Tag Archives: Bruins

Kris Hansen

BLH Edmonton Oilers Weekly Recap Nov 30th-Dec 5th

Hey, the Oilers are not doing bad this week! They managed to go 2-1, losing a stinker in Toronto, winning in a shootout against Boston and winning in overtime against Dallas.

To be fair, I didn’t really expect the Oilers to be 2-1 this week. I had them going 1-2 with the win going against Toronto.

The Boston game was my second game of the season I had the chance to watch the Edmonton Oilers live and it was my first original six team and my first NHL shootout. Plus, this time, nobody broke their clavicles!

Edmonton Oilers Three Stars

3) Jordan Eberle . Eberle gets the third star this week because of his shootout winner and over time winner. That said, he has not played the greatest so far. However, both goals were just beautiful. Top corner, both goalies had no chance. It was vintage Eberle.

2) Taylor Hall. Hall right now has leveraged himself above Leon Draisaitl for best current Edmonton Oiler skater. He continues to drive the plays and is the heart of the Oilers offense. He had a very solid showings all week, including a goal in the game against Dallas.

1) Anders Nilsson. Could the Edmonton Oilers finally have a decent goaltender? He’s been rock solid these past few games. While all summer I was on board with Cam Talbot (I STILL AM!), it’s refreshing to see Nilsson, the guy who was seen as fighting for the backup spot with Ben Scrivens, taking the starting position. He stopped a whopping 42 shots out of 43 against Dallas. It’s not often we have an Oilers goalie stealing games for the team but we had one on Friday night.

Dishonorable mention: Mark Fayne. Boy Fayne looked god awful against Dallas. Oilers Nerd Alert has a solid blog post about how badly Fayne struggled.

Edmonton Oilers News and Rumors

The Oilers don’t have a lot going on. Travis Hamonic is still a New York Islander. Mark Spector had a very obvious article that the Edmonton Oilers are bound to make a move by the NHL draft.

Yesterday, The Hockey News had an embarrassingly bad article about how the Edmonton Oilers must not get the First Overall pick yet again. I wrote a response over at Oilonwhyte.com but my goodness. When the author is the former Editor in Chief of the Hockey News and he can’t even get simple names right (Scott McLellan) or facts (Blues drafted Erik Johnson, not the Blue Jackets) its’ very hard to take something like that seriously. You should read it and treat it like part of the funnies section of the news paper.

Around the League

 

Highlights

Mike Condon made an outstanding save

 

Erik Karlsson is deadly in Overtime. Bonus: Bob Cole!

Best Radio Calls

 

Cool moment: Cammalleri ties the game up with Dad watching on.

This Wild fan watched the game in her wedding dress. What a keeper.

 

Finally, Eberle’s beauty in the shootout that sealed the Oilers win.

 

The Week ahead

The Oilers have three games this week all at home as they conclude a five game home stead. Tonight they face the Buffalo Sabres, what could have been McDavid vs Eichel round one, Wednesday against San Jose and Friday the Rangers visit for Glen Sather’s night at Rexall.

That’s the week that was, follow me on Twitter! Have a good one, Oil Country.

 

Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Zach Laing

Oilers vs Bruins Preview – McLellan believes in the Nuge, do you?

TALE OF THE TAPE:

Game: Edmonton Oilers (8-15-2) vs Boston Bruins (13-8-1)

Location: Rexall Place, Edmonton, Alberta

Time: 7:30 PM MT

Where to find it: TV: Sportsnet One – Radio: 630 CHED

Edmonton Oilers Preview:

Trade the Nuge, Trade Eberle, Trade them all, right? Wrong.

As Dimitri Filipovic pointed out yesterday, once you trade Nugent-Hopkins he is no longer on your team. This preview isn’t going to be about trading the young guys, because while I do believe something has to give I don’t forsee it happening until the offseason.

This morning, Todd McLellan had some choice words to say about Nugent-Hopkins and the rest of the team:

When I look at Nuge, I think he’s a really valuable player to our team. When you go to the 2011 Draft, he’s played the second-most games out of anybody there. Him and Landeskog are heads and tails above anybody else when it comes to scoring. It’s not Nuge’s fault he’s 5’10”, he can’t change that. He uses what he has, night-in and night-out.

