The Edmonton Oilers had to dig deep last night in order to secure a win against Seattle Kraken. Going to work without the Glimmer Twins means every player needs to elevate their game. And they did! There were some things (14 high-danger chances surrendered via Natural Stat Trick) and some defensive wobbles, too. If we’re going to chronicle events accurately, we must state this Oilers team put on their work boots and delivered a hard day’s night against the emeralds.
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 2-2-0)
- At home to: UTA, WPG, SEA, DAL (Expected 2-2-0) (Actual 3-0-1)
- 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: 7-3-1
- Oilers in 2024-25: 41-24-5, 87 points in 70 games
A splendid March has erased much of the February blues for this team. The Oilers are on pace for 102 points and hopefully win home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Those dastardly LAK are poised to make this a false spring if Edmonton isn’t ready teddy ready to rock and roll.
THE NUMBERS
Years ago, Dave Keon expressed regret that he faded his offensive abilities in order to focus on the defensive side of the game. I wonder if Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has, at times, suppressed his pure offensive skill in an effort to help with the chores defensively. Last night was a brilliant performance by the Nuge, and is the highlight of a fantastic offensive upswing in recent weeks. His line (with Podkolzin and Arvidsson) led the way last night. A brilliant performance.
Jeff Skinner scored again and is up to 14 tallies now for the year. There are two trains of thought on the player. First train says Kris Knoblauch should have played him earlier, and should have played him with skill. Second train says they did, and McDavid-Skinner got caved so the coach moved on until Skinner proved he could be more defensively aware. Third, lesser known train says who cares he’s here now run that man till he drops. Skinner-Janmark-Brown were the most delightful line last night, they just clicked like tumblers opening the doors to success.
I wanted to mention Adam Henrique’s goal, for me getting off to a strong start was important and his goal accomplished it. His line was not successful at five-on-five, but the goal was a big one.
The defense, in my opinion, was see-saw Margery Daw all night long. Strong plays followed baffleness (Evan Bouchard) while I thought of Tom Waits ‘What’s he building in there’ once with Darnell Nurse and once with Mattias Ekholm in the game. Overall though, I’d say these men (and the rest of the blue) delivered on a night when they combined for five points.
Stuart Skinner won the game, faced 14 HD’s, you’d like an extra stop or two and I do think that will be addressed in summer.
THE CONDORS
If you are spending five seconds dissing Colin Chaulk and the Bakersfield coaching staff today, then you need to relax. How in h-e-double-hockey-sticks that staff has the gumption to show up for work every night is a marvel. Last night’s defense featured Cam Dineen and Connor Carrick, quality AHL men who have spent time in the NHL. Also featured on the blue: Connor Corcoran, Kyle Mayhew, Darren Brady, Alex Kannok-Leipert and Ronnie Attard.
And don’t piss on the players, either. Dineen had 10 shots, two goals and three points! Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Noah Philp looked good and Attard let ’em know he was there. The minor league system needs help, right damn now. There are things that can and should be done this spring to help the Condors. Signing Luca Munzenberger would be a start.
New for The Athletic: Will Edmonton Oilers’ procurement style change under GM Stan Bowman?
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6223033/2025/03/23/edmonton-oilers-signings-stan-bowman-style/
Great piece LT. However I have no problem trading any current prospect if the return is right
Savoie Akey are doubtful as impact players. Players that size if not elite don’t turn out, we’ve been down this road. O’R is the only one I hold because of his size and handedness
Akey does have an exceptional skill – his skating.
So did Kurt Browning and Elvis Stojko.
Akey’s offense has dropped significantly and his injury history smells of Benson. I’d love to eat crow but Akey’s stock has dropped since draft day.
.
The St. Louis Blues are a dogfight for the last wild card spot in the West. And tonight, they called up 19-year old Dalibor Devorsky to play his first NHL hockey game.
The Blues played Bolduc all year on the 3rd line, 2nd year of the ELC, after playing post trade deadline last year. (They waived Kapanen, once they committed to Bolduc). He is finally breaking out big time, and now getting a shot on the top line. Essentially giving him the treatment Holloway should have had the last two seasons…to be ready to really contribute during the playoffs.
Snuggerud will be arriving after the Golden Gophers finish their college season.
The Oilers for two seasons could not see fit to play Broberg, Holloway, or Lavoie at all. Not in October. Not in March. For two years in a row.
