Monthly Archives: November 2015

Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Zach Laing

Oilers vs Leafs Preview – Battling Babs and the Boys in Blue

Screen Shot 2015-11-30 at 1.56.58 PM

TALE OF THE TAPE:

Game: Edmonton Oilers (8-14-2) vs Toronto Maple Leafs (7-11-5)

Location: Air Canada Center, Toronto

Time: 5:30 PM MT

Where to find it: TV: Sportsnet – Radio: 630 CHED

Edmonton Oilers Preview:

Tonight, the Oilers look to close out their five-game road trip with a win in Toronto and up until now the Oilers only have three of a possible eight points on this trip. Two losses to the Capitals and Hurricanes certainly woke up the team and they rebounded well getting a point in Detroit, and two in Pittsburgh.

Despite the fact the the team is in the bottom of the West, they are only eight points out of a wild card spot. It isn’t unrealistic to see this team make a strong push towards that final spot. This Oilers team isn’t awful. The coaching has made a tremendous difference on and off the ice, and I am certain we will see success shine through soon.

Andrej Sekera and Teddy Purcell will look to continue to build off their two-game point streaks.

The last time these two teams met on March 16th, the Oilers came out on top winning 4-1 in thanks to a three point night from Jordan Eberle. He has certainly struggled in his return from injury. In just 11 games, he only has three goals which translates to .9 Points per 60 (P/60) – a ways off from his career average of 2.5 P/60.

“It would put a win in the win column, which is obviously real important and a goal of ours every night,” said Oilers Head Coach Todd McLellan. “To come home at .500 on a pretty tough road trip, considering we didn’t win the first two, would be an accomplishment that we would be please with. We wouldn’t have a parade, but we’d be pleased with it. I think it’s something we can grow on. Our road record isn’t terrible. We’ve played some good games, we just haven’t had a timely goal or a timely prevent of a goal to give us more wins than losses.”

Davidson says McLellan has coached the Oilers to be more detail-oriented on this road trip, which has helped with results.

“Details plays a huge role in it. That’s something he’s preached,” the blueliner said. “I think guys are just taking it upon themselves now that we’ve came together as a collective group. We know we have to get on a little bit of a run here and get some points together. I think guys know how important it is and as long as we can keep moving in that direction and keep taking what Todd is giving us, we’ll be fine.” Source.

Walter Foddis’ Pregame Metrics:

The Otherside:

Toronto coach Mike Babcock told the Maple Leafs website that goalie Garret Sparks, 22, will make his NHL debut on Monday and forward Joffrey Lupul will not play because of an undisclosed injury. Lupul, who is tied for the team lead with Leo Komarov with eight goals, did not skate on Sunday. With James Reimer out because of a lower-body injury and Jonathan Bernier struggling (0-8-1), the Maple Leafs will turn to Sparks, who is 8-2-1 with a 1.90 goals against average and a .938 save percentage with Toronto of the AHL this season. “We’ve got to find a way to win a game,” Babcock said. “Is he ready for the opportunity? We’re going to find out.” Bernier faced 23 shots in a 4-2 loss to the Washington Capitals on Saturday. Reimer did practice Sunday, but he’s not ready to play. “You have to be able to do your job to your fullest and right now it’s a little restricted,” Reimer told the Maple Leafs website. “I can’t quite do everything I need to do to be successful.”

Line Combos and Starting Goalies c/o Left Wing Lock:

According to Oilers HC Todd McLellan, we can expect to see some lineup changes before puck drop due to some “bumps and bruises.”


Oilers (Anders Nilsson):

Leafs (Garret Sparks):

Any ideas on how to improve my game previews? Send me an email at zjlaing@gmail.com.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvxgY0ymuAI]

 

Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

Is Griffin Reinhart Chiarelli’s First Mistake?

5 Comments
Photo by Aaron Bell/CHL Images

As we now know, Griffin Reinhart has been reassigned to the Edmonton Oilers’ minor league affiliate in Bakersfield to make room for the return of Justin Schultz. My question is why was that decision made so easy? Apart from Reinhart still being on his entry level deal, why didn’t he make it harder for Chiarelli to send him down over Darnell Nurse or for Chiarelli to make a trade to accommodate the former 4th overall pick? Surely there was enough time for GR to make a meaningful impact. Is Reinhart all that his junior career and draft status has him cracked up to be? Or is he the next Jared Cowan?

