The Edmonton Oilers are riddled with problems, don’t appear to have the answers and there is no additional help on the horizon. A team with the best 1-2 punch in the entire league is not able to win at five-on-five, on the power play or the penalty kill. The good news? The Oilers have been able to play the Los Angeles Kings to a tie during the anthem.
Did you ever wake up to find
A day that broke up your mind
Destroyed your notion of circular time
The words of Mick Jagger seem fitting today, the Oilers are so far out of this series the mind has a difficult time placing things in context immediately. What do we know for sure? Let’s have a look.
THE NUMBERS
Stuart Skinner is going to get ripped in national and local media, but for me this Oilers team, as currently constructed, would make Dom Hasek look ordinary. Last night, we saw 11 HDSC’s from the Los Angeles Kings, who are not the 1984 Oilers offensively. Calvin Pickard will get the start in Game 3, with the season on the line. Godspeed, Mr. Pickard.
I mentioned yesterday that Skinner and Bouchard needed to deliver at a high level in order for Edmonton to win. That didn’t happen. Bouchard’s performance on the Byfield goal represents powerful evidence for those who are anti-Bouch (I am not among them).
There’s an old saying I learned many years ago. It goes like this: During a five-year period in a specific vocation, a person can either gain five years experience or one year’s experience five times. Bouchard needs to read and react to plays like the Byfield snipe, because defense is pretty damned important in that moment.
Darnell Nurse had a dreadful game, and it’s too bad because this has been his best season. I dislike the Nurse-Bouchard pairing, who are 1-2 goals during this series (in 22 minutes) five-on-five. Nurse is 0-1 goals in 16 minutes away from Bouchard, and that’s not good, either. Bouchard? He is 1-3 goals away from Nurse.
Special teams has been bad through the first two games. On the PK, Nurse is 0-3 goals in 7:33. When he is not on the ice, Edmonton is 0-2 goals in 6:49. Good grief. The Oilers are 4-4 goals five-on-five when Nurse is off the ice, 1-3 when he’s on. He is facing tough opposition, but these numbers are disastrous.
Bouchard’s power-play work so far in this series has yielded diddly squat. 8:36 power-play time, zero goals. The team has also failed to score in the 36 seconds of PP time that did not include Bouchard.
I’d like to say he makes up for it at five-on-five, but his on-ice goals totals (2-5) are rancid. Edmonton is 3-2 goals with Bouchard off the ice.
INJURIES
Kris Knoblauch is going to take major heat if this team goes down in four or five. I don’t know how much is earned and how much is injuries, but one doubts it matters in the end. Trent Frederic is not 100 percent healthy. Jake Walman slipped a gear in his defensive read on the first goal. I think you play Walman anyway, because he’s been pretty good. Frederic? Now that Evander Kane is back (skating well, hitting, forechecking aggressively, you have to give him time to get his hands back) perhaps we’ll see a healthier player join the playing roster over Frederic for Game 3.
BOTTOM LINE
Nope. Nopeity Nope Nope. The Edmonton Oilers have been elusive in describing various injuries and maladies, and now that all is revealed the excuses will come. I’m not buying. If the organization is going to simply not talk about injuries, then we have to assume this is how bad it really is the next time Kris Knoblauch says everyone is going to get a game in before the end of the season. We shall never see the best edition of this team, ladies and men. Pretty sure.
The Lowdown hits at noon today, Sports 1440. Bagged Milk from Oilers Nation will be the feature guest, and I’ll defend Evan Bouchard and Stuart Skinner as verbal blows rain down from the text line. We’ll also have NFL draft talk and your comments will hold sway during all segments. 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.
Last year, my brother and I flew from Thunder Bay, ON and bought overpriced tickets to watch Game 4 of the SCF because I was confident the Oilers could turn it around despite being down 3-0 in the series. We were rewarded with a SCF game of a lifetime and an almost epic comeback for the ages.
For 5 out of 7 months this season (November, December, January, March, April), the Oilers were good enough, by points percentage, to win a 7 game series (at least 0.571 needed). In 5 of 7 months of the season (November, December, January, February, March) their PP was better than 20% successful (April was dreadfully low, so there seems to be a carryover in effect). For 5 out of 7 months (November, December, January, March, April), their PK was over 80% successful. From November through January, they went 27-13 (.675) and were one of the best teams in the NHL. Yes, they had Ekholm during most of that time, but they also had weaker overall defensive depth for much of that time (Walman slots in better as a #3-4 than Kulak).
I still feel the Oilers have it in them to take this series and use the adversity they are facing to drive them through to the Cup. This doesn’t mean that I will be destroyed should they not figure out what they need to do (and/or stop doing) to get through this series or any additional series.
Yep, never say never when you have 97 and 29. Could come back and win the series 4-2, or get swept. The latter looking more likely than the former, but I’m still watching on Friday because 97/29 make winning a possibility any given night.
We’re truly lucky to get to watch them play every second night.
I know McLeod (like any former Oiler who wasn’t the second coming of Messier) gets a lot of crap, but he was really underrated on the PK, and brought some much needed speed to the lineup.
Savoie should be inserted into the lineup before this series is over, he won puck battles consistently during his audition earlier this year and KK needs to learn to live with the mistakes of youth when there’s upside
I’d like to see Savoie be tried out. The Kings seem to have goal scorers, while the Oilers have guys who have occasionally capitalized on plays by McDavid or Draisatl.
you were spot on yesterday, when Knob’s urgency meter was mentioned
The Oilers have been able to play the Los Angeles Kings to a tie during the anthem.
