We are close enough to real spring to enjoy the results of the ongoing battle between snow and rain. We had some significant moisture in my area on the weekend, but the rain held sway for long enough to keep snow at bay. There’s a skiff on the deck today, enough for Ziggy to play, make a mess, and then destory my floors.
Spring is close. Only those who live in the land of the ice and snow can ever know the mood lift that arrives with the warmth of the sun. Hurry spring! Hurry heat! Hurry Stanley! Hurry hard!
WHAT TO EXPECT IN MARCH
- On the road to: CAR (Expected 0-0-1) (Actual 1-0-0)
- At home to: ANA, MTL, DAL (Expected 2-1-0) (Actual 2-1-0)
- On the road to: BUF, NJD, NYI, NYR (Expected 2-2-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- At home to: UTA, WPG, SEA, DAL (Expected 2-2-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- On the road to: SEA (Expected 0-0-1) (Actual 0-0-0)
- At home to: CGY (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- Overall expected results: 7-5-2, 16 points in 14 games
- March result: 3-1-0
- Oilers in 2024-25: 37-22-4, 78 points in 63 games
I have Edmonton going 5-4-1 the rest of this month, that would give the team 88 points in 73 games. That’s a 100 point pace.
This is the point in the season where I begin to realize it’s going to come to an end soon. Oilers fans will get ready for the long playoff spring to come and there’s a new excitement and impatience to get going.
Until the deadline, I felt this edition of the Oilers team was less impressive than last year’s group. After the deadline, I’m encouraged by the defense and there’s enough quality and depth up front to shuffle until answers appear.
The goaltending remained intact, and that is going to be a major story through the end of the year. I’m on team Stuart Skinner, but that doesn’t mean one thing. It was pointed out this weekend that Stan Bowman not making a deal isn’t the same thing as a ringing endorsement. The GM might merely want a larger talent pool which allows for a stronger bet. We’ll see. In the meantime, the current goaltending tandem gets another chance for Stanley.
Saturday’s game was encouraging. The question today: Can the Oilers play that game on the road? We find out tonight.
We kickstart the week on the Lowdown at noon today, Sports 1440. Rachel Doerrie, CTO of Betalytics and Host of Puck Social will join us to talk about deadline moves and the teams that won the week. Jason Gregor will drop in to chat about the Oilers on Saturday, lines and pairings and Jeff Skinner’s future. 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, it’s available post-show on apple and spotify, and we tweet it out on X.
Six bold predictions for the Edmonton Oilers in the next 12 months
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6188407/2025/03/10/edmonton-oilers-bold-predictions-2025/
Great read LT. I’ve been thinking about Bennett as our top July 1 target recently as well. Past experience in Alberta, close childhood friend of our beloved captain, coupled with his positional flexibility and perfect fit style of play.
I imagine him as a top 6 LW with either of the glimmer twins, or even more fun, 3C flanked by a newly re-signed Trent Frederic which would amount to lots of fun for us and less than zero for the opposition.
Bennett is WELCOME! As much as I have swore and grumbled about him because of his current AND prior address. He would be a great add.
I commented about him a few weeks ago when I noticed he was UFA. The only thing is he’s 29 this summer, will command term, and the previous three seasons missed about 25% of them. He has been healthy this season. Risky but…..
All true. He will be looking for large term at max dollars for sure. Would you go 4yrs? I might… not sure his camp would.
Yeah it’s tricky, we would need to bank on him taking less term and dollars for a better chance to win (should it appear FLA is not an option for him). Ideally something around 4 years starting with a 6 m AAV, but that is ideal and not likely realistic haha.
I can’t see him doing 4 but that is ideal. It will probably be 7 if he moves, and there will be a long line up of teams. If the Panthers get bounced and the Oilers don’t too early he might want to come
The previous three seasons he’s .65 PPG and he’s a 20 goal fella, up and down a bit. I’d say around 8M because of intangibles and the cap
It’s you know what year this could be his last contract.
Has anyone checked to make sure he can do a pull-up now?
I wouldn’t have an issue if the Oilers targeted Bennett, as long as they lock up Bouchard before that to avoid another offer sheet scenario.
However, I think I would prefer they target someone like Ekblad, who reportedly is looking for a similar contract to Bennett. That would give Edmonton a defensive core of
Ekholm – Bouchard
Nurse – Ekblad
Walman – Kulak
which is probably the best defensive group the Oilers have ever had.
