This is your TL/DR (too long, didn’t read) summary post where excerpts are taken from the best of the best when it comes to Edmonton Oilers blogs. BLH gives you his two cents on the latest posts being published in the Oilogosphere! Including those from Lowetide.ca, The Athletic, Oilersnation, The Cult of Hockey, Copper N Blue, Oil on Whyte, and more!

The latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation comes from all of the internet’s top sites like Spector’s Hockey, The Fourth Period, NHL Trade Talk, The Hockey Writers, Sportsnet, and TSN just to name a few!

If you’re short on time but want to keep up with the day’s Oilers news, you’ve come to the right place!

Give us a follow on the socials!

• Youtube: Beer League Heroes Channel
• Twitter: @beerleagueheroe
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• Facebook: Beer League Heroes

Lowetide.ca

• Ken Holland may be contemplating making a move, but the money is spent and any moves he’ll make now could compromise the deadline plans. We’re into December now, so the roster freezes are going to make trades difficult and the waiver wire doesn’t offer much this time of year. 

BLH’s Thoughts: Savage realism from the OG… We may be foreced to witness a colossal season collapse OR a mind-bending 2nd half to the season…

If it makes you feel any better, the Stanley Cup-winning Red Wings of 2008 lost ten out of eleven games from Feb.7th to the 29th of that month and that was right after winning twelve of the previous fifteen. (link)

Holland’s a patient guy and willing to ride the ups and downs. He’s probably one helluva investor with ice-cold blood like that. 

Oilersnation

Why have the Oilers struggled so much at 5v5, and how can they fix this?

• Following their historic start, Edmonton has posted a record of 7-8 in their prior 15 games.
• Edmonton’s 5v5 play has indeed declined ever since the hiring of Dave Tippett, according to several key indicators.
• Edmonton’s current power play coach is Glen Gulutzan, who was hired in 18-19 before Tippett’s hiring. After finishing dead-last last in PP% in 17-18, they improved to 9th the following year; the power play had already begun its improvement the season before Tippett.
• One reason for Edmonton’s decline in 5v5 play under Tippett? Edmonton’s depth forwards – an issue that’s seemingly never-ending.
• The forward core doesn’t look dreadful on paper, at least in comparison to the roster in prior years. Ryan and Foegele, in particular, were solid depth players before joining Edmonton and theoretically should’ve improved this team.
• Some of the largest improvements under Tippett have been Nugent-Hopkins and Puljujarvi.
  • Whereas RNH primarily played as a center under McLellan and Hitchcock, Tippett has given him much more time on the wing. His defensive results are much better as a winger in comparison to his play as a center. 
  • Tippett has also given Puljujarvi a lot of opportunities in the top six, opportunities he didn’t have under McLellan and Hitchcock. 
  • Conversely, every other bottom-six forward has seen a massive decline.
• Personally, although Ken Holland deserves part of the blame as well, I think it’s very valid to have doubts about Dave Tippett’s system and how he deploys the bottom six.
• There’s a variety of options Edmonton could explore if they deploy the “three-headed-dragon”  down the middle. The Oilers should give it a shot, because the bottom-six bleeding has to stop.
• There are several finishers Edmonton could realistically target at the deadline for their bottom-six.
  • I like Joel Farabee and Zach Sanford; both are top 100 in the league in 5v5 Goals/60 in the past two seasons and play on teams that are relatively low in the standings. Neither should have an extremely lofty asking price. 
  • Colin Blackwell plays in Seattle and is 86th in the league in 5v5 Goals/60 in the past two seasons.
  • Perhaps Dylan Holloway could turn out to be an impact player sooner than we think?
• I think it’s becoming exceedingly evident that coaching appears to be a large issue…

BLH’s Thoughts: They’re 7-9-0 now since that 9-1-0 start and I’m kinda hoping Dave Tippett will bring out the defensive coach we all feared the team was getting when he was hired three years ago. 

When Dylan Holloway gets the green light and is recalled to the Oilers, I would definitely try the three-headed dragon approach at that point. Nuge isn’t a line driver as a top-six center, but what about as a third line center?

