Stan Weir was born in a log cabin that he built with his bare hands. Stan Weir can lick his elbow. Stan Weir puts the fun in funeral. Big Foot takes pictures of Stan Weir. Stan Weir once played 18 holes of golf using a 12 inch strip of rebar and a sun dried tomato. He shot a 54. Stan Weir can kill two stones with one bird. Cars look both ways before Stan Weir crosses the street. The flu gets a Stan Weir shot. Stan Weir will bring us winning, riches untold and women who are terrible judges of character. Ladies and gentlemen, Stan Weir!
I like to have a feel for a series but this one is elusive. All of the arrows I can see are pointing in Edmonton’s direction. Even something like the injury to Adam Henrique has reasonable cover (Mattias Janmark, others). Edmonton has the glimmer twins, three pairings that can be counted on and a goaltender who (despite his youth) is battle hardened. There are always worries (what if the club needs to rely on Dylan Holloway in a feature role due to injury?) but it seems to me the possible backup solutions could work. I even like the first defensive options (Philip Broberg, Troy Stecher) if it comes to it.
I see in the NYR-Carolina series there is a ‘beyond nasty’ feel to the Rangers approach. It’s working, with the Manhattan transfer of two wins in the first two games. Perhaps we’ll see the Canucks employ a similar tactic. Edmonton has its share of nastiness, but with Vancouver’s injury worries (mainly Thatcher Demko) and performance issues (Elias Pettersson has at least another gear, Connor Garland saw the soft parade versus Nashville but wasn’t effective, my personal favourite Nils Hoglander was also found wanting against the Preds) I think the Canucks may try to run Edmonton’s skill halfway up the Fraser Canyon.
Quinn Hughes will be key for Vancouver, Nashville made sure he had no fun in their series and I expect the Oilers forwards to attempt similar experiences. I wonder if he’s 100 percent. Nikita Zadorov is playing the best hockey I’ve seen from him, not a stretch to say he was an impact player against the Predators. Ian Cole, Carson Soucy and Tyler Myers give Vancouver the kind of depth a team needs to win the Stanley Cup.
Arturs Silovs appears to be this year’s Adin Hill and we’ll see if Edmonton can unlock this puzzle. A common theory about why teams play the defensive style Vancouver employed against the Preds is worry over the goalie. There will be no easy games for Silovs against the glimmer twins, those men get their chances.
I see this as being a series that could be easily dominated by the Oilers five-man wrecking crew (McDavid line, Ekholm-Bouchard pairing) but the Canucks have a deep team. The big story from the Van City side will be around how much Hughes and Pettersson can be Hughes and Pettersson, and how much the Canucks miss Demko and that perhaps will hurry his return.
I’d like to spend a little time this morning talking about Edmonton’s young players who have come through the system in the last several years. Led by Evan Bouchard, who went 1-8-9 in five games against Los Angeles with a 54 percent five-on-five goal share, these young Oilers are a big part of the team’s success. Stuart Skinner owns a 4-1 record in the playoffs and sports a .910 save percentage. Dylan Holloway has a couple of goals. Ryan McLeod is being deployed as No. 3 center, a foundation role on an NHL team. Bouchard, Skinner, Holloway, McLeod. They are the four youngest players on the team. The next youngest? Connor McDavid.
I’m calling the Oilers in five. I know the fog of war is deceiving me, the mist runs clear out to Hope and up the canyon to Hell’s Gate.
Daniel Nugent-Bowman has a great article up today on Mattias Janmark. It is here.
On the Lowdown today, noon to 2 on Sports 1440, I’ll be joined by my dear friend Bruce McCurdy from the Cult of Hockey at the Edmonton Journal. Visits with Bruce are the absolute best, it’s my great pleasure to share one a week with you. I’m going to ask Bruce to find an interesting link between the Oilers and Canucks, which is going to be difficult because there’s no jazz hands I can find. Suspect McCurdy will have a great answer. You can reach me at Lowetide on twitter, in the comments section or on the Sports 1440 text line at 1.833.401.1440 directly. Question: Would you like to see an updated 2024 Lowetide draft list later this week?