Thanks Allan, I needed the chuckle!
Defenders need to defend! That is the reason I hope the Oilers don’t overpay Bouchard. He doesn’t seem to be learning from his mistakes. If he wants the $10M salary then trade him. The return might include another goaltender.
Stuart Skinner has not had a great year but other than trading Bouchard how do you obtain an excellent goal tender and show me the cap space especially now that Connor must be paid the sun, the moon and the stars?
I still don’t think trading Bouchard would work out well for the Oilers, but I’d be curious what a trade centered around “Bouchard for Saros” would look like. Haven’t given it much thought but the list of quality goalies who could change teams this offseason isn’t long …
Woof.
A whole lot of whiney children posting today.
Do all of you give up this easily in life, as you do with your hockey team after two losses?
Woof.
A whole lot of mouthbreathing boomers posting here today.
Do you keep your head in the sand with everything in your life, as you do after your injured, poorly-constructed hockey team has underperformed all season?
Sorry, all I read was “waaaaa waaaaa”
Yeah I think it’s quite clear you have difficulty reading, among other things
It is possible to hope the team wins while having an honest discussion about the shortcomings of the management and coaching staff. It’s part of what makes professional sports fun
And yet where does this “I hope the team wins” exist in the comments today?
I finally found a comp for KK that I like – Lieutenant Dike from Band of Brothers!
Don’t you disgrace that show with your BS
Ranford.85 reminds me of Captain Sobel
Coach says he hasn’t made a decision on the starting goalie for tomorrow but did mention that, coming in to the playoffs, they knew they would need to make a switch at some point (i.e. use both guys) if they were to go on a long run.
He did reiterate his comments from post-game that the amount of goals is not on the goalie but on the quality (and quantity) of chances given up.
Win and you’re in going forward.
Skinner has played 37 playoff games he has 19 wins 17 losses with a 889sv. Can someone please tell me how many times he’s been yanked in the 37 starts? This is the guy you want to go to war with? Bowman leaks that there changing the goalie situation next year. Pickard plays well enough not to get a goalie immediately he basically saves the season yet they won’t start him. Ask yourself why the media keep propping and protecting Skinner? Obviously they don’t believe in Pickard so let’s continue to play a half-broken Skinner. A 19-17 pkayoff record is all you need to know that he’s not the answer.
Somewhere along the line everyone forgot Skinner was meant to be the backup.
Now we have two backups. So why not just play the backup that is playing better? Picard has been totally fine this season and clearly better than Skinner. Never made any sense to me.
Yes, let’s fire Knoblauch for having to choose between Skinner and Pickard, Ekholm hurt, Bouchard looking like a rookie, losing Broberg, Holloway, McLeod and Foegele.
Maybe it’s his fault the PP and PK are broken, but I doubt it.
His fault on the special teams – both related mostly to deployment but also stale systems.
His fault on the goalie situation being mismanaged.
His fault for not bothering to figure out how to use talented players during the season.
His fault for having zero emotional leadership of the bench and leaving it entirely to #s29 and 97.
His fault for the lack of physicality in the team’s style.
His fault for the solution to everything being Connor Brown.
His fault for not adjusting with any decisiveness or purpose.
His fault for not fostering any individual growth in his players.
I could go on.
He is not the coach to lead them to Cups, therefore he is not the coach.
I don’t disagree with the sentiment, but this is a bit of an overreaction and is laying way to much at the feet of KK
Doesn’t Glen Gulutzan run the PP? And Stuard does the PK?
Is “the goalie system being mismanaged” just starting Pickard over Skinner? I don’t think Pickard is capable of backstopping the team to a cup either way
Hard to play physical when the team is hurt and you have a bunch of old and slows …
I don’t think screaming on the bench/at the refs would make much of a difference
He’s not primary offender, to be sure. However, his approach this year has been horrible.
With a full offseason to prepare for a season, he changed the structure and style the team was playing even though they made it to G7 of the SCF last year. He’s thrown lines into a blender all year inhibiting any solid chemistry between players to form in furtherance of getting the team to play ‘the right way’. He’s prioritized a low-event/shot-suppression approach with a roster that screams offense, offense, offense. He’s elevated players who work hard but who can’t cash chances and sidelined skilled, offensive contributors because of, at times perceived, lack of effort and gaps in their defensive game.
Good coaches adapt their system to their players, recognize players strengths, and put their players in the best possible position to succeed. KK has done everything short of putting Tobey Peterson on the powerplay and playing a 1-3-1 with 97 and 29 this year
Broberg and Holloway have a combined cap hit for the next two years of $6,871,374.
On July 1, JJ gave out $7M in cap to Arvidsson/Skinner, and $7.6M of cap in re-signings (Pickard/C. Brown/Henrique/Perry/Janmark).
But hey, at least we got 3 games of Trent Frederic and two third-round picks out of it.
Jeff Jackson masterclass
Arvidsson at least had a chance of working out. Skinner signing was absolutely stupid
They both had a chance of working out. But taking those chances, (1) a risk you don’t need to take, (2) while boxing yourself in with NMCs in case those bets don’t pan out, and (3) exposing yourself to the risk of losing two of your former first round picks who just established themselves as NHLers at 22 years of age, the year after you got to G7 of the SCF, was an unnecessary risk and an asinine decision rising to a level of criminal mismanagement that would make Anatoly Dyatlov look cautious and conservative
Arvidsson has not had an injury free season since 2016/17.
