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

Oilersnation

Friedman: “McDavid deserves many, many more calls against him than he gets”

• Friedman is bang-on with the sentiment about Tortorella’s comments making for bad television. The NHL has found itself in a good spot with games being aired on ESPN, the United States’ largest sports network, for the first time in years. Having a former coach say that the league’s top player needs to shut up and keep his head down isn’t at all interesting or entertaining analysis.
• There are plenty of players around the league who have a valid gripe about not having penalties called on them, but McDavid is at the top of the list. The fact that McDavid, who logs 22:34 per game and has the puck on his stick more often than he doesn’t, has drawn fewer penalties this season than Philadelphia Flyers defenceman Nick Seeler is insane.
• “The question I’d be asking if I was the NHL is this: if we want to get more people into the building, are we going to have to give our fans reason to believe star talents will be given more of an opportunity to succeed?” – Elliotte Friedman

BLH’s Thoughts: ESPN should hire a guy like comedian Bill Burr, who is a MASSIVE Boston Bruins fan and knows the game, because he’d be a great foil for John Tortorella. You put other hockey guys on there and there’s too much respect being given to the former coaches and players. Burr wouldn’t have it and watching him go at Tortorella for such a shit take would be of the utmost hilarity. 

I’ll tell you what needs to be done about the missed calls on the league’s stars and a lot of people won’t like it. There needs to be somebody sitting upstairs with the ability to communicate with the referees or the time box officials and when a call is missed, the game is stopped. Simple as that. 

Now, that might slow down the flow of the game but only temporarily until the refs stop being game managers and start doing their jobs correctly.  

This is what is done in professional soccer to an extent. If there’s an infraction behind the play that the ref doesn’t catch, the linesmen can “buzz” the referee and the match stops, then the two officials have a chat and a judgement call is made.

If the men in stripes on the ice can’t do their job, maybe a level of overseeing is required as a bit of incentive. 

Edmonton Sun

Edmonton Oilers’ record is admirable but have underlying concerns

• They always say you are what your record says you are, so the Edmonton Oilers are an 11-4 hockey team with a .733 winning percentage, only bested by Carolina and Florida through the first month of NHL games.
• They average four goals a game, No. 1. They play pitch and catch on their power play, scoring for fun with 20 in their 15 games, and their PK is No. 5 in the league.
• They’re chasing too many games. They’ve given up the first goal in nine of their 15, all five games of the just completed road-trip. That is not a recipe for success.
• At 5-on-5, they’re an ordinary NHL team, actually outscored 36-34. And 45 to 48
  minutes out of every 60 is commonly spent at even-strength.
• They’ve surrendered 47 goals, actually only five fewer than the COVID-riddled Ottawa Senators at 4-10-1.
• They’re in the bottom third in goals allowed at 3.13 a game. Twenty teams are giving up fewer than that a night.
• They’re averaging 33.6 shots against a game.
• Draisaitl is on an unbelieveable heater with his 17 goals on his last 44 shots…  No active NHL player has ever scored more than 15 goals in their first 15 games. Best is Alex Ovechkin, David Pastrnak and Auston Matthews (15 in 15).
• (Derek) Ryan is winning 57.4 per cent of his face-offs, a good thing, but is now the fourth-line C, buried five-on-five with goals against (-10). He has an estimable career 53.7 Corsi at even-strength and he’s 47.5 now. He has one point and 15 shots in 15 games.
• Foegele has two points (assists) in his last eight games and only six shots. He’s -7. He’s normally 53.6 Corsi, and he’s 50.8.
• Kassian has eight shots in his 11 games.
• There is no defined fourth line…
• Koskinen was lights-out in the win in St. Louis with half a dozen 10-alarm bell saves, but that early one to Adam Lowry in Winnipeg that leaked through him on the game’s first shot from distance? Not good.
• The second defence pairing of Duncan Keith and Cody Ceci, excellent early and tasked with an abundance of defensive-zone starts, is starting to show some cracks.

