This is me with my friends Steve Lansky (left) and Bruce McCurdy (right) a couple of years ago. We did a round table of memories, from 1984 SCF (they were both in the building for Game 5) through the current team. It was a grand two hours for me, and of course the time since has brought us to today. I’ve been thinking about Bruce lately, more than usual. He was on Ryan Nugent-Hopkins when he was a junior and wrote brilliant prose about him for over a decade. As chronicle, as observation, as introduction, his piece on The Nuge from 2011 stands as a tribute to player and writer. It is here.
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) 1-0-1
- At home to: NYI (Expected 0-0-1) 0-1-0
- On the road to: Canucks (Expected 1-0-0) 1-0-0
- At home to: Blues, Devils, Penguins, Caps (Expected 2-1-1) 1-0-0
- At home to: Ducks, Sharks, Wild (Expected 1-1-1)
- Expected Record: 8-3-4, 20 points in 15 games
- Actual Record: 5-2-2, 12 points in nine games
- Season Record: 25-17-8, 58 points in 50 games
The Oilers got close to 60 points by the 50 game mark, and should be good for 70 points by Game 60. You want 100 points, so need to stretch the gap between points and games. The schedule remains inviting, some interesting teams coming to town. Home cooking plus opponents who are middle of the pack might be a terrific winning formula.
- Podkolzin-McDavid-Hyman 11:21, 8-2 shots, 3-0 goals, 61X, 6-3 HDSC
- Howard-Roslovic-Savoie 9:25, 2-4 shots, 31X, 2-2 HDSC
- Mangiapane-Lazar-Janmark 5:28, 3-3 shots, 1-0 goals, 73X, 1-0 HDSC
- Frederic-Nuge-Kapanen 1:40 before injury
The Oilers went 4-0 in five-on-five goals last night, that number is correcting in a big hurry. Did you see the McDavid pass to Podkolzin? Music! The play by 97 was brilliant, but young Podkolzin needed to be there and he was! Podkolzin isn’t Patrick Maroon, but he could be better. Younger, faster and can play with either of the big centers. Amazing. Zach Hyman is back, baby. He’s on fire and maybe pushing for an Olympic berth. Oh, and Mangiapane scored! Woot!
- Nurse-Emberson 16:28, 4-9 shots, 17X, 0-1 HDSC
- Ekholm-Bouchard 14:52, 12-5 shots, 3-0 goals, 72X, 8-1 HDSC
- Walman-Stastney 12:57, 5-5 shots, 1-0 goals, 30X, 4-5 HDSC
- Connor Ingram 27 of 27 stops, only four HDSC
The NTS stats have the Walman-Stastney giving up five HDSC and Ingram just four, so there’s something askew. Nurse-Emberson played the most but the numbers suggest they should have been faded. I’m interested in any information stats experts can supply, but Nurse-Emberson should be getting third pair minutes. Ekholm-Bouchard are money, and Connor Ingram is really impressive.
CONDORS
On the Lowdown today, I’ll be joined by Rachel Kryshak from Betalytics and Jason Gregor. We’ll talk Podkolzin and Kapanen with Rachel, plus the Flames-VGK trade, and we’ll talk Nuge 1,000 and NFL with Jason. Noon to 2pm, Sports 1440 and You Tube!
New for The Athletic: The 5 best and worst moves by Oilers GM Stan Bowman in his first 18 months
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6979701/2026/01/19/edmonton-oilers-trades-signings-stan-bowman-best-worst/
Agree that the Ingram trade is a plus.
Disagree that the Skinner+Kulac for Jarry+Stastney trades should be linked to that plus move. We will not know until June whether these trades are a plus or a minus for GM SB. I’m hopeful. But the numbers (for Jarry, 5v5 SV% and GSAx, not to mention playoff WIN%; for Stastney, ability to rise to Kulac-like postseason play) right now are inconclusive, at best.
Ingram + Jarry + Stastney > Skinner, Kulak and Pickard.
I really liked/like Kulak as a player, especially how he performed in the playoffs, Stastney may not get to that level, as you say time will tell as he gains expericence but a change was necessary and the goaltending we have now is better as a whole.
Goaltending is a lot better, defense got weaker. There’s a lot to like about Statsny, and Kulak was struggling, but there’s no doubt in my mind Kulak is the better defenseman. He’s been averaging 20 minutes a night in Pittsburgh and playing well as far as I’ve heard.
It’s a shame we had to lose him, but when Pittsburgh refused to keep some of Jarry’s salary this was the only way to get the trade done.
And I think for both the Oilers and Skinner it needed to be done. I know Skinner has a “The Dude” vibe to him to but I can’t imagine the criticism didn’t weigh on him to some extent.