It was a bad bet from the outset.
Almost as bad of a bet as bringing back your 32 year old captain after not playing for three years??
Avs are 0-1 with Landeskog. But didn’t he get a couple points in the AHL??
Lol what type of a comparison is this.
Landeskog (a) was not a free agent signing, (b) was LTIR’d all year (not counting against the cap), so he didn’t take up any cap $ that could’ve been spent elsewhere, and (c) activating Landeskog didn’t result in the Avs losing two of their former first round draft picks who just established themselves as NHLers for peanuts?
I know you’re just trying to pick a fight with HH but this is an idiotic take that’s completely disconnected from reality.
Yes.
77 games from 2 years ago, I would call injury free
With two back surgeries in the intervening season?
If it was a one year deal with a limited no-trade, then at least you have the opportunity to pull the plug after 40 games. But a 2 year deal with a NMC is difficult to work around.
The Oilers’ coaching cycle has played out reliably over the past number of years and reveals flaws in their coach-hiring process. Not the team. They’re not perfect either – but they do have the best 2 players in the world. You shouldn’t need an amazing supporting cast to win a division if they are deployed properly. They aren’t.
Here’s how things have gone:
1 – Coach inherits offensive juggernaught
2 – Coach wins with the team scoring many goals and having some nights where there are a lot of mistakes
3 – Coach decides that rather than leaning into the team’s strength, he will fix the “flaw” and teach them how to defend
4 – Playing style and overall aggressiveness changes markedly
5 – Goal scoring drops and team begins losing more, despite better defending
6 – Coach laments what could possibly be wrong, and that the team is losing despite playing “well”
7 – Psychological effects of players playing away from their strength take hold, driving down performance across the board
8 – Coach fired
Find a coach who will identify the strengths of this team and max them out, not try to “fix” them. Building is done via individual players as Sather did with Messier, Coffey, Kurri, Anderson, and even the greatest of all damn time.
The only individual contribution of the last 4 coaches to either #97 or #29 is that Leon now knows he can be the best of the 2 on any given night. Hat tip to Todd for getting that out of him.
Yep. Why KK settled on the team playing a low-event/shot suppression style all year rather than leaning into the one advantage the Oilers have over the entire league is beyond me.
The biggest mistakes coaches make is wanting to win “their way”, rather than finding out the best way to take advantage of their players/roster. There’s more than one way to win, and often times the best strategy is figuring out the best way for your players to win, not working backwards from a pre-conceived idea about the “right way” to play
Players under contract next year with NMCs/no-trades (excl. 97/29):
Nurse ($9.25M) – NMC
Nuge ($5.125M) – NMC
Kane ($5.125M) – 16 team no trade
Arvidsson ($4M) – NMC
Henrique ($3M) – NMC
Janmark ($1M) – 10 team no trade
I don’t think any of these players is so much of a negative that it’s worth giving up assets just to free up cap space, but man, the team really hamstrung itself, particularly this year.
This was discussed at length during the Trade deadline….
If only the front office discussed it prior to July 1 last year …
Next season is worse as all those players will be one year older with age-related decline already evident in most.
With only $9.4 million in cap space and Bouchard looking for a big payday there is virtually no room to manoeuvre.
And, hey, the Jack Campbell buyout doubles to $2.3 million.
The Oilers have a bad habit of making sure that 5-10% of their cap each year is allocated to paying for last year’s mistakes.
How does it get worse when Kane, Henrique and Arvidsson are all expiring next year? Seems like Bowman is gonna get a lot of room to change the roster in a year.
Those contracts expire AFTER next year.
They’re signed through 2025-2026
Get that PK working properly and figure out how to score some PP goals, if they get the opportunity to go on the PP.
As a personal gauge, I can tell how invested I am in the Oilers at any give time by how much I stew over them. Last year was an emotional rollercoaster in the playoffs where I would agonize over losses lying in bed trying to sleep and then wake up still stewing. This year on the other hand – meh. Nothing. It is like my brain somehow managed to properly assess the roster construction, the injuries and the goaltending going into the playoffs and effectively told my emotions to take a hike.
The ability to distinguish between “What I want to happen” and “what I expect to happen” is a skill I wish the front office could pick up as well
DiG UP, STUPID
THE Oilers management’s slogan for 35 years
If the Oilers had Dom Hasek in their crease they would of won the conference, started at home, playing the Blues.
If Bouchard goes at Byfield, and Byfield passes to the open man he’s roasted just as much. That’s a save Skinner must make, he’s 6 and half feet tall and gets beat over the shoulder.
He doesn’t have to go at Byfield. He mostly just has to stand his ground. Byfield shot from where Bouchard was standing.
Byfield would have to make a backhand pass (he is NOT Draisaitl) or bring the puck across his body to his forehand to make a pass. i.e. A pass could not be disguised.
Fiala is a left shot. A one-timer would not be possible. And any shot would not be at a great angle.
To all the folks here who applauded the Frederic trade on deadline day and chastised those of us saying it was an overpay/unnecessarily risky move given he was injured:
What’s your assessment of the move now?
It was a gamble that hasn’t paid off as of yet. I would rather see Noah Philp, another center inserted into the lineup. Frederic isn’t up to par, but Kane is looking good and that’s a positive.
Why trade for Frederic when you had Kane and Philp to begin with
It’s funny. When Galaxy Brain Jackson took over briefly from Holland, the future seemed locked down. McDavid coming off game 07 would be chomping at the bit with a management team that was tight with his very own representation. Some roster questions but clearly a very, very good team.
