Edmonton Oilers Talk: Koskinen, the BJs, and Low-Hanging Fruit

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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The Athletic

Fourth lines usually don’t matter but the Oilers’ unit is killing them

Turris/Shore have been outscored by a combined 40-19 margin. When they’re together – as they have been for just over an hour – it’s 6-2.
There’s no going back on the decisions to sign Shore and Turris, but that doesn’t mean they have to be in the lineup. Players show up on waivers almost every day, and it’s usually not too hard to find end-of-roster talent on the trade market.
It’s past time for the Oilers to correct this particular error. Dumping Turris and Shore won’t magically fix all of Edmonton’s problems, but it might reduce the damage being done on a nightly basis by the fourth line.
In fairness to the coaches, they don’t have a lot of options now. Zach Hyman was hurt in Saturday’s game against Carolina, and Ryan McLeod was placed in the COVID-19 protocol. Brendan Perlini hadn’t made it up from Bakersfield before Tuesday’s game.

BLH’s Thoughts: So, the way I see this post is that Jonathan Willis didn’t like the idea of Turris and Shore being dressed regardless of the fact that the Oilers weren’t really in a position to be choosey.

Now that leads me to believe that this is something that’s been festering for a while or else why would you write a hit piece like this? Doesn’t it appear to be more of a shot at Oilers management and less so one at the two NHL vets?

Even though picking on Turris and Shore is low-hanging fruit considering neither has played in fair amount of time, the numbers don’t lie and I agree with the surface level judgement, Edmonton needs better bottom-sixers.

However, I will not sit here and be told that players come up on waivers everyday that would be an upgrade to some degree because that’s simply untrue.

Riley Nash was waived from the Jets and claimed by Tampa on Dec.7th, that might be the only player Willis has an argument for, but even then, if a player of note is going to hit the waiver wire, there’s a very good chance he’s been shopped around the league first and a lot of teams would rather take the chance of seeing that player go through waivers and then make a trade anyhow.

Here’s the thing, the Oilers haven’t been in a great position to grab players off of waivers this year. So prior to Nash hitting the waiver wire, the Oilers lost out on Alex Barre-Boulet, Nathan Bastian, and Adam Gaudette because teams ahead of them snatched them up. That’s not management’s fault unless you want to give them shit for having a team so high in the standings…

Barre-Boulet (5’10” 180lbs) hit the wire twice and was claimed by Seattle the first time and his old team, Tampa, the second time. But he’s in the same boat as Tyler Benson, an AHL star who hasn’t found his footing at the NHL level (-22.22 GF%/60). Easy to see why the Oilers wouldn’t claim him.

So just to get back to Willis’ claim that 4th line replacements are available daily on the waiver wire, are you telling me that Jason Megna, Pontus Aberg, Kirill Semyonov, or Anatolii Golyshev should’ve been claimed by Edmonton because those are the forwards that’ve been slapped on waivers this month.

Could the Oilers go out and make a trade? 100% YES! Should they though? I wouldn’t. The other team will attempt to rake them over the coals since Edmonton is making a trade out of necessity and how many teams will be looking to move 4th liners that not only saw off the other team’s offense but produce some of their own?…

I feel like the team just has to ride this slump out and hope the Ls don’t reach double-digits. The overall health of the team might play into this a bit but tonight when they face Columbus, a major factor will be what kind of Blue Jackets team shows up.

Without Patrik Laine and Adam Boqvist, the BJs will be at an instant disadvantage. They’re 5-9-0 on the road and 3-6-1 in their last ten games, Elvis Merzlikins is 2-2-1 with a SV% of .889 and a GAA of 3.79 in his last five starts, but they’ve got a 4th line that is firing on all cylinders. In their previous five, big Eric Robinson has 5pts in his last five, former Bruin Sean Kuraly has 4pts, and France-native Alex Texier has 6pts.

So, we’ll see. I fully expect the Oilers to beat Columbus and the game not even being close, however, the game has not gone to script for the Oilers this year and there’s a chance they stoop to a new low.

At the very least, I’ll get to watch Pulju for another game. Love that guy!

The Cult of Hockey

How does Mikko Koskinen wicked rollercoaster ride end? Hmm

This year Koskinen has been that amazing goalie in a handful of games, but he’s wilted in others, all of it adding up to a .902 save percentage, not much better than his weak .899 save percentage last season, and a bit worse than his OK-ish .906 save percentage in his first year, 2918-19.
In his first seven games of the year, he had six wins and one loss, with a .934 save percentage.
He won four of his next five games, but had just an .870 save percentage.
He pulled himself up for two more games, with two wins and a .944 save percentage but in his last four games, all part of Edmonton’s six game skid, he’s had his worst run of the year, a .861 save percentage and four straight losses.
He’s back-up material in the NHL, but not a reliable starter. This we can say now with certainty.

BLH’s Thoughts: I think the other observation is that when the team plays well, Koskinen’s not that bad, but the precedent has been set. What I mean by that is, Mike Smith is the preferred netminder by the fellas who play the game. They play with much more passion and intent when he’s in between the pipes and when Mikko’s tending net, they don’t. In fact, to me, it looks like they’re walking on egg shells when Dave Tippett calls his name.

What I don’t get is why the coaches continue to go back to Koskinen knowing full well that he’s not 100% when they’ve got Skinner there? Give the rook the reps so that when it’s the Finn’s turn, you know you’ve got a goalie there who’s rested and most likely going to give you the best chance at two points or at the very least, you won’t have to worry about him.

The Daily Goal Horn

There were rumors that the Islanders tried to pluck him (Jakob Chychrun) in the offseason. If the Yotes are listening, does that make them the frontrunners to land him? We will see.
We know Phil Kessel will be the next shoe to drop as teams likely wait to get closer to the deadline to fit him in under the cap.
“Well, enhanced protocols I think would be on the table which is more mask wearing around the league and the facilities,” LeBrun said. “How about daily testing? Since the start of the season players had been tested every three days. Could it go to daily testing with advanced measures? So, look for all of those things to potentially come to fruition here over the next few days.”