This is your TL/DR (too long, didn’t read) summary post where excerpts are taken from the best of the best when it comes to Edmonton Oilers blogs. BLH gives you his two cents on the latest posts being published in the Oilogosphere! Including those from Lowetide.ca, The Athletic, Oilersnation, The Cult of Hockey, Copper N Blue, Oil on Whyte, and more!
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NHL Tonight
Forwards (Oilers)
- Weekes – “I tip the hat in favor to the Edmonton Oilers. A little bit more explosive offensively.”
- Grimson – “The top line guys are world class… There’s a good amount of depth across this roster. Make no mention of the Evander Kane acquisition… Zach Hyman comes over, he’s used to playing with top-end guys like Marner and Matthews in his old stomping grounds.”
Defense (LA)
- Weekes – “I’ll say LA and that’s even in the absence of the great Drew Doughty right now… They’ve got a nice mix of young players who’ve really emerged. Anytime you have an Edler on your 3rd pair, that’s pretty impressive.”
- Grimson – “I think if Doughty’s back, that’s a d-core to me that just almost based on the experience alone and the fact that they’ve backstopped this group to the year they’ve had when nobody really anticipated they’d have.”
Goal (LA)
- Weekes – “Jonathan Quick’s the Grant Fuhr of this generations. He is clutch… Cal Petersen has been outstanding as well… The way Mike Smith is playing at 40 years young and spry down the stretch AND his ability to handle the puck, this makes this a much closer fight than a lot of people would think on paper but I’m still saying the Kings based on the Jonathan Quick factor.”
- Grimson – “Quick is hard to bet against… He’s been there, he’s battle-tested… I really think Mike Smith’s health at 40, given his career, that is a legitimate concern… But he really has posted better numbers when he’s been healthy. He’s in a really good stretch right now, it comes at an opportune time of the year.”
Coaching (LA)
- Weekes – “Jay Woodcroft, I’ve known him since we were kids, I love what he’s doing up in Edmonton with this group. He’s done masterful work, but for the body of work, Todd McLellan.”
- Grimson – “Todd McLellan for me has long been an upper echelon coach in this league. He’s a good hockey man, he’s a great communicator… he has the respect/ear of the group, and he’s done remarkable job with the LA Kings.”
Series Prediction
- Weekes – “Predicated on the health of Mike Smith… I would give it to the Oil in seven. If he’s not healthy, I give this to the Kings in six.”
- Grimson – “Edmonton in six for me. Goaltending’s a bit of a push and I think on balance this Edmonton Oilers team comes out just a deeper talent level.”
BLH’s Thoughts: Look, this series should be done and dusted after four games with the Oilers moving on or at least that’s what you might be lead to believe if you simply look at this matchup from a surface level evaluation. I don’t think it’s going to be that easy for Edmonton to send LA golfing at all.
Here’s my paranoid look at the matchup:
The feeling I get from most Oil fans is that they’re looking at the Kings and saying all they’ve got is Kopitar and Danault, Quick is too old and the team is too young, however, they’re forgetting about Viktor Arvidsson (20 goals) and Adrian Kempe (35 goals). In addition to those two, Todd McLellan has Andreas Athanasiou who, if he played a full year, was on pace for around 25 or so goals and then there’s Quinton Byfield as a wildcard. He could be this year’s Kirby Dach possibly and you remember how well Dach did against Edmonton in Chicago’s post-season win vs. the Oilers. Arthur Kaliyev is as dangerous a shooter as they come, Trevor Moore and Alex Iafallo are bottom-six scoring threats too.
Lastly, on LAs forwards, Dustin Brown and Brendan Lemieux are a couple of the most annoying grinders in the entire league. These are the kinds of guys who’d go out of their way to “accidentally” fall into Mike Smith and who’s going to stop them on the Oilers with Darnell Nurse being the only big man on their blueline? I think Mike Smith will be taking care of business himself, if you ask me.