All he had to do was keep on keeping on. Instead, he hires Stan Bowman, who hadn’t been in the league for 3 years and whose reputation was shot. No matter what you think of Bowman’s role in Chicago’s scandal, that was a dumb ass move. The first thing he faced was a debilitating offer sheet. This is a famously aggressive managerial move made within a famously cliquey GM culture /community. It is reasonable to wonder if these things are connected. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I suggested this at the time and people nearly bit my head off. Because this team is much shittier now, and this dumb ass bet has not paid off, I’m bringing it back.
Where are the shots of him looking forlorn after goals against? C’mon Sportsnet. Or does he not travel with the team? I know he doesn’t live in Edmonton.
Some of us knew this hire was a totally embarrassing self own and we said so at the time. The culture matters. “Bowman deserves a second chance!”, was the refrain.
Why here? Why with a team that just went to Game 7 of the SCF? He hadn’t been in the league for three years! A “second chance” should have been a job, not the job!
“Wait for the results! You’re so quick to judge!”, was the pushback. Then the team was gutted of speed and talent and yet I still climbed off my high moral ground, and said ok, I’ll wait for the trade deadline.
I re-submit that Bowman did not deserve a second chance and certainly not in a culture that had been nurtured over time into a contender. So dumb!
Now Trent Federic has just hobbled around the ice in a playoff game in place of Jeff Skinner, two amazingly bad bets, and I am left here baffled that after a decade of pushing together, becoming a team with a championship culture, Stan Bowman of all people is going to be responsible for extending Connor McDavid 8 more years into an organization much shittier than he found it just 9 months ago. Huge own goal.
Or, he should be fired after the LA series. The Federic trade itself is enough justification. On with it. Maybe there’s still time to keep 97.
Agreed, l thought and said the same thing. Bad off season sank this team.
And what has been given away is the hardest thing to rebuild.
Most of the atrocious actions happened BEFORE Bowman arrived.
Jeff Jackson was responsible for making the team older, slower and more expensive with a brace of NMCs to ice the cake.
You have to wonder how (and who) was involved in the decision to hire Jackson.
Oilers ventured outside of the Hockey Canada old boys club after Nicholson and somehow found someone even worse
Can we stop it already with the “he doesn’t live in Edmonton” nonsense? I think it’s common knowledge at this point that he has a kid in high school in CHI and no parent is moving said kid to a new country mid-year.
I don’t care.
I’m talking here about organizational culture and accountability. His kid is in High School? Lame excuse.
I don’t give a shit where he lives I care if he’s good at his job. If Bill Zito would take the job on the condition he gets to WFH 24/7 I’d give him the job in a heartbeat.
I don’t care where he lives if he’s good at his job either, but he’s not.
Also, that was a minor throw-away line in a larger commentary about organisational accountability. Happy to let that one go.
So why don’t we criticize him for not being good at his job, instead of criticizing him for where he lives lol
We’re trying to find easy narratives to rationalize running a guy out of town. You being reasonable isn’t helping. I hear he slept with a reporter as well as one of the players wives.
More like a single line was cherry picked and is being used to undermine the larger point but whatever.
Hear hear. Don’t get in the way of us finding a scapegoat we can throw under the bus in 3 years instead of making deeper organizational changes that address the root cause of the organization’s years of dysfunction.
My Fear after the playoffs last year was that the best chances at a cup were missed.
Management likely assured that last summer. You need hungry youth.
Home ice is looking pretty damn important right about now.
Skinner is at best a below average goaltender,period
I think he has the tools to be an above average goaltender, but he clearly has work to do and would probably benefit from a change of scenery and a team with a goalie coach capable of helping him improve.
I feel like I could say the same thing about every goalie this team has drafted in the past 20 years
They are going to have to win four straight now because they don’t want to play game seven in LA. When the going gets tough……..
1) I’m not happy but I feel vindicated in my prediction that the Kings would win this series. Edmonton looks all the part of a top-heavy team that papered over weak goaltending and a negative 5v5 goal differential this year by being 3-on-3 OT/powerplay merchants, while LA looks like the smarter, more poised, defensively-sound team. While the comeback in G1 exposed some weaknesses in their structure when they took their foot off the gas pedal with a big lead, they corrected last night and kept the pedal pinned to the floor all night, and Kuemper bounced back from a shaky G1 with a strong performance in net. Kings in 7 is looking like a wildly overly optimistic prediction on my part.
2) Ekholm’s absence REALLY hurts this team. Hard to argue that any other player is more valuable to the team’s overall performance outside of 29 and 97. Him being in the lineup allows everyone else to slide down a spot in the batting order, and his ability to complement/cover up some of Bouchard’s weaknesses is apparent.
3) Re: Injuries – Oilers were lucky with how healthy they were last year, and this year is a reminder that health is a huge factor in determining who’s golfing and who’s playing hockey in May.
4) There should be, but likely won’t be, a significant internal assessment by the Oilers front office this offseason about what they did wrong this year. More likely than not, they pin this on the coach and the players, but the lions share of the blame lies at the feet of management. You can’t expect them to learn from their mistakes and improve if there’s no accountability, but I guarantee the portion of the media in Edmonton that carries water for the organization to preserve their access will be all to happy to direct the fans’ anger to whatever scapegoats management designates for them to throw under the bus. Dustin Schwartz will also probably survive his sixth or seventh regime change, despite a complete lack of evidence he’s done anything to improve the quality of the Oilers goaltending or help struggling goalies improve.
