The Edmonton Oilers seem to have a tough time with the Buffalo Sabres when playing a home game in late December or in January. I haven’t looked at the record, but in the McDavid era there have been some frustrating games in Edmonton between the two teams.
Yesterday afternoon could have been another of those contests, but Stuart Skinner and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins combined to win the day. It was a solid win by a quality team not at their best. All good, and next up the Kraken.
The Athletic article today suggest 4 AHL players who could be quality acquisitions for the Oilers. Article is here.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN JANUARY
- At home to: ANA (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 1-0-0)
- On the road to: SEA, BOS, PIT, CHI (Expected 2-1-1) (Actual 3-1-0)
- At home to: LAK (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 1-0-0)
- On the road to: MIN, COL, VAN (Expected 1-1-1) (Actual 2-1-0)
- At home to: WAS, VAN, BUF, SEA, DET (Expected 3-2-0) (Actual 2-1-0)
- Overall expected results: 8-4-2, 18 points in 14 games
- January result: 9-3-0
- Oilers in 2024-25: 31-15-3, 65 points in 49 games
The Oilers are in a good spot now, and Kris Knoblauch has his team pulling on the rope together. I’m so impressed by this coaching staff, partly because the tweaks work so well. Credit always must go to the players, who are progressing from all areas and ages. Ty Emberson and Jeff Skinner, as examples, are coming along and doing more to help the team.
THE NUMBERS
Stuart Skinner had a strong night, his .916 save percentage at five-on-five since October 15th ranks him No. 19 among NHL regulars. Is that good enough to keep Stan Bowman from making a move? I believe it should be, but then again I believe the Oilers are a little more difficult to play in front of and many folks don’t agree. We’ll see at the deadline.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored twice at five-on-five and is now at 1.13 points-60 in the discipline. Nuge is one of my all-time favourites and so the scoring struggles this season have been a concern. I’m like the guy in Roger Angell’s “Three For The Tigers” article for The New Yorker in 1972. He checked Al Kaline’s career batting average every day when he got to work, making sure it was over .300. I always check on Nuge’s five-on-five scoring because it needs to be 1.75 or more based on his linemates. That’s my line in the sand, but it’s important he score. Well done, Nuge!
Ty Emberson is settling in now, I think he’s going to be part of the solution for the Oilers. Vital that the club keep adding useful pieces, he’s one of them.
Jeff Skinner scored a big goal yesterday. Traction, baby, it’s important.
The Oilers in first place is breaking news, and we are here. The last Oilers team to do it, 1986-87, is my all-time favourite Oilers team. I believe that team represents the best hockey team to ever skate on NHL ice.
A LONG shift defending the 6 on 5 but the Condors give up nothing and hold on for the 3-2 win.
Was an enjoyable experience to attend. Crowd came late an left early. Met half a dozen other Oiler fans. This is my third road game for the condors and likely the best fan experience of them. Of course Bakersfield is better. No doubt Rodrigue won them the game, thought Kemp and Brown played will. Imo Savoie will be an Nhler, he made a couple bad giveaways in his own zone, but overall showed well and improvement since I saw them in October. Glad i went.
Thanks for telling us about your experience – fun.
I’ve only seen the Condors live here in Calgary.
I have little doubt that Savoie will be an NHLer and likely a top 6. The level of top 6 player is in question.
Thanks, I appreciate your comments. For sure, your travel adventures are a little different than mine.
Turning out to be a great competitive game in Coachella Valley. CV within one (some sloppy own zone defence, letting a player walk in to the slot from the point and then not tying up anyone for the rebound goal).
Condors break out on a 2 on 1 with apx 10 minutes left – great pass over to Attard who rips it – looked like it went in but the goalie made the save but the rebound was sitting there and was buried but, for some reason, the ref blew it down for zero reason and it doesn’t count. The rebound was never near covered – sigh.
Holty is livid.
Attard with a great defensive play on a 2 on 1
Dineen with a long stretch pass to Savoie at the CV blueline, Savoie does a great job to coral it and pop it to an open areas for a steaming Dineen who takes it in to the slot and regains the 2-goal lead.