Hyman-McDavid-Puljujarvi
Foegele-Draisaitl-Yamamoto
Holloway-RNH-Kassian
Shore-McLeod-Sceviour

What do you think? We’re stuck with Kass and he won’t be sat. So you can’t change that up, plus there’s nobody really to replace Yamamoto on the second line. The team is deeper at LW than RW…

‘Tis a conundrum, if you will, and that leads me to the trade options suggested… Two left wings and a 5’9″ right-shot center… Sigh…

Joel Farabee is not a bottom-six winger and he’s not going to be traded for pennies on the dollar. He’s only 21yrs old and coming off of a 20g season… He’s part of Philly’s future. So scratch that one off your list of hopeful transactions for the Oilers. 

I like Sanford. I think he’d be better than most of what Edmonton has in its bottom six right now. He’s a big body that bangs and fights.

Not sure on Blackwell, I’ve not watched enough of him to be able to comment and I do think the team is waiting on Holloway to come in and be an impact player right off the hop. No pressure or anything… 

So I learned an interesting fact last night, Ken Holland has NEVER fired a head coach. Ever. While in Detroit, the contracts of Dave Lewis, Scotty Bowman, and Mike Babcock were simply allowed to run their courses and he left during Jeff Blashill’s tenure. 

So even though the heat is starting to grow under Dave Tippett, the fact that Ken Holland has never had to hand out a pink slip probably means there’s a better chance than none he rides out this final year in Tippett’s contract and then hires somebody different. And say what you will about Joel Quenneville, I wonder if his name doesn’t start to pop up sooner than later in the rumor mill. 

The Daily Goal Horn

• As he (Jeff Gorton) searches for a new GM, he and ownership are not opposed to a rebuild. Brendan Gallagher already went on record that he isn’t crazy about the idea, and other veterans are likely to follow suit… Another name Marek suggested to keep an eye on is Mike Hoffman.
• “I’m still not counting out Lou Lamoriello,” Dreger said on TSN 1200. “I don’t think that he’s going to make this magical blockbuster (trade) that is going to cure everything that ails the New York Islanders, but Lou is also a pretty active GM. He isn’t going to watch the season go up in flames. I’m not sure what, if anything, he’s looking for, but something tells me that he’s going to do something in an effort to salvage this season.”

This is your TL/DR (too long, didn’t read) summary post where excerpts are taken from the best of the best when it comes to Edmonton Oilers blogs. BLH gives you his two cents on the latest posts being published in the Oilogosphere! Including those from Lowetide.ca, The Athletic, Oilersnation, The Cult of Hockey, Copper N Blue, Oil on Whyte, and more!

The latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation comes from all of the internet’s top sites like Spector’s Hockey, The Fourth Period, NHL Trade Talk, The Hockey Writers, Sportsnet, and TSN just to name a few!

If you’re short on time but want to keep up with the day’s Oilers news, you’ve come to the right place!

Give us a follow on the socials!

• Youtube: Beer League Heroes Channel
• Twitter: @beerleagueheroe
• Instagram: @beerleagueheroes
• Facebook: Beer League Heroes

The Athletic

Markus Niemelainen winning Oilers recall battle over Philip Broberg, William Lagesson

• Broberg’s ice time increased in each contest until Game 4, the game against the Vegas Golden Knights. Broberg’s confidence and natural skill got him through several games with good results, but after picking up an assist in Game 1 (and finishing 1-0 at five-on-five goals while he was on the ice), things took a downturn.
• The Oilers have used Lagesson for at least part of the last three seasons as a recall option. His performances have been inconsistent and the young Swedish defenceman lacks the exceptional speed of Broberg or the smashmouth hitting ability of Niemelainen.
• One of the truly entertaining Condors players over the last two seasons, Niemelainen’s bone-jarring hits recall a previous era while also being an effective deterrent against opposition forwards entering Edmonton’s zone.
• Broberg is tracking as a future top four defender with possible opportunities on both special teams. His speed and size make him an exciting prospect for management and coaching staff.
• Niemelainen is looking like a strong candidate for the third-pairing LH side over the next several years, although he has competition in Dmitri Samorukov (yet to make his NHL debut).
• Lagesson is cast as an extra defenceman in Edmonton; he’ll need to catch a break or find another NHL home to increase his role.

