Monday Mailbag – February 2nd

You watched the Super Bowl, you drank too much, and now you’re looking for a way to kill time at work.  Luckily, the mailbag is here to save you from being too productive.  As always, the mailbag depends on your questions.  If you have one, you can email it to me at baggedmilk@oilersnation.com or on Twitter at @jsbmbaggedmilk. Enjoy the distraction.

No, it’s a legitimately terrible roster; if anything the goaltending has at times been the team’s saving grace. Tyler Myers probably isn’t a No. 1 D but he’s far and away the best on that roster; an aging, slowing Josh Gorges is No.2 and the oldest player on their second defence pairing won’t turn 21 until October. Their No. 1 forward in terms of ice-time is Zemgus Girgensons, who just turned 21 this month; he also anchors the PK. It’s kids and terrible veterans pretty much all the way down with only a handful of exceptions.

This is the same question people have been asking about the Oilers for a few years now! “The Oilers have (insert 9000 first overall picks) how are they still this bad?” I’m not really sure why Buffalo is so bad, I haven’t really been paying attention to them this year, but they’ve given up even more goals than the OILERS so I’ve got to assume their goaltending is one of the main culprits. They have both the worst PK AND PP in the league, while giving up the most shots on goal and taking the least amour of shots per game (BAD CORSI!), so it seems that, much like the Oilers, the Sabres just a really poorly built team, despite having some talented players.

And I could type 10,000 words on why Ryan Miller has been overrated for going on four years now, but that’s a question for a different mail bag. 

I respectfully disagree about the roster. That’s an expansion roster and the men you mention—while good NHL players—are not great enough in number to make a difference.

Awful goaltending and a pitiful power play is a good place to start. Name four of their defensemen without looking it up.

They aren’t that good. Their blueline is pretty young, and their forwards are not scoring. Hodgson has two goals in 49 games and he is supposed to be their first or second line centre. They are built to be bad and that is what management wants for now.

I expected Carolina to be the worst team this season. I was close! The sabres do not have the top end talent needed to compete. The players you mentioned are second line guys.

I think the problem is you just listed all their NHL players. The rest of the team is terrible. Hodgson is playing like he wants his next contract in the Swiss League, Moulson was completely invisible against the Oilers, and Stewart looks about as effective at his job as I am at mine. Total gong show. It isn’t the goaltending. They have been getting good net minding. I just don’t think anyone there cares anymore. 

I couldn’t get over how bad Buffalo looked when the they played the Oilers last week.  There were long stretches where the Oilers dominated the play… THE OILERS DOMINATED THE PLAY.  Honestly, I think it will be tough for any team to catch Buffalo in terms of awfulness.

Lots of things. People say they match up well stylistically, and I think there’s an element of that. Overall, the East simply isn’t as good as the West, so that plays a part, too. And there’s an element of chance, too – it’s like Buffalo losing to Florida but then beating Los Angeles and Calgary in successive games; it’s not necessarily that L.A. or Calgary is easier to play than Florida, just that those were the games where the Sabres had enough fall into place to record the win. 

I’m completely pulling this out of my ass right here, but I think that more Eastern teams play a style of game that suits the Oilers. A lot more run and gun style of offence, up and down the ice quickly and often, more of a “track meet” style of game. Where as the Western Conference has this aura of being built more “heavily” and playing a more physical, grinding style of game, which is obviously not ideal for an Oilers roster filled with middleweights. That, or maybe there are just more poorly built teams in the East. I HAVE NO IDEA! 

Eastern Conference is a poor conference. I’d suggest six of the top nine teams in the NHL are in the west. 

Success — relatively speaking, you mean. Fewer big, strong teams in the East and the simple fact the West is a tougher overall conference.

You have to win some games, but mainly it is due to most East teams not being as heavy of teams as the West and they play a more run and gun style that suits the Oilers.

It is widely accepted that the East is the weaker of the two. There is more depth at center in the West which creates obvious match up issues for the Oil.

The Eastern Conference is a joke. True story. They have great players on some teams but they don’t have great teams. 

The Oilers only have 13 wins on the season, so when they actually win something it’s noticeable.  As it turns out, most of those wins have come against a weaker Eastern conference.  I think it will be pretty tough for whoever comes out of the East to beat the West in the playoffs.  The teams seem bigger, stronger, and more ready to impose their will on you.

I don’t particularly care about fighting one way or the other so most of them aren’t terribly memorable for me. I’ll admit I was smirking as I watched Theo Peckham grab and pummel Claude Lemieux, though.

I’m not sure if it’s the BEST scrap I’ve ever seen, but I’ll never forget the Senators/Sabres brawl of 2007. That was just one of those lightning in a bottle scenarios; I was working on some kind of homework, decided to throw a hockey game on in the background, which just happened to be this game. Next thing I know everyone is going MENTAL and trying to take each other’s heads off. The image of Ray Emery with this humongous, psychotic grin on his face as he’s about to get the life beat out of him by Andrew Peters is the way I’ll always remember Ray Emery. AND THEN HE ENDED UP HOLDING HIS OWN! I don’t remember the last time we had seen a brawl like that, let alone having a goalie take on an “enforcer”, so it was a very memorable moment for me. 

