Yesterday, the Bobfather (Bob McKenzie) released his 2018/19 Edmonton Oilers season preview podcast and within it, he made some pretty lofty claims. Claims that I think are off-base. So I’m going to pull a few quotes from McKenzie’s podcast and comment on them.

The podcast I’ll put at the end of the post for your reference.

Before we do that though I want to preface this post by saying I’ve got nothing against McKenzie and what I’m about to say is no slight against him. He’s one of my favorite insiders and when he speaks, we should listen, for the most part.

But sometimes, and I feel like this is happening more and more these days, we need to strip things away and really listen to what’s being said in order to make a proper judgment instead of just taking it at face value.

McKENZIE’S REFUTABLE QUOTES

“The reality is that general manager Peter Chiarelli actively chose to not make a blockbuster move in the off-season.”

I guess making a massive trade every summer since he took over has become boring for Chiarelli. One might even say that doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result might have you found insane but to each his own.

“It is the same basic group that fell on its face last season”

McKenzie did mention the Oilers signing Koskinen, Brodziak, and Rieder before this quote on the pod and he’s not wrong. It is the same. basic. group. But isn’t that putting it a bit too plainly?

The missing, and most important, key in my mind is that this team is coming back healthy, with a chip on its shoulder, a year older and more developed both physically and mentally.

So on paper, the roster seems like it’s the same one from last year but it really isn’t, is it? Oh! And don’t forget about the new coaching hires. Quaint that McKenzie didn’t talk much about those…

“I think the way most people look at it, every year you have a Connor McDavid-led team that misses the playoffs, that is a crime against hockey humanity.”

He’s not wrong but it’s a pretty heavy shot at Peter Chiarelli. I’d like to read some of McKenzie’s thoughts on how the Pittsburgh Penguins handled Mario Lemieux in his first four seasons in the NHL. Was it a crime against hockey humanity that the Penguins weren’t making the playoffs from 1984-1988 even though Lemieux was putting up an average of 129 pts a season?

I bet you it wasn’t.

Another thing to consider is Bob McKenzie’s relationship with the McDavids. What is it? Are they close? Do you know any other hockey insiders that have dedicated an entire chapter of their book to McDavid and why does he seem to know so much about Connor’s journey to the NHL but not John Tavares’? Or did he choose to use McDavid’s over Tavares’ or Ekblad’s in the chapter about being granted exceptional player status in the CHL

Is McKenzie just looking out for a friend by throwing some shade on Chiarelli? Is he out of line suggesting Chiarelli is doing such a disservice to hockey humanity without considering the plethora of mitigating circumstances that may or may not have been the cause of another playoff-less year of hockey for the Oilers?

“…some might argue anybody would put up decent numbers beside Connor McDavid.”

Well, last year’s MVP couldn’t do it and Jordan Eberle was traded partly because he couldn’t do it either.

“I think the Oilers stopped trying to think of him (Strome) as the replacement goal scorer for the departed Eberle, which originally was how it was billed.”

See this is flat out not true. It was not billed as that at all.

Bruce McCurdy did a write-up on the media avail Peter Chiarelli did right after the trade and not once did Chiarelli ever say that Ryan Strome was bring brought in to replace Jordan Eberle’s goals.

Here are a few of the quotes from McCurdy’s post,

On the rationale for the trade: A function of a number of different things. 1) a chance to acquire a player like Ryan Strome. 2) No secret we have to clear up some space to sign both Connor and Leon.

On Ryan Strome: Ryan hasn’t put the numbers up like Jordan, but he’s got some things to his game that will help us in our division. He’s got good size, he’s got a terrific wrist shot — I scouted him for a long time for the U-24 team —  a very very cerebral player, he can play centre or the wing, very good on the half wall. These are all some of the things that Jordan has, but when we can save cap space we have to do it. That’s the reality of building a team these days. It was a good fit hockey perspective, and a good fit from a team-building & cap perspective.

On why Eberle didn’t click with McDavid: I don’t know. He certainly thinks and mvoes the puck quickly. He was a 20-plus goal scorer, he still is and will be. He might have been with Connor this coming year if he was still around. There’s reasons we trade players, fair enough, but this is about cap management, this is about replacing good players for good players, and this is about long-term thinking.

