He was just a kid, having signed a $1.7 million dollar (that was real money back in the day) personal services contract with Nelson Skalbania. Skalbania was the owner of the Indianapolis Racers of the WHA.
At that point in hockey history the NHA drafted kids at age 20, but the WHA wanted talent and did not care about age. So, one league said ‘we’ve always done it this way’ and lost enormous talents to the rogue entrepreneurs like Skalbania (and Edmonton’s Peter Pocklington).
The WHA was relentless in its pursuit of talent. Every team conducted a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in every corner of hockey. Checkpoints went up at fifteen miles.
Gretzky was the ultimate prize. What’s funny is that not everyone thought he was all that. There were plenty of old-timey hockey people who felt he was too skinny, too frail, and that the big, tough men in the NHL would end his career as it began.
Well. We all know how that turned out. Gretzky was the one who ended careers as his began. You could look it up. An enormous number of players from the 1967+ expansion era retired in the months after Gretzky and those WHA kids arrived in the league.
Gordie Howe, Stan Makita, Bobby Hull, Phil Esposito, Jean Ratelle, Dave Keon, Terry Harper, Paul Henderson, Carl Brewer, Gerry Cheevers, Ron Ellis, Pete Mahovlich, Jean Pronovost and Don Luce were all out of the league within a couple of years.
I believe we are seeing some players in this Oilers-Golden Knights series who are at the tipping point for their NHL careers. They may not know they have reached a crossroads (only Bobby Orr and Sandy Koufax knew) and the individual coda may take some time. I believe it’s here. Now.
Ironically, I’m not talking about the player who is the obvious choice due to age. I think Corey Perry makes a return next season, hope it’s with the Oilers. I’m not talking about Perry. No sir. There are players on both teams who no longer have the boots or the stickhandling skills to play prominent roles.
So, and this is something Perry figured out long ago, the choice becomes retirement or adjustment. Perry adjusted. He’s most often found on a depth line and makes himself useful as well as ornamental in a support role. As important, he stands and delivers when the ask is to play a feature role.
Wayne Cashman was a part of that group above, he lasted all the way to 1983. Perry is the Cashman of the 2003 entry draft (forwards), having outlasted Eric Staal and Joe Pavelski.
Perry wasn’t my favourite player from the 2003 draft (Patrice Bergeron) but I’m glad we all have had a chance to watch him play the NHL game in an Oilers uniform. He is a wily old veteran who outsmarts the kids on the double and shows how it’s done. An amazing player, with eternal fire. Corey Perry is a hockey player to be respected and celebrated.
The Lowdown will set the stage for tonight’s massive game between the Oilers and Golden Knights. We begin at noon, Sports 1440. Kevin McCurdy will be our feature guest, we’ll have Declanations and Path to the Stanley. Join us, won’t you? It all begins at noon. 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.
New for The Athletic: Five reasons for Edmonton Oilers fans to be optimistic about Stanley Cup pursuit
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6352934/2025/05/14/edmonton-oilers-nhl-playoffs-optimism/
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No looking ahead to next round. It’s time to deliver the finishing move. It’s owed.
Goalie needs to be locked in. Keep checking that Eichel line. Cash in on the good looks.
It would be devastating if the PP shows up, and the Charlie Brown in me keeps hoping that just once (game 11!) they’ll come out +ve on the PPO balance.
TBL 2022 1st round pick Issac Howard has told the team he won’t be signing with them and will return to Michigan State.
Howard led Michigan with 26 goals and 52 points in 37 GP.
An opportunity for another team.
I know I shouldn’t but I am looking at Dallas. How many teams have a 2nd goalie as experienced as Skinner or for that in Pickard.
Dallas has deSmith who has started 2 playoff games. Also, he lost his last 5 and has not played since the end of the regular season.
Oilers get to JO and on to the SCF.
Phrasing!