Skinner had 3 legit cracks at the Cup and he couldn’t close it out. How many games did he shit the bed and get pulled 7-8 times? We traded Andy Moog who had won 3 Cups for heavens sakes. Why did Sather do it because he won the trade. I don’t know why anyone would fall in love with Skinner who choked when it mattered. Bowman has significantly upgraded the Goalie position and that’s all that matters.
Wasn’t Grant Fuhr the goalie of record winning all those cups and they traded him too.
I wish Bruce was still around from what I remember it was all Moog for the first one then Fuhr basically took over for the next two.
Moog was in net for the last three games agaonst the Islanders in 1984 after Fuhr was hurt. Played really well in those games. Moog demanded a trade and sat out. They traded Fuhr because Ranford emerged as a #1 and had also won a Cup.
There are many in Oilerville who seem to think the goalie lives and plays on an island. That may because the Oilers often abandon their goalies when it matters.
Skinner was the second fastest Oiler goalie to 100 wins, and has the franchise second best WIN%. He was part of a team that often excelled, and his record was often excellent.
When the team sucked, sometimes he saved the day. Sometimes he didn’t. Unfortunately, many fans & pundits had the (unrealistic, in my opinion) belief that a goaltender is only worth having if he constantly saves the game. Some do. Most don’t. Watch the SV% year over year and marvel at how seemingly “inconsistent” goalies are.
Poor or inconsistent play in front of the goalies torpedoed this team’s Cup runs in 2024 and 2025. The godawful team play in Games 5&6 SCF 2025 extended into late November, culminating in the shellackings by Colorado and Dallas. As of Nov 26, team play improved. Any number of things may have been involved in that change. Embarrassment. Rest. Practices. Return of RNH, then Hyman. Etc. Whatever occasioned the “coming to their senses,” team play improved —and goalie numbers improved, markedly.
The goalie who was blamed for early season lack of success blossomed (but was already on his way out, it seems). Of the four goalies who’ve worn Oiler colours after Nov 25, the 5v5 numbers:
Skinner (.943 SV%, 3.35 GSAx, five games), Jarry (.922 SV%, 2.48 GSAx, five games), Ingram (.920 SV%, 3.44 GSAx, nine games), and Pickard (.895 SV%, -0.3 GSAx, seven games).
The biggest “voodoo” that I can see viz goalies is how fans and pundits fantasize that goalies’ numbers are somehow not a reflection of the team playing in front of them. Since SCF 2025 the team has been lax, willing to let their goalie (or his numbers) suffer for their mistakes. Strudwick keeps bringing this up: it’s no mystery why things are looking up since end of Nov, the team is playing better defensively. Rishaug recently said it: the team appeared to make Ingram’s shutout worthy of effort.
IMO as long as this team plays responsibly, as they have (mostly, but not always), since Nov 26 it probably doesn’t matter what NHL goalie is in the crease. They will win. There will be shutouts. There may even be a Cup. The goalie will likely help. It will not be the best goalie they’ve had this season since end of November, who only cost them $2.6M. I’m hoping it is one or both of the ones who’ve almost reached Skinner’s level of play (by the numbers), and who cost them $6+M.
Right now, I don’t see any numbers (including wins, the most important number) that suggest a clear upgrade. In the absence of these numbers, I don’t think anyone can make the call that there’s been an upgrade in the position until the new guys win their way to the SCF, the Cup, or something less. That is GM SB’s bet. I hope he wins the bet. In the meantime, I’m rooting for the new guys but wait for Oilerville to turn on them, as they have others, when the team struggles.
The upgrade is the pyche of the team and verbal around the position. When Skinner was struggling he let deflating goals in and was very inconsistent and didnt always play to his strengths. ie. If he stayed in position consistently (like Ingram, who rarely gets out of position) he wouldnt of let in some of the goals that he ‘should of had’. He also wasn’t the best at tracking the puck.
I like Skinner and think he is a good goalie and hope he does well and so far he is. He has fresh air there, less pressure and less negative verbal because that is what was happening. The trade needed to happen more so because of the history and the every increasing verbal about the oil goaltending
We have improved goaltending overall at this point because
1) The verbal is different around the two
2) The team’s psyche is fresh with these two and they are seeing that they are making saves when needed and not deflating the bench (so far, agree still small sample) miles to go
3)We have 2 legit goaltenders (at this point) who are BOTH putting up solid numbers and not 1 legit/decent and 1 struggling journeyman backup
Skinner may have survived if Ingram had of come up early and proved himself creating better competition at the position and giving the team a fresh look adding confidence at the position.
The team was horrendous for a while and still have chunks of it and of course that isnt fully on the goaltender, would Skinner be doing very well with us right now, yes I think so. I would rather have a fresh look going into the playoffs, let the cards fall, these 2 dont have the experience like Skinner but the team didnt win either. I am glad they made the trade and I think both parties are.
I am much more comfortable with the goaltending now then in a long time. I like both goalies. They are different tenders the way they play and that is not a bad thing.
