Monthly Archives: December 2015

NHL

BLH Edmonton Oilers Weekly Recap December 20th-26th

15 Oct 2015: Edmonton Oilers Goalie Cam Talbot (33) [7933] during pre game warm ups and playing his first home game against the St. Louis Blues at Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Photo Credit: Chris LaFrance
15 Oct 2015: Edmonton Oilers Goalie Cam Talbot (33) [7933] during pre game warm ups and playing his first home game against the St. Louis Blues at Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Photo Credit: Chris LaFrance
I

n this holiday edition of the Beerleagueheroes.com weekly recap, our Edmonton Oilers had only two games on the docket where they finished 1-0-1 with a win over Winnipeg and an overtime loss against Vancouver.

However, don’t let the record fool you: The Edmonton Oilers did not play great hockey in those two games, especially last night where it was a stinker. Last night’s game in particular was a lifeless effort where they played a solid first period and forgot there was a game going on.

Edmonton Oilers Three Stars: 

3. Teddy Purcell: Right now, he’s the best Right Wing on the Edmonton Oilers. Against Winnipeg, he tallied two goals with help from Taylor Hall and Leon Draisaitl. The one goal included was an awesome one timer. He’s a much better player compared to last year and there’s not many people who are complaining about his play. If it were me who was General Manager, I’d keep Purcell. I said it last year too: I actually like Teddy Purcell. I think he’s playing well enough for a short term contract (2 years, 2.5-3 million per) but that’s just me spit balling.

2. Taylor Hall: The best Edmonton Oiler makes another appearance in the top three list for the week, almost like he’s a permanent fixture for this weekly list. Against Winnipeg, Hall had three helpers. Ho hum. Against Vancouver he was held pointless but he was the most dangerous Edmonton Oiler out there: every time he touched the puck he was creating chances and was the driver of his line. He’s a dangerous forward, which is not a shocker to fans in Edmonton.

1. Cam Talbot: Taking the top spot this week is Cam Talbot who went 1-0-1 this week and was the MVP for the Oilers and the main reason why they got points. Talbot faced 69 shots in those two games combined, including a career high 45 against Winnipeg, and stopped 66 of those shots. While the overtime goal is probably one he would like back, he is rocking a combined save percentage of 0.956. Which is great. I see Talbot slowly moving towards taking the starting goaltender spot, although I doubt he plays tonight against Calgary (back to back games)

Edmonton Oilers Trade Rumours: 

There was an interesting Rumour that has some major smoke to it:

Zack Kassian to Edmonton for Ben Scrivens.

https://twitter.com/FriedgeHNIC/status/680948402880929792

We had a post breaking down the potential rumor right here which is definitely worth a read.

However, since that post, there have been some updates such as goaltender Eetu Laurikainen coming back from Europe to rejoin the Condors. Signalling the end of Ben Scrivens with the Edmonton Oilers organization, considering he was held out of last night’s game against Stockton.

https://twitter.com/FriedgeHNIC/status/681171047945654272

I went from “oh HELL NO” to “I’ll consider it” in less than a day. Kassian is a crazy player. Nobody will ever forget the time he taunted Sam Gagner when Kassian broke Gagner’s jaw. He’s despised by Oilers fans since then. He has his demons; he recently completed a stint in rehab.

Now there is a trade freeze that lifts at midnight (or 10 pm EST), so it’ll be interesting to see if it happens.

Another piece of news from the Edmonton Sun has Connor McDavid returning after the All Star Break. Which is too bad, because I miss watching 97 on the ice. Still, better safe than sorry.

Around the League/Hockey World

Toronto Maple Leafs Prospect William Nylander left yesterday’s game against the Swiss after a nasty hit to the head. 

Canada dropped their first game against the USA, 4-2.

Edmonton Oil King Defenceman, Dysin Mayo, signed his Entry Level Contract with the Arizona Coyotes.

Jets lose Mark Scheifele in a weird practice accident where he suffered a concussion.

The Montreal Canadiens have dropped 10 of their last 11.  

 

Highlights

Connor McDavid was featured in TSN’s top ten stories of the 2015 sporting year. He was number three.

 

This heartwarming video is making rounds: A sailor surprises his daughters with a visit on center ice at Tampa Bay

 

Kopitar scored a nice Overtime winner against Arizona last night

 

The Week Ahead

The Oilers have four games this week and it looks like a hell week.

They face The Flames in Calgary tonight.

They kick a six game homestead against the LA Kings on Tuesday, followed by Anaheim on Thursday and Arizona in an afternoon game on Saturday.

That’s all for the week that was. Hopefully we see a trade happen! Follow me on Twitter and have a solid week.

