If Bouch and Broberg get some chemistry going, that would be bloody amazing. I feel the mix could work, Bouch being very positionally sound, Broberg a better skater but perhaps taking more risks.

Excited to see Broberg have a shot, his numbers in Bake are great. I am ready for lots of bumps in the road though.

Sceviour and Young benny over Lambo and Turris tho pls.

I'd prefer that too, but Turris just scored the winning goal so I imagine he gets another game... and Benson spent about as much time in the penalty box as on the ice last night (ticky tacky calls though) so I would think he sits.

They do seem to have complimentary skills, don't they. It'll be interesting to see how it works out.

I’m surprised it’s broberg. Really expected samorukov to get called up first.

This is an interesting call up! He is ripping it up in the AHL, so why not. If he has some chemistry with Bouchard then that’s awesome! They could be our future top pair eventually. I think everybody would like to see what he can do in the NHL. I like how Bouchards overall game is getting better, and Broberg is a fast skater, and good defensively. They could be nasty, especially with Bouchards shot!

I had the same thoughts. I haven’t been keeping tabs on Bakersfield so I’m guessing Samorukov is still getting things going after his injury at the beginning of the year. At the same time, Brobergs numbers look really good so it must be a combo of Brobergs strong play and Samorukov still working towards being 100%

Yeah it's basically that: with Broberg being red-hot and Dima so fresh off an injury it's strictly a reward-AHL-production and maximize Samorukov's minutes situation. Broberg was getting the lion's share of minutes in Bakersfield if I recall, so this'll open up a nice window for Woodcroft to continue evaluating Samorukov.

@CD282 I suspect the move here for cap compliance is Smith is going to be shifted to LTIR retroactively?

I’d guess if koekkoek is hurt bad enough to justify a call up he’s going to be the one moved to ltir.

The extent and recovery times would be a factor too. Not sure what's up with Smith, I reckon it's a pulled/torn groin. Sounds like Nurse is out as well. Oh lordy.

Yeup update the lineup with no Nurse

Russel - Bouch
Keith - Ceci
Broberg - Barrie

???? IDK this is not ideal.... at least we have a easy schedule coming up.

Yikes… depending on the term of Nurses injury, you almost need to make a move now for a top 4 LHD so we don’t drop too many the next few weeks

Tippett won't be able to help himself with the pairings:

Keith - Ceci
Russell - Barrie
Broberg - Bouchard

The reputation Keith undeservingly has with this club (and the entire sport in general tbh) will see him step up for some intangible excuse. Something along the lines of "he's a leader", "has played 40min per night", "cup-winning mentality" or some other hokey load of crap that the Oilers beat reporters love to lull themselves to sleep with.

Maybe Bouchard takes the #1RD slot - he should - but I don't think Ceci's done much of anything to warrant Barrie playing ahead of him and Broberg (per Tippett) can't play anything more than bottom pair because he's a rookie. Nevermind that Broberg loves to activate and him playing with Barrie would be a genuinely unmitigated disaster. Supposedly, kids can't be trusted when things get dire, so they'll probably play the "top pair of the future" as the bottom pair with limited minutes while the other two pairings get smoked all night.

Optimizing these pairings over the short-term until Nurse returns or Holland makes a trade probably sees Keith and Russell benched and both Niemelainen and Samorukov recalled to be honest. Total pipe dream though as playing your better players over grizzled veterans is taboo in professional sports.

Samorukov - Ceci
Broberg - Bouchard
Niemelainen - Barrie

I don’t see them having 3 rookies and a 1st time full year player (Bouchard) all in.

I agree about Keith though. I thought yesterday was his worst game as an oiler. He must have had at least 10-15 turnovers. Literally every time he had the puck he gave it away or threw it a corner for a 50/50 play. Seemed to be scared to take a hit.

At this point, I think Holland needs to make a deal. If nurse is out for a few weeks, you could drop quite a few games and we can’t be wasting this season. Even when in a position of strength (Keith trade), Holland seems to get fleeced in the trade market so the fact that they are clearly desperate, I’m a little scared of what he might pay. But at the same time, he has mentioned he won’t want to move a 1st for a rental, so maybe he does something that makes sense

Ya I’d really like to hear an update on smith. I’m thinking it has to be an unrelated injury to what first sidelined him. It went from day to day to week to week to being out for over a month. During the game last night they briefly talked about him and I got the sense just by the way they worded it they know more then letting on. Sick or something. I really don’t know but does seem very odd the lack of updates considering he even started the road trip with the team.

He's still wearing a cage! No chance they bring him up before he's 100% healthy.

I totally agree, Keith has been a nightmare the last couple of games but maybe some motivation against his former club will motivate him. The odd shift that Bouch and him play together they have looked
half effective so that could be an option(?) Ceci and Broberg could be a good look as well.

As for having essentially 4 rookies and one winger as your Defense would be a tough sell, I think having the experience on the blue line to understand all the nuances of the game does help younger players. But yes i agree Skill > Experience

Nurse to LTIR.

No, Smith is going to LTIR

It would only be a short-term thing until Nurse was healthy AND the Oilers completed a trade for either De Haan or Lindholm, but it's hard to argue with the following logic:

1. We know that the short-term Tippett pairs I listed is a very, very bad blueline corps.
2. We don't know that running all kids and sitting the useless vets results in that same very, very bad blueline corps.
3. None of Keith or Russell are objectively better than the three rookie LHD.

Statistically alone, it's a significant upgrade (lordy is Keith REALLY bad based on numbers) but nobody in the Oilers' upper management is ready to have that talk or evolve the Oilers game to the modern transition style at anything faster than the speed of stink.

Yup, but Nurse is expected to be out for 2 weeks or so, might as well be on LTIR.

I’m 100% convinced Holland only got Keith for the recapturing bonus for next year. Betting Keith planed to retire last offseason but that would have thrown a wrench in the Seth Jones plans so they accommodated this trade to allow him to distance himself from the investigation that was about to take place play out one more year on a better team and then retire Chicago gets hit with less of a penalty and Holland gets the much needed extra cap space in a more cap strapped offseason. Problem is there is zero chance of a deep playoff run with Keith in the top four. Holland likely hoped he had enough gas to not make it soo obvious that Keith is in fact done as a quality nhler.

This line here is why I'm such a proponent of fixing the blueline above all else. Anything shy of De Haan or Lindholm isn't enough. Skinner is showing to be more than reliable enough in the event one of Koskinen or Smith aren't available for the playoffs. Fix the goaltending later. Just add some better forward depth and a bonafide high end defenceman already lol

There is a silver lining to this situation. If broberg does well we could tell Keith to go hang with his kid for the rest of the year.

I was working on a team with that mindset goaltending isn’t a problem we can afford a downgrade if we can reallocate the cap being spent on bettering the defence. I think korp could put up similar numbers to kosk if the d was reliable which right now I hate to say it it’s a joke. Il post it close enough to being done.