Savoie with primary, Hamblin with the secondary (who won a defensive zone battle and passed it cross defensive blue to start the play).
Oooop, Corcoran falls down in the neutral zone giving up a clean breakaway from center and Rodrigue is beat on the 23rd shot against.
Nice forecheck by the fourth line, puck is worked back to the point, Corcoran with a very nice look cross-seam to Swetlikoff at the top of the circles who dusts it off but then wrist it home – good shot – he’s had a good game from what I’ve seen (back and forth with the football game).
2-0 Condors.
Condors take a 1-0 lead to the first intermission but Rodrigue their best player, by far, with 16 saves, quite a few with a real degree of difficulty.
Have to agree , stopped breakaways. Interesting to see Savoie take defensive zone faceoff on penalty kill
D’Amato forces a turnover at by CV at their offensive blue and then the bad pass on the re-entry – Pereault picks off the pass in the neutral zone but and dangles a couple of defenders and snaps one home far side.
He’s been quiet offensively lately with “less to play with” but that was highlight reel.
1-0 Condors 13 minutes in.
just cause…take me to the river…texas style
https://youtu.be/uLWxEKC84hU?si=v8kQBz4Ul-esyVRu
Looks like the same lineup for the Condors – noone returning (Wanner, Carrick, Petrov, Pederson, Jarventie) and Ryan not in yet.
Congratulations on your Eagles getting through, LT. Fantastic game.
Now for the Bills to do the same…
I would love an Eagles-Bills SB
That would have been the easier path. Instead you’re getting Mahomes.
I’ll take it. Eagles winning a Super Bowl in 2017 was more than I ever thought possible. I’d love to see another, but the Chiefs are an amazing team. I love their coach, too.
Alex Pietrangelo withdrawing from 4 Nations Tourney as announced by Vegas on Twitter.
Bouchard, Noah Dobson, and Weegar look like possibilities to replace Pietrangelo.
I hope they choose Dobson so Bouch can rest and reset. A few weeks off to watch some tape and look at his game with an objective eye could really help Bouchard get back to a higher level
or tearing it up on the International stage could restore his confidence.
Or: introduce him to the next level.
Good point. It might wake him up. Thats not a criticism, many players like him are mercurial. But I imagine that’s a stretch for them to pick him because of current play
I think Dobson was recently injured. Out week to week
Yes, and on Saturday the Isles put Dobson on LTIR.
Of note, Pieterangelo is playing today for Vegas. We suspect he’s playing hurt, more than a just a bit banged up.
I think most players do really want to play in this tournament but, nope, its not the Olympics and the stretch run/playoffs likely take precedent for many.
I don’t suspect others will pull out just for rest but, if a player has been playing through a real injury, we may see a few more.
———————-
As far as the open spot, Bouch has a real shot. Nope, he has not returned to his prior elite 2-way levels and continues to struggle but, even with, he’s a top 4 producer at 5 on 5 and top 10 overall. As far as keeping the puck out at 5 on 5 – well, he remains near 60% goal share and has been on the ice for fewer goals against the Pieterangelo himself, along with Praykho, Hanifin, Hamilton, Montour, etc.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6089407/2025/01/26/blackhawks-mikko-rantanen-nhl-free-agency/
Chicago retained $4.625M on Rantanen but they could pay another $14+M if things work out in July…
Summarizing!
O’Reilly picked up two assists whilst Nicholl garnered one in a 7-3 win.
Prospecting takes a break until Thor’s Day.
The flashier of O’Reilly’s apples:
https://x.com/LondonKnights/status/1883624143016575468
Eric Tulsky on the Rantanen trade.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6088081/2025/01/25/eric-tulsky-mikko-rantanen-hurricanes-trade/
Rantanen is not Leon. Anyone arguing so clearly doesn’t watch much hockey. Even on stats alone, it isn’t close. And yet – talking heads everywhere are claiming this.
I wish we had camera footage of how many of these guys actually watch the games.
Rant isn’t a C really either. A top outscoring C is a better player than the winger equivalent, is doing more
Rantanen often played 2C before Landeskog was injured.
