Tag Archives: Dallas stars

Armchair GM, Edmonton Oilers, Micah Kowalchuk, NHL, Trades

Fixing up the Oilers Defense – Jason Demers

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So, in an attempt to find out if there is anything in the free agent market, I took a snoop at the best available right-handed defenseman, Jason Demers.

Now, at first glance, he’s a 6’1 200lb right-shit, 27 years old, good for .34ppg (28 points per year).  So, he looks like a decent option, but nothing spectacular at first, other than a good second pairing option.

As fans, the name everyone wants to see with the Oilers is Travis Hamonic, and we’ve seen many discussions of how he’d be a perfect fit here.  This, courtesy of www.ownthepuck.blogspot.ca, is how they compare:

What jumps out is that Demers is, without much debate, a better defenseman than Hamonic.  For that matter, his offense over 60 is even superior to Hamonic.  Although we talk about Hamonic as a shut-down guy, Demers does that better as well, and in the case of shot supression, far better.

Also, Demers posts these numbers on a run-and-gun hockey team that is always considered weak on the defensive end.  If Hamonic would be a solution for the Oilers, then there’s no question Demers would be one as well, and one that could easily play a top-pairing role.

Of course, the normal reply is “Well, there’s no way Dallas lets him go”, and that was the first thought that came up in debate.  However, when you look at Dallas’s cap next year…

With 27 contracts in place, Dallas has $56 million allocated to 9 forwards, 3 defensemen, and 2 goaltenders.  If the cap is around $71 million, that means Dallas has $15 million to spend on 5 forwards and 5 defensemen.  Out of that, the following positions must be addressed:

Vernon Fiddler – 4th line C

Patrick Eaves – 4th line RW

Valeri Nichushkin – 2nd line RW (RFA)

Alex Goligoski – 1st line LHD

Kris Russel – 2nd line LHD

Jason Demers – 2nd line RHD

Jordie Benn – 3rd line RHD

As well, Jamie Oleksiak is a pending RFA

That means Dallas has, as UFAs, 3 of their Top-4 on defense.  So, assuming Dallas gets Oleksiak and Nichushkin under contract for approximately $2.5 million each, we’re now at $10 million for Fiddler, Eaves, Goligoski, Russel, Demers and Benn.  Goligoski, as a top-pairing left-handed defenseman, can expect a contract of approximately $5 million.  That leaves $5 million for the remaining players.  If the Oilers were to offer Demers a 5-year, $6 million per year contract, it’s unlikely Dallas could match the offer.

Now, this would eventually leave the Oilers in a salary-cap situation as well, where one of the $6 million core would need to be dealt, however this should not prevent them from trying for Demers.  If the Oilers are looking for a defenseman such as Hamonic, Demers appears to be a better defenseman (if one that would be more expensive and a bit older).  If he can be obtained as a free agency, the Oilers have that many more assets to deal for present and future players.

 

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

BLH Post Gamer G27 Oilers VS Stars: Anders the Defiant!

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F-me! What a game by Anders Nilsson! Photo Courtesy of Andy Devlin.

Can you believe what we’re seeing? A goalie that is keeping the Edmonton Oilers in hockey games! Not only that but he’s stealing them for the Oilers too! Are we witnessing the rise of the next great netminder or is this just a guy who’s on a hot streak or was it a matter of playing a team that was on their third game in four nights? Who cares to be honest? The Oilers got the two points, are out of the basement and are .500 in their last ten games. WOOHOO!

After the game Oilers Head Coach Todd McLellan said something to the effect that if Anders Nilsson doesn’t play as good as he did that the Oilers would’ve been left in the dust. Isn’t that the truth?

That first period was a dog’s breakfast. The Oilers were outshot 14-8 and who knows where this game would’ve gone had Jujhar Khaira not knocked that clearing attempt down and dinked it over to Taylor Hall so he could make Patrick Nemeth and a sprawling Uncle Niemi look foolish. Check it out below:

What a beauty. You don’t necessarily appreciate that goal for what it is until you watch it a couple of times. Woof! Unfortunately that was the only thing worth pointing out in the 1st period for the Oilers. The E-Town entertainers did have a couple of chances on the power play but couldn’t manage to find much more than a post. Let’s move on to the second.

