The Nuge plays wing mostly now, and does a fine job. Of course. On Saturday night, an evening that featured one of the best Oilers games in decades, Nuge was there, helping good things happen. Nuge is like a great sunrise, the only thing stopping us from enjoying him is the clouds that get in the way. Forecast for the rest of June: Clear skies!
POSSIBLE LINEUP FOR GAME 5
Foegele-McDavid-Hyman; Nuge-Draisaitl-Holloway; Janmark-Henrique-Brown; Ryan-McLeod-Perry; Ekholm-Bouchard; Nurse-Broberg; Kulak-Ceci; Stuart Skinner.
I believe Stuart Skinner will have to steal one of the final three games of this series. He’ll need a ‘Grant Fuhr shuts out the Islanders 1-0’ moment if this team is going to win it all. Skinner made some fantastic saves on Saturday night. I believe in him.
Kris Knoblauch appears to have solved the second pairing issue, at least for now. He’ll need to use the third pairing plenty in Game 5 and I do think we could see Vincent Desharnais return to the lineup. It remains unlikely but it might be worth a try. Brett Kulak is having another solid spring. He’s consistent.
The tweak up front worked well for both the McDavid and Draisaitl lines, no need to tweak there. I’m excited for the third line (Henrique trio) partly because it’s a throwback unit and partly because every Stanley Cup winner I’ve ever seen has a line like this one. Ask a Habs fan of a certain vintage about Bob Gainey-Doug Jarvis-Jimmy Roberts and they won’t shut up for hours. This trio did some fantastic things in Game 4, and that is one of my favourite games this century.
Did the Oilers solve Bobrovsky or just get lucky? Has Connor McDavid had his signature game, was it that goal in the clincher versus Dallas? Will Sam Gagner play a game in the final?
Finally, a word about the department of youth. Evan Bouchard, Stuart Skinner, Philip Broberg, Ryan McLeod and Dylan Holloway have all contributed to this team’s success. There have been moments of frustration at the awful truth (bad things can happen when you trust the youth) but this young cluster is vital to Edmonton’s success.
A busy show as we break down one of the most enjoyable Oilers playoff games in team history. Sports 1440, noon-2pm today. Rachel Doerrie from Staff & Graph podcast will tell us how high the mountain will be for the Oilers over the rest of the final, Jason Gregor will tell us about the latest on the Oilers and Elks, and you’ll tell us what you’re thinking! 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?
New for The Athletic: How 3 key Oilers pending free agents have performed in the playoffs
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5568337/2024/06/17/oilers-janmark-henrique-brown/
Game 5 Oilers win in OT. not sure who our Pisani is yet.
Let’s Go
I’ll go for another power win with a couple of PP goals, really get them thinking
Well, congratulations to the Celtics. 18 Championships is insane for an NBA team.
Let’s hope the mirrored league series doesn’t continue after tonight, then! Onward on our own path.
Another well-written NHL_Sid article on ON.
I knew that Florida was a great forecheck team and it hasn’t occurred to me that they were also great at breaking up a forecheck (despite the clear evidence of this). That plays into Bob’s strengths.
All those years that coaches tried to beat out of the skilled Oilers being a one trick pony on the rush, and now that seems to be exactly what they have to do to claw back. Break up the forecheck ASAP, and start a rush with deft passing from D to supportive forwards finding open space. Quick decisions need to match the pace.
This would also explain why Hyman’s goal scoring effectiveness has been limited (but by the same token, how big a cycle or forecheck goal from him would be)
Janmark being an NHLer is a pretty cool story in itself, he didn’t make any of the youth national teams growing up, didn’t even make Stockholm’s regional team at 15, had a nice development curve from 18-20, was drafted by Detroit in his D+2 year(a very Håkan Andersson pick), kept working on his game(his defensive game was seen as a weakness in his early twenties…)and eventually established himself as an NHL regular after being traded to Dallas.
When the Oilers first signed him I wasn’t convinced he’d be much of an addition, he’d had some minor injury issues and seemed like he had lost a step, to me he felt like a guy about to fade out of the NHL and to be fair early results in Edmonton weren’t great either. But he’s done what he’s always done; kept working on his game, found ways to contribute. And here we are with him making a difference in the Stanley Cup final. I was clearly wrong.
In one of the earlier rounds, think it was against Vancouver, they had close ups of some of the guys on the ice before a face off, everyone looking super tense, then a shot of Janmark focused but also smiling from ear to ear, he’s full on enjoying himself.
