Each spring, I think about 1990 and the run to Edmonton’s most unlikely Stanley Cup victory. I still hope to get one more because (selfishly) it would be glorious to watch this group win it all. What I want most is to see the fans who haven’t experienced one (or were too young to really take it all in) to drink it all in, to enjoy it thoroughly. I hope that day comes in my lifetime.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN FEBRUARY
- At home to: TOR (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 0-1-0)
- On the road to: STL, CHI (Expected 2-0-0) (Actual 2-0-0)
- At home to: COL (Expected 0-1-0) (Actual 0-1-0)
- On the road to: PHI, WAS, TBY, FLA (Expected 2-2-0) (Actual 0-3-0)
- Overall expected results: 5-3-0, 10 points in 8 games
- February result: 2-5-0
- Oilers in 2024-25: 34-20-4, 72 points in 58 games
February is a disaster but Gordon Lightfoot didn’t write about the ‘gales of February’ and Lou Reed’s “Christmas in February” is just too damn much for the scenario currently being experienced by the Oilers. It’s bad, but not that bad. Let’s agree that “February Stars” is a fit, and use the line ‘February stars, floating in the dark’ until further notice.
SUBMIT YOUR TRADE PROPOSALS
DNB and I do this every trade deadline, and this one should be a blast. If you have a trade proposal, please drop it off here and we’ll have a lash at your idea.
EVANDER KANE
Stan Bowman wants to know Evander Kane’s status, and should get some idea by the deadline. My suspicion is the big winger gets traded, but a healthy Kane would be a strong addition to this lineup. One of the things Edmonton general managers have taught the fan base (without ever figuring it out for themselves) is that acquiring late 20’s power forwards and intimidating wingers means a very short period of success (although Milan Lucic didn’t really do that, even) followed by years of frustration. Evander Kane was money when he got here, not so much lately.
SLUMP BUSTER
Former Chicago Cubs first baseman Mark Grace once told Jim Rome how he got out of a slump. It was fairly ribald, or completely offensive depending upon your point of view. I don’t know how these Oilers will break out of a slump, but I always hope for a well played game with strong decisions and good coverage.
These Oilers have a pile of players who can’t put the puck in the ocean of late, but you can forecheck and back check and make smart passes. The comments section here, X commentary and verbal in other spots includes a lot of finger pointing at specific players and of course the need for an immediate and franchise altering trade.
I think an observer can see when a team or player is about to bust out of a slump. It comes from several shifts in a row where good play and structure are evident, and successful periods of play. I haven’t seen that yet from this team. Perhaps tonight.
It’s the Thursday Lowdown and that means Bagged Milk from Oilers Nation is our feature guest. We’ll hammer the Blue Jays senseless for sins real and imagined, although there have been so many I don’t know if we’ll have time to get to the imagined ones. We’ll also go Heavy Early on the trade deadline. 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.
Man, Frank Seravalli has become too condescending to watch. I suppose they have to have him on ON but if I were Liam I would tell Tyler I’m going for a walk next time its his segment.
He’s an ass with connections. He thinks he knows more about hockey than he does.
One of the most surprising things I heard him say was he doesn’t gamble. They shove gambling down your throat on everything DFO and force Tyler to make it a segment but he hasn’t bet in 7 years or something aside from the Super Bowl. He’s part of the problem.
Best characterization I’ve heard of Frank (and his cohort) is knowledge (and understanding) of the game a mile wide and an inch deep.
Yes he thinks he is King Shit. I don’t even think he is very good as an insider.
Best game in a while, perhaps it falls under games you ought to win but don’t at the tail end of a losing streak.
They still lost the game and we can count the reasons why, but I hated each goal against.
GA 1: A starter needs to have that.
GA 2: Whats this team got against a hard play off the glass when under pressure? Another butter-soft clearing attempt leads to a goal against.
GA 3: A starter needs to have that.
GA 4: I can’t even follow the puck on the replay so I guess there’s some reason Skinner was so out of position, but also if you can’t find the puck lay the guy on his ass.
Also the offside challenge GA was putrid, let’s not forget: thats 5 pucks in the net that shouldn’t have been. No wonder Leon was so pissed skating off the ice. It almost looked like he had something to say to Stu there, perhaps related to the fact that they actually did get into scoring position with 13 seconds and the goalie was sat there in his net instead of hustling to get an extra man? That also felt like a lack of focus from our netminder.
