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G74: Oilers @ Blue Jackets - Lip Service

March 21, 2019, 12:54 PM ET [377 Comments]
Sean Maloughney
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
This morning I had the “privilege” or partaking in one of the Oilers season ticket holder meetings with Bob Nicholson and other members of the OEG. The entire affair can be summed up in two words…. Lip service.

Bob Nicholson ran most of the morning conversations and ran through the usual talking points; the importance of developing prospects at the AHL level, the disappointment in how the season has progressed, the continued search for a new GM, and that they expect better things for next season.

A few worth mentioning notes from the morning:

- One lady point blanked asked Bob Nicholson about “The Plan” that was brought up last summer and if Bob Nicholson could provide any new reason for why fans should trust that things actually will be different this time. Nicholson’s answer in turn was a blatant dodge as he proceeded to talk about Oilers players at random.

- During his “answer” of this woman’s question, he singled out Tobias Reider stating that he would not be back with the Oilers next season; which should not surprise anyone. He further elaborated that if Tobias Rieder had scored 15 goals this season, the Oilers would have been a playoff team. That is an unbelievably dangerous statement from this management group, and if they believe that one more 15 goal scoring player is all this team needs, expect another disappointing summer.

- In fact, multiple times Bob Nicholson was asked to admit that they had made mistakes, and while he stressed he was disappointed in the Oilers current state, not once did he offer anything that resembled an admittance of failure on his part.

- Having Chiarelli as a fall guy must be great for management. Any time the questions got too tough to answer, Nicholson was able to default back that Chiarelli made the decisions and the blame should be his.

- At one point Bob Nicholson talked about Mikko Koskinen and his issues with his glove hand saves. Nicholson said that his glove side wasn't his problem.... his issue was that he was out of position and if he had moved his glove over a bit he would have stopped those shots.... not making this stuff up people.

- Bob Nicholson did touch a bit on analytics and the importance of finding someone for the General Manager position who has an understanding of the modern NHL game. Another point of interest is the Bob Nicholson stated that analytics discussions had decreased in the Oilers talks when Chiarelli came in.... which is why players like Russell and Lucic are on the Oilers to this day.

- Nicholson said they expect to start doing interviews for the GM position in a month's time. No surprises there as many of the people the Oilers likely want to speak to are currently in the midst of preparing for playoff runs.

- Right before the meeting concluded, Bob Nicholson brought up Matt Hendricks and the importance he had to the locker room.... there was an audible groan from the audience at this mention. Nicholson spoke about the need for more skill in the lineup, but he still seems way too focused on "good locker room players" as opposed to creating a winning team, and letting the locker room improve organically from that.

LINEUPS

OILERS


RNH-McDavid-Kassian
Lucic-Draisaitl-Chiasson
Gambardella-Brodziak-Currie
Rieder-Cave-Gagner

Klefbom-Larsson
Nurse-Russell
Sekera-Benning

Koskinen

BLUE JACKETS


Panarin-Dubois-Atkinson
Dzingel-Duchene-Anderson
Sedlak-Nash-Jenner
Dubinsky-Wennberg-Bjorkstrand

Werenski-Jones
Nutivaara-Savard
Harrington-Mcquaid

Bobrovsky

---

4 KEYS TO VICTORY

1) Desperation. The Blue Jackets are barely hanging on to the last Wild Card spot with Montreal right on their heels. The Blue Jackets will be looking at Edmonton tonight as a team they absolutely should and need to beat. Edmonton has not looked strong in games lately against teams that have something to prove.

2) 21 Goals.
21 Goals is how many the Oilers have allowed in their last 4 games, while only managing to score 11. Koskinen is clearly struggling with the overload of games he is being given and it doesn't seem like he is going to get a break from now until season's end.

3) Nuge Is A 60 Point Man. Lost in a poor loss to the Blues was Ryan Nugent Hopkins hit 60 points for the first time in his career. His next milestone could come tonight as he has currently tied his career high in goals with 24 and will be aiming for the 25 goal mark for the first time in his career. #KeepNugeForever

4) Up Some Value. The playoff hope was dead a long time ago, but I'm assuming the players are aware of it now themselves. They might not be playing for the post season now, but many of them will be playing for either a new contract with Edmonton, or the opportunity to sign a deal elsewhere. Whether these games help the Oilers decide who should stay next season, or who might give them extra trade value in the summer, there is still value in the remaining games.
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