BLH’s Thoughts: So, I do remember somebody saying to scale back the enthusiasm when this team was 9-1-0 because November was going to be a different story… I wonder who that was? Sounds like a smart hockey fan. 

So Duncan Keith is playing about two minutes too much according to Matheson and that would explain why Edmonton might be looking for a left-shot defender. Now, the question is, are they looking for a 20-minute/night guy or are they looking for somebody more dependable to play on the third pair?

With Mikko, despite his record and early season stats, he’s not a true no.1 goalie and with that, the expectations being heaved upon his shoulders by the fans (and the coaching staff, frankly) are too much. He’s showing signs of fatigue in my opinion and it’s about time Coach Tippett started to show some faith in Stuart Skinner because he needs the reps and Koskinen needs the rest. 

It’s funny, for all of the radio guys and newspaper men in Edmonton who watch the practices, I’m surprised we never hear about the weak ones he lets in during those morning sessions… You’d think that’d be the first place where fatigue-related mistakes would start to appear… 

Spector’s Hockey

• THE ATHLETIC: Pierre LeBrun reports the Colorado Avalanche isn’t interested in shopping Samuel Girard. The 23-year-old defenseman is in the second season of a seven-year contract with an affordable $5 million annual average value.
• NEW YORK POST: Larry Brooks examined what the Rangers could do to address the loss of forward Sammy Blais to a season-ending knee injury… Brooks wondered if they could interest the Los Angeles Kings in a swap of Kravtsov’s rights for recently demoted center Gabriel Vilardi.

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

Lowetide.ca

• I think Broberg is moving his timeline up for recall.
• Broberg’s speed is a major positive, and he can move the puck effectively.
• Coverage and decisions are going to be uneven on arrival (rookie defensemen will break your heart) but the current combination of Russell and Koekkoek for third pair LH side isn’t going to make it to the playoffs.
• Markus Niemelainen and Dmitri Samorukov are more experienced and a better style match, so should be a more likely early recall. Tippett can get impatient in a hurry with his defensemen, so we could see a recall.
• As for trading one of these men for immediate forward help, it’s so early in the season and dealing (say) Samorukov could be extremely short sighted.

BLH’s Thoughts: Do the Oilers need another puck mover or in Broberg’s case, a puck transporter as opposed to more physical defensive-minded prospects like Samorukov or Niemelainen? They’ve all got size, can handle the puck, can skate, albeit not to Broberg’s level, but still at an NHL level. 

I mean, this team has to slot players into the roster in appropriate roles. Most likely Samorukov and Niemelainen aren’t going to play on the 2nd pairing if they make it to the NHL as regulars whereas Broberg’s floor is the 2nd pairing with top-pairing potential. 

In my mind, the Swede’s North American roadmap should be AHL top-pair (1-2yrs) -> NHL 3rd pair w/ PK time (2yrs) -> NHL 2nd pair w/ PP+PK time (2yrs) -> NHL 1st pair w/PK+PP time (duration of career) and this is something that can take between five and eight years.

We’re in year one of my hypothetical plan and Philip is still only 20yrs old. He won’t be 21 until the off-season… 

The Oilers should really be slow-playing his progression to maximize the chances that he’ll reach his ceiling and it’s really time for Samorukov and Niemelainen to get a shot as there’s a high chance they’ll skip town if they feel the Oilers have no intention of promoting them and their skillset is in demand in Edmonton. 