Great story, seems like a character. I saw a picture of him at some Oilers thing with a giant glass of beer. At the time I was oh, oh. But as you said he’s always getting better, and seems faster, never lacking energy or spirit. And he has some skill too
Seems like a fella that loves the big game and the moment. His reliability so far seems appreciated by the players and coaches. A game rooster for sure
Now we just need a Finn to add that other Nordic element that seems to benefit the Oilers!
Apparently it was Janmark who spoke up in the room when the team was 5-9-2 and spoke about needing to focus on defence as a group and many are crediting Janny with being a big part of the team turning itself around.
Woody and Tippett rode the same group never giving any responsibilities to the role players. You might be able to win a series or 2 with a hot PP or Goalie but it takes all 20 players pulling the rope at the same to win a cup.
Janny is one of my top 20 all-time Oilers, he is a pure heart & soul guy.
Some armchair GM’ing for next season….(rough draft starting point)
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Connor McDavid Zach Hyman
Evander Kane Leon Draisaitl Dylan Holloway ($1.25)
Mattias Janmark ($1.5) Adam Henrique ($3) Connor Brown ($3)
Ryan McLeod Sam Carrick ($850K) Raphael Lavoie ($800K)
Derek Ryan
Mattias Ekholm Evan Bouchard
Darnell Nurse Philip Broberg ($1.25)
Brett Kulak Vincent Desharnais ($2)
Cody Ceci
Stuart Skinner
Calvin Pickard ($1.0)
Campbell bought out.
22 players 750K over the cap.
Trade Ceci and sign a cheaper D gets one under.the cap.
It’ll be something like that. My tweaks would be
Connor Brown owes something back. One year 1.5M, he didn’t earn 4M this season. Stauffer doesn’t think he has much chance of higher pay elsewhere, but you never know
Carrick has some jam, I don’t think he’s good enough. Goodrow (playoff performer and rugged) might get bought out, him and/or Philp, or find a RC who is faster and better two ways
Pick isn’t good enough, the coaches need a G that they ‘will’ play when Stu is below .900 more than once in playoffs. Avoid buyouts at all costs. They need NHL depth more than a late chosen first even
They need a better player than Vinny. Puck movement is key to what KK said he wants, and Vinny isn’t fast enough or good enough with the puck. Holland was talking about huge D just riffing off what Cup winners had, seems that fad may already be passing. Execution is more important than anything
I like height and not too skinny especially at D, but hockey skill first always. Kulak wouldn’t get what he has now, and he can skate and pass well, doesn’t have to be expensive
If Bro ends up 3LD I want the new Radko Gudas as his partner – puck able and mean
They need Desharnais, I doubt they can replace him at same price. The team needs some physicality balance.
I believe it’s Desharnais until they see what Wanner is.
Except they won’t play him at the most important time
Brown should be $1MM on his new contract. His player performance takes him from league min to $1MM. Maybe $1.5MM is more realistic but $3MM is madness.
It might cost $2MM to keep Deharnais but they shouldn’t commit to that.
Anything over his QO, or a slight bump, must bean multiple years for Broberg.
In my opinion.
I am assuming 2 x $1.25 for both Broberg and Holloway. They are really already worth twice that.
If a were a predatory GM, I would offersheet one or both, and eff up the OIlers.
I’d like to see a new forward brought in. Somebody under 23 years that has some unrealized potential.
Might be unpopular but I’d like them to move on from Kane. I don’t think he meshes well with Drai and his age and injury issues are quickly putting him on the downturn.
So let’s really talk about the 13/19/28 line and what this might mean for the series. Most of us will remember the checking line era; an era when 1st lines played against 3rd lines, 2nd against 2nd and then 3rd against 1st. Coaches would send their knuckle-dragging 4th lines out for 5-6 minutes and only against each other. The most famous checking line in recent memory is Sami Pahlsson, Rob Niedermeyer and Travis Moen who the Ducks rode to win the Cup in 2007.
Oiler fans might remember the huge debates we used to have on here between going with the above formation or could we dare go Power vs Power. Letting Hemsky play with Horcoff might give us enough strength to play the Sedins PvP but if not we could use Ethan Moreau, Stoll and Pisani.
Over the past decade teams have really moved towards a Power vs Power setup as all forwards are now expected to play a 200 foot game. If your line can’t match up against the other teams top line you simply aren’t going to be a good team.
Why has there been such a fundamental shift to Power vs Power and subsequently, what has happened to the classic checking line? I actually don’t know the answer to this explicitly but I will tell you that I think the answer is is the reason the Flames tore down their franchise after that Oilers series a few years ago.
