Edmonton Oilers Talk: “Some media were running around all morning looking for a fight and found one.” Says One Oilers Pundit on the Matheson/Draisaitl Spat

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!

The latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation comes from all of the internet’s top sites like Spector’s Hockey, The Fourth Period, NHL Trade Talk, The Hockey Writers, Sportsnet, and TSN just to name a few!

If you’re short on time but want to keep up with the day’s Oilers news, you’ve come to the right place!

Give us a follow on the socials!

The Athletic

Can Oilers identify cost efficient solutions at problem positions?

Kevin Woodley of NHL.com recently speculated about St. Louis Blues goalie Charlie Lindgren, who had a strong showing in the NHL in five games before Christmas (.958 save percentage in those games with the Blues).
Anton Forsberg is on a one-year deal for $900,000 and playing well for the Ottawa Senators. His five-on-five save percentage (.914) is good and the asset investment shouldn’t be dear.
If he clears waivers and is sent to Bakersfield, Lagesson will be the best possible recall option among the group of young hopefuls for the Condors.
McLeod needs time and to improve in important areas, but he’s emerging as a talent the Oilers can count on in the middle.
Edmonton doesn’t have the kind of cap required to get an established scorer, and Perlini has a scorer’s mentality. If he can win the job for a few weeks (until Kane arrives or the deadline) it could help win some big hockey games.
The Oilers don’t have a real enforcer type on the roster, with men like Nurse and Zack Kassian playing a rugged game (mostly) within the rules. This player type is often available on waivers and the asset cost is low. However, if the team goes this route, the penalty kill will need to improve quickly.
Losing teams do losing things because everything is frantic.

BLH’s Thoughts: St. Louis are a better team and Forsberg went on a little heater with the Sens there in December where they won 5/6 games. Since the 5th win in that time span of 12 days on Dec. 15th, Forsberg hasn’t won and has only played three times.

I guess what I’m getting at is that these two suggestions would definitely be cheap, but what are the expectations with them? They’re career backups to the backup. Meaning down the ladder another rung from Koskinen. Should we take their small sample sizes as a serious indicator of a couple of goaltenders who could come into Edmonton and solve their goaltending issues in the short term?

Look, the way I see it is that this group of hockey players have to figure this out themselves. They’ve won with their current goalies, coaches, and the roster has been upgraded from last year. Firing somebody or making a trade only lets the players off the hook and that’s something that’s probably happened way too much in the last seven years.

Now, there might be troops on their way to help out. How long until Dylan Holloway can start getting some games in? When will we know the status of Josh Archibald’s season? Markus Niemelainen’s hand is sure to have healed by now.

And if you’re going to make a trade, make it a good one and make it one that won’t need to be addressed again. Meaning, don’t go for the patch, go for an entirely new boat. Just pay the price and let’s move on.

We have to see what this team can do as it was constructed by Ken Holland over the summer before a proper judgement can be made. Simple as that.

Oilersnation

Leon Draisaitl and Jim Matheson had an awkward exchange after Oilers practice on Tuesday

Watch Leon Draisaitl get into it with HHOF reporter Jim Matheson 😬#Oilers pic.twitter.com/KsoN8KKqWR

— Tim and Friends (@timandfriends) January 18, 2022

“What do you think is the number one reason for the losses? Is there one thing in your mind where you say ‘we have to get better at that?'” – Jim Matheson
Draisaitl’s response? “Everything.”
Matheson asked the player to elaborate, to which he declined by saying: “We have to get better at everything. You can do that. You seem to know everything.”
“Why are you so pissy?” said Matheson.

BLH’s Thoughts: So the avail started well but burned out quickly when Matheson asked that question above.

In Taiwan, they refer to that kind of question as digging a hole for person being interviewed to fall into. Basically, a loaded question is how we’d refer to it back home, right? Leon simply didn’t fall for it and Matheson paid the price.

Later in that clip you hear the HHOF journalist ask Draisaitl why he’s so pissy whenever HE asks Leon a question. Well Mr. Matheson, maybe because you can sound like a bit of an asshole at times when you’re interviewing the players and this is Leon sticking up for his teammates by telling you in his own way to f*ck off…

Matheson’s been in the business for 40+ years, seen it all most likely, why in the world would he ask that kind of question though? To me, it’s just asking for trouble. Get creative for f*cks sake… The team is mired in a massive slump, so let’s ask one of the leaders of the club for the no.1 reason things are eating shit? DAFT!!!

So, knowing that Leon has a history of this sort of behavior with reporters (both Reid Wilkins and Ryan Rishaug shared stories of run-ins with Leon yesterday online) and knowing that there’s a history between the two, this should merely be a blip on the radar, right? But not everybody knows about this.

Also, I think the players are just getting tired of Matty’s line of questioning.

Now, the other thing that nobody knows but Bob Stauffer seems to since he was at the arena yesterday morning, is that apparently Matheson was running around all morning looking for a fight (and found one) before that media avail. If that’s the case, this little incident could be considered premeditated and that would change the narrative a bit, wouldn’t it?

I don’t know about you, but the media guys in Edmonton have had it easy for way too long. I think it’s about time they came along somebody who challenges them a bit.

At the end of the day, the meme’s that are going to come out of this will be fantastic and hopefully this pissy moment in the season is a catalyst for the team to propel themselves into one helluva heater to end the year.

Here’s a cool breakdown of the Matheson/Draisaitl interaction by Brodie Brazil. It’s worth the 15 minutes to hear him talk about Leon’s body language and Matty’s line of questioning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HHu6_T8dOU&feature=youtu.be

Spector’s Hockey

DAILY FACEOFF: Mike McKenna and Tyler Yaremchuk discussed the Canadiens options for some of their free agents…
- Yaremchuk suggested trading someone like Jake Allen or perhaps a bigger piece. McKenna wondered if they could make a hockey trade involving Carey Price or Jonathan Drouin to bring in some much-needed defense.
TSN: Pierre LeBrun observed Claude Giroux’s name has floated around the rumor mill but the Philadelphia Flyers have not spoken to rival clubs about moving their captain. Management hasn’t spoken to the 34-year-old center about waiving his no-movement clause nor has he approached them about getting traded.
SPORTSNET: Elliotte Friedman reports there are teams that believe the Florida Panthers are interested in Arizona Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun. It’s an “all-in” year for the Panthers.
GOPHNX.COM: Craig Morgan addressed a recent comment by Friedman suggesting if the Coyotes trade Chychrun it’ll be to an Eastern Conference team.
Friedman wonders if the Columbus Blue Jackets will consider it worthy of their resources for now and down the road to sign winger Patrik Laine to a hefty contract extension. The 23-year-old winger is a restricted free agent with arbitration rights this summer.
Rasmus Ristolainen could be worth watching. Friedman wondered if the Flyers pending UFA defenseman will consider testing the market this summer.