Reinhart is very disappointing.  His results are last and pretty bad with the two main centers right now in RNH and The Deutschland Dangler.  His only CA/60 improvement comes with Lander who is the most marginal center on the team.  Given the price to acquire him, his draft number and the fact that this is his draft +4 year you cannot be happy with these results at all.   To my eye he is a decent Dman when he is “in the play”.  The problem is that he isn’t “in the play” enough due to poor skating and edge work.  His gaps are too big and he backs off the blue line too quickly to make up for his speed.  Down low his meh edge work makes him fairly easy to beat with quick movements.  This young man needs to spend all his free time on his skating and leg strength if he wants to have a NHL career.  He would have been fine in the 90’s.   Not so much in today’s ridiculously fast NHL.  Today he is not a NHL defenseman.

That came from Woodguy’s blog which you can read here. Pretty damning if you ask me.

Chiarelli gave up the no.16 and no.33 picks overall in last year’s draft to acquire Reinhart after seemingly being unable to come to a deal with his former team for Dougie Hamilton. We could probably also assume that a deal for Travis Hamonic also fell through at that same draft.

So those two picks turned out to become Matt Barzal and Charlie Stephens. Two centers for which the Oilers didn’t really need per say after drafting McDavid and Draisaitl but there were other players on the board at those spots that maybe the Oilers could’ve used like offensive defenseman Jeremy Roy or Thomas Chabot (who nearly made the Senators out of camp), goalies Mackenzie Blackwood or Ilya Samsonov, or what about skilled yet character filled forwards like Travis Konecny, Anthony Beauvillier, or Nick Merkley? That being said, one can never have enough elite centers.

The new McDavid inspired design! Click the pic and take advantage of the Thanksgiving SALE going on now!

A combination of Matt Barzal, Colin White (who’s putting up Eichel-like numbers in BU this year), and Kyle Connor would’ve also gone a long way.

But if drafting players with those two picks was never in Chiarelli’s plans then why not a trade for a more experienced defenseman that could guide the team’s young blueliners. Not another young player that we’ll be waiting another season or two for? A first rounder and an early second is a very enticing offer at the draft for a GM that is looking to relieve the team of some salary.

Now we know that Griffin Reinhart looks to be a very promising middle to bottom pairing defender right now. We’ve been privy to flashes of his potential so far but my argument is that that timing of this deal and the target was misdirected. The Oilers didn’t need more youth. Did we know that GR would be so slow to adapt to the NHL game, not really. He didn’t exactly light it up last seson. But was it a consideration, of course. The last thing the Oilers need is another slow moving bottom pairing blueliner though. Of course David Musil is apparently having a helluva season in Bakersfield, so one has to wonder if foot speed isn’t THAT big of an issue and Reinhart takes a step back, will that open the door for a different defenseman to step on through.

What we hope is that this is a blip on the radar and like most good defenseman that have long and storied careers in the NHL, they rarely trend upwards in a straight line. Peaks and valleys my friends, peaks and valleys. Here’s to more peaks than valleys with young Griffin.

This was just something that was playing on my mind when I woke up. Let me know how you feel in the comments below!

Take Care!

BLH

Kris Hansen

Edmonton Oilers Weekly Round Up Nov 22nd-28th

This week, the Edmonton Oilers played four games, dropping three, including one in overtime and had a thrilling shootout win over Pittsburgh last night.

I predicted the Oilers would take 6 points this road trip and are now below that. Still, if they can win against Toronto on Monday, they could end up with five points. Which I’d be alright with. Close enough.

Edmonton Oilers Three Stars

3. Andrej Sekera: I’m giving Sekera his first appearance on the three star list. He has struggled early on, yet slowly and surely, he’s improving. Sure, he has some odd passing choices but he can at least move the puck (here’s looking at you Andrew Ference and Eric Gryba). He had a Power Play goal in both games against Detroit and Pittsburgh. It’s great to see that he’s at least somewhat turning the corner.

2. Iiro Pakarinen: Iiro the Hero also makes his debut! He scored his first career two goal game against Detroit on Friday. He’s a fourth line player and he’s just perfect for the role: both his goals were hard working goals that did not come easy. I love his nick name. Also, don’t look now, but he has matched Jordan Eberle’s point and goal total this season (granted played five more games and I’ll talk about Eberle in a bit)

1. Anders Nilsson: Anders the Giant was HUGE this week (ignoring the Carolina game). Cam Talbot also looked respectable against Detroit, but Nilsson looked awesome in games against Washington and Pittsburgh, where he posted 39 saves in a shootout win. He’s been a revelation this season and is posting very respectable numbers. I’d still like to see Talbot find his way but right now it’s all Nilsson. You have to ride the hotter hand.

