This is where it all began. The late summer 2015 rookie game versus the Canucks. I remember it like yesterday, future Oilers forward Jake Virtanen spent the night being a douche nozzle. Despite the asshattery from the Van City side, no one could miss the building rock and roll hockey storm.
The Glimmer Twins found the sound and started a 10-year journey that brings us here. I think Darnell Nurse is playing some of the best hockey of his career with the puck right now. I think the five-on-five scoring and outscoring is fan-bloody-tastic in the last 20 games (or so). I don’t know where this is headed, but I know a possible destination. For now, for today, that’s more than enough. The feel of this team currently is enough for this old man to get a little melancholy about that September game in British Columbia all those years ago. Bless you boys, do it again and do it for the first time. Let’s go.
The Athletic article today is about a trade for Brad Marchand at the deadline. It’s an idea worth contemplating. Article is here.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN JANUARY
- At home to: ANA (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 1-0-0)
- On the road to: SEA, BOS, PIT, CHI (Expected 2-1-1) (Actual 3-1-0)
- At home to: LAK (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 1-0-0)
- On the road to: MIN, COL, VAN (Expected 1-1-1) (Actual 2-1-0)
- At home to: WAS, VAN, BUF, SEA, DET (Expected 3-2-0) (Actual 3-1-0)
- Overall expected results: 8-4-2, 18 points in 14 games
- January result: 10-3-0
- Oilers in 2024-25: 32-15-3, 67 points in 50 games
I genuinely thought my prediction was aggressive. Serioously. The Oilers three losses are sprinkled throughout the month, and in some cases the L’s are innocent (with an explanation) due to fatigue and scheduling. For the month, Stuart Skinner’s five-on-five save percentage is .917 and Calvin Pickard is at .911. Will we see a goalie trade? I know some of you would like to see one, and maybe Stan Bowman feels the same way. We wait.
BRANDON SAAD
Rumors have the Oilers in hot pursuit of this brand new free agent, and it does fit with Stan Bowman’s modus operandi since joining Edmonton. Free veteran player, cost only a humble cap number, and give ’em enough rope. I don’t see anything especially wrong with this idea, similar to the John Klingberg Experience. I suspect this isn’t good news for Jeff Skinner or Kasperi Kapanen, but that’s unkown at this time. What we do know is that Bowman is damned aggressive in this area of procurement. I’d go Marchand, but it would be some dear assets out.
The Lowdown hits at noon, Sports 1440. Bagged Milk from Oilers Nation will help us tee up the game against the Detroit Wheels, and we’ll also hear from the other side. Declan Krueger’s Declanations will focus on NCAA basketball, we’ll talk about the Canadians who are doing well down south. 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.
DETROIT CITY
The Red Wings of my youth were old men. Gordie Howe was old, Alex Delvecchio was old as the hills and twice as dusty, but they were flat out famous and had enjoyed a strong run over the previous 20 (or so) seasons. From 1970 through 1983, they made the playoffs only once. From 1984 through 2016, they missed the playoffs twice and won 4 Stanleys. The golden era of Detroit hockey was 1950 to 1955, when the Red Wings won 4 Stanleys. The 1997-2008 decade-ish in Detroit was also Golden. Since 2016, the team has been an absolute mess. The team arrives tonight on the fringe of a playoff spot, and a record of 6-3-1 in the last 10 games. Detroit has won three in a row.
Knights lose in OT at home to a team essentially tied with the Wings. Status quo.
Weird one.
And i would not have had him shoot first. Had a Long shift and was still shaking his head before he took his shot
Oilers had lots of chances to win that. Whiffs, posts, and shooting low too often, again.
Yes many shots low in that OT. Easy pickins
That’s the worst I’ve seen 97 in OT
Lyon was great but so was Skinner. Might be time to stick with some lines for a bit. Wonder if all the juggling is leaving the team out of synch. They look a little discombobulated
Sleep in late, lots of chicken soup, and we’ll take it to TOR on Saturday
Ugly game. Lots of turnovers by both teams. Looked like a late January blues kinda game.
Well that was a kick in the nards
Meh, it looks like the Oilers were pretty sick. They got a point, that’s okay.
That was disappointing
Tough tough game for Connor McDavid – wow.
Bad backhand choice and a whiff.
What a waste of a start.
Detroit may be winning – but they were not good.
McD had iffy hands tonight
Mcdavid not doing Mcdavid things tonight
If the Oilers can kill this penalty, they can have 97/29 finish OT.
4-on-3 OT will burn the virus out of your system, as my grandpa said. Or was that whiskey?
What a chintzy call in OT
Incidental contact. Would not have been called at the other end.
Definitely a penalty – I thought so in real time and was surprised it wasn’t called initially.
Suspect a lot of illness running thru the room. Happy to get a point under these circumstances and hopeful we’ll get two.
Take that point – would like a second.
Hopefully in the OT the Oilers play some able-and-willing hockey players. Looks like a heavily depleted team tonight.
Arvidsson as the winger for McDavid/Drai on the last shift is a decision.
Kapanen’s absence is somewhat noticeable on a speed level (McDavid not really skating hard either contributes to that I think).
Deleted
At least three unusual jersey numbers are represented by both teams tonight:
#90 (Perry, Veleno)
#53 (Skinner, Seider)
#48 (Philp, Berggren)
EDM playing like the Rogers brass band here, gotta get in synch and on time.
