AHOY
Some idioms are more popular than others. There are the often used “hit the hay,” or “kill two birds with one stone.”
I’ve found males like to use them more often, specifically fathers. I guarantee you can quote a saying or idiom your father used throughout your childhood and into your adult life. You likely use it now too.
Dads have some of the best. My father’s favourite idiom was, “It costs an arm and a leg.” He grew up poor and was careful with his money. In hindsight, one of the best things I’ve learned from my parents is money management, and that phrase really resonated with me. As a child my arms and legs were very valuable to me, so I kind of understood what he meant. I figured out the really meaning as a grew older.
He had other sayings, that I’m not sure are idioms per se, but still vividly stand out.
“We’re off like a herd of turtles in a rain storm,” he’d shout out enthusiastically before any road trip longer than two hours. He made me laugh. A lot.
Fathers have idioms and sports have cliches. Cliches are used a lot, mainly because they are true. You try to minimize them, but sometimes they describe things perfectly so you use them.
One not so popular idiom describes the Oilers play this season very accurately: “You have to risk it to get the biscuit.”
Too often, however, that strategy has backfired for the boys in Orange and Blue.
The Oilers lost 6-3 in Vegas on Sunday, the 10th time this season they have allowed six or more goals in a game. Only Chicago (12) and Ottawa (11) have surrendered 6+ goals more often.
The good news for the Oilers is they have bounced back quite well after getting blown out. They are 6-3 in the game after they allow six or more goals. They will need another bounce back effort tonight to get their ultra slim playoff hopes alive.
Overall, Edmonton has allowed 5+ goals 18 times this season.
Ottawa leads the league in that category having allowed five more more goals 22 times. New Jersey is next at 21, followed by Philadelphia at 20, Pittsburgh and Washington at 19 while Edmonton, Chicago, Florida and Detroit have done it 18 times.
At the opposite end, the New York Islanders have only had six games with 5+ goals against, while Carolina (7) and Winnipeg, Dallas and Columbus (9) are the only other teams in single digits.
When the Oilers lose, they like to lose big. They have taken “You have to risk it to get the biscuit” a tad too literally this season.
What makes it more painful is the Oilers only have seven games where they scored 5+ goals. Only Los Angeles (5) have had fewer games with big offensive outbursts.
At the top of the offensive explosions sits Tampa Bay with 31 games of 5+ goals, followed by Toronto (26), San Jose (23), Calgary (22) and Winnipeg, Philadelphia and Washington (21).
The Flyers and Capitals have been feast or famine both offensively and defensively this year. Same with Chicago, who has allowed 5+ goals 18 times, but they’ve also scored five or more 18 times.
At least they give their fans an equal dose of excitement and disappointment…?
As the Oilers skate out the final ten games of the season, they need to recognize that their high risk, low reward, style of play is not conducive to winning. They need to be much better at protecting the puck. They got crushed in Vegas mainly because they turned over the puck far too often.
They should want the biscuit (puck), but they need to be better at protecting, and when they want to go get it they have to make smart reads.
If not, it could be another long night in St.Louis.
**In the comments section share your favourite saying/idiom that your father, or mother, used.**
LINEUP…
Oilers
Draisaitl-McDavid-Kassian
Khaira-RNH-Gagner
Gambardella-Cave-Chiasson
Lucic-Brodziak-Rattie
Klefbom-Larsson
Nurse-Russell
Sekera-Benning
Koskinen
Fifty eight games without a goal finally cost Tobias Rieder a spot in the lineup. I think a night off might help him. It can’t make things worse for him, so a change in routine might allow him to score before the season ends. Rieder has been incredibly professional during the worst stretch of his career. He knows we have to talk about his goalless drought. I hope for his sake he scores before the season is over.
But it makes sense for the organization to play Gambardella ahead of Rieder. I highly doubt Edmonton is re-signing Rieder, so you might as well see what you have in Gambardella.
Blues
Schenn-O’Reilly-Tarasenko
Schwartz-Sundqvist-Perron
Maroon-Bozak-Thomas
Steen-Barbashev-Sanford
Dunn-Pietrangelo
Bouwmeester-Parayko
Del Zotto-Bortuzzo
Binnington
Vlad Tarasenko was injured on March 7th v. Los Angeles, and returns to the lineup tonight. He leads the Blues in goals with 28 and is second in points with 59. Alex Steen on the fourth line. He makes $5.75 million for the next two seasons. He had 7-13-20 points, but he averaged 55 the past five seasons. He is now 35. The Blues have loads of depth and having a fourth liner produce 20 points is good. The salary cap is the problem. He has missed 17 games due to injury, so that might be part of his point reduction, but I’ll be watching him to see if at age 35 he is starting to slow down.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING…
The Blues are going to have to figure out how if they are going to secure a playoff spot. If you go .500 or worse, you likely fall out of a divisional spot and maybe even a playoff spot overall.
As good as the players for the Blues are, the problem is there is no leadership, and I’m not talking about the captains, etc.
Nobody on the team has really been through this sort of thing. The Blues usually had things locked up by now when they were good or were mostly out of it when they were not. Having to battle every game is something new and they don’t have those playoff generals that can lead the way.
TONIGHT…
GAME DAY PREDICTION: Edmonton has won three of their past four visits to St. Louis. That trend won’t continue tonight. They lose 4-3.
OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Leon Draisaitl continues his goal scoring tear on the road. He had 12 goals in his past 12 road games. He’s tallied a goal in ten of those games. He pots his 44th goal of the season tonight and becomes only the 8th Oilers player to score 44 goals in a season.
NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Gambardella scores. Rieder watches from the pressbox thinking, “Maybe I need to grow a beard like Joe to score.”
Recently by Jason Gregor:
- Koskinen is not Bad
- Monday Musings…
- Marody Having Great Rookie Season
- Oilers Top PK Players Must be Better
- GDB 70.0: Dance with the Devils
- The Unseen Force Hockey Fans Can’t Avoid
- GDB 69.0: Koskinen returns
Source: NHL, Official Game Page, 3/19/2019 – 7:00 am MT
i predict a loss as well…5-2 blues
The team wins if Koskinen can fix that big hole in his glove………I hope that the Oilers have ample duct tape prior to the game!
My fav from my dad, dedicated to the OEG. ” If it took a thousand clicks to make a clue, you wouldn’t have a click
Idioms from my parents that I now use
“What do you know about milking rabbits?”
“There will be plenty of time to sleep when you’re dead” – I have now changed this one to include anything my kids ask/need “plenty of time to pee when… plenty of Time to eat when…” just to add to the confusion.
And my favorite Lowetide saying – “we don’t know what we don’t know”
“You can’t tell a dill pickle nothing”; well apparently my Dad was wrong, because Reider is finally sitting.??
“Son, you’re riding the wrong horse…”
Oilers 4 Ottawa 5 (OT)
Too many players in this one with high offence but little defensive awareness to not be a high scoring affair.
So it only took forty-eight games to figure out what most people did after ten.
Is there a more dysfunctional team in pro sports than Katz’s Oilers?
opps fifty-eight games.
I always remember, “I’ll give you something to cry about”
Kinda of like the classic “you won’t be able to sit for a week”.
Ive told you a million times don’t exaggerate!
You always cease to amaze me.
My dad’s favorite saying was “Sure champ, I’ll play catch with ya. Right after I go pick up a pack of cigarettes.” Then I never saw him again. What a prankster.
I suppose it makes sense why I would cheer for a hockey team that also dissapoints me constantly.
With money being tight, I’d ask for something, reply was,” We’re so broke, we have to jerk off neighbors dog to feed the cat”.
Here’s one on the Oilers season….” Elvis has left the building!”.
My fave “You have to be smarter than what your doing” Oilers management has not been at all.
The day after Chia was fired, Nicholson said they like the group of players they have. Let that sink in.
‘Good enough for the girls I go with’ is one my dad used a lot
Rieder breaks his goalless drought early next season with whoever he signs with after a decent PTO…..he does it against Edmonton
I’m not sure he can do that from the AHL, though I’m not sure he can’t either…lol
or Europe.
Favourite idiom that I use:
You have to be tough to be clumsy
Classic
Mine was a variation of yours: “If you’re gunna to be dumb you gotta be tough”
My dad has numerous sayings like “I’d rather be looking at it; rather than looking for it”, but the one the Oilers should take to heart is “If it is worth doing, it’s worth doing it right the first time”.
“Measure twice, cut once”
Save a horse, ride a cowboy?
On the upside. I have more money to spend at lake this summer. Maybe a bigger, badder boat engine.
Exactly! I was thinking the same thing.
Also tempting was drinking mid week during all those playoff games a few weeks ago. Working with a wee hangover is never fun.
Hooray! More upside!
A few years.. not weeks. Obviously
I am thinking the Cobra might get close to 70mph this year. I figured out a way to add 50hp! Yippee kay yay!
It’s about time they benched Rieder. I get that his confidence is shot but he doesn’t nothing. He refuses to go drive the net or go to the paint. I get maybe that isn’t is typical game but you’d think when you haven’t scored a single goal in 58 games, you’d eventually try something different.
Send him to minor’s! He’s not worth the cash.
My dad said “what’s the point in having a big d,ck if you don’t have the as* to push it with.”
I guess that works for the Oilers as well. McDavid is the epic schlong, the rest of the team is the butt.
That’s Funny. I have an urge to hit the gym and do some diddly squats.
The Oilers probably win tonight just because they stunk it up against Vegas and they seem to bounce back, at least lately. Plus they will keep the anguish going for the fans by keeping their extremely faint and unlikely chances of playoffs alive.
My uncle’s favorite idiom was, “It smelt so bad, it could knock a buzzard off a sh*t wagon.”
I still giggle to this day (25+ years later) whenever I hear or think about it.
“Fifty eight games without a goal finally cost Tobias Rieder a spot in the lineup”
This is waaaaay past overdue, at this point I am just cheering for him to score 1 goal and then take him out of the lineup for good.
I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.
Gotta go with “stop thinking about f***ing instead of f***ing thinking.”
Lots of Bonner brain going on out on the ice. That could explain a lot of the low IQ plays going on out there. A whole new meaning to the cup half full saying.
Mom
Time is the enemy of your future
Society does not conform to the individual, the individual must conform to society – It took me far to long in the game to understand what she was getting at, wish I figured it when I was 16 yrs old
Me: Dad, why are those women showing their bums?
Dad: Men think bums are sexy
8 yr old Me: Sexy? What does that mean?
Here is one that fits the Oilers perfectly:
Stupid is as stupid does.
“$h!t or get off the pot”
and “it’s time to pull up your socks”
Old Boys Club is “Barking up the wrong tree”
My dad just before I did something stupid, “Don’t come running to me if you break your leg.”
“Ugly enough to make a train take a dirt road..”