Hot Links: Friday, January 24

Morning, folks!

Finally, some hockey tonight. The NHL’s All Star Skills Competition kicks off tonight, wherein the league will showcase 6 (officially) drills over the course of a few hours.

Connor McDavid will compete in the fastest skater, which makes sense. Sure, he lost to Joakim Nygard in Edmonton’s version a few weeks back, we just found out his leg was actually bad, and he hasn’t taken one of these speed laps seriously since his rookie year, but it makes sense otherwise.

Leon Draisaitl will compete in the accuracy shooting portion, which also makes sense. Draisaitl currently sits among the league’s leaders in SH% for the second year running.

Otherwise, my advice to the masses would be to watch this on tape delay. There’s going to be about eight minutes of actual entertainment sprinkled in between these long stretches of cringe of the course of a couple hours. Give yourself the opportunity to fast forward.

Still five days away from the Oilers’ return to action, but part two of our Reader’s* Roundtable released yesterday.

Czechboy’s latest eight-game segment review went live yesterday, too.

The Athletic dove deep into Leon Draisaitl, as told by people who know him best.

The PHWA released their mid-season awards winners, with McDavid tipped to win the Hart, and William Nylander (lol) tipped to win the Masterton. McDavid makes sense, obviously, but Nylander? It’s so funny how often these guys remind us they don’t really know anything.

Ken Holland and Bob Nicholson were both in the news yesterday. Holland’s quotes in both Canucks- and Oilers-centric articles are concerning to say the least. And I cannot stress enough how obvious it is that Bob Nicholson doesn’t know shit and is a grifter.

We might throw up a game thread to carry us through the skills comp this evening. Stay tuned.

Five more days.

From Us

The Slightly Past Midseason Copper And Blue Roundtable: Readers Edition, Part II (Copper and Blue)

The All Star 8 game review! (Copper and Blue)

Hot Links: Thursday, January 23 (Copper and Blue)

From Elsewhere

McDavid, Draisaitl Ready For Skills Competition (Oilers Rig)

WWYDW(FE): Armchair GM The Trade Deadline (Oilersnation)

All Eyes On Battle Of Alberta At NHL All-Star Weekend (CBC)

PHWA Names McDavid Mid-Season Hart Trophy Winner (Oilersnation)

Ken Holland Said He Didn’t Know Severity Of McDavid’s Injury Upon Taking Edmonton Oilers GM Job (Oilersnation)

For Money

‘Hey, Sparky, Can You Do That?’: How The Oilers’ AHL Video Coach Got His Start As The Islanders’ Mascot (Athletic)

‘He’s Special’: The People Who Know Him Best Tell The Story Of How Leon Draisaitl Took The NHL By Storm (Athletic)

‘That was a home run’: The inside story of how Quinn Hughes fell to the Canucks at seventh overall in 2018 (Athletic)