I remain in Camp Stu, largely because a) I think you’re gambling on anyone else you bring in anyway and b) I do think the playoff experience from last year has value… But he needs to lock back in. I would run Pickard as your starter over the next ten or so. Mercifully we enter March now and there’s a lot of hockey and a lot of winnable games.
It’s not just Stu, albeit he has to have that. Bouchard stunk again, Ekholm was terrible, the 3 rd line is gawd awful, (-3). I think it is time to shoot Arvidson into the sun.
Stetcher was the only guy hitting and he is small. Perry tries to give the team a boost was cool. Pods needs to do a bit of that . They definitely need Kane back or a Kane replica.
watched a few Blue Jackets games in the last few weeks. What about Olivier for the 4th line. Guy can skate and he hits hard. Tough as nails. Seems better than any of the 4th liners we employ. No clue if they move him as They are in the mix still.
I actually think they win against Carolina on Sat. I sure hope they do.
McDavid needs to get out of his funk as well.
Leon Draisaitl 37 games 2 goals 7 assists 9 points
Six months later:
Leon Draisaitl 72 games 19 goals 31 assists 52 points.
===========================================
Markus Naslund 14 games 2 goals 2 assists 4 points
Six months later
Markus Naslund 66 games 19 goals 33 assist 52 points
===========================================
Jake Neighbours 43 games 6 goals 4 assists 10 points
Six months later
Jake Neighbours 77 games 27 goals 11 assists 38 points
============================================
Nazim Kadri 21 games 5 goals 2 assists 7 points
Six months later
Nazin Kadri 48 games 18 goals 26 assists 44 points
==============================================
Jordan Kyrou 28 games 4 goals 5 assists 9 points
Six months later
Jordan Kyrou 55 games 14 goals 21 points 35 points
==============================================
Dylan Strome 20 games 3 goals 3 assist 6 points
Six months later
Dylan Strome 58 games 17 goals 34 assists 51 points
=================================================
Tage Thompson 38 games 6 goals 8 assists 14 points
Six months later
Tage Thompson 78 games 38 goals 30 assists 68 points
=============================================
Which of these players are you saying is Holloway-like?
You can’t seriously be comparing Holloway to a young Leon.
The person was claiming that it was ridiculous to think a young developing 10 point player could be a 60 point player the following season.
I was providing evidence that it is not ridiculous. Development is not necessarily linear. Holloway had a history of rapid progress in college from low productivitiy to high productivity.
Why can’t we have nice things? Oilers headed straight for the 2nd row of the Hockey Guy’s Power Rankings.
All of this current drama places pressure on Kane to return.
They miss that type of player for sure
I tried to post during the end part of the third period but Lowetide must have had the place locked down.
Tonight’s loss is the best of the post 4 nations catastrophe so far. it easily might have gone just that way no matter what between two perfect rivals.
How about if they gave McDavid a 14 day holiday? Tell the new Draisaitl Oilers to hold the fort for the next two weeks and so long as they end up with a .500 or better record it’s all good. Then McDavid returns fresh lol
No sir. The blog was free and clear of issues this evening.
Same here. Had some sort of error code for last part of game and rest of evening.
Apologies. It looked fine from here. Hopefully we don’t see a repeat.
I’d would rest Ekholm also. For all the bluster regarding Bouchard and his lapses, he’s been better than Ek by all statistical measures.
Kulak with a goal 8 blocks and 5 SOG.
Best game in awhile for him
Have you seen enough Bowman please end the experiment.
Wait, what?
Weren’t you extolling the virtues of Bowman earlier in this very thread (and yesterday, etc)?
IMO, Bowman is taking the patient approach this and will rock and roll next year. And I would be ok with that
the reunited Brown/Janmark/Henrique line a collective -8.
Ouch.
This line was never very good and their playoff lore is not base in reality.
They played a total of 52 minutes together in the playoffs, so like 4-5 games.
They were 2-1 goal but caved by all underlying metrics.
Is this team winning a single playoff round this year? Just horrific stuff. McDavid’s season to forget continues.
Guess they might as well shut down for the year in favour of an extended off season.
Looks like they may have already done so.
The team was the 2nd best team in the league, 0.01% behind Carolina, for three months, from November through the end of January.
They are slumping big time right now and it sucks and there is some concern but its a slump.
The powerhourse Jets have 2 loosing streaks this season of 4 games…
Summarizing!
Stonehouse assisted on the Petes’ only goal in a loss.
Soup was not Akey’s to be had.
Wakely served the second of what has become a four-game suspension. He is eligible to return next Friday (March 7).
4th goal, the winning goal – was pretty ugly.