Although it is still improbable, the Blues could conceivably pass the Wild and play the winner of the Pacific Division in the first round of the playoffs.
lol, you are still talking about Broberg? Enjoy life, my friend. The past cannot be changed – though we can learn from it.
The oilers don’t learn though, they double down. They are almost barren of players from an important group, young and hungry.
As posted in the summer and immediately flamed by most, they are in danger of becoming old and slow in a hurry. There is a cliff coming, hopefully it will have been worth it.
Condors can barely compete right now but Savoie with a very pretty goal on a rush.
Summarizing!
As reported by ace correspondent Todd Macallan, William Nicholl took advantage of bonus ice time and registered a hat trick and an assist, plus a game-high 7 SOG. The hatty gave him 21 goals on the season. A star was not his since the Erie squad they faced used the three stars for their overagers.
Day and O’Reilly got the day off.
Berry and Stonehouse were denied soup. The latter finished his final junior season with 14 goals and 14 assists in 48 GP. Only eight NAmateurs remain whose seasons continue.
Clattenburg did not dress.
Prospecting takes a break until Thor’s Day.
Video evidence of Nicholl’s hatty.
Last night Arvidsson continued to disappoint while J Skinner took another step forward. I do not see Viktor as a player capable of offensive contribution on a playoff run; his production is less than linemate Podkolzin’s. When four of the forwards from last night come out of the lineup, odds are that Skinner will be out and Arvidsson will be in, while Savoie will be looking on the outside as a black ace.
Big day for William Nicholl as the Knights 1C with them resting their big guns today. 3 goals and 1 assist in a 6-4 loss.
Great game young man, now build off your strong playoffs last season!
The first shot Stu faced to begin this regular season was a break-away which he saved. I remember thinking, I hope those types of chances aren’t an indication of how the season will go defensively, but they often have been, although it has been improving from a month ago.
Fast forward to tonight and on the disallowed goal it reminded me of the stereotypical road construction site where you see one guy doing the work and 5 other “supervisors” looking on. The Kraken shouldn’t have even come close to being able to repeatedly push the goalie there and getting 3 cracks at the puck. Thankfully the elusive and inconsistent “goalie interference” successful challenge was upheld and justice prevailed.
Still, from many sites the expected GA last night was above 4 so Stu was the better goalie last night and he and the entire team deserved that W. It was nice to see the scoring and big games by several forwards.
I ran the NST goalie stats all strengths, for goalies above 2,000 minutes. Stu is 2,736 out of 31 goalies.
I was looking at the High, Medium and Low Danger shots against, and the mix for these goalies who have had the bulk of the workload this season. Stu ranks as follows:
Whatever happens in the off-season, happens, but for the rest of this season and for the playoffs, Stu and Picks are the guys. They are going to continue to battle for those wins. It might not be pretty sometimes but as Stan Bowman pointed out in his After Hours interview last night, hopefully they can each build off their playoff experiences to make those few more saves in the big moments.
It’s official: Copponi and the #8 BU Terriers are in the Frozen Four tourney.
They will face #9 Ohio State in Round 1 on Thursday.
Jeff Skinner, good on him for changing his approach to how he played. He was not good enough at the beginning of the season, good in the ozone, but was putting in a POS effort level on the defensive side of the centreline.
It is great that he made the adjustment several weeks ago and now that he has finally earned the Coach’s trust between 2 nets, both are reaping the benefits.
Keep it up JSkin and you will be well-positioned to turn it up to eleven in the playoffs.
His approach just appears to be to work twice as hard.
It’s working for him & more importantly they team.
Go Skinner
Sure glad he doesn’t wear #4.
4?
That’s a stretch, but some might call it Lowe hanging….
I’m not anti S Skinner, but this is how I see the situation, and I think it explains why some want a change
I think the team and fans are more comfortable when they expect the goalie to make each save, and can cope when a good GA happens or the goalie lets in the occasional softy
With our two I don’t think that’s the case. We know they will make saves, but I don’t expect them to. Any shot I feel has a good chance of going in. Fuhr was all over the place as a goalie, but I knew he could come up big and rob guys and was there for big games
Cujo, Rantford, Rollie the same. I don’t think that about Stu and Pick. The thing to remember is you can’t just go down the goalie aisle and grab one of those fellas. But I do think it could be better, and I’d start with guys that have their technique down better and whose style suits what they will be facing more closely
Vegas did that, a net blocker for a team that won’t let you around the net easily. Of course you can defeat that by making the shooter tutor move, but you have to battle to get past it. At the moment it’s not that hard to get good looks against the Oilers and after those juicy rebounds, even if it’s getting better
Pick is 10th in QS% (quality starts), Stu is 61st. There are only two starters ahead of Pick, so it looks like this metric is harder to keep high with more starts
Quality of competition is also a factor since starters tend to be in against the better teams. At least up until the last few weeks, Stu has faced a higher percent of playoff level teams and Picks a higher percent of non-playoff teams.