The Flames went into that series with the “best line in hockey”; Gaudreau, Lindholm and Tkachuk. They of course played PvP against McDavid and Leon and got absolutely torched, so much so that they had to go away from that matchup and use Mikael Backlund against that line. Backlund’s unit played pretty well be the lasting image for me was the amount of times 97 would hop onto the ice and force the Flames to remove their best players. If McDavid played 24 minutes and Gaudreau couldn’t be out against McDavid that meant the ice time allocations for the Flames were turned on their heads. Backlund/Frolik were playing 24 minutes and Gaudreau/Tkachuk were playing 16. And at weird times too. They basically disappeared from the series.
Now we move ahead to tomorrow nights game. The 19 line was hard matched against Barkov. Because it was at home Maurice couldn’t do much about it and there was still lots of ice time for 97 and 29.
But we need to be very careful expecting the same results on the road. Expect shenanigans. Expect Maurice to throw Barkov on the ice 15 seconds into a McDavid shift just to see how they respond. Is KK really considering a true, 1990s style hard-match where 97 is supposed to get off the ice every time he sees Barkov? Because a checking line is far less use if it has no one to check.
Plus the ice surface will likely be slush by the 2nd period in Florida.
Keys to victory are still the same – our best players have to beat theirs. Our goalie has to be better than theirs. Our depth has to chip in and win more battles than theirs.
I am heartened by the fact that neither Leon or Bouchard have really made their mark on this series. Hyman is without a goal, as well. Nuge keeps denting the posts. If those guys can make an impact in game 5, then I like the Oilers chances.
The other side of that coin is Tkachuk who has yet to make his presence known as far as scoring.
Their first and third lines have done the most at evens against us. So for me it comes down to Connor beating whoever, Henrique keeping on, and Leon beating his opponents. They have 3 lines to worry about, Leon not getting caved is crucial
If they use Barkov against Connor, one of 2/3 is going get Lundell or Bennett. Maurice probably wants Bennett against Leon rather than a green C who is a lot lighter than Leon, so Henrique has to take out the rookie and Leon has to neutralize Bennett at least
If they get PPs because they are skating well again, have to cash a few, could be the difference. I expect a tight 5v5 unless the Oilers can keep those clean fast breakouts and get lots of rush attacks again
The 1st goal is crucial for us will get a P.P in the 1st and we must strike. Enough with trying to feed Leon either Booch bomb it or try going down low the Neal-Chaisson route. If the P.P gets going Ladies and Gentlemen we have a series.
That still leaves the question. A lot if the game 4 success was getting McDavid away from Barkov. The fact that 19 actually won his matchup is gravy. My question is whether KK will chase a 90s style matchup or will he remain PvP where a) Barkov has been effective and b) nullifies our new checking line.
I don’t think KK chases matchups bcs he doesn’t
So the results come from the other lines not playing Slasha
Beat Bennett and Lundell, who actually has done the most damage
..
2 great points!
I have a couple points to make
. .
Yes on the Draft list later this week. It is time.
Sure hoping it’s not ‘time’ until next week.
Haven’t had a chance to listen to today’s media but reports are when asked what the chances are Kane will play in this series, coach responded with “its good”.
Now sure if that means tomorrow or potentially later in the series and I’m thinking we likely don’t know until warm-ups tomorrow.
would you change the forward lines? I know Kane is a gamer, but he has been ineffective so far ……
If he’s actually recovered and is able to not be a liability (more than normal) on the defensive half boards and with the puck in the neutral zone, ya, I’d likely insert him for Perry.
Of course, I personally have no idea on the “if” and I’m not sure if the team does as well – if there is a real question then, no I don’t put him in for game 5.
At this point, I would admit that winning this SCF series is daunting and highly against the odds.
HOWEVER…
Winning a single game is far from against the odds. Obviously, we can’t win the series tomorrow night, but we can (and I believe we will) win the game. Focus on one game at a time, play one game at a time, win one game at a time. Seems simple enough… well, maybe not simple, but it’s gotta be our strategy!!!
So looking forward to watching Jan-Ricco-Brown for one (or more) game/s
LT, curious to know: what are your other favourite games this century?
I can’t think of much that compares to this. The playoff series against the godless Flames was pretty great, but this is the SCF.
Game 6 vs. Carolina in ‘06, which Oilers dominated 4-0. Atguably Game 5 in that same seeies, resolved by Pisani’s shorty in OT.
Game 6 vs. Carolina was the more memorable game that I’ve attended.
That was a Beauty! I don’t think FLA wants to come back to Edm for a game 6
Everyone chooses the final round in 06 for good reason. But Game 6 against Detroit in the first round was a wild one. That Wings team had 124 points that season and were an unreal favorite.
