We rarely saw games from America as kids, had to be playoffs or that rare time when both (then all) of the Canadian teams were on the road. We would see Chicago Stadium during the playoffs, especially the finals. Chicago Stadium always looked smoky, giving it an unusual feel, and it was very loud. The atmosphere seemed tight, close, intense, partly because of the Stanley Cup playoffs, but the building added to it. The current ‘Hawks have a fine building and a burgeioning team. The Chicagoans are merely six points behind Edmonton (same number of games played) but as you know six points is one forever in Bettman. I love the Chicago games. Great atmoshpere, hockey city.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN JANUARY
- At home to: Flyers, Preds (Expected 1-0-1) 1-1-0
- On the road to: Jets (Expected 1-0-0) 1-0-0
- At home to: Kings (Expected 1-0-0) 0-0-1
- On the road to: Blackhawks, Preds (Expected 1-1-0)
- At home to: NYI (Expected 0-0-1)
- On the road to: Canucks (Expected 1-0-0)
- At home to: Blues, Devils, Penguins, Caps (Expected 2-1-1)
- At home to: Ducks, Sharks, Wild (Expected 1-1-1)
- Expected Record: 8-3-4, 20 points in 15 games
- Actual Record: 2-1-1, five points in four games
- Season Record: 22-16-7, 51 points in 45 games
This month started as expected, the Kings result could be a minor blip and the Oilers have a nice little road trip here beginning tonight. With Jake Walman and Tristan Jarry returning soon, the idea of getting the entire team on the ice for the last portion of January is exciting. How high can they fly?
I would keep Connor Ingram on the roster. For me, he’s the second best goalie (or best, depending on Jarry) in the organization and has earned the net. However, suspect Stan Bowman will activate Jarry, send down Ingram and run Jarry with Calvin Pickard for the rest of the season.
Why? If you risk waivers on Pickard, sure as hell someone will take him off the wire. What happens if Jarry gets hurt again? This isn’t a talent question, it’s a math question. Three actuak goalies in hand is worth a lot in today’s NHL.
I’m watching the Florida Panthers play outside the law with no punishment and wondering if the playoffs will be even worse than a season ago. NHL rules don’t apply to the Panthers and that goes double for the final. So, honest question: Do the Oilers have the ability to battle a Panthers team that can injure players in exchange for a two-minute minor or less?
I suspect this team may want to trade for a modern Kevin McClelland in the weeks to come. This is a math blog, but math says 225 pounds wins over 180 pounds in a purely physical battle on skates. We’ll see, but the NHL doesn’t seem to mind what is happening in Sunrise, and that’s a tell for the postseason.
CONDORS
Connor Ungar got the shutout last night for Bakersfield, and he’s pushing in what is his first AHL run. Why did it take so long? Size. He is on a heater for sure, and it brings into view Edmonton’s long standing view on goalies: the bigger, the better! Ungar is stopping 95 percent of the pucks, will the Oilers management notice?
Speaking of taking notice, Beau Akey and Damien Carfagna are new pro players, young and considered prospects, and at the top of the table for Bakersfield’s defense. It could pay off in recall (probably next season) or in trade (deadline) but this is an encouraging development.
Bakersfield’s forwards haven’t been this interesting since Leon Draisaitl spent a week there 11 years ago. Quinn Hutson belongs in the NHL now, Ike Howard is already there and I do believe that Josh Samanski and Roby Jarventie deserve a look. Viljami Marjala is coming on strong now, both offensively and as an even-strength outscorer. Doesn’t have a nickname that I have heard, I’m kind of partial to Vilmar.
On the Lowdown today, our guests will be Rachel Kryshak from Betalytics and Jason Gregor. We’ll talk Oilers, including the need for increased ruggedness (Panthers), the new third line, and Darnell Nurse’s role moving forward. Noon to 2pm, Sports 1440 and You Tube. See you on the radio!
The Edmonton Oilers have a Darnell Nurse problem. What’s the solution?
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6961686/2026/01/12/edmonton-oilers-darnell-nurse-stats-problem/
That headline/title is a mischaracterization. It is NOT a Darnell Nurse problem. It is a roster construction problem.
The content of the article even “proves” that is it NOT a Darnell Nurse problem.
For a team that is considered a contender and has had significant opportunity to fine tune the lineup, it is surprising how true this is.
Uncertain goaltending, wobbles on D and a bottom 6 that can’t piss a drop.
Is there another real contender with similar issues?
Most certaintly all teams have holes surely.
There’s also the concept of having 2 of the top say 10 or maybe 5 forwards in the game today.intrinsically means there’s some money inevitably missing for the bottom end.
