Tag Archives: Auston Matthews

Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

Jumping In Head First

I’m going to be touching on a few things here including the game tonight that I’ll miss due to work. GRRR! Also, I want to touch on the anti-Eberle fans and then on a more serious note I’ll be talking about a serious article from The Oilers Rig that has had me thinking and I hope you can help me with my thoughts a bit.

**WARNING! THIS POST HAS QUITE A BIT OF FOUL LANGUAGE IN IT. PLEASE GO ELSEWHERE IF YOU’RE OFFENDED BY SWEAR WORDS. IF YOU DO STAY AND READ AND THEN DECIDE TO EMAIL ME ABOUT SAID LANGUAGE, I WILL PROBABLY REPLY WITH THE SAME SORT OF LANGUAGE. THANK YOU!**

Oilers/Maple Leafs: McDavid vs. Kadri

I’m very interested in seeing how this is going to go down. Will Kadri try to go at McDavid like he did in TO? Will Lucic do something about it if Kadri does? How will McLellan work the last change?

I think that Connor is going to take this match-up very seriously and very personally. He looks like a man of immense pride and being embarrassed like that in TO has surely left a mark.

How will the Oilers combat Mitch Marner? What if Darnell Nurse was out there every time Marner was? Do what Arizona with OEL on McDavid and just have a single dman tasked withs shutting Marner down.

Will Auston Matthews and William Nylander have a better go this time around? They were pretty quiet in the previous game. Do you reckon that RNH will be given the job of taking care of the Maple Leafs’ kid line?

This should be a beauty of a game and in comparison to the last two versus Arizona, it should feel like 1987 all over again!

JORDAN EBERLE

Are you one of the fans that is yearning for the Oilers to sit Eberle in the press box for a night to “teach him a lesson”? Or are you the kind that wants the Oilers to deal him right now?

Ain’t happenin’ folks!

Eberle is the team’s best RW, period and he’s on pace to put up 25 goals and 60 points! You can’t even argue that Puljujarvi is one bit and he’s the closest one! WHY would you want to trade that?

Ebs scores, forechecks like a mutha fucker and he’s been backchecking like crazy this season. More than any other season that I can remember.

Do you think he’s lazy in the corners and too weak?

Remember how he and Hall and Nuge used to work that cycle in year’s past? Yeah, he had to go to the dirty areas to do that.

Look, I’m mad at him for missing that assignment in front of the net vs. Arizona too and I absolutely HATE how he has to dribble the puck 3 or 4 times before letting it fly but you win as a team and you lose as a team. The Oilers, and Eberle himself, had plenty of chances to score earlier and they didn’t. Boo hoo, we move on to the next team.

I mean if you’re going to pick on someone, be consistent. Get on Pouliot’s back.

ON A SERIOUS NOTE… This is Where I Jump in Head First.

As I laid in bed trying to get to sleep I had a Joe Rogan podcast playing in the background and today’s guest was a professor from the Univ. of Toronto and they were talking about social justice warriors and the likes and it got me thinking about an article I read from my old haunt, The Oilers Rig.

http://www.theoilersrig.com/2016/11/sports-email-abuse-2/

The article was from the site’s content manager Megan Fowler and she had an encounter with an unknown follower who happened to show a lack of appreciation for her fondness of Taylor Hall and proceeded to call her a cunt. Neh! A stupid cunt.

Now I’ve dealt with Ms.Fowler in the past and I’ll be honest, the interactions weren’t that pleasant. It was more business-like than I was used to and we didn’t see eye-to-eye because we’re on the opposite sides of the Hall debate and had no problems letting each other know. Don’t get me wrong, she wasn’t a stupid cunt or anything. But I left the Rig family soon after to concentrate on things here at BLH. Shows how smart of a guy I am…

I’m torn and a bit confused about my whole feelings on Ms.Fowler’s experience and that’s why I’m writing this. I’d like to know more about the situation and in the process, hopefully, learn more about myself by exposing my underbelly a bit on the topic and most likely open myself up to some public shaming due to my lack of empathy. Hooray! And a pre-emptive thank you for taking the time to read perhaps a different viewpoint.

