Tag Archives: Artemi Panarin

Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Prospects

2019/20 Edmonton Oilers: Spector and Stauffer on Philip Broberg Plus More!

Yesterday, the best player in the NHL, Leon Draisaitl, was named as one of the three Hart Trophy finalists along with the Rangers’ Artemi Panarin and Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon. Great news but expected news nonetheless.

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Now we can expect to hear the analytics community really ramp things up in support of Artemi Panarin as this year’s winner. The basis of their argument to really simplify it is that the best player in the NHL should not only be great offensively but defensively as well and to that, I ask that community, how many minutes did Panarin play on the penalty kill this year? Because that is really a defining factor in determining who is simply a one-way player and who is considered a two-way one.

Here’s the answer,

5:03 (source)

How many did Leon Draisaitl play? 69:04…

Geez, it doesn’t look like Artemi’s coach trusted him enough on the defensive side of the game to put him in the most defensively challenging scenarios. Well, maybe it was because he was bloody trash on the PK as indicated by his -7.92 GA/60 (rel) and -8 xGA/60 (rel) during that time…

Sure, Leon might be a minus player at all strengths but if I recall correctly, isn’t he +5 at 5×5? My math could be off mind you.

Look, here’s the deal. Since 2005 only three players have won the Hart without having

  • A 10+ difference in goals
  • A 10+ difference in assists
  • A 10+ difference in total points

between the leader and the player in second place in these categories.

Those three players were Taylor Hall (2018), Corey Perry (2011), and Sidney Crosby (2007)

So Leon has a 15 point lead on Panarin and a 17 point lead on MacKinnon, a 16 goal lead on Panarin and a 13 goal lead on MacKinnon, and only a 4 assist lead on Panarin and a 9 assist lead on MacKinnon.

**Mini Rant Alert**

But some are happy to simply say Draisaitl’s a -7 and throw the rest of the context out. I mean, for Pete’s sake, Panarin needed a GD pandemic to take place for the Rangers to even be in a potential playoff spot and for him to be considered for the trophy. It’s not like Shesterkin didn’t come in and save their butts from being a lottery team… Similar to when the Devils’ backup goalie, Keith Kincaid I think his name is, did his best Marty Brodeur impression and got NJ into the playoffs (barely) and Hall winning the Hart as a result even though McDavid had ten more points than him.

Then there are guys like Bruins beat writer Joe Haggerty, who know +/- is a BS stat to use in this argument, but still use it! It’s dumb and everybody knows it unless they need to use it to support their side of an already failed argument…

If Leon doesn’t win it and Panarin does, it won’t be because the German had a dash seven on his stat line… Now, if MacKinnon wins it, I won’t be too hard done by there.

**Fin**

Spector and Stauffer on Broberg

Yesterday morning Sportsnet’s Mark Spector and host of Oilers Now, Bob Stauffer, went over how good Philip Broberg has looked at camp and why Spector penned an article detailing how he thought Broberg has passed Evan Bouchard on the Oilers depth chart.

If you want to listen to it, I’ll put up the audio at the very bottom of the page.

MS: a  lot of fans who are fans of Evan Bouchard thought it was crazy to say that Broberg, after a week of camp, has passed him (Bouchard) by on the Oilers depth chart. I guess we should define depth chart, are we talking about going into these playoffs? Are we talking about the big list behind Ken Holland’s desk in his office? But I’ll tell you one thing, right now, at this camp, for these playoffs, Philip Broberg is closer to playing in an NHL game, in my opinion than is Evan Bouchard.

Evan Bouchard skated this morning and they put him in the ‘B’ group with Tyler Benson and Marody and Broberg is getting time on the ice with Klefbom. I’m not saying he’s taking Larsson’s job, that’s not what I’m saying, but he is in a position to be a player here in these playoffs. He’s still no. 8, let’s say the 8th guy but in my opinion, he’s passed Bouchard and he’s passed Lagesson.

BS: And you know his teammates know it. They’re watching what’s going on because what’s the old saying Spec? Who are always the first to know?

MS: The players know, right? When they were all hootin’ and hollerin’ the other day when he made that play, they were watching and they know. The players know, they know, and you can’t fool the players. They’re very impressed with what this kid’s doing.