Ekholm is more of a liability that Bouchard right now – and its not close.
Father Time may have come calling
He hasn’t been right since the illness pre-4 Nations
Zach “Pinball” Hyman authors a crucial goal from his office.
Goalie needs to be upgraded. It’s painful to watch. Mcdavid point blank, Bob makes the stop. Schmidt point blank, Skinner whiffs it.
There are bad contract years and then there’s what Evan Bouchard is doing. Wow.
Need to get him away from Ekholm maybe….
Egregious non-clear by Ekholm – geez.
Okay.
This Oilers team is always going to be going either well or otherwise by the leadership and extreme level of play by it’s leaders.
With this in mind I will now bravely watch the rest of this game, from the 3rd period to conclusion.
Taylor Hall looking good tonight. Scores a goal wearing the classic Hartford Whalers uni.
and he is now up to 2 points in 9 games for the Canes….
Leon Draisaitl is the best hockey player in the world.
MVP right there.
Who’s your daddy?
Drai, that’s who.
Draisaitl is awesome
Neon Leon with his best bulldozer impression.
Holy hell what a goal by Drai.
Oh, Kulak – you flub that one?
I thought Stetcher did some solid work against a bigger opponent prior to that deflection goal.
Great defensive play by Janmark – finally.
Did coach replace Skinner with Podz on the Drai line because of that penalty?
He’s back on this shift.
I wish somebody had been tracking how often players fall down since the dawn of the NHL. It’s hard not to think Arvidsson is having a record-setting season.
Clearly you didn’t watch Taylor Fall play for EDM.
If you told me there’d be 2 goals (that counted) scored in the first period, both by Brett Kulak, I would take that every time. Unfortunately, he scored one of them on the wrong goalie.
Kulak my balls, FLA.
Uvis Balinksis
Now that’s a fine Latvian name.
My wife’s family will not forgive me. Make that Balinskis. Oh I see a German has scored.
It’s 3am here in Saudi Arabia and I woke up early again to watch but am deciding if it’s worth my time and energy.. don’t think I can put myself through it today. Going to get up early for a workout instead. Hope the Oilers prove my choice wrong.
Bye, Felicia.
Tuned in the game and in 10 seconds Florida bullied in a goal.
Good night. Am not a masochist.
Considering how often you make posts like this, I’m surprised you still bother.
This is not a DoD team, have a little faith.
The best possible news is Oilers can spin this into a last gasp swoon to beat away the blues and prepare for playoff return to the other side of the Finals.
Winning this year need not be thought of as impossible. Certainly not until playoffs when/if some upstart team looks like it is going to KO another season.
Hey something went our way!
That’s coming back but what was Emberson doing?
Also, my goodness Ekholm is struggling now – an accident but a stick to the face as he was chasing and a bad play.
That kill breaks a streak of seven straight games where the Oilers got scored on on the opposition’s first PP of the night.
Janmark isn’t even responsible any more (these days) – what a terrible defensive zone pass – 30 seconds later the Oilers get the puck out.
Of note regarding Kapanen playing center tonight.
Matt Savoie is actually a center (prior to turnning pro).
Yeah.
Baffling deployment.
Every great NHL team was able to hit and fight and play the body to match anything the opposition could toss at them.
You can argue the Red Wings 20 seasons of dominance was an outlier, but cursed for the most part with weak goalies.
The flashy but unable to hit Oilers are going to have a big fat target on their collective backs from now to the rest of the season, and possibly beyond.
Soon Oilers fans will be repeating the mantra: “The refs need to step up and do their jobs”
Signing Skinner was a freaking disaster.
“We can’t afford to keep Holloway and Broberg” once they blew the 3 million on this plug.
“Oh but it’s just for 1 year”, they say. Sure…another 1 year lost to Oilers having less than a team able to win anything.
The thought that last season might be the high point for this team for several years is enough to make me puke.
Holloway had a career high of 9 points. Skinner had a career high of over 40 goals.
You didn’t know what Dyl would be and he is in a key role on a loser team in St Louis.
This logic makes me ill.
“Logic.”
More like revisionist history that only serves to propagate a fear-based narrative.
In my view, the reason Skinner is bemoaned over Arvidsson as “the cause of not signing Holloway” is because he was the more avoidable error.
On the one hand, Arvidsson has a more multi-dimensional game, performed admirably in the playoffs against EDM, is a right shot, and replicated some of what Drai had found success with in the past (a better Yamo), which was the point of his signing. There was risk, but Drai needed a running mate and this was a reasonable bet at one. He had also primarily been playing at RW in LA so he didn’t actively block Holloway.