The Oilers closed the gap a tad in the middle frame but Dallas was still pouring it on. One thing that was pretty noticeable off the bat was Jujhar Khaira sticking on that top line with Hall and Draisaitl. Khaira did stay there, he had shifts moving up and down the lineup for the rest of the game.

We’ve seen McLellan successfully put a more physical type of player with 4 and 29 a bit earlier in the year when Matt Hendricks was put up there and then Rob Klinkhammer. They opened up some more room in the offensive zone and allowed Hall and Drai the maneuverability they needed to create more chances. Of course, Hendy and Col. Klink were injured not long after, so let’s hope Thorny can stay consistent and healthy. If he can do that then we’ve most likely seen the last of Luke Gazdic. Khaira is simply a better option in the team’s bottom six.

Click the pic and take advantage of some amazing sales over at the BLH Merch Shop!

Dallas managed to find a way to score just before the end of the second as Mattias Janmark (this guy looks pretty crafty btw) easily made Mark Fayne look like a pylon on his way to tapping in a fat juicy rebound. The Oilers need to stop letting these goals in so late in periods. It’s a real buzz killer. I think Fayne only had two more shifts after this one… Coach McLellan was not happy with Fayne’s performance and he wasn’t wrong. He got walked 2 minutes into the game and was just having a terrible day at the office.

Speaking of bad days, how about Eberle fluffing that 2v1 at the end of the second period? Woof! If Eberle doesn’t score in OT, is he still on the tongues of the rumor mongers? The way I see it, he’s gone anyhow because I don’t see how a couple SO goals and an OT winner would put you back in the good graces of the new GM and coach. He’s got a history of production and one 5 game stretch won’t ruin that. His problem is that he doesn’t fit into McLellan’s system. I believe the Oilers coach likes his wingers tenacious and willing to sacrifice their bodies in the name of success.

A minute into the third and you already know how the rest of the period is going to go. The Oilers were forced to clinch their sphincters and hold on for dear life. The Stars peppered Anders Nilsson 15 times in that period but failed to turn on the red light. Contrast that with the Oilers, who only served up a paltry 4 shots and you can clearly see how important Anders Nilsson was to the boys in orange and blue.

Some might say the Oilers stuck with the Stars but if you watched the game it was painfully obvious that Dallas was the superior team. They were tired and couldn’t capitalize on their chances. But as I said earlier, I don’t give hoot how the Oilers get their points, just as long as they get them.

I’m going to leave you here but If you need a clearer view of how bad the Oilers were outplayed, take a look at this chart from OilersNerdAlert and the quote following the chart from Walter Foddis.

Take Care!

BLH

Hey Connor! Check this out! Whoa… Click the pic to head over to G.Money’s site and read his take on the game.

Nilsson made these wins possible against Boston and Dallas. These have been two of their worst defensive games of the season. The special teams in both games–as measured by shot attempts (the best predictors of goal-differential on special teams)–have been very weak. Winning like this is unsustainable.

Fayne was held off the ice tonight. McLellan didn’t like what he was seeing. Fayne’s Dangerous Fenwick Against (DFA) gave numbers to that performance with the lowest DFA to date: 170 (>40 is bad). Gryba and Schultz were crushed in DFA last game.

Not sure what’s happening with Fayne, but for the team in general, I don’t think these weak performances are an effort issue; it’s our roster. The injury bug is hurting us big time. Remember when we had a decent 2L of McDavid, Yak, Pouliot? All out with injury. Our best 4L possession forward (Klinkhammer), & our best 5/6 D-man (Davidson) are also out. Whose in? Our 2 worst forwards–Korpikoski & Gazdic–are stinking up the joint on the bottom-6.

Don’t be fooled by the wins. If not for Nilsson, the scores would reflect how badly the team is performing. Not being negative; just keeping it real.

On the positive side, I love Eberle’s reaction to scoring in OT. Getting goals will help his confidence. You know the team is going to need more of them! – Walter Foddis

Edmonton Oilers, Edmonton Oilers Post Game Report, Madison Moroz, NHL

BLH Post Gamer:G3-Edmonton Oilers Vs Dallas Stars

 

Well tonight was interesting. I was definitely in a glass case of emotion as a fan and I can only imagine how everyone else felt. The Oilers didn’t come out too strong in the first, the shot count can be misconstrued as it was pointed out a lot how much the Dallas Stars just put the puck on net from anywhere; with the naked eye you could see a good high percentage of the shots weren’t high quality.