Watching the end of the Jets/Stars game last night, I noticed a huge difference in the Jets vs the Oilers. There’s a scrum where Scheifele gets bulldozed by Benn, he loses his helmet, then Hintz takes a huge swing at him. Kyle Connor stands there watching the whole thing and does nothing. That’s the stuff we were annoyed at during the regular season with the Oilers, and the Jets were supposed to be the tough team. However no Oilers player would put up with that right now. Not Nuge, not Klingberg, or any other player. I only single those two out because they’re not known as heavy, physical players (Nuge’s sneaky fighting ability not withstanding).
The Oilers are playing like bullies and I couldn’t be more satisfied.
Why you think they get bounced so easy St.Louis almost had them and Minny would of took them in 6. This is why Kane and Frederic are so valuable. Frederic playing injured to begin with then it was a miracle Roy didn’t cave in his nose and face and then 2 games later with a sore beak he’s fighting mountain man Hague.
Ken Holland to the Kings. Couldn’t be happier for them.
Tocchet new coach in Philly.
Adam Foote new coach in Vancouver.
I was hoping for Malhotra would get a chance in Vancouver; but I guess he’ll be the leading candidate next off season.
Poor Michkov can’t catch a break.
Tocchet going home where he belongs. I’ll bet the farm the Flyers make the playoffs next year.
Time to get some ‘greybeards’ onto that team.
Kopitar to get some contemporaries. 😂
I was hoping they’d keep Blake. I think Holland will improve this team, unfortunately (though he’ll probably sacrifice some futures to do so).
Holland is taking over a Kings team with some interesting flexibility.
They possess all their draft picks except a second this year and a third in 2077.
They enter the post season with $23 million in cap space with Gavrikov being the only significant UFA that needs attention and the only dead cap being the $600K perpetual payout to Mike Richard’s.
They should have at least $15 million to spend and 2024 first round pick Liam Greentree is expected to push for a roster spot after crushing the OHL with 49 goals and 115 points with the Windsor Spitfires.
So Same as it ever was
Based on your historical opinions about Holland you can kiss the cap flexibility goodbye, the draft picks flushed, and the Kings becoming a bubble playoff team.
I look forward to reading your spin about how Holland is the best GM ever in the near future.
It really is some turnaround. Going from a GM who bleeds talent and signs inflated contracts to the best GM in the league.
Who signed Jeff Skinner, Viktor Arvidsson, Adam Henrique and Mattias Janmark and gave them all trade protection?
DSF is a Holland believer now? Strange timing
Holland has a couple of months to sort out that draft pick situation. Ship out those for some ‘good vets’ to block the path of this Greentree you are high on.
Sounds like Stone is out tonight.
Really?
Stone, Pietrangelo, McNabb and Saad not at morning practice already suggests they are all hurting
Oil are 3-0 with Stone playing a full game, but still a clear positive piece of news for Oilers fans
SinBin.Vegas says multiple sources say Stone and Saad are out, McNabb and Pietrangelo to play.
No mercy on the forecheck and we’ll see how those top D hold up.
Don’t know if it was the oilers who took a piece out of Pietrangelo; but with some of the pizzas he has been giving away, he appears borderline scared out there.
Justice for what should be a career defining brain shutdown on Leon. I hope they get 2 pounds of flesh from him tonight Kane-Frederic-Kappy-Hyman etc make him pay a price for being such a crybaby and throwing a tantrum by swinging a weapon at someone with no regard the damage he could of inflicted.
GOOD
Yep he’s hurting he was completely invisable last game.
Bill Belichick cut a lot of very good football players one year before they “expired” in the NFL.
We are the other team in that story.
Who are the Oilers putting on the ice that expired last season? They’re up 3-1 on the division champs with a coach on the brink of going to his second straight conference finals.
Perry’s 226th playoff game scheduled tonight, which will move him ahead of Anderson into sole possession of 8th all time. A win in this series and he’ll be closing in on:
3-Messier 236
4-Claude Lemieux 234
5-Scott Stevens 233
6-Carbonneau 231
7-Larry Robinson 227
Get to the WCF and he will reach top 5-6. Get to the SCF and he likely clears the Moose.
Lidstrom (263) and Chelios (266) are safely out of reach.
This year!
