When your favourite team drafts a home run in a later round, it is truly a time to celebrate. If that home run pick is recognized by management and coaching, that’s an organizational lift that can help a team soar for ages. That second item has been a problem for the Oilers in the past. Example: Miro Satan.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN MARCH
- On the road to: CAR (Expected 0-0-1) (Actual 1-0-0)
- At home to: ANA, MTL, DAL (Expected 2-1-0) (Actual 2-1-0)
- On the road to: BUF, NJD, NYI, NYR (Expected 2-2-0) (Actual 0-1-0)
- At home to: UTA, WPG, SEA, DAL (Expected 2-2-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- On the road to: SEA (Expected 0-0-1) (Actual 0-0-0)
- At home to: CGY (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- Overall expected results: 7-5-2, 16 points in 14 games
- March result: 3-2-0
- Oilers in 2024-25: 37-23-4, 78 points in 64 games
All bets are off on this team. If you say the Oilers will win and guarantee it, I’m going to assume you are being a fan and are high on hope. I’ve been there. I am not there with this team. They look like a tire going flat on the freeway, car in the middle lane and driver unaware of danger. Good luck!
HOME RUN?
The Oilers selection of Satan in the fifth round of the 1993 draft saw the media give him far more attention than normal for a player chosen so late. Why? The name. However, there were some interesting items on Satan after the draft. Quoting The Hockey News and Dan Barnes from July 1993: “No wonder the Oilers think they had a helluva day. They picked Satan. A Slovak from Dukla Trencin, (he was) one of the players they found during four free-agent camps in Belarus, Riga, Prague and Moscow this past season.”
Satan was a home run, he started scoring in North America when he arrived at the airport. Edmonton didn’t see him as the player he was, and that happens.
I’m writing this because the Oilers appear to have “found one” in goaltender Samuel Jonsson. He was named Allsvenskan ‘Goalie of the Year’ earlier this week and you better believe prospect trackers are aware of his fine work.
Jonsson offers hope to an organization that simply doesn’t have many prospects tracking as possible feature NHL players in the years to come.
There’s almost zero downbeat on this story. The Allsvenskan is an excellent league. I’ve written about him many times, including a November article at The Athletic discussing the organization’s improved goaltender procurement.
Quoting the article: “Samuel Jonsson is a giant Swedish goalie, playing in the substantial Allsvenskan (Sweden’s second league) this year. He’s playing as a backup, but getting plenty of playing time (eight games) so far this season. His .918 save percentage ranks No. 2 among goaltenders in the league with eight or more games. He’s 6-foot-5 and 200 pounds, a classic modern NHL size. Edmonton may have a real one here.”
Why did they stop the free-agent camps? Are they verboten?
Jonsson isn’t Miro Satan, but he’s sure as hell a sliver of hope for an Oilers organization that is currently Matt Savoie, Sam O’Reilly, Beau Akey and a bunch of guys hoping to become Gaetan Haas someday.
I don’t have much to say about the Oilers who will play in New Jersey tonight. How a team with this much talent can be so dull is beyond me. Have they stopped listening to the coach?
There have been times when this team, coached by Kris Knoblauch, were so precise, so aware, so committed, that an old-timey phrase from my youth (‘all-in but the shoe laces’) would come back to me. Where is that team? Where did the awareness go? The head-on-a-swivel defending? These Edmonton Oilers are porridge. There is no sizzle, and there sure as hell is no steak.
It’s Thursday and that means Bagged Milk from Oilers Nation will join us, and we’ll have someone from the Jersey side to discuss tonight’s game, too. The Blue Jays will come up a time or two, and Declan loves to talk NBA so we’ll have some roundball chatter as well.
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.
Oilers back into a 16-18 game depending on the team race with the LAK for 2nd place in the Pacific.
A home and away series of 2 games which is included between the 2 antagonists this mini season should be interesting.
Back up to 9th.
Thanks to Leon, Connor and Evan who got all of the points.
Admittedly I did not not watch the game entirely, only highlights but I’m having a hard time seeing goaltending as the problem. Fundamentally Skinner looks sound to me and athletic enough to make some tough saves. I’m not convinced Vegas or LA have better tenders. I’m not convinced a trade deadline goalie change would have made a difference. This team might be one domina Hasek away from a cup, but they also could be one defensively committed team away from a cup.
Well the team as whole plays one way, they play non- aggressive skill type game,they do not push or force any type of will if the game is not there for them. It’s been this way for a long long time. Case in point Bouchard is extremely passive but very talented, he is an example of many players. Bowman sees this and is trying to bring in physicality and some speed. I think it’s too late but I hope not.
