Stan Bowman has been working around the edges of the Oilers roster since his arrival as Edmonton’s general manager in late summer. Vasily Podkolzin and Ty Emberson are solid young contributors, Kasperi Kapanen and Travis Dermott have had/had their moments, and we’ll see about Alex Regula and John Klingberg. I don’t know if we’ll see about Ronnie Attard in Edmonton, will guess the answer is no. Good moves, Mr. GM, but when do we see the main course?
I think we will see a deadline deal, less convinced it’s RH defense today than in the past. The organization signed John Klingberg for a reason, and if management’s vision of what he can bring (speed, passing, puck transport) comes to pass, then the defensive move we assumed would be the big trade will fade down the list of needs.
That’s a huge reach from today, but the Oilers are a ‘start as you mean to go’ organization in this era, so there’s a plan and a window of opportunity.
Same holds true for Noah Philp. He has from now until the deadline to establish himself. It’ll be a difficult road for the rookie (not technically a rookie but he has played just a few NHL games) because this train is bound for (Oilers fans hope) glory. There’s an excellent chance the Oilers trade for a RH center between now and the deadline.
I have an article coming out on Connor McDavid’s hearing and suspension today at The Athletic, so won’t get too deeply into the situation here. I do think McDavid is a different player now than he was in the Winnipeg series coming out of the pandemic. He has matured, realized the game is called a certain way, and he too takes liberties with the rulebook.
He’s going to have more suspensions moving forward, and much will be made of his ‘opposite Stan Mikita’ transition. I say this is a direct result of the NHL’s style. Officials could call five fouls a game against McDavid’s opponents, but call only one. Why? Same reason the Philadelphia Flyers got away with pure filth in the 1970’s.
In the brains of men, you can’t call them all because then the officials impact the game. Of course, not calling these fouls also impacts the game, but the human condition is built to tolerate some things and consider others a bridge too far.
I think the career of Connor McDavid would be an interesting study in how NHL owners, managers, coaches and players influence situations. You can start with Ed Snider.
Derek Ryan is on waivers today, non-zero chance someone claims him. If he clears, then it’s decision time. Go to Bakersfield to mentor the yutes, or call it a career. Either way, he got more out his skill set than most who ever played in the NHL. I wish him well no matter what the day brings.
Is Alec Regula going to play?
Matthew Savoie has cooled off of late in Bakersfield, scoring no points in his most recent three-game run. He went 6-9-15 in the 10 games previous to that, and I expect he’ll have another strong run here soon. I do wonder if the young winger will be a trade piece at the deadline.
On the Lowdown today (noon to 2pm on Sports 1440) we’ll be joined by Rachel Doerrie from ESPN and Betalytics and Jason Gregor from the JG Show. I’ll ask Rachel about the McDavid suspension, the Klingberg signing and what kind of replacement for Evander Kane might be out there. Jason and I will talk about first place in the Pacific Division, the trade deadline to come and Klingberg’s spot on the depth chart. 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, it’s available post-show on apple and spotify, and we tweet it out on X.
New for The Athletic: Connor McDavid’s cross-check and the questions about Oilers’ physical play
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6073302/2025/01/20/connor-mcdavid-oilers-conor-garland/
Thank you. A good read.
I’m with you: this team plays a physical game, but a disciplined physical game. Few of the “big hits,” and few penalties. They forecheck and back-check aggressively. They win many (most?) puck battles.
As I watched the Canucks game I was surprised that the Oilers only had two power plays v Canucks four. Fatigue at the end of this stretch, or another sign that one of the most demonstrably physical teams in the league was not getting called? Both?
In any case, this is not something that a power forward or enforcer can fix. That only leads to more penalties, more short-handed situations. McDavid’s loss of cool is regrettable. But his physical play and his “hardness” and his general discipline is what makes this team very, very dangerous. He sets the tone, even when he’s not on the ice. I look forward to a disciplined response by the Oilers on Thursday against the Canucks. Few penalties. Much punishment-in the form of goals scored, goals denied.
