Tag Archives: Anaheim Ducks

Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Sunday Night Pint

Beer League Heroes Sunday Night Pint #11: Ladies Night!

Hayley Wickenheiser

Welcome back to the Beer League Heroes Sunday Night Pint! Now, if you’ve never experienced the SNP then you’re in for a treat tonight. It’s Ladies Night and we’re talking puck with three of the brightest and best female bloggers in the the whole Oilogosphere! Jackie Dawson (@jackiedee16) and Meg Fowler (@mig14) from The Oilers Rig as well as Oil On Whyte‘s Sammi Silber (@sammisilber)!

So without further adieu, let’s get this SNP Ladies Night Edition started!

WHICH TEAMS WILL MAKE THE STANLEY CUP FINAL AND WHO’LL WIN IT ALL?

JD: First off…anyone who says the Oilers are going there is nuts. I’m an Oilers fan, and I’d love to see it but I’m also a realist. They’ll improve but they’re still going to have growing pains so don’t expect the world from them this year.

From the West, I think you’ll see Chicago in the mix again…they’re just a well oiled machine. St. Louis had such a great season last year it will be hard to count them out as well. However, I think we might see Anaheim pull it all together this year so I’m predicting the Ducks to come out of the West.
In the East…the Rangers and the Habs will likely be contenders, but never count out a team like Detroit… They somehow manage to make the impossible possible every now and then. In saying that though, I think this year belongs to Tampa Bay.
So I’m going to go out on a limb and predict a Ducks/Lightning final with Tampa taking home the Cup.

SS: The Capitals and the Blackhawks will be in the finals.  I think the Caps can win it in seven games.  Their team looks ready to take it all this year.

MF: SInce I can’t even jokingly say the Oilers without running the risk of being booed off the internet, I’m going to say that we’ll see a SCF between Montreal and *shudder* Anaheim. the Ducks have made some moves this offseason, and have long been competitive in a very competitive Western Conference. There’s only so long a team with a goalie like Price and a pretty strong D can go without winning it all; changes they’ve made up front will also help take them over the hump and into the finals.
I’m taking Montreal in 6.

WHO’LL BE THE FINALISTS FOR THE CALDER TROPHY FOR ROOKIE OF THE YEAR?

JD: There’s a very good rookie class this year, and I’d be crazy not to think Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel will be candidates…I mean, it kind of goes without saying.

Although I don’t think they’ll have these kinds of numbers, I hope it’s similar to the Crosby/Ovechkin battle of the rookies. When it comes to throwing in a 3rd choice…I’m going to go with Arizona’s Max Domi. The kid was a superstar at the World Juniors and I think he will have a seamless transition into the NHL.

SS: For the Calder trophy, it’ll be Eichel, McDavid and I’m going to throw Domi’s name in there.

MF: At the risk of coming across like a total homer, I’m going to guess McDavid, Eichel and some other guy. Honestly, unless one of those two has a season-ending injury early in the year, I can’t see the conversation going beyond them. Obviously, I’d like to think that McDavid will win, not necessarily because he’s the best rookie (even though he clearly will be) but because he will add the most to the team. (Apparently that’s how things are decided… remember the 2011-12 season, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins not winning the Calder despite being the better player AND doing more in 20 fewer games? I do too.)

WHAT DOES THIS YEAR’S BATTLE OF ALBERTA HAVE IN STORE FOR OILERS FANS?

JD: It may be safe to say that the Battle of Alberta will be an actual battle this season. The Oilers have made so many changes in coaching and lineup and have looked like they fixed their give-a-damn, which means an actual work ethic!

The Flames are a relentless hard working team that has a compete level that took them to the playoffs last year, so I think we’ll see an all out war between the two teams.

SS: The Oilers are going to SLAY the Flames in every game in this year’s Battle(s) of Alberta.  In fact, Oilers will win em all, but not by a dominant score. Two games to overtime. The rest? Regulation wins.