 

Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, Edmonton Oilers Post Game Report, NHL

BLH Post Gamer G36 Oilers VS Canucks: Bloody Hansen

Jultz’s good games to bad games ratio is at least 1-10. He was pushed around again vs the Canucks. Photo courtesy of Jeff Vinnick.

The Oilers should’ve had this one tonight. The Canucks were without Dan Hamhuis, Chris Tanev, Ryan Miller, and Alex Burrows. Not only that but there was something going on with Henrik Sedin all night as he wouldn’t sit on the bench and was constantly standing between shifts. Edmonton’s only excuse was a lack of concentration. I heard turkey legs a couple of times during the Hockey Night in Canada broadcast but come on, these are professional hockey players not bar stool heroes.

I’d say the game was fairly close with each team really only having one line really buzzing. The Horvat line for the Canucks was constantly causing issues for Edmonton and Letestu’s line for the Oilers was giving the Canucks fits. Hall and Draisaitl showed glimples as did the Sedins but ultimately neither groups dominated wholly.

Coach McLellan said that he thought there were about five or six players that pulling the team down anchor-wise in tonights post-game interviews. Yikes! Let’s take a guess as to who those players where…

  • Nikitin
  • RNH
  • Eberle
  • Pouliot
  • Fayne
  • Schultz*

It’s days like these when you left wondering where the hell the likes of Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Benny Pouliot were. Nikitin was playing like absolute dog shit. Is the team in such dire straits that he is still an option? Seeing Mark Fayne get walked by Bo Horvat left my side in a stitch too. Justin Schultz had a mind-boggling 27 minutes on the ice. Has he got friends in high places or what? I mean how is his play this season let alone the past three seasons warranting so much ice time?

Where the response was when Cam Talbot got smoked by Adam Cracknell? Check it out below.

The flames of the rumors of Kassian to the Oilers were fanned that much more when Elliotte Friedman commented on the rumor during the 2nd intermission. I for one welcome the likes of a rehabilitated Zack Kassian to an Oilers roster that lacks unpredictability and toughness and I touched on it here. Surely he’d have found someone to tune in on the Canucks just to send the message that running the goalie is a regrettable path to take.

I find Luke Gazdic to be the nicest tough guy in the league and the lesser of the two regarding talent. Kassian is signed for the rest of the year at $2M (AAV $1.75M) and at that price point and given Chiarelli’s interest in him when he was with the Bruins, he looks like he could be a fit for the team. If Ben Scrivens (I’ve heard he’s in Edmonton right now awaiting the lifting of the roster freeze) is the rumored return, the Oilers would save a little cash as well. Elliotte Friedman talks about it in the clip below (skip to the 2:30 mark).

They touch on trading RNH again… Look, it’s my opinion that you cannot deal the Nuge unless you’re getting a significant piece in return AND a serviceable veteran center. Or you have another deal lined up to get said center. You cannot leave the no.1 and no.2 center positions at the feet of two players that have yet to hit 21 years old. Yes, the Oilers need defence but Chiarelli mustn’t deal his best defensive forward until he knows what he has in McDavid and Draisaitl.

But in knowing that, you can never say never. The Nordiques had Lindros, Sundin, and Nolan at one point and dealt them all. The way things are going for Nuge and Yak, I can def. see them moving on at some point as well. Later rather than sooner though.

Next up… The Flames. The Oilers HAVE to win this. If they drop another two points I think it’ll be tough for them to stay in the race for that final playoff spot because it’s LA and Anaheim after Calgary. I know McDavid will be back soon and so will Klefbom and Yakupov but they’re not going to be 100% for another couple weeks. Ideally they should be able to step into the lineup and contribute not be the focal point of the team’s success or lack thereof.

BLH

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Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Rumors

Kassian going to the Oilers?

2 Comments

The rumor is unsubstantiated and Twitter chatter at best but Kassian has been told not to report to the Montreal Canadiens’ AHL team and Ben Scrivens wasn’t dressed for Bakersfield this evening… This is reason enough to speculate for me.

The Habs apparently are falling apart without Carey Price and the Oilers could use a dirty prick like Kassian in the lineup. I guarantee you if Kassian is in the lineup the day McDavid breaks his collarbone, the game versus the Leafs where Phaneuf was nailing everyone, and any other game where the Oilers stars were being targeted physically that Kassian would have no problem getting retribution.

Yes, Zach Kassian has some off-ice issues but there are teams that are looking into him. He has a certain skill set that is appealing. He hits, he can skate, shoot, and he gives the team that has him a psychological advantage when he’s on the ice due to his unpredictability. He’s only signed for $1.75M for this season and then he’s a RFA.