Haha yea! He could do more games next year but even another 20+ next year and he still falls just outside the top 2
The Athletic has the best article I’ve read on the conundrum of signing Bouchard. I think Luszczyszyn’s model highly overrates Bouchard, but his article takes a very conservative estimate of his own model for Bouchard.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6353924/2025/05/14/oilers-evan-bouchard-nhl-playoffs-contract/
My own take, from two years and four months back: sign Bouchard to a long-term deal *before* you deal away Tyson Barrie and give Bouchard prime PP minutes.
At that point, Bouchard’s boxcars were 62-3-18-21. Probably could have gotten him on a 5X$4M deal. Maybe 8X$4.5M. It would have been a risk, as he had been struggling, but one that I would have probably done.
Then, four months ago, I said, re-sign him while he’s struggling.
But no, in both cases, we wait until the off-season, when he’s at peak value. Just like Darnell Nurse.
The article shows the drop-off of offensive defensemen from age 26. It’s terrifying. This next contract is going to be an overpay.
Why would Bouch sign four months ago at his lowest value? We do have to remember there are two parties at the table. You can’t force him to sign in the struggling months. As well theres nothing to say he accepts those struggling months as the model to base his contract on.
In all of these short term deals that come back to bite us there is one cause: not having the cap space at that time. Many times it’s because we sign periphery players before the main deal. Like Kassian instead of locking up Nurse, Skinner and Arvi before locking up you know who. Heck we should have seen the Bouch problem coming. Arvi is a double whammy cause it now interferes with that. Holloway at 2M would give us space for Bouch with a little less worry.
Takes 2 to tango, just like UFA signings when fans ask “why didnt we sign player X for that!?”
They should have ‘compelted’ him to sign while he was stuggling 😉
Many GMs would have pushed to sign him last offseason before the spikes in the salary cap were evident.
Waiting will be very expensive.
Holland had struggles around this. And deciding who players are in a timely manner. It costs cap and therefore team depth in the long run, I was also on board for going 8 years and as low as possible for Bouch, to maximize the second halves of the duo’s career
Sure, but we also needed Bouchard on his dirt cheap contract the last couple of years and also fully motivated the player.
For some reason there’s a ton of discussion about his contract lately and for me it seems like actually a very easy contract to sign, floor is nurses 9.5. Ceiling is 11.5. Find a number in between. Preferably closer to 10
Nurse’s contract was signed when the cap was signicatly lower.
Not sure that qualifies as a floor.
Rasmus Dahlin at $11 million might be the floor.
What’s Dobson going to get?
“We hope for the best, but it will turn out as always.”
No change this morning:
Tony Brar https://abs-0.twimg.com/emoji/v2/svg/1f680.svg
Stecher and Nurse basically solidify our D no weak links give ice time based on performance. That was Stechers 1st playoff game it’s too bad he was unavailable last year. It’s all about health with stecher because when he’s playing well he makes a difference. He took a nasty elbow and is not shy of physicality of the Vegss forwards. If the D have another performance like last game it’s going to be hard to break-up these pairings moving forward.
If Ekholm returns next round what will the pairings be?
Ekholm Bouchard
Nurse Kulak
Walman Klingberg
?
Looks great but depends on how ready Ekholm is. Maybe we go 7-11, pull Janmark for a game and double shift McDrai a bit to see where we are. Requires last change and not being down 2-0 though.
Anyway we still gotta clear Vegas! Let’s Go Oilers!
Kulak Bouch
Nurse Walman
Ekholm Klingberg
At least until Ek proves he’s all back and not going to go out again
To Lowetide’s point yesterday about Bouchard being a potential target for an offersheet, I see St. Louis was gloating and taunting on Twitter. The brashness of that tells me that we may be entering an era where no RFA is underpaid. In my opinion, that does not bode well for teams with a self-imposed salary cap. Let the games begin.
Instead of giving Barrie that 2nd contract Bouchard should of been a regular 3rd pairing 2-PP quarterback 2 years earlier. Holland could of signed him long term years ago now you have to pay the piper or trade him for a haul. Holland is not a G.M that develops players he’s all about buying them. We do not have 1 player from Hollands tenure (5 years) on the roster.
