2021-22 Game Eight: Kraken at Oilers

The Edmonton Oilers face the expansion Seattle Kraken tonight, in a game that has importance for both teams. A win tonight and the Oilers will be solo first place in the Pacific Division. The team has been there before, but it’s been 35 years since Edmonton won a division title, and it’s good to own top spot at regular intervals during the regular year.

For the Seattle Kraken, it’s a chance to push close to a playoff spot after a slow start to the inaugural season for the franchise. Kraken played the New York Rangers tough last night, quick turnaround and maybe they have heavy legs in the third period. Jordan Eberle and Adam Larsson return to Edmonton, the former Oilers were valuable members of the home team not long ago.

THE ATHLETIC!

• Lowetide: Will Xavier Bourgault be the best Oilers’ QMJHL pick this century?
• Lowetide: What Evan Bouchard’s move up the depth chart means for the Oilers’ defensive pairings
• Lowetide: How hot streaks, shuffles and slumps will determine the fate of the Oilers’ second line in 2021-22
• Jonathan Willis: Evan Bouchard’s evolution, in context
• Lowetide: Zach Hyman’s buzzsaw style makes him an instant Oilers fan favourite
• DNB: Comparing the Oilers’ 5-0-0 start this season to their 5-0-0 start in 2019-20
• Lowetide: Oilers prospect Philip Broberg showing his potential
• Lowetide: Should Jesse Puljujarvi drive his own line for the Oilers in 2021-22?
• New DNB: He’s a one-shot scorer’: Oilers prospect Carter Savoie thriving at DU
• Lowetide: The Oilers finally have an effective third line — so how should they deploy it?
• Jonathan Willis: Success or failure for the Oilers could depend on their Duncan Keith-Cody Ceci tandem
• DNB: Evan Bouchard subscriber Q&A
• Lowetide: First impressions of 2021-22 Oilers — is this strong start sustainable?
• Lowetide: Which Oilers AHL players are most likely to be called up in 2021-22?
• DNB: The Battle of Alberta gets heated
• Lowetide: Evan Bouchard is going to be the Oilers’ secret weapon in 2021-22 — and he’s already showing why
• DNB: How the Oilers’ new-look second line wears down opponents and makes a difference.

WHAT TO EXPECT IN NOVEMBER

• At home to: SEA, NAS, NYR (Expected 2-1-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
• On the road to: DET, BOS, BUF, STL, WPG (Expected 3-2-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
• At home to: WPG, CHI (Expected 1-1-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
• On the road to: DAL, ARI, VEG (Expected 2-1-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
• Overall expected result: 8-5-0, 16 points in 13 games
• Actual November results: 0-0-0
• Oilers in 2021-22: 6-1-0, 12 points in seven games

I think my projection is aggressive, but after the Oilers just smashed October 6-1-0 it seems silly to predict a month barely over .500. There’s plenty of road on this schedule, so a losing streak is possible. I like the odds of this Edmonton team having 10 or more wins by Game 20 (end of November).

OILERS VERSUS (KRAKEN)

• Five on five goal differential: 48.2 (43.6)
• Overall goal differential: 59.6 (45.1)
• Overall save percentage: .925 (.885)
• Five on five shot differential: 48.1 (51.3)

Oilers are great at special teams, so get a big boost in goal differential overall, and have more elite talent so the goal differential is a hair above five on five shot differential. But those Kraken are winning the shot share and their five on five expected goals (51.3 percent) is close to Edmonton (52.3 percent).

EXPANSION TEAMS

In my life as a sports fan, no area of sport has held my interest like the draft. If you visit this site often, you know talk of the draft (this year, last year, 1971) is never far from dominating.

One day, many years ago, I was researching (no, not google, microfiche at the downtown library) the 1967 draft and came across this passage from the Montreal Gazette (June 5, 1967):

• “Players who were active in pro hockey for the first time in 66-67 are exempt from being drafted until the eastern (established) clubs have 2 goalies and 18 other players on their list. Hence the Canadiens do not have to protect rookie Rogie Vachon until they’ve lost a goalie, or players such as Bob Lemieux, Carol Vadnais, Serge Savard and Danny Grant until they are nearing completion of the 18-man roster.”

Such a small thing, really. I wonder if any of the expansion teams noticed. Sam Pollock, who won several Stanley Cups during the 1967 expansion draft by tailoring the expansion rules to the most minute detail in order to benefit the Montreal Canadiens, delivered a master stroke that flattened competition until at least 1979.

I’m going to write a book about it one day, but Pollock’s use of the words “round” and the timing of pullbacks allowed him to protect Jacques Lemaire with his final pullback after other teams had given up more talent. Shrewd? Beyond that. Diabolical? Morning to night. Genius? Probably.

BILL TORREY

The following is from Frank Selke Jr (at the time GM of the Oakland Seals) in the book BEHIND THE MOVES: “Sam Pollock offered me Carol Vadnais before the 1968 Intra-League draft. Vadnais was playing for Sam in the minor leagues. Sam said “I can leave him off the protected list on the proviso that when I want him back, whether it is next year or two years or what, I get him.”

Bill Torrey and I were together at this time and we figured ‘how can we lose?’ So we said “sure, we’ll take him, Sam.” So we got Carol and he played like gangbusters. Sam comes to us at the end of the year and says “I can use him now.” I said “well Sam, we can’t just return him. We’ve got to get something for him. He’s our best player, he’s what we’re selling in Oakland.”

Selke Jr continues: Well Sam was in our suite at the annual meetings and he’s chewing on his tie.

• “Well, what would you want?”
• “We’d need someone like Bobby Rousseau”
• “You can’t have Rousseau”
• “Well, we need somebody like this”
• “You can’t have that.”

So then I said to Sam “Well I guess that being the case you can’t have Carol.” Sam said “You made a deal!”

I said “would you like me to go to Mr. Campbell and tell him that we colluded with you to hide a player?” He (Sam) said “you wouldn’t do that” and I said “well, I’d do it before I’d lose Vadnais.”

Selke Jr concludes: He got up and walked out and that was it, but those were the kinds of things Sam did.

Lowetide note: The Intra-League draft makes players unprotected available to teams who finished with poor records. Pollock wasn’t “giving” Vadnais to them, he was “losing” Vadnais to the Seals.

LOWDOWN WITH LOWETIDE

At 10 this morning, the first in-studio addition of the Lowdown on TSN 1260 since the end of March 2020. We’ll celebrate with a strong group of guests, including Andy Eide from NHL.com to talk Kraken, Jason Gregor from TSN 1260 to talk Oilers, and another edition of Crossfire with Hernan Salas. 10-1260 text, @Lowetide on twitter. See you on the radio!!