If I’m the Oilers I take this deal because it gets Scrivens off the books and out of the way of Eetu Laurikainen. It sends some guys like Khaira and Lander back to the AHL and if gives the Oilers another NHL player. I’m not concerned with his off-ice problems and the NHL has deemed him rehabilitated. My only question is if Kassian is the next Ben Eager or can he regain his confidence and form to become a formidable player?

With the likes of Milan Lucic, Brandon Prust, Ryan Kesler, Micheal Ferland, etc. playing in the Pacific Division, Edmonton could really use a player in Kassian’s ilk in my opinion and his contract would make it very easy to manage.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!

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Edmonton Oilers, Zach Laing

Oilers vs Canucks Preview – A Boxing Day Brawl

TALE OF THE TAPE:

Game: Edmonton Oilers (15-18-2) at Vancouver Canucks (13-14-9)

Location: Rogers Arena, Vancouver, British Columbia

Time: 7:00 PM MT

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

Edmonton Oilers Preview:

Merry belated Christmas to you and your families. I hope the holidays were everything you wanted them to be, and I wish you all the best in 2016.

After a five day break, the Oilers look to get back into the action against our division rival Vancouver Canucks that has lost six of their last ten games. On the other hand, the Oilers are coming into tonight’s game after breaking a three game losing streak after beating the Winnipeg Jets 3-1.

Coach Todd McLellan said no one has lost faith in Talbot despite the disparity in playing time. “Because [Nilsson] had that run doesn’t mean that the group in the room or the coaching staff or anybody else didn’t believe in Cam,” McLellan told the Oilers website Tuesday. “We just ran a hot goalie for a while, and maybe we’ll do that again because obviously Cam played tremendous.”

This is a great opportunity for the team to find their ways of the big win streak earlier. It is still unknown what we have in this team, but as I have stated before I firmly believe this is a team that can compete for the eight to ten spot in the Western Conference standings.

The Oilers begin a 5 game trip against teams in the Pacific Division. If we want any chance at getting advancement in the standings these are the games we need to be winning.

After playing the Canucks in Vancouver tonight, the team visits Calgary tomorrow night. On Tuesday, the Kings come into town while on Thursday the Oilers face off against Anaheim at home. The five game Pacific trip finished Saturday in Edmonton, when the Oilers faceoff against Arizona.

Four points separate the Oilers (32 points, 6th in Pacific) and the Sharks (36 points, 2nd in Pacific).

The Otherside:

Vancouver comes out of the break with seven straight home games. Their 14 home games are the second-fewest in the Western Conference, and their five home wins are tied for the fewest in the League. Part of having success at home will be staying out of the penalty box; the Canucks have been shorthanded 125 times, second-most in the League. That includes giving the Tampa Bay Lightning 10 power plays in a 2-1 victory Tuesday. “If the [penalty kill] wasn’t on, that was going to be a 5-1 game or something like that,” forward Jannik Hansen told the Vancouver Province. The Canucks killed nine of 10 Lightning power plays, but for the season they’re 22nd on the penalty kill at 79.2 percent.

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


Oilers (Cam Talbot):
Taylor Hall – Leon Draisaitl – Teddy Purcell
Benoit Pouliot – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jordan Eberle
Matt Hendricks – Mark Letestu – Lauri Korpikoski
Luke Gazdic – Anton Lander – Iiro Pakarinen

Darnell Nurse – Andrej Sekera
Justin Schultz – Mark Fayne
Nikita Nikitin – Eric Gryba

Vancouver Canucks (Jacob Markstrom):
Daniel Sedin – Henrik Sedin – Jannik Hansen
Sven Baertschi – Bo Horvat – Radim Vrbata
Alexandre Burrows – Jared McCann – Derek Dorsett
Adam Cracknell – Linden Vey – Brandon Prust

Alexander Edler – Andrey Pedan
Matt Bartowski – Alex Biega
Ben Hutton – Yannick Weber

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

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l8u1FP2EMg]

Beer League Hero, Prospects

The BLH 2015/16 World Junior Hockey Championships Group B Preview

Can the Russians bounce back from last year’s loss to Canada to win gold in Finland?

Yesterday we looked at the teams in Group A of this year’s World Junior Hockey Championship. If you missed that one you can check it out here. Today we’re going to look at Group B. This group of teams include the hosts, Finland, Russia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Belarus. It definitely looks to be the more competitive of the two.

The Teams

Russia

Last year the Russians put on a good show in the elimination round but just barely made it there after a 3rd place finish in the group stage. In the end they fell short to the Connor McDavid-led Canadians. This year they’re back in full force! Leading the charge will be defenceman Ivan Provorov (PHI) and goaltender Ilya Samsonov (WAS). Returning from last year’s squad are the aforementioned Provorov, Vladislav Kamenev, and man mountain Alexander Dergachyov.