5) The Oilers medical staff’s assessment/treatment of injuries this year is concerning – presumably they had some role in assessing when Frederic would return before Bowman traded for him, and they clearly made a mistake. I’m not sure how much continuity there’s been behind the scenes, but this organization has a history of being overly-optimistic/aggressive when it comes to injury. Also wonder about their role in the Kane saga this year, diligence on the Klingberg signing, etc. Not a lot of positive arrows.
On Frederic – the trade was an overpay and an unnecessarily risky bet the day that it happened, and it somehow looks even worse today than it did the day it happened. The Oilers parted with a 2nd (the most valuable asset the received from the offer sheets last summer) and a 4th for less than 10 games from a hobbled middle-six scorer who is clearly not ready to play. The Oilers have a history of trading valuable assets/players for magic beans, and this move has the opportunity to go down as one of the worst deadline deals in team (and maybe league) history.
Before the defenders jump in and say how this gives the team the inside track to resign him – why not just wait until the summer to go after him? Hell, you could’ve even traded a late round pick to Boston to get his negotiating rights? I can already see Bowman giving term and $ to a player who is better suited for a short-term/pillow contract to cover his ass so he doesn’t “lose Frederic for nothing”
6) Big picture – Why did the Oilers hire JJ to be the head hockey ops guy? He had no experience managing a team, building a roster, or evaluating folks to do those jobs. It looks to me like this organization thought they need to keep McDavid happy so they hired his old agent. And then when Woodcroft was fired they hired McDavid’s old junior coach, who frankly looks overmatched and slow to react. I’d like to think they hired these guys because they thought “they’re capable of building/coaching a cup winner”, but I feel like that was secondary to “Connor will like these guys and we have to keep Connor happy”. That seems like a pretty stupid way to make hiring decisions, because I’m sure 97 doesn’t give a crap about anything other than winning.
7) By the time next year’s postseason starts, McDavid will be 29 and Draisaitl will be 30. No player who is as good at hockey as McDavid has gotten this far into their career without a cup. Outside of Ovi and Yzerman, you can probably say the same about Draisaitl. Gretzky, Howe, Orr, Messier, Mario, Jagr, the Rocket, Beliveau, Crosby, Lidstrom, Lafleur, Sakic, all had at least one cup before they turned 30, if not more. This is not an indictment of McDavid or Draisaitl – it’s an indictment of the organization. How have the Edmonton Oilers, who have no problem spending to the cap and paying players, taken the first 10 years of two of the best players of this generation, one of whom is already a Top 5 player of all time, and turned it into one SCF appearance and one conference finals appearance where they were swept? This is an organizational failure that is, frankly, unlike nothing we have ever seen in the NHL.
8) If you’re McDavid, and this postseason ends they way it looks like its going to end, do you think that staying with this organization makes sense for you as a player? Do you feel that the folks responsible for building a roster around you are good at their jobs? Do you believe that the organization around you is capable of winning a cup after failing to do so for the first 10 years of your career? Loyalty and a desire to win with a group of teammates and friends you’ve been through hell with can only go so far. God I hope he stays, but if he decides to play out 2025-26 without signing an extension and leaving in FA, I can’t say that I could blame him.
9) With all of this being said – the series isn’t over and McDavid and Draisaitl have shown they can put the team on their backs and win multiple games while getting jack shit from the rest of the roster. Here’s hoping they somehow find a way to pull it out.
The Frederic trade was so brutal. Overpaid for an injured 4th liner with no clear return date.
I hated the move the day it happened and was derided by the majority of commenters here who applauded Bowman for the move.
Let this be a cautionary tale the next time the team trades for an injured depth player in the middle of a down year.
The worst part is high ankle sprains are notoriously fickle/hard to predict injuries, which made the trade even riskier
Gave higher asset to RETAIN salary on a guy who didn’t even count against the cap.
The Oilers proclivity to light draft picks on fire for magic beans and depth players, across multiple GMs and Hockey Ops heads, is baffling
This management team which includes Jackson and Bowman, have made terrible asset management decisions since they got here. Giving away multiple assets for little to no return. Now with few remaining trade assets and few if any difference makers coming up through the system, the Oilers are reduced to trying to patch things together through free agency for the rest of the McDrai window.
Yep. Those of us who have been pounding the “asset management” drum for months/years have been right all along.
You can’t keep mortgaging the future for magic beans and what-ifs and expect it not to bite you in the ass.
I assume S. Skinner will be traded away this offseason, and I assume the coach is going to be shown the door too.
But I think based on purging youth and speed, Jeff Jackson really should be shown the door too. He shortened the Oiler’s Stanley window substantially and torpedoed the 2024-25 season.
If the Oilers had prioritized and kept Broberg and Holloway (instead of getting Arvidson and J. Skinner), and hadn’t traded away McLeod, the Oilers wouldn’t have spent all of their trade deadline assets to bring in another (smaller, older, slower) LHD who can play RHD, and some fast energy wingers. They then could have had the assets to bring in a 1B goalie to steady the ship and really fill in the gaps.
That would require ownership/management to be introspective, willing to acknowledge their own mistakes, and to not just disclaim responsibility by scapegoating a coach and a few players.
based on how this organization has gone about the last 20-25 years or so, I don’t think that’ going to happen, as much as the organization needs to grow/change to be successful
Faults too numerous to dissect. Kings really want it. First to pucks. I will say that the first time we got inside their defensive perimeter around Kuemper, we scored.