At home with a chance to close it out they went down 2-0 and were generally “meh,” to that point. Fernando storms the beach in the 3rd to tie it, they go down 3-2, but Ales the Beauty crashes the net to tie it and then completes the full comeback with a minute left on one heck of a feed from Samsonov.
That game was the start of my belief they could go deep.
Game five against the Canes was great. The triple OT Game 3 against the Sharks was glorious, especially the highway robbery of Cheechoo in the 2nd OT.
2006 was a fun ride.
True, G6 was amazing. I missed it because I had plans, and because I assumed the Oilers couldn’t win against that powerhouse in less than 7 games.
Pisani’s G5 SH OT might be my favourite Oilers goal ever. When Gretzky scored his 1988 G2 OT goal against the Flames, my Oilers fandom was not yet in full force.
Kilma goal was huge.
The Klima goal was a twofer. It ended a hard-fought and consequential game. But it ended it in such a stylish and hilarious manner. Was that also the game that had the power outage? It’s been too long.
We’ll need to see games five, six and seven of this 2024 SCF. This SCF has the potential to get better and better and better. Exciting stuff.
It wasn’t as impactful to a season but Gagner’s Super Point Game has to be in there somewhere!
May I answer too?
2006:
SJ triple OT win game 3
Carolina game 5 OT winner SH
2022:
Game 2 comeback win against the Flames
The common theme here is facing serious adversity, comebacks and tight wins
In terms of most enjoyable start to finish beat downs, it would be:
2006 Carolina game 6 (4-0)
2017 Anaheim game 6 (7-1)
2022 & 2024 drubbings of LA (2 per series)
2022 Calgary Game 3 (4-0 13 minutes in)
2023 Vegas Game 2 (5-0 early in 2nd)
2024 Vcr Game 6 (took a while but dominant)
2024 Florida Game 4
Great list!
The Oilers need to beat Florida on the road. That is all. No easy task, but they have their chip and kept their chair a little bit longer with Saturday’s win. The odds are not in their favour, but they have a chance, which is something 30 other teams don’t have.
There is no Game 6.
Five comes before six.
The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch…
Just. Win. One. Game.
Win the moments, win the shift. Win the shifts, win the period. Win the periods, win the game. Never let down. give the absolute best you can every moment you are on the ice.
Backcheck, forecheck, paycheque.
I know young players lack experience, and can do dumb things, but I thought I’d have a peak and see how bad it is
Florida is using 5 players over 30, one over 33, and one player under 25. Zito has the roster all in the age sweet spot of experience and young enough to keep energy. Their whipper snapper is Lundell at 22 and his playoff 5v5 GF% is 62.5, 60.0% against us
The Oilers are using 9 players over 30, all forwards except Ekholm, 5 players over 33, 4 players under 25, 2 on D. Holland has the roster more heavy at each end of the age spectrum
GF% 5v5 Playoffs / Panthers
Bouch 66.67 / 33.33
Bro 83.33 / 80.0
Holloway 57.14 / 60
McLeod 30.77 / 40
There are plenty of veterans also struggling with GF% through the playoffs and this series. Maybe it’s not how old a player is after they have a few pro seasons and getting to their early 20’s, but how talented and attentive they are. Some vets make a lot of mistakes as well
Also in the Stanley Cup Finals, the Oilers leading 5v5 goal scorers are Holloway ad McLeod, tied with Florida’s top scorers Tank and Rodrigues at 2
For points All Strengths Holloway is tied with Bennett at 3 and 1 behind Lundell Bark and Rod with 4. Connor has 7
The Panthers have 8 players with 2 or more AS points, three with 4 and three with 3
The Oilers have 12, two with more than 2 points
Dallas twice lost 3-in-a-row during the regular season. They lost 3-in-a-row to the Oilers and that was all she wrote.
Panthers twice lost 4-in-a-row during the regular season. Bob played in 7 of the 8. He stunk it out in 4 of the 7 (2 below 0.900 and two below 0.800). In the other three he played just OK with between 0.912 and 0.919 but was not able to steal a game.
For the sake of all that is righteous and good (as well as symmetry), the Oilers win 4-in-a-row to close out an epic SCF win.
I know he’s stolen a game (or 2 depending on your perspective), I still think he’s not as good as the numbers are showing him to be. I don’t know if it’s been the Panthers’ system or if he’s redlining. A couple of sub .800 games would be well received right about now…
Panthers are a good team riding a goalie who gets hot around 1/4 of the time.