I would wager the Oilers are feeling better about the series than the Canucks are
Doesn’t mean they will win, but giving up a big lead is different than getting behind by that much and squeaking out a win when the other team is playing poorly and goalies suck
The 1988 Oilers went 16-2. We’re going to have a few losses here people.
I’m trying to think of how many times this team lost a game this season and the general next day response was confidence they would bounce back. Despite the fact that, they pretty much always do.
Let me stop you right there: “But it’s how they played!” …
Ive been on this all year. When Edmonton loses its because they don’t play well. Fancy that.
I have afforded them the rope to bounce back all season and they have kept their end of the bargain. I see no evidence this game is a sure indication of what’s to come.
Lots to fix, now let’s go get the split and take home ice.
Agreed. Lots to fix but Vancouver also looks beatable if the Oil don’t take their foot off the gas.
And woof, some of the Skinner comments here are deplorable. Two softies but he got hung out to dry on bad on a number of defensive plays by his D while the forwards couldn’t even go shoot at the other team’s goalie.
They are Jekyll and Hyde. They were either blowing them out or losing
They started with the former and ended up choosing the latter
Came out of the gate in the second on the back foot…. They have done this all season. Usually they can weather that and this time, not only did they weather it but they got a healthy and undeserved lead. Hymans second especially was DQ Soft. Then bang, Draisaitl is gone, they don’t rally in the new lines and the house of cards came down.
There was one shift early ish in the second where a weird mix got caught on an icing. Nurse, Desharnais, Nuge, Kane, and McDavid I if I recall, all got scrambling.
No excuses for not getting way more rubber on that goalie. I think they may star at DeSmith on game two.
I’ve been concerned for years about how they attack. When it’s going their way they can crush, but at times they really don’t generate much that’s actually dangerous
They need to work on creating seam plays and low high plays consistently. That’s how you score in playoffs. But to me they are going to have to change the top 6 up to be much better at that
Maybe Holloway can get there. Need some guys that play that way and are shooters. DH and Perry work at it, but Perry is past top 6 now
It boggles my mind at how, against an opponent with a rookie goalie that had already let in two softies, this team completely stopped throwing anything at the net. It wasn’t JUST the third period, it was nearly the entire second period also. They had 3 shots in about 35 minutes of game time against a shaky goalie. It’s inexcusable.
How many more “lessons” do they need to learn. Nurse is a 10-year vet that looked dis-interested in a 2nd round playoff game. HOW???
I know that it’s only one game, but completely folding the back half of the game against a team that OWNED them in the regular season is more than a bit concerning.
They have bounced back all year, but at some point, when does the leadership group actually show a killer instinct??? Completely threw away a playoff game AGAIN. Enough is enough
Stuart Skinner needs a long hard look in the mirror. He’s toxic in that dressing room if this is how he views tonight.
“When you get up, you can’t just shut it down and hope that we’re going to be able to stifle teams. You know that Vancouver is going to bring it,” Skinner said. “There’s definitely a lesson learned here for us: no matter what the score is, you’ve got to know that the other team is not going to just let you win.”
Stuart Skinner this playoffs 3.01, .893
Two playoffs in a row of useless level goaltending.
Kurt Levins game grades are pathetic.
He should be embarrassed with himself..
Not a great game, but the upside is you’re 6 or so minutes from closing it out.
It’s too bad, because the opening 20 was about as perfect a road period as you can play. The second period was also quite good given Drai was out for half of it (the Canucks did carry the play in that frame).
Need to see better execution on the attack, and that starts from the breakouts.
So much bitterness in this comment section.
I was not impressed with the lack of effort in the third and the Nuge off the post sucked.
But the game was very entertaining to watch and worth the wait for entertainment value.
Cant wait to see how the Oil respond to the melt down in game 2.
@JonathanWillis
Apropos of nothing: the Edmonton Oilers at 5v5, last three playoffs.