I’m not that high on the Ruskies, I’m just not convinced of their defence. Their forwards are as skillful as always with Guryanov (DAL) and Svechnikov (DET) but from what I’m hearing and reading, they’re just not being regarded as tournament favorites unless you’re talking to Craig Button. With that said, you can never ever count them out.

Belarus

Bela-who? Honestly… Belarus has taken an eight year hiatus from the IIHF’s top U20 division. Can I be frank? This team is going to get their asses handed to them. The only notable player on their roster is a 6’7″ monstrosity named Stepan Falkovsky who plays for the Ottawa 67s in the OHL. Belarus’ best players aged out of the tournament leaving them bereft of any quality.

Player(s) to keep an eye on: You won’t miss Falkovsky. He’ll be the biggest player on the ice. He’s eligible for the draft this year so I imagine that will give scouts reason to watch him.

Notable draft eligible(s): Falkovsky…

Slovakia

After equaling their best ever showing at the tournament and winning a bronze medal in the process this breaking a 15 year medal drought, the Slovaks are back for more but this year but they’ll be without two key players from last year’s roster, forward Martin Reway and goalie Denis Godla.

Returning however are the hulking Radovan Bondra, Erik Cernak, Christian Jaros, and Matus Sukel. The offense will come from a player plying his trade in the QMJHL, Kristian Pospisil.

Player(s) to keep an eye on: Erik Cernak(LA) is a beat of a defender. He’s very physical right-handed shooter. This will be his third World Junior Hockey Championships so the Slovakian team will be relying on him heavily.

Notable draft eligible(s): Krisitan Pospisil went undrafted last year but a great tournament and a solid year in the ‘Q’ could change thata quickly. Slovakia always has a player that makes some noise offensively, I reckon that player this year will be Pospisil.

Finland

The spotlight will definitely be on the hosts this year not only for being the hosts but they’ve also got two players who could go in the top 5 of the upcoming NHL entry draft, Jesse Puljujarvi and Patrick Laine. To add to those two are NHL/AHL loanees Kasperi Kapanen(TOR) and Mikko Rantanen(COL).

Last year the team had trouble scoring but that won’t be the case this year. The forwards are stacked! The defence will more likely be the team’s main weakness this year. The goaltending will be solid with Veini Vehvilainen and Kaapo Kahkonen. Finland’s goaltending is never in question, right?

Player(s) to keep an eye on: Vili Saarijarvi (DET), an undersized puck-moving defenceman that is getting ice time with the Flint Firebirds of the OHL. Might have a touch of the Kimmo Timonen or Sami Vatanen. Big time force on the PP though.

Notable draft eligible(s): Puljujarvi and Laine for sure. I’ve read that this is Finland’s version of Taylor vs. Tyler… Interesting. Both players are well over six feet tall and weighing in around 200lbs. I can’t distinctly remember Jesse Puljujarvi as a 16 year old in last year’s tournament standing out. He’s fast, he’s big and his shot was NHL last year.

There’s also a defenceman that is slotted to go in the first round of the draft, Olli Juolevi. He’s playing for the OHL powerhouse London Knights this year. He gets compared to Pittsburgh’s Olli Maata a lot.

Czech Republic

It’s been over ten years since the Czechs won a medal at this tournament and in the twenty years since the split of Czechoslovakia the team has only won three medals. But things are changing for this country’s ice hockey program. More and more players are starting to come out of it including New Jersey Devils 2015 first rounder Pavel Zacha, Boston Bruins 2015 first rounders Jakub Zboril and David Pastrnak and potential 2016 first rounder Simon Stransky.

This year’s squad is a healthy mix of veteran players and 2016 NHL draft eligibles. Up in the air is the status of the aforementioned Pastrnak. The Bruins STILL haven’t made any indication as to whether he’ll be released or not. If he is loaned out to the Czechs that will greatly increase their odds of success in this year’s tournament.

The Czechs are still producing goalies like crazy. Vitek Vanecek (WAS) and Daniel Vladar (BOS) will be tasked with stopping pucks this year.

Player(s) to keep an eye on: You’ll find it hard not to notice Zacha. He’s very forthcoming in his style and he’s been on the radar since he was 16. The Sarnia Sting’s no.1 center can be a player that takes over games but it’s contingent on his mood.

Notable draft eligible(s): The Czechs will be taking over ten eligible players but the biggest name of them all will be Simon Stransky. He’s a little guy with big time skills. He plays for Prince Albert of the WHL.

So there you have it! The 2015/16 World Junior Hockey Championships are almost here! There’s no better feeling than watching the next flock of NHL superstars battling it out for their countries on the biggest stage. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Merry Christmas and have a happy New Year’s!

BLH

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