Monday Mailbag – January 5th

Here comes your weekly chance to skip out on doing anything work related on Monday mornings – it’s the mailbag. As always, you guys drive this segment, and I need your questions to make it work.  If you’ve got a question you can email it to me at baggedmilk@oilersnation.com or hit me up on Twitter at @jsbmbaggedmilk.  Sit back, grab a coffee, and put off any actual work items that you have to do – it’s time to learn something.

I prefer the TSN broadcasts but also work for TSN1260 so take it for what it’s worth. I also don’t like change. 🙂 

I’m a little biased because only one of those two outlets pays me.

I don’t notice much difference on production. I do like the new ref cam.

To be fair to Rogers, I think they are getting better. At the beginning of the year their panels were basically a competition to see who could say the most ridiculous thing and I don’t think they understood that Friedman was their Ace in the Hole. That said, Ray Ferraro is the best in-game analyst in the business and I really missed his thoughts. He makes any game he works more interesting.

I have no preference in production. I’ll take substance over style any time. I can say I like Gord Miller’s call of games and I’d rather listen to Ray Ferraro do analysis over anybody else no matter what level of hockey we’re talking about.

For Ray Ferraro alone I like TSN better! 

I love Sportsnet for all the spelling errors, etc. that always seems to come up. The games have been awful, so we’d may as well get some entertainment from the production.  Jari Jurri is one of the greatest Oilers to ever live!  

He looks terrific. It’s very important not to get ahead of ourselves with him but there’s some outstanding talent there. He could be something special. 

He’s been impressive, but the WJC’s aren’t even AHL-level competition.

Very good. He should be dominating and he his. His overall game is much calmer than last year. He is still aggressive, but he doesn’t try to do too much. I like that he plays with an edge to his game. The Oilers need more players who play that way.

Very early on I thought I was being biased because I thought he was Canada’s best Defenseman. Happily, others like Corey Pronman started saying the same thing. There are others on the squad who are better in the offensive zone (maybe), but he is the total package. He’s mean, big, fast, skates the puck out of the zone, a rock in his own zone, a great passer, and can shoot too. Best Defenseman on team Canada.

Nurse stands out and he should at this age. His physical skills and ability to move are noteworthy for a player his size.

He’s been unbelievable. I can’t wait for the Oilers to ruin him within 2 years!

I think he’s been really solid, and his skating ability looks really good out there.  That being said, he’s one of the older players in the tournament, so I would expect him to dominate.  The real trick will be what the Oilers do with him next year? I say he should probably spend at least a year in the AHL, but will the Oilers say that?  I doubt it.

He’s winning too many games! 🙂 I think Nelson has made some interesting tweaks and I’m cheering like hell for him. Beyond that, too soon to tell.

Nelson’s a good coach. He’s a strong communicator who doesn’t overcomplicate things and he’s strong tactically. We’ve seen some encouraging things from the power play, which is the one area where I think he can really help the team.

He is fine. I enjoy his press conferences. Much more direct and to the point.

Too early for me to tell and too much interference from management to get a good read on how he wants to use the team in front of him. So far he has a very red face.

I like his demeanour on the bench. Calm without being comatose. All he can do is his best with the mess he’s been handed, so it’s unlikely he’ll be highly impressive in terms of record because he doesn’t have enough to work with.

The team still looks terrible despite the new coach (WEIRD!) but they seem to be playing with a little more jump since Nelly rolled into town. And at the very least the power play has finally started putting shots on the net with some regularity, so, PROGRESS!

It’s still too early to tell, but all I can say is that he has the Oilers shooting the puck more and I like that.  Why that wasn’t part of Dallas Eakins’ game plan is beyond me.

Jeff Petry is next. I don’t think they’re rebuilding, but that 1st round pick (the Pens’ pick) may have more value to a team with a goalie or defenseman Edmonton can use.

Depends if they flip the pick at the draft for an NHL veteran or not; the trouble is that the vet you can get at the draft isn’t necessarily any better than Perron is. As for who is next, Jeff Petry is the obvious choice. They should never have signed him to a one-year deal this summer.

Jeff Petry is the obvious one gone. He can’t pass up the opportunity to test UFA at 27 years of age. Why would he? He will be gone. If the Oilers make a major trade involving one of the young players it won’t happen until the summer.

It looks like the team balked on their plan of acquiring players in their primes. It looks like the team got rid of a guy who hated losing. It looks like the team reset the rebuild and we are 5 more years away from being competitive. Who’s next? Petry.

No, they’re not restarting the rebuild, but it certainly appears they want to add one of the first two picks in June to the core group they have. My guess is Jeff Petry is next.

It definitely looks like that. I don’t necessarily think that’s what they’re doing, and if anything it would be more of a continuation of the rebuild, but they’re certainly not trying to get better in the short term, that’s for sure. There’s a small glimmer of hope in me that this first rounder will be used in a trade between now and the draft for players that can make an impact in the lineup immediately next season. But right now it just looks like the usual “Oilers trade one of their only NHL players for magic beans” trades which have historically worked out GREAT in Edmonton’s favour… 

And if the tea leaves are correct like they were with Perron then I wouldn’t be surprised to see Petry in a different jersey this year. I think that will be an insane mistake but that’s a story for another mailbag.

It sure seems like it!  I don’t understand how the Oilers think trading a proven veteran for magic beans is going to fix this mess.  Unless the Oilers plan on trading that 1st round pick as part of a package for a proven player, I just don’t understand this.  Also, yeah I get that there were rumours that Perron wanted out, but still… it’s a step backwards.

I expect to see Jeff Petry moved, and probably Nail Yakupov.  He’s been playing around 12 minutes per night, and it just doesn’t look like he’s in the Oilers plans.  They’re going to get absolutely fleeced on the return, and everyone will complain for years to come when he finally figures out how to play in the NHL.  That’s the Oilers way.

Make this the last damn summer we pay this much attention to the draft!

“I will not use the NHL as a development league. I will not use the NHL as a development league. I will not use the NHL as a development league.”

Players: Work harder in the hard areas of the ice.

Management: Recognize the need to build a lineup with size, skill and some nasty. And please don’t just think you need size and nasty on the 4th line.

Stop Tanking. Have some self respect.

To compete more consistently. No team can play balls out every second of every shift of every game, but the Oilers have to strive to get as close to that as they can. They’ve shown a bit of that already under Nelson.

To lose some weight, because if we’re being honest they’ve really let themselves go over the last 8 years.

Stop making the fans feel like idiots for supporting you.