Honestly, I just want to know if my wheels are aligned or if they’re in dire need of an adjustment.

I’m not female so I can’t say I know how Ms.Fowler feels nor have I been called any sort of cunt before. But a part of me says if she’s going to passionately write about her team and be combative and have the words “Salty AF” (AF = as fuck) in her Twitter handle, then she should be prepared to have some shit slung at her and when it does come her way; she can’t go crying on social media and through her site about it.

I don’t know why but there lingering questions for me.

  • Did the email only contain the sentence, “Hey you stupid cunt, why don’t you cry about Taylor Hall some more?” Because ironically, that is a pretty cunty email to send if that’s all it said.
  • How do we know it was a guy that sent it?
  • Was it a person from Great Britain where the term “cunt” is fairly widespread and common?

The ego takes a bit of a hit there when someone calls you a name (especially a cunt in North America) and nobody likes to be disrespected be they male or female but the reassurances needed by Ms.Fowler, a grown adult and teacher, are also a question for me. She claims that it’s not the first time and certainly won’t be the last but if it’s happening so often, is there something there that should be reflected upon? I mean, what’s the motivation in posting an entire article on being called a name and why does she care so much about this one person’s opinion?

She claims that it’s not the first time and certainly won’t be the last but if it’s happening so often, is there something there that should be reflected upon personally? I mean, what’s the motivation in posting an entire article on being called a name and why does she care so much about this one person’s opinion if this is a common occurrence?

  • Social justice?
  • To shed light on women in sport and the abuse they have to endure?
  • Needed attention?

In Ms.Fowler’s case, she kinda made her own bed with her pining of Taylor Hall but hey, we all have our favorite players and even I’ll say that trade was questionable. My favorite band was Blink-182 when I was younger and I can say from experience, I did not want to admit that amongst my more punk rock engrained friends and I never wore a Blink shirt to the Warped Tours I attended… Stayed safe and wore Anti-Flag shirts 🙂

I guess personally, I just don’t feel the need to bring to light the garbage that someone is trying to toss on my lawn so I can say “Hey! Look at what happened here! This is an unspeakable offense!” I suppose I’m more of the type that says, “Wow! Whoever sent that is obviously having a tough time in life, I hope things get better for them but a name only has the power you give it.” And honestly, there are worse things to be called than a stupid cunt, unless you feel that you might be a bit a cunt and are pissed someone has finally called you out.

I imagine I’ve done my own but of shit-disturbing by now and there will most definitely be someone who’ll ask me, “What if that happened to your daughter?”

Well, the answer to that is, don’t worry about my daughter because it’s none of your business. I appreciate the concern but we’ll handle it.

I figure in this instance there’s some person out there laughing his ass off feeling empowered by what has transpired. So has Ms.Fowler really done anything to combat this sort of offense?

All of That Being Said…

Megan has obviously gone and done something so well that it has irked someone enough into showing their own insecurities to you by taking the time to email her and call her a cunt. She’s obviously talented at what she does and since taking over at The Rig, the site has gone stratospheric!

One must give credit where credit is due and often times when one cannot find it in them to give said credit, they go the other way and try to tear down what that other person has done.

You see, that’s the thing about the keyboard warriors. So so so so insecure and they believe that their opinion of you or your works counts for something. The mindset of “If I’m wrong then you’re a dick” is the most fucked up and childish one I’ve come across but I find it rare in public settings because those people tend to be taken care of one way or another. Give a guy a keyboard and the safety net of knowing they may never have to meet the person their denigrating though and it’s on!

In the end, I really believe that the sex of a writer is unimportant. Good content comes from everyone and everywhere, male or female or transgender, but if you’re being a cunt, you’re fair game.

So don’t be a cunt.

The comments section is open for your thoughts. Thank you!

