This is a list of 1990 rookies who played for the Oilers during the 1989-90 regular season. By this time in the 1980’s Oilers run, many of the best rookies were acquired by trading off star players. Martin Gelinas arrived that way.
Yesterday, we saw Matthew Savoie’s Oilers debut and it was one of the most impressive things about the game. Fans shouldn’t expect another Savoie from the AHL recall this spring, but even one impact recall can make a big difference. Savoie’s performance yesterday suggested he might have a say in the rest of this season, and beyond.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN FEBRUARY
- At home to: TOR (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 0-1-0)
- On the road to: STL, CHI (Expected 2-0-0) (Actual 2-0-0)
- At home to: COL (Expected 0-1-0) (Actual 0-1-0)
- On the road to: PHI, WAS, TBY, FLA (Expected 2-2-0) (Actual 0-1-0)
- Overall expected results: 5-3-0, 10 points in 8 games
- February result: 2-3-0
- Oilers in 2024-25: 34-18-4, 72 points in 56 games
The Oilers have not played well lately, the Colorado game and yesterday’s tilt versus Philadelphia both suffering from rancid defensive play. Kris Knoblauch has shown great acuity in getting things back on track in a quick hurry and that would mean a far better effort today.
THE NUMBERS
I ‘saw him good’ players for me yesterday included Savoie (he is a smart player who can get the puck along the wall and send it to a good place, proved it on the Draisaitl goal); John Klingberg who followed up his goal with a smashing pass to Draisaitl on the next shift; Draisaitl, who is going to win the Hart Trophy; Ty Emberson, who is a smart player really settling in to his role.
Several veterans were poor. Evan Bouchard had an awful game with the puck, and is having a difficult season. I remain convinced of his brilliance and I know that drives people crazy at some level. Rest assured, I’m not being stubborn for the fun of it, but when I see a five-on-five goal share of 58 percent for the season, that’s my guy. He has a 55 percent without McDavid if that’s your next retort. The Oilers have a 49 percent goal share with Bouchard at rest, so you are damn right I’m going to defend this player.
Stuart Skinner didn’t play well enough to win, but the GA included at least three screaming errors that left the goalie stone alone. Skinner also made some huge stops on a night when the entire defense at times seemed to let off the gas because the other guy was going to get back in time. Putrid display, and I’ll not hang this loss on Skinner.
I’m of the opinion the Oilers should stay the course. I am also increasinly of the belief we will see a trade for a replacement starter before the deadline.
Why? Stan Bowman may look at this team and decide the strongest move he can make at the deadline is to acquire a veteran goaltender to support or supplant Skinner.
I wouldn’t trade him, he’s an inexpensive starter who owns a .917SP since November 23 (ranks No. 16) and backstopped the Oilers to Game 7 of the SCF one year ago.
Bowman may have only one pricey arrow in his quiver this spring. He may believe getting a veteran goaltender is the play here. I think that’s important to acknowledge.
New for The Athletic: Oilers’ recall possibilities lack strong prospect option with Matt Savoie in the NHL
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6152965/2025/02/23/oilers-matt-savoie-nhl-recall/
Yea the cupboard looks pretty bare….. Pretty hard to stockpile talent when you trade all your draft picks. Scouting needs to start looking under rocks to find some undrafted prospects.
Could be quite a pivotal week in the standings.
While the Oilers enter the Valley of Death in Tampa, Florida and Carolina, Vegas and LA have an opportunity to make hay.
Tampa (18-7-2), Florida (17-10-2), and Carolina (21-6-1) all have dominant records at home.
All the fun starts tomorrow when Vegas visits LA where the Kings have the best (18-3-2) home record in the league.
LA then has Vancouver at home while following that with road games against Dallas and St. Louis.
Vegas finishes the week against Chicago and New Jersey at home where they have a 20-6-2 record.
LA holds 3 games in hand on both Vegas and the Oilers so could tighten the Pacific race significantly.
Horrible 2-game stretch, and arguably longer than 2 games. Team has been flat with no spark over that period.
McDavid is now 0-8 on-ice at 5-on-5 and 0-10 on-ice at EV in the team’s past 4 games. Not putting the blame on him completely, but that’s a rough total. Numbers for other notables are:
Ekholm 1-7
Bouch 1-4
Draisaitl 4-3
Hyman 1-5
Nuge 1-3
Well certainly match’s the eye test.
He needs help. Team’s are defending him better (layers) and he doesn’t have help.