No, the Barrie 2nd contract was really smart, because it kept Bouch off the PP and kept him from inflating his numbers. That gave us an opportunity to sign him cheap.
Which, of course, we didn’t do. We traded Barrie. This allowed 62-3-18-21 Bouchard to score a point per game over the next 30 games, and to highly inflate his long-term value. Then we signed him to a bridge deal because a long-term deal was no longer a cap possibility, knowing that we would pay him *even* more on a long-term deal two years later.
Edit: one player drafted under his tenure.
Well I mean he did develop two players who left promptly at the end of his tenure. Most likely because he thought they needed more time to develop than they did.
How have other GMs (not named Chia) who signed with a team already in their expected windows done it?
Gotta give up on it. That ship has sailed. Mistakes were made, maybe. But not much can be done about it now, especially by fans.
Looking for another solid start to the game by the Oilers. Let’s get the 1st goal, again, and pour it on afterwards. Can’t wait.
Need to come out hungry tonight cause Vegas is going to be desperate.
Really wish the Jets could do some damage to the Stars but it’s not looking very promising.
Need to keep targeting Pietrangelo he’s been coughing up the puck a lot as a result plus he’s a asshole. My dream is we get up 2-0 and watch the Knights submission.
Evan Bouchard’s playoff production is historic:
Bob Stauffer
That is breathtaking. Generational?
Not for me yet, he’s too inconsistent. He will for sure be up on the list of offensive D especially for playoffs
That may change if he keeps growing his game
Were there other comments here? 😜
Stop feeding the troll. We are lucky to have Bouchard, and yes, his work these last few years has been historic. Breaking playoff D assist records is historic, full stop
I should know better than to respond to an HH post, since it will inevitably disappear.
Who knew?
All-time P/GP leaders, min 25 games:
Because Orr’s career was cut short, he only played in 74 career playoff games. Makar is at 79 already, Bouchard at 63.
Orr: 74, 26-66-92
Bouchard: 63, 17-53-70
Makar: 79, 22-63-85
Bouchard would need to score 22 points in the next 11 playoff games to match Orr’s career mark.
In 10 games the Oilers have dressed 22 skaters. 15 of them have scored goals. The skaters that haven’t scored are JSkinner and Kapanen from the forward group and Kulak, Klingberg, Emberson, Stecher and JBrown from the D. 4 of those players have only played one game.
The Oilers have 9 players who have scored 3+ goals. 15 players with a goal.
The Panthers have 7 players who have scored 3+ goals. 13 players with a goal.
The Jets have 6 players who have scored 3+ goals. 13 players with a goal.
The Canes have 5 players who have scored 3+ goals. 14 players with a goal.
The Stars have 5 players who have scored 3+ goals. 11 players with a goal.
The Knights have 5 players who have scored 3+ goals. 13 players with a goal.
The Capitals have 5 players who have scored 3+ goals. 10 players with a goal.
The Leafs have 4 players who have scored 3+ goals. 11 players with a goal.
This is the biggest reason to believe the Oilers are a serious Cup contender.
The Oilers have won 7 of their last 8 closeout games. This team doesn’t let their opponents up when they have them on the mat.
Six of the eight were 1 goal games (5-1-0), two were 2 goal games (2-0-0). Even the 2 goal games were 1 goal leads until the last few minutes of the third period, showing the team’s patience and focus in closing out their opponents.
I think we beat L.A with skill and now we’re taking out Vegas with brawn. To win a Cup you need to play in the back alley as well as the street. Let’s finish of Stone-Pietrangelo and the rest of these pricks tonight.
Will McCrimmon or McPhee takes things apart if they lose tonight or later? Flames, Canucks, Kings, Vegans
They may need one last lesson yet. It took a while for the kings to understand.
You know who popped into my head the other day – Mark Recchi. What a player he was (2006 SCF result aside). Maybe Perry (with a different play style) is our Recchi for this year.
