Monday Mailbag – Christmas Edition

Merry Christmas, Nation, and welcome to a fresh edition of the Mailbag to help get your week started and keep you updated on all things Edmonton Oilers. This week, we’re we’ve got an all-Christmas edition of the Mailbag for you as we look to make sense of the holiday season and what’s going on with the Edmonton Oilers. If you’ve got a question you’d like to ask, email it to me at baggedmilk@oilersnation.com or hit me up on Twitter at @jsbmbaggedmilk , and I’ll get to you as soon as we can.

Jason Gregor: I’d like to point out I think Skinner is a starting goalie. He had a .914Sv% and 2.75 GAA last year in 50 games and 2903 minutes as a rookie. In his last 15 starts this year he has a .903Sv% (15th in NHL) and a 2.60 GAA (9th) in 852 minutes. In those last 15 starts his Sv% is better than Demko, Vasilevskiy, Shesterkin, Gibson, Thompson, Blackwood, Oettinger and others.

No doubt he had a rough start this year. His first seven starts he posted an ugly .854Sv% and .387 GAA in 449 minutes. In his other 3755 minutes of his career he has a .911Sv% and 2.69 GAA. This season only 10 starting goalies have a Sv% above .910.

I wouldn’t be so quick to toss out Skinner because of seven rough games, and some learning curves in his first NHL playoffs (like many NHL players). Consider his age and contract, Skinner is fine. IMO.

Santa needs to drop off some creative trade options for the management. They need to make some deals before the deadline, that don’t completely gut their prospect pool or result in giving up too much to get rid of Campbell. The latter (if it happens) will be painful, but can’t be devastating.

Robin Brownlee: Consistency in effort and execution. Too many big swings from great to lousy in those aspects this season.

Tyler Yaremchuk: The starting goaltender is a good one. I’ll say that he needs to give them some sort of magic elixir that makes them give maximum effort night in and night out.

Baggedmilk: I’d love to see some consistency and depth scoring. Sometimes the Oilers can look like world beaters, and others, they look like they’ve never played the sport before. Please, Santa?

Jason Gregor: Zach Hyman has to be on the nice list. He has 19 goals and keeps improving. He’s been a stellar signing.

Ken Holland would be on the naughty list. The Jack Campbell and Connor Brown signings have been brutal. Can’t sugar coat it. Those two are a big pile of dung right now.

Robin Brownlee: Zach Hyman at the top of the nice list. Easy call. Consistent. Relentless. Reliable. Connor Brown. None of the aforementioned. Dud so far.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Connor McDavid is the easy name for the nice list. If you want one that’s not so obvious, I’ll go ahead and say Darnell Nurse gets a spot on the nice list because of his resurgence this season. The naughty list is an easy one. It’s Jack Campbell.

Baggedmilk: Nice list is Ryan Nugent-Hopkins because he’s quietly having another strong season while never aging a day. Naughty list has to be Ken Holland for the Jack Campbell and Connor Brown signings.

Jason Gregor: Least favourite is stuffing. Never eat it.

Favourite is mashed potatoes and gravy. Need some butter and milk mixed in to make the potatoes fluffy and good turkey gravy.

Robin Brownlee: Don’t have a favorite. I’m pretty much a glutton. Least favorite is Christmas Cake. Won’t eat it at gunpoint. Who invented that crap?

Tyler Yaremchuk: My favourite: Perogies. My least favourite: Cabbage rolls.

Baggedmilk: My favourite food at Christmas is the stuffing, and I’m honestly stunned that Gregor said he never eats it. My least favourite is that canned cranberry sauce that holds its shape barring some kind of nuclear winter.

Jason Gregor: Not sure it is the greatest, but my favourite is Love Actually. Followed by Klaus (2019). Great flick.

Robin Brownlee: Easy. Die Hard. “Come out to the coast. We’ll get together, have a few laughs . . . ”

Tyler Yaremchuk: Shrek The Halls.

Baggedmilk: The Nightmare Before Christmas. I’m counting it.

Jason Gregor: I enjoy giving gifts, so not sure I’m ever had a terrible one. I avoid buying clothes, unless it is a hoodie for a teenager, or they specifically mentioned it earlier in the year. The most boring gift I purchased was for my mom. She really wanted a new coffee pot. I got it, but didn’t like it. No wow factor.

Robin Brownlee: In my early 20’s, I picked up a case of wine so I could give some of my friends a bottle. Seemed like kind of a sophisticated gift — I asked my uncle what he’d go with and I picked up what he suggested — as I recall, it was called Blue Nun. It must have tasted like rat-piss because almost everybody I gave a bottle to essentially told me they’d rather drink bleach or paint thinner.

Tyler Yaremchuk: That is an incredibly tough question. I have no idea. Probably some doozies out there, but I’ve blocked the memory.

Baggedmilk: My dad used to love the TV show Columbo. So one year I bought him this massive boxed set, thinking he would be pumped to get his favourite show all in one place. As it turns out, he got rid of his DVD player and couldn’t watch any of them. Not ideal.

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