MF: Hopefully more wins. they’ve been woefully outplayed for the last hundred or so games against the Flames. I’m hoping they take their split squad preseason results to heart when they play the Flames this year. I think the teams are markedly different from years past, with a ton more talent on the ice. I’m expecting fast-paced, hopefully high-scoring games that will all end with Oilers Ws. There’s not much I enjoy more than watching the Flames get beat by the Oilers, so hopefully I’ll get to see that at least once. Or twice.

MUSICAL GUILTY PLEASURES

JD: I’m fairly eclectic but hands down Maroon 5 is my favorite band and has been for years. I will literally listen to anything by them!

I’m also a big fan of CCR, Metallica, Def Leppard, Daughtry and Bon Jovi when I need to rock out.
When it’s time to dance, Katy Perry, 80’s Madonna (not new Madonna) and Michael Jackson always get me on my feet. Basically any 80’s tune will do that really.

SS: I love Florence + The Machine. I can’t name a time when I’m NOT listening to them.

MF: I have Ace of Base – The Sign on my phone. I listen to it once in a while, totally shame free. I also REALLY love Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red White and Blue” because it’s the most singable country song ever (besides Chattahoochee by Alan Jackson), even if the subject matter is horrifyingly, well, horrifying.

Thanks for joining us this week! Let us know your thoughts in the comments below on today’s topics! And if you’re not following Jackie, Meg, or Sammi on Twitter then you’re a fool! Just kidding but I highly recommend giving them a follow, as you can see; they know their puck!

One more thing before I let you go though. This February on the 26th there’ll be the bestest Oilers shindig of the month at least. It’s The Oilers Rig’s 3rd Annual OilersRig Live4MS Charity Auction! The swag they get at these charity auctions is UNREAL! Not only that but you get to hang out with fine folks from the Rig and watch a hockey game together, maybe get on their live podcast and contribute to a worthy cause. Keep an eye over at The Oilers Rig’s website or their Twitter for more info as there should be some more on this by the end of the month!

 

Corey Mitchell, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

Ryan Whitney Hangs it Up

I’ve always liked Ryan Whitney. Being a Penguins fan, I got to see him at his best, before the ankle injuries took their toll on him. Earlier today, this was posted to twitter

It’s really too bad that his career had to get derailed by injuries. I’ve always thought that Whitney was among the better of the many defensemen to pass through Edmonton in the post-Pronger era. The start of his career showed a ton of promise for the 5th overall pick from the 2002 Entry Draft. This was a time when the Pittsburgh Penguins were god awful, and had an embarrassment of riches resulting from low finishes and high picks. After spending a few season in the AHL with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, Whitney made his NHL debut in 2005-06, playing 68 games and posting 38 points. Whitney would spend parts of the next three seasons in Pittsburgh, and developed instant chemistry with Sidney Crosby on the power play, having the best season of his career in 2006-07, putting up 14-45-59 in 81 games that year. The next season, he would help the Penguins to their first Stanley Cup Finals appearance since 1992, falling to the Detroit Red Wings in 6 games.

Unfortunaley, Whitney would not be returning to the Finals with the Penguins the following year, as he was part of the three player deal that brought Chris Kunitz and Eric Tangradi over from the Anaheim Ducks. It’s too bad that the Pens felt they had to move Whitney to bring in a winger to play with Crosby. I would have loved to see Whitney win the Cup with the Penguins.

His time in Anaheim would be short lived, as just over a year later, Whitney would be moved to the Edmonton Oilers with a conditional pick for high priced blue liner Lubomir Vishnovsky. Honestly, it didn’t seem like Whitney meshed very well with a tight knit team in Anaheim, and wasn’t able to produce the way he did with Pittsburgh. But coming into Edmonton, at the end of a lost season, he was joining a team that was finally willing to embrace the rebuild process. Jordan Eberle was already waiting in the wings, and that spring, the Oilers would use their first ever Number One pick to select Taylor Hall, and begin the culture change in the City of Champions.