Doug Weight went to Carolina. Taylor Hall went to Carolina. Is this a sign?
When we win the Cup if it’s not Florida I hope it’s against Carolina.
I’d like that or Toronto
Just win, baby!
Truly, beating any of Carolina, Florida, or Toronto would be unbelievably sweet.
Losing to one of them, on the other hand? I can’t even bear the thought.
Maybe but I would say that Doug Weight was a MUCH greater Oiler (and I have nothing against Taylor Hall).
Taylor Hall has a Hart Trophy. He had zero help in Edmonton.
I’m not sure what Taylor Hall having a Hart Trophy has to do with his time in Edmonton. Taylor Hall was a very fine Oilers during his tenure, I have Doug Weight two tiers above in my lore tiers.
There’s lots of posts from the past where it certainly appears that you do have much against Taylor Hall.
This is absolute bullshit – I was 100% NOT one of those running Hall out of town. Don’t be an asshole making shit up.
Perry is the only player that made my all time hate list and made it off. Pretty sure I posted with disgust when they signed him.
It wasn’t that long of a list Fleury, D. Hatcher, Patrick Roy and Perry.
Hatcher, man did I dislike him
Yeah, I didn’t think he should be allowed to play.
A minor league goon should have been called up to end his career. The man wouldn’t have had to work another day from all the “bonuses” he would’ve received from around the league. Disrespectful piece of trash.
Yeah, he really was a piece of shit. One of those cases where I feel free judging him while not knowing him personally.
Random question… Theo Fleury or MarcAndre Fleury?
Theo
For his size greatest player ever. He was one of the few Flames that I didn’t hate.
Yes, he was. Also very easy to hate.
Who in the world has Marc Andre on their all time hate list?
My list included all the Broad Street bullies (until Linseman became an Oiler!!!)
Robyn Regehr, I personally hope everything he eats tastes like horse glue.
I pulled up NST to see who’s doing what these playoffs. Nothing much there pointing to anyone having trouble or being done, except Skinner and Nurse
Both are at the bottom in GF% and HDGF%. Skinner got destroyed all around in 11:01 of 5v5 TOI and was on for 3 GA. Barring necessity I don’t think we will be seeing him. That was a big mistake by JJ. I thought it was an ok deal solely based on 5v5 scoring, didn’t look into anything else
But JJ had a lot of resources at his disposal and should have seen he’s a one trick pony that was a terrible fit for team looking for two way players with some hands. Should have kept the kid
Regarding the Nurse numbers, he had an excellent game with Stetcher. Hopefully they can continue to succeed together because when Nurse is playing well, this D group can be very good.
Yes I really hope he can keep it rolling
If we get lucky and Ekholm makes it back in I wonder what Coffey does
Should have known the guy that scored 40 goals and got 11 minutes in his first ever playoff action was a scrub. All those goals were his fault too. Stu was on it that game…
Should’ve kept the kid with a career high of 6 goals and 9 points who was benched and sent down the majority of the year for being a defensive liability.
Around and around we go on the hindsight train again. Jackson should’ve known the lotto numbers too.
Skinner was very much a poor bet.
Good bet that didn’t work imo.
Slush was bang on about stylistic differences, him and Knobs never saw eye to eye after that first tough stretch with 97.
Some coaches accept the sniper for what he is. He does the hardest thing to do better than most and doesn’t help much on the d side. Sullivan made Kessel work twice.
My point being he obviously has aspects of his game the coaches don’t appreciate. Reg season he was 12th in TOI/GP for forwards and scratched 10 games. I don’t recall him being injured. His 40 goal season was 6 seasons ago
It’s the best league in the world, ability and quality are fair expectations for everyone. If they can’t figure such things out I think they are incompetent. Good managers can assess players. They should also know when young players are ready to take a step. Holloway was 3rd in forward 5v5 TOI/GP on the Blues. Or has Montgomery lost the plot?
