Tag Archives: Arizona Coyotes

Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

Oilers VS. Coyotes Game Preview: Ladies and Gentlemen… THE NUGE!!!

Can McDavid bag a few more points vs the 'Yotes?
Can McDavid bag a few more points vs the ‘Yotes?

Tale of the Tape:

Game: COYOTES (29-32-7) at OILERS (27-36-7)
Location: Rexall Place, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Time: 10 p.m. ET
Where to Watch It: Sportsnet, Fox Sports-A+, NHL.TV

Edmonton Oilers Preview (5-4-1 Last Ten)

Nugey’s back baby and for the first time all year, maybe EVER, the NHL is going to witness the birth of it’s very first eight-headed Hydra! McDavid, Nugent-Hopkins, Hall, Eberle, Draisait, Yakupov, Maroon, and Kassian are going to lay waste to those that come before them!

But coming back to reality, these two teams have played each other three times already with the home team coming out on top each time. So I suppose that is a plus for the Oilers here. I’ll be honest though, whenever the Oilers play the Coyotes it’s the most boring game… I’m hoping the bash brothers (Maroon and Kassian) will spark some life into this game. That’s not to mention the offensive firepower that will be on display.

With a win the Oilers could move itself into a tie for 26th place with the Buffalo Sabres. I mean nobody really wants Edmonton to be in that bottom three right but we all know it’s going to be that much sweeter when they’ve finished the season in 25th place and still win the lottery, right?

Keep an Eye On: Jordan Oesterle (5gp 0g 1a 1pt). The fleet-of-foot defender is opening some eyes and even had Bob Stauffer comparing his career trajectory in the same breath as Brandon Davidson on a recent edition of Oilers Now. The boy can skate like the wind and he moves the puck. If only he were right-handed…

Who’s Hot: Cam Talbot is on fire right now. In the last week he’s picked up two wins and has posted a .946 Sv% and a miniscule 1.67 GAA.

Injury Report: Benoit Pouliot (Shoulder), Oscar Klefbom (Leg), Eric Gryba (Knee), Andrew Ference (Hip), Brandon Davidson (Knee?)

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Arizona Coyotes Preview (2-7-1 Last Ten)

I thought these guys were doing well this year… Louis Domingue was the hottest goalie on the block and now when I look at the standings, they Oilers are only 4 points behind them? Weird.

This team is dead last in the NHL for goals against. They’re on the hind end of a back-to-back (they beat the Lames last night, which isn’t saying much) and it’s the last of a four game road trip to which they’ve got 1-1-1 on.

OEL has missed the last two games with a knicked up shoulder but could be back in Edmonton. The ‘Yotes are 9 points back of the Avalanche for a wild card spot and I have to wonder if they’d risk playing Ekman-Larsson at this point as oppose to giving me the extra rest.

Keep an Eye On: Max Domi (67gp 17g 27a 44pts). Recently in the news regarding a one game suspension for rag-dolling Anaheim Ducks forward, Ryan Garbutt at the end of the Arizona/Anaheim game this week. Domi’s production has tailed off a bit since his hot start but nevertheless, he’s the Coyotes most dangerous forward and most fun to watch.

Who’s Hot: Antoine Vermette has six points in his last four games but four of those points came against the Panthers on March, 5th. Alex Tanguay has five points since joining the Coyotes from Colorado at the trade deadline.

Injury Report: Mike Smith (LBI), Joe Vitale (Broken Facebone), Anders Lindback (Achilles), Kyle Chipchura (Personal Reasons), Oliver Ekman-Larsson (Shoulder)

Predictions: 

I’ll predict an Oilers win. Domingue might be playing well at the moment but he’s got his hands full with the Oilers eight-headed hydra coming at them. Nuge is back and he’s going to be looking to make a good impression on Team North America’s GM, Peter Chiarelli and its coach, Todd McLellan. (See what I did there?)

What might sink them are the usual brainfarts like leaving Max Domi alone or giving him a shit ton of free space to do what he wants like they did earlier in the season. Oh and they’re AHL defence that they’ll be going with. But here’s to hoping one of the three scoring lines clicks and that the powerplay finds a way.

Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

Oilers Musings on Hockey Day in Canada

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Happy Hockey Day in Canada everyone! First off I want to thank everyone who has visited Beer League Heroes over the last few days! We’ve seen record numbers of visitors in that time and we’re super stoked to have been able to fulfill your hockey cravings. Now onto the HAWKEY!!!