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Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

G10 – Oilers @ Maple Leafs: Beat By a Rat

Ok so let’s get a couple of things out of the way before we get into my review of the game. It was Ray Ferraro that called Kadri a rat during the broadcast, so send your vitriol his way if you don’t like the rat nickname for Kadri and the unpenalized play in overtime that led to Nazem Kadri scoring the game-winning overtime goal… These pics should basically sum it all up.

 

I’m no ref but I can see Kadri is using his free arm to tie up McDavid there… I believe my old coaches would tell me to skate a bit harder in this instance because in a normal circumstance this is actually a penalty.

Anyways, this is going to be par for the course for the rest of McDavid’s career. The other teams are going to be pulling these kinds of shenanigans all night long. I think the reason this one hurts a bit more is because Kadri was trying to goat McDavid into taking a penalty for most of the evening and was more or less doing a perfect job of being a prick. If there’d been a cheap shot or two, we might’ve been able to say Kadri was taking a page out of Esa Tikkanen’s book on how to be a shadow and a pest.

If the Oilers really wanted to win that game, they shouldn’t have hit the post twice. Problem solved.

THE GAME

Let’s start with the bad…

  • The Oilers can’t afford to complain about too much on the evening apart from some very shotty defense from Kris Russel and Andrej Sekera. They let the Leafs shoot at will 5×5 and right in the kill zone too.
  • Jordan Eberle and Milan Lucic have to be there for McDavid every bloody night. I thought that Eberle had a nice night regarding his forechecking game but Looch was completely anonymous apart from the little scrum that followed the Kadri push on McDavid.
  • Speaking of sticking up for your teammates. The Oilers are doing a much better job of it this year but is there some team-stated mandate that says they’re not allowed to set someone straight for their on-ice behavior?

    Kadri had his stick in the ribs of McDavid all night long. Why didn’t Maroon or Kassian or Lucic tune Kadri in? We know they were chirping him throughout the evening because Ray Ferraro would tell us every time… Baffles me that people are okay justifying it by saying, “it’s a different time.”

  • The Oilers are shooting but they’re not scoring enough. Are they running into hot goalies or are they not positioned right in the offensive zone?

https://twitter.com/Sun_Tychkowski/status/793658524249296896

How about the good?

  • I wouldn’t send Puljujarvi down right now. He’s finding his feet and it’s causing fits for the opposition who want to match lines or send out a specific crew to cover Connor. I loved his game now for about a week. He’s engaging in every situation and he’s gaining more puck confidence shift-by-shift.
  • Oscar Klefbom had a monster of a game! I don’t even know the last time an Oilers defenseman put up 8 shots in a game. We’ve been waiting to see him unless his Klef-bomb consistently and tonight will go a very long way towards his overall confidence on the offensive side of the puck. Perhaps we’ll see him become a focal point on the PP sooner than later.
  • Mike Babcock did a wonderful job of taking the Oilers 1st line out of the game BUT lucky for the Oilers they have two more lines that are capable of taking the reins of need be.

    Nuge’s line was buzzing all. night. long. And Draisaitl’s line as well. Both lines are very unlucky not to have scored a goal because I thought it was the best game of the year for all six of the gentlemen on those two lines.

  • Darnell Nurse everyone…

NEXT UP

The New York Rangers (7-3-0) are next on the docket and they are having an outstanding start to their year as well. Not that they were a bad team before but I know I felt they were in for a regression in 2016. I guess that’s not the case. Jimmy Vesey vs. Connor McDavid? Probably not but Ryan McDonagh, Vesey, Mika Zibanejad, and Chris Kreider all have 9 pts this year. JT Miller has 10 points! And not to be outshone, Rick Nash has 8pts so far… That is some spread out scoring… Edmonton is in for a real test.

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BLH’s 2016/17 NHL Predictions

The 2016/17 NHL season is right on our doorstep and what better time to make predictions that hours before the puck drops! I just want to keep this short and sweet because I need to get over this jet lag thing and you’ve probably already read a million prediction blogs so far… Bon appetite!