Two changes worth considering. Move Savoie up with him. Give him a player with speed who can help, can get teams backing up. Then, put pre-beak JSkinner back w/Drai.
Move Arvidsson at the deadline. He’s doing nothing. His best shot is on the goalie logo. He’s small and easily knocked off the puck, get squeezed along the boards. There’s a reason Nashville and LA gave up on him. Great heart, but nothing left in the tank.
This teams record against other playoff teams is abysmal.
They should be very busy at the trade deadline.
I gotta say. If Ovie breaks the record, and Washington wins the President’s Trophy along the way… I think there’s a pretty strong Hart argument there (as much as it pains me to say as a Leon die hard). Washington seems galvanized by the chase, and are outperforming all expectations because of it.
Jack Adams for the coach, and Chris Patrick for GM, but no single player on the Capitals is Hart worthy.
Klingberg might be a good passer, but I’m not seeing him good in his own end.
Not to say that’s the only thing that needs fixing. Right now, they are lacking in details defensively. They don’t work back to pucks and turn too many over.
Some of these smaller forwards just aren’t going to help. They keep doing the same thing over and over and over.
That was one ugly baby.
Ya gotta see the baby!
That game was… breathtaking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG3v_kA0Stw
This team is hot garbage right now. Unwatchable. Trading futures at the deadline is not going to fix that.
Fire Dustin swartz please for the sake of the team. Hire cujo
I’ve been trying to think of a strong candidate to replace DS for a while.
Ranford was promoted in LA, so he’s unlikely to take a step down. Burke is employed in MTL, they missed the slim window where he was available. Korn and Allaire, both perpetually employed. Essensa has been in BOS forever (was coach to Tim Thomas when they last won the Cup). Guys who look like potential fits and as being available:
Not sure if I prefer any of these guys, goalies being voodoo, but I don’t have my finger on the pulse of that part of the game and the who’s who among rising stars.
I’ve been banging this drum since Mike Smith hired his own consultant during the off season and came back looking ten years younger. Well, I brought it up when Duby worked with Burke and rose from the ashes, but that fizzled out as there seemed little appetite for discussion. I think Chabot was fired for less. Schwartz has had his chance and not delivered. Time for change.
When Ovechkin goes to the White House for dinner will McDonald’s be on the menu? Will Gretzky be invited? Putin too?
Butthurt much?
Why the goalie pull when down by three?
What the hell was the point of that.
Fire the coach.
Ovechkin may get the record before this game is over
Right I was about to type “the Oilers are trying to give all-time empty net merchant an empty-net hat trick” Ovechkin got the hat trick on an empty-netter.
Nice score off a forecheck.
Both goals this period involved pressure/creating mistakes.
Skinner trolling Knoblauch with another goal
Garbage time. Almost the entirety of Skinner’s career has been scoring in garbage time.
You should have no trouble providing facts to support such a statement, right?
Caps may let the Oilers get another to get an empty net for Ovie….
or pull the goalie down 3 – i HATED that decision.
A lost weekend. Remember that today’s Oilers are the same team that came back from 3 down in Colorado January 16
Massive goal by Skinner………
I’m not positive that Connor Brown with McDavid and Leon is the answer but here we are….
Hyman with a small effort on a forecheck, a bounce off Arvy and a nice finish by Nuge.
Klingberg was one of the few Oilers that I thought played well yesterday – he’s been worse than imaginable this afternoon.
Ty Emberson the Oilers’ best d-man this weekend…..
The mistakes continue. Have to start wondering if the players are not capable of fixing this. Odd man breaks continue and no response.
Last 2 teams they’ve played are making them look old and slow. PP not doing it, PK has been atrocious. Goalies not getting help – and not making saves.
It’s a team failure at this point.
Let’s completely ignore the fact they’ve been battling for the division lead while being one of the best teams since the horrid 1st week of the season.
They definitely can’t right the ship, should blow it up and shoot for the lottery lol
They’ve never come out of long breaks slow and stagnant only to turn it around hotter then sun. Never has happened, not once.
Washington is big and tough and can skate. Built for the playoffs. GM did a great job this Summer. Good goaltending as well. Oilers are the exact opposite with 2 sensational players that without would be in the bottom 6-7 in the league easily without those 2. If they are not scoring and producing this team is not good
If you’re Tulsky and you need to move Rantanen, Bouchard is a delicious looking return. If you’re Bowman, and you can get Rantanen and Andersen on a rental, and you think Klingberg can supplant Bouchard, maybe that expensive rental looks good to you.