On the other hand, Skinner plays a one-dimensional game with none of the qualities that Drai typically succeeded with. He doesn’t have blazing speed to push defenders back, he doesn’t play responsible hockey, he doesn’t thrive in transition, etc. As such, his signing had to be understood as either for a different purpose (McDavid line or a 3rd scoring line) or as a mistaken understanding of how Drai finds success.
One was signed as a clear attempt to address a roster problem while the other was signed essentially as a luxury item.
I would have kept all of Broberg, Holloway, McLeod, and Desharnais, and traded Ceci for Emberson. All between 23 and 27.
The team is still a contender when they have their act together, but the roster is such a mess, that I really don’t have any good ideas how to fix it.
Podkolzin was a good deal, I would have done that even if I had signed Holloway.
For me, Holloway is the loss that stings the most. His age, style of play, cost, etc was literally the perfect fit in so many ways. I was fine with moving McLeod under the pretense that we re-signed Holloway. Likewise, I was okay with taking a bit of a risk (turns out more of a risk than initially thought) on Arvidsson under the pretense that we were re-signing Holloway. I was even fine with not matching the offer sheet to Broberg under the pretense that we would at least match Holloway.
I’m happy the team moved on from Desharnais.
I would have kept Broberg. I wasn’t so sure on Holloway.
Ceci for Emberson makes sense if they had kept Broberg.
Getting rid of Vinny is fine.
I can see the logic in moving on from McLeod.
The forgotten man in all of this is Warren Foegele.
He’s on pace for 24 goals and 45 points at a cap hit of $3.5 million while leading all Kings players at +22.
A big, fast third line winger at a relative bargain.
Savoie should be playing with McDavid tonight, won’t be surprised if Stan trades Hyman in the summer.
6-2 Panthers.
Some ideas for the deadline.
Defense
– Ivan Provorov (50% retained, $2.3625M cap hit) for 2026 1st.
Check down: Jamie Oleksiak ($4.6M cap hit x2) for Stetcher + 2025 2nd (STL).
Goalie
– Karel Vejmelka (50% retained, $1.3625M cap hit) for 2025 3rd (STL).
Check down: James Reimer ($1M cap hit) for 2025 6th.
Center
– Jean Gabriel Pageau (20% retained, $4M cap hit) for Adam Henrique ($3M cap hit) & 2026 2nd.
Check down: Michael McCarron ($900k cap hit) for 2025 6th.
Provorov, Reimer, and JGP.
Yes. Yes, and yes.
Wahlstrom back on waivers
1990 was such a sweet revelation, especially after the ending of the 89 season. The November trade that sent away Jimmy Carson and Kevin McClelland felt like the white flag and the ship was ready to go down. I always felt that Carson getting traded for 99 essentially ended his career. He was the Joe Zanussi of that trade and never really found his footing in Edmonton. I didn’t know much about the trio coming west except Petr Klima. Wow, did I find myself surprised in a good way. It seems just like yesterday, but it also seems like a lifetime ago.
Missed the game the other night as I was out in LT’s old stomping grounds of Burns Lake, but I watched the condensed game. Wow, that Hagel goal was bad, in every sense of the word and others have beat that dead horse to death without being able to revive the horse, so I’ll just let it lay.
What will it take to get this team on track? As I mentioned a few days back, each season is a series of cycles and this is typical of every team. Even teams like the 76-77 Habs had down cycles, and maybe that may have manifested itself in ways not seen by outsiders, but I can wager a guess it did (Maybe Guy Lapointe missing an opportunity for a prank or Lafleur running out of smokes?). This was also in the days of no internet either. The Oilers down cycle is manifesting itself in poor quality play by the team team as a whole. Outside of Draisaitl, there are not too many in that dressing room who are having a career season, and I would go so far as to say that several of them are having the worst year of their careers. That’s the bad news. The good news is that this is still a very talented team with a great deal of skill and have put themselves into a good place until now. There is a little wiggle room. If you’re a Beatles fan, this is the period of the recording of Let It Be before Billy Preston showed up.
This brings me to the trade deadline. The only thing I don’t want to see is Savoie as a part of any trade. He seems like the real deal to me and the Oilers need to keep him. I’m in agreement with LT and many others about a hard skating puck retrieval winger. I always like one mixer on each line for my teams. They don’t even really have to put up the points. Just create space for the others and get the puck.
Long ways to go in this season and I hope to see a team that soars into the dance rather than one that limps across the line.
Go Oilers Go!