PS: I hate jet lag…

AWARDS

Hart: Connor McDavid (EDM)
*Homer pick* – This is THE homer pick isn’t it?

Art Ross: Pat Kane (CHI)
*Homer pick* – McDavid… Of course!

Maurice Richard: Steven Stamkos (TB)
*Homer pick* – Eberle… Cause you know he’s the only other guy scoring for Edmonton, right?

Vezina: Braden Holtby (WAS)
*Homer pick* – Can you do a homer pick here? Talbot I guess…

Norris: PK Subban (NSH)
*Homer pick* – Adam Larsson because we all know shut down dmen with Norris’ these days 🙂

Calder: Auston Matthews (TOR)
*Homer pick* – Drake Caggiula because he’s looked a sh*t ton better than Puljujarvi so far.

STANDINGS

Atlantic Metropolitan Central Pacific
Tampa Bay Washington Nashville San Jose
Florida Pittsburgh Dallas Anaheim
Boston Philadelphia St.Louis Los Angeles
Detroit* Carolina* Chicago* Edmonton*
Montreal N.Y. Rangers Minnesota Calgary
Ottawa Columbus Colorado Arizona
Buffalo N.Y. Islanders Winnipeg Vancouver
Toronto New Jersey 🙂

STANLEY CUP FINALISTS

Eastern Conference Finals: Tampa Bay vs. Washington

Western Conference Finals: Dallas vs. San Jose

Stanley Cup Finals: Tampa Bay vs. San Jose

Winner: Tampa Bay

Conn Smythe: Victor Hedman (TB)

There you have it. Nothing fancy.Just the raw predictions from BLH’s crystal keg. And in typical Oilers fashion, a coach they could’ve hired takes his team to the Cup finals and wins it all. Thanks a lot Craig and Kevin!

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

Beer League Heroes NHL Mock Draft: 1st Round

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I figured that I’d better get this out before more trades get made and the 1st rounders start getting bandied about. I did a mock up of all nine of the Oilers picks here if you’re interested.

So here is my mock draft of the first round of the 2016 NHL Entry Draft. It’s a quick one because the profiles have been written and re-written over and over again. If you’re curious about a player’s profile I suggest you head over to The Hockey Writers or Steve Kournianos’ website. Lowetide also does a very nice job cleaning up all the noise in his posts on the draft.

  1. Tor – Auston Matthews (C) Zurich Lions – 6’2″ 216lbs
  2. Wpg – Patrik Laine (LW) Tappara – 6’4″ 201lbs
  3. Clb – Matthew Tkachuk (LW) London Knights – 6’2″ 188lbs
  4. Edm – Jesse Puljujarvi (RW) Karpat – 6’3″ 196lbs
  5. Van – Pierre-Luc Dubois (C) Cape Breton Screaming Eagles – 6’2″ 200lbs
  6. Cgy – Logan Brown (C) Windsor Spitfires – 6’6″ 220lbs
  7. Ari – Olli Juolevi (D) London Knights – 6’2″ 185lbs
  8. Buf – Jacob Chychrun (D) Sarnia Sting – 6’2″ 194lbs
  9. Mtl – Mikhail Sergachev (D) Windsor Spitfires – 6’2″ 221lbs
  10. Col – Clayton Keller (C) USNTDP – 5’10” 190lbs
  11. NJ – Alex Nylander (LW) Mississauga Steelheads – 6’1″ 178lbs
  12. Ott – Tyson Jost (C) Penticton Vees – 6’0″ 190lbs
  13. Car – Mike McLeod (C) Mississauga Steelheads – 6’2″ 185lbs
  14. Bos – Charlie McAvoy (D) Boston University – 6’0″ 198lbs
  15. Min – Kieffer Bellows (LW) USNTDP – 6’0″ 185lbs
  16. Det – German Rubtsov (C) Vityaz Podolsk – 6’1″ 190lbs
  17. Nsh – Dante Fabbro (D) Penticton Vees – 6’0″ 172lbs
  18. Phi – Max Jones (LW) London Knights – 6’3″ 205lbs
  19. NYI – Jake Bean (D) Calgary Hitmen – 6’1″ 170lbs
  20. Ari – Luke Kunin (C/LW) Univ. of Wisconsin – 6’0″ 173lbs
  21. Car – Julien Gauthier (RW) Val d’Or Foreurs – 6’4″ 225lbs
  22. Wpg – Riley Tufte (LW) Fargo – 6’5″ 210lbs
  23. Fla – Alex Debrincat (RW) Erie Otters – 5’7″ 165lbs
  24. Anh – Rasmus Asplund (C) Farjestad BK – 5’11” 176lbs
  25. Dal – Tage Thompson (RW) Univ. of Connecticut – 6’5″ 185lbs
  26. Was – Pascal Laberge (C) Victoriaville Tigres – 6’1″ 175lbs
  27. TB – Adam Mascherin (C) Kitchener Rangers – 5’9″ 192lbs
  28. Stl – Tyler Benson (LW) Vancouver Giants – 6’0″ 185lbs
  29. Bos – Logan Stanley (D) Windsor Spitfires – 6’7″ 225lbs
  30. Tor – Will Bitten (C) Flint Firebirds – 5’`0″ 170lbs

