As soon as some of my colleagues and fellow fans uttered the phrase, “Is this the best Edmonton Oilers goaltending since…” Tristan Jarry has looked suspicious. Sorry Bordzy.

We remember the Edmonton Oilers back-to-back shutouts from Jarry and Connor Ingram on January 17 and 18.

In the six games since, the Oilers’ have surrendered 27 goals against.

Said another way, that’s a 4.50 goals against average, which is really boosted by the hapless offensive effort by the New Jersey Devils. That would make it a 5.00 goals against in their last five games.

In those games, they’ve gone 3-3, with heroic comebacks, excitement galore, and goals, goals, goals.

After accomplishing the arduous task of winning three games in a row, Edmonton surrendered a total of 21 High Danger Chances Against in the Wild loss 7-3 on Saturday, a loss that shines a harsh spotlight on the team’s flaws.

This season in particular seems to take the silly to a new level.

The goaltending has been a little worse in these six games, but the Oilers’ habit of going asleep for long stretches of the game, turning over pucks, leaving prized areas of the ice unchecked, is the big difference from that weekend of back-to-back bagels to what we’ve seen of late.

“It’s tough,” said Jarry after the game, who let in a couple of softies, and was yanked after the fifth goal against.

“The chances we are giving up, some of the shots, they’re tough. It’s a lot of Grade As, a lot of breakdowns. So, I think it’s tough to really think about the game at this point. It’s a whole team game.”

After a stretch of NHL record defensive scoring, excitement, then utter disappointment, it seems reasonable to ask – what is this team?

A breakdown

There’s a lot of social media discourse still about Stuart Skinner, especially because he’s riding his usual January hot streak with Pittsburgh.

It could be me just being late to the party, now following more fervently hockey Twitter and such when taking this job, but some of the parasocial relationships individuals have with hockey players are weird.

The fight, largely Oilers fans picking one with Penguins fans, isn’t productive.

Skinner has been Skinner-ing up, hot as hell of late, winning eight of his last nine starts, and only twice below a .900 save percentage in those games.

Skinner stats with PIT:

8-4 (12 starts)
2.53 GAA
.895 sv%

Jarry stats with EDM:

6-3-1 (9 starts, 10 appearances)
3.59 GAA
.873 sv%

All I have to say is – good for Skinner.

The issue I had with the trade at the time was the amount of assets the Oilers used to acquire Jarry, who I didn’t feel was definitively better than Skinner. But two things can be true at once: It was time for Stuart Skinner, but was this trade the right one?

Coach Kris Knoblauch was asked about Jarry’s play since coming back from injury:

“Not nearly the level he was playing at before. It’s hard for any player to come back from injuries. Very few times do you see a player come back from injury and be at the top of their game,” he told reporters Saturday.

In the pure eyetest, Jarry doesn’t seem as comfortable in the crease. But the Oilers haven’t helped him much, especially on Saturday. As Calvin Pickard is placed on waivers on Sunday afternoon, they’re down to two netminders.

I think Jarry is better than what we’ve seen since his injury return. I worry more about the team in front of him right now.

How?

With two games to go before the Olympic break, expect a lot of trade articles, discussion, etc from Oilersnation. Believe me, we’ll have the time.

But my question is this: How can the Oilers improve this current team when they have to undo mistakes?

I’d guess the reason Andrew Mangiapane hasn’t been traded is that there’s essentially zero interest. The Oilers have to find a way to get more from Trent Frederic. And now, they are committed to Tristan Jarry for two more seasons and twice the Skinner money, and don’t have an ideal third-pairing defenceman like Brett Kulak.

Almost all of their contracts are tied to some form of no-trade or no-move clause.

For this roster to look like a true “Stanley Cup contender”, a team that on paper could go blow-for-blow with Colorado, or any of the three Central Division playoff teams, I think they’re missing at least two players, maybe three.

How Stan Bowman accomplishes that is anyone’s guess.

They don’t play in the Central!

Now time for our weekly edition of thanking our lucky stars that the Edmonton Oilers play in the Pacific Division.

The Edmonton Oilers are tied for first in the Pacific Division with the Vegas Golden Knights, who have two games in hand.

However, this stretch of eight home games, mixed in with a Calgary road game to end the stretch before the Olympics – one I optimistically called the time to “dominate” considering the schedule opportunity – has not been so bountiful.

In truth, the Oilers are playing out the stretch before a holiday. When they get back from the break, they’ll have 12 of their last 24 games against the Pacific Division.

That’s when we see this team kick it into overdrive….right?

A goal of winning the Pacific Division, something the Edmonton Oilers haven’t done since 1987 – the longest in North American professional sports by the way – can still be achieved.

I’m not convinced it’s a goal of theirs per se, but dare to Arnold, dare to dream!

Record this week: 2-1
Record during “dominance” stretch: 4-3
Record in January: 8-5-2
Record at home: 15-9-4
Record at home vs Pacific: 5-0-2

This week:

Tuesday vs Toronto
Wednesday at Calgary

An all-time Leafs trade

It’s a great time for the Oilers to see the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leafs snapped a six-game skid in Vancouver on Saturday to begin their western Canadian swing, but this season has been such a disaster.

Nevermind the on-ice performance, you’ve got Craig Berube looking like a car accident survivor, Willy Nylander clowning around flipping the bird to cameras, and Matthew Knies blissfully unaware of the standings.

What a combo!

The big disaster has been the Brandon Carlo trade that dealt intriguing prospect Fraser Mitten and a top-five protected pick to Boston last season.

While there was some reasoning to the deal, man, this has the potential to reach the pantheon of worst trades in Leafs history.

Fraser Minten was named NHL Rookie of the Month for January. The Leafs have to hope to keep crashing in the standings to get their first round pick this year.

It’s ugly.

As our sister station LeafsNation point out in a recent article, there are tons of bad trades through the years.

The Andrew Raycroft trade for a little-known prospect named Tuukka Rask is a classic. For older fans, the acquisition of Tom Kurvers in 1989 for a 1991 first-rounder. At one point, it looked like they were going to miss out on Eric Lindros – instead it was only the third pick and the New Jersey Devils took Scott Niedermeyer. Ouch.

Their franchise is riddled with draft-pick trades that turn into studs. But it had been a little while since we had a high-profile one like this.

Who can forget the Phil Kessel trade for the pick that turned into Tyler Seguin.

We could go on and on…

Michkov

The Calgary Flames and Philadelphia Flyers are the epitome of the Spiderman meme.

On the Flyers, I tend to think that Rick Tocchet is the most overrated coach in the league, whose reputation doesn’t match actual results.

But they seem stuck again in this rebuild, and Tocchet is playing the hardest of ball with the only real rebuild piece they’ve acquired in Matvei Michkov.

A season-low 10:23 of ice-time on Saturday for the struggling Michkov. Yikes. I don’t watch the Flyers enough to guess who’s to blame, but all those early-season returns on new acquisitions have worn off.

Simply, it’s a long road to go.

Michael Menzies is an Oilersnation columnist and has been the play-by-play voice of the Bonnyville Pontiacs in the AJHL since 2019. With seven years news experience as the Editor-at-Large of Lakeland Connect in Bonnyville, he also collects vinyl, books, and stomach issues.

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