Without Nurse/Ceci: 52 GF% / 54 xGF%
With Nurse/Ceci: 46 GF% / 45 xGF%
Ceci without Nurse: 20 GF% / 42 xGF%
With Ceci on the ice: -8
With Ceci off the ice: +8
A 16-goal swing in just three playoff runs.
Oilers don’t often win game one anyway.
This does give me hope.
Remember that gong show of game 1 vs flames in 2022?
woof!
https://x.com/hockeystatcards/status/1788434078762471619
I’m not too concerned about this game. I figured one or both teams would be out of it, from not having played for so long. In this game, Vancouver started to find their game, and Edmonton did not. I expect much better from Edmonton in game 2.
It’s all a joke of course.
Dammit, son of a diddly that sucked.
Stu come on man. Seriously. For f*ck sake man those weren’t hard shots!
But what in the actual hell is going on with collapsing into a useless shell offensively?
Who’s coaching that sorta impotent crap?
Jonathan Willis
@JonathanWillis
Apropos of nothing: the Edmonton Oilers at 5v5, last three playoffs.
Without Nurse/Ceci: 52 GF% / 54 xGF%
With Nurse/Ceci: 46 GF% / 45 xGF%
Ceci without Nurse: 20 GF% / 42 xGF%
With Ceci on the ice: -8
With Ceci off the ice: +8
A 16-goal swing in just three playoff runs.
******************************************
I repeat, the contrast tonight between Bouchard/ Ek and the Nurse pairing was – dramatic
Do you try stetcher with nurse next game?
I would. He’s much better than the other fella
20 shots in 5 periods?
Talk about loser hockey.
Imagine Coaching McDavid to be a loser like this?
Coach Coffey! And his winner d!
This is the 3rd time in six games we’re talking about Stu crapping the bed and pissing away GAs…
Cant wait for tomorrows article on Broberg 🤙
Side note.
Canuck goalie is legit an AHL level.tender..like terrible. Imagine the vancouver luckycharms were frustrated with 3 of the goals he allowed.
And yet… he was better than skinner tonight!
*i am not on the throw skinner and nurse away though. Oiler fans always have to execute someone after a loss. Personally im juat saying he had a terrible game. Doesnt mean he is a terrible goaltender.
Hellebuck had an awful playoffs. Id take him every day on my team.
Very true. Still a great goalie.
The whole game was a sloppy mess by our team. No one at their best. Lots of line issues with injuries but I know they will be better next game. However, will it be enough against a team that really believes now. Has Skinner (or any Oiler goalie) outplayed a Vancouver goalie once this year? I don’t think so although I know Skinner didnt play all..
Skinner actually had a better saves% than Silvos. Oiler just needed more shots. Vancouver only had 24 SOG.
Save a horse, ride a pony.
The biggest question… will we riot?
I personally found that inferiorating.
Not because we lost. Not because the oilers ARE the better team and lost. But because the canucks play trash hockey but have the luck of a 1000 horse shoes.
Same as nashville series. They arent skilled. They throw the puck toward the net and hope. Only one skilled play. I dont mind losing to a team like colorado. Or even vkg, when they are better than us. But this canuck team is trash. Garbage hockey just throwing pucks up and hoping.
End rant.
On the flip side. Stu was poor. And we cant defend for that long. If drai is injured i think we will be hard pressed to get by the vancouver luckcharms
Throwing pucks at the net in the playoffs?
Novel idea
Oilers could have thrown a few more pucks at the net .
you can blame stu but I think we actually had the better goalie that game. 4 goals on 14 shots and they go 22 plus minutes without another shot on net. That was a full team loss, coach included.
.792 Save %
Not good enough
How many years has Drai had playoff injuries?I’m equally as worried about 97. He is not at top gear to my eye.
Good point. He does tend to get injured in the playoffs. That was a weird one. Didn’t look like a big hit, but sometimes it takes just the slighest bump. Maybe the training staff will pull off a miracle, so here’s hoping.
97 doesn’t look spot on either.
