We’re another week closer to training camp and now you’re looking at us to help you kill enough time to get there. Luckily, the Mailbag is here to answer all of life’s important questions. Can the answers given in this week’s mailbag will apply to your life? We shall see, but I feel pretty confident. If you have something you’d like to ask, email it to me at baggedmilk@oilersnation.com or hit me up on Twitter at @jsbmbaggedmilk. Now sit back, relax, and waste as much company time as possible. Have a good week, everybody.

Interference. It is creeping back into the game and ruins it. Honestly, such a killer of offense. Since my answer is kind of cheating, I will say European player stereotypes. If you believe that crap, please read about Juha Widing and Anders Hedberg and Borje Salming—the pioneers of the game who came over here were tough as nails—as are the Euros of today. We have not cornered grit in this country, but we sure as hell act like it (some of us). 

Click-bait. There’s a lot of positives about all the information that’s available through MSM outlets, blogs and social media as the info biz has evolved over the last decade or so, but the demand for content often outstrips the supply of anything that’s truly newsworthy. Outlets, be they MSM or otherwise, want clicks and page views, so there’s a lot of stuff produced that’s long on sizzle and short on steak in the name of generating traffic. “Should the Oilers/Flames/Blackhawks/etc sign/trade for/put an offer sheet on fill-in-name-here? A thousand words later, the answer is “no,” just as it was before you read word one. Or, stuff written about why so-and-so is a better player than so-and-so — usually somebody who every GM in the league and 99 out of 100 fans would consider a clearly superior player — based on a very narrow look using advanced stats or any other argument. It can be a take without any real merit that’s a total waste of time, but if it generates hits it’s all good.

This is the easiest question ever. PUCK LUCK!!!! WHAT A JOKE THAT IS! You get the bounces by doing the correct plays every game. It starts in practice. It just doesn’t happen. Anyone who uses this term is out to lunch.

I wish people would stop freaking out anytime an idea for trying something new in the NHL comes up. The NHL has literally never stopped changing and evolving, yet whenever a new rule is tabled or someone suggests trying X to see if it will have an impact on Y, people cry to the heavens about the game being ruined. I’m sure similar things were said when they first allowed forward passes, and when goalies were allowed to drop to the ice, and when they brought back overtime to the regular season, and when players had to wear helmets, etc. The NHL, and the game of hockey will always be in a constant state of flux, changing with the times, and we just need to accept that and move on.

The “Get over it!” people are more than welcome to hold their heads under water for a while. I’ve never seen a group of people less willing to think critically in my life. I can survive a lot of things but people who attack others because they can think for themselves is not one of them.

Any sentence that contains the words “in the room.” So and so was ______ in the room. We don’t know how guys are in the room because we’re not there. On this week’s North by NorthGretz podcast we spoke to Gene Principe about rumours that get put up on social media and he had a great answer about going by what he knows, and not necessarily what other people think they know.  

Drake Caggiula has a real chance in my opinion. Maybe not out of camp but he has real skill and does not own a big contract. Fabulous combination.

I don’t see anybody I’d truly consider a darkhorse (and who will attend the rookie camp), making the team.

Last year it was pretty obvious who would make the squad out of that tourney. This year it is harder to predict so I will say no one. I think the team is fairly full already, but this is a good thing. Allow these players to develop in the AHL properly. No need to rush guys into the NHL anymore.

The Young Stars/rookie camp always throws me off. I thought FOR SURE that Braden Christoffer had a legit shot at making the team out of camp (bounced between the AHL and ECHL) and that Greg Chase looked a lot closer to NHL ready than he actually is (played mostly in the ECHL). I don’t think Ethan Bear is a dark horse by any stretch, but I do think he’s going to gain A LOT more fans after camp this year. I’m excited to watch him more than any other player this fall.

I guess Caggiula is a dark horse for me. I do not have him pencilled into the top 13 spots but that might change by the end of camp. I don’t know if that’s entirely unexpected but I think it is. Really, really unexpected would be someone like Benson.

