Bowman return to the NHL in Edmonton has been anything but memorable.

SIMMONS SUNDAY: Stan Bowman’s Oilers don’t have the look of Stanley Cup contenders Get the latest from Steve Simmons straight to your inbox Sign Up Photo by Mark J. Terrill / The Associated Press

Article content Stan Bowman has a legendary father and three Stanley Cup rings from the Chicago Blackhawks, but his return to the National Hockey League in Edmonton has been anything but memorable.

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Article content The Oilers don’t look much like the team that almost won the Cup last June. They don’t seem to have the speed or intensity or grit of a champion, which they certainly had before Bowman arrived as general manager last July. In fairness, this is not just Bowman’s mess, all that’s happened with the Oilers. Team president Jeff Jackson played GM for a few weeks after showing Ken Holland the door last summer and signed free agents Jeff Skinner and Victor Arvidsson who have not added much of anything to the Oilers this season. What seemed like good additions based on their history, turned out to be poor additions. Bowman’s big error — or two — came later in letting restricted free agents Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway go to St. Louis, where both have had superb seasons as 23-year-olds with the emerging Blues. He chose not to match the St. Louis offers. That has proven to be a weak determination.

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Article content Bowman also failed to address the Oilers goaltending needs, either last summer or during this current season. Edmonton has allowed 16 goals in three Stanley Cup playoff games against the not necessarily high-scoring Los Angeles Kings. The Oilers would probably be down 3-0 in the series had Los Angeles coach Jim Hiller not temporarily lost his mind on Friday night. His challenge of a goaltender interference on a goal that tied the game with just more than six minutes of play remaining, was proven incorrect. The league ruled “no” on goaltender interference and, because of that, Los Angeles was penalized. Edmonton scored 10 seconds into the awarded power play to take the lead for good.

The thing is, when you have Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on your team, you always have a chance of some kind. Those are two of the five best players in the game. Bowman and the Oilers have that. It’s the rest of the lineup that needed a tuneup and a goaltending upgrade that the first-year GM didn’t provide.

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Article content THIS AND THAT The Leafs needed a goaltender to team with Joseph Woll last summer and went out and signed Anthony Stolarz. The signing was recommended by Leafs’ head of goaltending, Curtis McElhinney. Wonder how many teams are now kicking themselves for not taking a serious run at Stolarz. Heading into Saturday night, he had a 1.95 goals against average with a .926 save percentage in his first playoff series while the two Edmonton goalies have a GAA of 5.55 and a save percentage of .820 … Just because you’re rich doesn’t mean you’re smart. New York Rangers owner James Dolan just re-upped GM Chris Drury after an absolutely disastrous season. The veteran coach, Peter Laviolette, got canned. Go figure … And just because you’re smart, it doesn’t mean you always do the right thing. When John Collins was the No. 3 man in the NHL, behind Gary Bettman and Bill Daly, he came across as bright as a whip. This week, as operating partner of the New York Islanders, Collins said goodbye to 82-year-old Lou Lamoriello (probably the right thing to do) but also bid adieu to his play-by-play radio crew, which had represented the team for years. It was time for Lamoriello. It wasn’t necessarily time to gas the broadcasters, at least not without explaining why … Lamoriello, the former and brief Leafs GM, spent seven years with the Isles, made the playoffs five times, won six rounds in all. Since leaving Toronto, the Leafs have won just one playoff round before this season … Among those I would go after for the Islanders GM job: One time superstar Chris Pronger and broadcaster Kevin Weekes … Former Leafs assistant Dallas Eakins coached Simon Benoit for 202 games, 137 in the NHL at Anaheim, 65 in the AHL for San Diego and liked him as an improving player. He didn’t really understand why the Ducks let the 24-year-old defenceman walk away for nothing. And he’s happy for Benoit that he’s coming up big now … Overtime playoff goals often come from nowhere. When Benoit scored in overtime against Ottawa, it was his second goal as a Leaf in his past 116 games … On Friday night, New Jersey defenceman Simon Nemec scored in overtime against Carolina, his second goal of this season … Bet you didn’t know that current Leafs backup defenceman Philippe Myers once scored an overtime goal for the Philadelphia Flyers … Max Domi isn’t the only legacy player in the Battle of Ontario. The fathers of Brady Tkachuk, Jake Sanderson, Ridly Greig and David Perron all played in the NHL.

