In the category of Just Oilers Things, how do you score 17 goals on a three-game roadtrip and leave with a 1-2 record? That\u2019s special.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As our Oilersnation<\/a> colleague Jason Gregor pointed out<\/a>, the Oilers have scored the most goals in the NHL in the last 10 games, a staggering 44 overall. But have also allowed the most goals in the NHL in the last 10 games, a jaw-dropping 46 overall.\u00a0<\/p>\n We wait for the \u201cPaul Coffey Effect.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n So far, the biggest effect has been Darnell Nurse<\/a>: unaware, fighting the puck, not where he should be, time and time again. But that has happening well before, too.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The biggest albatross to the team\u2019s Stanley Cup future isn\u2019t a goaltender \u2013 but hey, some bloody stops would be nice \u2013 it\u2019s having a $9.25 million defenceman that the team needs to shelter.\u00a0<\/p>\n This was the beauty of Brett Kulak.<\/a> Argue all you want about how Kulak played to start the year, he wasn\u2019t very good, but to say that\u2019s just who Kulak was now as a player was alarmist.\u00a0The Kulak piece of the Skinner-Jarry trade made me dislike the trade at the time. As he moves to Colorado, I hate it even more. Add in Tristan Jarry<\/a> saying, \u201cit\u2019s tough\u201d in every post-game scrum, and it\u2019s truly abysmal.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sure, Spencer Stastney has come into the bottom pair and played okay. But there\u2019s no ability to take minutes away from either Darnell Nurse or Jake Walman.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 20 out of 22 games in last year\u2019s playoffs, Brett Kulak played more than Jake Walman. In eight out of 22 games, Kulak played more than Nurse.\u00a0<\/p>\n Maybe Kulak was no longer the guy for that job. Okay. But there\u2019s no mechanism in the Oilers lineup for giving Nurse fewer minutes, and the combination of Nurse-Walman is a trainwreck in the defensive zone.\u00a0<\/p>\n For time immemorial, the Oilers have to find a \u201cNurse whisperer.\u201d<\/p>\n Then, you ask, is the juice worth the squeeze?\u00a0<\/p>\n Waivers?!<\/p>\n Shaggy from Scooby Doo said it best, \u201cZoinks!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n My instant reaction is that the interest in Mangiapane league-wide was less than zero, and the cost to move him would\u2019ve required tying another asset to take the full boat of the contract.\u00a0If Mangiapane were dealt, the Oilers would be taking back an equally problematic contract. They have to kill the money to create the cap space they need to not just make recalls, but to make any trades, too.<\/p>\n For months, Bowman has balancing fine China in the air, spinning plates and juggling bowling pins as one injury after another has kept delaying a salary cap reckoning.\u00a0With health now on their side and a belief that Josh Samanski and\/or Isaac Howard are worth bringing back up, they have to get rid of the money.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Mangiapane wager hasn\u2019t worked. I\u2019m sure Mattias Janmark, who is out reportedly long-term with a shoulder injury, will be placed on long-term injured reserve soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n With that said about Mangiapane, his seven goals are still more than Trent Frederic, Adam Henrique, and Mattias Janmark combined.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s the power of a no-trade or a no-move clause in today\u2019s NHL.<\/p>\n Deadline fear\u00a0It\u2019s impressive how bad the last two free agency periods have been for this team. The Summer of Jeff<\/a> (Jackson) combined with the handcuffing deals with Frederic and Mangiapane, and all the sudden this team is re-tooling on the fly.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bad work creates more work time and time again.\u00a0<\/p>\n The irony is, the time that Bowman can actually fix this is\u2026the off-season with more money to play with.\u00a0<\/p>\n So far in the Bowman tenure, he\u2019s won on the dollar slots, turning something into nothing often with Podkolzin, Kapanen, Ingram, Hutson, Samanski, etc.\u00a0<\/p>\n But when he moves towards the tables with higher limits, the stack of chips dwindles fast with few returns: Frederic, Mangiapane, and the Jarry trade.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n From a public response perspective, there\u2019s no right answer for Bowman heading into Friday\u2019s trade deadline. If he does very little, he\u2019ll be crucified for \u201cwasting\u201d another prime year of McDavid.\u00a0<\/p>\n If he swings for a big piece and the Oilers don\u2019t win the Stanley Cup (in itself almost an impossible goal) while giving up major future assets, he\u2019ll be crucified.\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m very concerned with what Bowman might do in the next few days to \u201cfix\u201d Edmonton\u2019s self-inflicted problems (some his own creation, some Jeff Jackson\u2019s, some Ken Holland\u2019s) to have the roster look championship level.\u00a0<\/p>\n McDavid narratives are wrong<\/p>\n On a lighter note, Connor McDavid has officially registered his ninth 100th point season of his career.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s become popular online for trolls to create this narrative that McDavid isn\u2019t a big game player. He \u201ccan\u2019t\u201d win the big one.