Oilers/Canucks: Five Things We Learned After Game 2

October 8, 2017 Beer League Hero

Well, the dream of a perfect season is over for the Edmonton Oilers. Bo Horvat and the plucky Vancouver Canucks made good on some bad defensive plays by Edmonton and McDavid’s boys couldn’t get themselves back into the game quick enough to make good on any sort of comeback.

Of course, I didn’t think that the Oilers would win every game but I was confident that they wouldn’t lose in their first road game of the year to the team that 99% of fans and pundits alike picked to be in the basement of the Pacific come the end of the regular season.

That being said, even Taylor Hall’s Oilers won a game from time to time.

FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED AFTER GAME 2

Connor McDavid can be stopped

All you have to do is take a page out of the 1980s and put a shutdown/pest on him. Ryan Kesler did wonders during the playoffs last season and Derek Dorsett, of all players, was very successful last night of taking the Oilers captain off of his game.

Laurent Brossoit IS an NHL goalie

WOW! I’ll be honest. I had my doubts when it came to Laurent Brossoit before this season but boy did he safely tuck those away after last night’s relief performance. The Oilers basically left their goalies out to dry last night and Talbot got worse as time wore on whereas Brossoit really held the Oilers in the game till the end. How many breakaways or grade-A chances were the Canucks gifted that LB turned away. He was better than Markstrom in my opinion.

The Oilers forward depth isn’t holding up their end of the bargain

Khaira – 3:50 TOI
Strome – 8:00 TOI
Pakarinen – 5:25 TOI

I can’t really heap a lot of blame on Pakarinen but Ryan Strome isn’t doing himself any favors with Todd McLellan early in the season. What happened to Jujhar Khaira last night? Not even four minutes of ice-time? Was there an injury or did the coach simply Petr Klima his ass to the bench? Khaira’s from the area, you’d think he’d have had some friends and family in the stands watching.

Either way, the bottom 6 isn’t getting it done so far this year and maybe that’s because Zack Kassian has that sort of impact on the bottom two lines when he plays on them but it’s not as if they’re lacking skill.

I thought that Jokinen/Strome/Caggiula were extremely quiet and ineffective. Letestu/Khaira/Pakarinen also left a lot to be desired.

Consistency is what the Oilers brass is preaching

And it’s something this young team is still struggling with. Not a surprise really but it’s going to make Todd McLellan’s practice planning very easy. And with each poor-to-average game they play, Chris Kelly inches closer to a contract and somebody’s job becomes more at risk.

Matt Benning is struggling

Battlin’ Matt Benning is struggling to adapt to his new role on the team. He basically gifted that lane to Bo Horvat last night and the future Canucks captain capitalized on it to tie the game. Then for whatever reason Benning tried to stickhandle out of his zone on a PP rush up the ice and he turned the puck over there too.

I don’t like this new role being thrust upon a 2nd-year player. Now, I’m not averse to having players being given increased responsibilities but at this point, I’d be giving Darnell Nurse a bit more of the responsibility pie here than Benning because he’s shown that he can handle it.

I reckon this has a lot to do with Benning being a right-shot but he’s a helluva lot better at being a gritty two-way no.5/6 defender. Let the boy grow into his role on this team I say.

COMING UP

Next game on the docket is against the Winnipeg Jets and this is a team that is going to be one of two things:

A pissed off group looking to take out whatever is in its way.
A complacent group who’ll be taken out by whatever is its way.

The Jets are winless this season with a goal differential of -8. They’ve only managed to score 5 goals but that new goaltending tandem of Steve Mason and Connor Hellebuyck are leaking goals left and right.

The problem with the Jets is that they are a perfect mix of players. Size, speed, and intelligence all throughout their roster but they can’t seem to translate that into wins. From Scheifele to Laine to Wheeler to Ehlers on the front end is a scary bunch but then they’ve got Byfuglien, Trouba, a healthy Tyler Myers, and the burgeoning Josh Morrisey.

So what i’m getting at is… Things could go majorly wrong for the Oilers if they don’t take this Jets team a helluva lot more seriously than they took Vancouver.

Until then! Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Be safe and responsible!

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

Bob McKenzie on Jesse Puljujarvi Being Sent to the AHL for a Second Consecutive Season

October 7, 2017 Beer League Hero

Below is a clip from Bob McKenzie’s Bobcast (his bi-monthly podcast) and in it he’s asked a question about the Oilers’ Jesse Puljujarvi and the Blue Jackets’ Pierre-Luc Dubois.