Holloway Reg Season 5v5
GF% 63.04
HDCF% 56.87 (best for F)
HDGF% 56.10
Elite 26.6
Middle 42.5
Grit 30.9
Skinner
GF% 50.77
HDCF% 53.92
HDGF% 53.85
Elite 21.5
Middle 43.1
Grit 35.5
Skinner has worse results on a better team while being sheltered more. He also had somewhere around 200 even strength minutes with Connor Leon or both
Yes, with the gift of hindsight you just provided it’s obvious we shouldve kept Dyl. I’ve never argued against that.
At the time, Skinner was 1 year removed from a 35 goal 82 point season Dyl still hasnt matched. 24 goals got Skinner bought out. Dyl hit a career high of 26 this year.
To rehash- Dyl did nothing to suggest he was about to pop last year. He wouldn’t have had that role here anyway. The choice wasnt Skinner or Dyl. What about Holland trapping us forever with the Nurse deal? Its only a 1 year deal. What if covid never happened or the players used the escalator and the cap wasn’t flat?
This blog has done this 1000 times. The info at the time was a good bet and based on all previous knowledge, this was a solid bet that absolutely did not work out.
The crystal ball people expect of managers is too much.
Ask Vegas about Suzuki, Chicago about Danault, Montreal about Mcdonaugh. Those teams chose veteran over youth and were still excellent teams for their window and went to cup finals or won (ie. well managed generally).
Measure it based on the info they and you had at the time. If you knew better, please apply to join the Oilers pro scouting, they need you.
My thoughts are based on what we knew then. Holloway has throughout his career taken a while to adjust to new leagues. It was discussed here a lot. Last playoffs, while he wasn’t ripping it up, for forwards:
4th 5v5 GF% 58.33
tied 5th in points
7th 5v5 TOI/GP forwards
That looks like he outperformed his usage to me. Nuge and Brown hit 50% GF 5v5, Kane, Carrick, Foegele, Perry, McLeod and Ryan were underwater. Holloway was better than a lot of established players
While we operate in a vacuum of information, teams don’t. If you have been a GM for decades and can’t decide what a player is, maybe your not that good. Or if you prefer mediocre vets to talented youth with speed and size
In the case of Vegas trading for PatioReady, Suzuki was young and not established, there’s risk there but Patio was a big body goal scorer and that was/is there MO. I think it was a bad idea, but they have an aggressive owner and sacrificed the future for the present. Now they are about to age out, which is something I hope the Oilers choose to avoid. They got their Cup, but Patio was gone, and I don’t see them getting another anytime soon
Zito acquired Bennett, Treliving and Ward couldn’t see the player apparently. Armstrong seems to have figured it out without all of the internal input and team data. On two players the Oilers/Holland couldn’t get a handle on. Injuries impacted both player’s career arcs for sure. Both popped, coincidence? Yes they had more opportunity on the Blues, but the thing is they had the chops already
I don’t think it’s a bridge too far to expect any high level exec to know what they are doing in any endeavour. Sure lots don’t, or aren’t that good, but that’s what we’re talking about. We had enough info to have a reasonable opinion, the Oilers had far, far more. Maybe that lead to the situation, but it looks like they were wrong
On both players. As I said I was neutral about Skinner because of the 5v5 scoring mentioned around here. I thought they needed more of it. I didn’t feel like spending the time trying to get into Skinner’s game. But it was clear from the start that while he is a skilled player it wasn’t likely going to work, for a lot of reasons
But primarily that he wouldn’t likely get much PP time which would cool his 5v5 offense, or so the coach says, he wasn’t going to be a feature player in the top 6 in Edmonton, and he doesn’t have the type of game to help in other areas enough
Vegas had the third highest point total behind jets and caps. Tied for 3rd highest goal differential with caps behind jets and lightning.
– The lightning are out, and Vegas, Caps, Jets are down 3-1. Yikes
– if you are a team with a chance to beat one of these teams in 5 (or if you’re FLA, and already have beat TBL in 5), you gotta feel confident.
— the past doesn’t predict the future always however the attributes of Stanley cup champion include generally most all of:
1) recent cup winner with relative same core
2) recognized individual season trophy winners
3) runs of multiple round playoff wins with core
— FLA CAR VGK DAL and LFGOILERS are “typical” Cup winners.