Mackinnon 2 points.. still -1…
Drai is just better
Evolving Hockey had Skinner saving 4.07 goams above expected fpr yesterday’s game, his best result of the year.
Previous best result was 3.08 vs PIT on Oct 25 when he shut them out.
Puts Skinner at 5.55 GSAx for the season using EH’s metric (which I like more than NatStat, Moneypuck and others)
How can his season average be higher than his two best games?
It appears to be cumulative not average.
Yes
It’s analogous to plus minus as it incorporates positive and negative results from individual games to calculate a cumulative total for the season.
Thanks all
What do you like about EH over NST when is comes to expected goals? I admit I haven’t looked too closely at either methodology.
It just comes closer to the puck/player tracking results from what I’ve seen of that data but my sample size is small
Thanks.
I’m not sure about many of the other public models but NST definitely has deficiencies in its “scoring chance” and “high danger” data (which corresponds to expected goals of course).
To my knowledge, NST only takes in to account where the shot comes from (i.e. distance from the goal and angle) and does not take in to account pre-shot puck movement, who is taking the shot, the actual shot itself, etc.
There were a bunch of midseason awards polls done after New Years and most have not acknowledged the work of Kris Knoblauch. The consensus seems to be that Spencer Carbury is the clubhouse leader for Jack Adams Best coach award with named runners up such as John Hynes (pre-swoon from 3 weeks ago!), Dean Evason (Columbus showing tons of resilience considering the Gaudreau loss) and Rick Tocchet (running a harmonious and well managed locker room) <I kid! I kid!>.
But Coach Knob was usually listed anywhere from 5th to 10th in all the rankings I saw. I know it doesn’t matter to the team much but it’d be nice if someone in the media would show some “vocal” appreciation for the Oilers coaching staff and the great work they’ve done to tweak and adjust to recover from the 0-3 start.
I am overjoyed that they are ignoring Knoblauch. The Jack Adams is a curse.
Jeff Skinner scored a goal against his old team. Maybe they’ll want him back.
Last night, Bednar, a cup winning and currently 3rd longest tenured NHL coach, played Necas over 25 minutes in his first game with the Avalanche. It is almost 2 more minutes than Necas has played in any game in his entire career. And it was game 1 of a back to back. It’s on the road and they did have to go from Boston to New York. So far today Necas has 2 points in the first period so fatigue is not a problem yet.
He was minus 3 yesterday with 0 points
Both his points coming off of plays with Makar and McKinnon… must be tough for Necas
Bednar needs a haircut.
Seems as though this has been the case for exactly one metric forever.
I remember people running Duby out of town, calling anyone who supported him a goalie apologist.
While this hodgepodge d-corps has been improving, I recall a recent post (last week or so) that pointed out the Oilers are worst in the league allowing slot shots according to NHL Edge data. Coffey and Stuart need to clamp down on that, stat.
That was an error. The Oilers are among the league leaders in not allowing slot shots against if not leader.
NHL Edge does not appear to show team data on Quality of shots against. Naturalstattrick has the Oilers with the lowest high danger shots against 5 on 5 and all situations.
In Edge you can look at individual goalies shots against by location but they only show it one goalie at a time so putting together a team total for every team is a lot of work. The totals for Skinner and Pickard roughly add up to the Oilers team total so it is reasonable to assume the Oilers would be at or near the top in preventing inner slot shots.
Thanks for the reply, I was just catching up on that myself to see if I could corroborate the data and post a link.
Can’t remember who the poster was, maybe CrazyCoach?, hopefully they can chime in.
Think the same poster linked something about goalie zones from icehockeysystems.com in that post I’m (mis)remembering.
It was Crazycoach and in a later post he acknowledged that he had likely read the NHL data incorrectly.
Appreciate the clarification, I was trying to search for the post but not having any luck.
Hodgepodge?
n. A podge of hodges.
Considering his linemates, talent, and TOI, 2.0 p/60 should be the line in the sand for RNH, non?
Well there is 192 top 6 forwards in the league. 32×6=192 (just to clarify for anyone who questions it)
The 192nd players tied (Minimum 500 minutes) are at 1.44, Tyler Bertuzzi, Dawson Mercer, Josh Anderson.