The defence was keeping a lot of shots to the outside and blocked 25 shots tonight. The boys on the back end were actually doing an average job of blocking off the shooting lanes but the Stars were just throwing everything and the kitchen sink at Nilsson tonight; who let in 2 softies, but absolutely stood on his head making 48 saves on 51 shots. It’s nice to see the Oilers get solid goaltending in net for once.

The boys in white came out rocking in the second though with much more energy, keeping pace in the period with the Stars in shots only being outshot 14-13. They got a much needed boost with two quick goals from Oscar Klefbom and Connor McDavid, who finally broke the goose egg with his first career NHL goal. They didn’t look back from that point, sustaining pressure, winning puck battles, making the smart and simple plays first, and sticking to the game plan.

Everyone seemed to have a nice kick of energy and we had hope could pull off a win. Then the third period started and my emotions were going all over the place, a lot of screaming and yelling at the TV. The Oil just didn’t appear to have the fire they came out with in the second and then they took a bad penalty and that deflated any sort of momentum they had built to that point.

I knew once Yakupov missed on that breakaway something bad was going to happen, I just didn’t expect it to happen so quickly.

You can only be outplayed and out shot for so long till another one goes in, killing all momentum and crushing my hopes and dreams for a win. I was on an emotional roller coaster tonight, but I was again pleased that this team efforts level is much better then its ever been the last 3 years, so there’s a positive right?

 

The Three Beer League Heroes tonight are:

1.Jason Spezza- He played a fantastic game tonight, he was all over the offensive zone, played great defensively and had a hat-trick for his first 3 goals of the season, he was by the far best player on the ice and well deserving of the first Hero.

2. Anders Nilsson– What can you say about a performance like that, he let in 2 softies in my opinion, but he battled hard for the full 60 minutes, made 48 saves tonight and stood on his head giving Edmonton a chance to stay in this game and he did just that. Thoroughly impressed with his compete level, something I don’t remember seeing with the Islanders.

3.Connor Mcdavid- Who else deserves this, after two LONG grueling games scores his first NHL goal, like 2 other phenom’s in Sidney Crosby and Wayne Gretzky. He still played a solid game and looks mature beyond his years, he’s only getting better as each game passes and more comfortable, tonight was the first night of him picking up some steam.

Tonight’s Golden Plunger Award goes to…..

Anton Lander. It never pleases me to give this award out especially to a guy who’s been working his tail off and earning his job every night. It’s not that he played horrible, it’s that he just didn’t make use out of any of his minutes he had out there, almost a third of them were shorthanded and he appeared to be benched in the third period. So the coaching staff saw something they didn’t like out of him tonight. He just didn’t have that pep, that puck prowess he usually has when he’s out there, winning puck battles and just being strong on the puck like he normally is.

Side note: Anton Slepyshev only played 5:27 tonight.

Overall with tonight’s loss, I was happy to see that we could battle back and square the game up and get some momentum from two of the players we need to step up in times of need. Still frustrated after the fact that they just didn’t have their legs tonight, and couldn’t keep a consistent flow of momentum going. Taylor hall wasn’t himself and you could see was not 100%.

The only positive out of the offence tonight was the Pouliot-McDavid-Yakupov line, who have some found good chemistry and I’m hoping they’re kept together to capitalize on this blossoming chemistry. No moral victories tonight, this was a loser’s loss because the Oilers simply weren’t the better team out there tonight.

I’ll say it again, the effort out of this team is still far more improved then what we are accustomed to and much better body language on the bench, especially from the Oilers emotional leader in Hall.

Next game is against the St. Louis Blues at the home opener on Thursday night. The Oilers have to come out crashing and full of life in this game if they want to stand a chance, they can’t surrender the same amount of shots as they did tonight and get away with it again. They have to tighten up defensively and start throwing more pucks on net, start shooting and start the crashing, its going to be the only way they can penetrate the Blues defensive system. Shots and speed, utilize the fact that they’re the quicker team and start creating breakdowns in their zone.

Thanks for reading feel free to let me know what you think @madi39 or in the comment section below!