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ultimately, as unfair as it is, that narrative will be around until he wins a Stanley Cup. No one wants to join the pantheon of Ted Williams, Dan Marino, Charles Barkley, et al., who were great players, but didn\u2019t win a title.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n With that said, let\u2019s not forget that there has no bigger offensive force in the game since Gretzky retired.\u00a0<\/p>\n His ability to score goals and create chances is inevitable in a way I\u2019ve never seen before. Only Gretzky and Lemieux have more 100-point seasons than he does, and Wayne\u2019s 15 years, I would suggest, is not safe.\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s been a lot of picking on McDavid. There was the drama this week with Mark Spector\u2019s question about whether he thought winning would be \u201cthis hard.\u201d The last seven days has an outright media frenzy.\u00a0<\/p>\n But Connor McDavid is an almost singular greatness. I still firmly believe his time will come.\u00a0<\/p>\n This week<\/p>\n In other words, this was not a great week for the Oilers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Their Pacific Division record keeps them very much in the mix to host at minimum a round in the playoffs, but their inconsistent play makes them seem ripe to get picked off in a points race.\u00a0<\/p>\n As pessimistic as I am at the best of times, I don\u2019t feel the doom and gloom narrative of missing the playoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite Edmonton being eighth in the Western Conference<\/a> in points percentage, they still have a four-point cushion<\/a> overall on non-playoff teams. One of those clubs \u2013 Kings, Predators, Sharks \u2013 has to overtake them for the Oilers to miss.\u00a0\u00a0With that said, the Oilers may have inadvertently helped the enemy after demolishing the Los Angeles Kings 8-1 on Thursday. The Kings fired coach<\/a> Jim Hillier this morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n Would he still have a job if the Oilers only won 5-1? Maybe. But Ken Holland isn\u2019t going to go quietly. Do the Kings get a new coach bump?\u00a0<\/p>\n The Oilers return home for a pair of games, before next week, beginning a meat grinder of the Western Conference roadtrip against two division leaders.\u00a0<\/p>\n Record this week: 1-2\u00a0Record in February: 1-4\u00a0Record vs Pacific: 9-5-3\u00a0Road record vs Pacific: 3-5-1\u00a0Road record overall: 14-4-4\u00a0Home vs Ottawa on Tuesday\u00a0Home vs Carolina on Friday\u00a0Away vs Vegas on Sunday\u00a0Kevin Lowe<\/p>\n I was fortunate on Friday to meet Kevin Lowe at the Bonnyville Pontiacs annual event, the Victor Ringuette Sportsman Dinner, and have a long, extended conversation with him.\u00a0<\/p>\n The live fireside chat could\u2019ve gone on for hours and hours. Lowe is a great speaker and doesn\u2019t mince words.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s funny, behind the scenes, we talked about Spector\u2019s question to McDavid, and he relayed how the dynasty Oilers were once called \u201cweak-kneed wimps\u201d by Terry Jones after losing in 1982 to the Los Angeles Kings, aka the Miracle on Manchester.\u00a0<\/p>\n This market is always firm with the club.\u00a0<\/p>\n A couple points I found interesting:\u00a0<\/p>\n He mentioned how he thinks Cale Makar misplayed the 3-on-3 overtime winner for Jack Hughes. He believes a Canada win was almost inevitable if they didn\u2019t chase.\u00a0Chris Pronger\u2019s agent went to Lowe an hour after losing Game 7 of the 2006 Stanley Cup Final, reaffirming that Pronger still wanted out. Imagine. Just an hour later\u2026\u00a0He still had choice words for Mike Comrie about how the whole hold-out\/trade request situation unfolded. But overall, he\u2019s over it.\u00a0I pressed for specifics about 80\u2019s Oilers party stories. Unfortunately, not much was shared (or remembered). However, they did damage the Cup pretty badly once, and had to get it repaired at an autobody shop. Some of the workers there engraved their names in the cup while it was there, and it wasn\u2019t discovered for months\u2026 that ushered in the era of the Keeper of the Cup.\u00a0Wishing you\u2026<\/p>\n In the meantime, let\u2019s enjoy one of the great days on our sporting calendar: Trade Deadline. Let us pray to the Hockey Gods that if we utter the words, \u201cHoly F***\u201d it\u2019s for a good reason\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n PRESENTED BY THE DAILY FACEOFF TRADE DEADLINE SPECIAL![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SPE-TDL_Marketing_Article_727x404-FINAL-opt2.png\")
<\/a>The 2026 Trade Deadline Special is going LIVE March 6th. Join the Daily Faceoff crew on Friday, March 6th from 9 AM-1:30 PM MT for wall-to-wall coverage of every single move as it happens. Get instant reaction, expert analysis, and exclusive insights from special guests throughout the day. Tune in LIVE on the Daily Faceoff YouTube channel<\/a>\u00a0and don\u2019t miss a second of deadline day chaos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunday Scramble: The Oilers must limit Darnell Nurse, Mangiapane on waivers, approaching the Trade Deadline with fear Distance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":["post-508411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}