1.75 would put him at 116th in the league, which would be very top of the 2nd line forwards. For reference Bédard (1.76), Aho (1.76) Stutzle (1.77).
2 would put him 71st, tied with Barkov and Jared McCann. Ahead of players like
Celebrini (1.98), Nylander (1.97), Jack Hughes (1.89), Scheifele (1.86), Rantanen (1.85), Meier (1.84). All oh those players realistically will probably have a better stats career than Nuge.
Nuge has other attributes such as defensive awareness. There is give and take. Nuge probably will have a better defensive career than most, if not all of those players.
Realistic expectations and acknowledging what a player does well and not dwelling on what they are not is very important when reviewing a players performance. Does Nuge need to be better than 1.13? For sure, no question. I’d personally say it would be realistic to be happy if he was currently running 1.4-1.5 and 1.75 would be ideal, anything better than that would be phenomenal.
Interesting, thanks for the post.
I had it in my mind that 2.0 p/60 was first line territory. On the other hand, none of those guys listed from Celebrini to Meier get to play the bulk of their ice time with the likes of Connor so you’d expect a bit of a bump.
I guess my line in the sand is whatever top third of the league first line production is for that current season. That’s where I’d want to see Nuge.
He’s definitely defensively conscious, but he’s no slouch offensively either.
At any rate, it appears his early career wrister is back on display and he’s on a bit of a roll lately. I bet his scoring rate pumps by the end of the season.
I think people underestimate how much time Nuge spends away from McDavid. In the past 2.5 seasons, Nuge has played 5 on 5 with McDavid around 1,200 minutes and without McDavid 1500 minutes. His 5 on 5 points per 60 with McDavid over the last 2.5 seasons is 1.95 per game and a respectable 1.72 without though his 500 minutes with Leon is almost 1/3 of his time without McDavid. Those averages include this season which has seen a significant drop, where his overall 1.13 points per 60 is a blend of 1.37 with McDavid in 350 minutes and .83 p/60 in 283 minutes without Connor.
So far, Nuge’s playing time with McDavid is similar to the past couple of seasons. Regular LW, but moved down when the coach loads up with Leon. McDavid 6 missed games has lowered their TOI together as well. Despite the struggles for points to date, overall, Knoblauch has preferred RNH as the regular LW on that line, based on all the considerations he takes into account. That may change as some point, maybe even as soon as tomorrow when McDavid comes back and Nuge being a big contributor to 2 wins while centering his own line.
He has been at over over 2.00 pts-60 at five-on-five once in the last five seasons. I don’t think that’s his line in the sand.
He is a VERY good defensive d-man – if he had another 2-3 inches and 20 pounds he would be Adam Larsson like. He is starting to show confidence in other areas of the game – willingness to step up for a hit, to hold the line and to make some offensive plays. He probably tops out at a 20-25 point d-man but I think he could be a high end shut down 2RD in time (high end on the defensive side).
I have been very impressed with him. He brings a lot of “edge” to his game with the big hits and being tough to play against. He is the defenceman version of what Podkolzin has brought to the second line. Works extremely hard and does the best he can.
Very quiet player his best quality is you don’t notice him. His gap control and boxing out of players is good. He doesn’t take many penalties and he doesn’t put himself in a position to get hurt. This could be our Randy Gregg steady eddy for the next half-dozen years.
I find it almost impossible to fathom Bowman trading for a goalie that would supplant Stuart Skinner prior to this year’s trade deadline.
He used his regular course cap space on Klingberg and has most of the LTIR space left – other than that space, its money out and money in.
This is presuming that Kane is not activated this regular season which, in my opinion, is all but a lock since Bowman used the normal course cap space.
The Oilers do not have elite goaltending. Dead cap hit aside, the Oilers don’t pay for elite goaltending but they pay for elite players in other areas. Teams that pay for elite goaltending don’t pay for elite skaters or, if they have one or two, have little depth.
Its a cap world and Stuart Skinner for $2.6MM is huge value and he’s a goaltender that has proven can be the #1 goalie on a team in the SCF and can win SCF games – proven.
