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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Sportsnet
Koskinen’s ‘brutal mistake’ moves Oilers closer to rock bottom
- It is highly unlikely that Holland will fire Tippett without first making a move or two to jumpstart this lineup. But his team is showing every sign of a roster that needs some kind of a shakeup, and time is wasting.
BLH’s Thoughts: So much for all the help “resting” Connor did yesterday morning… Maybe McDavid and Draisaitl will take the All-Star weekend off if they’re that exhausted and serious about a Stanley Cup run this year…
Guys like Spector and Leavins and Matheson saying that Holland should shake up the roster to help Tippett out, are they forgetting Tippett’s job was being discussed after that playoff loss to Winnipeg and that Ken Holland did his head coach a solid this summer when he brought back Tyson Barrie and Mike Smith, signed Zach Hyman, Derek Ryan, and Cody Ceci, and traded for Warren Foegele and Duncan Keith?
Holland said before last off-season (I’m paraphrasing) that you can’t be changing over big chunks of the roster every year and that stability is required, but then went ahead and brought in five new players. Tipp wanted fewer kids and more vets and Holland obliged by keeping the coach’s goalie and giving him a handful of older players. So now what?
Edmonton has won two games since the first of December, 2021 and both of them had the assistants running the bench, a renewed work ethic, and maybe the weakest roster in years considering how many regulars were out due to COVID… Riddle me THAT, brainiacs.
https://twitter.com/ArchivistSports/status/1478288050639704065
Cult of Hockey
Player grades: Edmonton Oilers dig another deep hole, can’t climb their way out
- #19 Mikko Koskinen, 2. The Oilers desperately needed their big stopper to stand tall in the early going but got precisely the opposite… Now has lost his last 6 starts after a promising 12-2 beginning — kind of like the Oilers’ season in microcosm — and has just an .866 save percentage in that span. 28 shots, 24 saves, .857 in this one.
- #56 Kailer Yamamoto, 3. 0 shots and about that much impact on the game. 0-0-0, -1, 2 PiM.
- #37 Warren Foegele, 3. A couple of shots on net, but zero hits on a night the Oilers needed a little more pushback. Took a penalty in garbage time.
- #8 Kyle Turris, 6. Made a fine spinaround shot that went through Georgiev, landed on its edge and literally curled away from the post.
- #13 Jesse Puljujarvi, 5. Shafted early when his powerful one-timer beat Georgiev above the blocker but caught the shaft of his stick, knocking it right out of the stopper’s hand. 4 shots in all including a couple more dangerous ones.
- #16 Tyler Benson, 7. His best game as an NHLer. Benson was dangerous all game long on an effective bottom six line with McLeod and Turris, who combined to score Edmonton’s lone goal of the night.
- #71 Ryan McLeod, 6. Scored Edmonton’s lone goal by going to the **** net for the finishing touch on a pretty four-way passing play.
BLH’s Thoughts: I thought that Edmonton’s bottom-six had a better night. Derek Ryan’s line with Sceviour and Shore had New York hemmed in their own zone on a couple of occasions and I was a tad surprised that the McLeod line with Benson and Turris had as much luck as it did.
My favorite highlight was when Connor said “f*ck it!” and simply drove the paint and knocked Georgiev on his ass when Ryan Lindgren hit the Oilers captain into the New York goalie.
Wanna know how a coach has lost the trust of his players? I mean aside from the cratering work rate, Leon Draisaitl has been firing no luck behind the back passes unsuccessfully for an entire week knowing full well that they drive Dave Tippet nuts and he’s not going to lose any TOI for it. Leon simply can’t give two shits right now and I don’t reckon he’s the only one feeling that way.
Spector’s Hockey
- NYI HOCKEY NOW: Stefen Rosner ponders the possibility of the New York Islanders putting Semyon Varlamov on the trade block. It hasn’t been the season the Isles or Varlamov envisioned.
- THE ATHLETIC: Jesse Granger is the latest to examine options for the Vegas Golden Knights to shed salary ahead of Jack Eichel’s return from neck surgery next month.
- One is trading a $5 million forward like Jonathan Marchessault, Reilly Smith or Evgenii Dadonov plus backup goalie Laurent Brossoit. Others include shopping Shea Theodore, William Karlsson or Alec Martinez.
BLH’s Thoughts: Is there an opportunity there for Ken Holland? Could he send Koskinen to Long Island for Varlamov? Would the Oilers make an inter-divisional trade to pick up some forward depth?