Good point
I don’t get why Pickard hasn’t won the starting job yet. He gives a solid outing almost every time. I don’t know how they start Stu in the playoffs knowing that he can single handedly lose you the series while Pickard would be far less likely to do that
He should have started last night imo.
Pickard sh$t the bed the last time the Oilers started him two games in a row.
Oilers spent money on the defence so this is where we would hope to see a difference in reducing goals.
Defence is still soft but they are mobile and capable. I agree we need to see a difference here, then see how that translates to Skinners numbers.
If Bouchard continues to have a negative impact he needs the baby face Skinner treatment. Sit and watch. Do it now while there still time. Don’t care about your offence. Get into the game, stop the blunders, show some presence in front of the net. A good defender in Emberson is presently sitting.
Dude, you realize Bouchard has one of the best goal shares on the team. No coach in the league would sit Bouchard. Bouchard has seen his toi decrease since Walman was acquired. But proposing to scratch a player that was one of the best players in last years playoffs and is at least the second best dman on the team is incoherent.
Despite all his defensive issues, Bouchard outscores his mistakes by huge margin. Thank god Oilers fans do not manage or coach the Oilers.
Bouch is like the thoroughbreds the 80’s team had. It’s on the coaches to work with and on him. He is an elite talent and not 5’10, so much there to work with. He has played at elite levels so he can do it. That’s a coach’s job right there
100%. Bouchard is pure skill. Coach’s job to harness/cover.
I am not anti-Bouchard and would not sit him now, but 20 games ago? Maybe.
A lot of coaches would have sat Bouchard at some point. Which is why he was not selected for Team Canada.
What LT calls “single events” lose games and series. It doesn’t matter what the shot and goal shares are.
This logic makes no sense. Because Bouchard didn’t make team Canada = coaches would healthy scratch him? Huh?
The Oilers coaching staff has barely reduced Bouchard’s minutes despite his giveaways. Clearly the Oilers coaching staff thinks his transition game/offensive game outweighs his mistakes one defence. Its not complicated.
Can/does Bouchard need to be better? Yes. Is he even remotely in the conversation for a healthy scratch? No. And to suggest an NHL coach would healthy scratch Bouchard is ridiculous.
“This logic makes no sense. Because Bouchard didn’t make team Canada = coaches would healthy scratch him? Huh?”
You are the one who is being illogical.
Puck moving in large samples wins games. Mistakes that result in goals against in small samples lose games.
When you have a player who makes colossal mistakes that result in goals against (two yesterday for Bouchard), the puck moving doesn’t out-weigh the mistakes – particularly in small samples. Bouchard almost lost the game for Edmonton yesterday.
Bouchard was not selected for team Canada, because by all reports he is not having a good season. Too many egregious errors. This is the consensus from every NHL analyst that has opined – including Lowetide.
A lot of NHL coaches will not view the number of errors made by Bouchard acceptable, even while noticing his positive contributions. That is not my opinion. That is fact as evidenced by his lack of selection from Team Canada. If he had made fewer errors in the first half of the season, he may very well would have been included on Team Canada. Because, as mentioned in the interviews after CAN won (including interviews with McDavid) “it is a game of mistakes.”
The Oilers have been out scored 32-41 with Emberson on the ice.
The Oilers have out scored the opposition 62-52 with Bouchard on the ice.
Oilers without Bouchard have been outscored 89-93.
Stat means nothing unless you know the quality of players they were on the ice with.
Sure. Look at McDavid’s wowys. Spoiler alert: his numbers are significantly worse away from Bouchard. Bouchard helps almost everyone on the team.
These numbers are not so cut and dry, especially by expected goals where McDavid has a positive share away from Bouchard. They mostly show the possession and scoring dominance of the 5 man unit of which Bouchard and McDavid are both important members.