One thing I’ve noticed is your comments are also being said about Skinner on the Pens about how calm he is and how well he is playing and not letting in deflating goals, etc. compared to having Jarry in the Pens net. As you & others have said, it is a small sample size still, but for now the change in scenery for both goalies is working out well.
Kulak’s footspeed has been declining for 4 straight years. Would have been nice to have him for the rest of the year. But I would not re-sign him.
Kulak is such a gamer. I’d love to have him in this year’s playoffs. In fact, he’d make a great deadline rental!
But I agree that he could be a danger on a long-term contract.
Going back to MoneyPuck
These are how Oilers goalies have ranked for
Goals Saved above Expected, S%, respectively (for goalies >/= 20 GP) for the last 17 seasons as far back as Money Puck goes:
Starter, Backup (by GP)
* Finished top 50%ile, ** Finished top 25%ile
24-25: Skinner 41/61, 38/61, Pickard 51/61, 31/61
23-24: Skinner 34/65, 32/65*, Pickard 38/65, 20/65*
22-23: Skinner 16/62*, 22/62*, Campbell 55/62, 58/62
21-22: Koskinen 40/61 41/61 in 45 GP, Smith 9/61**, 15/61** in 28 GP
20-21: Smith 2/47**, 7/47** in 32 GP, Koskinen 38/47, 38/47 in 26 GP
19-20: Koskinen 22/57*, 16/57*, Smith 47/57, 47/57
18-19: Koskinen 37/57, 41/57 – Stolarz 18 games, poor stats
17-18: Talbot 28/56*, 37/56 in 67 games!!! – Montoya back-up & bad
16-17: Talbot 7/54**, 17/54* in 72 games!!! – Brossoit played well in 8 games
15-16: Talbot 26/58*, 30/58 – Brossoit 5 bad games
14-15: Scrivens 49/50, 49/50, Fasth 47/50, 50/50
13-14: Scrivens 4/61**, 14/61** in 40 GP, Labarbera, Fasth, Bachman Turner Overdrive backups
12-13: Dubnyk 6/27**, 12/37* – Khabibulin solid backup, lockout shortened season
11-12: Dubnyk 10/48**, 26/48 in 47 GP, Khabibulin 14/48*, 32/48 in 40 GP
10-11: Khabibulin 44/53 , 51/53 in 47 GP, Dubnyk 14/53*, 44/53 in 35 GP,
09-10: Deslauriers 35/53, 44/53 – Khabi equally poor in 18 GP
08-09: Roloson 14/53*, 19/53*
5 times in past 17 years where our starting goalie has been in top 1/4 of goaltender saves above expected/60 (3 times that goalie played at least 40 games)
Just 3 times in 17 years did a Oilers goalie finish in the top 1/4 of S% (one of these was Smith as backup)
Confirms how Talbot, Dubnyk, and Mike Smith were our best goalies after Roli, the only ones to give the team 2 consecutive seasons of upper NHL play
Don’t look now but Ekholm 1 point behind Stan Wier for points on the Oilers!
Frederick poised to pass German Titov. Also Tommy Salo. Will happen this year? Stay tuned.
Sherwood to sharks. Does this give them the advantage over the oilers HH?
— love that photo
— that’s all I got and glad prediction went wrong : indeed Blues didn’t show up was a caveat.
— just repeating a thesis from months ago : this team was way better than its record. Poor play was mostly because schedule. Time to eat boys
A goalie fight in Florida.
Sharks lead the Panthers 3-1 in the third.
Nedelkovic got the only good shot in of the fight, but it was great fun! Bob came flying in so fast the refs weren’t able to break it up for once.
This sharks panthers game is a blast.
I wasn’t aware until the play by play guys mentioned that Michael Misa and Igor Chernyshov were line mates in Saginaw.
They have obvious chemistry and both had a couple of points tonight.
Noted. Oilers better watch out.
Sharks move into third in the Pacific with a 4-1 win in Sunrise.
Back to back tomorrow in Tampa…should be a tough one.
Oddly the Sharks put Nick Leddy on waivers yesterday but he cleared today.
I wonder what Grier is up to…perhaps taking a run at Dougie Hamilton?
Vinny Desharnais with his 2nd ever NHL goal today, absolutely rocked Tkachuk in his first game back. I enjoyed both of those things.
And he’s like a giant kid out there…always a grin.
After the hit on Tkachuk, the Panthers were looking for retribution on Desharnais. He tripped a Panther and then Rodrigues boarded him without a penalty. A scrum developed with SJ’s Nedelkovic jumping in so Bobrovsky came flying down the ice to engage in the goalie fight.
It’s interesting that all of NJD, PIT and WSH play the night before in CGY before they play EDM.
Back to back with short flight in the same time zone usually isnt a big deal, but with the compressed schedule this year it may be a thing
Hope so.
It’s the year of the painful road trip
I wonder if someone has done a study to see if the compressed schedule has lead to more injuries.