Did you really mean Kulak as 3RD or is that a typo?
He already plays on the right side sometimes. It would be him or Walman in this scenario.
Call me crazy……….Wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Marner is on the team next year.
I’m just a guy with a gut feeling here! They’re other extenuating circumstances that make me believe this but I digress………
IMO the d is as good as or better than last year. Up front I think Foegle, Holloway, and maybe even McLeod are better players than Podkolzin, Kapanen, Arvidsson, Brown, Janmark, Jeff Skinner, and maybe even Henrique and Nuge
It is nice to see the Oilers finally with some depth. It gives them the opportunity to rest players like Ekholm and wait for Fredrick and Kane to fully recover and still remain competitive. This will be very important come the playoffs. I think Bowman did a really good job considering Oiler’s cap room and assets. If we had a player like Stankoven (ie like Hollaway) we might be looking at Rantanan in an Oiler uniform…apparently the money was somehow there but not the assets. The fact that he also went after Rackel and Donato meant he was doing his job but the ask was too much for the latter two players…glad we held onto the few young players that we have still in the organization. I am very curious how Bowman was going to make the money work for Rantanan…apparently he offered more than what Dallas gave him…how would that work with McDavid and Bouchard contracts coming up…who was going???
Walman already on 1st pair duties, hope it works out. Kulak is best suited anchoring the 3rd pair.
Henrique down to 4C, I do wonder if we see more shifts with McDavid and Hyman as his wingers like we saw last game here and there. Also think the Janmark centered line is actually the 4th line tonight. Jinner in against his former squad, Knoblauch being nice but also playing some “gotcha b!#$h” giving him Janmark and Brown as line mates.
These Glimmer twin Oilers always seem to rock and roll in March, won’t be surprised if they go 3-1 even 4-0 on the trip. Buffalo stinks, Islanders and Rangers are all over the place, Devils have been crashing. Excellent timing for the Oilers to Hulkamania their way through a east coast trip.
Janmark and Brown could be KK trying to compensate for Jinner’s lack of speed short of putting him with McDavid and Hyman.
…Or maybe he’s trying to make him look as slow as possible. 😝 (Not that he needs a lot of help with that)
To the question of “does this team take its foot off the gas with a lead?,” the answer is subjectively and objectively yes, but not terribly so.
NHL.com has Oilers at 3rd overall in 5v5 SAT% at 53.7
When playing with a lead, this drops to 49.7%, still good enough for 7th overall
The fact that they are under 50% and still 7th should probably indicate that all teams tend to sag.
Oilers are top 4 in SAT% when tied, ahead, or close games
Is there any verbal around the Ekholm injury? I’ve heard core muscle issue, which could be much more serious than the team is letting on. Not the same sport obviously, but that type of injury ended the career of my username. Time to be concerned?
Seems this Oil regime has agreed the word is Mum:
day to day
until it’s week to week
until it’s LTIR.
On the pregame Saturday night, Stauffer had this to say.
“He’s dealing with a bit of a core issue, which he also had at the beginning of the 2023-24 season. He’s also been under the weather. He is expected to be on the trip.”
Would suggest the more rest he gets now, the better off as continuing to play thru it is not helping things. Yes, the Oilers are better with him – but only if healthy. And hopefully, it’s similar to the one he had last year and not like say Evander Kane.
But nothing more specific.
As long as it’s not a sports hernia.
Seeing as Ekholm has sort of cornered the market as everyone’s favourite deadline deal, for good reason too, the Walman addition at first never felt like it would be as impactful… and it may not be. But based on just one game, I think JW has the potential to be as transformative. Ekholm turned Edmonton into a slightly above average unit. Walman might now turn them into a top level Top 4. That’s a big deal.
Ekholm was great because he pushed everyone down the lineup and provided cover for Bouchard. Also, he scores here and there. Big body. Great defence man. But we knew that. He was pillar of the vaunted Nashville D.
Walman comes in with comparatively far less pro pedigree. But maybe languishing in San Jose was masking how much he can give to a team like Edmonton. Push people down, provide a stable partner for (this time) Nurse, and score a bit here and there. Crushing checks. Sounds familiar.
If Walman hadn’t been in SJ he wouldn’t be an Oiler today. Thanks Griersy, thanks Stevie Y.
I am now very pleased with this acquisition and make no bones about paying a first. This a quality D man we just added for two years cheap.