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Article content HEAR AND THERE The NHL has fined Senators’ Nick Cousins one-quarter of 1% of his salary for that silly piece of business in disrupting the pre-game warmups on Thursday night in Ottawa. How junior-hockey dumb was that for Cousins … Matthew Knies has been an almost unstoppable force for the Leafs in the Battle of Ontario. I thought Knies and Bobby McMann, big speedy guys on the left wing, would be difference-makers for Toronto. So far, Knies has been close to spectacular. McMann still can be better … Tom Wilson is signed for the next six seasons in Washington at $6.5 million a year. It’s one of the better team-friendly contracts in the NHL …. You should pencil in Mark Scheifele for the Team Canada lineup now for next winter’s Winter Olympics. If McDavid is centring one line and Nathan MacKinnon another, ideally with Sidney Crosby on the wing, then why not insert Scheifele as third-line centre? … If Russia, or some derivative of it, has a team in the Olympics, who is the starting goaltender? Igor Shesterkin? Sergei Bobrovsky? Andrei Vasilevskiy? Ilya Sorokin? My choice, as of today: Bobrovsky … The best NHL season nobody has talked about: David Pastrnak on a really terrible Boston Bruins team. He finished fifth in points, fifth in goals, seventh in assists, third in even-strength goals, first in even-strength points, second in shots on goal. And that’s without having a centre of consequence on his line … The PWHL will not be stopping with expansion to just Vancouver. That gives the league a seventh team. It will almost certainly have eight by the time next season comes around … Good for Cam Ward, the former Carolina goaltender, to have some online fun about Cam Ward, the football player, being first pick in the NFL draft … Dan Bylsma is out after one year as coach of the Seattle Kraken, but his assistant, Jessica Campbell, the first female coach in the NHL, will be staying … What doesn’t get enough play: How much better Jake McCabe has played this season since teaming with Chris Tanev on the Leafs defence and how much better Morgan Rielly has been since being paired with Brandon Carlo … There’s been no team in the Stanley Cup playoffs more intense than the Montreal Canadiens, in the third periods of Game 1 and 2 against Washington and the entire three periods of Game 3. What an absolute pleasure to watch what this team has become … A surprise for me: How much trouble the usually composed Capitals have had dealing with the Habs’ speed and forecheck … Just wondering: Has Jack Michaels stopped shouting, yet? … The short list of those who can make the pass Mitch Marner did from behind the net in Game 2 on Auston Matthews’ goal. Maybe McDavid, Nikita Kucherov, Kirill Kaprizov, Pastrnak, MacKinnon. Maybe the Hughes Corporation — Jack and Quinn. Not many more than that.

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Article content SCENE AND HEARD Every time I turn on my television or radio, someone is telling me how much the Blue Jays miss Daulton Varsho in their everyday batting order. Now I appreciate Varsho as a superb centre fielder. But understand this: He batted .214 last season, with an on-base percentage of .293 and an OPS of .700. The year before, he hit basically the same. Getting excited for Varsho’s return tells you how bad the rest of the Jays’ everyday lineup happens to be … Will we look back at Alejandro Kirk’s ninth-inning double Friday night at Yankee Stadium as the most important hit of this season or was it just a one-hit wonder? … Should we stop talking about Bowden Francis as a bottom-of-the-rotation pitcher with the Jays? He’s now been through the American League. In his past 14 starts, he has a 2.37 earned run average. In 11 of those starts, the opponent has scored two or fewer runs against him. Those are top-of-the-rotation numbers … Any day now, Ross Atkins will tell us that there is nothing wrong with the Jays hitting and he is certain that process will overcome all. The Jays are 29th in baseball in home runs hit, 25th in runs scored. They have a new batting coach for the third straight season. New coaches, but same old hitting story … The big pickups of the off-season, Andres Gimenez and Anthony Santander, are hitting a soft .189 and .182, respectively. That goes along with apparent prospects Will Wagner hitting .200, Addison Barger .059 and Alan Roden .203 … Aaron Judge is off to a special start with the Yankees. He’s first in the American League in hitting, fourth in home runs, first in RBIs, first in runs scored, first in hits, first in slugging, first in on-base percentage and first in OPS. All of this for $40 million a year. Which isn’t a whole lot more than Vladimir Guerrero Jr. will be earning, on average, next season with the Jays … Guerrero by the way, is 65th in home runs in the AL, 43rd in RBIs and 20th in batting average. And by the way, it’s early and his process is good … Why Tyler Heineman should matter more than most Blue Jays: His walkup music is Edge Of Seventeen by Stevie Nicks. With some ooh baby, ooh, ooh.

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Article content AND ANOTHER THING LeBron James, at age 40, scored 38 points on Friday night against Minnesota. Can you say remarkable? … Alex Ovechkin, younger than LeBron, scored again against Montreal on Friday … Kawhi Leonard, in between a million or so injuries, is outscoring Nikola Jokic in the first-round NBA series between the Clippers and Denver Nuggets … What Stewart Johnston needs to do as 15th commissioner of the CFL: Develop a younger fan base for the league. He needs to develop a more diversified fan base. He needs to find a way to better market the league’s star players. He needs to help try and figure out how to make Toronto a more relevant market. None of those are easily attained … Mackenzie Blackwood played three years for Dale Hawerchuk with the Barrie Colts. The late Hawerchuk told me years ago he believed Blackwood would become a regular goalie in the NHL. He’s now doing that with the Colorado Avalanche. Hawerchuk was also a huge believer in Scheifele, who was later drafted by the same Winnipeg Jets team he once made famous … When both Sam Montembeault and Logan Thompson were hurt in their Montreal-Washington playoff game Friday night, Team Canada GM Kyle Dubas was quick to notice. He has Detroit’s Cam Talbot ready to go for Team Canada at the world championship, but wants to add another goalie after Round 1 of the playoffs is over. His best choices were Montembeault and Thompson. Or possibly Adin Hill, if Vegas doesn’t win the first round … It isn’t just the NFL that seems disinterested in quarterback Shedeur Sanders, Deion’s son. The Argos dropped him from their negotiation list in 2022 … Born this date: Rogers Hornsby and Enos Slaughter. And a happy birthday to Judge (33), Kaprizov (28), Drake Batherson (27), George Gervin (73), Willie Upshaw (68), Corey Seager (31), Chris Carpenter (50), Carol Burnett (92), Sebastien Lareau (52), wrestler Kane (58), Bill Wennington (62), Glenn Goldup (72) and Mike Krushelnyski (65) … And hey, whatever became of Chase Claypool?

ssimmons@postmedia.com

x.com/simmonssteve

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