BS: Mark, this might sound stupid to some of the listeners but some defensemen aren’t actually that fast in terms of when they skate forward. They’re so good skating backward and they’ve got great lateral movement and that sort of thing but they’re not always super explosive at skating forward. This guy EXPLODES on you and it’s the ranginess.

I think Scott Wheeler from the Athletic compared Broberg to John Klingberg, I don’t see that because Klingberg is really an elite offensive defenseman that can really walk the line. When I think of Broberg I think more of an upgraded Noah Hanifin. Like Hanifin can really skate too but hasn’t reached the offensive potential some people thought when he was a top-5 pick. Maybe there’s a chance that could happen with Broberg?

MS: That’s what we don’t know. Young players never ascend in a straight line, right Bob? It’s a bit of a mountainous graph as a player gets better, takes a step back, gets better. So what do we know about Broberg? Well, we saw him at the Hlinka two years ago, his stride stood right out. I mean of all the guys at that tournament, there’s one guy I left that tournament thinking, “Whoa man! Who’s number four for Sweden? Can number four ever skate?!” and you watch him out here and he just has a superior superior stride. He’s an NHL skater right now.

So for a defenseman, defensemen that can skate are defensemen that are going to play a long time and this kid can really skate. Where will the offense go, Bob? Well, we saw him blitz around Russell on that rush you talked about, uh, how’s his shot going to be? I haven’t really had a chance to see him unload much. We know Bouchard has an excellent shot from the right point. We’ll see all that stuff, the kid’s 19! You think of Leon Draisaitl when he was 19 and how he looks today. So I don’t know where he’s going to go, I just know that what I see so far has NHL defenseman written all over it.

BS: Well, it’s impacted how key people think based on the quotes. I mean we ran Dave Tippett’s stuff and he’s like, “We could play him at left defense, we could play him at right defense, we could put him at left-wing, we could put him at right-wing, we could put him at center.” it’s like just the way he was talking, that’s the head coach talking and he’s a guy that’s not overly effusive in his praise at times for young players, right? But that’s how good Broberg has been.

He’s a transporter and Bouchard is a transitioner and ya know what? There’s room for both long-term in the top-four and if these guys both, I’m not even saying these guys are going to be top-two, I’m just saying if you have four legitimate top-four defensemen, you can live with that. And the Oilers have got Ethan Bear, who’s looked very good, Mark. They got Klefbom and they’ve got Nurse. Those guys are still signed long-term. So you add these two guys into the mix, not including Larsson because they’re going to have to re-up him here after another year, but they’ve got the makings of a pretty good defense, Mark.

BLH’s Comments: A player is ready when a player is ready. Ask any person in professional hockey. he could be 18-years-old or he could be 27. In a league where skating is of the utmost importance, Broberg already shines. My concern is that if he’s going to be screaming down the wing and cutting to the middle, how long until he gets his bell rung or something else happens to him?

By 2020/21, the Oilers defense could look like this,

Klefbom/Larsson
Nurse/Bear
Broberg/Bouchard
Jones

Puck Racism

The sales are starting to trickle in with this design and I’m going to spam the hell out of it on my website and the BLH Hockey Instagram because I feel passionate about it and I feel like Hockey is Diversity deserves the proceeds that I’ll be donating to them.

So, please. If you’ve got an extra $20 lying around and you want to do a good thing for good people, click the pic down below and grab a t-shirt, a mask, a onesie, a tank top, or some stickers.

Hockey is Diversity is a German group whose aim is to draw attention to the ethnic diversity in society, which goes beyond the sporting borders in order to sensitize people interculturally. The diversity that has long been regarded as an enrichment in sport as a melting pot of people of different ethnicities, cultures, and religions should also be transferred to society.

Click the pic and help support this worthy cause! Portions of the proceeds will go to Hockey is Diversity!

#Operation19W has begun! Grab some swag and show your support!

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

Edmonton Oilers Rumors: Only One Oiler on Frank Seravalli’s First TSN Trade Bait Board of the Season

I know, it’s kind of shocking to only see one member of the Edmonton Oilers on TSN’s Trade Bait Board. Well, it’s not RNH, it’s not Oscar Klefbom, nor is it Jesse Puljujarvi. This season, the first Oiler up on Frank Seravalli’s Trade Bait Board is…

Zack Kassian!