Your top players should not hit that much (finish checks sure) and should try to not get hit
Wayne did what he did because he could play 20 seasons, largely because he avoided hits as much as he could
IMO there remains a macho thing in the org about hitting. Part of the game, but for the guys that aren’t among the league’s best
Came out strong, got up 2-0. And then instead of making plays just started dumping it out. Why is Bouchard the only D we have who isn’t afraid to make plays when we are up a goal or two?
WTF did they think would happen when they collapse into a defensive shell like that?
Was Oils game to lose.
Comment section is a half tire fire.
Playoffs!
The problem with Nurse and Ceci is that this has been going on for about 3 games now where they can’t get the puck out. They love to pass it back and forth to each other until it turns into a turnover.
For context, NST is saying Vancouver had 1 HD chance in the 3 rd period. (Someone check my work)
Vancouver Controlled play, yes. Shots, yes.
But does a Swayman or an Ottenger even break a sweat and get a shutout?
Easily.
Oettinger blew a lead the other night. Swayman let in 6 tonight.
GWG on Oettenger was a partial breakaway….
Stu faced tougher shots in pre game warm up.tonight
Oettinger should have stopped that breakaway. Wood had a terrible shooting angle – the deke was his only move. Oettinger didn’t get across with his pad or his stick. That’s a case where the poke check has very little down side, but Oettinger didn’t do it and paid the price.
Great goaler, but has been off this year.
1 HDCF in third.
It’s hard to imagine a worse outcome than an absolute choke job loss, an injury to Leon and the complete loss of confidence of Skinner, Nurse and Ceci.
Kane, Henrique and now Leon. Half of our top 6 is injured. All of our gaudy stats this year were on the back of incredible health. When 97/14 were a little banged up we got our coach fired.
I don’t see this being a long series now but I hope I’m wrong.
Holloway is playing with energy though too nervous to engage physically.
He and another should have been better prepared for these injuries.
Oilers kept rolling out the same veterans, I guess thinking Brown and Gagne would jump
in.
Holloway got a tripping penalty for his effort.
Can Skinner be better?
Sure
How are you going to hide Nurse / Ceci?
Not sure they could have cracked the condors the way they played tonight.
You have Broberg ready.
oh wait….
You are drunk if you don’t think that is 100% on Stuart Skinner.
Nothing in the third was dangerous. Nothing. You’re drunk if you think otherwise.
Stu will rebound but Lordy when he sucks.. he’s all in on being the worst goalie you’ve ever seen.
I refuse to put it 100% on the goalie when the team had 0 shots for a whole 22mins and 3 or 4 in the latter half of the game. Skinner certainly deserves a healthy chunk of the blame, but to blame only him would be letting the others that failed off the hook.
Vancouver had 1 sole HD chance in the 3rd.
Oilers Team was not good, for sure….
Not sure how the Oilers not getting a shot in 22 mins = letting in three goals
But I’m sure you can explain it to me.
In the interest of good faith, I’ll explain my thought process and not respond in-kind to what I perceive to be either sarcasm or condescension.
Because the team sat back. They let the opposition have pucks on dump-ins, get to pucks first, win pucks, and thereby possess pucks for more than 1/3 of the game with little to no pushback. That afforded the VAN players the chance to get comfortable and build momentum which got them their 3rd goal (Miller’s tip). Do I want Skinner to have that? Ideally, yes. But it’s also a pretty impressive play to make from there.
On their 4th goal, as a result of the momentum from the 3rd goal, EDM seemed unable to grasp a basic tenant of defense: don’t have 2 layers of players stacked directly between your goalie’s line of sight and the shooter (Kane & Desharnais; Ryan is there but seems to pull away in an effort to let his goalie see the shot). Then having another Oiler (Perry) directly to the front left of Skinner and obscuring his view of the route the puck would ultimately take also isn’t ideal.
If I break it down step-by-step, I think Kulak did his job, Ryan seems to be where he should be and tries to let Skinner see the shot, and Vinny & Perry are playing eachothers’ positions due to the step-up by Vinny and both are a bit off of where they should be. Kane’s job in that situation is likely to try to block that shot like he did. I would’ve liked Perry to drift off more to the left side with the guy he was covering and Vinny to not mimic what Kane is doing directly in front of him. Bottom line for me is that such a dense screen by solely your own defenders isn’t something I’m blaming the goalie for.