“Opponents and commentators talk about the Oilers’ lack of pushback; the team plays a hard style from top to bottom, but that edge doesn’t get in the way of the final score. Positioning and closing gaps are the calling cards of the Oilers, and that includes fewer unnecessary penalties.”
Klingberg skating with the team today, and wearing #36.
Other Oilers who have worn these digits include:
Selmar Odelein 1988-1989
Bruce Bell 1990
Norm Maciver 1990-1992
Brad Werenka 1993
Todd Marchant 1994
Ralph Intranuovo 1995
Dennis Bonvie 1996-1998
Shawn Horcoff 2001
Jarret Stoll 2003-2004
Marc Pouliot 2006
Mathieu Roy 2007-2008
Charles Linglet 2010
Philip Larsen 2014
Drake Caggiula 2017
Jussi Jokinen 2018
Joel Persson 2020
Jack Campbell 2023-2024
Klingberg skating as 7D at practice.
I surprise, I would expect more than a single practice and morning skate before he gets in a game.
I know the NHL doesnt do a good job of protecting its stars. I would make an argument that the NFL protects its quarterbacks not its stars. The QB is one of 20 players on the field. They have many different rules about hits on QBs whereas in hockey you cant “protect a center” but they have done a decent job of protecting goalies. In many sports, stars often get favorable treatment and take a lot of abuse. I remember the abuse MJ would take or “hack a Shaq”. Lionnel Messi took on so many fouls. Its often “foul him 10 times and get called 1x”. Or foul him as many times as you want outside the box. In hockey, the stars have always been targeted and all attempts to reduce clutching and dragging inevitably fade for the playoffs. Id be curious if people think there is an actual solution or when we say same as it ever was its just acknowledgement that its hard. Personally I have no problems with McDavid getting mad and giving a cheap shot during the middle of the season. The play by Garland is against the rules but a calculated gamble. There was 20s left and the Oilers would have to give up the puck, allow for the ref to blow the whistle and win it back in that time. Tackle the most dangerous player on the ice was/is a fine play.
How is garland conceived as being innocent? He was the instigator of the whole episode.
He should be part of this hearing as well, maybe should be fined for his part.
i posted this yesterday but I think the counting stats underrepresent his impact recently.
Take yesterday’s game, he had zero points but was a scoring chance creation machine in the 2nd period. Highly impactful.
I would also mention that, yesterday, he created offence off of solid defensive and neutral zone board work and then power rushing the puck. This is notable as he has generally been using quick and smart and skilled puck plays and he’s been working on “hanging on to the puck longer”.
Really enjoying, and am heartened by, his continued progression.
Good to know.
who are his primary linemates? It’s difficult to point in the AHL with good players nevermind less talented ones. When would you call him up? Wingers are different then D-men when it comes to development. I would love to see him on a line with Leon for a few games. What about now with the Connor suspension looming. He can get in a few games and make some dough at the same time.
IMO the NHL’s first lens is not entertainment.
Superstars are held and hacked by lesser players,
Superstars are in Edmonton, Minnesota, Pittsburg all good cities but….
On any given night only 30% games are on TV, and blackout exist?
Assess to in game interview, analytic is very basic information,
We have been watching the same camera angels for 30 years,
The World Cup is a shitty tournament,
They have no strategy for Olympic games.
Who is after Gary?
Do you mean who succeeds Gary? Good question? They’ll probably find some other dusty fart.
I hope Derek Ryan clears. He would assuredly be on the playoff roster, even if he barely plays or doesn’t plays at all. Chances are decent he’s back on the active roster during the season as well, injuries happen.
I think he clears – solid NHL players on low cap hits have cleared and Ryan is at $900K. The delta over league min would matter to some but not all – see flames perhaps who are known to be looking for a depth center.
Teams might see a right shot center and PK guy even though he is no longer that and has become mainly a right shot factors specialist.