Is Drake Caggiula a long shot? I could see him making the team although I think he would be better served starting in Bakersfield. JJ Khaira maybe but probably not? The only real spot that is up for grabs right now is the 3rd pairing RD. 

I am not a fan of this kind of thing after the fact. He may have said it at the time, so maybe it isn’t a big deal for the players. I don’t think it benefits anyone to bring it up now.

I think Ben Scrivens should stop playing cute and be more specific about who and exactly what he is talking about or he should shut it.

Ben spent some time in the NHL and he is very outspoken about many topics. There is a learning curve for all your skilled players that are expected to collect points. There is a time where the points are important to establish themselves in their role but they have to expand from there.

Once again it’s fans making a mountain out of a molehill. A player who played on a bad Oilers team says the team was bad. Story at 11.

I will say that he ALSO added immediately after “That’s a coach’s job to force the team to be responsible. But management must show support”. Everyone was at fault, basically. AND it’s also a rough translation from a Russian interview. Nothing to see here and let’s all just move on.

The results when Hall & Nuge were on the ice vs off the ice speak for themselves. The Oilers were competitive when those kids played and got destroyed when they stepped onto the bench. I used to think Scrivens was a pretty smart guy, but that’s not so clear any more. He should focus on being more than a backup in the KHL.

I wrote about it. I don’t think Scrivens said anything worth getting angry about. That being said, I understand that it’s still August and people, myself included, need something to talk/write about. 

I think he will play mostly at center and post around 40 points. It will be a trying season for him, but I like his future a lot. 

I’d like to see less of a gap between his best performances and worst performances. Consistency is always a challenge for young players. As for expectations, I didn’t think for one moment that Draisailt would be a point-per-game player last season even when he started at that pace. I see him as a 55-65 point player.

40 – 50 points. I would like to see him play with Lucic or Maroon. I think they would be a very heavy duo in the offensive Zone. A nice contrast to the speed on 97’s line.

I’m also worried about his constancy, but mostly because it seems like the Oilers have no real backup plan if he hits a long cold streak. I think between 50 and 60 points is a realistic expectation and I’d be happy with a season like that.

He’s a kid, consistent production is definitely a concern. I expect a drop off without Hall. He ought to start as the 3C of a soft minutes line but if another C steps up then he can quickly transition to a wing in the top six.

I think keeping Nuge around helps ease the pressure on Draisaitl a lot. For me, the fact that the Oilers have three centremen that can put points up will help all three of them produce. There are going to be times when the matchups work in the Oilers’ favour and guys could end up putting up points as a result. Maybe I’m a dreamer? As for Draisaitl, I’d like to see him hit 50+ points this year. He will need to work on his consistency, but he’s still a kid and there will be bumps along the way.

Hmmm. I don’t recall a major purchase that I regretted, at least recently. I did buy a Leo Sayer 8-Track in the 70s and it was not good.

I bought a 1963 Thunderbird four years ago that had some impressive documentation and provenance — it had sold at the Barrett Jackson auction in Las Vegas a couple years earlier — and I didn’t do my due diligence by going completely through the car as I usually do. It was a piece of sh!t and a money pit.

I bought a green lollipop. Who chooses that?

I sponsored a Kickstarter for a documentary like three years ago and it still isn’t finished. Maybe one day I’ll get my $60 worth!

I hate spending money on anything. I hate having to buy anything and regret almost every purchase for some period of time. So to pick just one time is hard for me. I do own a PS Vita that I never touch though. It’s a quality machine but no quality games get made for it. A shame really.

When Miss Milk and I moved into our first apartment we needed a place to sit. As much as it’s fun to have picnics on the floor we needed an upgrade. Unfortunately, that “upgrade” was a futon from Walmart. Granted, we didn’t expect much from a $150 piece of Walmart’s finest home decor but the futon we received somehow managed to be worse than we could ever have anticipated.