He along with 14 other players highlight the board and will be amongst the rumors all season long until of course they are dealt.

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Let’s take some time and comment on each of the players briefly in relation to the possibility of the Oilers picking them up.

  1. William Nylander (TOR) – Can’t see it. No way no how. Forget what his old man did when Kevin Lowe was GM. Nylander is looking to get PAID and the Oilers are going to have enough trouble paying their own players after this season unless they make some moves.
  2. Kevin Hayes (NYR) – The Rangers pivot would tempt Peter Chiarelli I’m sure due to his size but in my opinion, he doesn’t produce enough for how much he’s being paid. I wasn’t impressed with his performance earlier in the year when the Oilers beat his Rangers either.
  3. Mats Zuccarello (NYR) – I like Zuccarello as a complimentary piece for the Oilers but only as a rental. I think the cost to acquire him would be dear and not worth it in the long run. He’s very much what I hope Kailer Yamamoto turns into because I feel they play a similar style.
  4. Alec Martinez (LAK) – This is definitely a player I could see the Oilers getting in on. He’s a RHD who has championship experience and has played in a defensive system his entire career. I think he’d compliment Darnell Nurse on the 2nd pair fairly well and he’s only making $4M a year for this season and next.
  5. Gustav Nyquist (DET) – He’ll be cashing in this summer but if there was any way he could be had on the long-term for $4M, he’d definitely be worth it. Not flashy by any means but he’s consistent and when paired with a good centre, effective.
  6. Tanner Pearson (LAK) – I’m not a huge fan of Pearson and I can’t really put my thumb on it as to why. He seems to be a pretty consistent 35-45pt guy and the Oilers could definitely use that. Maybe he’s not flashy or physical enough to my taste.
  7. Sergei Bobrovsky (CBJ) – Nope. No goalies be coming Edmonton’s way. Especially when this one is looking for Carey Price money.
  8. Brett Pesce (CAR) – I really can’t see Carolina messing with their team chemistry with how they’re playing to start the year. That said, would you trade Jesse Puljujarvi for Pesce? The defense would be set for the next 5 years in that scenario.
  9. Tyler Myers (WPG) – I think Chiarelli would love to get his hands on another big man but Myers is going to be getting Chara-like money this summer and why would the Jets even look at moving him in-season? They’re more of a Cup contender with him than without him.
  10. Artemi Panarin (CLB) – If Panarin didn’t have his heart set on playing for a coast team then I’d say Edmonton should go for him. Every time he plays the Oilers he sets them ablaze. He’s so good but alas, it’s not to be in this fairy tale.
  11. Vlad Namestnikov (NYR) – This $4M Russian was 2 points away from 50 last season spent mostly with the Lightning of Tampa Bay but after being dealt in the Ryan McDonagh trade, he only managed 4 pts in 19 games… Enigmatic I think is the word that describes him best. The Rangers have put him on the block so he’ll more than likely join his third team in less than a calendar year and not often is that a sign of good things to come for a player in that scenario.
  12. Charles Hudon (MTL) – I like this guy. A lot. He also fits the description of the Peter Chiarelli Special. A player who isn’t gaining traction with his current club, is cheap and is an RFA at season’s end. Hudon, to me, is a player who I’d describe as skilled sandpaper. He can play it any way you want to and that’s the kind of Swiss Army Knife Todd McLellan loves to deploy IF he has it.
  13. Zack Kassian (EDM) – I don’t think the case needs to be made for keeping or trading him. It’s been done to death in the last week. I like him but if the Oilers could get from out of his contract and maybe use that space to upgrade the roster, I’m all for it.
  14. Kyle Clifford (LA) – I’ve always had time for a guy like Kyle Clifford. He’s very much in the Matt Hendricks mold and I really value those kinds of players. I think he plays an honest brand of hockey but he’s not dirty. He knows where to draw the line. He’s a tad cheaper than Kassian but definitely slower than him too.
  15. Wayne Simmonds (PHI) – Remember when there was a deal on the table that had Jordan Eberle being traded for Simmonds? Ah… Those were the days. The Flyers’ winger is on the back 9 of his career and I’m for certain that Edmonton wouldn’t be getting the Wayne Simmonds we remember if they traded for him. He’s also a UFA this summer and I could see him getting a healthy raise.

