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This in from Tony Brar of Edmonton Oilers TV, news that Connor Ingram will start in net tonight against the Lightning of Tampa Bay.
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My take
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1. Not only has Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch named Ingram as his No. 1 goalie, he’s also running him hard. This will be his fifth straight start, with back-up Tristan Jarry not getting a game since he let in seven goals to the Dallas Stars on March 12 nine days ago.
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2. There’s no messing around in Edmonton just now, nor there has been this entire season, when it comes to demoting unproductive and/or under-performing players. Jarry is the latest to feel the hard bite of NHL-style survival of the fittest, but the Oilers team has been a revolving door of players who aren’t getting it done being moved out in the hopes that incoming players will do better.
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So far this season, Noah Philp, Andrew Mangiapane, Ike Howard, David Tomasek, Stuart Skinner, Calvin Pickard, Brett Kulak, Alec Regula, and Troy Stecher have all been waived or traded away, while under-performing and injured Mattias Janmark went for surgery. Trent Frederic was benched for a number of games.
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3. You know what? I don’t think the Oilers’ Darwinian overdrive is over yet either. Bottom-pairing d-men Spencer Stastney and Jake Walman haven’t played well and could find themselves in the pressbox. There’s also a non-zero chance if Darnell Nurse doesn’t step up and finally bring his “A” game in the playoffs, and instead brings his “D-” game as has happened in the past, he could find himself on the third-pairing or in the pressbox this year.
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This is one more big year in the Connor McDavid/Leon Draisaitl era. There’s no excuses, no justification for failing to do all that is possible in order to win, even if that means being super aggressive when it comes to players getting benched or moved out.
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4. As for the wisdom of Knoblauch’s declaring Ingram as the team’s No. 1, the move was endorsed by NHL goalie expert Steve Valiquette earlier this week in an interview on the Real Kyper & Bourne show.
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“You got to piss him off,” Valiquette said of Jarry. “Piss him off. You know, you can’t shame or blame a millionaire. Let’s face it. But you can take away their ice time. And when you take away a goalie’s ice time and you sit him down and he has to watch, he has to prepare like everybody else and wait all day and watch, especially to a guy that’s been a number one before. He’s been on the struggle bus for two years. And for him to get off of it, he’s got to get really pissed off and want more for his career.
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Valiquette continued: “And that means it’s either time to quit, Tristan Jarry, or commit more. And that’s everybody’s message. We’ve all been there during our careers, guys. At some point or another, we all hit a wall. I can tell you three times for sure that I was ready to shut it down, but I loved it too much and I didn’t want to quit. And he has to show himself that way.”