As we know, Columbus passed over Puljujarvi to select Dubois 3rd overall in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft and this was a YUGE shock to many in the hockey world for the obvious reasons, Puljujarvi is from Finland, Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen is also from Finland… But as it was told after the draft, Columbus was after a big centre and thus Dubois became a member of the Columbus organization.

Now, last night Jesse Puljujarvi got his first point of the year for the Bakersfield Condors and PL Dubois scored his first NHL goal for Columbus but there are already some CBJ fans out there taking this opportunity to get on Puljujarvi’s case… Savages they are!

https://twitter.com/307x/status/916686596732223488

Puljujarvi bust

— Levi (@xlevix10) October 7, 2017

Dubois now tied with Puljujarvi in NHL goals

— Name (@sonnnyofficial) October 7, 2017

I can’t really say who’ll be the better player between Dubois and Puljujarvi. I like the Finn if I’m being honest. I think that Dubois looks a bit like RJ Umberger and there’s nothing wrong with that because he had a great career but Umberger never really appealed to me as a player. On the other hand, I have different fingers… No! I mean, On the other hand, Puljujarvi’s skating, attention to the defensive side of the puck, his shot, it’s all very distinctly his and I can’t really put a comparison to him. Maybe Sasha Barkov?…

On the other hand, I have different fingers… (A little Steven Wright for you there)

No! I mean, On the other hand, Puljujarvi’s skating, attention to the defensive side of the puck, his shot, it’s all very distinctly his and I can’t really put a comparison to him. Maybe Sasha Barkov?… Long term, he’ll be the better player IF he can gain the trust of the coaching staff and add to that some perfect English (I’m being sarcastic with the language comment FYI).

Anyways, Please take a listen, it’s only about two and a half minutes and then carry on below to get my thoughts on the subject. Just a warning, this is audio only. The visuals are basically random Oilers pics I have on the computer and t-shirts from our Teepublic Shop.

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McKenzie says he was expecting Puljujarvi to come over and be an everyday player for the Oilers and was surprised when he wasn’t.

I had a feeling that Puljujarvi would take some time as when I’d done my research on him for the draft I thought that the spotlight really shone on him during the Karpat/Tappara playoff series where he and Laine when head-to-head. Ultimately, Laine’s team won and moved on.

Also, a lot of what I was seeing last season during Puljujarvi’s time with the Oilers reminded me of Leon Draisaitl’s first year and also with how Kailer Yamamoto is dealing with the new aspects of the NHL. That said, Pulju can play in the NHL just due to his massive frame and he has a team that’ll take care of him on the ice whereas Yamamoto isn’t quite there yet physically and Draisaitl came in at the tail-end of the DoD when nobody was sticking up for each other.

But if you’d have watched the World Juniors that year you would’ve thought that the Oilers were getting the next Teemu Selanne because he was destroying his peers but little do you know, that’s what he does. Once Puljujarvi is on the same page as everybody else, it’s go time. Watch this year as he plays in the AHL. He’s going to be a PPG or more player.

“Here’s the bottom line with 19-year-olds in the National Hockey League, It’s a marathon, not a sprint.” – Bob McKenzie

McKenzie goes on to say that the real testament regarding these players ultimately comes 2-3 years down the road and that’s when we’ll make the determination.

I’m with him on this one, gone are the days of the Edmonton Oilers feeling the need to rush a teenager into the lineup, right? Or will that continue due to the constraints of having some big tickets on their payroll?… I don’t think so but I’ve also been of the belief that unless a player is as good as Connor McDavid or Auston Matthews, he should be sent back to junior or his European club or NCAA for at least one more year.

Check out Puljujarvi’s assist from last night. What poise and control. The confidence oozed on this play. He’ll be back up in an Oilers jersey sooner than later. Book it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wMS1kHxajg&feature=youtu.be

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

Golden Knights Talking Trade with Oilers?

October 6, 2017 Beer League Hero 1 Comment

The Vegas Golden Knights sure are getting a lot of people’s panties in a bunch these days. They’ve claimed soon-to-be bust Malcolm Subban off of waivers, placed highly sought after goalie Calvin Pickard ON waivers, and they’ve signed Brandon Pirri. And on top of all of that, they’ve got a shit ton of dmen that need to go through waivers including former Oilers Griffin Reinhart and Brad Hunt. On yesterday’s edition of Oilers Now Bob Stauffer mentioned something very interesting…

Now to tie this in to the title of the blog… On yesterday’s edition of Oilers Now Bob Stauffer mentioned something very interesting…

“I bumped into Kelly McCrimmon last night, currently with the Vegas Golden Knights. They had a TON of staff here (in Edmonton) last night. Start the rumors.”

