Wild at Oilers, G21 2024-25

Minnesota hockey fans have been gifted two NHL teams in my lifetime, but zero Stanley Cup victories. That will end soon, as the team is building a monster from the clay of NCAA and smart drafting worldwide. The North Stars were always fascinating to me, even as they were not quite the Philadelphia Flyers or St. Louis Blues between 1968 and 1975. The North Stars won 20 playoff games in those years, training the Flyers (32) and Blues (31) by some margin.

The fascinating thing about the North Stars? GM Wren Blair made mountains of trades with Sam Pollock of the Montreal Canadiens, mortgaging the future again and again. What made Blair fascinating? He damned near beat the Habs playing Pollock’s game. What a ride.

The Athletic story today is about regression, erosion and the edition of the Oilers in what I’m calling the Holland coda. This group can win Stanley, but they’re going to need everything some of these veterans have in them. Article is here.

WHAT TO EXPECT IN NOVEMBER

• On the road to: CAL (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 1-0-0)
• At home to: NJD, VEG (Expected 1-1-0) (Actual 0-2-0)
• On the road to: VAN (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 1-0-0)
• At home to: NYI, NAS (Expected 2-0-0) (Actual 2-0-0)
• On the road to: TOR, MTL, OTT (Expected 1-2-0) (Actual 1-1-1)
• At home to: MIN, NYR (Expected 1-1-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
• On the road to: UTA, COL (Expected 1-1-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
• Overall expected result: 8-5-0, 16 points in 13 games
• November results: 5-3-1, 11 points in 9 games
• Oilers in 2024-25: 10-8-2, 22 points in 20 games

I have tonight as a win for Edmonton, but the Wild roll into town with an 8-1-2 road record and a 7-2-1 success rate in the last 10 games. The Oilers are two points out of first place, and a strong finish to November should put this team in a good position to shout to the top. There’s no earthly reason the Oilers should fail here, if the suppression numbers match the GA and the shooting percentage climb back to do-re-mi.

CONSIDER THIS

Since mid-October, Stuart Skinner has a five-on-five save percentage of .913, Calvin Pickard .925 as the backup. Skinner’s total ranks No. 16 among the 32 most active goaltenders so far this season. That’s a fair assessment of his ability to stop pucks, in my opinion. Skinner is a solid starter, and the Oilers almost won Stanley with him as their No. 1 last spring.

It is my belief the organization should run with him until the cap hit becomes too dear. Stan Bowman may not feel that way. We talked yesterday about a big summer that might include exits for Skinner and franchise puck mover Evan Bouchard.

There’s a more palatable plan for Bowman, but it involves great scouting, luck and patience. If Bowman can identify a goalie who could come in and play behind Skinner for one season (while Skinner is still inexpensive), he could find his answer.

Now, I don’t know the name of that goalie. Peter Chiarelli bet on Mikko Koskinen, Ken Holland bet on Mike Smith, perhaps Stan Bowman will bet on Juuse Saros. Maybe there’s a Euro goaltender with size and a better glove than Koskinen out among the stars of European hockey.

Maybe it’s an AHL goaltender. The San Jose Sharks made a bet on Yaroslav Askarov and his .939 AHL save percentage this season suggests he is about to deliver for the left coast club. Meanwhile, Oilers fans remain convinced that Jesper Wallstedt, he of the AHL .864 save percentage, was the greatest opportunity missed by Holland at the 2021 entry draft. Goalies are important, but they’re also damned difficult to evaluate. If Bowman can find a goalie without giving up much in assets or cap room? Music! My preference is Skinner in net when Edmonton wins Stanley No. 6, and he’ll get that opportunity in the spring. I’m less certain about his presence as the starter spring 2026.

ROSTER MOVES

Josh Brown flew back to Bakersfield yesterday, suspect the team will run 12-6-2 tonight. I’m looking forward to seeing Kasperi Kapanen in the days to come (possibly tonight). I would slot him on the second line and fade Corey Perry, but that’s a feature role and the coaching staff may want to slide him in on the fourth line. Based on recent events, we can expect Mattias Janmark to play lots and well, and Jeff Skinner to get plenty of ass sitting when the skill centers are deployed. As frustrated as you may be with Kris Knoblauch, and as nuts as the lack of goals are, those suppression totals are a wonder. This same combination (good underlying numbers, poor scoring results) got Dallas Eakins fired back in the day, but I think Knoblauch and his staff have more quality on the roster than Eakins enjoyed on the day he was let go. Should be a good game tonight, no victory guarantee but these are fun teams. Once again, don’t let Jacques Lemaire in the building and Minnesota hockey clubs are fun.

We’re live noon to 2pm today on the Lowdown, Sports 1440. Bagged Milk will join us to preview the game, we’ll talk Blue Jays, NFL Thursday nighter and Declanations will be all about NCAA football. 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, we tweet out the show after it’s done and you can catch us on Apple and Spotify.