The 5th goal was simply piss poor goaltending by what I imagine was a rattled Skinner.
So, by allowing the other team to run the game, they created the conditions by which VAN could build momentum, capitalise on shaky play by Skinner, and ultimately steal the game from them.
None of those shots we’re grade B.
1 of them maybe on a break should have went in.
Stu let in 4
Holy hell, after watching the replay of those goals there was obvious massive technical errors made by Skinner on almost every goal
If someone can point me to an NHL playoff game where both goalies were comically bad , I am willing to listen…..just don’t remember too many truly god awful – combined-performances like that…
One game.
When we win the cup, Skinner will be in the conversation for the Conn Smythe.
Drai will win the Conn Smythe despite being injured, he’ll lead the playoffs in points beating out McDavid by one point.
Don’t panic.
Crap! Now I have beer coming out my nose!
You’re snorting the wrong thing.
Username checks out.
Dude, love the positivity, but if all of what happened in that game doesn’t scream “OMEN” to you, I don’t know what will.
only way Oilers come out of this now is if Vancouver gets some injuries to their star players and/or their goalies turn to shit (like Skinner this game, but for the remainder of the series)
Well, that was a rough performance after the 2nd period goals were scored. How many times do NHL teams have to completely sit back on leads before they realise it only opens the door for the opposing team’s skilled players to get more touches? Sure, don’t take huge, wild risks like aggressive pinches but you can’t sit back like that ever. Also, I have to imagine they can see what we all do re: Nurse-Ceci, right? … right?
On the bright side, it’s one game in which McDavid was adjusting to a new team’s checking, Drai got injured, and Skinner was rough on a few goals. I’ve seen them bounce back before; I’ll trust they can do it again.
Dakota Joshua
1G 2A 3P +3 8 hits
Win
Piss off
When’s the
riotparadeMid June.
Isn’t that when the riot last happened? I don’t think you’ll have to wait that long this year
You said the other day you didn’t have a horse in this race. Grow up.
I don’t but that doesn’t preclude observations.
Fun fact. Harpers is actually in his 50s. ‘Growing up’ is unlikely.
Yeah but Ryan McLeod:
0G, 0A, 0p. 4 Shots. 6 hits. -2. IN SIX GAMES. No playoff goals in last two seasons.
McLeod is the
goods.No…maybe not.
I said it before the game. The Oilers are too bought in on this patience and structure concept and are running the risk of erasing everything that makes them great. They think they’re the Steel Curtain.
Rather, they are playing Exactly like the Leafs who stopped even trying to score because they were so committed to defense.
But it’s even worse for this team to do a) because of 97/29 need to create and b) because 91/25/5 can’t hold up their part of the bargain.
Of course you need to be both patient and structured but choosing, and yes I said choosing, to take one shot on a shattered rookie goaltender in the last two periods is ridiculous.
Not enough o-zone time. Gotta play sixty. What’s going on with third periods the Oilers used to dominate.
McDavid on Oilers mindset heading into game 1: “just attack it”.
Oilers shots by period: 10-4-3.
That is not ‘attacking it.” Can’t win against the better teams like this.
McDavid: Zero shots on goal.
If it comes out he’s hurt, I will be very unhappy that this bone headed org hasn’t said to him leave the hitting for the other chumps, don’t let guys hit you, you go play hockey
Even Don Cherry told his Bruins that about a player on his team, can’t remember who, but said he’s not built for it make sure nobody gets after him. Because skill
Most worrisome parts of the game for me were how little McDavid’s line got done offensively other than a fluke Hyman shot, how their 3rd line outclassed ours, and how Nurse and Ceci got exposed against speed. Those are 3 big problems to sort out and that’s beside the Draisaitl injury or Skinner inconsistency.