MY TAKE

The Oil Kings are facing the Brandon Wheat Kings tonight and McCrimmon owns the Wheat Kings. So that could be part of the reason he’s in town. As for the “ton of staff” being there, who knows. But it might speak to the rumors comment Stauffer made.

I really can’t lend myself to the idea that the Oilers are ready to make a deal at this point in the season. I mean, We’re one game into the year and in that one game, the entire team looked phenomenal. That said, Peter Chiarelli isn’t adverse to making early-season deals but apart from shoring up the RW a bit or adding another defenseman, what players would the Oilers be interested in that the Golden Knights be willing to move?

The first name that comes out of anybody’s mouth (including wannabe insider Josh Marshall and hall-of-fame scribe Jim Matheson) when looking at options for the Oilers from Vegas is that of Colin Miller’s but he’s one of two right-handed defensemen on the active roster, he’s young, he’s cheap ($1M and an RFA this summer coming up), and Vegas doesn’t have anyone that could replace him like-for-like unless you believe Chris Casto, Kenny Morrison, Dmitry Osipov, or Scooter Vaughan are candidates…

Earlier in training camp, there was a rumor going around that the Oilers might trade Drake Caggiula for Colin Miller… But that was when The Drake was struggling a bit. After Caggiula’s performance vs. Calgary, I can’t see him going anywhere anytime soon.

Yes, he played under the Chiarelli regime when they were both in Boston but unless Vegas has some other moves that’ll bring them another RH’d dman thus affording them the ability to move Miller, I say it’s a no go.

Supernova (@Supernovs1) on Twitter mentioned Jonathan Marchessault and I’m wary of him. Not because he’s undersized but because he basically rode the coattails of some really good players in Florida last season. At this point, he’s also the Golden Knights first-line right-winger and one of their go-to men for goals this season IF he can duplicate last year’s performance.

But Supernova also mentioned that Vegas might want to move Marchessault if he starts slowly and gather up more draft picks as he’s due to become an unrestricted free agent. I think this is a valid point but I don’t know if it’s pertinent right now and if he’s not performing up to par for an expansion team, why would a Stanley Cup contender want to add him?

Now, I’m not saying the Oilers won’t do any business with Vegas. I’m just saying I don’t see much happening right now. Chiarelli said he’s going to be patient with this roster and from what we’ve experienced with regards to the Oilers GM’s word, he walks the walk. Closer to the trade deadline we should see some more action though.

Closer to the trade deadline we should see some more action though unless the wheels fall off the bus sooner but I can’t see that happening. It rarely does with Stanley Cup contenders 🙂

Is there a player on the Golden Knights that you’d like the Oilers to go out and acquire? What price would you pay? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter/Facebook!

Here are a couple of links that shed a bit more light on what Vegas might be doing:

NBC Sports (Link)
Lowetide (Link)

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

Oilers/Flames: Five Things We Learned After Game 1

October 5, 2017 Beer League Hero 1 Comment

I now understand why my dad would yell at the TV when the Oilers were playing when I was a kid because I was doing it last night. Not once, not twice, but ~three times a lady~… I mean, three times did I yell at my TV and with each shout came the name…

“McDAVID!!!!!”

The final time even brought forth a jump and punch into the air ala Little Mac from the classic 8-bit Nintendo game, Mike Tyson’s Punchout.

The Oilers/Flames game followed up on a 7-2 Toronto Maple Leafs win over the Winnipeg Jets where Connor McDavid’s cross-country rival Auston Matthews put up 3 pts. I didn’t get to watch all of that game but it was a shitshow nevertheless. The reason I bring up that game is because whenever the Maple Leafs and Oilers play on the same night and Matthews has a good game, I wonder to myself how Connor will return Matthews’ serve and last night McDavid returned it with some heat.

Game, set, match to McDavid.

Getting back to the actual game that Connor McDavid dominated. I envy those that were lucky enough to witness it live. That game would’ve been outstanding to see in person.

Before we get into the five things we learned, let’s re-live that magical from Connor McDavid.

FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED

Connor McDavid’s newest endeavor… The Rocket Richard Trophy!

I’ve only ever witnessed another player dominate professional sports like Connor McDavid is doing now and that is Lionel Messi. Every time Messi gets the ball magic happens and that is the same as Connor. Whenever he gets the puck you need to prepare an extra set of underwear in case he pulls off some move that makes you evacuate your bowels in amazement.