The Oilers are getting set to light up the Habs with Ben Scrivens scheduled to be back stopping Montreal and Connor McDavid’s return has seen the boys in blue and orange light the lamp 12 TIMES in the last two games!!! WOW! Good times indeed. Not only that but Darnell Nurse took us back to a time where the Oilers had players who through knuckles with hate in their eyes with every punch. Fawk ya!

So as I was listening to Oilers Now today (Friday’s edition), I heard Bob Stauffer and Elliotte Friedman talking about what Edmonton might do with the deadline coming up. They started talking about the possibilities regarding Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle, Justin Schultz, etc. But then a very important point was brought up and I think it’s one that not a lot of people truly consider.

The Oilers have not played one game with their best five players on the ice once this season – Bob Stauffer

I have to go off the top of my head here but I’m thinking those five players are:

  • Taylor Hall
  • Connor McDavid
  • Jordan Eberle
  • Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
  • Oscar Klefbom

In my opinion it would be foolish to make any moves without seeing what the team has when the team does indeed have those fantastic five on the ice playing together in the same game.

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Now I have been told that Chiarelli is happy going forward with a young group on defense. Meaning that Nurse, Klefbom, Reinhart, and Davidson are safe and adding an ever-improving ‘Rej Sekera, a steady Mark Fayne, and a solid Eric Gryba would all but eliminate any notions of a trade to upgrade to that area apart from moving Justin Schultz. But that was when the team was struggling to score. The message I got was that Chiarelli was willing to move a forward to get help for the forwards… Probably not the case now that the return of McDavid from injury has re-ignited the flames of scoring.

Stauffer and Friedman also spoke about Justin Schultz’s value.

If the Oilers could get a 2nd for Schultz, I’d be impressed. – Elliotte Friedman

Me as well. But he could very well be a nice pick-up for a team in the wildcard hunt or a wildcard spot with cap space and looking to add a puck-mover on the back-end.

Two teams jump out at me, the Arizona Coyotes and the Nashville Predators.

Arizona at the moment is two points out of a wildcard spot and has $31 million dollars roughly in cap space according to General Fanager. Their defense looks like this:

Defensive Pairings

Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Connor Murphy

Klas Dahlbeck
Zbynek Michalek

Nicklas Grossmann
Michael Stone

I see some fine two-way dmen there in Murphy, Dahlbeck, Michalek. An Elite offensive defender in OEL and two stay-at-home blue liners in Grossman and Stone. I reckon Schultz could be of some value to the Coyotes on the 2nd PP perhaps. I might go as far as to say he’s better than Grossman, at least more mobile and a better puck mover.

As for the Predators, they are sitting in a wildcard spot with 56 points but area 5-4-1 in their last ten. They’re stuck running with a under-performing Pekka Rinne and that’s a tough spot for them. The have $27 million in cap space, so absorbing Schultz’s cap hit would be nothing to them. Their defense looks like this since the trade of Seth Jones:

Defensive Pairings

Roman Josi
Shea Weber

Barret Jackman
Ryan Ellis

Mattias Ekholm
Anthony Bitetto

Who is Anthony Bitetto? I might be displaying some blatant igonorance here but I have never heard of this guy. A rookie nonetheless and I don’t think I’d be able to find someone who’d disagree with the sentiment that Justin Schultz would fit perfectly in that 3rd pairing role beside Mattias Ekholm or Barret Jackman.

The return I’d seek from these teams would be near-ready NHL prospect or a 3rd round pick. Such prospects might include former Oil King Henrik Samuelsson, QMJHL scoring leader Conor Garland or Swedish wrecking ball, Anton Karlsson. I love that Swede!

From the Predators I’d be looking at NCAA standout Jimmy Vesey or the behemoth defenceman, Jonathan-Ismael Diaby.

What do you think? Should the Oilers let it ride into next season and then try to make a deal? Let me know in the comments below!

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

BLH Post Gamer G17 Oilers VS. Coyotes: Blazing Arizona

From healthy scratch to honorary face-off taker! Mark Fayne everyone! Photo courtesy of Norm Hall

Ok be honest, how many people thought that the Oilers blew their respective loads in that first period? I mean right off the bat they were in the Coyotes zone and buzzing around like a bunch of pissed off hornets! I was jacked when they scored because that was a thing of beauty between Hall and Draisaitl.