I was somewhat unsure of the KK hire. But, I thought you never know…could be another Cooper. My take is that he was mostly relying on Gully while he was finding his way, and that was a factor in the last half of last season’s success. I believe that he was more confident and put in more of his systems and ideals this season. Maybe too much AHL and not enough NHL. At any rate, this is not working. Remember when Lombardi I believe fired a coach with a good record and brought in Sutter? Won a cup as I recall. Now I have no idea who out there might be available or this would even work. But, something needs to happen fast. Skinner is weak, but with a better system in place in front of him he might be enough with better support. Just a thought
Philp and Savoie in, Kapanen and Janmark out. Let’s start there. Never a dull season with these Oilers! 😳
Two young guys have no chance of helping a team of struggling old men. A/The team for old men pretty much has to save itself.
So you’re saying Holloway and Broberg wouldn’t help, nor McLeod?
I think godot10 was referring to Philp and Savoie, not Holloway and Broberg. Those two play for a different team now.
Broberg, Holloway, McLeod, and Desharnais were established NHL’ers, and all between 23-27. Savoie and Philp are not.
It would be a lot easier to integrate Savoie and Philp if there were a group of 23-27 year olds on the roster.
Arguably Bouchard is struggling, because he is a relatively young guy on a team of old men with wives and kids and babies and dogs. Who is he to share his successes and struggles with on the team?
Hyper-mercenization of a team withi older veterans is a poor way to construct a roster.
One should try to have a roster of a team that is a normal distribution age wise, centered on 27-28. Some skew is okay, particular as elite players stay productive longer.
But Jackson and Bowman hacked off the young branches of the tree instead of the old ones.
Looks like the Edmonton Coach Killers are back! I believe tonight was Coach K’s 134th regular season tilt just passing Coach Woodcroft’s 133 regular season game resume. Maybe Head Coach # 6 is this group of prima donna’s lucky number! Speaking of numbers it was 3617 days ago when Bill Daly flipped over that golden ticket, even the most jaded fan back then couldn’t even imagine this decade of disappointment.
Unless this team makes some kind of miracle revival, mngt needs to overhaul the roster in the offseason. There are only two untouchable players on this roster. Everyone should be tradeable, even if they have a NMC. Plenty of players with NMC get traded.
Almost everyone on the roster will have depressed trade value after this season unless there is a miracle post season for a bunch of guys
Is Skinner still working with the same sport psychologist that he had last year?
Skinner’s last 9 games:
864, 870, 840, 926, 875, 889,889, 839, 750;
Team Canada wouldn’t win more than 50% of their games with that goaltending. Honestly not sure if an NHL goalie (especially a starter), with 8 of his 9 starts in the 8’s. I don’t even think Campbell was that bad and he was sent to AHL and bought out.
Management knew Skinner was iffy and went with a career AHL goalie for a back up if Skinner failed (which he clearly has).
Twas a risk for sure. Just shows if you don’t have an elite G a team needs at least 3 goalies that could play in the bigs at least for a short stretch. Could Rodrigue be any worse?
Fire them all into the sun! Except for McDrai
Does Bowman even get to fire Knoblach since he is Jackson’s guy?
If you are not in 5 alarm panic mode, I don’t know what to tell you.
3-9-0 in the last 12, none of those wins inspiring confidence.
That’s only one point better than their infamous 2-9-1 start last year, which took a historic 16 game winning streak to snap out of.
Almost assuredly LA will catch up in one of their two games in hand, which could be as soon as tonight. Only 7 up on Vancouver.
Has anything happened in the last 12 games that inspires anyone to think they’ll be able to play even .500 down the stretch?
Can’t get a save when they need it, can’t get a goal from anyone not 97 or 29, can’t get a single bounce.
Somebody help me! Please!
But one high point in that time period . . . the Dallas game we looked pretty damn good. But that’s where it ends, sadly.
They did.. for 40 minutes then came close to blowing it.
There is no saviour now. Unless you fire the coach (AGAIN?!!!), no one can save them but themselves.
LA will pass the Oilers this week probably.
Already done.
Even Jeff Skinner can’t score.
Why can’t our defensemen clear the front of the net so our goalie can see the shot?
Why can’t a 6’4” goalie see the shot?
I wonder what our record would be if we faced Skinner as the opposing goaltender.
80-2
Im not saying Skinner doesn’t suck. Just would be nice if the dman boxed out on one of those goals like they teach defensemen to do in atoms or peewee.
