Deal

I think

*a good goalie

Gee, of all the teams to who say they have a spare goalie. Stalock IR and hasn't played a game all season. Oilers add Nurse.

No cap space to make this move from Edmonton's side.

Kerfoot is a bottom-6 guy, zero interest in trading for him at this point.

Who needs him when you have the immortal ones in Ennis and Turris being huge difference makers like you predicted.

if they really want a good goalie:
Mike Smith for Rasmus Sandin

Holland has said publicly that he isn't making a move unless its for a difference maker. If the Oilers already are running bottom-6 wingers in the top-6, why would they want more of the same? Especially at $3.5M.

What I said was that the Oilers have the best offense in the North, and potentially the best in the league. And lo and behold, the Oilers have scored 122 goals, most in the North and tied for first in the league (with Tampa Bay).

The problem with the Oilers is they aren't running bottom 6 players in the bottom 6. They are running AHLers in the bottom 6. Come playoff time when the refs put away the whistle, everyone is going to clutch and grab McDavid and slow him down. What happens when he gets silenced for a few games? Who picks up the slack? No one because you have no one else.

McDavid has seen to that. What a monster season. It's incredible to see him do what he does. He's contributed to over half their offence. I'd wager Draisaitl has about 15-20 points when McDavid isn't on the ice so that means in 36 games the rest of the Oilers have scored about a goal a game. This team isn't a force or dangerous. They are McDavid and shut him down you shut the Oilers down.

Zack Kassian

McDavid has scored 53% of his 5v5 points with Draisaitl on the ice.
Draisaitl has scored 55% of his 5v5 points with McDavid on the ice.

Seems pretty even to me.

Here's what's not even: their defensive ability.

McDavid w/o Draisaitl: 20-23 goals (2.79 GF/60 - 3.21 GA/60)
Draisaitl w/o McDavid: 18-14 goals (2.73 GF/60 - 2.12 GA/60)
Both on the ice: 20-4 goals (7.31 GF/60 - 1.33 GA/60)

So Draisaitl's lines score just as much as McDavid's, but they allow less. The "rest of the Oilers" score 1.77 GF/60 at 5v5.

The refs put their whistles away last night. What happened?

If none of that is worrisome to you, you are just the most optimistic person in the world. Also I think there needs to be a lot more digging into those numbers. It's too much of a surface assessment. 45% of Draisaitl's points come without McDavid, how many points is that this season? Because Draisaitl does have a lot of PP points as well.

20 of his 54 points have been on the PP and they are on the same unit. So that means 18 or 19 of his 5v5 points have come with McDavid on the ice. Meaning without McDavid, Draisaitl has 15-16 points this season without McDavid. This is why I say the entire team is McDavid. Draisaitl is a good player no doubt but if the Oilers lost McDavid, good night, you are unlikely to make the playoffs let alone win a series.

You won, thanks to a hot goalie. Do you think Smith is going to lead you deep into the playoffs?

Stranger things have happened. He's done it before, but not for a long time.

Smith
Career Reg season sv%: .912
Career Playoff sv%: .934

Andersen
Career Reg season sv%: .915
Career Playoff sv%: .915

Smith seems to raise his game come playoff time. We'll see.

How did he do last year in the playins? Using stats from 8 years ago isn't wise. Andersen certainly doesn't have my full confidence. I've said that openly. He's good enough I am sure but I do hope Campbell takes over. The thing about Andersen that drives me crazy is he never steals games. He wins a lot. I think he's top 5 in wins over the past 4 seasons. He rarely loses you a game but he just doesn't steal any anymore it seems. TO has become a team that more often than not should be the winning team, however, that doesn't mean you are going to win. Look at their 6 game slide they went through, Demko stole 2 games from TO, Haleybuck stole another one. Rittich stole one earlier in the season as well and Ottawa has had a couple of goalies steal one from TO. Andersen, although he has been hurt for much of the season hasn't stolen a game this year. He wins when you are supposed too for the most part but never wins if the team has a bad game.

For crying out Loud Smith has stolen games this year, sure he's also cost you a game or two as well.

That's just my two cents on the Leafs goalies. Campbell has been terrific and I trust him in net, I trust Andersen as well but I just don't think he has the ability to steal a game anymore. Hopefully I am wrong because come the playoffs, you need that a few times.

You missed the point of this:

McDavid w/o Draisaitl: 20-23 goals (2.79 GF/60 - 3.21 GA/60)
Draisaitl w/o McDavid: 18-14 goals (2.73 GF/60 - 2.12 GA/60)

Edmonton scores just as much with Draisaitl's line on as it does with McDavid's line on. Together on is like having a man advantage, but apart they're almost exactly as effective as the other offensively.

Those numbers don't really mean as much as you think they do, since that means they score that much over 60 minutes played. It shows that apart Edmonton doesn't score enough. The rest of the team likely has half the GF/60 and allows a lot more.

It shows that your insinuations about Draisaitl are misguided. He produces just as well as McDavid does.


I posted those numbers already. The rest of the team scores at a rate of 1.77 GF/60 at 5v5.

Draisaitl can run his own line and is harder to shut down because he can take the contact. They just dont have a LW for either mcdavid or Draisaitl when RNH plays like garbage like he has been so they have to put mcdavid and draisaitl together.

This is pointless.

Good luck, I would be happy to have TO take on the Oilers in the playoffs

Neither one can beat winnipeg in the playoffs.