What pair would you trade mcdavid drai for off any team straight across?
Considering the actual true contenders are few, it really isn’t that difficult to assess their rosters.
Colorado
Dallas
Tampa
Carolina
Minnesota
Vegas
Maybe Florida and Washington.
Would be interested in your assessment of what “holes” those teams have.
Vegas is a contender yet the Oilers are not.. Lol! Good grief.
Other contenders…the Oilers were already addressed.
You literally said this last year. And the year before that. You may be right, because you only have to pick one team to not win it all to reassure yourself, despite the natural chaos and unpredictability of playoff seasons. You still have zero effin credibility and you couldn’t hack it in the media, this much we all know.
Are you depressed? Do you just have the emotional maturity of a child? I’m really curious what it is that is driving you.
We all know there are issues with this team. You don’t need to tell us as a non-fan. It comes off as arrogant and disrespectful. We all surely know that any team making the playoffs has a chance. That’s what real fans do, they believe in their team. Just ask Broberg and his xGF 44% on the top D pair of a mediocre team that scraped in and took the President trophy champs to the limits.
If you don’t want to believe in a team you don’t care about, then piss off and leave us alone, you talentless troll.
I mean. It’s not not a Nurse problem.
Only so far as for selfish reasons, which deservedly he has been well within his right to excercise his trade clause veto, he refused to alloe threm to look for a trade to a team that actually might have a better fit for his skill set. While maybe not as close a certainty they are at level as close to winning stanley cup -> for the best sake of career success and the success of this team he’s pidgeon holed into getting paid too much to poorly play the type of role the oilerd need that ill suits his abilities.
Selfish only from like a puritanical/altruistic “grester good for everybody very likely” he could be blamed.
Great article, LT.
I have commented on several knighttown posts suggesting that Nurse is getting fed dogshit minutes with the Leftovers and is getting killed in those minutes.
The article is a good reminder that on-ice number are a crude tool to evaluate individual players and must be supplemented by looking at WOWYs.
It’s also interesting that despite getting crushed in his minutes with the bottom six, the coaches prefer to use Nurse in that role over Bouchard. I.e, the coaches clearly think Nurse is best suited for that role despite his mediocre on-ice numbers.
People (including me) liked to compare Nurse and Seth Jones. Take a look at Jones’ numbers when he was moved to a quality team and paired with a reliable partner.
Is Nurse overpaid? Yes. Do people unfairly criticize his numbers based on shallow analysis? Yes.
not when broberg isb making 8M$
Another thing about Nurse in context of todays discussion, is that he is not fully deployed to his strengths. He is a good defenceman but not the best defenceman. He is better when he can use his skating and his shot. He was putting in quite a few goals as the trailing man only a few seasons ago. And when he rushes he is such a fast skater he can get back.
Nurse also has a physical side that he doesnt use much anymore.
Deploy all his skills and he is a much better player. Use him primarily in a shutdown role and he is not as strong, similarly with puck moving.
In line with todays discussion, he can be a physical force. It feels like he is asked to dial that back and stay in control, that has been the thesis of this team. Exploit and execute on the powerplay.
This is a wonderfully balanced and nuanced article LT.
Like Fuhr before him Nurse seems to draw an overwhelming amount of negativity for sins real and imagined.
Stop playing useless bums on the 3rd and 4th lines and perhaps things will balance out.
I saw Bouchard grab the puck at the end of the game from the ref and was curious what milestone was achieved.
On the postgame during Knoblauch’s presser, they flashed a caption that indicated McDavid has set a new record of ten consecutive seasons with at least 50 assists with one team passing Gretzky and Kurri who both had only 9 seasons of 50 assists with the Oilers.
Both of the legends did have more 50 assist seasons but they were sadly with other teams.
Marcel Dionne has 14 seasons of 50 assists with the Kings but he did a stretch of 4 seasons, missed 50 in 77-78 and then had 9 straight seasons with 50 assists after.
Checking NHL.com, I saw I made a mistake. Crosby has 12 straight seasons with 50 assists with the Penguins so Connor is 2nd.
NHL.com made another change and gave the lone assist for Bouchard’s EN goal to Hyman instead of McDavid so Connor is still actually 1 assist away from the new team record.
On the sportsnet artilce on Ingram this was mentioned:
Meanwhile, Connor McDavid had two assists to extend his career-high 19-game points streak.
He has 80 points in 46 games, his tenth straight 80-point season, passing Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri for the most in Oilers history.
A lot of really positive, genuine comments from the dads about how well the team treats their boys.