Whitney would be relied upon as a veteran leader in the dressing room, a role he seemed to relish. Unfortunatley, he 2010-11 season was also the year that injuries began to take on impact. He was limited to only 35 games, but still put up 27 points. The following season saw an even steeper decline in his production, as his 54 appearances resulted in just 20 points. The fans soured on Whitney, which I always felt was unjustified. If not for the ankle issues, Whitney could have been a very effect blue liner for the Oilers, and could have stabilized a position that found itself in turmoil until just recently when Peter Chiarelli took over the team.

Whitney would last one more mediocre season with the Oilers, and signed with the Florida Panthers in 2013-14. He played just seven games in Florida, spending a majority of that season with their AHL affiliate, the San Antonio Rampage. The next season, Whitney signed with Sochi HC of the KHL, and posted totals of 6-13-19 in his 42 games with the club. In 2015, he signed with MODO of the Swedish league, although he would only appear in 2 games, before deciding to call it a career.

Ryan Whitney was a very polarizing player during his time with the Oilers. While my personal opinion is that he got the short end of the stick from the fans in this city, many people would say it was justified. He by no means had an all-star type of career, but its a career Whitney can be very proud of. He finishes with 50-209-259 in 481 NHL games, and was able to represent his country in the Olympics, playing for Team USA. While Ryan Whitney will never be remembered with the fondness and admiration of say, Ryan Smyth, he was a class act during his time in Edmonton, and represented the Oilers as well as any has during his shirt time here. All the best Ryan Whitney. Enjoy your retirement.

Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, Lindsay Ryall, NHL, Rob Cooke, Sunday Night Pint

BLH Sunday Night Pint #4

Welcome back to another edition of Sunday Night Pint!

This week we’ll have Rob Cooke (@cooke_rob), a hungover Lindsay Ryall (@lindsman77), and myself, BLH (@beerleagueheroe) rattling off some value bombs for you fine folks!

The Topics:

  • Pacific Division predictions!
  • Oilers enforcers!
  • Raising the dead!
Let’s Get This Party Started!

 

1. Pacific Division Predictions

BLH- I think it’ll go down like this: Anaheim, Los Angeles, Edmonton, San Jose, Calgary, Vancouver, Arizona.

I’m not sold on San Jose as a functioning squad this year. Their goaltending is unproven, the lack scoring from the wings and their new coach has done nothing to prove that he’ll take the Sharks any further that where they stand now, out of the playoffs. I’m also convinced that Calgary is going to hit the wall this season. Too many years now of lucking out. Either their young guys, their goaltending, or the coaching dries up this year. Vancouver and Arizona will be in competition for Auston Matthews, Jakub Chychrun, and Jesse Puljujarvi so who cares about them.

L.A. should be good for 2nd place but then again looked what happened to Boston last year…

Edmonton on the other hand is trending up. They’ve improved their roster immensely since last season. I’d say they’re on the opposite end of the spectrum as San Jose. Their top 6 has the potential to be the deadliest in the league and Talbot is entering the prime of his career after putting up some deadly numbers last year in New York. The secret weapon won’t be a player but an aura called The McDavid Effect.

LR – Ducks: The Ducks core is in their prime and they keep getting reinforcements on a maturing D and in goal. Getzlaf, Perry and crew easily have the talent and experience to easily push for another final four appearance and maybe even another cup as Chicago suffers under cap restraints. Finish 1st, 108 pts.

Kings: Many would see the Kings problems as a sign of potential implosion, but the bulk of their core remains intact and the addition of Milan Lucic means they are tougher and heavier in their top six. They could use more depth on D but finishing out of the playoffs will provide tons of motivation for this veteran-laden team only two years removed from a cup. Finish 2nd, 102 pts.

