Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

Edmonton Oilers Training Camp Chatter: Puljujarvi and Chiasson Nearly Come to Blows

This won’t be a long one today as there wasn’t a whole lot reported from training camp yesterday, so let’s start with the big one… He’s #13 on the scoresheet but #1 in your hearts, Yessa!!! Puljujarvi!!!

So, Pulju changed his number and I love it!

I asked around about what the deal was with #98 and I was told that #9 is his favorite number but obviously that wasn’t coming down from the rafters and his favorite player growing up was Teemu Selanne and he wore #8… #98 was born.

His birth year might’ve played into it somewhat, although I think that’s just coincidence.

The story behind #13 has a lot to do with wiping the slate clean and starting fresh, but I’m sure we’ll hear at some point that Selanne is the inspiration there once again. He also wore the number whilst playing for Finland as a junior.

Fun fact:

Risto Jalo played on a Finnish super line at the 1982 World Juniors (tell me if you’ve heard this before) alongside future Vancouver Canuck Petri Striko (cool name!) and future Edmonton Oilers Raimo Summanen. The three finished the tournament 1-2-3 in scoring, Summanen had 16 pts while Striko and Jalo both had 15.

Now, here’s where the fun starts, check out the top-ten scorers and the tournament all-star team,

Rank Player Country G A Pts
1 Raimo Summanen*  Finland 7 9 16
2 Petri Skriko  Finland 8 7 15
3 Risto Jalo*  Finland 7 8 15
4 Mike Moller*  Canada 5 9 14
5 Anatoli Semenov*  Soviet Union 5 8 13
6 Marc Habscheid*  Canada 6 6 12
7 Scott Arniel  Canada 5 6 11
8 Bruce Eakin*  Canada 4 7 11
9 Oleg Starkov  Soviet Union 3 8 11
10 Magnus Roupé  Sweden 7 3 10
Position IIHF Directorate Awards Media All-Star Team
Goaltender *Mike Moffat Mike Moffat*
Defencemen  Gord Kluzak  Gord Kluzak
Ilya Byakin*
Forwards  Petri Skriko  Petri Skriko
 Vladimír Růžička*
Mike Moller*

I count eight players (the ones in bolded italics with a *) that, if you know your Oilers history, were part of Edmonton’s organization at one point in their careers to some extent. That’s nuts… Especially for that era.

This is going to endear Jesse to his teammates so much and I’ve said before that if he just went out in a game or practice and hit someone or got in a fight, he’d earn a bit of respect from his teammates. Just like he did when he got in that scrap in the AHL with the San Diego Gulls Corey Tropp.

It didn’t matter that he lost that tussle, that’s not his game, but he got in the muck and decided to throw down. In the hockey world, that’ll earn you some points and Jesse could use a bunch of those right now.

Now, if he starts blocking shots and wallpapering guys, watch out!

Tyler Benson and Joakim Nygard swapped lines for practice yesterday, but I don’t think it’s something that should be read into too much unless Benson really outplays Nygard. I reckon that Tippett is just giving Benson a chance with the other guys to see what he’s got so that he can make a decision on whether or not to keep him on the taxi squad or send him to Bakersfield.

This news is very relevant to the Benson/Nygard swap because when Dominik Kahun joins the main camp, he’ll get started beside Leon Draisaitl and Kailer Yamamoto (whose straight-ahead speed has improved allegedly) and that will push Tyler Ennis to the 3rd line and Josh Archibald to the 4th.

The other reason this relates to Benson and Nygard is the fact that Devin Shore IS a full-time NHLer and I would bet a few bucks that he’d be preferred due to his all-round game and his positional versatility.

I can’t wait to hear more news from today’s practice!

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