What are your thoughts? Do any of those players interest you and what would you be willing to pay to get them?

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Edmonton Oilers, Fancy Stats, G Money, NHL

An offhanded look at wingers and hands

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The idea of defense handedness is now well established I think – we recognize that ‘off hand’ defensemen often pay a penalty in terms of effectiveness.

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Since some wingers also play on their off hand (a right shot left wing, or a left shot right wing), a few weeks ago I was mulling the idea of winger handedness.

Conventional wisdom suggests that doing this allows for:

  • Greater effectiveness in the offensive zone (with the shot having a better angle to the net), but
  • Less effectiveness in the defensive zone, where stick-off-boards makes for tougher defending and zone exits.

Dallas Eakins even experimented with putting Nail Yakupov (left shot right wing) on the left wing to try to manage his defensive woes (though this just seemed to confuse the young lad more).

I began to wonder if anyone has looked more broadly to see whether off-hand wingers are demonstrably more or less effective than on-hand wingers.  I put the idea out on Twitter, asking if anyone knew of work that had been done in the area.

It sparked an interesting and widespread debate, but it appears that it’s a relatively understudied issue.  This work by Arik Parnass (just hired by COL) vis a vis the power play was interesting.

@behindthenet’s brief look at overall handedness found some interesting anomalies.

But other than that, I found little or nothing specific to wingers.

So … why not do some initial digging into the idea?  Start by comparing wingers on their on hands vs wingers on their off hands, and see if there is a meaningful result as far as differences in points or shots or offense/defense.

Data

To pull this data, I used as my starting point the NHL ‘statsapi’ JSON live feed data.

This is an unusual source of data in that most fanalysts scrape the NHL roster sheets for player data. However, I have found the NHL roster sheets problematic for identifying positions (for example, Jordan Eberle has been listed as a C since he entered the league), while the JSON data entirely by visual scan appears to be more accurate.  Plus it very conveniently embeds the required data on player handedness.

So I used that.

The rest of the data for the players (boxcars and shot metrics) are scraped from the more conventional NHL game sheet data sources. All data used is for the 2015-2016 season. Any errors therein are my own, unless in the NHL data.

Process

As a starting point, I decided I would look at just a handful of key data points for comparison:

  • points per game at even strength (EVP/Gm)
  • goals per game at even strength (EVG/Gm)
  • even strength shot attempts, percentage (CF%) as well as for and against rates per 60 (CF/60, CA/60) so as to be able to separate defensive and offensive effectiveness
  • My own “Dangerous Fenwick” statistic, a distance and shot type weighted danger metric.  Again, percentage and for and against rates.

I did not filter the wingers for TOI or games played – if a player appeared on any game roster in 2015-2016 listed as right or left wing, that player was included in my data set. Measuring the effectiveness of a group like this suggests that we should include the ones who were ‘cup of coffee’ or bottom of roster types.

The wingers were separated into four groups: Left Wing/Left Shot, Left Wing/Right Shot, Right Wing/Right Shot, and Right Wing/Left Shot.  I then pulled demographic data, specifically country of origin and primary team in 2015, for each group.

Country of origin became of interest when I noted that the two off-hand wingers on the Oilers (Nail Yakupov and Anton Slepyshev*) are both Russian. In the same way that there is a distinct American bias in right handed defensemen, I wondered if there is a geographic bias in the development of off hand wingers.

*”Slappy” is listed as LW by the NHL, but by recollection the Oilers used him as a right winger at times. Not sure which is correct. This is another reminder that no dataset is ever 100% accurate.  We rely on data volume to account for such natural variability.

Raw Counts

Left Wing / Left Shot 155
Right Wing / Right Shot 113
Left Wing / Right Shot 19
Right Wing / Left Shot 46

On hand wingers are clearly the most common situation. Left wingers outnumber right wingers, just as LHD outnumber RHD.

The most common role for off hand wingers is a left shot right wing.