McDavid’s numbers away from Bouchard involve play away from the 5 man unit that includes time he was double-shifted in the bottom six.
Note that WOWY’s with Ekholm are not substantially different. The biggest delta in both cases being between xGA and actual GA, which suggests goaltending as a major factor in McDavid’s poor goal shares away from Bouchard and Ekholm.
Negative impact?
My goodness does every objective matter say the exact opposite.
Winchester would have Josh Brown in the line up over Bouchard.
“My goodness does every objective matter say the exact opposite.”
Every objective measure, except perhaps the score in yesterday’s game. Make no mistake, incredible analytics aside, these mistakes matter. And they matter to NHL coaches.
My post this morning specifically spoke to Bouchard and Nurse making plays leading to goals against and they had to outscore mistakes last night.
Of course, at the same time, the Skinner goal doesn’t happen without Bouchard’s play at the point.
The mistakes matter, no doubt. Of course, way more pucks go in the opposition net than the Oilers net due to Bouch.
since almost everybody wants a new goalie, the obvious question is who
Nice to see the comments section filled with happy, hockey-based chatter. Perfect compliment to a late morning after an Oilers win.
I always see the goalie debate framed as getting rid of skinner. But is it possible to add someone who can push Stu down to a backup role and Pickard ends up being the odd man out? Seems like that would be preferable to moving on entirely given his play has, on the whole, been solidly average. That’s not a bad thing, just not ideal for your 1A guy.
In my opinion, the Campbell disaster forced him to move up earlier than he should have. He is still young for a goalie. Maybe taking the pressure off for a bit will help him with the mental side of the game and he can become that solid 1A guy on a decent value contract. I’d like to see the oilers at least attempt this line of action instead of dumping him for 10 cents on the dollar.
Yes!
Stu Skinner is a UFA at the end of next season. If one brings in a replacement next year, it is unlikely he would re-sign with the Oilers.
Bobrovsky’s contract expires after next season also. He will likely re-sign for a lot less on a shorter term deal. Florida traded away Knight. Skinner could sign there as heir apparent. On a team with a better defensive structure and commitment to defnese than the Oilers, Skinner would likely thrive.
Carolina is also perpetualy looking for a goaltender. They might come a knocking this summer for Stuart.
Stuart Skinner is from a very large tight-knit family in Edmonton.
He will want to stay close to family. Also, based on his bottom of the league goalie stats, why would Carolina or Florida ever see him as a solution?
Because they are good defensive teams. Carolina’s job is open this summer. They look for value for money.
Buying Stuart low is a good bet risk/reward wise. The Oilers have been wrong on all their young players.
Florida signed Ekman-Larsson when no one else would.
Edmonton signed Draisaitl-McDavid when no one else could.
This seems to support the wisdom of holding onto Skinner and trying to sign him to a value contract, no? I get that other teams may be more tempting as a location for him, but I don’t think that should be a reason for abandoning him from the Oilers’ perspective.
Skinner presently has negative value on his contract everyone knows this not attached to this blog. Keep drinking the kool-aid Skinner wasn’t even on team Canada radar 6 deep on sad list of Canadian born netminders.
I vehemently disagree that Skinner has negative value on his contract – not even close.
It will be interesting to see who is right two to three years from now. I expect I will be, like I always am! -).
For goaltending, next year is irrelevant. For this year they got what they got, work with it.
Defence roster is good, work with them.
13 hits total, 10 from Podz and Jones? Rediculous. Dmen, get in the game.
Push the shots to the outside is step one, and take out your man. Stop him. Step two, take away the lane for man going for the rebound. Get there first. Get in his way. Interrupt. Anticipate, read the play. Defence is mobile enough to do this.
Stu needs to do more, defence needs to do more. With forwards coming back, suddenly goaltending is back up to 9.20
Not one hit from a D man last night. Would not have thought that possible????
IMO these injuries to Draisaitl and McDavid (if they don’t last long) are exactly what the Oilers need now. Wake this team up.
Management should do what they can to extend Podkolzin this summer, get proactive.
When all are healthy if that happens coach has some interesting decisions to make.
Jones/Ryan/Kapanen plus one other all coming out of the line up.
Jinner/Perry/Janmark/Brown
Imo Jinner/Perry are most likely.