Oilers were on the opposite end of a lot of this early in the season and they are reaping the benefits of the even out.
I wonder if the case is starting to be made that Henrique may be best suited as 4LW + PK specialist?
If this is communicated, I wonder if he considers a trade to a contender for the remaining months of his contract. I’m sure there are teams with space who would value his skillset (he still has value for C depth for Edmonton but salary better used to get proper 3C or top 6 W coverage)
Is there a contender that would play him in a higher leverage roll?
Stanley Cup contender? You’re right, probably not. Team destined for playoffs? I think so and lots of them have the cap room to take him on
I agree. I don’t think he’s a center anymore. I don’t think Henrique will waive his contract, and even if he does Oilers would likely have retain salary to trade him.
They might have to trade Janmark for cap space and use Henrique on LW, but you lose speed doing that.
Henrique is best suited as injury replacement at best. It sucks to sit $3m – but the team is rolling without him.
Another article about Nuge and his 1000th game.
It mentions that RNH is just the 10th player in NHL history to score in both his 1st and 1000th NHL game.
I thought it would have been cool to see whether he scored in his 10th and 100th too, but after seeing he didn’t score in his 10th, I quit searching.
He didn’t. If my math is correct, game 100 would have been April 13 vs Calgary where he didn’t score. If my math is wrong, the games around him he didn’t score for 6 games so I believe game 102 he scored against Colorado to end the season and scored against Calgary in game 95.
https://www.nhl.com/oilers/player/ryan-nugent-hopkins-8476454
Podkolzin 1st line LW
Man has he looked good on 97’s left flank. Frees up RNH to anchor a 3rd line with Roslovic / Savoie and Howard.
Just need a 2LW to play alongside 29. Kapanen – Draisaitl – Roslovic / Savoie?
Magpie can fill in the 2LW until Kap is ready to return.
Need to find another podkolzin. a center will be super expensive
Marchment?
I’ve always thought he’d be a good fit.
Better on our team than against..
I would keep Podz with 29 even though 97 finally has someone who gets to the right place and keeps his stick on the ice (like Maroon did). Mix and match until Kap and
Drai are back, but then:
Hyman – 97 – Howard
Podz – 29 – Kapanen
Jack – RNH – Savoie
Janitor – Lazar – Frederick
We can talk about for sure but I think we all know the chances that Howard gets an opportunity on McDavid’s wing is all but zero.
Not on waivers. Unless they send Howard down to call up 2 forwards (they won’t), they are forced in to 11/7 tomorrow. They will need to make this decision at some point.
Do we know of Leon’s timeline for return..?…perhaps the team does…
If he’s back in the fold prior to Thursday’s game perhaps they just run 11/7 tomorrow and push the Pickard decision down the road (again)
”later next week” was the message when it was announced on Sat. I think presumption is Saturday.
Yeah, OK, Gregor has a piece up about 45 minutes ago stating roughly the same intel – from Jason Gregor’s piece:
Draisaitl won’t play tomorrow and is likely out Thursday, but he is expected to play Saturday v. Washington.
On January 6, Rico goes down in the first period with an injury.
From that game onward Nurse’s HDCA drop from >3 per game to <2 per game. The HDCF continues a pace >4 per game where it sorta had been since mid December. PDO balancing out nicely now.
Regression will come hard and fast should the forwards continue to develop.
By eye the 3rd line has gotten better at breaking cycles the last few games. Or should I say better at corralling the initial shot and moving it out quickly. They’re having success angling guys towards the boards lately.
They need a bit more urgency in the ozone but that will come as they learn to be offensive at the NHL level.
Made a mistake and posted the below and last nights thread.
The game was 3-0 at the end of the first where 8 minutes was special teams. Score effects used to be a thing but not anymore.
Blame Nurse!
The bottom six forwards had six total shots all game. Nurse and Walman have five total.
Blame Nurse!
Nurse and Stastney lead in TOI for a PK that goes 4/4. Screw that the score effects impacted fancies tell the real story.
Blame Nurse! What a bum!
The guy is the 10th highest-paid D-man in the league. At his price tag, he should be successfully playing 1st-pairing minutes and should absolutely dominate playing on the 2nd-pairing, yet the stats and eye test suggest that he is struggling to play 2nd-pairing minutes and should actually be playing on the 3rd-pair. $9.25 million for a 3rd-pairing D-man is an overpayment of at least 7 million. In my opinion, his level of play vis-à-vis his contract is a massive problem that has cost the team dearly over the last 3.5 seasons.
I don’t disagree with all of it. He should drive the play and be a positive.
Though, I DO wish the oil would get him a really solid partner, he has never really had one for a substantial amount of time anyway.
You have to understand that when your #4 defense is making 9 million plus there’s no room for a highly paid #5. In fact most of the league has guys in ELCs or Old fellas on their bottom pair.