I truly hope that one of McDavid’s goals this year is to win the Rocket Richard Trophy. Throw that in the face of the Matthews’ supporters and the Crosby lovers. Truth be known, I like Matthews and Crosby and what better entertainment would it be to have the three of them going head-to-head for the Rocket Richard and the Art Ross?

Zack Kassian can play in the top 6 and be effective.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t exactly expect to see Kassassination in the top 6 last night and as soon as I did see him up with Lucic and Nuge my first thought was that the coach had seen enough of Kailer Yamamoto. But actually, Zack Kassian had a pretty decent game for the Oilers last night. He ended the evening with 5 PIMs, 3 shots, and 1 hit.

I wonder if we see Kassian up with Nuge and Looch a bit more vs. the Canucks this weekend…

Drake Caggiula is an absolute buzzsaw. 8 hits last night!!!

THIS was the Caggiula I wanted to see all pre-season. He was hitting everything in sight and it got me fired up for him! This was part of the reason Jordan Eberle was shipped out to Brooklyn. When he wasn’t scoring, there was nothing else to his game. The Drake gave zero f*cks as to who he hit, he found a Flame, put him in his sights and lowered the boom. I loved it!

Caggiula’s line was solid too. I was really impressed with Jokinen and his positioning and hockey IQ. Ryan Strome didn’t do a whole lot but was effective and didn’t stand out for the wrong reasons.

Kailer Yamamoto was completely out of his element last night which was highlighted by his TOI at the end of the evening. A paltry 6:33.

That’s two anonymous games in a row for Yamamoto and you can’t even blame it on the Oilers taking too many penalties or spending a lot of time on the power play. It is clear to me that the NHL is moving far too fast for him right now, it’s too heavy, and he’s having trouble adapting quickly but we should be fair to him because even though the Flames had a poor game, they are a good team and a physical team at that. Perhaps Yamamoto will have better luck vs. the Canucks in a couple of days.

I’ll tell you what though, that little tete-a-tete he had going with Kris Versteeg off the faceoff (In the 2nd period I think) made me happy. He didn’t back down from the NHL vet at all. Not that Kris Versteeg is anybody to be afraid of or anything. But just that he not only took what Versteeg had to give but he gave it back is a good sign.

Oscar Klefbom might be a Norris Trophy candidate by season’s end if he keeps up efforts like the one he showed us last night and stays healthy. He had 9 shots on goal!!!

More like carpet bom… He was on fire last night! I mean, how about that shot that nearly took Smith’s head off? Wowzas!!! He had 12 tallies last season, can he improve on that this year? If he’s going to be sending 7+ shots on net every game, I expect him to be keeping pace with Brent Burns.

On a side note, how good was the defense last night? Wow! Completely shut down the Flames offense apart from a little push in the 3rd from Monahan’s line. Klefbom’s partner Adam Larsson was particularly impressive.

A few other things that I really enjoyed about last night’s game against the Lames:

Pat Maroon getting right into Mike Smith’s grill.
The #MEGATHREAD that was started by our good friend @theoilknight. Give him a follow. He provides good info on OHL prospects as well as a fresh take on the Oilers.
Cam Talbot absolutely robbing Sean Monahan late in the game.
When Lucic wallpapered that Flame which in turn lead to McDavid’s hat-trick goal. Looch looks a bit faster, no?

Do you think that the Edmonton Oilers served notice to the entire NHL last night that it’s going to be a long game for whoever is playing the Oilers on any given evening? 45 shots was it? Against one of the best defenses (apparently) in the NHL now?

What I’m really looking forward to is the first time the Oilers play the Maple Leafs because the Leafs are shaping up to be an offensive juggernaut whereas the Oilers have learned to play a tight defensive game but have the world’s best offensive hockey player on their team…

What did you think about the game? Who stood out for you and what was your favorite highlight of the game? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter/Facebook!

Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

Beer League Heroes’ BOLD 2017/18 NHL Predictions Blog!

October 4, 2017 Beer League Hero

It’s shocking that the season has come so fast, isn’t it? The night is upon us and I haven’t even done a predictions blog yet… Well folks, get your asses ready because this is going to be a doozy!

I’ll be using the same format that the Sportsnet panel did to make this a quick and fun read. They’ve got some stupid questions about Jonathan Drouin and Auston Matthews that I didn’t include though… Hope you won’t miss those…

Here we go!