I’m not sure why McKenzie said that the Oilers were thinking that Strome was going to come in a replace Eberle because obviously from the Chiarelli quotes above, that’s false. Did they hope Strome could come in a score at an Eberle-like pace, I’m sure they did but that trade was 100% cap management.

Lastly, the Lucic quote…

“Can Milan Lucic rebound from an abysmal season that was punctuated by him asking for a trade, one which he didn’t get.”

This is the first time that Bob McKenzie has commented on this and I’m sure that’s because Jason Gregor brought it up after the Bobfather went on holidays but he’s been back for a few days now and if it was THAT big of a deal, we would’ve heard more.

If you want a detailed timeline of the Lucic rumor rollercoaster from the beginning of June until the beginning of July, David Staples did one here.

 Insiders often talk to agents and pro scouts to get their info if GMs aren’t being cooperative and Lucic’s agent, Gerry Johansson, said on Oilers Now that he never had “that” conversation with Chiarelli BUT maybe he had it with Milan.

It’s obvious that that conversation was ended quickly because maybe his agent wasn’t interested in being embarrassed by the client.

“Stauffer said representatives from Lucic’s agency have made it clear Lucic has got to look to himself and do better.”

This quote from a Jim Matheson article where he interviewed Johansson,

“Milan didn’t ask for a trade and Peter (GM Chiarelli) 100 per cent has not come to us about moving Milan. If he wants to get out from under the contract, he has to talk to us.”

Somebody is fibbing. Chiarelli did the ol’ “no comment” when asked, so he left everybody hanging with that non-answer yet Johansson said no trade request was made and McKenzie says there was.

Friedman has never said that Lucic requested a trade out of Edmonton, only that he’d heard rumors of a request (that were denied), that Lucic wanted out of Canada, and that Lucic’s name had come up.

Frank Seravalli has only commented that the situation is “almost untenable” and that the Oilers were doing their “due diligence” on a possible move.

So from what I’ve found, and there could be more out there that I’ve missed, let’s establish that, Bob McKenzie is the only one that has said Milan Lucic requested a trade. Everybody else has just hinted at the possibility (including myself).

I get that hockey fans, famous or not, would look at the Oilers under Chiarelli and McLellan and lead by Connor McDavid would be frustrated but there is this overwhelming consensus that just because the Oilers have McDavid, it’s going to be a slam dunk that they make the playoffs every year regardless of what happens to the team on the ice or off of it. That’s wrong.

There are 30 other NHL teams that have a chance to make the playoffs every year and we more or less know who those teams are by American Thanksgiving. Not that that marker is set in stone but it’s generally a good point to look at if you want to have an idea of how things are going but anything can happen at any time, right?

We must evaluate and re-evaluate our expectations for our favorite teams and players all of the time. Are we expecting too much or not enough and how do we find the middle ground that offers us the opportunity to enjoy the team and the game of hockey the most? Folks like Bob McKenzie help us with that but I feel like a lot of pundits are butthurt over their predictions from a year ago and that they might be lashing out this time around.

Personally, I know that this is going to be a special season one way or another for the Oilers.

Santa’s Sock Drive

Summer’s over and you may have noticed it’s getting colder. As great as it is living in Edmonton, our winters are cold and unforgiving. While most of us are protected from the worst of it, there are always many that aren’t.

Santa’s Sock Drive is made up of a small group of volunteers that aims to try to help the underprivileged of our city that struggle to keep warm in winter. This is our third year doing the drive, last year we raised $3,076 and $923.26 the year before. The money we raise is used for buying things like toques, mittens, gloves, scarves, and socks to hand out. We also accept winter gear you may have at home, all we ask is that it’s clean and in good condition (no tears or stains).

Money can be donated via e-transfer to tejveer.sangha@gmail.com or through https://www.gofundme.com/santa039s-sock-drive-2018&rcid=r01-153660451446-bafc48a6b7874cab&pc=ot_co_campmgmt_w.

You can also drop winter supplies off or arrange a pick-up with tejveer.sangha@gmail.com or gurmanjit.sagoo@gmail.com.

We are going to be handing out the winter gear ourselves on October 8th (Thanksgiving). If you’d like to volunteer, email us. Everyone is welcome to come help out!