Even if you like the player you must see that it’s HIS contract that keeps him from having a middle tier partner.
Colorado bottom 4:
Manson $4.5M – Burns $1M (bonuses)
Malinski $1.4 M – Solovyov – $775K
Total – $7.675 million
They seem to be doing well in the regular season.
But… That bottom 4 does not instill fear.
That middle pairing has a lot of miles on them. How do 40 y/o D manage the playoff grind?
Bottom pair inexperienced and/or undersized
Phhhttt…
Burns is closing in on 1000 consecutive games played…he’ll be fine and Manson is only 34 not 40.
The two Sams have 579 and 145 NHL games respectively…plenty of experience.
The Oilers of course are running THREE D with a combined level of experience considerably less as well as carrying Nurse in the bottom 4.
Unfortunately for you and them you conveniently ignored Girard
Girard is currently playing mostly with Makar.
When Toews returns, the bottom pair will be $6.4 million with the second pair at $5.5 million.
A total of $11.9 million for FOUR D is preferable to paying $9.25 million to ONE bottom pair D wouldn’t you agree?
Yeah, unfortunately, his play relative to his contract creates a conundrum, as his contract is that of someone who should be capable of at least providing solid contributions on the 2nd-pairing, regardless of who their D-partner is and should really be able to elevate their D-partner to 2nd-pairing quality, but his level of play is that of someone who needs a D-partner to elevate his play and offset his deficiencies. The cruel irony is that, in my opinion, one of the team’s biggest needs (possibly the team’s biggest need) is to find a D-man who can play with Nurse and create a strong 2nd-pairing, but his contract leaves the team with insufficient funds to be able to provide him with said D-partner. In my opinion, the only way to fix the 2nd pairing with Nurse on it is by drafting a guy who is a 1st-pairing caliber D-man while on their ELC, like Schaefer in NY or trading for a guy who is on an absolute bargain contract (i.e., a 10 million dollar D-man getting paid 3-4 million).
The stats are a bit more nuanced than that. Especially when we break the season into segments.
October through November was no bueno. But several of the major pieces (Stu/Cal; Rico and Regula as d partner) are in the past and the forwards are healthy and in the case of Savoie/Howard getting used to playing NHL speed.
The full blood letting stopped in December. It shows further material progress since Rico was put on LTIR. Nurse and his linemates are giving up very little lately.
Giving up less than 2 HDCA per games means you’re likely to go 2.33 games without allowing a goal 5v5 with a normalish goaltender in net. Meanwhile with the HDCF being stuck just north of 4 you’re likely to score a goal every 1.67 games or so.
If the HDCF can unstick from 4 and climbs towards 6 we’ll be talking about a very obvious regression. That should happen once the Drai line gets some some chemistry and as Savoie/Howard start generating a bit more. They’re buzzing but now it’s time to get greasy for the finish.
Why are the score effects from last night’s game only applicable to Nurse? Ekholm and Bouchard were playing in the same game, and their numbers were positive. I agree that Nurse’s level of play has been better in December and January compared to October and November, but his play was incredibly poor at the start of the year, and I personally think that a D-man who has the 10th highest salary at his position should be bringing more to the table than he has been bringing the past few years.
Duh! I feel so stupid.
I was away from the site for about an hour and poof there are 20 posts which is more than the 8 shown at the bottom obviously. I have always manually scrolled through trying to catch the ones I missed.
Then the obvious solution hit me. Use “find on page”and search for “10:”. Sure enough it scrolls through only the posts between 10:00 and 11:00.
I still might have to search more than one hour and I guess after 8:00 PM I’d have two sets of hours but that seems minor.
Bring old and not worrying about letting the world know how dumb I am (anonymity also helps) I thought I would post this hoping to help anyone as slow as me who hasn’t figured out out yet (which of course would assuage the damage to my ego if anyone else hasn’t figured it out).
I am here to ensure your ego is now less damaged lol. Thanks for the tip! We can tell our egos that’s it’s ok to learn something new every day. 🙂
I doubt we’ll see Pickard on waivers today (or Regular) but we see already that they can’t carry 3 tenders for long. It’s forcing them to go 11/7 tomorrow unless they send down Howard which would allow them to call two forwards as Howard is $1.6MM on cap when they are in LTIR.
I shit-talked Mangiapane yesterday and his “give a shit meter” went to 10 finally. I think that’s the first game in 10 where he looked like he was trying. It’s a good sign but he can’t slide back to indifferent play the next game or we’ll have to settle for a 5th rounder in trade.
Keep up the “motivational speech” 😉
Kiefer Sherwood to the Sharks for Cole Clayton and 2nd rounders in 2026 and 2027 as per TSN
Sharks going for it.
for a playoff spot in a mediocre conference/division? Not sure he was needed
Dy’s didn’t get the 1st rounder everyone in Vcr media said they sure would
They might’ve if they’d traded him a month into the season. But as Sherwood reverted to his established offensive level of play (7 points in last 18 games) the price started dropping. Still, two seconds for a third line winger isn’t bad.