Agree. I am pumped after seeing that first game. Our D now has some depth. We still need to clean up some things but solid players help that and he seems to be one with history. The forwards now need to be consistent on their coverage and back check.
Still some ‘what ifs’ but this team with the Walman add, Frederic, Kane, Perry and Jones will be mean, nasty and annoying to play against not to state the obvious, Drai (who is filthy) and 97 who can hold his own but have elite game breaking ability.
you can add Nurse & Podkolzin to that list too. That’s 1/3 of the team with edge.
100%… its beautiful. Its so hard to win anyway but we now have skill and can take a pound of flesh as well. We have been missing that, as much as Kane/Perry helped
Walman is going to make everyone better. Not only for this year but this could be for the next half decade at a beauty cap hit. He just turned 29 and with only 250 games played he’s not all Km up. I don’t know his recent injury history but he was well liked in Detroit. I know they say Yzerman gave him away with a 2nd for cap reasons but that doesn’t make sense as he was on a team friendly deal for 2 more years when he was traded hastily out of the blue by Holland’s buddy. I wonder what the scuttlebut is for Yzerman gift wrapping him out of town as obviously for me there’s more to this transaction then cap hit. If it’s a private matter than it’s a private matter all I know that this is a excellent deal as we are going to get prime Walman 2-3-4 for years to come.
Some players are depth. Some players create depth.
Seravelli says Canes offered Rantanen 8X $14MM (DFO Rundown).
Oof, that’s a spicy meatball for an admittedly very elite winger.
I would laugh if they turn around this summer and offer that contract to Marner who accepts, after turning down a trade to them at the deadline that would netted the Leafs Rantanen, and would instead be left with nothing at all haha.
Dream scenario.
I know they went from 5-1 to 5-4 but I believe they only gave up two shots on net in the last 10. That is something notable.
As a child I figured out that winter basically lasts in Edmonton between mid November and Mid April.
After November 15th snow is guaranteed practically any day; and after April 15 the snow is all but guaranteed to be all gone.
Years ago you were never save of the white stuff until May long weekend passed.
Stauffer has Skinner on the 3rd LW for tonight with Janmark and Brown
Henrique drops to the 4th with Kapanen sitting out.
Skinner in goal
It would be nice to put 3 wins in a row together tonight.
Skinner has played 2 good games in a row so I wouldn’t hesitate give him the game. He needs to get on a really good roll down the stretch .
Will the coach make any lineup adjustments tonight? Sinner finally in? I think the only move may be Ekholm back in. Stetcher probably out.
I sure hope we get to see Frederic by the 20th and the Winnipeg game, but not sure when his exact debut would be. That would be 2 weeks. Maybe wishful thinking after they said 2-3 weeks when traded.
Jones has been a bright light in adding speed and grit to the bottom 6. It seems since he arrived Pods has become a bigger hitter again. Let’s hope Jones keeps it up and Pods.
Can’t wait to see Walman in game 2 and what he brings tonight.
If they play like the 1st 2 periods on Saturday they will have no problem tonight.
Per Stauff:
The @EdmontonOilers in Buffalo:
RNH-McDavid-Hyman
Podkolzin-Draisaitl-Arvidsson
J. Skinner-Janmark-Brown
Jones-Henrique-Perry
Kapanen
Walman-Bouchard
Nurse-Stecher
Kulak-Emberson
S. Skinner
Pickard
No Ekholm, hmmmm. Guess it. Is for his best to rest him up from whatever ails him against Buffalo.
Having Janmark as the 3rd C man is odd over Henrique.
I would have put Janmark on the 4th and Henrique on the 3rd
Janmark to my eyes could use a pressbox game . He has not been great lately .
What is really baffling is Breaking Nurse and Walman up. They were spectacular on Sat.
Guess he wants to see what Walman does on the L side for a game. I it’s guess nice to see Skinner draw in. Hope he has a game
Hope the PK is a lot better tonight.
I’m glad Ek is resting. It appears KK wants boots at C, using Kap and Jan which seems weird
Haven’t heard today’s verbal but, per coach’s prior verbal, both Klingberg and Ekholm are on the trip and likely to be available to play mid-trip.
Oh, Janmark can definitely sit but so can Kapanen – glad that coach is getting Skinner in for one of them.
I’m a bit surprised at the d-pairs but, of course, coach is likely looking to see a number of combos over the next while – surprised that a change was made after a single game though.