Edmonton Oilers News and Rumors:

The biggest trend was how angry the local media has been. Notables include Bob Stauffer, Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal and Mark Spector of Sportsnet.

Speaking of rumors, there were two big names: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle. Spector says that the Oilers will trade eventually one of their soft skilled players .

My opinion: Trading Ryan Nugent-Hopkins would be a mistake. A very dear one, especially considering the other two (McDavid and Draisaitl) aren’t even 21 yet. Also, why would it be such a bad thing to have three scoring lines? Nugent-Hopkins is also one of our most effective two way forwards on the team.

Now Jordan Eberle on the other hand, I’d be fine with moving. Sure, he was injured, but three goals and points in 11 games? That’s a pretty big let down. It’s not like he’s playing with scrubs either.

https://twitter.com/NicholsOnHockey/status/670330428318846976

That’s nice to see. I think Chiarelli will get it done, but he’s being cautious. He had his state of the union address and expressed his disappointment in the team. However, he said he would not be shaking the team up for the sake of shaking the team up. He acknowledged talks with teams and you have to figure that Travis Hamonic is the number one target. I believe Chiarelli will find a way and he will find it soon.

That’s the best news of the week, by far. The Edmonton Oilers badly need Connor McDavid back. January could not come soon enough.

Around the League:

 

Highlights

Goals of the Week

 

Saves of the Week

 

Probably the Goal of the Year against the Oilers last night was Malkin. My goodness!

 

The Week Ahead

The Oilers have three games this week, wrapping up their road trip against Toronto on Monday, Boston visits on Wednesday and the mighty Dallas Stars stop by on Friday.

That’s the week that was. Follow me on Twitter! 

Beer League Hero

BLH Post Gamer G23 Oilers VS Penguins: #AndersTheGiant

Taylor Hall was on point again versus the Pens. Photo courtesy of Joe Sargent.

From an entertainment standpoint, this was a really fun game to watch. Both teams combined for a grand total of seventy-seven shots! I told you guys yesterday that the Oilers had to be careful with Evgeni Malkin right? Did the Oilers listen? They did not and because of that they allowed a two goal lead on the road evaporate into nothing care of Evgeni Malkin’s two goals, the guy had 11 shots in total for the night! Lucky for them Justin Schultz was back… Err I mean Anders Nilsson was on top of his game.

  • So Jordan Eberle started the game on the third line with Letestu and Hendricks eh? I can only imagine what Coach McLellan had to say to both Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Ebs after the Detroit game… I’d say by the looks of both their games in Pittsburgh that the only one that took it to heart was Nuge. Eberle looked flat and not a lot of puck luck was going his way. He finished the game with 1 shot… For a guy that has lead the team in scoring the last few seasons, he’s not doing himself any favors right now. Shoulder still bugging him? Looked pretty good on the shootout winner…
  • Ninja Nuge on the other hand had a couple of very RNH-like rushes up the ice that made you wonder where those have been for the last 10 games. He had an apple, three hits and was 54% on the faceoff dot! That’s better!
  • Great to see Draisaitl and Hall get back on the board tonight! I give most of the credit to the Penguins defence and lack of back checking forwards on that goal though. They were damn near on top of their goalie when Purcell passed the puck over to Hall and then allowed him to walk through all of them to get another chance to which Neon Leon buried the rebound of.

  • It’s good to see the bottom sixers finally putting some points up on the board. Pakarinen’s brace versus the Red Wings was tight and Korpikoski’s PP tip-in off of Sekera’s point shot versus the pens is something the Oilers have been begging for for sometime now.
  • Jujhar Khaira made his Oilers debut tonight. Not a whole lot happened for him tonight apart from a very nice open ice check and a tidy interception that nearly led to a goal. He was also the Oilers best player in CF% and SF%.
  • Paka had five hits on the pens to boot. So he’s starting to gain a bit more confidence as the season continues.

    Thanksgiving SALE is still going on! Everything is up to 30% off! Click the pic and go there now!