Flames: I hate the Flames, but I have to admit they have the best D in the Pacific and defense gets you wins and points in the NHL today. Look for highly touted rookie Sam Bennett to suffer a severe upper-body injury by mid-season but the rest of the forward group are serviceable if unspectacular and play very well within Bob Hartley’s system. Finish 3rd, 98 pts

Sharks: I predicted this team’s erosion a couple of years ago but they have stubbornly remained relevant… Until last year when they missed the playoffs. Not even Logan Couture’s daunting overbite can save them now. Unproven in goal and leaderless they will continue to drift. Finish 4th, 88 pts.

Oilers: After the draft I took a sip of the Kool-Aid and I liked the taste. Nonetheless, I’m not ready to label this team as playoff bound just yet, still too inexperienced on D and it’s not certain what impact Nurse and Reinhart will have. Nevertheless, they will take a huge step forward and position themselves to challenge the following year. Look for a 75 point season from the Nuge to go with 65 – 70 points from McDavid as he becomes the Oilers’ first Calder Trophy winner. Finish 5th, 84 pts.

Canucks: The Canucks have done nothing to help themselves and continue to drop in talent even further. The Sedins are well into their 30’s and aren’t magicians, so no playoffs for Vancouver. Finish 6th, 82 pts.

Coyotes: The Coyotes have the makings of a very exciting team… In about 3-4 years. Besides OEL they don’t have an impact player and it’s unsure Mike Smith can bounce back from a disastrous season. Missing the playoffs by a lot and being in the thick of the Auston Mathews sweepstakes. Finish 7th, 62 pts.

RC – Anaheim, Los Angeles, Calgary, Edmonton, San Jose, Vancouver, Arizona

2. Who’s Your Favorite Oilers Tough Guy?

McDavid SMASH!

BLH – My favorite Oilers tough guy is the team’s all-time leader in penalty minutes (1747) Kelly Buchberger. He lost more fights than he won but there was no backing down when push came to shove. The list of guys he fought is legendary: Probert, Pronger, Neely, McSorley, Kordic, Grimson, McCarty, Tim Hunter, Brashear, Kocur, and Odjick just to name a few. #BraveMan

LR – Dave Brown: This is a close call as I’m also a big Georges Laraque fan, and who could forget Semenko, but Brown was just so devastating. He didn’t just beat people up, he destroyed them.

RC – Dave Semenko without question. I grew up watching Cement Head take on all comers and I loved the epic battles of Alberta even more when Semenko and Hunter would go at it!

3. If You Could Bring Back Any Hockey Player From The Dead To Play For The Oilers, Who Would It Be?

BLH – I’d bring back Maurice “The Rocket” Richard. I remember reading a children’s illustrated book when I was small boy that featured The Rocket and I can’t remember what the name was but the message was about tenacity. I didn’t know what that word meant but by the end of that short story I knew all I needed to know about the word and the player! This man played the game with as much honesty as you could ask for and never asked for anything in return. Not only that but he managed to get an entire city to riot after he was suspended.

LR – Eddie Shore: Shore was much more than a footnote in the movie Slapshot, he was the original two way defenceman. Shore could beat you with toughness and scoring from the blueline, both of which the Oilers could use on their team today.

RC – This is a really tough one for me because the vast majority of the players that I grew up watching are still alive today. I decided that rather than select a former all star from another organization that I would select a player that left us way to young and had a ton of potential. Kristians Pelss was an Oilers prospect when he tragically died in a swimming accident in 2013 in his home country of Latvia. I have always wondered what he could have become had we not lost him.

Well that wraps it up for us here. Let us know in the comments below your Pacific Division predictions, who your favorite tough guy was or who you’d bring back from the dead to play on the Oilers.

As always you can catch up with us on Twitter @beerleagueheroe or on Facebook!

And if you have it in your heart, please share this post and tweet it out! Thanks guys and gals!

Take Care!