And he is only 26 and has a few years to get to his peak. He could be this team’s goalie for quite a few more years .
We don’t know Stan Bowman’s evaluation and what he considers the best road forward.
I am on Team Skinner. However, we don’t know what we don’t know.
It is a possibility.
Skinner reminds me of Jean-Sebastien Giguere. Who won a cup with the Ducks way back when, even won the Conn Smyth in a losing effort. He had some huge goalie equipment, and the pucks just bounced off him. When they reduced the size of the goaltender’s equipment Giguere had his struggles. Skinner is the same type of goalie big & positionally strong until he isn’t.
Jeff Skinner scored a great goal because he was hanging around the slot area. That golden area in front of the hapless goalie.
2022 Broberg played in 46 regular season NHL games, in 2023 he played in just 12.
This season Emberson has played in 46 NHL regular season games so far.
What is Emberson doing to earn the games that Broberg couldn’t for the same coaching staff?
#1 Emberson is staying healthy, which Broberg has shown an inability to do being injured each yr in nil, AHL and even this yr for a time with the Blues. Ppl conveniently forget this fact when screaming about not matching that ridiculously overpriced offer sheet. Hid playing style an body simply do not hold up in the NHL, making him a big risk at that AAV price tag. Holloway is similar always being injured. Hes the only one I wld have considered due to the lower AAV but happy we got Podkolzin at even half of Holloways salary. don’t compare his and Holloway’s Sts as Holloway is being zoomed on the top lines and gets PP time which Podz doesn’t or their stay wld be similar
Would agree except for the ridiculously priced offer sheets. They were priced exactly right. You don’t win an offer sheet without overpaying.
Holloway isn’t being zoomed. He has helped Schenn find the fountain of youth, and Holloway and Kyrou complement each other extremely well. Wait till Devorsky gets his NHL shot between those two if St. Louis falls out of the wildcard hunt.
Marner literally tackled Broberg by falling on his leg. Intentionally dangerous play on Marner’s part.
Neither is overpayed.
Once again with the ridiculous take on the Marner/Broberg. Its really sad the blinders you put on when it comes to your chosen players. A hundred people could watch that play and the only 2 people among them who would conclude that Marner’s play was dirty and dangerous would be you and Broberg’s mother.
I said dangerous, not dirty. The two are not the same. Once one is cleanly beaten, one should not try to make a dangerous play to attempt to recover. Marner went for the tackle once he was cleanly beaten. Do you want people trying to tackle McDavid when they get beat?
You said intentionally dangerous. That is is consistent with willful negligence or gross negligence. ie. knowing my action is likely to cause harm but not caring. A lower standard than deliberately wanting to hurt someone but would be considered dirty in the context of hockey.
And for the last time, it is completely clear Marner accidently fell on Broberg because their skates clipped as Marner body checked him. There was no attempted tackle.
Using a right handed stick?
For one thing, staying healthy enough to make the team night after night.
Holloway and Broberg are pretty cool players when healthy, and that’s a fact.
Emberson plays the right side where the Oilers currently have no depth. Broberg played behind Nurse, Ekholm and Kulak on the left. He was also not ready to play ahead of Ceci on the right side. His only competition was Desharnais who despite his other shortcomings was generally better at the 3rd pair shut down role and PK specialist (the latter which he still does well with Vancouver).
If Broberg had stayed, he was expected to this season to finally be ready for 2nd pair RD beside Nurse, the spot he filled at the end of last season’s playoffs.
the three guys blocking him were moved.
He’s playing both styles but notably playing quite good defensive hockey.
Emberson is better at defending the Ricki box!
When Stu keeps his mechanics on point, he looks like a goalie that you can count on. He’s got to elevate himself to do that consistently, that’s the job. All the stats say the Oilers are one of the better defensive teams to be a mostly goalie for. Past histories seem to be clouding the current evidence.
Kapanen > Skinner
Philp is in tough if he’s playing less then 7mins while one of the glimmer centers isn’t in the lineup.
Hopefully the Oilers can keep pushing and obtain themselves a nice battle of Alberta in the first round.