To those blaming Bouchard on the Byfield and Kempe goals where he was the ONE In a 2-on-1 and a 4-on-1, walk me through your thought process.
I see Byfield on his forehand with his head up with Fiala back door. Bouchard has been coached that Skinner is weak EastWest so takes away the pass and Byfield scores from a low angle anyway.
Then on the 4-1 I see the same thing except Kempe is on his “on” wing so a worse shooting angle. Again Bouchard takes away the passing lane and Kempe just beats Picard clean.
So again, walk me through what it is you’re looking for from Bouchard on those plays?
It’s not even coaching. Bouchard took away the pass and Byfield was at an acute angle in tight. That’s a save you should make. But more concerning is that the two Oilers were more concerned with crushing the LA guy on the boards that they forgot about the puck. This happened a lot.
Mostly agree.
Bouchard played it safe and safe is good. That said, did Bouchard really think he would be able to intercept a cross crease pass on reflex? Seems like the backdoor option was pretty juicy anyway. It’s a static 2-on-1, but maybe the right play is to play it like a rush 2-on-1 and cut the pass while closing the attacker? Maybe put some pressure on even if it’s superficial? I don’t know I’m not a coach.
Commentary said that it’s tough shot to save as a goalie. I gotta trust them on that one.
Either way, the root cause of the goal was the 2-on-1 overload. A sharp eye notices Drai and Nurse getting caught flat footed along the boards allowing Byfield to pick their pockets and take on Bouchard/Skinner, but going a step more abstract: why was that play 4-on-3 in the defensive zone without the puck in the first place?
Where was Nurse?
Powerplay differential:
10 Kings PPs to 5 for the Oilers.
Thats hard to overcome when you special teams suck.
The real playoffs begin tomorrow for the Oilers. They have had two games to introduce themselves to each other.
Skinner is going to be traded somewhere and be a good NHL goaltender. The abominable team defense in front of him this season, and particularly in those two games in LA will be hard to replicate elsewhere. Most teams actually try to play a smidgeon of team defense.
What’s the solution? The quality of team defense has been a problem stemming many years and many coaches.
Remember early in the year when the team was the best defensive squad in the league and Skinner’s save % was still sub .900?
Ill gladly make a friendly wager that Skinner is, at best, a 25-30 game backup when it all shake out.
The LA coach said it best when interviewed after the game “during the off season we got grittier and stronger.” As I have said before Edmonton got “smaller, older ,slower and softer” The die was cast on July 1st 2024 ..Thanks JJ
Pretty bad performance really.
Goaltending and D. Just have not been good at all and quite dreadful.
WTF is up with Nuge. He is not a NHL c man period anymore. His faceoff prowess is killing the team on PK’s.
The team is slow.
like you say LT there are no reinforcements coming. Maybe put Ryan in next game for pk’s and draws?
Be nice to see a bunch of these guys show up. Hopefully Pickard has a game tomorrow night. I guess you never know, but it really doesn’t look very positive at this point does it
Go Oil , win Friday and give yourselves and the fans some hope .
You would think Nuge would get better at face-offs after all these years. Most good veterans lose speed or some other part of their game but they make-up by doing the little things well because of experience obviously Nuge never got the memo. We need face-off wins on the P.K bring in Philip or Ryan maybe they can win a draw and L.A then spends the next 30 seconds retrieving the puck like we do every P.P.
For those of you who didn’t have the TBS/TNT American feed, the panel absolutely lambasted Nurse for an entire segment(and it was well deserved) . They highlighted how awful his positioning and play recognition are for a good 5 minutes. It ended with Bissonette screaming “DARNELL, SIMPLIFY YOUR GAME!!!!!!” (of course most of the team should also do this.)
Frankly, it was very refreshing to watch an un-oiler affiliated media team actually do their job and not just pick and choose who they like.
Gregor, Rishaug, Spector and their ilk essentially create narratives about players they don’t like. NOT ONE of them mentioned Skinner or Nurse as being part of the problem last night. It’s infuriating. They would have crucified Koskinen in the town square if he played this poorly in a playoff game, let alone 2 consecutive games. Now? Crickets.
Skinner is one of the worst statistical playoff-goalies on record with this large of a sample size.
Yes, the team can obviously play better, but when every single mistake made goes directly into the net, the goalie is the problem.
That 2006 Stanley Cup final team made mistakes too, difference is Roloson actually stopped the puck occasionally.
Skinner has likely played himself out of the organization.
Management really screwed the pooch this season(and I did like some of the bets they made). But the affinity for “vets” and experience (read: slow and unable to get to the play) skewered the regular season. The asset management has been awful for decades and their failure to recognize that goaltending was an issue at the deadline(when most folks cited statistics as proof of how sub-par it was, not relying on “well, they almost won with him last year, therefore he’s good”) has made the climb to the top nearly impossible. They’ve likely pissed away the prime of 2 of the BEST PLAYERS OF ALL TIME. And unless those 2 can someone elevate their play even more(is it even possible?), it’s looking like they will never win.
Prep yourselves for a MASSIVE overpay for a goalie(probably costing Bouchard in the process and then 20 games later complaining about how they need a player to get the puck to 29/97)
What a F&%ing disaster.
Please, Someone talk me off the ledge
When stepping off the ledge, make sure you are stepping the right way.
this made me chuckle, thanks
It starts with management
1 off season UFA signings were a fail.