We’ll find out in just over and hour.
oilers are a cycle team and the best in the league creating off O-zone possession. Ek/Bouch is a huge part of that but other 2 pairs don’t have cycle game impact. THIS is where Klingberg may bear material results, more than puck moving in transition.
It’s going to be interesting to see how Klinger can help the team, if at all. I kind of think he would prefer to be paired with Ekholm instead of Nurse. I would expect them to figure out the most optimum partner for him to succeed. It may even be Kulak.
One thing I’ve always wondered is why would anyone want to be an NHL referee? Talk about a no win scenario. Unless you are absolutely perfect at your job, you will be criticized and hated. And your job proficiency in real time is constantly being second guessed by fans with access to multiple camera angles and slow motion replays.
It truly is the most thankless job imaginable.
I know a referee who is an official in one of the men’s leagues in Edmonton. He loves it. Skates, gets exercise, puts a few dollars in his pocket and enjoys the job overall. It can get nasty at times I’m sure, but there is appeal and for an NHL official it’s a cool way to make a living. Not every game is like Saturday.
I would imagine they are the type of people that are exceptional at tuning out the noise.
The modern NHL official is a washed up former pro player who knows the right people at the league.
They don’t have the 80’s accountability of names on the jerseys, and faces on the broadcast and game programs either. The journos and even YouTube types have backed WAY off compared to what flacks used to write on the sports page as well.
I feel for the stripes grinding it out in lower leagues, actually making themselves qualified, and being told that a bonehead 3rd liner from the ECHL gets the job. Not right.
Also – copy nothing from the NFL. It is a TV show, not a professional sport.
That sounds like Surveyor Brett.
Probably because NHL refs get paid over 6 figures and are given the freedom to call the flow of the game as they want without worrying about job security, even if they mess up royally.
Your post about NFL officiating for example, if you think the job of an NHL ref is tough, NFL refs are on a year-to-year contract and are subject to remediation or demotion.
One NFL ref was fired mid season in 2018 for poor performance.
When was the last time an NHL ref was fired for poor performance? Hint: it wasn’t Tim Peel.
Walkom was one of the worst refs in the league…so they made him VP of officiating!
As usual, the NFL is way ahead of the other major leagues in how they’ve dealt with the never ending issue of dissatisfaction with the officiating.
For every game broadcast, the league embeds a former ref linked to the talking heads in the broadcast booth. This individual is there to both clarify the actual rules rather than leaving it to the much looser interpretation of the play by play and color commentators. But they’re also there to do damage control for the league when a penalty call is missed. This new broadcast role was put in place after a particularly obvious and egregious missed call in a Rams v Saints playoff game directly cost the Saints the game.
In many ways, the ‘eye in the sky’ is a metaphor for the debate that has always divided sports fans and has only intensified as technology improves. Technology particularly with AI provides a potential avenue to officiate any sporting contest with zero errors with every single infraction called as per the rule book. Tradition bound as they are, the leagues are extremely fearful of eliminating the human element of officiating both now and in the future. So the folks that run these things get written off as Luddites and/or Machiavellian actors purposely rigging the results for the sake of parity and/or hatred of ‘our team.’
Growing up playing competitive sports, I always viewed what you could away with without the ref seeing it as the game within the game. I think most competitive pro athletes would see it the same way and they would loath a league where there is 40 powerplays a game until the gameplay is finally neutered into full compliance. But if that is what the paying public wants, we may eventually arrive there.
The defining trend of modern day existence is populaces willing to accept the advent of mass surveillance in return for safety, security, and convenience. Why should NHL reffing be any different?
I didn’t watch the game. I did watch replays of what McDavid did.
It looks bad. You can’t just smash a guy in the mouth with your stick.
The refs always win. McDavid (and for that matter, Crosby) didn’t get calls for *years*, because refs thought they were whiny.
The League always wins, which is why pure on-ice talent doesn’t. You gotta be cunning about it, like Slasha Barkov. Can’t we get Mark Messier to sit down with Connor and teach him how it’s done?
Slasha Barkov, nice.