Philp had a really tough game yesterday. Play hasn’t slowed down for him yet. KK is youth averse when points are in doubt (see Broberg, Philip).
The Oilers are in a good spot to let Philp get some experience on a winning club playing structured hockey. Getting a another centre is going to be something that happens at the deadline.
He’s shown some flashes of the player he’s going to be in the NHL, and other moments when the game is a bit too fast for him. But he’s well supported by a all the veteran wingers on the club.
Oh, absolutely. If this was last year’s mad scramble to get back in the playoff hunt, we would not be seeing this nice little audition for Philp. The game can only slow down via reps and they’ve been giving him what they can.
If he stakes a step, they keep him up. If not, good chance we see that role filled at the deadline (or the return of Ryan).
Good job by skinner to win that game. The two he gave up were very high danger scoring chances (goalie moving side to side without able to get set)
I do wish they got that Emberson contract before Will Borgen signed his.
Borgen is in his 7th season, multiple 20 point campaign, are they compables?
I’m sure his agent will use it. every day we wait his price will go up
Or do we just wait for the offseason offer sheet?
Because if I’m St. Louis I just keep it going
Oilers are in first so it seems we need to dig hard to find something to worry over and complain about
Yup. Could’ve moved earlier on this. Presuming.
He was only eligible for extension as of Jan. 1 and Friedman reported that the Oilers have likely already been speaking with his camp about this so it appears they have been on it as early as they were able.
I agree in hoping it is actually done soon tho before his price increases any further but this may be a reason why his agent could want to delay this process as well.
When these guys land on your plate you have the opportunity to secure medium length term at extremely low rates – you’re handing a tweener or yet to be established player the opportunity to guarantee “prosperity for life,” security for their family, all that. I would have tried to tee up something in the three year range Ty could sign straight away in the new year. Oilers really, really need those deals with the McD contract coming up, and Ty can make bank on the next contract if he earns it (with blue chippers Doc n Bouch the Oil blew it offering bridges – they should’ve gone long first chance). Everything on this team is so tight because not one administrator could show an inkling of foresight as far as the cap was concerned.
Will Borden is 28 set to become a UFA this off season. Even in an arbitration case, Borgen’s contract could not be used as a comp.
If Emberson didn’t play another game this season, he would be a UFA. Once he hits 50 games, I believe he becomes an RFA with the Oilers controlling his rights. Even if the Oilers wanted to sign Emberson earlier, there is very little chance Emberson would sign till he hits at least 50 games. There would be no value in him giving up the leverage that if the Oilers didn’t play him or he got injured he could walk at the end of the season.
The real negotiations with Emberson will likely start assuming he hits 50 games played at the end of this week. It is possible Emberson will have arbitration rights if he remains an RFA till summer.
Agree – I haven’t expected a deal to get done until he plays game 50.
And what were the Broberg comparables for his big contract?
Borgen is in his 6th year in the NHL, and has put up 20 points in his last two seasons prior to this one. He also had a $2.7M cap for the last 3 seasons. I do agree his new contract definitely seems like an overpay, especially since his Rel numbers (both CF and DFF) have been below water for years. However the cap going up is going to change the landscape of how players will be paid going forward.
Emberson’s numbers have been similar, but he hasn’t even finished one full season yet. Hoping they get him signed to a team friendly deal similar (hopefully lower) than Borgen’s previous contract (3x $2.7M). Otherwise, a $4M x 7-8yr contract would be the hope.
Sure but then you are presuming that young players don’t want to get paid
From everything I’ve heard and read these negotiations are pretty dialed in. Only offer sheets or a dense GM gets more than market
Many teams have competent pro scouts and know the value is in emerging players witih little track record, and the Blues have shown the way to exploit this market, one or two year seemingly overpays that are not really overpays that the cap strapped team cannot match.
This.
and the Oilers have competent pro scouts that identified Emberson as a player to acquire – he just became eligible to re-sign 25 days ago and, from various accounts, the Oilers are working with the player on an extension right now.
The Blues exploited a market one time – it doesn’t change the normal course business conducted with internal RFAs, which the Oilers are in the process of.