They may not always get the right players, but I do believe the Oilers are a class organization with a good recent run of success (back to back pennants). But they also care about the players (even when they aren’t producing). The ones who have recently left generally have good things to say about the team – except for the arrogant and ungrateful, which are few and far between. Look at the way they honour Colby Cave, and Ben, and Joey. They have built a strong culture, and winning has undoubtedly helped that.
And so too, has a leadership core that has not alienated players to the point of leaving a team that is performing. Leadership is more than giving witty sound bites, it is contributing to that cohesion.
I look around at Vancouver, NYR, Calgary, Toronto, teams that were considered contenders in the past few years, and key players left of their own volition following successful seasons, and you do have to consider their downfalls to represent systemic failures, and failures of leadership.
I watched that disallowed goal a few times. He angles and kicks leg out to deflect it in, but that motion had stopped before the pick made contact, and it was the forward momentum of the thigh that drove it in. I really think those calls should all go to Toronto. No way the refs will overturn their initial calls on those.
This should have been a 3 goal win. Maybe 5-2 or 6-3. Even NST and Moneypuck don’t really capture the BS disallowed goal and flubbed chances/great saves.
Both goalies played excellent. You really can’t send down a potential 1A goalie, Pickard loss be damned.
Only concern with losing Pickard is what happens if Jarry gets hurt again this season (bring up Ungar)??
Yes. If you’re dependent on this year’s version of Pickard to save your season, it is already lost.
Ingram is a UFA next year. Why did you take the gamble in the first place if you’re not going to reap the benefits? I was wrong, I thought his AHL stats relative to Tomkins were damning, but he’s proven me and a whole lot of others wrong. If he can do this consistently and stay in a good head space, we have 2 potential starters. Maybe he has a soft spot for the team that gave him a chance and will sign cheap for next year. Which is very unlikely to happen if you send him down in favor of a below average backup who is less deserving.
Not disagreeing with you on Ingram. You keep him as he gives you the best chance to win (certainly much better than Pickard).
I’m just saying do you carry Pickard (for at least a short period of time) as insurance. Am not a fan of carrying 3 goalie, but Jarry’s health right now is a risk.
How do we know that his health is a risk if we don’t know his injury?
There is no need to rush him back now. IR considerations, for one, he is a long-term investment, and to your 3rd point, it would be a shame to lose Pickard if Jarry is not really ready to return. But I am still not convinced that in the scenario in which you describe, that Ungar can’t perform at or better than the level that Picks has been giving us this season, which unfortunately is not very high.
Ingram is over .900 in 6 of 7 starts. We might have a keeper.
We haven’t had goaltending like that in a while.
Hyman’s new children’s book:
One Goal, Two Goal? Knee Goal, No Goal.
🔥
👌🏻
Both of Bouchard’s goals were from below the goal line.
Ah, I see hags9k beat me to it.
Really impressed with the stashney/ regula pair. Regula had maybe a poor dzone middle pass but the forward bobbled it as well. But lots of plus passes.
If that’s the oil third pair we’re in good shape.
Not every day someone scores a goal from below each goal line! Crazy.
I scream you scream we all scream for Cream Dream. #PlayLaBambaBaby
Well, the score looks like it probably should, but this seemed way harder than it needed to be. Happy for Ingram, props to him for being solid, especially when the rest of the team was fading and the Hawks were buzzing.
96.7 SV% for Imperial Oil.
That’ll play.
Ingram very solid tonight. Can’t see sending him back to Bakersfield??
I would hope a 96.7 SV% is at least as popular in the room as Pickard.
Ha! Well said!
Leon is something else.
We want 10
Bouchard with the empty netter to put this thing to bed
Let’s finish up this road trip with a nice win in NSH tomorrow
Fitting that Draisaitl usurps the Kaiser.
Evan even has the long bomb down pat.
I heard someone wonder last year why teams don’t practice this. Seems so many empty net situations and such poor shooting.
Fun game. Excellent goal tending both ways and love the Oilers sense of urgency and effort tonight. Wear the jerseys every night!
Leon says game not over yet!
Seeing Eye Bouch! 🚨🚨🚨
Bouch ends the drama!
Had that been Cale Makar, the goal would have counted because he intended to get his stick on it.
M-I-C, K-E-Y
M-O-U-S-E…
Can anyone actually find that in the rulebook, or is the NHL making crap up again?
Darren Pang was going on about how he kicked it in with his knee.
Last I checked, “distinct kicking motion” applies to skates.
It doesnt even matter because the motion had stopped by the time it hit his pants. Its a goal but i think we all knew it would be disallowed. Its 2-1? Ok, no goal. Remember guys, Gary always says, 3 point games are better than 2!