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STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS

Edmonton Oilers

WESTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPEENS

Edmonton Oilers…

EASTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPS

Pittsburgh Penguins

TEAM LIKELY TO EXCEED EXPECTATIONS

I wanna say either Winnipeg or Carolina but that feels like jumping on the media bandwagon. So, I’ll say Columbus. Their 1st round sweep from last year I think had a lot of folks fall off their own proverbial bandwagon. I like their mix of skill/grit as well as the combination of vets/youth and I want to believe they’ve learned their lesson from last season and will come out and at least make it to the 2nd round of the playoffs.

TEAM LIKELY TO DISAPPOINT

It would be easy to pick the Oilers or the Penguins here given they are being mega-hyped to meet each other in the Cup finals. But I’ll take Nashville. I think a lot of things went well for them last season… Almost too well…

CANADIAN TEAM WITH THE HIGHEST POINT TOTAL

Edmonton Oilers easy. (F-me if McDavid or Talbot get hurt though…)

# OF CANADIAN TEAMS IN THE PLAYOFFS

I’ll say 4.

Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, and Winnipeg

God, it’s always a mistake picking Winnipeg isn’t it? I don’t like Calgary’s goaltending, Montreal is going to struggle to score, and Vancouver are being run into the ground by Jim Benning…

HART WINNER

McDavid

ART ROSS WINNER

McDavid…

CALDER WINNER

I really want to say Charlie McAvoy (BOS) or Clayton Keller (ARI) but I’m not sure it’ll be that cut and dry. I reckon Brock Boeser (VAN) is going to be shooting the lights out in Vancouver Joel Eriksson Ek sure had a fine introduction last year. Is Alex Debrincat (CHI) going to spend the year on a line with Patrick Kane or Jonathan Toews? What about pre-season goal-scoring sensation Kailer Yamamoto (EDM)? Will he stick around? Then there’s Matt Barzal (NYI) and Josh Ho-Sang (NYI) in Brooklyn to think about. Nolan Patrick (PHI) is another out of the Metro division and how’s about Jakub Vrana (WAS)… I don’t even want to talk about Nico Hischier (NJ)…

I’ll go with Joel Eriksson Ek out of Minnesota.

NORRIS WINNER

Victor Hedman all the way. I love the way he plays. Such a beast!

VEZINA WINNER

Cam Talbot or Pekka Rinne. Longshot being Vasilevski out of Tampa…

Seems too easy to pick Carey Price or Braden Holtby doesn’t it?

JACK ADAMS WINNER

Todd McLellan or could it be *GASP* Glen Gulutzan if their goaltending can hold up and the magic of Jaromir Jagr can do what it does best… It’ll probably be someone like Bob Boughner (FLA) or John Stevens (LA) for taking their teams to the playoffs though.

COACH IN THE HOT SEAT

Has to be Paul Maurice doesn’t it? Guy is the best worst coach in NHL history.

GM ON THE HOT SEAT

Brad Treliving. He’s mortgaged the Calgary Flames foreseeable future to try and win now. I don’t think they’ve got a 1st round pick until Matthew Tkachuk’s kids are draft-eligible.

AFTER THE TRADE DEADLINE JOHN TAVARES WILL BE A MEMBER OF THE…

Arizona Coyotes. The NHL needs a face for that franchise if they’re going to keep the team in Arizona or move it to Quebec City or Seattle or Beijing. The team has the pieces to send back to the Islanders to boot. Dylan Strome could go, Christian Fischer, or Nick Merkley too.

Adding a player like Tavares would go a long way in kick-starting the Coyotes franchise.

MATT DUCHENE WILL FINISH THE SEASON AS A MEMBER OF THE…

I could say Arizona here too but Montreal seems to be the noisiest team in the rumor mill at the moment. I don’t think they’ve got what it takes to get him though. I’ve heard Columbus and I like that destination for him but what about Ottawa? A Turris/Duchene swap would make a little sense, no?

DIVISIONAL STANDINGS

Metropolitan	Atlantic	Pacific	Central
Pittsburgh	Toronto	Edmonton	Dallas
Columbus	Tampa	Anaheim	Minnesota
Carolina	Ottawa	San Jose	Nashville
Washington***	Florida	LA	Chicago***
NY Islanders***	Boston	Calgary	Winnipeg***
NY Rangers	Buffalo	Arizona	St.Louis
Philadelphia	Montreal	Vegas	Colorado
New Jersey	Detroit	Vancouver	***= Wild Card

There you have it folks! Nothing crazy. Hopefully I’ll be right on everything and that’ll give me at least one thing to take to the grave 🙂

Beer League Heroes

Monthly Archives: October 2017