BLH’s Thoughts: If it were me, I would’ve recalled Samorukov instead of Broberg. If we’re to believe what’s being said about the Russian, he’s a heavy hitter with better puck skills. So why not give him a go so everybody can get a bit of experience with the big club before settling. Unless Holland’s getting some less than savory reports from Dave Manson and Jay Woodcroft, I can’t see why Broberg, confidence down, would be the recall… 

I am very excited about Niemelainen because he’s my kind of blueliner. I am wondering how long it’ll take the opposition to figure him out though and conversely, how long it’ll take him to adjust his game. 

Edmonton Sun

Hurricanes the wrong team at the wrong time for Edmonton Oilers

• A hard-working, highly-skilled opponent that excels in five-on-five hockey and boasts a stifling penalty kill? Even if the Oilers were at their best, the 18-6-1 Hurricanes would pose a serious problem.
• The Hurricanes have a plus 23 ratio (58-35) in even strength scoring, second only to the Washington Capitals. The Oilers are minus 9.
• Though the Oilers played better the last two games (the loss to Minnesota was a similar script), they’re still on a four-game losing streak and the Pacific Division standings are closing in around them.
• It seems like a dark and dire time for the Oilers, but every team goes through this during a season. The Hurricanes are just three games removed from a five-game losing streak (0-4-1) of their own. Toronto lost four in a row. Washington lost three in a row…

BLH’s Thoughts: The Canes are down FOUR full-time NHL defensemen and Chip Alexander said Slavin and Bear are less than 100%. I am leaning to agree with Tychkowski that the Canes are all wrong for Edmonton tonight, but there’s a small chance the Oilers turn Carolina on their heads too… Never underestimate a team with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl… 

Another guy who tends to show up for games against Carolina is Jesse Puljujarvi. I don’t know what it is about Pulju when he’s got to play against his buddies from that Finnish team who won the World Juniors in 2016 (I think). He’s also a tad more productive in the month of December as over the course of his career he’s racked up the most points (16) in that month. 

Watch out for the Hurricanes’ third line of Seth Jarvis, Vincent Trocheck, and Martin Necas. That’s an electrifying bottom-six line if I’ve seen one… 

Oh, and how about their $6M 4th line center? That offer sheet for Kotkaniemi is not looking too bright right now… 

The Hockey Writers Rumors

• Vancouver GM Opening: Thomas Drance and Harman Dayal of The Athletic took a look at possible candidates for the GM job and listed the following: Jason Botterill, Stan Smyl, Mike Gillis, Laurence Gilman, Hayley Wickenheiser, Marc Bergevin, Scott Mellanby, Eustance King, Chris MacFarland, Ryan Johnson, Henrik and Daniel Sedin, J.P. Barry, Josh Flynn, Mike Futa, Ray Ferraro, Craig Conroy, Ross Mahoney, John Ferguson Jr., Kevin Weeks, Alexandrea Mandrycky, and John Chayka.
• Jake DeBrusk: The Boston Bruins are looking to facilitate DeBrusk’s trade request even though Elliotte Friedman has reported they will only move the forward on their terms. Part of the issue in trading DeBrusk is that the 25-year old is arbitration-eligible and that is giving some teams pause.

This is your TL/DR (too long, didn’t read) summary post where excerpts are taken from the best of the best when it comes to Edmonton Oilers blogs. BLH gives you his two cents on the latest posts being published in the Oilogosphere! Including those from Lowetide.ca, The Athletic, Oilersnation, The Cult of Hockey, Copper N Blue, Oil on Whyte, and more!

The latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation comes from all of the internet’s top sites like Spector’s Hockey, The Fourth Period, NHL Trade Talk, The Hockey Writers, Sportsnet, and TSN just to name a few!