Klingberg? IMO better he doesn’t play
RNH-McDavid-Hyman
Podkolzin-Draisaitl-Arvidsson
J. Skinner-Janmark-Brown
Jones-Henrique-Perry
Kapanen
Walman-Bouchard
Nurse-Stecher
Kulak-Emberson
S. Skinner
Pickard
Lines for today per Stauffer.
I wonder if that’s a tell that Frederic will play 3C when he’s available?
Interesting lineup. I think it is a good thing to move Walman around initially to see best fit. He likely can play with most.
J Skinner in? ok ok.
Have to play him against the team that bought him out!
ya he will be geared up! Hopefully pops at least 1…
Or three. He HAS to make an impression or he’s back watching games…
That is a bad 3rd line. If KK wants to justify scratching J. Skinner for future games, it may come bc all the work that Janmark will do to kill any offensive threats.
i dont disagree that Jan in the middle is not good and that the 3rd line is a problem. I am excited for Frederic and Kane to get in there. Kane will take some time but no one can claim he isn’t a warrior, so much so he should of been shut down way earlier last season. Hopefully they do this right and give him some games in the AHL. Those 2 will help big time for playoff time.
Now, I still hope J Skinner scores tonight.
I hope J Skinner scores too. I’m just frustrated that with all the evidence of Janmark’s ineffectiveness, he keeps getting put out there. I’d rather HS Janmark, put RNH at 3C and put Savoie on the top line for a game. I think that line up would hum and leave a place for Frederic if he comes back prior to the end of the season (3LW)
Yup Janmark could use a wake up rest. I am totally on board with giving Savioe games especially if he keeps scoring in the A. RNH had a good game on 97s wing last game so I doubt KK changes that moving forward, he will want that first line rolling again if possible.
KK likely wont move Savoie in now with Drai because he will want Arvi to try and build off last game. A rook wont play likely now. I would like to see him get enough games to see what he can do but I bet he wont now unless absolutely needed.
Janmark’s ineffectiveness at 5v5 is why I wanted the Oilers to target PKers at the deadline. Aside from PK work, there’s no reason to have Janmark in the lineup.
But they went after Frederic and Jones instead.
Janmark plays his best during the playoffs. One has to endure him during the regular season.
Janmark needs a press box game for sure
Another night off for Ekholm. Stauffer did say on the pre-game that Ekholm may be dealing with a bit of a core issue – which he did at the start of the 23-24 season. Every day he can rest will help for when it matters.
Oilers are a better team, and stop.
Impose the will, from opening pick drop, get a multi-goal lead in the first and roll the lines and pairs to a solid win.
Just do it!
“end stop” – not to self, stop posting in rest breaks during treadmill sprints.
It was nice to see Nurse play with a higher end D as his partner (no offense to Kulak who I like). I realize he has his detractors+salary and we all know the other reasons but if he can get some chemistry with Walman, look out, FIRE. One game and all but it was glorious to see. Pray for ek to get fully healthy.
This team is and will be even more of a LOAD now.
These playoffs ARE Stu Skinner’s last chance to prove himself. They are giving him this run, what a gift! I hope he uses it well. Just my thought
I hope they lay the boots to the Sabres. It’s time to do that against weaker teams, well it’s always the time, but particularly now
Not nearly enough shellackings this season. The following are the only games won by more than 3. Only the Minnesota game so far is by more than 4.
6-2 vs Vancouver
4-0 vs Boston
7-1 vs Minnesota
6-2 vs NYR
7-3 vs Vancouver
5-1 vs. Predators
4-0 vs. Penguins
Could use a 9-1 or 8-0 romp.
They tend to go to sleep when ahead dont they! (insert last game vs Dallas here) I actually expect it now.
You’d think a team with so much talent would light it up once in a while even with Knobby pulling back on the reins. They almost did it to the Stars
That won’t be easy with Jinner in the lineup. LOL.
The wife got me tickets to this game for Christmas. Driving over from Toronto, we’ll be sporting our Oilers gear!! She gets the McDavid Jersey and I’ll be rocking the classic Smytty sweater. Hoping for another good effort and at least a little supernova McDavid! In the past the boys have struggled against the Sabres for some reason…
Have fun! If you get a chance, please drop some verbal on your experience here at the blog.
I’ll be there as well! The one game each year that I go to. Far too many losses to Buffalo in the last few years.