Stan Jonathan v. Pierre Bouchard. 1978. As a Bruins fan, it was glorious.

Rudy Poeschek-Craig Berube comes to mind for me, but Ron Delorme-Jamie Macoun and PJ Stock-Stephen Peat are classics as well. Got to admit, always wanted to see one of those “Stock, you suck on TV” types run their mouths in person and find out what’s what.

Craig Cox and Bob Probert. It was a marathon tilt and there was over 100 punches thrown.

Anything with Probert and Domi.

Any goalie fight. Pick one, it’s the best fight ever.

How about that fight when Mike Bishai was in the other team’s bench? Was it against Atlanta? I think it was Atlanta. I also used to love seeing Patrick Roy and Chris Osgood go at it.  They used to scrap about once per year and it was always awesome.

Yes and no. I don’t think hockey’s going anywhere as the predominant sport in Canada, and most of my friend’s kids enjoy playing and are raised around it, just as I was. I do think that it’s easier than ever to get into things that were never even really an option 10 or 20 years ago, so I suspect will see the sporting interests in most countries become increasingly diverse as time goes on.

I’m coming up on my 30s so I guess this is a good time to practice my “out of touch old man” ranting. 

THERE ARE TOO MANY WAYS FOR KIDS TO SPEND THEIR TIME! BACK IN MY DAY WE DIDN’T HAVE NETFLIX AND TWITTER AND PORN AS FAR AS THE EYE COULD SEE! WE HAD A STICK AND A ROCK AND A COUPLE OF TIN CANS FOR A NET AND WE LOVED IT! KIDS THESE DAYS ARE JUST TOO LAZY TO GET OUT AND DO ANYTHING PHYSICAL THEY’D RATHER JUST SIT AROUND LIKE SACKS OF GARBAGE AND WATCH OTHER PEOPLE PLAY VIDEO GAMES ON YOUTUBE! AND DON’T GET ME STARTED ON PARENTS OUT THERE WHO ARE TERRIFIED OF THEIR OWN SHADOWS! LET YOUR KIDS OUT OF THE HOUSE TO PLAY! RABBLE RABBLE RABBLERABBLE! 

That’s a great question. I think it still happens but probably when we’re at work. 🙂 

Cost of equipment, ice and travel is taking a lot of kids out of the game before they even get into it.

Street hockey decline is due to our society being lazier, too overprotective (can’t let kids outside) and the odd clown who complains that kids are playing road hockey. Hockey is still very popular, but the cost of hockey is making it border on being an elitist sport and that is a concern. Many families simply can’t afford to enroll their children in hockey.

I think being active for kids is not as popular. There are many other options which include TVs, iPads and video games. I was never one to stay inside to watch Oprah.

I don’t think hockey has the mind-share it used to. Soccer is leaps and bounds more popular today than it was when I was young. It’s also more expensive than ever to get kids into hockey. I couldn’t afford to put my kids in it. Beyond that, I hate my neighbours and wouldn’t want my kids hanging out with theirs.

I think the biggest problem is that kids are lazy turds these days.  I have a niece that would much rather play the Sims for hours and hours over doing anything outside.  

I grew up in the 1990’s, and thus listened to 1990’s music (I’m sure I still have a Big Shiny 90’s CD floating around somewhere). As I’m sure everyone here knows, the 1990’s were an objectively terrible decade for music. So, no, I don’t feel the same way about Smash Mouth now as I did when I was 12.

The timing of this question is pretty apropos, as my favourite band since I was about 13 or so was and still is Blink 182. R.I.P Blink 182. 

The first band I really liked was Alice Cooper because my Dad hated them. Deep Purple was the first heavy metal band I liked, then I got into Stones, Kinks, Who, etc. I liked Zep and Floyd but really liked the metal more like Sabbath. I’ll say Machine Head by Deep Purple is my favorite album I listened to a lot as a teenager that I still love. Got heavily into the Stones late teens and they’ve been my rock and roll band since.

Always been KISS for me. Saw them first at age 16 and again a couple years ago here in my mid-50s, plus four or five times in between. Want to see a show when I go to a concert. Lots of really good bands are boring as hell live — you might as well listen to them at home and save the price of a ticket. Really liked Blue Oyster Cult, Ted Nugent and Alice Cooper as well.

Never had a favourite band, more favourite songs. I liked all kinds of music from rap to metal, and I still like most although I don’t listen to metal very often anymore.

Canada’s one and only song bird still tugs are my heart strings. Whenever I hear ‘Could I have this Dance’ sung by Anne Murray, I still shed a tear. In fact I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t like her!

Always been a pretty big fan of the greatest band ever exported from Great Britain. Jethro Tull is as amazing today as they were when I was a kid.

Much like my friend Jeanshorts, my favourite band always has been and always will be Blink 182.  They love breaking up, and hurting my insides, but I just can’t stay mad at them.  Now you know where I developed my love of poo and dick jokes.