-BLH

 

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

Edmonton Oilers Trade Proposals from Fans

Let’s be honest with ourselves here. We tend to overvalue the players on our team and undervalue players on other teams and most time to the extent of side-splitting hilariousness. So I’m going to try and make this a weekly thing where I look for the most ridiculous or realistic fan trade proposals regarding the Edmonton Oilers circulating the oilogosphere and comment on them. I imagine a majority of them will come from HFBoards. So without further ado, there are some humdingers!

This first one is what I call “The Ditka”.

To Arizona Coyotes: Nail Yakupov and the #16, #33, #56, and #78 picks this year
To Edmonton Oilers: The #3 overall

The gist of the deal is obvious. Reunite McDavid with Strome or add Noah Hanifin… Boy that’s a lot to give up for one guy. On the other hand, what are the odds that any of those other picks have the same impact in the NHL as a Strome or Hanifin?

The second deal on the docket is as follows:

To Edmonton Oilers: Alexei Emelin and the rights to Magnus Nygren
To Habs: Teddy Purcell (50% retained salary) and a 2015 4th round pick

I don’t know… I like a good hard hitting defenceman as much as anybody else and God knows that Purcell is as useful as tits on a boar but $6m seems like a hard hit to take to get rid of Purcell.

The third proposal:

To Edmonton Oilers: Tom Wilson
To Washington Capitals: Nail Yakupov

There’s a part of me that really likes this. Is Wilson the modern day Dave Semenko?… Could he be? I think there’s one foregone conclusion though, someone on the right wing is going to get moved sooner or later and this team needs someone willing to let the other team know that roughing up our stars will not be tolerated.

Proposal #4:

To Edmonton Oilers: Derek Stepan, Cam Talbot, Carl Hagelin and Kevin Klein
To Rangers: The 1st overall pick

So the guy that wrote this believes that he’s helping the Oilers so much by getting them a top center, a goalie, a complementary winger and a “solid” defenceman at the minimal cost of Connor McDavid… What I don’t understand is how people come up with these ideas sometimes. Would you deal that for Mario Lemieux or Gretzky, Crosby or Ovechkin? Crikey! What have any of those Rangers done lately?

Here’s another beaut!

To Edmonton Oilers: MA Fleury and Evgeni Malkin
To Pittsburgh Penguins: The 1st overall pick and Ted Purcell

I guess Edmonton’s salary cap is infinity times a million and thanks for being nice enough to take Purcell….

This proposal has me thinking:

To Edmonton Oilers: John Gibson, James Wisniewski, 3rd round pick (2015)
To Anaheim Ducks: Nail Yakupov, Ben Scrivens, and the #16 pick this year.

As I said earlier, one of Yakupov or Eberle will be moved at some point and the Oilers could use player like Wisniewski on the point. Gibson is sure to be a helluva goalie sooner than later but do you make this deal knowing that the Oilers defence is strife with overpaid veteran defenders?

Here’s another with the Rangers:

To Edmonton Oilers: Dan Girardi and Cam Talbot
To Rangers: The #16 and #56 picks this year and Nikita Nikitin

There’s something to really like about this one. Dan Girardi would be a perfect fit on the Oilers and a great presence for the younger players like Nurse. Could he be the kind of partner that would calm Justin Schultz’s game down?

The last proposal of the day:

To Edmonton Oilers: Alex Edler, Eddie Lack, and Zack Kassian
To Vancouver Canucks: The #16, #33, #56 picks this year and Martin Marincin

I guess the overall point of this charity is so that the Canucks can accelerate their rebuild?… What? Because inter-division rivals LOVE helping each other out…

Well I hope you enjoyed the read. I had a good laugh going through the trade boards over at Hockey’s Future in order to bring this to you. If you heard any proposals that have made you piss your pants, feel free to send ’em over in the comments below!

Before you go, I’d love it if you headed over to the Beer League Heroes T-Shirt shop and took a gander. Maybe pick one up and help keep this team afloat if you’re so inclined. We’d really appreciate it!

Thanks for reading!

– BLH