If you’re short on time but want to keep up with the day’s Oilers news, you’ve come to the right place!

Give us a follow on the socials!

• Youtube: Beer League Heroes Channel
• Twitter: @beerleagueheroe
• Instagram: @beerleagueheroes
• Facebook: Beer League Heroes

The Athletic

Ethan Bear is rising above and thinking big: ‘I wanted to make a difference’

• It seemed likely to him that he’d be dealt as the free-agent period began on July 28.
• That day, Oilers general manager Ken Holland called Bear into his office to deliver the news. He’d been traded to Carolina for winger Warren Foegele. Bear appreciated how it was handled. He didn’t want to leave Edmonton — “asking for a trade is not my thing; I’d rather work my way out of a situation”
• … last season didn’t go according to plan. He was a restricted free agent and trained in Kelowna, B.C., rather than under the watch of the Oilers training staff in Edmonton. He signed just before training camp started.
  • “I didn’t expect for it to wait that long,” Bear says. “Details and my routine are so important to me. Having that be late and trying to train, it was really hard on me mentally. It felt like I wasn’t important.
• The Oilers returned to Edmonton. With end-of-season meetings and players ready to go their separate ways for the summer, team camaraderie wasn’t running high.
  • “The one thing that sucked is I didn’t feel like I had much support when it happened,” he says. “It was such a weird thing to go through, and it just felt like I was alone.”

BLH’s Thoughts: There two things that folks are making a deal out of in this piece.

• Bear says he didn’t ask for a trade.
• His teammates didn’t reach out after Edmonton was eliminated by Winnipeg in last year’s playoffs. 

Edmonton’s core seems like the kind of group that you have to earn your way into, doesn’t it? Then again, Evan Bouchard was kinda welcomed right in. I wonder if Dylan Holloway will get in that easy too. But for others like Bear, Jones, Puljujarvi, I’m not sure if Lucic was part of it when he was playing for the Oilers…

It really seems like there’s some exclusivity in that locker room when you hear things like what Bear said about not being contacted after the year. Then again, we’re not in the locker room. It’s possible that Ethan didn’t rub folks the right way too. Not sure how that even happens with such a mature and polite young man, but you never know. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are some competitive guys…

The Alphas might’ve put their foot down which leads to my next point.

Do you think Bear was really 100% against the idea of being traded considering his team’s leadership core, who include Connor McDavid, Darnell Nurse, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Leon Draisaitl, never reached out to see how he was doing after last game of the year?

Back in July, he said talked about the situation in Edmonton in an interview with Rob Tychkowski,

“Everything I had to go through last year, it would have been pretty tough to push through it and battle all the adversity I would have had to deal with in Edmonton.”

Yet, he says in this post,

“…asking for a trade is not my thing; I’d rather work my way out of a situation”

As well as, 

“I don’t know how I would have survived going through all that again.”

So, don’t you get the feeling that he didn’t exactly want to stick around? Things weren’t going well with the coaches, he felt abandoned to a degree with regards to his contract negotiations, and in my mind, the experience he went through soured him on the Edmonton market and the fanbase. 

He totally wanted out. C’mon… He said in that Tychkowski interview that playing in Edmonton was “pretty stressful” and in another with The Athletic, he wasn’t worried about leaving Edmonton behind. He was well within his right to ask for a trade out but being the honorable young man he is, he was going to try and stick it out.

Now, I’m not angling my thoughts in order to point a finger at Bear and call him a liar or anything like that, I’m really just talking to those folks who have it set in their minds that keeping Bear in Edmonton would’ve been the right thing to do. Maybe that would’ve been the worst thing to do… 

The way that it was explained to me is that what we heard via the main stream media isn’t the whole story and things were much much worse and therefor Ken Holland was doing this young man and his future fiancée a favor by moving them to greener pastures. 

The bigger question that nobody has asked yet is why didn’t Edmonton’s leadership core, the coaching staff, or management reach out to Ethan to see how he was doing before all the shit hit the fan?