2 Poor handling of rfa’s leads to no match on either offer sheet.
3 replace departed rfa’s with lesser players
4 acquire multiple injured players that do not contribute on the ice. Spend assets doing so
5 continue to mishandle prospects generally.
6 Fail to address goaltending issue allowing it to continue to sink a team that expects to contend
then there’s the coach
1 Juggles line up throughout pre season which ensures there is no cohesion going into game one and ends up with a predictable slow start.
2 Continues the blender throughout the season, pre game lines rarely lasting an entire game let alone a 5 or 10 game segment. No chemistry develops on any line other than McDrai
3 Puts an offensively gifted free agent in the penalty box while the team struggles to score goals and other players make the same defensive mistakes as said player. Player then improves defensively while contributing more offense than almost anyone on the team. Player is rewarded with demotion and press box at first opportunity
4 Dresses a non NHL defenseman in game 1. Realizes too late after player unable to perform, so benches player and forces team to play short handed most of the game. Plays an NHL player instead in game 2 48 hours later
5 Maybe should be added to 3, but press boxing Skinner while playing the clearly injured an ineffective Frederic is just awful roster management.
6 Handling of goaltenders makes no sense.
After all this, I’m still not totally writing this team off because McDrai. They have shown many times how they play there best when their backs are against the wall. Gotta have game 3 to get it started
If you were the coach of this tire fire of a roster would you do anything differently
Sometimes less is more. Set some lines and pairings for 5 games and let the team get some chemistry with each other early in the season. Tinker a bit as required. The constant juggling and defaulting to McDrai is a vicious circle in that overplaying McDrai creates more wear and tear on them, and other players are left on the bench, losing confidence and any familiarity of playing in high pressure situations. Fire the coach
Knobber’s tried nothing and he is all out of ideas.
KK’s new PP1 unit:
C. Brown-Henrique-Janmark
Klingberg-J.Brown
Let J. Brown screen the goalie like Chara used to do for the B’s. Second round, here we come
Listening to coach post-game, talking about pulling Stu to give him a break and he doesn’t think there are many “bad goals” and the team not giving the goalie any help – prepare yourself mentally for Skinner to start on Friday.
This may just be to not throw Skinner under the bus as, if they turn this around and go on a run, they’ll need him, but I don’t think it’s locked that Pickard starts next game.
If that’s the case, the coach likely loses his job with Skinner.
I get what he’s trying to do by playing Skinner out of the funk he’s in. If he starts Skinner and we’re down 1-0 2-0 3-0 halfway through the game Edmonton fans may break Skinner themselves nevermind Will Ferrell. Play Pickard get the W and take it from there coach K.K and his stubbornness is going to cost us at another run for glory.
Pick’s will be in for both home games. In my dreams they are both victories. Skinner starts in LA and wins, then starts at home in game six to end the series. Prepare yourself. LOL
Massive turn around happening.
Something is wrong. Maybe the vacay in California before the series started plays a part. I dunno, but this team looks old, slow, and tired. They are being completely dismantled by a solid team. There is no help coming. The coach seems paralyzed and stares into the open spaces bewildered. Even he looks tired. There doesn’t seem to be any spark among the players on the ice. The team looks confused and befuddled. There is definitely something in the water going on here. I’m not too surprised tho. Outside of Drai, it has been a very disappointing Season. From what I’ve seen, it will be over soon.
Stu Skinner:
37 playoff games: .889 SV%.
Brutal. No other goalie in the cap era has been given this much leash on a contender.
Go back even one day on this comment section. It’s amazing how many people believe that he’s a good goalie.
It’s almost like a cult and coach K.K is going to go down with the Skinner ship. It’s going to cost us a sweetener to rid ourselves this offseason if Skinner gets lit up next game
Glen Sather went through 9 goalies in less than 2 years before he struck gold in Moog. We’ve been fooling ourselves with Skinner it took a hercelean effort we are still feeling to get to game 7. Is Pickard the answer probably not but he deserved the net from game 1. It was him putting up W’s that kept the Godless Flames from passing us. I’ve never seen a sub-par goaltender like Skinner recieve such a long leash.
What goalie can they get that is a UFA or to trade for this summer?
Comparing roster vs roster Oilers vs Kings, I do not give the advantage to the Kings. So despite Oiler offer sheets, loss of youth, off-season and trade deadline decisions, I do not see an advantage or disadvantage that would result in such goal discrepancies.
Exactly. The Oilers are still on vacay from the California trip. Maybe they will remember they have jobs and reality will set in when they get back from Cali? They do not act like people with their job on the line.
SPEED
This is more or less what I expected.
The issues in this series have been present all year. I expect the Oilers lose in 4 or 5. PK and PP have been ongoing issues.
Knobber needs to go. The guy is totally out of his depth.
Offseason predictions/hopes:
-Get a goalie
-Do not bring back any FAs
-If possible, trade any/all of Kane, Henrique, Arvi and RNH
-Fire Knobber
Starting next season with a top 4 of:
Ekholm Bouchard
Nurse Walman
Should make a huge difference.
The problem is 3 of your top 4 D are not good in their own end. Walman is good transition D but is not good in his own zone other than blocking shots and should not Pk. Bouchard has issues with reads and should not pk. Nurse has big issues with reads and should be at best on the second pk unit.
but need to move out a lot of forwards and rebuild the bottom 6 and goalers
Yeah. I mean if Bowman can trade Nurse or Bouchard and get back fair value I am fine with it. I just don’t think it’s that realistic.
