MONDAY MAILBAG – March 23rd

If you ask me, Mondays roll around far too often for my liking. Luckily the Mailbag offers you 3000 words of company time killer and for that we can all be grateful. As always, the mailbag depends on your questions and if you have one to ask you an email me at baggedmilk@oilersnation.com or hit me up on Twitter at @jsbmbaggedmilk. So go on, grab some coffee, put your feet up and learn something until your boss catches you – it’s mailbag time.

Boston Bruins (my original favourite team) and the Winnipeg Jets. I saw a few games in that old barn in Winnipeg and their fans are similar to Oilers fans: Long suffering and in need of a long and fun playoff run. 

The Blues. I picked them to win at the start of the season, and I like their team. Goaltending is a bit of a question mark, but with their great team defence I don’t think their goalie needs to win them games, he just needs to be consistent.

I honestly wouldn’t mind watching Montreal go on a deep run. As much as their fans are by and large incredibly annoying you can’t really deny that the Bell Centre gets ROCKING when the Habs are rolling. And I’ve got the world’s biggest man-crush on PK Subban, so I’d like to see him win it all. Plus imagine how angry some Oiler fans would be at the sight of Tom Gilbert hoisting the Stanley Cup? Oh man it would be great!

Minnesota is a team I can get behind even though I had absolutely counted Dubnyk out of any kind of success like this after last season. I’m not going to cheer because of him, but the Wild are a good team who needed a goalie and found one. They remind me a lot of a certain Oiler team in 06 who found the missing piece and started to make a push. I would be absolutely afraid to play them in the first round.

The Canadian teams, for the first round at least. Especially interested in underdogs like Calgary, Ottawa and Winnipeg if they get in. 

All of them, but I have to admit that there are teams I look forward to watching more than others. The Islanders and Lightning out East are going to be very interesting to watch – both are young, exciting teams – and Minnesota looks like a club that could surprise out West. I’m also curious to see how Devan Dubnyk and Jeff Petry stand up to their first NHL playoff action.

NY Rangers. I really enjoyed being a part of that organization. I hope they run the table in the East to get back to the Cup final.

I’m probably going to say Montreal based mostly on hope that they can improve the 5th round pick we got for Petry into a 3rd. I’ll also watch the Jets if they get in because I imagine the MTS Centre will go insane.

Man, there’s a ton. Lordy. Devan Dubnyk, but you could make a bloody team. Hon. mention to Andrew Cogliano, Jarret Stoll, Jeff Petry and many more. 

I’d give him credit for helping the power play — they were unlucky early but good things are happening now. It’s difficult to get too upset about his handling of the blue, you can’t make chicken salad out of that other thing. 

A coach can’t magically make players better than what they are. I think he has helped Klefbom a lot. Klefbom raves about him, and often when I don’t even ask him about Ramsay, he just brings up his name. Ramsay can’t make 2nd or 3rd pairing D-men into 1st pairing players. Klefbom has the potential to be one, and Ramsay has given him good tips and hints on what to do. Klefbom is capable of doing them, so that helps him grow.

I honestly can’t tell you. The team defence is still by far one of the biggest weak spots, despite the Oilers being freed from under the iron grip of Dallas Eakins and his swarm. A lot of smart hockey minds have praised Ramsay for his defensive prowess and yet seemingly nothing has changed since his sarcophagus was rolled into Edmonton.

I have very little insight on what Ramsay has added or not added, but yes the defense is better than last year. Last year had Grebeshkov and Philip Larsen on D. They leaked way more shots and chances against. It’s not a good defense, but it’s better than the 2013-2014 Oilers. I’m actually tired of people blaming the goaltending problems on the bad defense, actually. It doesn’t hold up to any scrutiny. 

Ramsay brings patience and the ability to teach, which is valuable to younger players. The defence will get better when he personnel gets better. Ramsay, by the way, has input on the power play.

I think it’s incredibly difficult for anyone on the outside to evaluate the work of the assistant coaches; it’s not as simple as saying ‘X runs the defence, therefore the performance of the defence dictates whether or not he’s good at his job.’ There’s very little doubt that Ramsay knows coaching based on his history; I don’t think the Oilers defensive problems are coaching problems. 

Do you blame the carpenter or his tools? Very hard for us on the outside to critic the assistant coach especially when there was a coaching change. 

I assume that no one knows what Ramsay does because like any bird of prey he doesn’t stay grounded long enough to be interviewed, or have his methods questioned. 

Experience. They’re young (Schultz, Marincin, Klefbom) or old (Ference) or hurt (Nikitin) or a Stone Alone (Fayne). It’s been a tough year. 