Janmark may not be able to beat a goalie during the regular season, he is however one of the best transporters of the puck in the forward ranks. Brown seems to be one of the coaches favorite, and if the duo can recapture last springs PK domination then the one dimensional scoring forwards are those at risk of sitting.
Draisaitl/McDavid/Hyman
Podkolzin/Nuge/Arvidsson
Janmark/Henrique/Brown
Kane/Frederic/Perry
No idea how it plays out until Kane and Frederic get going. But I definitely see a world where if the Nuge line can keep on trucking as is, the glimmer twins are united.
Skinner seems to be stepping up his game. I think the team needs to give him a chance down the stretch to show what he can do, as his ceiling is far higher than most of the guys in our bottom 6. I see a lot of people call Skinner one dimensional, but imo Brown and Janmark are also one dimensional, just more on the defensive than offensive side. That said, I don’t see a lot of evidence in the regular season that our PK is going reproduce the magic from last year, and if I had to pick one dimension to prioritize, goal scoring should be valued more than PK specialist
Yes Brown/Janmark are one dimensional as well, they’re also not competing against McDavid/Draisaitl levels of competition on that side of the puck.
The PK will need to be excellent in the post season, they’ll be a large part of that story.
The coach has no problems sitting guys in the playoffs when the physicality ramps up and the player doesn’t participate. Foegele/Mcleod, I commend Jinner for coming on, yet I don’t see a world where the coach can’t look away from his non physical elements come crunch time.
I believe Jinner’s track record and current play has given the coach all he needs to know. Now if the team struggles to score in a series, will he get a look, sure.
Who are you taking out to keep Jinner in? If it’s a PK guy, who’s replacing that. It’s not Jinner, it’s not Kane or Frederic, it’s not Perry. Imo Jinner loses the race because of that.
I see a few posts ripping Stu Skinner & suggesting the score was closer than the actual game.
However, the various providers of expected goals data tell a very different story:
Natural Stat Trick: SEA 3.91 EDM 2.97
Money Puck: SEA 4.77 EDM 2.98
Evolving Hockey: SEA 4.44 EDM 3.49
Cult of Hockey: SEA: 4.53 EDM 3.87
My takeaway from these numbers alone is that this was a high event game that the Oilers won in large part because their goalie was better than the other guy.
to be fair, Seattle also misses a few darn good chances.;
although that may not be included in this statistic as it is not registered as a shot on net.
He finished his college career March 12 – he should have been signed and in the Condors lineup by now – in my opinion.
If he waits until mid-August, can he not sign with anybody?
Probably makes more sense for him to go play in Germany or somewhere in Europe and try to make the Olympic team. He can probably make more money in Europe for a year or two, and then be selective about where he wants to take his NHL shot.
Maybe he wants to finish his degree.
Yes, he can sign with anyone.
Given he’s come across to North America to play college hockey for the last number of years, I presume his dream is to play in the NHL and looks forward to signing his ELC. He could be playing in a top NHL team’s AHL club now, as that club pushes for the playoffs. On a team that has all but no legit left shot d-men prospects (and an incumbent that is approaching 35 years old in the NHL).
He has a clear path to the NHL within a few years (tops) if he progresses – on a team that will likely still be a very good NHL team if not still a top contender.
Pretty much all the models had expected goals against last night around 4.5 – I didn’t see that, thought it was just an OK night from Stu (again) but it was all the models (at least 3 that I’ve seen).
Ha, just seeing this now after spending a few minutes gathering data for my own post along these lines.
Truth be told, you and Kevin provided me this information this morning at the gym listening to the post-game pod. Apologies, I should have mentioned where I got the data/facts. My bad.
Also, thanks for the shout out on the pod and sorry I wasn’t able to pinch hit for Dave last night.
One can see this being a playoff 2-way 3rd line.
Skinner/McDavid/Hyman
Kane/Drai/Frederick
Podz/Nuge/Arvy
Janmark/Rico/Brown
Perry/Podz/Ryan/Jones
We’ll see if Kane can play there – if not, hmmmm.
Why would a college free agent or undrafted junior sign with the Oilers considering the state of the Bakersfield Condors, the Oilers treatment of young players, and the resume-less coach they have kept in place for over three years now, who has accomplished zilch.
The AHL is a coach’s league. Coaching talent reveals itself quickly.