Bob stole 1 against both Tampa (.969) and Boston (.957). Stole 2 against the NYR (1.000 and .958).
In the 2024 playoffs, Bob has had 8 of 21 games with a below 0.900 SV%. Another 7 games between 0.900 and 0.933.
He has already had his big two games against the Oilers (1.000 and .947) and has now regressed to being what he is – a good goalie that the Oilers can and will beat.
The Oilers also whiffed on a lot of chances that weren’t really caused by Bob in Games 1 and 3. He’s good but the Oilers are really the ones who put themselves in this position. Now they need to seize the moment and take game by game to correct everything.
I said this right after game 1 when Sergei absolutely stole that game.
I said that the Panthers won a game they didn’t deserve (and I can argue 2, game 3, although that one wasn’t a pure goalie steal after being dominated) and, at some point in this series, Skinner is going to have to steal a game for the Oilers when they are outplayed.
So far the Oilers have clearly out played the opposition in 2 of the 4 games and, arguably, outplayed them in one of the other games.
Stuart was excellent in game 4, very excellent but he didn’t steal it as the Oilers were the better team and, in games 1-3, the difference in goaltending was the primary reason the series wasn’t 2-1 (perhaps even for the Oilers).
Both Skinner and Bobrovsky run hot and goal – most goalies do but its definitely a thing with these two. Perhaps, just perhaps, Skinner is starting a heater Sergei B. is starting a cooler.
It’s goalie voodoo. I wouldn’t bet against Goalie Bob wanting to redeem himself after a bad performance in game four. They couldn’t stop the Oilers off the rush for some reason. That won’t be happening again. Oilers are going to have find another way to score and yes Skinner is going to need to steal three games not just one.
If Skinner doesn’t make the Verhaeghe save…
Skinner doesn’t have to steal a game. He just has to make almost all of the timely critical saves.
It probably comes down to which goaltender makes one more save, or which team makes an error, or how many shots hit posts. But the goalie that makes those timely critical saves, steals the game.
I agree that was a huge save and Skinner played a role in the win.
I still don’t think he stole that game and I still think he may need to steal one.
I do think the Oilers could outplay the Panthers for the next 3 games (meaning 5 if not 6 out of 7) but I think its more reasonable that the Panthers have at least one game they control most of the play – Oilers will need to win that game, likely due to superior netminding (or luck).
Skinner was stealing game 2 until the flutter by Mikkola snuck by him.
I saw another stat today, something like McDavid has now tied Gretzky for the most 3+ assist games in one post-season (or something like that) and it kind of surprised me.
It dawned on me, what McDavid does over the course of time is so spectacular but has become somewhat “common place”.
I mean, he broke the record for the most assists ever (astonishing) and he’s got this stat referenced above and, for me, as awesome as he’s been through the playoffs, I don’t feel like he’s really been producing at more the expected rates. He’s just doing what he does and, honestly, I don’t think he’s even played near his top levels as far as finishing, etc.
He’s just setting all time records without even being at the pure top of his offensive game, in my opinion.
His production rates have desensitized me – its crazy!
*insert LT reference to Spruce Goose story here*
Nice catch. The Great One had 3+ assists in 5 games in 1988, matched now by McDavid who has at least 1 such game in all 4 series. No official record kept for this, it’s more of what I call a “mark” of which Gretzky has, ahem, scores.
#99 retired with 61 NHL records & still holds almost all of them today. Among them, 40 inthe regular season, 15 in the playoffs, & 6 in the All-Star game. I dont put much stock in the latter given the many changes to the format since he retired. It’s not even “a” game anymore.
So, since he retired, what records have changed hands?
shockingly, he ADDED 1, namely points-per-game, career. Mario Lemieux had temporarily passed him near the end of Wayne’s playing days, but then underwent his own fall in production in the tail of his career.
As for official Gretzky records that have fallen:
— most 40 goal seasons & most consecutive 40 goal seasons; broken simultaneously by Mike Gartner. NOTE: these records were broken during Wayne’s career, as Gartner was an exact contemporary, not sure why they are on 2 different lists of records he held at retirement. He had a handful of other records that got broken before he was done playing that are not included on those same lists.
— most overtime assists, demolished by many modern players in the Bettman Point Era,
A rare category where Gretzky is punished by era effects. Current record holders are Patrick Kane & Evgeni Malkin. I can only imagine how Gretzky would have exploited the modern rule. As it was, he was so good at 4v4 that it was legislated out of the league in 1985.
— most assists, one playoff series; broken by Leon Draisaitl in 2022
— most assists, one playoff season; broken by Connor McDavid in 2024
Oil fans gotta love those last two.