I hate to say it but every player that plays with Nurse seems to have their numbers go down. The stats are huge sample size now and it’s not just eye test. Nurse is not a very good dman (lots of skill and athleticism), but not good decision mak8ng I feel.
Some have suggested trying him on the wing as a power forward. I think it might actually be worth a try…might be the power forward we have been looking for..
We’ve known for a while now that Nurse is a problem.
LOL I’m sure he can bumble things up just as easily as a forward, maybe even more.
Less consequential though
I’ve banged this drum too often this year, but I still think it’s worth trying Nurse as a forward… at least he won’t be expected to be as defensively capable as a winger.
RNH-McDavid-Hyman
Nurse-Drai-Podkolzin
Howard-Roslovic-Savoie
Ekholm-Bouchard
Walman-Stastney
LHD-Emberson
Jarry / Ingram
If the 3rd line gets pushed around in the playoffs, swap Nurse and Howard to add some muscle and size to that line.
I think it would be way easier to bring in a good 3rd line LHD than another RHD. Or bring in a 2RD at trade deadline and play Stastney-Emberson on the 3rd pair.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
And injuries are a thing in the playoffs… if we lose one of Ekholm or Walman during the playoffs, Nurse is blue-line insurance if he’s already playing at forward.
Maybe as a fourth liner. But not in the top six.
I’m thinking that perhaps Jarry’s injury(knock on wood) may have potentially been a bit of a blessing in disguise as it forced our hand to finding out what Ingram might be as opposed to him looking very pedestrian in the AHL we might never have found out.
It feels good if not uncomfortable in the sense of trying not to get to far ahead of myself with this tandem. If it sustains the cherry on top would be too see Stu maintain his current success and have the career many of us thought he is capable of.
I wonder how much of the confidence issues with Skinner go back to Jim Matheson’s very ill advised question to Skinner as to how he felt about all the fans wanting him to leave .
Jim may be in the hall of fame but I find his questions to the players ,which you can hear when you listen to press availabilities ,to be on many occasions very rude .
I was too young to catch the 80’s Oilers, so I don’t know how incredible Jim may have been then.
But I’ve had misgivings about Jim for years based on him dumping on players… who the heck does he think he is, accusing Draisaitl of being “pissy”?
If anyone wants to strongly defend Jim, I’d be curious about their thoughts about the Laraque / Myhres incident. Based on what Big Georges shared this on a podcast not long ago, it’s a terrible incident and I’m surprised the Oilers still let Jim near the team. But maybe I’m mistaken and maybe George exaggerated his explanation?
I’ve never heard of a Laraque / Myhres incident.
And I’m old.
Oh yeah and leon can be pissy at times.
In German culture kranky is just “normal.” Get over it Jim M.
ps. @bcoil – Stu has always had a “water off ducks back” attitude. What sank him (& almost sank Pickard) was terrible play in front of him – until the team figured something out after being shellacked by Avs & Stars. As of Nov 26 and up to this morning Skinner still has the best SV% and GSAx of all Oilers goalies, including him (5 games), Jarry (5 games), Ingram (9 games), Pickard (7 games) at 5v5 (as per NaturalStatTrick).
Ingram really smothers a lot of pucks off the shot, especially when there is traffic in front. He reads the plays so well. Jarry is just very athletic and it shows. Nice to see both these guys playing great this past weekend.
? For you all. I heard someone mention we can’t call anyone up right now. With Kappy down for ? Wouldn’t they put him on IR then freeing up his cash?
He’d have to go on LTIR to free up the cap space.
They can put him on IR but there is no cap relief from that (only roster limit relief). To get cap relief (i.e. ability to exceed the cap) they would have to put him on LTIR which means he’d be out a minimum of 10 games and 24 days. Sounds like they don’t think Kappy will be out that long.
This weekend sure juiced up the numbers. Since Nov 29 they have jumped up to 5th in 5v5 GF% with 56.00, 2nd in HDGF% with 62.30 (behind only Tampa, ahead of the Avs!)