Todd Nelson took the OKC Barons to the 2nd round of the playoffs with Bryan Helmer and 5 ECHL guys on defense to six games against a Toronto Marlies team stacked with future NHL’ers (Kadri, Jake Gairdner, etc), and even then the series turned on Ben Scrivens being Superman for the Marlies. Hartikainen was the best forward in the series.
Hartikainen was a significant talent, the Oilers buried him for another Finn with a bad back. I’m not here to rip Nelson, he should have had an NHL job years ago. I am here to say that the Oilers money spends as well as any other team’s money. But you have to be willing to spend it
Because it’s a pathway to the NHL, and it gets the eyes of decision makers on you regularly.
The roster of the Condors is outside their control, all they can do is show up and make a difference. You’d think there would be more of an opportunity to do so on a weaker team.
Don’t you think every other team is using the state of the Condors and how they treat young players against the OIlers when they talk to the agents of CHL and college free agents?
Does anyone remotely think Chaulk would ever be considered for an NHL job? The AHL is a place for grooming young coaches, or hiring proven veteran coaches, who one could envision as an NHL coach. All the rosters are basically equivalent except over short periods of time.
Every player & agent in the AHL believes they should be in the NHL
Chaulk has as much experience prior to becoming an AHL head coach as Bednar did when he first became a head coach in the AHL. Seems to have done ok making his way to the NHL.
Bednar has won the league championship in every league he coached in. Chaulk has never won a playoff round in his coaching career.
^^^this^^^
I miss Hartikainen I had just high hopes for him a dri special light at best and even that never happened 😔
He could be playing in the AHL tonight, on a team fighting for a playoff spot and in an organization where he would be the top left shot D prospect on a contending team with a top 4 left shot d-man approaching 35 years of age.
An organization that recently drafted and developed Michael Kesselring and Vincent Deharnais from late round NCAA draft picks to the NHL.
He could also have U.S.$90K in his pocket.
I opined before that the key to this stretch is to rely on defensive structure – limit risks, don’t turn kicks over and give away goals.
Both Nurse and Bouch has some solid to great plays with the puck going forward but both made defensive/puck management blunders leading to goals against (2 forwards Bouch).
Bouch had really taken that out of his game this month (as he does at this time of year).
Hopefully just a blip.
Great job out scoring mistakes.
I suspect the outcome might have been different if Kraken had better goal tending. Joey was not good but hey happy with two points. Will need to be better defensively against the Stars.
Oilers’ goals all came from distance.
As in 40, 36, 27, 40 & 167 🤓 feet.
Well we won’t blame Joey for the one from 167′!
I was fairly heartened to see 97, 29, 21 and 91 smiling and waiting to greet their teammates inside the dressing room door.
Look out when all four are in the lineup!
Nuge carrying the puck last night was beautiful. A few years ago he had a good run at 3c with Kostin and Janmark.
The Condors are the most decimated team I have ever seen. It’s sad.
I saw the box score from last night, had no clue who some of the players were. Is it a bad run of injuries, OP?
Injuries plus guys traded away plus a few guys out for a while with personal matters (Brown and Dermott has not played since they reclaimed him and sent him down).
It’s truly an organizational issue. Their manpower recruiting and deployment is abysmal.
I was at the game last night. Joey wasn’t d’accord. Sru Skinner is playing himself off this team. Looking a lot like Scrivens out there, leading with his head and bear rugging a lot. Should not have been as close as it seemed. Oilers were good value for the win. KK needs to come up with a plan for Bouchard. Teams are double man rushing him on the blue. It’s an identified play against him now.
It makes him panic ( Bouchard) and his panic response is slow. Good coaches will pressure him heavy, BUT if they do dbl rush him on the pp, it will leave Drai , Nuge open on the sides to shoot more.
Thx for the report. KK and Coffey are fine, but it does worry me that given they have a lot to work with, there seems to be a lack of creativity
Coffey witnessed first hand how Sather handled attempts to corral Gretzky. If there’s a double team there is an open player, make a way to exploit that. That and innovation are the essence of sport, and everything else really
Do we Have to flush Skinner to improve the goaltending?
Skinner is only 26 & has a 2.6M cap hit on a team that is far from playing a lock down defensive structure.
How about looking for a new goalie to challenge & push for the starters role?
Thought we gave up two goals too many on rebounds. I would keep Skinner but another goalie who could be the starter is vital. Let them battle it out and best man wins. Stu is too young to flush but he is certainly testing everyones patience this year.