1) Klingberg cannot supplant Bouchard (Klingberg was worse today than anything we’ve seen from Bouch)
2) Not trading Bouchard for any rental
Even if Bouchard does not find his game this season, he’s already shown us where his game can get to and will likely get to many many times in the next decade.
This team does not know how to start. 4 Nations means two opening nights for this club, suboptimal.
if Skinner is your starter, why do you start him against the weaker team on the b2b? Does he have a bad record against WSH or something?
Do you seriously think that had we swapped goalie starts it would have made a difference ??
No. I just want to know why they made the decision.
Seems teams tend to play the starter against the first team to try and ensure one win, while playing the weaker goalie on the second of a back to back to try and juice up the team to play for the backup.
How many teams play their backup goalie in game 1 after a long(ish) break? I’m betting few to none do.
My thought is because KK pulled Skinner against the Avs before the break, he wanted to give Stu the net right away, which is usually how you treat a starting goalie. Plus, even though Picks has played most of his games against the weaker teams, he does have some wins against the stronger teams, and Stu was tagged with the loss the last game against the Caps.
Also, just to add, these 2 games are more about the defensive lapses being exposed, plus the inability to generate any sustained offense. Probably could have had either goalie in net (and any other goalies people are looking for) and the results would be the same.
Good rationale. Thanks
I wouldn’t put anything more in to it than it was the first game after a 2-week break – you play your starting goalie.
Pathetic…
Right now, the Oilers look like they couldn’t organize a hunger strike at a fashion show.
Closed door meeting [clap clap clapclapclap]
Appears to be very little fight in these dogs……
Players only meeting led by captain Mcminus sounds pretty motivating.
5 goals on 20 shots
2 days in a row
Woof
The Oiler 8 wingers are invisible. Getting very little done. Our offence has been reduced to 29 + 97 and some contributions from the D. 97 has looked a bit off all season. Combine that with less than average goaltending and here we are. Obviously we are still a top 5 team but showing very little last 5 games or so.
Frickin oilers. Man they suck right now.
no way their winning a cup this year.
Pretty good chance we’re watching the cup winner in this game.
They’re wearing red.
They’re not even close. Only one player having a great season and the rest are mediocre to downright terrible seasons. I’m ready to write this season off completely. Hate to say that but what is their record against top teams? They will lose the rest of this road trip games at this rate and may be out of a playoff spot soon enough the way they are playing. There is no one coming to save them. This is not on the goalies. I’m done watching.
Honestly their record against the top 8 teams is like 3-10-2.
Oilers aren’t just losing they’re propelling all their opponents to new heights.
Ugh that was bad Klingberg on that shift. Ugly
They’re laughing at us.
Just getting crushed all over the ice.
That was VERY VERY VERY poor by John Klingberg…..
Looked like a bad pass to me.
That idiotic PK system doesn’t work.
This road trip could get really ugly really fast
Could??
Imperative to get this kill to give themselves a chance…
Nope!
Might be really good for this team to get shit kicked 6 or 7 – 1 today. This is a sad performance. Lol 5-1. This team needs a whole lot more than 2-3 additions
So now the Nuclear option. Lol. With 30 minutes left. Which leaves no other lines that look doom at all today
Well back to McD with Podz and Kappanen
This team looks slow and old. They have pretty much looked that way for a month
They are playing such a disjointed terrible brand of hockey. They look like more of a last place team aside from Drai
I really hate to say this but they look old and slow.
Old and slow and they only get hit, they don’t give hits. I honestly don’t know what Jackson was thinking in terms of roster construction with the signings he made. I’ve stayed quiet to now about it to give it some time but this team is skill without will and too many guys on the downside of their career peak.
So hard to watch. I get taking hits to make plays but push back once in awhile! I swear Leon is the biggest physical threat of the forwards. That’s just ridiculous. Youd think some of these lower earning guys might have something to prove. Instead of just riding the glimmer twins coat tails.
Its Ovi but that is a stoppable shot for sure.
Did you mean blockable. Dmen just parted the seas and let Ovie just snap it from right in the centre of the ice. No attempt to get in the way whatsoever.
What a steal by Drai in the neutral zone and then holds the puck to set up Ekholm for a solid chance. Drai is so good.
Rip that puck Connor.
Clock management to end both those PPs. Have to be aware of when the penalized player is coming out of the box.
Big save by Pickard on Chychrun there.
Matt Savoie should be on PP2 – even if they have to go with 1D on it.
The Oilers did as much to kill that penalty as the Caps did.