When asked about who Nugent-Hopkins reminds him of:
Joe Pavelski. Because he’s small, he’s competitive, he understands the game. You’ve got remember that Joe Pavelski played four years at Wisconsin before he even got to the league. I think Joe didn’t develop at Waterloo of the USHL until he was 19; Nuge had already put in 132 games in the NHL at that point. Nuge is 22 years old, you guys. He’s 22.

Am I defending Nuge? Absolutely I am, because I believe in him 100 percent.

-c/o Jonathan Willis

The praise received from McLellan is huge. This Oilers team has been down in the dumps for some time, and that shouldn’t be shouldered on Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle alone. Across the team, there have been some loathable performances and you don’t need any statistics to tell you that. The performance of players outside of the Oilers top six has been awful. The bottom six group of this team has not contributed nearly enough, while our defensive group has underperformed as well.

To put it simply, the collective performance is no where near the standard set out by the Oilers brass. In recent days, Peter Chiarelli and Bob Nicholson have BOTH come out making statements about how disappointing the beginning of this season has been. The truth is, I don’t see it getting any better anytime soon. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the team run with what they have this year.

Tonight, the Oilers are in tough against a strong Bruins team that has won seven of their last ten games, including the 5-game win streak they are currently riding. Bruins C David Krejci is riding a two game point streak, and leads all Bruins players with 24 points in 22 games.

One thing the Oilers have going for them is their record against the East. While it isn’t phenomenal, a 5-5-1 record is something to hold onto. Hopefully the Oilers will continue their success tonight.

The Bruins are a team that comes out strong out of the gate. 70% of the teams goals have been scored in the first two periods of the game. In contrast, the Oilers have allowed 64% of their Goals Against to come in the first two periods.

The Oilers need to weather the storm early, otherwise we could be in for a long night.

Walter Foddis’ Pregame Metrics:

The Otherside:

Forward Landon Ferraro moved up from the fourth line to center Ryan Spooner and Jimmy Hayes on the third line Tuesday for the second straight practice. Brett Connolly has practiced with the fourth line. Defenseman Kevan Miller, who has missed the past five games with a concussion, continued his recovery with another practice; he took line rushes with Joe Morrow on the fourth pair. The Bruins practiced at Rexall Place in preparation for three games in four nights; they have won a season-best five games in a row. “We’re taking this road trip as something separate,” Connolly told the Bruins website. ‘We’ve won five in a row and we’re feeling pretty good about ourselves. But I think if you ask some of the guys, we probably haven’t played that well for five wins. But we’ll take it.” – nhl.com

Line Combos and Starting Goalies c/o Left Wing Lock:


Oilers (Anders Nilsson):
  

Bruins (Tukka Rask): 

Any ideas on how to improve my game previews? Send me an email at zjlaing@gmail.com.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgHV39Ihr7s]

 

Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, Jack Gruninger, NHL, Trades

Calgary Steals Hamilton From Bruins in Lopsided Trade

In typical Bruins fashion, Boston has traded a tremendous young player and received little value in return.

In an absolute steal of a trade that stunned many, Calgary has acquired defenceman Dougie Hamilton from the Boston Bruins in exchange for picks #15, 45, and 52.

The 6’5”, 212lbs. right-handed defenceman was drafted 9th overall in 2011 by Boston, and has already established himself as a top defenceman in the NHL. Hamilton has 83 points in 178 games in the NHL, which includes 42 points in 72 games this past season.

A restricted free agent, Hamilton had many rumours attached to him, particularly regarding offer sheets. Edmonton in particular was a team that many said could submit an offer sheet for Hamilton.

The surprisingly low return has led some to speculate that this was done as a “revenge move” of sorts against Boston’s former GM, although that sounds like a ridiculous thing for a professional hockey club to do. Other reasons have been suggested on Twitter for the poor return:

Hamilton will be a key fixture on Calgary’s blueline along with Mark Giordano and TJ Brodie. Here is some more fallout from the deal:

https://twitter.com/JonathanWillis/status/614516443527278592

**Update**

No wonder Edmonton didn’t make the trade.