Even elite Connor McDavid-Leon Draisaitl duo can’t pull Oilers from mediocrity

If the Bruins had failed to rise above mediocrity despite having both a young Bobby Orr and a young Phil Esposito in their lineup in the late 1960s and early 1970s, would that be tantamount to the ongoing failure in Edmonton?

If the Penguins hadn’t been able to make a dent with both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin joining their squad within a year of each other in the early 2000s, would that equate to the white noise coming from the Oilers, with both Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl at the mutual heights of their powers?

You’d say that the Oilers are the NHL’s version of MLB’s Angels, except that Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani have never really played a full season together and that almost every time I see McDavid speaking in any type of public setting it seems as if he has just been force-fed a pint of lemon juice.

Though if you were sent out there to answer hypotheticals about adding Evander Kane without the accompaniment of owner Daryl Katz and general manager Kenny Holland, the people actually responsible for making the decision, you probably would be a bit sour about it, too.

I love that whenever a player becomes available under extenuating circumstances, whether it be a Kane or a Tony DeAngelo or a Vitali Kravtsov, there is an immediate rush of reports indicating that “Up to 16 teams have shown interest!” ahead of the inevitable news void that often lasts for months.

Someone is going to have to explain how the Avalanche can be taken seriously as Stanley Cup contenders while they rank 29th overall in save percentage at .892, surrounded in that category by teams from Seattle, New Jersey, Arizona, Ottawa and Montreal, not one of which is even in the hunt for the playoffs.

If there is anything more pointless than the upcoming All-Star event, which is set for Las Vegas, it is arguing over the players selected to fill the divisional 11-man rosters.

You know what might have made it more interesting this year? If the rosters had been comprised exclusively of players promoted to the NHL off taxi squads as COVID-related replacements.

Danny DeVito, Marilu Henner, Tony Danza and Christopher Lloyd could have been the coaches.

I received a number of messages last week informing me that Eddie Giacomin wore No. 30 only for his NHL debut in the 1965-66 opener against Montreal. After that, he wore No. 1 for the remainder of his Rangers career. That surprised me, I’d misremembered seeing Giacomin wear No. 30 more often than that from the side balcony, but apparently not, and so thanks for the heads-up.

But when the not-yet Eddie! Eddie! Eddie! was sent to AHL Baltimore for a short spell during the middle of that season, the Rangers did not reserve No. 1 for him. Indeed, a check of my program lineup from the Jan. 9, 1966 game at the old Garden against the Bruins shows that Cesare Maniago wore No. 1 for that one, while backup Don Simmons had No. 30.

When Giacomin did return to New York later that month, he slipped back into the No. 1 that was later retired in his honor, while No. 30 was assigned to Maniago, who, by the way, started the final 19 games of the season.

Attendance of just under 11,000 in San Jose for the Rangers on Thursday night is just another in the pile of hockey-related revenue evidence indicating that, unless the NHL and NHLPA come up with some sort of voodoo economic equation over the next few years, the cap is going to be no higher than $84.5 million in 2024-25.

It always catches me off guard when I see a Red Wings player wearing No. 14. It seems odd that Detroit management has not retired the number in honor of Brendan Shanahan, the player most singularly responsible for ending the franchise’s 42-year Cup drought in 1997.

They’d had Steve Yzerman, they’d had Sergei Fedorov, they’d had Nicklas Lidstrom … and in 1994, the 100-point Red Wings were knocked out of the playoffs in the first round by the 82-point Sharks. In 1995, the 70-point Red Wings were swept in the Cup final by the 52-point Devils, and in 1996, 131-point Detroit was taken out in conference finals by 104-point Colorado.

The next year, along came Shanahan, the quintessential power forward of his era, to change the culture and point the Red Wings to consecutive Cups and three in six years.

Finally, I have an idea that Malkin might make it the next time there is a vote for the NHL’s Greatest 100 Players.