In terms of 5v5 goals they are 8th with 56, HDGF they are 1st with 38. This shows the Duo ripping it up and the others not scoring well one would think (NST)
Since Nov 29 for the teams I track in Goal Diff they are now tied 2nd with Tampa at +31, one behind the Avs. They are lapping the field in Power Wins with 12, the next highest are the Avs and Tampa at 8 each. They lead in GF at 93 (the 10 team average is 81). GA they have 62 (average is 68), that’s 6 more than the Avs. Tampa is crushing at 53 GA
For Clear Losses they have 4 which is the average, the Avs and Tampa are lowest at 2 each. Where things aren’t quite as rosy is the Playoff Team record. I book these based on the standings the day previous to the game. Listed in order of GP, W/L(since Nov 29):
Sharks 15 – 7/8
Stars 14 – 7/7
Wild 12 – 8/4
Knights 8 – 3/5
Avs 8 – 7/1
Oilers 8 – 4/4
panthers 14 – 10/4
Bolts 14 – 10/4
Caps 12 – 4/8
Canes 9 – 6/3
The Bolts are strong. Lowest GA by a bit, ‘bolted’ back up the standings, all while playing the most against playoff teams. The wobbly panthers bring it against the better teams and haven’t had an easy schedule based on playoff team games, but the Bolts are the class of the East
The Avs are the class of the West, and while they lead the league in Points, PTS%, RW and GF, lately the Bolts are as good or better, L10 the Avs 6-3-1, Bolts 9-0-1 and are 2nd in the things mentioned except GF where they are 5th. The Oilers are 3rd there
The 10 teams I track are Oilers, Avs, Knights, Stars, Wild, Sharks, Caps, Canes, Bolts, panthers. Since I decided to add the Celebrinis they have cooled off and the Kraken and Mammoth have come on
As it stands the 3 strongest teams based on a few of the metrics I track are the Bolts, Avs then the Oilers. The others that may be ahead in points right now have issues like how many extra time games. The Oilers have the fewest at 3. Or their playoff team record (the Knights are not good here), Goal Diff, Power Wins vs Clear Losses, etc
You mentioned that the Celebrinis have cooled off compared to Seattle and Utah but the last 10 games says otherwise.
UTA – 7-2-1
SJS – 7-3-0
SEA – 5-3-2
Over the past 10 GP, Vegas, Utah and San Jose are the hottest teams in the WC.
I should have looked at the standings, I went off casual memory of tracking games. Seems the Sharks got back in the groove
No worries.
The Sharks -20 goal differential is a red flag but Celebrini may be enough to will them into the playoffs.
They are getting internal reinforcements as Will Smith and Michael Misa have returned from injury.
Celebrini is certainly making a case for the Hart Trophy.
With 72 points he is now 40 ahead of the Sharks second leading scorer Wennberg
The Sharks since Nov 29 are -12, so getting better. But not a playoff threat yet
The Stars and Knights are of course good teams, but they aren’t rock solid, the Wild were aptly named, they are all over the place, Animal should be their mascot
The Oilers show better than all in the west but the Avs. They would benefit greatly if somebody can take the Avs out again, I’m not sure they can. But then the Avs are the last monkey in the west to throw off
San Jose now has the easiest remaining schedule by a fair margin so I expect they will at least hang around the wild card race.
Coincidentally, Anaheim, LA and Vegas also have relatively easy remaining schedules while the Oilers is mid-pack.
https://www.tankathon.com/nhl/remaining_schedule_strength
Of course another factor in all this is player movement.
Vegas got better yesterday with Andersson a clear upgrade on Whitecloud.
And other teams have cap space to make deals:
ANA – $24.1M
LAK – $11.5M
SEA – $10.6M
SJS – $8.5M
VGK – $3.8M
EDM – $271K
It’s impressive how many times you bring up strength of schedule only for it to blow up in your face every time.
That tool is pretty elementary. It doesn’t even take into account home and road splits. Florida is middle of the pack while being tied for most home games played and least amount of road games. Good chance those d bags miss the playoffs. Couldn’t happen to a better organization and fan base
Sharks acquire Kiefer Sherwood.
Great time capsule find on RNH.
Bruce’s thoughtful observations were prescient and are truly missed.
After some meandering, RNH has proven to be the class of the field from the 2011 draft.
So consistent, so durable, so versatile.
Great result last night.
The score definitely hid the fact that the Oilers got hammered during non-McD time.
Darnell Nurse went 4-11 in Corsi events w/o McD or Nuge. 11.7% xGF. Obviously sample size issues but this is dreadful.
Nurse needs to be faded and the bottom six needs a boost.
Nurse should probably be paired on 3 rd line minutes.
Bouchard/Ekholm
Walman/Stastny
Nurse//Emberson
I do wonder ( pretty sure they will) who the Oilers bring in for D depth.
Whitecloud would be a good pick up lol. I always liked that guy in the playoffs or anytime we played them. He can pass and skate and he is very good in front of the net and is a Rightey. I do wonder If Calgary flips him?
It has been interesting to see what having 93 on a different line has done for the team. Hopefully the coaches are seeing (if) he balances out the attack & gives more offense to another line. Granted, it was the Canucks & ailing Blues, but maybe the next game against the Devils will be proof of concept if they are successful again.
I really would like to see Nuge as a 3rd line C man for the playoff run. Not sure we can actually get a legite 3rd line C man. I think you could run Roslovic , Howard or Savoie or even Hutson with McD and Hyman.
Really liking Frederic’s game in the last 5-6 games. His skating is way better. Be nice if he keeps this play up. (He should have gotten that goal last night) . If you could put him with Nuge and one of Roslovic/Savoie or Howard, you would have a rounded out line.