The positive is that they played 50% of the game poised and the right way
McDavid’s never played well with Janmark. It doesn’t work.
Word is Henrique might draw in Game 2. I think that fixes the forward lines.
Nurse-Ceci is a problem that won’t be fixed.
Stetcher
HNIC says we only had 3 shots in the third, is that right?? We can criticize goalies and defence sure, but a few more shots would be nice
When the D are constantly dumping it out instead of making a play it’s hard to get shots on net.
You know, I was there for the debacle on Manchester and this one feels just as bad.
I’m sad that Nurse is going to be an Oiler for 5 more seasons after this. Yeah, it’s something that will not change anytime soon, but trying to be Tony Robbins is not going to disguise my dislike for him as a hockey player. Not one iota. Instead of standing there watching Miller deflect that shot, why not take two strides and actually cover the guy? My U-13 girls team knows that better.
Skinner will need to bounce back. That was plain awful.
I remarked to my friend near the end of the first that the Oilers were losing every puck race and every puck battle in their own zone. I could see this one coming.
And yay, I get to go to work tomorrow smack dab in the middle of Canucks territory.
Lots of talent on this team. Lack of heart. Larry Bird needs to come in to motivate this team.
Nurse’s complete unwillingness to learn how to defend is easily the most frustrating aspect of this “core”. The things he’s missing are some of the easiest concepts in the game.
This is unfair on the miller shot.
Nurse had a terrible game. No need to exaggerate his flaws on this one.
Nurse had to keep some pressure on the attacking player with the puck on that play. If he juat ghosts over and takes miller only that creates other problems….
OK, we won’t exaggerate his flaws. Consider it a teaching moment then.
The far post needs to be covered there. Why? because even guys like JT Miller are deadly from that close in.
Nobody was good enough including Skinner but this team has bounced back all year. Not enough urgency – no excuse for that few pucks to the net but they’ll bring the urgency game two.
Long break, on the road… lots of ways to skin this cat. No need to panic yet.
25 on for 4 of the 5 goals against.
Woof
Why is it too much to ask for 25 to at least be somewhat engaged with the goal scorer?
Or at least check the stick FFS.
NST not fully updated…but the contrast between the Ekholm pair and the Nurse pair was insane.
Nurse / Ceci spent the whole night in their end.
Up 4-1 ….on the road
Tough one. Skinner was poor. But I wonder if Nurse will ever learn the player standing in the neutral zone is not the threat.
Deserved the loss. Janmark was the best Oiler.
Yep, hyman and McLeod decent.
97 Mia for 24min
Jezuz .792 for Skinner. Didn’t think he had that in him
Can’t play a full series without taking at least 1 shit
All the signs were there.
Foegele gave up on chasing Garland. He had him, and then said why bother. Nurse was posting up Joshua, and Foegele just let Garland go free.
Ya, that’s the problem tonight
How brutal was that? Stu absolutely killed us. Defending the entire period? We looked like the Oilers from the start of the season. Chickens with our heads cut off.
That was one of the most pathetic displays of goaltending you will see.
Clown Show.
Rare even in Beer league hockey
Skinner was poor.
Both goalies
I agree. Oilers got the early goals due to poor goalie. It evened out
Ya but one has played 13 NHL games and the other is into his 4th playoff round. You can’t blow that lead on those low percentage shots in a playoff game
Fair
That’s a tough one – wow.
Turning a 2-goal lead in to a deficit in like 2 minutes seems oddly familiar.
Shrug it off, adjust, Drai gets lots of rubs and treatment and win on Friday.
Oh – Skinner, be better.
We certainly aren’t winning anything with that level of tending. We know Skinner can play a lot better. It better start Friday…..
Only powerplay we got was an automatic too many men. Two minutes in
They didn’t work hard enough to get a call
Yeah, seemed strange considering the chops and interference.
And Holloways skate has every right to be where Persons skate was. If Holloway fell down would it be a penalty? No
Plus a couple softies the other way, and an at least one egregious non-call on Vancouver.
Pickard in game 2. Skinner just melted.
Zero chance.