Monday Mailbag – I hate my wife’s Christmas present

My friends, it’s that wonderful time again. It’s that time when you have all the things you’ve always wanted to know about the NHL and about life in general. I like to think of us as a much cheaper alternative to a college education. As always, the mailbag depends on your questions so I need you to send me anything you want to know. If you have an Oilers or life question that needs answering you can always email me, or DM me on Twitter. Enjoy.

Hard to say. I felt they played okay in Winnipeg, but outside of a great final two min were average vs. The Hawks. Against the Kings, they were in the game until the major penalty and PK did what their home PK does…implode. They didn’t make major errors prior to Christmas, but after the break, they had some major breakdowns in games at home vs. Chi, WPG and LA.

You’re talking about a span of eight games between the winning losing streak. That’s an eight-paragraph answer if you’re going into detail. The common thread for the Oilers, like most teams, is this: if you get goaltending and win the battle of special teams, you probably get two points. The Oilers inability to present a decent PK has been their weakness this whole season and the PP is no great shakes over the last month, either. When they win, it’s usually in spite of, not because of, both.

Not really. No. If I knew I would charge a LOT of money to NHL teams to tell them. I think that’s just what happens when you have a poor team. They get a little winning streak going, think they’re good, and collapse.

I think the Oilers are a team that gets dejected easily. They were rolling and looking confident during that four-game streak, getting good goaltending and even seeing modest success on the special teams. But then they had a few days off and got flattened by the Jets. The penalty kill has made life really rough on them and it’s just spiralled from there. They allow a goal or two and then just look defeated.

What’s that quote about never being as good as you think you are when you win, or as bad as you think when you lose? The Oilers were probably fortunate to have the four-game win streak, and less so with this losing run. They beat a shaky Montreal team with Antti Niemi in net, but then lost in overtime to a 32-year old playing his first NHL game. They were 4-3-1 during those games, which seems about right. Fans were expecting a cup contender and a winning streak brought some of that excitement back, so it’s worse than it seems.

This is pretty much the question of the season. We look so incredibly strong for some games and come out flat others. Todd has been asked this multiple times and still doesn’t have an answer. Either way, consistency is what gets you into playoffs and right now we have none of that.

The biggest difference was that the Oilers forgot how to defend over Christmas, apparently. The things that they were doing to box teams out on the winning streak vanished entirely. Not to mention, they were unable to outscore the issues created by their penalty kill and that was too big of a hole to climb out of.

He is on pace for the exact same amount of points, but fewer goals and more assists and he is playing less with McDavid. He, like much of the team, hasn’t been as consistent as last year, but overall I don’t think he has been that far off from last year. To me, he is a complimentary winger, but not a driver for the team.

Maroon is at .53 PPG right now. Last season he was at .52 PPG. I’m not sure you can characterize the Oilers “likely as sellers.” I keep Maroon unless he prices himself out of the market.

If he doesn’t re-sign for something that starts with a three then they should trade him ASAP. He’s a very good fit for McDavid but you can’t pay a premium for that.

He isn’t playing with McDavid anymore, so he isn’t as productive. There’s some individual merit to his accomplishments with McDavid, but he’s a complimentary player. At this stage, it’s best to move him for a draft pick at the deadline unless he’s down to sign a sweetheart extension for like three million annually.

Barring some historic run, they should trade him for draft picks or prospects. They could look at him again in the offseason, but I’d hesitate to sign a 30-year winger who isn’t quick and doesn’t penalty kill.

There’s a lot of good and bad to Patrick Maroon’s current situation. If you want him gone, then he’s playing exactly the way he should be playing for Chia to lose interest and want to trade him. Unfortunately due to his poor season thus far, his trade value is not high at all. Same thing goes if you want him to stay! He’s got no trade value which means Chia could maybe re-sign him for cheap? OR he might just sell him for cheap. Since I have no trust at all for Chia at the moment… I’d rather him not make any trades to avoid any future league-wide embarrassment.

He’s producing at a similar clip, but I kinda get what you’re saying. He hasn’t been the same shit disturber that we saw last season and I think that makes him disappear a bit at times. Aside from that, I think he’s been alright. A little bit hard on ol’ Patty with this question.

He used Smyth and Horcoff, but not Hemsky. I think a lack of PK experience has made a below-average PK in 2016/2017, even worse now. Prior to this season only RNH and Letestu had any extensive PK experience in the NHL. Kassian had one year, McDavid, Draisaitl, Caggiula, Khaira hadn’t done a lot and I think we see inexperience errors at times. But to me, the system is not good. It is too complicated and demands a lot of moving and timing from a forward group with not much experience.