One last bit of Oilers-related trivia: the first of Gretzky’s NHL records to be broken was for fastest two shorthanded goals, 27 seconds, set at the Corral in the *same game* that the Great One became first player to score 200 points.
Pat Hughes broke that mark the following season (25 seconds), then broken again by yet a third Oiler, Esa Tikkanen, in 1988 (12 seconds). They along with yet another Oiler, Mark Messier (30 seconds) still stand 1-2-4-5 on the all-time list, further proof that the 1980s Oilers remain the greatest shorthanded scoring machine in the game’s history.
Always appreciate the detailed history. Impressive!
They were so deadly SH that some games where they couldn’t get anything going 5 on 5 that I would subconsciously wish for them to take a penalty which would lead to more open ice for Gretzky and company. They were also lethal 4 on 4 so much that the league changed the rule because of it.
To beat Gretzky’s assist record in 19 games McDavid needed 22 so . . . . . . yeah he did beat it but 3 more games.
Great accomplishment though without a doubt.
And hopefully more games to follow!!
GO OILERS
That fact that he beat a record set in the ’80s, a decade from which
allmost* records are suspect, is extremely impressive.*A few of Gretzky’s records stand up because he was so astonishingly beyond his competition. Even if you devalue his 215-point season by 25%, it’s still 163 points, which nobody else (except Lemieux during the same era) has ever matched.
I think it’s important to be careful when thinking about era comparisons. It’s easy to think that old things were not as good because it’s fancier now or whatever
The players in the 80’s were the best players in the world at that time. The NHL was the best hockey in the world. Any Euros good enough to make the NHL had it available. However there weren’t as many as now, they weren’t as good then. Only the closed communist countries could compete with Canada and some of those players still made it over
The league was smaller, I don’t think it was as talent diluted as now even with more players coming from outside of NA. There were some bad teams, still are. ‘Goalies were terrible’ – I disagree. There were brilliant goalies then, probably more really good ones than now. They had different stats, they wore smaller equipment. But the players were shooting with wood, elite shooters and scorers had to do it with strength and skill, no carbon sticks giving everyone an improved shot
Gretzky said at that time you played a team, but really you always played the same guys. The other team would always get the same top players out against him, he wasn’t running up points against weak players much
’Players are in better shape now’ – that’s relative, they were as fit as was the norm back then. ‘They are better trained now’ – I would argue that the top players then trained more than they can now. It’s a controlled expensive environment, players get a certain amount of arena time. Gretzky and Lafleur spent thousands of hours playing outside. Parents then would allow them to do that, obsess on hockey. Wayne was only in the house for dinner and not on his rink only during school and summer
It was also far more violent. Players are bigger but that’s relative, people are bigger. Connor hasn’t had to deal with avoiding what Wayne had to in terms of players going after him trying to injure him constantly. It’s still rough but not even close to me
There were also some really special talents. Those players plopped into 2024 would still dominate as they did then I think. Wayne might score even more not having to avoid the dirty as much, and that there is far less obstruction after the cap came in
I also think what Connor is doing is amazing. In this era there aren’t several players that are super elite. Connor is head and shoulders above his peers as Wayne was. But there were also other truly elite players like Lemieux, Trottier and Bossy who I think is the greatest pure scorer ever. Not every era has a lot of really top players. It’s crazy that the Oilers had so many
I also think Connor is so good that if he had 80’s Glen Sather as his coach and GM he’d be getting close to 200 points now. Connor hasn’t been given the same level of help Wayne had, Sather was fabulous finding the right guys for him and building a very well balanced team. A second line that was a menace, and almost always had a great goalie
Yeah, it’s fascinating to think about how the game has changed.
I think a slightly-above-average player from today, put in a time machine to the ’80s, would rival Gretzky’s points. I only think it’s fair to compare players relative to the players that they actually played against.
So for era-to-era comparisons, I basically use adjusted goals/points. The value of a goal is its percentage of all goals scored that year. A goal in a season with 4 goals per game is twice as valuable as a goal in a season with 8 goals per game. It’s a simple – and, I think, accurate – way to compare eras.
By this metric, Gretzky still stands out as the greatest ever.
By this metric, Bernie Federko and Joe Mullen and Lanny McDonald are not Hall of Famers.
After beating Dallas and their use of the high flip out, and then using the high flip out to expose the Florida D seems so much like a brilliant MacT move.
MacT dressed his 3rd string goaltender as the backup in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals.
Ok, so what?
The loss wasn’t because Conklin was bad as a goalie, it was because he miss-handled the puck and Jason Smith deflected it in-front of the net for the empty netter.