But then everything started to come into perspective for a team on the latter half of a back-to-back. Darnell Nurse couldn’t get that puck to Sekera and Leon Draisaitl, for some reason, was already bolting the zone looking for the breakaway… OEL scooped up the pass meant for the right winger and deposited a seeing eye shot top cheese to tie the game up… Boo!

https://twitter.com/YotesHereToStay/status/665037948232925184

I had a feeling the team would start to slow down going into the 2nd period and slow down is what they did. The Coyotes took full advantage of a tired Oilers team and potted two more. The first was on the PP, Andrej Sekera couldn’t retrieve the puck on a Coyotes dump-in and uber rookie Max Domi thiefed it from under Sekera’s nose, proceeded towards the net; waited for Eric Gryba to commit, and then sauced a lovely little pass to a waiting and untouched Shane Doan. Bingo bango baby! Coyotes up by 1.

The next goal came not four minutes later as the Oilers 4th line couldn’t manage to keep the puck in the Arizona zone, the Coyotes Kyle Chipchura picked it up in the neutral zone and broke in to the Oilers zone versus Oscar Klefbom and Luke Gazdic… That just spells trouble right? So Chipchura stops up just at the top of the circle on the left wall and decides to let his teammates catch up, then he drops a pass off to John “Wayne Gretzky is my middle name” Scott; who in turn fires a shot at the Oilers net. Anders Nilsson’s lack of rebound control leads to Stefan Elliott tucking that baby away… Wait.. Yes, that’s right. DEFENCEMAN Stefan Elliott in the Oilers slot… Never let another man in your slot. That’s your slot. Dirty slot… Check it out the slotty action below.


You’re telling me Luke Gazdic couldn’t tie up Elliott’s stick enough on this one to prevent the puck from going in?… Yeeesh! Why did Benoit Pouliot choose this day to be hung over? Not that he would’ve prevented that goal but… You know what I mean.

I’m not sure what Pouliot’s deal was. He was too sick to play. Surely it wasn’t because he had a few too many “Arizona Iced Teas”. But I’m just taking the piss. So take it easy ultras.

Walter Foddis’ Post Game Shooting Metrics

That was about it for Edmonton. Their performance in the third period didn’t inspire a lot of confidence and I for one was happy for it all to end. Arizona did end up putting one more in the net though as Iiro Pakarinen unsuccessfully tried to knock the puck past the Mike Stone at centre ice which lead to the Coyotes dman bringing the puck back into Oilers zone. Stone tried to put the puck on the net but it pinballed around the slot for a few seconds before returning to Stone’s stick and then he fired it at the net where Domi was having his afternoon tea. Easy tap-in due to Nilsson’s inability to control the rebound. UGH!!!


I’m happy that game is done and over with. The Oilers are having a helluva time trying to defeat the Coyotes recently and it’s such a boring bloody game. The NHL wants to improve scoring, how about eliminating boring hockey teams? Nothing worse than watching defense first teams.

Oh hey, did you catch John Shannon saying that the Coyotes are looking to move… To a new arena soon… I’m not sure if anybody told him and it’s something I’m noticing all to much lately. The lack of regular season attendance in those southern markets. Just take a gander at the crowd’s at a Carolina, Anaheim, Florida, Dallas, or Arizona game. Not sure who’s counting the tickets at those games but I think they’re coming in a little high. Yet, if any of those teams make the playoffs it’s hockey central… Bloody shame I think it is. If the NHL and their owners are willing to foot the bill for teams like the Panthers and the Coyotes, they should just relocate them to Canadian cities. You can be damned sure that a team in Quebec City or Saskatoon wouldn’t have attendance problems apart from not having enough seats to accommodate everyone.

Ok. Take a breath…

I think the best Oiler on the night was Taylor Hall. He was flying out there and really trying to get his team to follow suit. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the team wasn’t having any of it. One name I didn’t hear a lot nor did I see a lot was Mark Fayne’s… Is that a good thing? Well they do say a defenceman has done his job well if you’re not talking about him…

Ah well, better luck versus the Kings on Saturday. I’m looking forward to a much better game from the rested Oilers and there must be some payback for that last game versus LA and the goal that Johnny Quick pulled out of the net.

The other thing I’m looking forward to… The 20 game mark. Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

Until then folks! Take care!

BLH

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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

Armchair GM, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, NHL Entry Draft, Prospects

2015 Beer League Heroes NHL Mock Draft Pt.2

Welcome back! Today we’re going to look at picks 16 through 30! Edmonton, Buffalo, Toronto, Winnipeg, Arizona and Philadelphia all have a second pick in the latter half of the first round. With that said, let’s get to work!

Continue reading 2015 Beer League Heroes NHL Mock Draft Pt.2 →