Might be a factor, but only one of many. Oilers box isn’t tight enough and they don’t get their bodies in shooting lanes and sticks in passing lanes well enough. This should be abundantly clear when the video is broken down, but we keep seeing the same cross-seam passes and back-door plays working for opponents.

Yeah, I think that’s part of it. Hendricks, Pouliot, and Lander were all a part of the PK and they were replaced by players who haven’t ever been known for their PK work. I don’t think having 97 kill penalties is a major issue, but the other guys need to do their jobs.

The team lacks good, veteran forward depth which I think is an issue on their PK. Benoit Pouliot was good in this role last year and they miss him. Still, the issue really is coaching as the other team still sends passes across the ice with ease while the Oilers killers don’t fill the lanes. They look weirdly nervous and pensive out there on the kill. At the World Juniors, Sweden’s PK did an amazing job dealing with Canada’s seven power plays in the gold medal game because they aggressively cycled around from a box to diamond formation and made it difficult for Canada to move the puck around. The Oilers, uh, kind of stand there and wait for the other team to shoot like the crowd is telling them.

Only four of Edmonton’s top nine forwards (in terms of average EV TOI/GP) kills penalties. Drake Caggiula and the three centres. Jujhar Khaira’s been in the top nine recently and he penalty kills too. Milan Lucic and Patrick Maroon don’t. You’re not going to ask Jesse Puljujarvi at this point, and Ryan Strome has never been a big penalty killer. They need more forwards options shorthanded. Kassian started to penalty kill last season, but it can’t all be on the fourth line and centres.

I suppose MORE defensively minded forwards would help our PK, but I don’t really think it’s a personnel problem that we’re struggling with right now. Besides a couple players, we have a very similar team as last year and our PK wasn’t a hot garbage fire then.

They can’t stop a seam pass to save their life and they’re not getting the big saves they need when the walls start to cave in. The really weird part is that the PK is actually solid on the road, which doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Are they feeling more pressure at home? What else makes sense?

I don’t see why you would. Not a long list of great available options during the season to bring in.

No. I don’t see a change in personnel.

We can only hope. Peter Chiarelli is one of the worst GMs in the NHL and maybe in the history of the organization. There is no reason why the assistants responsible for the PP and PK should have jobs either.

It’s Chiarelli or back to the OBC. I would love to see a fresh, new mind in the GM role rather than somebody else from the recycle bin, but that’s unlikely. Chiarelli is one of the worst GMs in the league, but are you jazzed about, I dunno, Keith Gretzky?

It’s tough to tell. Usually, a general manager gets a couple coaching hires before he’s on the hot seat, but the Oilers aren’t usual. Todd McLellan is a big-name coach, so firing him would be a massive decision. I don’t think any decisions get more until after the season, then all bets are off. Missing the playoffs with a roster including Connor McDavid should raise a lot of questions, especially given Peter Chiarelli’s suspect offseason.

Nah I can’t see it happening mid-season. If things continue as is, I would expect something significant to happen in the offseason.

I would have gotten rid of Chiarelli after he did nothing all summer and expected the team to be better but that’s just me. GMs always get more time than the coaches so I’d guess that he outlasts McLellan whether that’s fair or not. It’s tough to build a house when the builder only gave you one hammer and a handful of jellybeans. I don’t think either guy will get fired in season, though. What’s the point?

Oh boy. I’m a firm believer in honesty. I think she would want you to love it, rather than never wear it or wear it and not like it. How you present your lack of loving it to her will be important. You don’t want to insult her choice, but I believe letting her know the truth will be best.

You need the panel’s help? You don’t know what happens if you return that chain? If you’re going to return it, do it right after you’ve told her those new jeans make her ass look fat.

Well, no matter what you’re screwed. However, consider the possibility that if you don’t tell your wife the truth that she may continue this line of gifting in the future. If one is bad, what will the second and third be like?

Just wear it man, it probably looks good.

Be honest and tell her. It’ll be tough, but it’s better than pretending you like it and it’ll prevent future awkward situations.

Just rock the chain. Only wear it on special occasions when you’re with her (date night for example). It doesn’t sound like something that has to be worn all the time and that’s a pretty easy excuse to make that you only want to wear it on certain nights cause it’s fancy. It’s obviously special to her so I wouldn’t disregard that. If you only wear it on special occasions I don’t think it’s the end of the world.

Your first mistake was waiting this long after Christmas to tell her you didn’t like it and now you’re stuck. All that’s left to do is what any self-preserving man would do and rock that chain until you can figure out an escape route. If you can commit to it for a year then you’ll have built up enough goodwill with the missus so that you can gradually phase the thing out and throw it in some drawer to never be seen again. Think longterm, my friend. You can do this.

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