I saw an interview with McT in which he stated that his biggest regret as a coach was not playing his best backup in that game.
Yeah…but you never know what could have happened. If Jussi was backing up, he suddenly goes in cold, maybe let’s in a bad one (like Conklin), and confidence is shot through the rest of the series. Instead, he had 2 days to prepare and take the torch.
We don’t know what we don’t know.
We do know that MacT out coached some good teams in the 06 run.
How the players have changed. There was a time that if a team was high flipping they would run out of forwards pretty quickly. Pretty vulnerable to a big clean hit that not many take advantage of anymore
This was mentioned in an Athletic comment thread about buyouts, and I thought it was interesting. PLDubois can be bought out by the Kings at one-third of his contract value – if they exercise that option before this 26th birthday. That’s a savings of over $16 million dollars in cap charges over the life of the buyout.
The fascinating part is that PLD’s 26th birthday is June 24th. The contract buyout window opens 48 hours after the Stanley Cup Final ends. So if the Cup Finals get pushed to a Game 7, the Oilers can effectively remove that option from the Kings. (I know Blake has specifically said he wouldn’t buy out Dubois, but it’s an attractive option, and there’s a lot of smoke around the possibility.)
A Game 5 Panthers victory gives the Kings a Get Out of Jail for $16M less card, so for this and other obvious reasons, Go Oilers. I don’t know how a Game 6 victory would work. What if it goes into double overtime? Would people need to know exactly at what time of day PLD turns 26?
Blake doesn’t seem to have a clue as to what he’s doing.
Let the good times roll.
Is there any reason why MSM doesn’t inquire Florida’s embellishment tactics, towards the player(s) or coach, I mean the amount they embellish is such a bad look for the NHL? I’m genuinely curious.
Would think that those are closed door discussions between management and the refs between games that are not published.
I would not be surprised if in those meetings that the Oiler management pointed out in both cases prior to Bennet’s on Saturday where a player went down like he’d been killed, that very little ice time was missed and that may have played a role in the officials decision not to give Nurse a 5.
It looks like the officials have caught on.
For Oilers fans Broberg being paired with Nurse looks like something on the magnitude of the Phil Esposito from Chicago trade.
Watching live, Broberg’s skating is damn near elite. He was also growing in confidence with every shift. I hope he keeps growing, because he was amazing. Smart too.
The biggest difference I see with Broberg is that he’s much more aware of his surroundings now. Yes, he skates well … but so does Nurse. Broberg’s positioning in all three zones is excellent, which allows him to be able to handle playing on his off-hand side and make calm plays in both the offensive and defensive zone. He can already make the head man stretch pass better than Nurse, Ceci or Desharnais can, which implies that he is better able to look down the ice and thread the needle under duress.
Thinking back to his regular season cameo, when he tripped on that errant stick leading to a 2-on-1 goal that was like something out of Shoresy … he’s come a long, long way.
He can now pick up where the forecheckers are coming from and smoothly rolls off hits instead getting absolutely plastered – I get why they wanted to marinate him in the AHL until the game slowed down enough for him … he was going to get seriously injured if they kept him up in the NHL before.
I know there’s a lot of angst about this, but it looks like the time he spent in the AHL really helped him to adjust to North American hockey. Credit to the player who made the most out of that experience, and to the organization to sticking to their guns with regards to keeping him in the AHL until he was completely ready, and in terms of not trading him unless it was for a huge bounty.
Even if it’s “not to be” this year, Broberg’s arrival as a bonafide NHL top-4 defenseman, makes me confident that the Oilers can get back to the Finals next season.
People seem to forget the two months Broberg played with Bouchard last season when Skinner and Broberg held the fort and saved the season till Mattias the Grey arrived at the trade deadline.
That trip on a stick that turned a nothing play into an odd man rush & goal against was representative of the $#!+ that happened to the 2-9-1 Oilers last fall.
While it seemed like a one-off from spiteful hockey gords, the stick-trip has a precedent in Oilers history. It occurred on St. Patrick’s Day of 1987, when Kevin Lowe was on the receiving end of a bad hit in the defensive zone down at my end of the ice. As play carried on with the puck going up ice & a line change ensuing, the famously-tempestuous Lowe smashed his stick over the boards, breaking it. The blade went flying back onto the ice & skittered into the d zone. Many in the building wouldnt even have noticed this outburst, miles from the play, but my seat in the defensive right corner, penalty box side, made it hard to miss.
