lose focus, and to win the day.

The Athletic article today is about possible roster needs and internal/external replacement options. Article is here.

WHAT TO EXPECT IN DECEMBER

• On the road to: VEG (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 0-1-0)
• At home to: CBJ, STL, TBAY (Expected 2-1-0) (Actual 3-0-0)
• On the road to: MIN (Expected 0-1-0) (Actual 1-0-0)
• At home to: VEG, FLA, BOS, SJS, OTT (Expected 4-1-0) (Actual 4-1-0)
• On the road to: LAK, ANA (Expected 1-1-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
• At home to: UTA (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
• Overall expected result: 9-4-0, 18 points in 13 games
• December results: 8-2-0
• Oilers in 2024-25: 21-11-2, 44 points in 34 games

The Oilers need win just one of the next three games to reach my predicted total, but hell’s bells they’ve gone this far why not (in the words of the great philosopher Nigel Tufnel) “go to 11” for the month? Makes sense to me.

Sean Shanahan

Sean Shanahan didn’t play much for the Montreal Canadiens, but had a significant role in the Habs’ quest to overcome Fred Shero’s Philadelphia Flyers. People often get the 1970’s Flyers wrong when describing their success. The story goes that they were all thugs and couldn’t win without intimidation, but that isn’t completely true. The Flyers had several key elements to the style that won two Stanley Cups.

First, Bernie Parent was the best goalie of his era. I would suggest that Dom Hasek and Patrick Roy exceeded him in later years, and that any combination of Jacques Plante, Glenn Hall and Johnny Bower were as good or better in the previous era. Among his peers, Ken Dryden, Tony Esposito and Gerry Cheevers (shut up, I loved him) could be mentioned in the same breath, but for me Parent was the goalie of the 1970’s.

Second, the Flyers owned electric skill. Rick MacLeish was fast and furious, he was vital to the cause (as witnessed by the Philadelphia playoff loss the spring he was hurt). Reggie Leach was Mike Bossy before Mike Bossy, although the Islander had more sustain at peak levels. Bobby Clarke was a toothless hag by 25 but he was also a fantastic two-way center, and his peak years were among the best I’ve ever seen. Bill Barber could score and dive, Ross Lonsberry could score and check.

Add that to pure offensive defenseman Tom Bladon and a host of tough actual NHL players like Andre Dupont, Barry Ashbee, Don Saleski, Dave Schultz, Gary Dornhoefer, Jim and Joe Watson, Ed Van Impe and others. Dave Schultz and Bob “Hound Dog” Kelly were ruffians but they could also play.

Fred Shero added two pieces to the pie. First, short shifts. His men got on and off the ice quickly enough to make Phil Esposito look like a running Zebra being caught by a pack of hyenas. Believe me, it happened just that way.

Shero also knew the referee would call penalties against his team. He needed Parent and good PK men, and he had them in names like Orest Kindrachuk, Terry Crisp and the aforementioned Lonsberry. However, Shero was a smart man and he discovered something curious about the NHL:

If the Flyers committed three fouls in a game, there would be six penalty minutes. If his team commited 20 fouls in a game, there would be six penalty minutes.

All credit to Parent, Ashbee, Dupont, the Watson brothers, Clarke, Leach, Barber, MacLeish, Lonsberry and the gang, but save a moment to consider what Shero did to the game. He turned it upside down.

Now, Sam Pollock and Scotty Bowman were smart people, too. So, in preseason 1975 Pollock called up Sean Shanahan to the NHL for a game against the Flyers. It was war. The Canadiens had supreme talent, and asking Larry Robinson to risk injury was a bad idea. However, that preseason war set the tone for the season, and the Flyers would lose four games straight in the final. Montreal answering back was part of it, but injuries to MacLeish and Parent cannot be disregarded (Ashbee, a key to the defense, had retired by then and that didn’t help).

The 2024-25 Oilers should not be expected to ‘answer back’ with a Sean Shanahan game, but the team can respond to whatever nasty event happens in California this weekend. How do the Oilers do it successfully?

Stay focused.

If some dim bulb is running around being a nimrod, focus on the hockey play at hand. Today’s game matters, in the standings now, and next spring should these teams meet in the playoffs. For some time now, we’ve seen clubs play outside the law against Edmonton in an effort to get players to lose focus.

If the Oilers are going to win the Stanley Cup, the team does need to play a rugged style and win at even strength and on the special teams. They key to finding that success? Stay on task. The Kings are going to do Fred Shero things today, many times. The smart play is to skate past that moment, win on the scoreboard, and smile in the receiving line.