Team by Team

Counts for the categories of wingers by team are as follows (maximums are highlighted):

Team LW/LS LW/RS RW/LS RW/RS On Hand Off Hand
ANA 5 0 0 6 11 0
ARI 7 1 2 3 10 3
BOS 2 0 1 4 6 1
BUF 7 1 0 3 10 1
CAR 8 0 0 1 9 0
CBJ 7 0 1 5 12 1
CGY 7 0 2 2 9 2
CHI 5 1 2 4 9 3
COL 5 1 2 3 8 3
DAL 4 1 1 3 7 2
DET 6 1 4 0 6 5
EDM 7 1 1 5 12 2
FLA 3 2 2 1 4 4
LAK 6 0 1 1 7 1
MIN 5 1 1 4 9 2
MTL 7 1 1 5 12 2
NJD 8 0 1 5 13 1
NSH 3 3 3 1 4 6
NYI 6 1 1 4 10 2
NYR 5 0 2 2 7 2
OTT 7 0 1 6 13 1
PHI 3 0 1 3 6 1
PIT 6 1 2 6 12 3
SJS 3 0 1 3 6 1
STL 3 0 5 3 6 5
TBL 4 0 2 4 8 2
TOR 4 2 3 6 10 5
VAN 6 0 2 7 13 2
WPG 3 0 1 8 11 1
WSH 3 1 0 5 8 1

Though the numbers vary across the league, few teams look overly unusual in usage.  St. Louis (unusually high off hand RW) and Carolina (just one natural RW) both stand out to me.

Country of Origin

The following chart shows country of origin for each of the four categories of wingers:

Any country that did not have at least 10% representation in any one category was lumped together into Team Europe. If it’s good enough for the World Cup, it’s good enough for me!

Canada produces disproportionately fewer left shot right wingers, while Russia and Sweden produce disproportionately more off hand wingers.

There is a clear geographic bias to off handedness in wingers.

Effectiveness

The performance of the different categories of wingers is summarized in the following table.

Category EVP/Gm EVG/Gm CF% CF/60 CA/60 DFF% DFF/60 DFA/60
LW/LS 0.33 0.14 49.1% 53.8 55.9 48.9% 38 39.8
RW/RS 0.32 0.14 49.5% 54.6 55.7 49.5% 38.2 39
LW/RS 0.37 0.18 50.6% 56.5 55.1 51.0% 39.1 37.5
RW/LS 0.38 0.16 50.6% 55.9 54.6 50.3% 39.4 38.9

* Technical note: The shot metrics are grouped i.e. the raw for and against counts are summed for each group, then divided by total (or summed EVTOI) to produce the percentage and the rates.

Notice something interesting: off hand wingers are producing slightly but distinctly better results than their on hand counterparts in every category. The off hand wingers score more points, more goals, and have better Corsi and Danger metrics.

This is the reverse of what is observed with defensemen, where being on the off hand typically carries a penalty.  With wingers, it appears to confer an advantage.

Furthermore, the improvement is not solely because of greater offensive impact (as you’d expect) – rather, both the for and against shot rates are slightly better.

This is not entirely expected.

Statistical Validity

Of course, the differences between each of these two groups, while distinct, may not be statistically valid given the inherent variance within the two groups.

To test this, I used a Welch’s t test (assuming independent samples with different variances) to compare each of the two groups of left and right wingers. I used CF% and points/game as the comparison statistics for test.

Note that the underlying data set for the purposes of this test treats each players seasonal results for CF% and points/game as one data point (different from the summary table above).

The results are somewhat counterintuitive:

Wing Metric tcrit p Note
Right CF% 11.87 2.48E-016 Highly significant difference between on and off hand RW
Left CF% -1.94 0.07 Significant at 10% level, not at 5% level, for off hand LW
Right Pts/60 0.89 0.38 Not significant
Left Pts/60 -1.12 0.28 Not significant

The only statistic that was significant at 95% confidence was CF% for right wingers. Off hand right wingers produce a higher CF%, and the result is statistically highly significant.

The CF% difference for off vs on hand left wingers was significant at the 90% confidence level, but not the 95% level.

That RW is significant and LW is not despite being similar in magnitude is likely entirely due to the sample size, given there are only 19 off hand left wingers.