Oil on Whyte

3 Players the Oilers Need to Be Better Moving Forward

• When the Oilers signed Derek Ryan, the expectation was that he would center their third line and provide secondary scoring… was able to score his first as an Oiler against his former team in the Calgary Flames in just the second game of the season.
• Unfortunately, Ryan has been held off the scoresheet ever since, and has been demoted to the fourth line in favour of recent call up Ryan McLeod.
• Tyson Barrie’s two goals and eight points in 14 games don’t seem to suggest that he is struggling, but there is no denying he hasn’t provided the same offence he did last season.
• It is worth noting that Barrie started slow out of the gates last season and seemed to improve as the year went on.
• Through their 14 games this season they are converting on a ridiculous 41.9 per cent of their chances. With that success rate, one would expect that Barrie would be playing a more significant role in that, but to this point that hasn’t been the case.
• After a down 2020-21 season, fans were hopeful for a bounce back season from Kailer Yamamoto… his four points in just 14 games is extremely disappointing for a player who is skating on a line with Leon Draisaitl.

BLH’s Thoughts: Ryan McLeod will be the key to getting the best out of Derek Ryan and what I mean by that is if McLeod is playing to his potential, it allows Dave Tippett to deploy Ryan as the team’s 4C, a more suitable role for the soon-to-be 35yr old. 

With Barrie, I think we’re stuck with his peaks and valleys, but at the end of the day, you’re going to get about 50pts per year from him in an 82-game season, right? This is who he is and there’s no sense in wasting one’s breath suggesting he change his ways. 

Yamo should be fine. This is not a 60-80pt player, he might top off at 40-45pts but he an elite penalty killer and this is something Oilers fans should be ecstatic about. The day the team can slot him on the 3rd line and somebody like Xavier Bourgault on the 2nd line will be a good day because it means the team’s depth has become even better. Homegrown depth no less. Then again, Ken Holland is no stranger to trading young players… 

The Daily Goal Horn

• “Hearing [Canucks] owner Francesco Aquilini to meet with GM Jim Benning this afternoon,” Elliotte Friedman reported. “Neither individual will comment, but from what I understand, this is a meeting to understand why the team is losing and address it, not to make a change at the position.”
  • If this isn’t about firing the GM, one has to wonder if Travis Green may be the first casualty of a bad start.
• Unfortunately for (Sammy) Blais and the Rangers, he will miss the remainder of the season with a torn ACL… Rangers need a winger… Maybe they were not interested in trading for the 34 year-old Phil Kessel before, but he’s the most readily available top six NHL forward… Would the Rangers even consider Vladimir Tarasenko?… The Golden Knights have Reilly Smith… Another potential option could be David Perron in St. Louis, or maybe something with the Canucks if they want to shake things up.

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

Oilers have 5 areas to improve after subpar 5-game trip

• History repeating with the bottom six: …not one of the nine forwards who’ve spent time in the bottom six this season has a positive goal differential at five-on-five. Not one.
  
  • The Oilers have become a two-line team again, especially when they’re trailing.
  • Ryan, Kassian and Foegele have all been outscored decisively at five-on-five lately. Ryan is at a woeful 13-3 deficit overall.
• The Bad Goal Blues: Koskinen’s other two starts, against the Bruins and Jets, saw him let in a dreadful goal each night. He whiffed on a point shot from Brandon Carlo in Boston and let an Adam Lowry shot from well out squeak by him in Winnipeg.
  • Koskinen has let in a few stinkers this season, and his save percentage has now dipped to .910. He was pulled heading into the third period against the Jets…
• Five-on-Five Woes: The Oilers were outscored 15-11 at five-on-five during the trip. They allowed three such goals in each of the five games.
• The Duncan Keith and Cody Ceci Rollercoaster ride: Turnovers and poor defending — in their zone, off the rush and at the offensive blue line — were especially notable in the Buffalo and Winnipeg games. The Oilers were outscored 4-0 with Keith on the ice and 3-0 with Ceci at five-on-five in those two contests.
• Evan Bouchard’s Lull: Tippett mentioned after the St. Louis loss that the Oilers need to be harder in front of their own net, calling it the team’s “biggest improvement needed.”… 
  • He (Bouchard) failed to take his man, Vladislav Namestnikov, on the second goal against in Detroit. He let Vladimir Tarasenko have his way in front for a tap-in marker to tie the score in St. Louis. He didn’t tie up Mark Scheifele’s stick in front, and the Jets centre tipped in a point shot.