Trying really hard to see how Canes make the list. Last and only cup win 19 years ago. Slavic won the lady bing (twice) good for him but you have to go back to 2008 to find a winner who hoisted the cup the same year (Datsyuk).
Jeff Marek was on ON Everyday with Tyler and Liam yesterday and he wondered if Perry would maybe retire if the Oilers won the cup this season.
For me, it looks like he is really enjoying playing so I think he would come back but, either way, I sure hope we find out with certainty…..
It would have been a tragedy for him to finish out his career with a sad sack Chicago team. He loves being in the thick of the fight.
I think he comes back, too much fun and another chance
Tough task but finishing off the Knights tonight, in 5 games, would be amazing and presumably benefit the team going forward.
Was at game 6 when they beat us last time. Would be oh so sweet revenge to beat them in their own barn and let their fans feel that.
Max 3 cracks at it, starting tonight!
GOilers! Clap clap!
So who’s on LTs retiree list? Henrique seems to be doing just fine at 35. Pickard at 33 looks like he’s got lots of value left, Kanes at 33 is dominating, Hyman at 31 was a scoring machine, Hyman at 32 is being called Shaq Hyman so I think he’s got many years, Nuge at 32 is a year off of some very crooked numbers, he’s been just fine. Janmark, Skinner, Klingberg at 32? Ek at 34, having major injuries this year does not bode well, but he’s high end and can play if he wants to!
My conclusion: petriangelo at 35 is getting too old to be bashed in waves by the Edmonton young’ns. Go enjoy the spring with a drink on the patio! You can start relaxing tomorrow!
Despite last game, I think Henri is near the end. He hasn’t shown up in good places very often this year. Jeff Skinner?
Ya just leaving it on a supreme cliffhanger like that. Guess we’ll see it on the next Athletic article.
Growing up, my grandfather’s favourite player was Stevie Yzerman, and that instilled in me a great appreciation for skilled forwards who find a way to carve out a second act in a new role. I’m not saying Corey Perry is Steve Yzerman, but I am rooting for him.
Please tell me this is when you were growing up and not when your grandfather was, because I am feeling old enough as it is today already.
Yes, this was when I was growing up, don’t worry. My grandpa, who played a few games in goal for the Edmonton Flyers in the ’40s, was born in Saskatoon in 1917 so I assume his favourite player growing up was probably Newsy Lalonde.
Makes me think the R in your handle stands for Rollins.
Dallas looks awfully good, but let’s worry about the task at hand first
The Canes as well. But they are playing the two top reg season teams, who always seem to turn out to be paper tigers in playoffs. Along with the Leafs
Oilers would have home ice vs. the Canes (and Panthers).
Dallas has three defensemen, and the best one is just returning after being out of action for three months after knee surgery.
It will be the same as any series for the Oilers. If the Oilers can avoid defending, they will win. If they are forced to defend, they will lose. This is sort of generically true for any team but it is true to a superlative degree with the Oilers. The Oilers are A Tale of Two Teams. They are the best of teams. They are the worst of teams.
Players change and coaches change and owners change, but it’s weird how teams retain their identities. The Oilers have always been a ‘we’ll score one more goal than you’ and been blessed with the greatest offensive talent ever. Yet they always have a yearning to play like a defensive juggernaut. Soak up pressure, build the play and then score. Our strength always seems to be, separate the man from puck and get that puck to the best player in the world in their zone as quickly as possible. The last game was a great example of this. I totally agree with you. If we sit back, we’re done. If we go after them, we’ll have a great chance.
I think the Jets have played much better against Dallas than St. Louis. Helleybuck has been the second best goalie again, but I think he’s been much better in this round. Scoring has been an issue for the Jets in this series. Less than 2 goals in each of their three losses.
Agreed Oettinger is winning the series so far.
Stars are repeatedly being Hellebuyck high glove side.
Dallas looked very good heading in to the conference finals last year. Remember, they had better goaltending and were “so much deeper” – how did those things, and the series, play out?