If I had applied a TOI filter, I suspect this would likely reduce the variance observed in the data and may have effected significance as well.  (Next time)

The difference in points/game between on and off hand for both left and right wingers was not statistically significant.

Conclusion

  • At least one of the statistics show that there is a statistically significant difference between on hand and off hand wingers
  • In general, off hand wingers had overall numbers that showed them to be more effective than on hand wingers, even from a shot suppression point of view. This is surprising.
  • There is a distinct geographic bias in off hand winger country of origin, with Russia and Sweden being unusually common sources, while Canada is distinctly less proportionately likely to produce left shot right wingers.
  • It remains unclear, but it’s possible that a part of the reason for the better off-hand numbers may boil down to a handful of superstar players. Ovechkin is one. And one of the highest scoring lines in the league features two off-handers (Patrick Kane and geriatric Calder winner Panarin), which is itself a point of interest.

This is a 40,000 ft view of the topic, but after this initial look, I would conclude that a deeper study on the topic is definitely warranted.

Particularly in identifying whether the apparent effectiveness of off hand wingers is a broad effect, or a narrow one confined to a handful of top players. Or is it selection bias, where only the best off hand wingers get played on the ‘wrong’ side in the first place?  And if it is a broad effect, why does the difference manifest in both offensive and defensive zone shot metrics, and not just on the offensive side?

And from there, understanding ultimately whether the effect has any tactical or roster implications for NHL teams.

Addendum – List of Off Hand Wingers

Right Wing / Left Shot Left Wing / Right Shot
Kevin Hayes Anton Slepyshev
Nikita Soshnikov Austin Watson
Tom Kuhnhackl Josh Leivo
Tomas Jurco Taylor Beck
Emerson Etem Viktor Arvidsson
Nikolaj Ehlers Thomas Vanek
Mikko Rantanen Joffrey Lupul
Alexandre Burrows Blake Comeau
Sven Andrighetto Artemi Panarin
Dennis Everberg Craig Cunningham
Jaromir Jagr Evan Rodrigues
Loui Eriksson Shawn Thornton
Michael Frolik David Perron
Jiri Hudler Filip Forsberg
Josh Bailey Christian Thomas
Marian Gaborik Alex Ovechkin
Rene Bourque Teemu Pulkkinen
Tobias Lindberg John McFarland
Martin Havlat Patrick Sharp
Miikka Salomaki
Max McCormick
Michael Grabner
Vladimir Tarasenko
Gustav Nyquist
Joel Vermin
Brad Richardson
Barclay Goodrow
Pascal Dupuis
Valeri Nichushkin
Mats Zuccarello
Gabriel Bourque
Dmitrij Jaskin
Marian Hossa
Jordan Caron
Johan Franzen
Reilly Smith
Nail Yakupov
Jakub Voracek
Scottie Upshall
Tobias Rieder
Patrick Kane
Nikita Kucherov
Brian O’Neill
Anthony Mantha
James Neal
Nino Niederreiter
Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, Edmonton Oilers Post Game Report, NHL

BLH Post Gamer G19 Oilers VS. Hawks: Robbed or Jobbed?

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Oilers be Oilering. Photo Courtesy of Andy Devlin

Did you get the distinct feeling that as soon as the Blackhawks took a two goal lead that that was it for the Oilers?

I did but you’d think I’d have learned by now. I mean how many games have they come back from to tie it up only to lose it late in the third? And that’s another thing, how many of you were down to the knuckles

The new McDavid inspired design!

from chewing your nails after Draisaitl scored to tie it up?

I mean I love it. I can finally sit down and watch a game and not be down in the dumps once the opposition

scores a goal or two because I know there’s a push back coming.

I know that when Taylor Hall is on the ice that he’s going to make something happen 75% of the time and when he’s out there with Leon Draisaitl that percentage goes up to 90%. When Anders Nilsson is in the net I’m not paranoid of letting in a bad goal. When Darnell Nurse is on the ice I’m not weary of the Oilers getting pushed around. And when Nail Yakupov is out there I’m not bored.

The point is that the team may still be in the basement but the world isn’t ending because of it. I don’t believe any fans think they’ll end the year in the same spot they are in now. In fact I believe that we’re going to see some moves and then we’re going to see the Oilers start their assault on the standings.

