Monday Mailbag – Christmas edition

My friends, it’s a Christmas edition of the Mailbag and that means we’ve got an opportunity for you to not only learn something but to also avoid your families for a few minutes. In this week’s Mailbag, we take a look at Pat Maroon’s season, what gift Santa should have left under every Oilers tree, and how to survive the holiday season with your in-laws. As always, I need questions for next week so if you have something you’d like to ask you can email me at baggedmilk@oilersnation.com or hit me up on Twitter. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Picking two is difficult. I’d go Draisaitl and Klefbom, only because if you kept RNH and Draisaitl there would be a bigger hole on defence. Sekera will be 32 and if Oilers plan on being in hunt for next five years then I’d want Klefbom and Nurse as LD and McDavid and Draisaitl as the top-two centres.

Draisaitl and Klefbom.

That’s a really tough question. I think long term Klefbom is a massive part of the team’s success. Short term, it’s Nuge and Drai who are tipping things for Edmonton in this three offensive line scenario. I’m so torn. I’ll save Nuge and Drai. I feel sick about my choice and turn to the drink in order to cope though. This really scarred me.

Don’t make me choose between Draisaitl and Nuge!!!! I would take Drai & RNH over Klefbom eight days out of 10.

It feels counter-intuitive for an Oilers team that has been begging for the three solid C men, but if I was looking at it from a perspective of which of the three could give us the biggest return, I’d say Leon. But please don’t deal any of them unless it’s for Karlsson.

Anybody that reads my stuff knows how much I love depth at centre so I would keep Nuge and Draisaitl and trade Klefbom. That said, my preference would be to keep all three.

Not really. He is on pace for 45 points, three more than last season and he isn’t playing mainly with McDavid like he did last year. Early on Maroon was very good, was on pace for 30 goals and 58 points, but I think he is more a 40-45 point player and that’s where he’s at now. He started great, had a bit of dip, and has played better lately.

No, I haven’t. Maroon’s goal production is slightly down but he has more assists and PPG is virtually identical to last season — now .56 compared to .52 last season.

You mean he doesn’t seem to be playing with McDavid anymore? Yeah. I agree. He’s a UFA and I think these past few weeks shows that he was boosted by 97. Either he re-signs at an affordable rate or they should trade him ASAP.

For starters, he lost a lot of weight so in that sense I think he moves quicker than usual. But he hasn’t been as productive and I think we can all agree that this is the Connor McDavid effect. No McDavid, no MaroonPoints.

I think the reality with the one who they call Big Rig is he is just being the player he always was. Like Chris Kunitz with Crosby, when Patty has been separated from the greatest player in the world.

The most obvious thing would be that he’s not playing with Connor anymore. That said, Nuge is no slouch and he needs to find a way to produce regularly regardless of who he’s playing with. Personally, I think Maroon will get traded this year so it will be interesting to see how things play out over the next couple months.

I’m sure most will say someone to help special teams, so instead I will go with an experienced, veteran, proven right winger to play with McDavid in the short term.

Game 7 of the 2018 Stanley Cup with the score 2-2, six seconds left in regulation time and Connor McDavid in alone on a breakaway.

I give them Erik Karlsson from the Sens.

A playoff spot and his friendship.

Erik Karlsson. The idea of this team’s D men being able to all slide down one spot on the D and Karlsson’s speed with our top guys *drools*.

Please, sweet Santa, give the boys functioning special teams. They don’t even have to be fantastic, just mediocrity will be fine in this case. Middle of the road? I’ll take it!

Be helpful. When Christmas eve dinner or Christmas dinner is over, get up and offer to clear the dishes and clean up. Your spouse will love it and your in-laws will appreciate taking initiative. Plus I’ve found many great convos happen over the kitchen sink. You can either wash or dry and you’ll have a good chat with whoever is doing the other half. And smile and laugh, be excited to be there. Engage with them. They raised your wife, who I presume you love a lot, so they likely have some great qualities.

Enjoy every minute of it.

Your in-laws and spouse’s family have a particular way of interacting with each other. Chances are it’s not in a healthy way. Just sit back, drink enough to keep relaxed but not enough to start thinking your input is desired. Just start to do the dishes before anyone else. You’ll be OK.

Laugh at all their jokes, be polite, and try to find some ‘Jordan-time’ so you don’t go crazy from entertaining the whole time.

Go to a daycare or some other place where kids have been and collect all the germs you can. Get sick. Like really sick. They will avoid you unless it’s to get you something to be able to avoid you more.

My advice would be to get as drunk as possible on the first day there. That way they’ll have seen you at your worst and then there’s no where to go but up. That’s advice you can take to the bank.

My mother makes this special Christmas morning breakfast casserole (I guess I’d call it that). It has hashbrowns in a sour cream (or yogurt) mix then with Canadian Back bacon on top. Cook it 25 minutes, take it out, make a few holes and put eggs in the holes and put back in stove for 15. It is unreal.

Now, my wife and I have added Cinnezeo Cinnamon buns as our breakfast tradition. It is great.

My family, mom and siblings and their families, get together on Christmas eve, church, then visit, open gifts and play board games. I’m blessed. Our family gets along great and. On Boxing Day our extended family comes to my Mom’s house at the farm. We have 30-40 people each year and there is a lot of snowmobiling, we play outdoor hockey on my sister’s outdoor rink and have a massive feast. I hope you all have a great Christmas with your family and friends.

The tree goes up on the same date every year.

We’re in the middle of a transition between traditions. My family is scattered between Alberta and California while my wife’s family is between here and BC. The big dinners at the grandparents’ places aren’t happening anymore because that generation is leaving us. The only real tradition is to watch Home Alone and Christmas Vacation and stuff our faces with as much food as we can handle.

My family has a yearly Durok tournament every boxing day! About 15 of us square off in a 4-5 hour Durok (Ukrainian card game) tournament. We’ve got a ‘loser’ trophy and everything! Unfortunately, I’m missing it this year as I’m now splitting my Christmas’ between two families, but still a fun tradition!

My folks live in Halifax, but every year we would go out for a drive around looking at lights around the city. Six White Boomers is a must play multiple times. Then when we’d come home, my mom would light every candle in the house (my parents are old and have a lot of candles) and then we just kind of sit around and talk about our year.

We have a weird tradition that I love very, very much. Every year on Christmas Eve, we get really smashed as a family and spend the night blasting concert DVDs (AC/DC is a yearly play) and playing Rock Band. It’s a great time, we all act like morons, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

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