They also identified Josh Brown and Jeff Skinner. Henrique has underperformed expectations since signing his 2-year contract.
They also walked Holloway and Broberg.
Borgen was playing similar minutes to Emberson on Seattle. His TOI is now over 17 minutes per game with NYR. Lately, it’s been creeping up even further to 18:48 per game since Christmas. He’s both getting the 4th most minutes among D, and viewed as the number 4 D on that team.
Emberson is getting 3rd pair minutes (14 mins per game) and viewed as 3rd pair. TOI is big in negotiations for these types of D. He will be RFA at the end of the season vs. Borgen who is UFA.
Frank Seravalli
@frank_seravalli
Sizable extension for recently acquired defenseman Will Borgen: 5 years x $4.1 million.
When you heard Shesterkin rave about Borgen’s play recently, had to believe Rangers front office received the message, too.
Borgen has played almost 200 games more than Emberson and was a pending UFA, not RFA.
He is a decent example though as, coming off his ELC, around Emberson’s age and level of establishedness, he signed for 2 X $1.8MM.
I’ve not been a big fan of J Skinner this season but kudos for his effort last night .I counted him engaging in 7 puck battles .Granted he only won two of them and ended up on his butt 4 times but for the first time from this fans perspective he actually tried which is big step forward .
Could Janny or Brown get a night off with McDavid coming back? They are inportant on the kill but their overall play has not been at their top levels recently.
Kap has made some big plays recently and Skinner is about to go on a heater.
Philp is the center and needs games.
Janmark, Brown & Kapanen all play on the PK, so does Philp. The only two in the bottom six that don’t PK are Skinner & Perry. Take your pick. Perry has been playing well, and Skinner scored a goal. What are they going to tell Corey?
Kapanen averages less than 30 seconds per game on the PK and Philp has had 2 PK shifts in his career (and lost 3 straight faceoffs on the PK yesterday, the last leading to goal against right after a PK ended).
I doubt they end up taking either Janny or Brown out, their PK role is important but they should be in the conversation at this point, in my opinion, as Kap has been very good in recent games and I don’t think Skinner should come out at all.
Well than it must be Perry than.
What are they going to tell Corey?
And what’s going to happen when they decide to call up Savoie?
Stu Skinner stole that one. Atta boy!
Skinner is easily good enough to win the cup this season.
Erratic Skinner, by playing that way, can win the cup.
He seems to get more dialed in after he’s felt some rubber.
Which is pretty common for most goalies.
Tough to get in a groove when you only see five shots a period.
That’s it. It’s not that he can’t steal a game or play well, it’s the number of quality starts which he hasn’t yet dialed in
Looking over the Forward line numbers, what do you do next game when McDavid is back? Who sits? I’d like to keep that RNH line from yesterday together so how about
Henrique McD Hyman
Pod Drai Arvi
Janmark RNH Brown
Kap Philp Perry
Not sure Skinner should sit after scoring a goal and playing well, but Kapanen also played well, and if we are giving Philp a trial, he needs to play
Perry could sit for a game and not lose momentum. He’s playing well but a night off wouldn’t hurt his edge or ego, one would think.
So Jinner – Philp – Kapanen as a fourth line might work.
Good morning from San Pedro, Belize! It’s a balmy 25°C, the pineapple juice is fresh and the rum delicious.
This team has character. We are in the place where less skilled teams who’s season is done already want to say “at least we beat the Oilers”. It’s a compliment. I thought last year’s team was better. They’re proving me wrong.
Well, off to the beach. Later skaters.
I just took the trash out, in the rain. It’s been raining all day here.
I very much liked San Pedro, except for the fact it poured rain the entire time we were there (last December, 2023)
Prospectiness!
The Knight twain is in the spotlight again.
It’s okay to be mildly concerned about the swoon in which O’Reilly and especially Nicholl find themselves.
O’Reilly has cooled off some with just one goal in his last six GP. Nicholl has dipped below the point-per-game mark and his goal-scoring drought has reached 13 GP.
They shall both seek to get off the schneid when the puck drops at noon Elko (BC) time.