THE GAME

Period one was damn entertaining! Back and forth and no prisoners were taken! The Oilers outshot the Blackhawks like crazy (11-3) and were the aggressors the entire first period. No goals were scored but there was this sweet hit by Griffin Reinhart on Andrew Shaw.

The second period was nothing to fawn over from an Oilers fan’s perspective. Passes were being missed, coverage was being blown, and to be honest you could feel the tide turning a bit. The veteran laden team from Chicago laid into the Oilers and came away with two goals from Duncan Keith and Artemi Panarin.

Like I said earlier, I had a tough time not feeling that the game was in the bag for Chicago at that point. I mean the M.O. was to keep Kane and Panarin off the board right? With 5 minutes to go in the 2nd frame they both were on the scoresheet; the diminutive Russian twice.

BUT as the boys have done time and time again this year, they found a way to make magic happen! Brandon Davidson found Ebs coming off the bench and breaking down the middle uncovered, as he broke in on Corey Crawford unscathed, Eberle froze him with a little shimmy and then ROOF DADDY! Bingo bango the Oilers were back in it with intentions to win it.

The third period was not amazing to start but a shot high and wide by Leon Draisaitl led to a missed chance for the Blackhawks to move it out of the zone, which in turn seen the puck move to Teddy Purcell’s stick and then a quick little dink over to Darnell Nurse who literally went through every Chicago player that was on the ice like hot butter; then as he approached Crawford’s net he sent the biscuit towards the slot and who was awaiting said pass? Benny Pouliot! He tapped it home to tie the game up and Rexall blew up! Check out in the highlight below where Nurse goes through everyone. I’m surprised nobody picked up on this.

But it was for naught. Nearly 8 minutes later Andrew Shaw tucked one home and they were back up… I felt terrible at this point. The Oilers were ‘that’ close again only to find themselves down with only minutes to go in the third period. Hashtag Dispair.

DID YOU HEAR THAT? IT’S LEON DRAISAITL’S MUSIC!

Ze German saved the day for the Oilers and Rexall exploded again! Teddy Purcell (good lord this guy is on fire right now) finds the puck, holds off a Chicago defender with one arm and dishes it to Taylor Hall who with the slightest of touches puts it into the shooting path for Neon Leon Draisaitl and he fires that baby home!

It was at that point I went back to sitting on pins and needles. Could the Oilers hold off the champs and take this game to OT? The answer… Yes.

How many people were scared off of Leon Draisaitl at the draft because they thought his skating was weak? Well it’s been a year and some since he was selected by the Oilers and in that time his feet have grown wings. Wings attached to a an unstoppable locomotive.

Did you see the move he put on Jonathan Toews, one of the greatest two-way players in the league if not all-time, only to blow past him and create the best chance for the Oilers to win the game? If only Corey Crawford’s glove wasn’t so big Hall might’ve scored… I’m just kidding. That was an amazing save and it ultimately led to the goal by Marian Hossa to give Chicago the win… Boo.

All-in-all it was a great hockey game and I feel bad for the Oilers this year because things are seemingly coming together but they aren’t at the same time and they’re not getting any help from the refs. In fact I believe the refs are doing more harm than good at this point and should possibly be getting reviewed with a stronger magnifying glass by the powers that be. What I mean is that this isn’t the same team we watched in years past. There’s pushback, there’s more scoring, and the games are much closer. I read that out of the 19 games played this year 9 of them have been 1 goal games… Thus is progress.

Next up are the New Jersey Devils. I can see the Oilers stepping up and getting a win there but will it be a win with Jordan Eberle in the lineup or Travis Hamonic? I guess we’re going to see real soon here!

I hope you enjoyed the read!

Take Care!

BLH

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

BLH Post Gamer G15 Oilers vs. BlackHawks: Panarin’s Good

Photo Courtesy of Bill Smith

Well that’s how she goes! You can’t spot a team like the Chicago Blackhawks 2 goals in the first period and expect them to let you back in. I mean that 2nd period… WHOA! 20 minutes of sustained pressure versus the reigning Stanley Cup Champions? Who does that? The New Era Edmonton Oilers do! Unfortunately for them Corey Crawford saved the BlackHawks’ asses and the Oilers couldn’t carry the momentum into the 3rd period which ultimately lead to Patrick Kane driving the final nail into the coffin for a Chicago win. I don’t count that last second goal by Anisimov… The Oilers were set at 2000% offense there and had zero interest in stopping a goal that late.