I’m happy that life is better for Bear and his family now. I’m not sure if he’ll play tonight because he’s coming off of a bout with The ‘Vid and he wasn’t feeling it against Calgary so he didn’t play there. I’d love to see him play though and I think the fans in Edmonton would show him how much they miss him. 

I do have a bone to pick with those that are pumping Bear’s tires though. He’s getting 5/6 minutes in CAR, his PDO is 103.4, and the Hurricanes system really helps their skaters’ fancies. 

Ethan spends a lot of time with TEAM USA stud Jaccob Slavin. Here are Bear’s numbers with and without Slavin.

	CF/60	FF/60	SF/60	GF/60	xGF/60
Together	2.31	3.55	4.96	1.75	2.88
Bear w/o Slaavin	0.19	-1.85	-3.48	-16.67	-3.02
Slaavin w/o Bear	2.65	4.13	3.55	13.33	9.08

Good Christ! I can see why Rod the Bod keeps these two together… Bear has been an absolute train wreck away when played away from the team’s best defenseman.

Isn’t that weird? You’d think the fancy stat guys would look at that and say Bear is really dragging Slavvin’s numbers down or that Slaavin is pumping Bear’s up in such a massive fashion that it’s kinda hard to take those metrics seriously. 

Well, either way, when it comes down to brass tacks, the Oilers chose Evan Bouchard and I think that was the right choice for the short-term and the long. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqhUwN0fuVA

Oilersnation

Oilers Must Reduce the Soft Plays

• The same scene has unfolded time and time again with the Oilers in 2021.
• They continue to self-implode. They make soft plays at crucial moments and it costs them games.
• Edmonton controlled the game last night just like they did against the Wild on Tuesday. But they can’t stop shooting themselves in the foot with egregious mental and physical mistakes.
• It has been the Oilers weakness for some time. I’m not sure how it gets fixed, other than a commitment to increase focus, execution and attention to detail at key times.
• I’m not sure it is a system issue. If it was the Oilers wouldn’t have outshot and out-chanced the Jets those games.
• The coaches and players need to have some tough-love conversations within the dressing room.

BLH’s Thoughts: On Friday’s Jason Gregor Show, Jason Strudwick figured it was a team maturity issue and maybe it is. The Oilers have been running a pretty young defense lately. Strudwick also mentioned that Bouchard MUST get more physical with players in his own zone. He can’t just allow them to walk out of the corner to set up the GWG against. In the young defender’s defense though, Struds also brought up how they used to say the same thing about Nurse when he was young… So we’re back to the peaks and valleys conversation again… 

I don’t know how many unforced errors Edmonton’s skaters have committed that have gone on to go into their net. But that first goal against Minny was on Darnell Nurse in my mind. Why didn’t he plow Eriksson-Ek out of the way? This is a $9M/yr defenseman starting in 2022… He was trying to stick check the Wild forward like it was Atom hockey…

Those kinds of errors are annoying. When a guy as big as Darnell doesn’t use his physicality effectively and it costs his team, I can’t stand it. Reckon Nikita Zadorov or Erik Gudbranson down in Cowtown would’ve stick checked somebody standing on the doorstep? Highly doubtful… $9M/yr… Woof. 

Spector’s Hockey

• NEW YORK POST: Larry Brooks asks if the Rangers should attempt to acquire Chicago Blackhawks winger Patrick Kane if they could get a third team involved to make the salary-cap dollars work. Kane, 33, has a year remaining on his contract with a $10.5 million annual cap hit.
  • “Would you get Kane if it cost you Kaapo Kakko (but not Alexis Lafreniere), Nils Lundkvist (or Zac Jones or Matthew Robertson but not Braden Schneider), Vitali Kravtsov (but not Will Cuyelle or Brennan Othmann) and a 2022 first-rounder?”
• BOSTON HOCKEY NOW:Joe Haggerty cites NHL analyst Mike Milbury suggesting the Bruins need to move on from captain Patrice Bergeron during a recent appearance on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show”.
• ESPN.COM: Emily Kaplan reports Blackhawks interim general manager Kyle Davidson and his staff are still evaluating their club and haven’t yet decided on their plan for the team. That includes goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who’s slated to become an unrestricted free agent next July.