Messier would teach Connor how to get a 10-game suspension instead of a wussy 2-gamer or whatever.
So I may have missed it, but what caused Myer to cross check Bouch in the face???? Connor’s cross check has been discussed to death but have heard little about the other incident? Did Bouch suffer any damage, broken teeth etc. It looked worse than what Connor did?
They had a small corner battle. Bouchard then took out his mouthguard (stupid) and went to talk to him. Myers then attempted dental work.
Where’s a good old fashioned hip-checker when you need some leg realignment? Find Kirill Tulupov for a one-game contract. He’s only 36.
Myers couldn’t be much for words.
This is what happens when you don’t address a problem when it’s relatively minor. Escalation to the point of a disproportionate response because even the rules that we do have aren’t being applied. It’s time to lift the ban on referee criticism. If I’m Connor, I’m going to that hearing armed with 8 years of video evidence with Garland holding him down as the cherry on top. We don’t pay money to watch Connor effin’ Garland, as good a defensive forward he is.
The referees should be suspended or fined also, if at fault.
The reason the Flyers got away with filth in the 70s was the NHL was still trying to establish itself in the US in the 70s as a major sports league beyond the Northeast. Expansion took the NHL into new markets in the late 60s and early 70s, but it’s easy to forget how many of those markets folded, moved, and merged. An NHL expansion franchise was very much a hit or miss proposition back then.
Hockey in the early 70s in the US was a niche sport. The shenanigans of the Flyers drew ratings and press coverage. Ironically while the violence gave the league a short-term lift, it ultimately held the league back. Driven by a progressive eastern media bias, the NHL’s embrace of fighting relegated the league in importance as something more akin to professional wrestling in most of the US.
Fortunately, a New York hockey dynasty came along to start changing that perception and then the Great One arrived. Much like Michael Jordan, the player transcended the sport. Hockey was now easy to market as a game of superlative skill, paving the way for expansion into the sun belt.
While it’s easy to deride the Broad Street Bullies now, they gave the league entertainment and ratings at a tenuous time in league history when it’s great expansion could have succeeded or failed. For the average US fan, hockey in the 70s could be summed up by 3 things: The Flyers, the movie Slap Shot, and Bobby Orr. It was a fascinating time in league history.
Everything was so much bigger in the 70’s, of course I was only twelve.
Remember seeing Rocky at the movie theatre then trying to guzzle 3 raw eggs for breakfast the next day.
That was the go to hangover cure in my 20s!
You were twelve for an entire decade?
Yup, those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end.
I think your selling the Flyers short they had star players that they just choose to protect Clarke-Leach-MacLeish-Barber-Parent. The league adapted after the Flyers won and so-on and so-on G.M’s copycat the winners . This is still mostly a Holland team I expect Bowman will get some sandpaper in the next few years he had it for his 3 Cups. The sad part is we burned Connor-Leon youth not surrounding them with a few more talented ambitious players that would take care of business when needed.
If I’m ‘selling them short,’ that was certainly not my intent. Fully agreed they had some great skill players. Parent in particular proved the adage that hockey is goalie.
They get written off as an embarrassing goon footnote in NHL history. I think they were much more that that AND they helped the league tremendously at a time when the league’s growth was tenuous.
The Islanders were a tough bunch so were the Oilers when they had to be. The Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win to get by 4 teams only playing 1 style of play is hard. Turning the other cheek and capitalizing on the P.P is all fine and dandy until your best players are beat to rat shit. This team desperately needs a Clattenburg everyone is talking about the Connor incident which happened in the heat of the moment but what Myers did to our star player Bouchard was pure filth and needs to be addressed.
Wore my Xmas gift to the recent Canucks v Kings game: a Chesterton Chiefs sweater, autographed by the Hanson bros—and Bobby Orr. My daughter wore an Oilers Draisaitl sweater. No one took a swing at us. No one wrestled us to the floor. Was it my Chiefs sweater that protected us? Hmmm..
I think we might need to go back to the refs having their names on their jerseys .That way they cant hide in the back ground as much . A little publicity might go a long way to them realizing people know who they are so do their jobs .