Not Necessarily, but the talk of bringing in a 3rd goaltender is a good idea for next fall. That is if they have an actual competition for #1 , just don’t bring in a guy that you want as his backup. As far as UFA goalies, there really isn’t an actual #1 goalie. As for trades Gibson will probably be available ( but I don’t think they would trade for him). The guy who they really could take chance on could be Demko. Some think Van would trade him. Sure he is a bandaid but could he be all healed up finally after this summer?
There just are not a lot of goaltenders out there that could be traded. But who thought we would end up with Walman?
Gibson is a mirage. So is Vejmelka. Demko is broken.
Personally, I think it will end up being someone from the Kochetkov/Ned/Lyon/Samsonov tree.
Agreed. Keep Skinner, sign someone to platoon in net (and take the load off Stu so he can focus on taking his game to another level). And for the love of Gord, get a new goalie coach.
I have a feeling Fred Brathwaite would be a solid upgrade.
I can’t find a resource easily that lists quality goalie starts but LT was talking about it. Skinner is way down this season. LT said he’d regress to normal, and Stu might but likely next season
The tandem is low cap, but also not ideal for a top team. This has tanked other teams such as the Leafs and Canes who could run great reg seasons and not go as far as expected in the real season
It seems to me that it might come down to cap. Ideally ‘if’ Skinner is seen as better than Pick, his cap isn’t bad for a 1A 1B scenario. But, if the cap is an issue Pick has played better and is cheaper, so Stu’s cap might have to go toward the new fella
Given goalie UFA apparently isn’t great this summer it seems a trade is what would happen, and Stu probably going the other way bcs cap. Bowman is far different than Holland who mostly did obvious things
KH did get Ek who wasn’t obvious, but I think that was more that the Preds weren’t thinking of moving him and when that changed I don’t think that Holland was the sole GM in on that, which may be why the cost ‘at that time’ was pretty dear. Stan on the other hand pried Walman out of Rosy’s steely fingers completely off the radar. Might happen with a goaler as well
Hockey-reference is a good source for QS.
Thanks Bruce, it looks like they are using Volman’s method so I assume your good with it?
I don’t know how long you have been a follower of this excellent blog, but we used to have a saying during the DoD: The Edmonton Oilers make decisions based on things other than winning.
At this point it look like Skinner is just concentrating on making the stop, rebounds be damned.
a win is a win, they all can’t be pretty.
RNH is a beauty.
His rebound control is brutal
The Oilers D getting beat to the rebound and/or blocking out forwards in front of the net is brutal, which is why the opposition is passing to themselves off of Skinner’s pads.
I find it odd that the front of the net and slot remain unprotected so often, when the point of the system they are supposed to be playing is to reduce that happening
Something isn’t right. If it really is the players can’t remember their jobs Stan needs to get tough and find guys that can do it. Movement clauses aren’t insurmountable
However I’m not sure it is that
He’s had a wonderful season and adds to this team but that is two poor nights in a row for Perry.
No worries, it happens but, if this team ever gets fully healthy, 4 forwards that played last night come out.
Last night Bowman said 10-14 days for Frederick and Kane will play in the playoffs (maybe not at the start but I think that’s public verbal).
Obviously Ryan and Jones are out and I think Kap is the clear third guy.
We know Jeff Skinner will never be safe on the lineup but, as of right now, if they were fully healthy tomorrow, I give Perry a couple games off.
So that timeline puts Frederic at 6-9 games before the playoffs.
Hopefully that’s enough time to gel and be productive.
“ At least 2 Weeks” from Friday puts him with only 6 games if the “At Least” doesn’t kick in. He has a high ankle sprain, so the healing time is 6-8 weeks . He was injured Feb 26 so 6 weeks takes him to April 9 . Giving him 5 games , 7 weeks would give him 1 game , 8 weeks would take him to the 2nd game of the playoffs probably . Let’s hope it’s 6 weeks.
If Nuge can play like that with nobodies on the third line, Dr Strange sees this as an outcome that would win the Stanley Cup.
It’s a shame Brown and or Janmark can’t bury the biscuit. But yes that line was buzzing.
So,I’d win for this team. There were some warts in the Zoil end, but they won. 2 points is all that matters
Going to be a tougher road against Dallas. But play that hard and shore up the D and goaltending a bit and they can win
Why the f..k does the Oilers dj insist on playing that horrible racket every time the team scores a goal?