The other thing with Brown and Lemieux, they’re really good at sucking people into taking penalties and Evander Kane and Zack Kassian are the types to fall for their shenanigans… Hope Yamamoto is on his game so the Oilers can thrown that right back in LA’s faces.
If Quick pulls a Corey Crawford and finds his fountain of youth, he alone could shut down any team in the league and don’t ask me about the defense. I have no idea how they’re pulling this all off because that group didn’t look threatening at all in any of the games vs. Edmonton this year, but you never know when it comes to the playoffs…
LA is physical, they’re fast, they forecheck hard, they’re relentless, they’ve got Stanley Cup pedigree, and that’s my worry for the Oilers here. I love the skill level of Edmonton’s defense but I’m concerned about what could happen if they get overwhelmed by a team who can’t handle that sort of pressure.
Now, that being said, Mike Smith’s puckhandling ability will most likely make any chip and chase system null and void, but honestly, we’ll have to wait and see what LA decides as to how it’ll deal with that aspect of Smith’s game. Will they go with the soft chip into the corners to keep the puck away from Smith or will they choose to carry it in and challenge Edmonton’s defenders head-on?
In all honesty though, I have a hard time believing that LA will shut down Leon and Connor all the way. These two are at or near their peaks and I’m willing to bet they’ve learned what it takes to plow through what the opposition sends to shut them down. I think we’ll see Nuge, Hyman, Foegele, Yamo, Pulju, and Kane really give the Kings’ young defense fits and there’s some talk that Josh Archibald might be able to appeal the quarantine rules on unvax’d players coming into Canada. I heard that 3rd hand, so I might have the details on that off a bit, but Archie is the kind of bottom-six player you want on your team in the playoffs for sure.
Even though Edmonton’s defense isn’t big, it’s skilled and smart and can skate with anybody on LA’s roster. Evan Bouchard and Tyson Barrie are scoring threats and Nurse, Keith, Kulak, and Ceci, in theory, should be able to handle whatever the Kings send at them.
Mike Smith really is a wildcard here though, but I’m still comfortable with Mikko Koskinen should shit hit the fan and then Stu Skinner’s available too and he’s shown he can handle NHL shooters. But obviously, Smitty gives the Oilers the best chance to win. I reckon he’s up and running now…
Trade Rumors
- Spector’s Hockey – General manager Kent Hughes will attempt to trade Weber’s contract during the offseason. He’s also expected to shop blueliner Jeff Petry, who has three more seasons left with an AAV of $6.25 million.
- D’Amico also took note of Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman’s recent speculation suggesting Pierre-Luc Dubois’ name could be in this summer’s trade market if he’s unwilling to sign a long-term contract extension with the Winnipeg Jets… The Canadiens have plenty of tradeable assets to acquire the 23-year-old Dubois if they’re not interested in a long rebuild.
- Iain MacIntyre reports J.T. Miller’s future will dominate the Vancouver Canucks’ offseason…
- Friedman, meanwhile, believes extending the contract of captain Bo Horvat this summer is as big a priority for the Canucks as Miller and Brock Boeser.
- Harman Dayal believes Boeser’s subpar performance this season could force the Canucks to make a difficult choice.
- The job security of Vegas Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon was among Frank Seravalli’s 10 burning offseason questions facing the 16 NHL non-playoff clubs.
- Rory Boylen also wondered about the futures of McCrimmon, DeBoer and Lehner in Vegas.
- Darren Dreger reports the Edmonton Oilers will make a concerted attempt to re-sign Evander Kane while the New York Rangers will do the same with Andrew Copp.
BLH’s Thoughts: Re-signing Evander Kane will be a great challenge for Ken Holland this summer. He’s exactly what sort of player this team is missing, but he’s not going to be cheap and Holland really doesn’t have much leverage aside from Connor McDavid. But you never know, Kane might really enjoy Edmonton and being 97’s wingmate and if Edmonton can make it to the Conference final or the Cup final, that might be enough to sway him into accepting a sweetheart deal.
Will it all come down to a no.1 goalie or Evander Kane this summer though?