BLH’s Thoughts: Peaks and Valleys, baby! I was definitely expecting them with Bouchard, but not so much with Ceci and Keith. That might speak to the increasing rumors regarding a left-shot defenseman. Maybe the club is looking for somebody to put on the 2nd pairing alongside Cody Ceci so they can move Keith down to the third pair… 

As for Edmonton’s bottom six, do you think the guys on those lines reckon if they can just saw off the other team’s offense and leave their own team’s scoring to their mates in the top-six that they’ll be good to go? I mean, surely there are NHL players who really pride themselves on being really good 3rd or 4th liners, no? I’m talking about the Archibalds and the Sceviours in Edmonton and the Lowrys in Winnipeg or the Blake Colemans, Barclay Goodrows, or Yanni Gourdes from last year’s championship winning Tampa Bay Lightning team… 

Does anybody else who listens to Oilers Now get the feeling that Ken Holland might be looking to improve the roster via internal promotion? I’m hearing Bob Stauffer bring up Dylan Holloway’s and Philip Broberg’s names almost daily and that gives me the feeling that Holland might prefer to get a look-see at those two before making any significant trades. 

The Hockey Writers

Oilers’ Future Bright With 3 Top-Scoring Prospects

• The Oilers drafted Carter Savoie 100th overall in the 2020 NHL Draft. Savoie is smaller at 5-foot-9, but he’s been a proven goal-scorer at every level
  • This season, he’s off to a blistering start. In 10 games, he has 10 goals and 17 points. His 10 goals rank second in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCCA) scoring, and he’s tied for sixth in points. On Nov. 13, Savoie scored two goals in 20 seconds, becoming the third-fastest player to score consecutive goals for the Denver Pioneers.
• Russian-born Matvey Petrov was selected by the North Bay Battalion as the first-overall pick in the 2020 Canadian Hockey League (CHL) Import Draft… In July, Petrov was selected by the Oilers 180th overall in the 2021 NHL Draft.
  • He was impressive in his Ontario Hockey League (OHL) debut, recording a hat trick, one assist and eight shots on goal. He continues to impress with 12 goals and 21 points through 16 games. His 12 markers rank third in OHL scoring, which is a spectacular feat considering it’s his first year playing full-time on a North American-sized rink.
• The Oilers selected Xavier Bourgault 22nd overall in the 2021 NHL Draft from the Shawinigan Cataractes of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL).
  • He leads the QMJHL in both goals and points with 15 goals and 30 points in 16 games (1.8 P/G). He had a hat trick most recently on Nov. 13, and he was named the QJMHL player of the month for October. His tremendous start should garner serious consideration for Team Canada at the World Junior Championships in December.

BLH’s Thoughts: Great starts for all three of these wingers means Oilers fans everywhere are already getting their jersey retirement banners ready. 

I keed! Simply put, if you’re going to be a legitimate NHL prospect, you’ve got to dominate at the junior, collegiate and minor pro levels. 

Now, the jump from junior and college to the AHL is quite large and sometimes the production doesn’t follow or it takes some time to catch up. Take Kirill Maksimov and Rafa Lavoie for example, Maksimov was the definition of a sniper in the OHL but he couldn’t piss a drop in Bakersfield and Lavoie scored at will in the QMJHL as well as the Allsvenskan and yet, this season, it hasn’t translated at all. 

So, we’ll keep an eye on these talented young men with the only kind of hopes Oilers fans know, unrealistically high. Get those hall-of-fame plaques ready!