    Bonus:

  31. Tor – Carter Hart (G) Everett Silvertips – 6’0″ 165lbs
  32. Edm – Nathan Bastian (C) Mississauga Steelheads – 6’4″ 194lbs

You have no idea how hard these mock drafts get as the picks go on.

For the most part I took a look at each team’s prospect cupboards over at Hockey’s Future and took into account what they needed. It’s not brain surgery. If a team has the option of choosing for need, then fill a hole. If they can afford to take the best player available, voila! Take said BPA.

Feel free to comment on my picks in the comments below!

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2016 Mastercard Memorial Cup, Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, International, NHL, NHL Entry Draft, Prospects

Taylor Hall, The Nuge, and Matty Tkachuk

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A lesser man would tell you he told you so with regards to Hall not making Team Canada but I’ll do no such thing. I got the news in a hungover stupor on vacation that Hall was out for the Canadians and Nugent-Hopkins was in for the U24 North Americans. Interesting….

No Taylor Hall for Team Canada this time around, maybe he’ll pull an Yzerman and be ready in his late 20’s.

My Thoughts on Hall and Team Canada

The following is going to come off as pretty anti-Hall but they’re just observations. I’ll admit Hall hasn’t been my favourite player since he’s come into the league and I’ve let my opinions be known on plenty of occasions. That being said, I am starting to see his game change for the better. So he may very well work his way into my good books and onto at least one Team Canada before it’s all said and done.