It isn’t even musical. It’s just a kind of repetitive racket that sounds like someone dry heaving.
That’s Brahms! Brahms third racket!
Oilers need a new goal song
Prospectourism!
The OHL regular season concludes today. Barrie and Flint know who will oppose them (Niagara, Kitchener), but London does not just yet.
It’s possible the Knights mightn’t until Tuesday. If the Sarnia Yakupovs defeat the Soo Nurses today, there will be a tiebreaking game Tuesday ‘twixt Sarnia and Owen Sound for 8th and the right to get smoked by London.
Today marks the end of Stonehouse’s NAmateur career. One suspects he is bound for Bakersfield, but Fort Wayne looms too.
One suspects Day gets a rest as Flint’s fortunes are known and he has played by far the most minutes of any O goalie. Clattenburg too might get another game off.
Berry and the Jacks of Lumber go for the weekend sweep after consecutive 6-3 wins.
Muskegon (Berry) @ 1 p.m.
London (O’Reilly, Nicholl) @ 2 p.m.
Flint (Day, Clattenburg) @ 3:30 p.m.
Peterborough (Stonehouse) @ 4 p.m.
All times, at all times, are Dapp time.
Any idea if Day man could go the college route now? He has potential but a 22-23 year old Day would presumably be more refined than dying on the vine in Fort Wayne.
He could–assuming he’s academically eligible–but then he would no longer be Oilers property. He has to be signed by June 1 or he re-enters the draft.
That said, I’m not sure whether this new CHL/NCAA agreement has changed things, but this is my understanding as laid out.
Forgot to mention: the London match will be shown on TSN+.
For me last night was before the game exhorting RNH to show everyone why he was a 1st overall pick, then seeing him score a hat trick.
Is Stanley “Cup” Bowman’s family not living in Edmonton.
Daryl needs to insist that Jackson and Bowman fully complete to the Edmonton. Absent or hustling to catch a plane home management is not as good, long term.
He’s been with the org for less than a year (late July hire) and has 3 kids. Be reasonable.
Plus his kids are 20 & 18 & 16?
Pretty sure they have their own lives & are probably in College or University
In a June 2019 article his kids were 16, 13 & 7, so they’d be 22, 19 & 13 now. Definitely one still at home, and even if the older two are in post-secondary it’s nice to have a home base. However, I think I heard somewhere in an interview they have moved to Edmonton. No source or link on that though.
His After Hours interview was good. I forgot he was a Hodgkin’s lymphoma survivor, that was quite the ordeal for him & his family. Seems pretty even keel and has a good perspective on life.
Agree completely.
It is not unreasonable for any hire to move family to the community in which they will work. Many have to do it. And if really committed buy a home, don’t just rent!
Seems all senior Oiler executives (maybe even the coach), including the owner, do not live in Edmonton. This is an indication they are not fully committed to the Oiler organization.
Like ‘I have a home in the eastern Canada or USA that I can always return to’, if I don’t like the job or get fired.
Lack of commitment, lack of respect.
Jackson doesn’t live in Edmonton but I believe Stan Bowman does.
I think Nuge needs to play as a center. If you play Mcdavid Drai and Nuge 20 min a night then it doesn’t matter who the 4th line center is
I vote for Henrique
It looks like the four centers are McDavid, Draisaitl, Nuge & Henrique in that order. But when they load up Connor & Leon all that goes by the wayside. Simple solution don’t load up the glimmer twins, unless they’re desperate for a goal and they’re down to three lines.
Can we just add that “1” to RNH’s P/60 now LT? Long live the Nuge!
And Stan Bowman if you’re reading… sign Podkolzin immediately please! He’s impressed me all season and last night he was incredible.
Podkolzin is signed for next year already @ $1 million I believe.
You are correct good sir… my bad
After the Oilers failure to sign their prized RFA’s last year, Bowman was smart to acquire 2 guys who had already signed their bridge deals (Podkolzin 2x $1.0, Emberson 1x $0.950). Tye hard work was already done.
No worries man.
I wasn’t going to watch the ga,e last night but after a solid day of choring I tuned in and glad I did.
glad to see the puck is going in for Nuge and it will be great for that confidence to roll into the playoffs.
4GA is too many but the D needs to be better and stronger in front