  • Speaking of Scandinavians, Oscar Klefbom nearly had a penalty shot  after stripping Sidney Crosby of the puck in overtime and he lead the team in TOI with over 25 minutes!
  • Justin Schultz did actually play tonight and it’s probably a good thing that he wasn’t apparent in the highlights as it’s usually not the kind of play we’d like to re-watch. But nearly 18 minutes in his return and no bad miscues is acceptable. Now let’s see if he can start ramping up that play and doing something to increase his trade value. Or are we at that point where if we trade him he’ll turn into another Jeff Petry or Tom Gilbert or Eric Brewer or any other good defenseman the Oilers have had only to trade him off to another team right before he peaks.
  • Benoit Pouliot shouldn’t be tasked with taking his own penalty shots anymore… What a wasteful opportunity it was. Kudos for McLellan for showing faith in the veteran but I’d have been more than ok if someone with more pedigree on breakaways was asked to shoot.
  • The Oilers were out of the NHL’s basement for a short time but Colorado won their game… Boo! Another win versus the Leafs tomorrow should see them crawl out of last place though. But the Leafs are a tough bunch these days and you can be sure the Oilers won’t be seeing Jonathan Bernier in that one.

I’m going to leave you with Evgeni Malkin’s goal of the year candidate. Revel in this beauty and try not to pick on Mark Fayne too much for being giffed here. Malkin is a rare breed in today’s NHL in that he can take over a game all by himself.

Take Care!

BLH

https://twitter.com/myregularface/status/670774928602497024

Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Zach Laing

Oilers vs Penguins Preview – Reinhart down, Schultz up

edit 4:46 PM: Anders Nilsson has been confirmed to start.

TALE OF THE TAPE:

Game: Edmonton Oilers (7-14-2) vs Pittsburgh Penguins (13-8-1)

Location: CONSOL Energy Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Time: 5:00 PM MT

Where to find it: TV: Sportsnet – Radio: 630 CHED

Edmonton Oilers Preview:

Coming off the heels of a 4-3 heartbreaking OT loss to the Red Wings, the Oilers made the move to activate Justin Schultz off the IR and assign Griffin Reinhart to the Bakersfield Condors (AHL).

The move isn’t one that I am a fan of, but it is one that I can understand. The Oilers still have a log jam of defencemen and something had to give. Reinhart was one of few defencemen available to be returned to the AHL, and I don’t feel that Brandon Davidson or Darnell Nurse are deserving of that. Reinhart still has some flaws in his game, so hopefully he can get some big minutes in Bakersfield.

Jujhar (J.J.) Khaira will be featured in his NHL debut.

“I think I’ve found my game,” said Khaira. “I’m definitely more confident. I know what I need to do when I’m out there, what kind of player I need to be and a lot of it has to do with being a big body and creating room for myself and others.” Source.

At 6’3, 215 lbs that is exactly what Khaira can come in and do. His scoring has caught up with his size this season, as he has potted seven points in 16 AHL games – a definite improvement over the 10 points in 51 games he notched last year.

I am a big fan of Khaira’s, and was happy that we were able to get him in the 3rd round of the 2012 NHL Entry draft. The Oilers are a team that has been lacking size for sometime, so hopefully Khaira will be able to continue to develop into an impact player for the Oilers down the road. His game has been impressive in the AHL.

Tonight, both the Oilers and Penguins are preparing for back-to-back games after both suffering OT losses last night. Last time these two teams met was on November 6th, where the Penguins beat the Oilers 2-1. Anders Nilsson had the start in that game, and boasted an impressive 2.05 GAA and .939 sv%.

Given that Talbot had the start last night, I would expect to see Nilsson manning the crease tonight.

Walter Foddis’ Pregame Metrics:

The Otherside:

Backup goaltender Jeff Zatkoff will make his fourth start of the season after Marc-Andre Fleury made 41 saves in a 2-1 overtime loss at the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday. Zatkoff got the victory in Edmonton earlier this month, making 26 saves. Sidney Crosby, who left the game in Columbus briefly after being cross-checked in the neck late in the second period, returned to the game and extended his point streak to four games when he set up Evgeni Malkin for a power-play goal midway through the third period. Crosby has three goals and five points during this stretch. “I’m OK,” said Crosby, who left with 1:20 remaining in the second period but was back for the start of the third. There always concern when it happens, but I’m OK.” – nhl.com

Line Combos and Starting Goalies c/o Daily Faceoff:

As per the Oilers website, “The Oilers did not skate this morning, having flown in from Detroit last night. The lineup will be announced during warmups.”

Oilers (Unknown): 

Penguins (Jeff Zatkoff): 

Any ideas on how to improve my game previews? Send me an email at zjlaing@gmail.com.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq8KHn2TEXI]