  • Taylor Hall wasn’t “snubbed” as some media and fans like to put it. He didn’t have a good NHL season and he doesn’t fit the mold of the players that Mike Babcock and his GMs prefer. Simple as that. Moral of the story: It’s better to slump at the beginning of the year than the end of it.
  • What kind of players does Babcock prefer? Well Subban, Letang, and Perry were all left off as well. Flash and dash can stay home.
  • Some say Hall is being punished by playing on a bad team. If that’s the case, why is Matt Duchene making the team? The Avalanche haven’t been a pillar of success recently.
  • He’s had a good couple of World Championships. Really?
    • The last two WC’s have been played on a larger ice surface thus allowing Hall way more room to use his best assets, his skating and playmaking. So he gets to carry the puck longer and he gets more time to set things up. Of course it looks like he’s playing well.
    • This year all of his points but one were accrued against the likes of France, Slovakia, Germany, and Bulgaria…
    • He only scored 1 point in his final four games which were played against Sweden, Finland (x2), and the USA…
  • A lot of folk on the Twitter machine say that Team Canada is making a mistake not naming Hall to the team but if you haven’t noticed, the men tasked with creating the roster have a bloody good track record when it comes to winning international events, no?
  • So it’s no surprise to me that the team went with Thornton and Marchand (Both whom I said would be better options than Hall back in March), Duchene (Who looked much better than Hall in the Gold Medal Final at the WC vs. Finland), and Giroux (This selection I’m a little perplexed by due to the surgery he’s just undergone that will keep him out for up to 12 weeks).
  • To me it looks like Hockey Canada was going with the hot hands. Marchand was a scoring and shooting beast this year and Joe Thornton had an outstanding season at the age of 36. I can’t speak for Duchene and Giroux though.
  • But I am surprised that Corey Perry didn’t make it. Maybe his dirty ways have caught up to him a bit.
  • Ryan O’Reilly not being named was also a little shocking.
  • Team Canada named 11 centers? There’s a positional shift coming I believe. The days of the “Natural” (fill in the position here) are slowly dying off. In the future players will have to be able to play all positions minus the netminder.
    • You can see it when we talk about Tkachuk vs. Dubois.
      • Some people will pump Dubois’ tires because he can play centre AND wing. It’s not such a bad thing. It’ll force players to be better skaters, better thinkers of the game and better 200ft players.
    • We also see it with defensemen. What happened to the strictly offensive defender or the dman that was specifically a shut-down player.
      • Now it’s “two-way” blueliners that can skate, move the puck, and think the game at a higher level. Physicality is fine but not required as much as it was in the past.

Team North America

  • Mark Scheifele, Jonathan Drouin, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Auston Matthews were the final forwards named to the U24’s.
    • Scheifele I have zero problems with. He was a defensive stud for Canada at the WC’s. Played a very smart game with Ryan O’Reilly, and Mark Stone.
    • Jonathan Drouin’s selection must infuriate a lot of people given he only played during the playoffs. But even so, he was one of the best players in the playoffs and completely filled the hole left by Stamkos’ absence.
    • Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ experience and two-way game get him on this team but I reckon it was barely. He’s still rehabbing a hand injury, so here’s to hoping he’s got that sorted out by the beginning of the tourney.
    • Auston Matthews… This is going to be fun. Who else sees him playing with Gaudreau and Eichel?
  • Matt Murray will be the no.1 goalie going into this. He got his NHL team further than John Gibson got the Ducks. That position went from the team’s no.1 question to no question at all.
  • The entire team is going to be a lot of fun and I think that if one were to be a betting person, they’d bet on a Team Canada/Team North America Final. I haven’t checked but is that even possible?

The Draft

  • Matty Tkachuk was hurt the entire Memorial Cup but still found a way to scored the overtime game-winning goal to win the tournament for London… Gotta love the balls on this guy. Would’ve loved to watch the game… Lucky Zach Laing…
  • Former writer of the blog, Kris Hansen had a good comparison between Matt Tkachuk and Pierre-Luc Dubois. Stylistically, no but situationally, yes.
  • I’m torn on what the Oilers should do with that pick. I’m a draft geek at heart and using it on Tkachuk would not bother me one bit. Trading it outright would piss me off and trading down with it would leave me unsettled given the high probability the pick and/or player acquired could fail.
  • Recently on Oilers Now with Bob Stauffer, Jim Matheson said, and I’m paraphrasing so don’t quote me, that unless PK Subban was part of a deal; he couldn’t see the Oilers dealing down. Now that doesn’t mean the 4th overall for PK Subban, just a trade involving those pieces.
  • If I’m not mistaken, the Oilers trading down at the draft has not been a story book filled with wonderment and happy endings as it is. I say take Tkachuk and laugh all the way home about it.
  • Here are my top 5 options for the Oilers at no.4 overall
    • Matthew Tkachuk (LW) – grit, smarts, and size.
    • Pierre-Luc Dubois (C/LW) – powerhouse that plays multiple positions.
    • Mikhail Sergachev (RD) – apparently has the highest ceiling and is a lefty but plays right side.
    • Alexander Nylander (LW/RW) – creative mastermind that can play either wing.
    • Olli Juolevi (LD) – cool and calm, very good puck mover.
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