This is your TL/DR (too long, didn’t read) summary post where excerpts are taken from the best of the best when it comes to Edmonton Oilers blogs. BLH gives you his two cents on the latest posts being published in the Oilogosphere! Including those from Lowetide.ca, The Athletic, Oilersnation, The Cult of Hockey, Copper N Blue, Oil on Whyte, and more!

The latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation comes from all of the internet’s top sites like Spector’s Hockey, The Fourth Period, NHL Trade Talk, The Hockey Writers, Sportsnet, and TSN just to name a few!

If you’re short on time but want to keep up with the day’s Oilers news, you’ve come to the right place!

Give us a follow on the socials!

• Youtube: Beer League Heroes Channel
• Twitter: @beerleagueheroe
• Instagram: @beerleagueheroes
• Facebook: Beer League Heroes

The Hockey Writers

Oilers Reportedly Already Active In Trying to Add Defenseman Via Trade

• According to Emily Kaplan of ESPN, the Edmonton Oilers are not necessarily going to wait until the NHL trade deadline to start doing their homework on a defenseman that would be available this season via trade.
• Kaplan doesn’t come out and talk directly about Duncan Keith‘s injury situation, but what’s going on with the veteran defenseman is still a bit of a mystery.
• If the Oilers are looking at a name like Ben Chiarot, perhaps Holland is trying to beat the rest of the market to the player and get him involved early.
• The sooner the Oilers can add a defenseman the sooner they can get those two players back where they belong and play really big minutes and gain important experience for the next time they get called up.

BLH’s Thoughts: Tell ya what, if this losing streak goes as long as it has the potential to, I think all bets are off. 

Now, there’s lots of road left in the season and this team is just as apt to throw down a 5-game winning streak as it does a 5-game losing streak. So, they may just be working the kinks out now and as things sit, better now than in April. 

I like the idea of adding Chiarot because he’s akin to Cody Ceci and he’s been around the block a bit. He’d offer the left side of Edmonton’s defense another shutdown defender and my hope if he were acquired is that Duncan Keith could get more specialized deployment. 

That said, the Habs have a few players that I’d love for the Oilers to get and if there’s a blockbuster brewing where Edmonton could find themselves with Chiarot and say Brendan Gallagher, that’s what I’m all about.

Oilersnation

Weekly Rumours

• Ben Chiarot: He’s a left-shot defenseman and he only carries a cap hit of $3.5 million, so he might actually be a pretty good fit for the Oilers.of their six defensemen that have played at least 200 5v5 minutes, he has the 2nd best GF%.
• Mark Giordano from Seattle, Nick Leddy from Detroit. The Oilers would have to have those respective teams eat half of those players’ salaries as Giordano has a cap hit of $6.75m and Leddy’s is $5.5m.
• Khudobin has another year on his contract and with Mike Smith already under contract for next season, it’d be silly for the Oilers to bring in a 35-year-old making $3.33m be their tandem for the next year and a half.

BLH’s Thoughts: I’d read that Nick Leddy is available earlier and I kinda wondered how he’d look in Edmonton. He’s a fantastic skater, but I am a little concerned that the train has left the station with him. 

I don’t see Gio going to the Oilers and Khudobin’s done. That Cup run a couple years back did him in. 

The Daily Goal Horn

• The NHL rumor mill has already placed Dylan Strome and Marc-Andre Fleury as trade bait candidates. Recently, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period added another name to the mix…  “For teams looking to shore up their blueline and bring in somebody that can stabilize that backend, Calvin de Haan is going to be a player that a lot of teams are going to be looking at closer to that deadline.”
• “Understand, there is no word that the Blackhawks are interested in moving (Patrick) Kane, the 33-year-old winger whose contract expires at the same time as Chicago captain Jonathan Toews. But management of this disgraced organization will likely have to face the reality that dealing Kane — who has a no-move clause — will become necessary in order to jump-start a necessary reconstruction. Question is, would the move be more beneficial next year or now?” – Larry Brooks