I’d be more in favor of a NBA style referees explain their decisions post game thing. It would be interesting post game viewing and would help fans understand in-game dynamics. I recognize the refs would hate it, and it would have TV implications, but it would go a long way to educating the fans about how fouls work in the NHL.
Good concept. And the Refs would feel that as they are going to be held responsible during the interview process after the game they better stay focussed on doing thier jobs .
Actually this is good on two levels. It educates the fans, AND would require refs (at least on some level) to reflect on their own calls/ non calls.
It’s a shame Connor has to go to extremes because of the dusty farts that run the league. however this is the time to set the tone for later. Sid chopped a finger off, Connor will cross check you in the face. He should watch some Barkov tape and learn how to slash without getting called
Gary can’t retire soon enough
do you describe everyone you disagree with “dusty farts”?
Yes, particularly my wife
It’s kind of funny with a handle like yours that “dusty farts” compelled a response
It’s really too bad this is how McDavid, Sid, and the rest have to adapt in order to have success. Garland sat on McDavid with a death grip on his sweater for damn near a full minute with no call, so in order to try and avoid this continuing in future games McDavid has to go primeval and cross-check Garland in the face.
But I don’t understand the “same as it ever was” and “it will never change” sentiment, for a few reasons:
1: That something is difficult to change doesn’t mean you shouldn’t continue advocating for that change. “This is how it’s always been” is not a valid foundation to build an argument.
2: NHL officiating has changed. Concussions used to be handed out like candy, and the game came to a screeching halt during the dead puck era. I can assure you that it felt at the time that this is how the game would always be — clutching, grabbing, hooking, where most teams would just fire the puck from the point and pray it changed direction.
3: NHL officiating is an organization consisting of people — they may be set in their ways, and have an outlook that works against making the NHL as entertaining as it could be, but people’s opinions can change, and if not the people can change. We’re not fighting against plate tectonics here.
No….. It’s the dusty Farts at the top.
I am not sorry 97 got up and did what he did. If Garland can do what he does in order to help his team win, then so should McDavid. We can whinge about the way officiating works, but the reality is that it won’t change. So, then 97 has to let people know every now and again that he can hurt them in a couple of different ways (scoreboard and teeth).
Plus, if he gets a couple of games to sit and rest, all the better for him and it gives the team locker room fodder to get up for those games he is out.
I don’t get it. That Canuck was literally taking him and pinning him down in the most critical minute of the game.
Then McDavid simply cross checks the creep and earns a match penalty??
About a month ago, my 10 yr. old grandson was in a puck battle with someone a good head taller. The other guy started slashing Will in the back of the calves. The entire arena heard Will yell “stop!” but the slashing continued. Suddenly, Will turned and delivered a straight right to the guys facemask. They both ended up with 2 min. and the other guy stayed away from Will for the rest of the game. There is a smart response, and then one not so much.
Its unfortunate that there are situations like this, where have to stand up to bullies. It’s as true in life as it is in hockey. Your grandson displayed such a great way to do it.
What’s more tough, is that some do not have the disposition or confidence to take that stand.
Water boils and our brains & heart are composed of 73% water.
What is not to get?
I was yelling at the tv like everyone else here but at the end of it all Garland did what he needed to do. I was glad McDavid did what he did after. That will continue to give him space.
Reverse the situation here and it was Janmark pinning Miller or Pettersson….. the gang here would be spewing glad tidings to the masses on how grand a move it was…
The p*ssing match here on opinions is worse than the incident!
All part of the game, the Oilers shouldn’t have put themselves in that position by coming out of the gates in a coma….. again!
What Garland did was illegal and he got what he deserved no thanks to the officials.
I’d be embarrassed if Janmark or any other Oiler player tried to pull such a thing off and so would KK.
Garland should be ashamed of himself.
What McSorely did to Bullard was pure filth and to top it off we scored on the play. I cheered just as hard on that goal as any other as I despise the Flames.