I wish our team, offence or defence, would score more, at least meet expectations.
It’s such a lazy narrative to blame this on the goalie. Other than Leon and Mcdavid, no other player or line is contributing anything offensively. Kulak and Emberson with a terrible game in front of their goalie. Wingers not pressuring. This is a team with a lot of one dImensional players who have lost that dimension. Going to result in another coaching change and likely a ton of turnover in offseason.
This team is definitely underperforming this season in terms of scoring relative to expectations.
However, at 15 minutes left in the game, they had contributed enough offensively to be ahead. You can’t give up 2 shots from the blue line when your team is outshooting the opponent 13-4 in the 3rd period of a tie game. They weren’t high danger chances. They just weren’t. Give up 1, and we’re going to overtime.
And there should be turnover in the offseason if the forwards can’t score and the goalies can’t stop pucks
This team does not have the C men for starters, or any that are good at all Once this coach goes to his nuclear option. Which he did 2 minutes into the 2nd which is a joke. It is also killing McD who looks absolutely gassed . He is probably deflating the rest of the players when he does this. It’s Crazy.
Yes the D are useless at clearing guys, but Skinner on both goals went down on his knees in the middle of the net and was hoping it hit him. Gage on the Oil Stream Postgame just said “Skinner has to battle and be looking for the puck, just not hoping it hit him”
It’s pretty hard to watch this team since the 4 Nations.
Skinner isn’t the only problem. He’s a big part of it. Corey Perry is our best winger. That’s an even bigger problem.
Fire him. Still time to save the season.
We need a #1 goaltender, no question. We will never win with Skinner. He makes some nice saves but allows such deflating goals at the worst possible times. I don’t know how anyone can defend his play. He’s just not a starting goalie in this league. Maybe 1B but that means we need a 1A.
Every shot looks like a hard save because half the time he’s out of position. He seems to have trouble tracking the puck so that’s why every shot is a adventure. If I’m Kris I’m rolling the dice with Pickard because Skinner is going to cost you your job.
KK has lost me with the forward lines. It’s Woodcroft all over again.
Glad I can’t watch the next couple of games, may need to make it the rest of the season as this is getting really bad.
He doesn’t really have any other option. The only line scoring right now is McDavid with Draisaitl and Hyman. He’s hoping the other lines can saw it off while they outscore.
Wingers can’t score.
Even Jeff Skinner is now snake bit. Arvidsson and Podkolzin are not 2nd line wingers.
RNH is not playing like a 1st line winger
Henrique’s line not even making it as a 4th line now.
How much of that is on the Coach and his systems?
Complain all you want about goaltending (which I have) but this team can’t score. Can’t find lose pucks in front of the net and bury them.
Lacking the physical ability to win net front battles. Fs eventually laying on the ice if they ever get there
Soft goals deflate teams
Yep, goaltending is killing the team.
What a garbage team. Aside from McDavid the rest of the team was awful – NJ defense kept everything to the outside and the Oilers refused to pay the price to skate through it.
Skinner let in three goals that every starter in the league would have stopped.
This season is slipping away.
Is it just me or is Hyman’s inability to maintain possession a killer for McDrai?
That is the only line that is outscoring teams right now. He’s doing fine. Not nearly the same as last year (2 injuries may have set him back), but definitely not the problem
Has lost a step and falls over alot
He had a good game
What happened to this team? Wheels just came off a few weeks ago. At this rate we’re gonna wind up as 7-8 seed in playoffs. What a disappointing season. And next year all the old players will be one year closer to the end of their careers.
Gotta score to win
Thats just it, Skinner is not a Vezina goalie and the Oilers are not going to have a Vezina goalie in this era. Need a coach to figure out how to make the pieces work. As LT has said many times, goalies are voodoo, we can’t afford a top 5 goalie and need to figure out how to make it work with a 10 to 20 tender.
We don’t need a Vezna goalie, we just need average goaltending and we would easily be in 1st for the division.
Ok, I just looked up the last 10 games. They scored 3 goals in 5 of them. Two of those were wins. They scored 5 against Dallas for the win. That’s all the wins, BTW. They scored 2 three times all losses. They scored 1 in Tampa, a loss.
I think there biggest problem is scoring. Yes the goalies aren’t helping, but 2.7 goals for in the last 10 isn’t enough. I think they need to average above 3 to win consistently.
don’t ask me how to get that to happen. On paper,it ought to be happening.
M*****f*****. 🤬
Far from their worst game in the past month, but nowhere near the level they should be at, this point in the season.
And yet another loss. Getting painful …
Same story every game.