Stu very good on the last PK. Oilers have been outplayed since going up 2-0 and settling in. Now would be a good time for one of our superstars to assert themselves
The other Skinner with some terrific saves on that pk!
Rico with a very poor shift there. Coughed it up twice
Mr Skinner with the successful back check. I think he wants to stay in the lineup. Good stuff.
Skinner put in 20 times more effort than Bouchard, getting back on that defensive play. Sigh.
Holy hell, Jinner channelling his inner Gainey there.
Other than a lucky bounce the top pp against a bottom feeder pk has been the reason this game is tied. Terrible
I’m in agreement with Stauffer. At 4 million Arvidsdon has to bring so much more. Wasn’t a fan of the signing at the time and even less of a fan as the days roll on.
Henri, Arvi and J Skinner have all underperformed to expectations. I’d move on from all of them if the right options materialized.
And Bouchard? Controversial but not crazy for the right player
I’m loving Klingberg smile already sounds like a great teammate.
Ekholm’s awful night continues as he gives the puck away and then takes a penalty trying to recover.
The cold/flu that’s going around right now is pretty awful.
Vouch, not in Edmonton but there’s nasty about
Hmm. There had been a low-grade cold or flu for a few weeks, here in Victoria. My son had the sniffles for much of that time. Then on Friday he came home from school going supernova. It was too much for my immune system to handle.
I usually don’t get sick often, and usually not that bad. This one started like a flu and came on hard in a few hours, had to leave work, in bed two days Then decided to add cold symptoms with sweats or chills. Also decides lingering is the best way
Great pass by the ghost to Larkin. Would like Skinner to stop that in a perfect world 🙁
Agreed. Play that with good form and averages and it’s an easy save. Make a wild guess, loosen up, and it’s a crap shoot.
I was worried this game was going to look like a snuff videos of possums being run-over on the freeway. Glad to be wrong, I guess. Hopefully I’m not overly-wrong.
Hard to pin that goal against on anyone – Klingberg maybe for not tying up the man flying by in the front of the net? Stu for being in position to stop the re-direct? I don’t know….
They could have started by not being beaten twice on that set play
Corey Perry unlikely to be used as an emergency d-man…..
Whoa, the Kuzmenko deal is now the Jacob Pelletier deal – now sure what’s coming back from the Flyers but it must be something real.
The scuttlebutt is Morgan Frost
And Farabee it sounds like.
Ekholm struggling tonight.
He did sound very sick in the pre-game avail.
Look to be on the PK here shortly.
hard to take a penalty when you don’t give up the puck 🙂
Summarizing!
Day had one of his best outings in recent memory, stopping all but one of the 31 SOG he faced in a 5-1 win. He was named 2nd star for his efforts.
Akey had a helper.
Wakely (despite a game-high 6 SOG), Clattenburg and Stonehouse were not proffered soup.
Klingberg’s first period as an Oiler was … low event? Who saw that coming?
Great 1st period, Oilers capitalized on the PP and 53 was in the right place/right time on a line with 18. I like 53-18 as a winger pair on a line with a C (93 or 19) who can provide a defensive conscience.
Stu also with some timely saves.
Pretty good 20 minutes, 40 more between the oilers and an 11-win January
Based on 5.59 TOI how are Kingberg’s hips doing?
Seems fine. I think the issue might be more that right now he’s not in game shape yet.
One particular shift noticed he was not going to be able to get back so he was able to get his stick out and poke the puck off the Detroit forward. He misses that and it’s a game break.
Passing has looked fine.
Thanks for that. Anything like prime Kingberg come the playoffs and that is a great D corps.
Rich tm knows puck
He got welcomed back to the NHL by getting flattened by a guy who spent the last 10 years grinding in the AHL.
Definitely have to get back into the swing of things. That probably woke him up.
As a Canadian fan, Doughty should not be the D choice. Give it to someone who has played more than 2 NHL games this season and isn’t a -4 in those 2 games
27:40 of ice tonight….
In his defence, 2 of those minuses were ENGs
Another way of looking at it is that’s a lot of minutes without any positive offensive impact.
The Detroit feed is excellent, as usual.
Agreed.
As is the Oilers’……
Disagree.
After watching a game on the Oilers feed, I feel like someone has been talking to me like a little wraskal all day.
Surely you’re not watching BOTH 😉
You’d be surprised.
My feed has been cutting out a lot of late, sometimes I have to jump between the home and away broadcast just to get a signal.
Having said that, I’ve watched enough of Louie and Jack to know what I’m up for on any given night.
My preference (dating back to the Remenda days) is to watch the out of town broadcast to see if I can learn anything about our players or the opposition. Worst case, I get less annoyed than I would otherwise.
Kings shut out and lose in regulation.
Its a 9 point lead for the Oilers (Kings with one game and hand).
Dust.
Just you wait until Byfield breaks out!
Annnyyyyy dayyyyy nowwwww
Yes – that mighty LA offensive attack has really been something the last few games.
We’re witnessing what happens when Kopitar and Doughty slow down (impossible, I know).
Kings 2-8-1 since their game agains Calgary got postponed due to fires. Not sure if any Kings were impacted directly.
Nurse stretch pass leads to chaos at DET end. COH talked about how well Nurse has been doing this all year and he does it again.
Sweet pass from Darnell – won’t show up on the scoresheet but that was quality