Yesterday the Oilers announced they had signed Mikko Koskinen to a three year deal with a cap hit of 4.5 million per season. This team seems content to dig itself into as big of a hole as possible.

Like many I was very harsh of the Koskinen signing when it first occurred. It was a risky move that that looked to waste more of the limited cap space the team had on an unproven NHL netminder. Koskinen has been a steady goaltender, and at times looked like he could be a starter.

And that is the key phrase, "at times."

Mikko Koskinin had a 6 game winning streak at home where he had a SV% of 0.968. If you remove that stretch of games he is just shy of .900.

The timing is bizarre as well; the Oilers have months to figure out which of their two goaltenders they want to stick with, and how they will fair. Koskinen has played less than 30 NHL games and the organization seemed prepared to go all in on him...why?

The decisions from the Oilers organization have moved on from desperation and delved straight into the illogical and the insane. Maybe Koskinen will turn out to be an elite goaltender...but why on earth would you sign him as such before you are certain?

It is clear the organization believes Mikko Koskinen is their future which also means that we will see Cam Talbot be dealt before this season ends. That has to cause some issues in a locker room, knowing you're bosses are basically waiting for the day they can fire you. Also joining that room is Ryan Spooner who shockingly was not claimed off of waivers.


LINEUPS

OILERS

RNH – McDavid – Puljujarvi
Khaira – Draisaitl – Chiasson
Spooner – Cave – Yamamoto
Lucic – Brodziak – Kassian

Nurse – Russell
Gravel – Larsson
Manning – Benning

Koskinen

RED WINGS

Bertuzzi – Larkin – Nyquist
Vanek – Nielsen – Mantha
Helm – Glendening – Athanasiou
Abdelkader – Ehn – Frk

Kronwall – Green
Dekeyser – Jensen
Ericsson – Cholowski

Howard

4 KEYS TO VICTORY

1) You're The Guy Now. The Koskinen signing seemed to be universally hated across the interwebs. Koskinen starts tonight and needs to have a strong game to keep the vultures off of him.... at least for a day.

2) It's Detroit. We should be at a point now where a game like this should be seen as an easy win. Edmonton has shown recently that they should consider themselves lucky to be in any game.

3) Seriously Play A Whole Game. Two games, back to back, the Oilers failed to show up for two periods. That is inexcusable and the coach needs to find a way to get this team on track.

4) Back To That Goaltending... Overall the Red Wings have a higher team save percentage at .906 than the Oilers at .902.

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