As the Devils brought the puck back up ice, Randy Gregg did basically what Broberg did, controlling the gap while backing up. Well wouldn’t you know but he stepped on that damn blade, crashed heavily onto the end boards, immediately clutched his shoulder & went off in pain. He went on to miss the final 10 games of the regular season & his playoffs were in doubt.
i was & remain a huge Gregg fan, & was pissed at Lowe for his tantrum which indirectly & unintentionally injured a teammate. The victim was probably the very last guy who would display anger in such a manner, but so it was.
Thankfully, Gregg did return for the playoffs, where he would win his third Stanley Cup. So too would Lowe, a fellow member of Edmonton’s Magnificent Seven. Very different men, but both very good NHL rearguards.
Never heard a word of anything being said about the incident, but I remember it viviidly.
Fantastic story the odds of that happening again have to be astronomical. Gregg was a dependable rock that never recieved any praise. He did his job and did it quietly for a near decade on what many consider the greatest teams ever.
He looks so confident and he’s not putting himself in positions to be crushed by the opposition. Bennett got him up high nearly decapitating him in game 2 but that’s Bennett being Bennett. The Panthers have been taking runs at him and his quick smart outlet passes are putting them out of position. Broberg on the ice leads to odd man chances for the good guys.
What do you mean damn near elite? It is elite.
Be very careful with that word ‘elite’. Coffey was an elite skater. Orr. Lidstrom. McDavid. Very careful, yes indeedy…
There are plenty of elite skaters around.
Got some names? Like I presented. Of elite skaters?
“a select group that is superior in terms of ability or qualities to the rest of a group”
MacKinnon, McDavid, Makar, Kucherov, Hieskanen and, yes, I’d throw the likes of McLeod and Broberg, etc. in.
Elite doesn’t mean all time great or generational.
This team. Virtually out of the playoffs in November…16 game win streak etc to climb right back up into the playoff picture with a vengeance and they almost got to the point they could have won the division…seemingly on the ropes in the last 2-3 playoff series then storming back to take each series convincingly…
No matter what the result in Miami the team has climbed a mountain. Win the next 3 games of course and every crazy thing I wrote prior to the Dallas series gets thrown into the shade by the greatest comeback team in hockey NHL history.
It’s got to be impossible yet…
Sunrise isnt Miami
Oh, really? Last time I checked Sunrise was a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area.
For some reason i’m convinced that Game 5 will be the toughest for the Oilers to win in this series. If they can pull it off I’ll hop aboard the Hall Omark Paajarvi Eberle train.
I thought game 4 was going to be a monstrous battle, then we got 8-1. At the end of the first period it looked like I still had a chance of being correct. There was a little wobble in the 2nd period, but then the booster jets kicked in.
So, if they win Game 5 and make it close, you’ll deign to cheer for the team you claim to support.
Got it.
Worst.
Fan.
Ever.
Go Oilers, I guess.
This is unnecessarily antagonistic and incorrectly frames my post, but go off…
But if I can’t find a way to belittle and smeer anyone else in my subgroup, how am i supposed to feel even more special and valid?
=what does billions upon billions of dollars since 2008 poured into internet give you? Or the “how to ensure consensus is impossible using modern social media to fracture commonality” story.
Just wait until the end of it! They’ll literally have us fighting over peanuts!!
I feel you Rafa … my life experiences have trained me to be more cautious in my outlook. Coming back from 3-0 down hasn’t been done in the modern era of the NHL for good reason.
But yeah, if they can win game 5, then I’ll start believing that LT is Nostradamus.
I can assure you there are more fans than him that feel similar. Nobody likes a gatekeeper.
Florida will have a big pushback to start game 5. Oilers will have to weather the storm.
For me, the keys to extending the series is Skinner playing well and the PP getting unlocked for game 5.
Our team is so unpredictable and surprising, maybe they will come out with energy and take it to them preemptively
I’m hoping there’s karma coming for the cats. Their fake writhing on the ice after those kneeing penalties, trying to manipulate the refs into calling majors, then returning minutes later, deserves a correction from the hockey gods.
Win Tuesday and the worm of doubt starts wriggling in their brains…
The ‘Dallas’ flip out (modified diagonally across the ice) exposed their slow D and the breakouts were fast and effective. Florida just didn’t have time for their forecheck. The puck was gone already.
I thought the Oilers skating hard for 60 exposed the Cats lack of speed. If they can keep it up it will have the Cats chasing instead of driving play as much
That shortie to start things off for Edmonton set the tone of the game. Florida will make adjustments and learn from their game 4 loss. They still have an arrogance about them that could lead to their downfall. I really hope Edmonton prevails.