NHLRumors.com

• James Nichols: The Fourth Period had earlier reported that New York Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello could wait until closer to the NHL trade deadline to make a move… Avalanche defenseman Sam Girard has had his name enter the rumor mill.
• Andy Strickland: NHL Player Safety head George Parros is one name that has been linked to an executive position with the Anaheim Ducks.
• Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic: Speculation has Filip Forsberg‘s agent J.P. Barry possibly meeting soon with the Nashville Predators about a contract extension for the 27-year old pending UFA. He’s in the last year of his deal.
• Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic: Forward Eric Staal is still skating in Minnesota and hasn’t given up on the idea of playing this season.
• Jesse Granger of The Athletic: One, not too painless, way for the Vegas Golden Knights to get under the salary cap whenever Jack Eichel is ready to join the Golden Knights lineup is to send Jake Leschyshyn and Jonas Rondbjerg to the AHL, waive Michael Amadio and Ben Hutton, and trade pending UFAs forward Reilly Smith and defenseman Brayden McNabb… That would put the Golden Knights $300,000 under the cap ceiling with a 21-man roster.
• Allan Mitchell of The Athletic: If the Oilers turn to the trade market at some point for a goaltender, options could include Thomas Greiss (Detroit), Jonathan Bernier (New Jersey), Marc-Andre Fluery (Chicago), Anton Khudobin (Dallas), and Braden Holtby (Dallas).
  • Potential current/former Detroit Red Wings trade targets could include Danny DeKeyser (Detroit) , Dennis Cholowski (Washington) and Luke Glendening (Dallas).

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

Cult of Hockey

Player grades: Edmonton Oilers vs Winnipeg Jets turns into one big Sequence of Pain

• Connor McDavid, 8. Plenty to like from him on the attack, where he finished with two assists. He made ten contributions to Grade A shots, six of them on the power play… He had nine wins and two losses on the dot.
• Leon Draisaitl, 6. I’d give him a grade of nine for his power play work, a three for his iffy even strength play, which averages out to a six.
• Jesse Puljujarvi, 6. Hustled hard but could not break through this game. Cracked a wicked slot shot on net in the first off his own rebound. He got a 5-alarm one-timer late in the game.
• Zack Kassian, 3 . He was invisible on the ice, which is saying something for someone so big.
• Darnell Nurse, 3. His worst game of the year? Likely. He lost too many battles. Five major mistakes on Grade A shots against at even strength. His late turnover in the first led to a wicked Dubois shot. Hammered Blake Wheeler with a hard hit. He got beat again on a dangerous chance by Dubois in the third.
• Tyson Barrie, 7 . Edmonton’s best d-man this game. He made four major contributions to Grade A shots for at even strength and not a mistake on one against (but one such error on the power play). 
• Evan Bouchard, 3. Another iffy defensive game. He made six major mistakes on Grade A shots against. 
• Mikko Koskinen, 3.  In the end, he let in four goals on 14 Grade A shot, not so terrible, but not nearly good enough, especially with that one stinker goal against.
• Stuart Skinner, 8. Stopped a partial breakaway shot by Kyle Connor for his first save. Stopped a Grade A shot from Dubois as well. What’s not to like?

BLH’s Thoughts: That was as close to a playoff game as one will ever see this early in the season and in semi-predictable fashion the Oilers shit the bed because in the post-season goaltending and 5v5 scoring is of the utmost importance.  The Jets also had the better goaltending, better bottom-six, and I felt their defense was much more engaged. 

From an individual standpoint, aside from the usual suspects on Edmonton, I thought Yamamoto was really engaged and the same with Puljujarvi. McLeod had his flashes of brilliance as did Foegele and I was happy to see Brendan Perlini get a really good scoring chance. How about Stuart Skinner coming in for the final frame and standing on his head? Well done, kid! 