I have not seen the play, but did Hyman look like a soccer player directing the puck off his knee into the net? It may come under Rule 78.5 Disallowed Goals (i) When the puck has been directed, batted or thrown into the net by an attacking player other than with a stick. When this occurs, if it is deemed to be done deliberately, then the decision shall be NO GOAL. A goal cannot be scored when the puck has been deliberately batted with any part of the attacking player’s body into the net.
Rule 37.3 which gives the situations subject to video review includes (e) Puck deliberately directed, batted, or thrown into the net by an attacking Player by any means (and with any part of his body) other than with his stick.
It sounds like that is the rule being applied here, not the specific distinct kicking motion rule which is disallowed under 78.5 Part (ii) When the puck has been kicked using a distinct kicking motion, and is defined under Rule 37.3(d) as being with the use of a foot/skate, and this is also explained further in Rule 37.4.
They specifically used the term “distinct kicking motion”.
This rule and goalie interference rules are quite the crapshoot it seems when it comes to applying them consistently. I am glad it did not impact the outcome of the game.
I’d be mad if they counted that goal if it were scored against the Oilers
to be completely fair
He kneed it in???
It’s a goal all day in my opinion. I’m shocked it don’t count. Hyman is just trying to get in front of a flying puck, it bounces off him
and in.
I always thought the spirit of the kicking rule was to keep players blades on the ice around the net. You can’t wind up and boot a puck and accidentally kick the goalie in the face. That makes sense. Angling your skate or body and getting a deflection is fair game.
I hope it was some technicality but it felt a lot like ref ego, he called it off on the ice and didn’t want to reverse the call.
I can see your point for sure. I just think if I was watching that and it counted against the Oilers I would be upset. Maybe even more so now that this one was called off.
The Panthers get to foul all they want, the Oilers get goals called back. It is the way it works.
Is it really a Hyman goal, if it doesn’t get called back?
that’s disappointing but not terribly surprising
Darnell special.
Where was 29?
Yup. Drai coasting on the backcheck.
Where was 92 also. Been sloppy second half by the whole group. Ingram excluded of course
Ingram rock solid.
I 100% believe in Savoie and don’t think he should ever be off the roster outside injury.
But…..man, he’s gotta cash something sometime.
The correct thing to say: Savoie will never score again.
PS – will be at the game in Nashville tomorrow to see him not score.
This is too much, even for me. Could Jack and Louie be any more deliberate in their praise for the Hawks? Could they re-iterate any more that this game is not over?
I am starting to wonder if they run DSF/HH’s account…
They were not wrong – their commentary at the beginning of the third.=, after the Oilers had failed to score on two PPs at the end of the second, was bang on.
Hawks PK very good. Kind of took away some of our momentum. Need to come out hard in the third to get the next goal.
The Oilers radio is about 2 minutes behind, but it doesn’t sound like the Oilers were as dominant the last half of the period as they were in the first half of the game. Hopefully Ingram continues to be strong. Sounds like both goalies are playing great.
88 sure falls down a lot
Mangiboni
Needs more yeast
Roslovic will never score again.
Or Savoie… Le sigh.
Oilers should target Kaiser for punishment, if only because he stole our word for “twenty”.
On a related note, Oilers with dickety-five SOG so far.
That was literally the first time I’ve heard of Levshunov. Poor bastard…
He will be a very substantial NHL dman within the next 2 years. The ‘hawks have several good ones in the making.
Ingram is punching his ticket to stay with his game tonight. Wow.
Shutout?
Nooooooooooooooooooooo!
Almost 🤣
Idiot
🤦🏻♂️
Both a too many men and it never exited the ice, Louie. Sheesh
Should be 5-0, could be 5-4???? So many opportunities to score and several awful turnovers…. High event for sure!
Game management at its finest
The zamboni won’t be needed for the Oilers end in the second intermission.
Not saying he’s A+ or anything hyperbolic. Just sayin that Ingram has been good for my heart rate, in general, thus far.
How bizarre. How, Lazar?
I see what you did there😉
Sir, you have been on fire recently
Bouchard dominating.
If only he was as good as Doughty……..
Would love to see a 3rd line and 4th line (Fred) tack on goals please.
OK lets not get carried away…….
😂
That’s a big save by Ingram.
and another.
Old Man Bouch with the pinball move from his youth.
(Extremely) backdoor Bouch!
I hope someone makes a ‘low light’ video of #10. His effort, or lack thereof, along the boards in the dzone led to a scoring chance. Time to press-box him until further notice.
Point looks like a bad Leg. Injury
Fun period, Kapanen vibes are high.
Impressive breakaway and shot on goal by Davo there, given all the obstruction he encountered in the neutral zone and on zone entry.