Out shoot them. Mostly outplay them. Have more expected goals. Save percentage in the .800’s while opposition goaltending save percentage is 100 points higher.
The verbal tomorrow will be about foot speed, needing to bear down, etc. It will largely ignore that the Oilers heavily outshot their opposition, on the road, and the game winner was a weak, undetected slapper that plotted along the ice.
“But the Oilers shouldn’t give up so many chances!” Yeah, and how many tough chances did Allen save tonight? How many tough chances do the opposition goalies save every night? The expected goals against tonight were 2. 2.
Yes, defense makes mistakes, forwards make mistakes but the stats and eye test say we would have 8 more wins (16 more points) with just AVERAGE goaltending. Our goalies combined to be the worst combo in the league on a team way above average. Did a single person here think this combo was what we should go with for a Cup run? After their start did anyone else think taking a chance on Blackwood might be a good gamble? He was had for a second and the Sharks took a huge cap dump with it.
Laughing stock of the league.
Good news is we’ve found our new goalie! Bad news is it’s Troy Stetcher.
Well another coach resorts to the tried and true strategy of playing McDrai like a rented mule.
I actually think Knobber is in trouble which is insane.
Coach killers.
Team is trash right now, and chances are they won’t recover soon enough to turn it around this late in the season. Last year was the one shot they had, and the Hockey Gods said no soup for you!
Other than the McDavid line the Oilers have nothing
I believe we now call it the Draisaitl line….
I’m watching the ESPN+ feed. When the puck went around the back of the net, the announcer said in a slightly exaggerated voice “Skinner stops it.”
Skinner, another mid 800 game. He needs to sit. Honestly might be worth bringing up Rodrigue and letting him run for a number of games and hope for the best. The team is deflated as you can clearly see they do not trust their tender and by his numbers you can see why. Team has to take chances and push from behind again…
Rodrigue is now .898 in the AHL and he was great for the 1st half an in the to 10 in save percentage – that’s how poor he has been since January. He is not an option.
So sick of being gaslit regarding Stuart Skinner by Jack and Louie. When Koskinen let those same goals in it was always his fault. But Stu can never be expected to stop a screen from the blueline.
Not just Jack And Louie . . .
Devils have injuries to core players, and Oilers still can’t seem to take advantage. They are morphing into pretenders before our eyes. Only bright spot is Draisaitl and his Rocket chase.
Exactly, grind to the outside is not working. Maybe take a different approach. Try to play with a little more skill
Devils won a cup with a late season coaching change, maybe something we should consider… Sorry knobber things aint rhyming and don’t think it is all goaltending at this point
Unless the new coach plays goalie too, Oilers are f$&ked.
the Devils will lose their next game 6 to 3. No reason for this Oilers team to not be able to score goals except for the game plan
I suspect that’s the case too. Oilers are going to get another coach fired because their minds can’t focus on playing hockey.
Skinner stinks this season. What a disaster.
At least Bowman should know for sure what his #3 item on his priority list should be this summer (behind McDavid and Bouchard Extensions)
13-4 in shots, 1-2 in goals this period. Welp. Must be so deflating when you are trying to work out of a funk when every point shot finds its way to the back of your net while every shot attempt you make bounces into friendly spaces
Must be tough to win when your goalie can’t stop a beachball.
That was my polite way of saying this, in combination with the most inept scoring from a set of forwards I have ever seen.
We’re going to lose to a team that’s lost their top RHD and number 1 centre.
This team is pitiful right now.
They’re testing my fanaticism.
If you’re not creating you can’t give up plays like the last two goals. Wingers not even close to pressuring up high.
The first one, sure. But the second shot was a weak slapper from the point that wasn’t an inch off the ice. Look around the traffic, pick up the shot and stop it.
Ugh. Why don’t we score like that very often? How can other teams get in tight and screen our goalies but we hardly ever seem to do the same?
Oilers have a big crush on the tic-tac-toe goal.
We had two chances with traffic in front right after. Difference is Allen made the stops.
For starters our D are not very physical when trying to clear front of the net. At the other end we don’t have enough forwards willing to get gritty in front of the net.
Bingo
Skinner you are allowed to look around the man in front
Skinner sucks.
He’s so painful to watch.
He’s not in position to make the stop. Went down too late. Can’t win in this league when your goalie is getting beat from the blueline all the time.
Why do we never attack the point?????
Another 2 back-breaking goals released from the blue line
GET EMBERSON OFF MY TV
Skinner gonna skin
Jones in pursuit just quit on it. That was a mismatch of lines.