Oilersnation

GDB 15.0 Wrap Up

• The Oilers struggled out of the gate allowing the first goal against in what feels like the millionth time this year and once again, Edmonton was forced to chase the game all night long.
• Winnipeg took two penalties and Leon Draisaitl capitalized on both. But again, too little too late. Edmonton poured it on with multiple solid looks in the final frame, but the Winnipeg Jets held strong.
• For the Oilers, it wraps up a five-game road trip that seems them go 2-3 with wins against Boston and St. Louis, but falling to Detroit, Buffalo and Winnipeg. Edmonton didn’t do a ton to make it easy on themselves and in all honestly, could’ve walked away winless on this roadtrip.
• Draisaitl now has scored seven multi-goal games. The next closest? 20 other players with two multi-goal games.
• Nik Ehlers scored Winnipeg’s second goal of the game moments after the refs missed a blatant interference call committed by Mark Scheifele on Derek Ryan.

• If I’m not mistaken, it’s something like six straight games now that the Oilers have sacrificed the first goal of the game.
• By the numbers, any defenceman not named Tyson Barrie had a poor game. Duncan Keith was fighting it and was directly involved in turning over a few pucks that led to goals the other way.

BLH’s Thoughts: I get that Mikko let in a couple of softies and early in the game he looked rough, but even then, he still made some really key saves. This game could’ve been REALLY ugly had he not come up clutch. That said, is he starting to show some fatigue after playing most of the season so far?

Ya know, it would’ve been nice if Zack Kassian would’ve let Winnipeg’s stars know they were in for a long night like the Jets did with Leon Draisaitl, but this club doesn’t employ those kind of players in their bottom-six aside from Kass and Foegele and McLovin’ isn’t really that type, he’s just a really engaged forechecker. 

Games like this are where we see the value of having big physically imposing defensemen ~NAY~ players(!!!) on your roster. Edmonton’s puck movers couldn’t move said puck effectively all night thanks to Winnipeg’s insane pursuit of that little black disc. Maybe some bigger bodies would’ve been more able to handle that kind of physicality?

The irony in that statement is that Edmonton’s best defenseman on the night was Tyson Barrie, an offensive blueliner, and one of their worst dman was Darnell Nurse, their most physical man on the backend.

Conversely, sans what you’d truly define as a “puck-moving” blueliner, Winnipeg’s defenders seemed to control their end of the ice very comfortably. The Oilers didn’t give them or Connor Hellebuyck any real problems the entire evening and the Jets easily kept Edmonton to the outside and reaped the benefits.

Here’s a question, how much of the Oilers’ 5v5 struggles defensively are on playing personnel and how much are on coaching tactics? Bob Stauffer was saying on his radio show the other day that teams generally find their rhythm in January… Can this team wait that long to sort out it’s even strength issues and what happens if they can’t? Of course, this is easy to ask after a loss, but should the organization consider a change behind the bench at that point?

Spector’s Hockey

NBC SPORTS: Adam Gretz believes there are teams that should regret not making a push to acquire Vladimir Tarasenko from the St. Louis Blues after the 29-year-old winger requested a trade this summer.

• The Seattle Kraken passed on selecting an unprotected Tarasenko in the expansion draft.

TVA SPORTS: Jean-Charles Lajoie suggested the Montreal Canadiens could use a defenseman to improve their blueline shortcomings this season. Philippe Boucher agreed, proposing they look at acquiring Samuel Girard from the Colorado Avalanche.

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 Cult of Hockey

The Magnificent Seven are driving Edmonton Oilers’ early season excellence

• Seven magnificent players are driving the Edmonton Oilers’ hot start to the 2021-22 season… Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid, Darnell Nurse, Zach Hyman, Mikko Koskinen, Cody Ceci and Jesse Puljujarvi, with honourable mentions going to Kailer Yamamoto, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Evan Bouchard.
• During the McDavid Era, I’ve never seen results as good as we’re getting right now — in admittedly a small sample size — from Draisaitl at centre, Hyman at wing and Nurse on defence.
• Puljujarvi and Ceci’s Grade A shots plus-minus numbers at even strength are also outstanding, bettered by only a few players in the last seven years, while Koskinen is playing as well as he did in his peak 2019-20 season with a .915 save percentage.
• Draisaitl’s at +2.0 Grade A shots per game, which is better than McDavid in his MVP season of 2020-21, when he was at +1.9 Grade A per game…
• On the wing, no winger has come close to the +2.4 Grade A shots plus-minus that Hyman is putting up right now. He’s crushing it both on the attack and on defence. He’a two-way steamroller.
• And Nurse? He’s got the best number we’ve ever seen for a d-man in a Top 4 heavy minutes role against tough comp. He’s at -0.2 Grade A shots per game ES… 