As you can see in the chart above, the numbers support the eye test tonight. And even though the Oilers lost I think you can be rest assured it wasn’t a bad lost and that had Crawford not been playing lights out, the Oilers might’ve been able to win this one.

I’d say that the Oilers top line whether it’s Hall/Draisaitl/Eberle or Hall/Nugent-Hopkins/Draisaitl or Hall/Nugent-Hopkins/Eberle were a dominating force in the game as they’ve been in every game since Draisaitl was called up.

Hey, how about that Eberle guy anyhow? Got himself a goal and had a CF% of 70.97 on the night! Photo Courtesy of Bill Smith

As for the defence, it didn’t get exposed too much but all everyone’s CF% was sub 50 apart from Sekera and Fayne. Klefbom being the worst at 39.39. Then those couple of shifts in the 3rd when they were hemmed in their own zone for well over 2 minutes was both disconcerting AND amazing. The Oilers who were on the ice must’ve been past their breaking point but they held on and the Hawks, who had their best players on the ice, could put one past Talbot.

Speaking of Talbot… I’m not goalie nor a goalie coach but could he not have been a bit better positioned on those two goals by Artemi Panarin? Tough couple starts for Cam Talbot and the Oilers fans are already getting on his case, even going so far as to predict Ben Scrivens will make his return at some point… I don’t know about that. But we might see more of Anders Nilsson than we expected.

WALTER FODDIS’ POST GAME SHOOTING METRICS

There’s not much more to say about tonight’s game apart from they lost it in the 1st period. Looking ahead the Oilers have the Ducks and Coyotes on back-to-backs this Thursday and Friday. They’re 4-6-0 in they’re last ten games and they’re 1-2 in November so far.

As for the Ducks, they’re starting to heat up as they’ve won 4 games in a row and have picked up 11 pts out of a possible 20 in their last ten games. I expect this one to be a tight affair but another tough loss for Edmonton.

The Max Domi lead Coyotes are sitting at .500 (6-6-1) but are having a tough time lately coming off of losses from Vancouver, Boston, and the Rangers. They did beat the Avs in the last week though. I think the Oilers can pull it off versus Arizona. I mean they have to right? Another season can’t be lost in November again.

Our Oilers are back in the basement of the Pacific after Calgary and Anaheim picked up wins this weekend…. I for one can’t wait for McDavid’s return but am soooo bloody glad we’ve got Leon Draisaitl. This team would be F’ed without the German.

I read very disturbing story on Twitter this evening about Connor McDavid. The story goes as such, apparently Connor and his family were at a local establishment having dinner and some fans noticed him and requested a photo to which he politely declined. I guess this didn’t sit well with said fans and they were overheard by the teller of the story saying he was an asshole.

Now this kind of attitude grinds me gears a bit. Why do professional athletes have to do everything a fan asks them to? If they don’t they’re assholes. I mean come on, give your head a shake. They play the game for themselves because they love it and if you/we weren’t even there to see them; it wouldn’t matter. When I read or hear of this sort of low class BS it disturbs me greatly. What makes someone so entitled to think just because they ask, they should get?

I mean what’s the motivation for getting a pic anyhow, so you can show your friends or family who you met? Then what? What comes after that? You’ve got a pic you can stare at… Honestly… Or maybe it’s a money thing. Either way it comes down to ego.

You know what you do when you see an athlete or celebrity in public? You greet them with a nod or simple hello and if they greet you back and feel like having a chat you shake their hand, tell them they’re doing a wonderful job and leave it at that. Now if they’re eating, leave them the f*ck alone… They’re eating for Christ’s sake. How’d you like it if you were eating and someone asked you for a pic or autograph each time. If they offer to take a pic with you, then you accept. Don’t be going around expecting they’ll cater to your every desire. Be classy because they’ll remember it, you’ll remember it, and most importantly it’s the right thing to do.

Have a good one folks!

BLH