Game Day 12 Oilers vs Flames
This in from hockey’s elder statesman Don Cherry, his take on The Grapevine Podcast that the Edmonton Oilers still have one big star to count on even with Connor McDavid out.
Cherry said he wan’t sure how the Oilers will do without McDavid. But he added, “You watch Draisaitl. Draisaitl always picks it up.”
My take
1. For much of his career Cherry has had the reputation of being extra hard on European hockey players, in part for them taking away jobs from Canadian players and also for them, in general, allegedly lacking the resiliency of Canadian players. But at 90-years-of-age Cherry evidently has no lack of respect for Leon Draisaitl.
2. As mentioned before, when McDavid went out in 2019-20 for six games, Draisaitl went on a tear, thus putting himself at the centre of Hart Trophy discussions by killing off the notion (for a moment at least) that the Oilers were just a one-man team. Perhaps Draisaitl had something to prove back then, but he proved it, and went on to win the NHL’s Most Valuable Player award.
3. It strikes me that Draisaitl’s reputation as an elite player is now secure, but the team itself has something to prove. It’s got plenty of veteran players off to iffy starts. There’s much criticism about the team losing fast and/or physical players like Dylan Holloway, Warren Foegele, Ryan McLeod and Philip Broberg. There’s bellyaching about a lack of speed on the team’s bottom two lines. There’s no end of anxiety about the play of second-pairing defence vets Darnell Nurse, Troy Stecher and Travis Dermott. Stuart Skinner is also under the spotlight for some shaky play to start the year.
4. True to form, Cherry mispronounced Draisaitl’s name, calling him “Dice Idol.” The Grape One rarely met a European name he didn’t somehow mangle either slightly or majorly. I’ve heard others with the same tendency to mispronounce (I’m sure I unwittingly do it now and then myself), so I don’t make much of it.
But I kind of like it in Drai’s case. There’s a solid fit.
Leon Dice Idol.
Draisaitl is a bit of gambler with his play out there, but much of the time his bets pay off big time for the Oilers. Maybe Cherry is on to something.
5. Bob Stauffer of the Oilers put out the expected line-up:
Podkolzin-Draisaitl-Arvidsson
J.Skinner-RNH-Hyman
Janmark-Henrique-Brown
Caggiula-Philp-Perry
Ekholm-Bouchard
Nurse-Dermott
Kulak-Emberson
S. Skinner
6. It’s a huge game for Skinner. He’s been slumping this year. Now would be a great time for a return of his ‘A’ game. This week on the Real Kyper & Bourne radio show, former NHL goalie Steve Valliquette, now an expert in hockey analytics, critiqued Skinner’s game, saying the goalie has trouble on opposition rush chances.
“Skinner over the last two years has the second-worst save percentage in the NHL off of odd man rushes as well as full rush. He’s not a great goalie at backing up, managing speed, gap. You see, the hard part about the rush is that you can lose your net.”
But Valliquette noted Skinner’s overall save percentage has been good, and he’s especially good at shots created in the o-zone off the cycle or forecheck. “He’s a top-five save percentage in the zone. When he’s in a set D-zone and he can see his reads and Edmonton’s got good sticks, he stops the puck. He’s an NHL goalie, but off the rush he’s not.”
Under Kris Knoblauch, the Oilers cut down drastically on rush chances against, Valliquette said, which helped Skinner. “If you can protect him and give him a safe environment, he’ll be successful. But if you want to play up and down the ice, he’s not your goalie.”
Staples on politics
Alberta teacher training gets failing grade, but weakest students trending up in reading
At the Cult of Hockey
STAPLES: Rejected by Vancouver Canucks, Podkolzin becomes instant hockey hero with Oilers
LEAVINS: Overcoming the loss of Connor McDavid a true test of team for the Edmonton Oilers: 9 Things
STAPLES: Draisaitl grades out highest in win over Predators
STAPLES: Positive signal from McDavid today