BLH’s Thoughts: This is really cool and all, but we’re 14 games in… Let’s see where we stand at game 44. If the Oilers “Significant Seven” are still rockin’ it, then we can come back and give credit to the CoH for getting in early on why Edmonton are one of the best teams in the league.

Oilersnation

Don’t Lose the Plot

• We’ve seen 11 after 14 games this season, the latest being a 5-4 decision over the St. Louis Blues in the Show Me State Sunday. Was it a perfect game? No. Have any of the 11 wins fallen into that category? No.
• Just off the top of my head,
  • the Oilers allow too many goals against 5-on-5…
  • they’ve been guilty of too many slow starts and falling behind early…
  • …there’s a fixation by some about Marc-Andre Fleury because, well, Mike Smith is out and Mikko Koskinen, who is 9-1-0, and Stuart Skinner might not be good enough to get the job done. Sure.
• The old saying is the devil is in the details, and there is truth to that. But when a team is winning, those details, while worthy of attention so they don’t turn into something that impacts the bottom line, are sidebars.
• …the Oilers, to repeat, are 11-3-0. I’ll take that record over hanging my hat on 5-on-5 scoring or Corski and Fenski with the team at, say, 3-11-0.
• The old saying is the devil is in the details, and there is truth to that. But when a team is winning, those details, while worthy of attention so they don’t turn into something that impacts the bottom line, are sidebars.

BLH’s Thoughts: As Lowetide was saying this morning, amongst Oilers fans arguing for the sake of arguing is a real thing. The analytics ultras and the eye-test mob will be at it until the end of days… 

Personally, I agree with Brownlee here, in that I’d much prefer my team to have shit analytics but be 11-3-0 than outstanding fancies and be 3-11-0 because at the end of the day, NHL hockey is for ENTERTAINMENT… Mind you, if you’re a professional gambler, you might be watching the games for different reasons and then all of these statistics are quite important to you. 

Spector’s Hockey

• THE HOCKEY NEWS: (Ryan) Kennedy kicked things off by suggesting Arizona Coyotes winger Phil Kessel as the most obvious choice.
• He also wondered what the market would be for defenseman Kris Letang if the Pittsburgh Penguins decide the postseason isn’t in the cards for them this season.
• (Matt) Larkin suggests center Tomas Hertl as a trade candidate if the San Jose Sharks slide out of playoff contention.
• Another one could be Seattle Kraken defenseman Mark Giordano, prompting Larkin to wonder if the Calgary Flames might attempt to reacquire their former captain.
• Larkin noted Evgeni Malkin is also in the final year of his contract… Malkin could be a player they could get a lot for in the trade market if they decide it’s time to move on.
• Larkin also mentioned Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury as a trade candidate. He suggested the Edmonton Oilers as a club that might want to kick tires on Fleury or current free agent Tuukka Rask.

BLH’s Thoughts: Rask has said it’s Boston or bust and he wants to try and make the Finnish Olympic squad for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing. I would think the Bruins would do their best to help him out considering he’s played such a big role in the team’s success during his tenure. Then again, would it shock you if there were still some bitter old souls lingering from when he opted out of the playoff bubble mid-series a couple years back?

As long as Koskinen and the Oilers are winning, I expect Ken Holland to stand pat. Now, come March with the NHL trade deadline looming, everything could change.