Experience in knowing how to play hard/consistent every game. It is the most difficult thing to learn for NHL players. 

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while. It’s impossible to play completely terrible every night (though do the Oilers ever try!) and even though the team is generally horrible the roster is still made up of the best hockey players in the world, guys that have excelled at every level, so even the worst of the worst teams are gonna squeeze out a win every now and then. As for what they lack? A little bit of everything. I don’t think you can pin it on one specific thing.

I think that comes down to experience. The only player among the Oilers young stars to have hit the 300 game mark is Jordan Eberle. This group knows nothing except losing and their impression of NHL goaltending is that it’s actually worse than they remembered from juniour. If the Oilers want to keep adding 18 year olds onto the team the up and down performances will continue. Eventually the top six will find their sea legs and become more even.

Consistency comes with experience, knowing what it takes to win and repeating it. Far too few players on the roster have that combination of experience and success.

Matt Fenwick (yes, the guy that Fenwick is named after) wrote a great piece on consistency a few years back. The whole thing is worth reading, but I’ll quote a line:

“[T]here are at least a thousand golfers in North America who can hit it as far as Tiger, and make 25-foot putts on occasion. There are also duffers who have played with him in a pro-am and beaten him on a particular hole… if I play a round of golf with Tiger Woods, I might tie him on the first hole, but when he beats me by 12 or 15 on the round, it won’t be because I lacked consistency.” 

The point here is obviously that a lot of times we’ll use the word consistency as shorthand for talent. Bad teams can look good, good teams can look bad, and the truth of their talent is only told out over a long time. The Oilers look good sometimes because that’s the nature of the beast, but water always finds its level and in Edmonton’s case it’s a ways south of NHL average. 

Depth. Without depth it is difficult to sustain long periods of solid play. 

Personally, I think the team isn’t good enough to compete with regularity. If the Nuges, Eberles, Yaks, and Halls can carry the team offensively they do okay, but if those guys aren’t getting points the secondary scoring isn’t there to pick up the slack. Also, most of the core of this roster is under the age of 25 so experience is obviously lacking.

Hmmm. Great question. I don’t have a mentor per se but always wanted to be a writer and was encouraged by my Mom. I chose to become a radio announcer but blogging gave me a chance to write and generous people have read and said nice things since I began Lowetide and write here at Oilers Nation. So, my answer is my Mom. Miss you, Mom.

I learned work ethic from my parents actions. They never gave me any big speech, but I just learned it by watching how they worked. John Short gave me an opportunity and some great advice early in my career, but most importantly he gave me a chance and said be yourself.

I’ve been obsessed with movies my whole life, and the very first time I ever picked up a camera making my own has basically been all I’ve ever wanted to do. I’ve also been into writing from a very young age. My dad brought a work laptop home when I was seven or eight and rather than playing games I went straight to the word processor to write a story. That and the fact that I’ve never wanted to work a “real” job has basically been my biggest motivation. As for a mentor it would probably just be an amalgamation of teachers/peers over the years. I can’t really think of one specific person that stands out.

I don’t know if I had a mentor but there are plenty of bloggers whose work I often admired and who lent a helping hand along the way. The Oilers blogging community is very inclusive and interactive just so long as you aren’t a complete idiot. When nobody was reading my own small blog Lowetide invited me to be on his radio show and I very much believe that helped me land bigger opportunities. And you can’t help but be in 

awe of how much quality work Jonathan Willis creates.

As for non-blogging mentors/inspirations I had some incredible professors at the U of A who challenged the way I view the world and how I developed my arguments. If you ever have a chance to take classes from Steven Hijmans about Art or Religion in the Ancient World then do it.  And I can’t leave out my favourite High School English teacher Mrs Richardson. All of these people helped shape the way I think about the world so I guess they were as close to mentors as I ended up getting.

Growing up in Vancouver, I loved the no-BS approach of an old broadcaster named Jack Webster and I read Jim Taylor of The Province every day. Beyond that, a teacher I had named K.C. Sartini in Grade nine at Shawnigan Lake School. He convinced me I had a knack for putting words together and that was what sparked my interest in writing.

Many, many people inspired me to rise to the lofty heights of blogger, including some of the people at this site. But I’m not here if I hadn’t come across Lowetide’s blog way back when and marveled at the things I read there that I couldn’t find in Edmonton’s papers. I’m also not here if my wife hadn’t encouraged me to take a chance and leave my oilfield job.

Jason Gregor. I just hope my hair lasts longer

I’m going to start with my jackass friends that told me and Jeanshorts countless times that we were wasting our time with our blog. Now they’ve got real jobs, and I get to show up to work in sweatpants or without pants at all. Oh, and my parents. They’re cool too.