Ekholm will be 35 (36?) coming off a serious injury (many in here have speculated a torn groin). I don’t think the team can depend on him returning to the 2022-2024 player.
Agreed, and if they do rely on Ekholm, it’s indicative of management continuing to NOT GET IT.
Sometimes tou HAVE to get younger and faster.
Old and.slow isn’t gonna work anymore it’s not 1998
Whoever thought giving this team rest before playoffs clearly doesn’t know this team. They do this every time!!
Overwhelmed and panicky defensive coverage that includes a lack of forward support, unbelievably shaky goaltending, ineffectual and/or washed-up wingers, badly timed line changes, team being crushed anytime 97 & 29 aren’t on the ice, what else?
Time is a flat circle when it comes to problems on the Oilers.
Vibes are very poor.
Oilers absolutely sucked in those two games and are full value for being blown out.
At the same time, in the regular season, as elite as the Kings were at home, they were very poor on the road.
Oilers need to take care of business at home through Sunday and make this a best of 3.
They certainly can do it.
Good post.
I need today to vent, get back on track tomorrow.
For inspiration, is there any possible instruments or musical demonstrations that can possibly worse than the harmonic horror?
I remember my one youngsters elementary class musical attempt with the “recorder”. But I don’t know if that could even be worse??
LT, wise as a fox… Brantford Boy, dumb as an ox…
Make no mistake good sir, I was hoping Bouchard fell to us on draft day, was and have been happy to have him. Unfortunately, where I draw the line is money. If he wants top pairing money, that has to be backed up with defensive play. I’d rather a Bouchard that puts up 40 points, runs the blue line on the PP but knows how to play defense, and most likely penalty kills. I think that’s worth $7M in today’s game.
I switch to streaming a couple seasons ago so no rewind for me. I saw the highlight once, can anyone confirm, did Anderson stick Draisaitl in the nads when he tumbled to the ice? I think he may have, and believe that is where the Oilers lost their collective sh!t on the ice.
Need two at home now… we’ll see how this plays out on Friday.
Why yes he did. Not with the blade, but with the shaft. Not sure if that makes it better or worse…
we need new coach bump lol, bring in JQ
Team is not playing well in front of the goalies. Full stop.
They miss Ekholm full stop. They are not as good in their own end. LT is spot when he says the current defense would make Hasek look ordinary.
Coach loading up 97 & 29 is making it easier for LA to defend. They’ve made their adjustments.
Also, not giving 97 & 29 a break after they draw penalties (he’s been doing this all season) is hurting even more now. LA is attacking a very tired duo. The coach is just making things easier for their opponents.
Am not sure they can make the necessary adjustments to get back in this series.
GM is going to have a lot of work to do this summer. And the coach is going to need to learn from his mistakes as well.
The current Oilers look like a poorly constructed team and a poorly coached team. The rancid PK and PP is coaching.
How can a PP with McDavid and Draisaitl be so poor?
When Bouchard is Boucharding, he is bad everywhere. Barrie was bad defensively, but it never affected him on the PP.
Teams have studied Bouchard, and have mostly taken away his shot, and Bouchard has not adjusted. Good PK teams will always figure out a way to take away the point shot.
Barrie was never married to his shot, and his shot was not his identity, so whether they were taking away his shot or not did not matter. It did not affect his play. Bouchard’s identity is tied up in his shot. Since teams have taken it away, Bouchard point play has deteriorated and brought down the entire power play.
Im disappointed with media, chat , folks stating the obvious “Kings flipped the script” or similar in trying to point to what is happening. Its superficial and statements of the obvious.
LA, beaten 3 years in a row, studied how to defeat the Oilers and now using a scalpel to dissect them. Absolute game plan and prep. Even the baiting of penalties was obvious tactic they knew would work.
Meanwhile Oilers look as if they have coasted along all season, just wanting to get back to game 7, but not actually being prepared to get there.
The roster was injured, there are some legitimate excuses yes. But there is enough talent on this roster to work with. They simply were not and are not ready. They don’t even know what hit them, 12 goals in two games.
The biggest question is why were they not ready? Injuries have an effect but we cannot trust who was really injured, who was being rested. Was it too egotistical to think they would just arrive at playoffs and everybody would just magically “be ready?”
Tactical game plan. Why were similar mistakes made all year? Why were these not addressed? How are all the defensive lapses occurring? Why is there a constant failure to pick up your man, stay on the high side, box them out from netfront? A good, smart, structured team can overcome a more talented unstructured team.
To state the players just need to “play better” is not fully looking at the problem. This looks like lack of coaching, lack of preparation that goes back well into the season. I’m very disappointed for our two big players who are willing to give everything they can to win every night.
Jeff Jackson better get Mcdavid to re-sign after this mess he created
— there is a non-zero chance he doesn’t resign
— A first round exit would definitely change the narrative and tone of negotiations : still highly unlikely he doesn’t but not a lock. And less Kiley he goes long like Drai IMO. I wouldn’t if I was him.
Skinner lets in a early goal both games which deflates the team. Why is Skinner so deep on the so called Byfield snipe? If Skinner comes out 2 feet Bossy doesn’t have nowhere to shoot.
Who taught nurse to go down on every defensive play?
I don’t understand what is happening on the PK. Apart from the lucky bounce off the end boards, cross-ice passes are constantly getting through and the Kings are getting easy tap-ins. Ekholm really masked so many problems with this roster, he doesn’t get enough credit.