Lazar ( for me). Is a lock at the 4th line dot. He is very solid and can skate, PK and has good size.
Lazar is everything you want in a 4th liner. cheap. decent speed. good on the dot. hits. plays hard. solid defensively.
It is more the absence of Henrique.
you know what they say. absence makes the heart grow fonder. in our case it makes the heart grow fonder of the fact henrique is not on the ice for this hockey club.
Coach said Kap is more day to day and, while he won’t return right away, its not as bad as the previous injuries – good news, if we take it at face value.
In the immediate, that leaves the team with 11 available forwards and no cap room to call anyone up.
Three goalies on the roster was going to need to go away at some point, that point has come. The org will probably carry on and play 11/7 but this can’t continue indefinitely.
Jarry and Ingram is a very solid tandem. It would be great to have Pickard as 3G but they went in to this season with Matt Tomkins as 3G and that was before Connor Ungar decided to put his name in the bag of relevance.
In order to not go 11/7, they need to waive Picks (or Regula) or send down Howard to call up two forwards (Howard is at $1.6MM on the cap while the team is on LTIR).
I presume they go 11/7 tomorrow.
If it were up to me I’d waive Picks and call up Samanski. Play him with Howard & Savoie and move Roslovic to the second line with Nuge & Freddy. At least until Kapanen heals.
Waiving him means losing him for nothing. A quick trade is of more benefit. Will they (can they?) do that in the next 36 hours?
Obviously it’s one or the other. Kapanen’s injury might speed things up.
Or of course they go 11/7 until Kapanen returns, no biggie.
This is almost assuredly the way they are going, and its likely for 2 games with Leon presumed to return on Saturday but its very clear that 3 goalies on the roster is not sustainable given their cap situation.
Pickard and Mangi for a 5th round pick. Philly might go for that.
That would be a major fleecing, I would hope they can get more than a 5th rounder. . But clearing off that cap space would solve some problems.
Oilers would probably need to put in the 5th, not get one back.
I would guess that the Oilers have tried already to gauge interest in Pickard and would have a pretty good idea of whether he’d make it through waivers and who is interested in acquiring him but the Oilers Management are very much the types to just suffer through it, hold on to Pickard and wait for Drai or Kap to come back
Waiving him means you MIGHT lose him for nothing. Really, likely only Phlly claims him – Ottawa signed and is getting Reimer up to speed.
Unlikely there is anything coming back in a trade – he might clear (who knows what Philly thinks of him).
That would be one of my preferred options but:
1) they’ve decided not to waive Pickard today; and
2) I don’t think that would work on the cap as, given the Oilers are in LTIR and Samanski was not on the roster when they set their LTIR bonus reserves, his cap hit would be $1,462,500 as he has a potential for $975K in performance bonuses in year 2 (and you add the average of his potential bonuses to the cap hit while the team is in LTIR).
We get excited about what we have in Connor Ungar, and we should be, but Matt Tomkins with the shutout yesterday afternoon was brilliant and that was top goaltending performance for Bakersfield this season – there must have been 5 clear cut breakaways.
Haven’t heard much about how Jonsson & Day are playing lately. Oilers are a goalie factory these days.
Jonsson at .903 and looking fine in the ECHL, Nathan Day at .891 with the Komets.
Has goaltending become the organizations biggest strength?
Strange days indeed.
Apparently Stan is good at hockey, must have Sydney Sweeney jeans.
He’s sure better at assessing younger players than the Librarian (the Guide and Record Book fella)
Podkolzin’s confidence is growing every day. I saw him making plays with the puck that really surprised me. Confidence is such a huge part of the game, and he’s really hitting his stride now.
Also, I think Ingram may have missed the memo that Jarry was brought in to be the number 1. He’s not conceding the crease to anyone!
1a & 1b, works fine.
Ingram did put up a league top stellar season a couple ago. If he stays stable it will be a great problem to have
Ingram was talking after the game about some wild days when he played in Arizona and how our team is constructed much differently. In 22-23 they were 6-13-8 while he had a .907 save percentage. I don’t think I’ve seen such decent goaltending numbers from such a terrible team. I’m a big fan of this player – nice work by Stan.
I hope things work out for him. Then us
Look forward to the Ingram re-sign – I mean, this likely comes in cheap, in the $2MM-$3MM range (hopefully for a couple of years).
I love a Jarry/Ingram tandem moving forward – both have the ability to “carry the load” if the other gets injured for a medium term.
I Believe that is exactly what we have seen/seeing.
Making plays with the puck, shooting from not-optimal angles (this is a plus) – his offensive confidence is high and the results are coming – add this to 100% effort every shift, good 2-ways, physical, great forechecker, decent depth PK guy.
He can literally play on any line I think.
Fantastic trade and fantastic re-sign bet.