Tag Archives: Fayne

NHL

BLH Edmonton Oilers Weekly Recap Dec 6-12th

Oh what a week for the Edmonton Oilers!

Last week the Edmonton Oilers did something we have not seen since 1987: they won all five games in a five game homestead. Last week, the Oilers went 3-0, beating the Buffalo Sabres 4-2, beating the San Jose Sharks 4-3 in Overtime and beating The New York Rangers in a firewagon-like hockey game, 7-5.

Even better: The Oilers are only two points away from being second in the Pacific Division. Remember last December? Where they won two games all month? Where Dallas Eakins finally got fired?

It’s night and day between last year and this year. That said, need to stay grounded, especially for the highs and the lows. Only a couple weeks ago, people wanted to blow up the core and now we are talking about the P word for the first time  in a long time. Expectations should still be tempered.

That said, we should enjoy every last second of it. This is without McDavid, Pouliot or Yakupov either.

Edmonton Oilers Three Stars

3. Leon Draisaitl: Oh Leon. You only have 26 points in 20 games now, outscoring names like Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby. Ho hum. You’re in the top twenty for NHL scoring right now, despite playing the first ten games in the AHL. You have been easily the silver lining of the McDavid injury where you’ve stepped your game up to a level that nobody saw coming. Sure, your extremely high shooting percentage is bound to go down, but what do you do? Just post four assists against the New York Rangers. You only had 1 goal and 6 assists for 7 points in three games.  He’s only 20. 

2. Taylor Hall: Every week I chuckle because there’s actually some people out there that wanted Taylor Hall gone from the team because of attitude problems or character problems. Every week Hall just continues to prove those people horribly wrong. Taylor Hall is the heart and soul of this Hockey Team and is currently fourth in the NHL scoring race. You know what’s the best part of Taylor Hall’s game right now? He’s +15. I don’t really like +/- as a stat, but boy is he ever shining. Hall had the Overtime winner against San Jose and had 4 goals, 4 assists for 8 points in three games. I think he’s the future captain of the Edmonton Oilers, if not Connor McDavid

1. Glen Sather: Yes, I’m stealing a note from the Sportsnet crew and giving current New York Rangers President and former longtime GM, Glen Sather the first star of the week. Sather was honoured on Friday night before the game for his contributions with the Edmonton Oilers. Like him or not, Glen Sather was just as instrumental as the Hall of Fame players he had under his roster. He combined a swagger and fierceness into his Edmonton Oilers. It was great seeing him walk all the way down and through the crowd, interacting with fans and giving a great speech. It was a fitting night too: The Rangers and Oilers combined for 12 goals as his former team won the game. I even included a video for you guys to watch, in case you missed the ceremony. It was really a top notch effort.

Edmonton Oilers Rumors and News

One horrible nugget during that thrilling 7-5 win: The Oilers lost Oscar Klefbom to injury. He reportedly has a broken finger. That’s a really tough break (no pun intended).

That’s a huge hole to lose in the lineup. He’s been a beast 5v5 as Woodguy55 has pointed out. Very bad news.

Also: Mark Fayne was put on waivers and cleared. Nikita Nikitin was also called back up. Apparently Nikitin has been playing quite well in the AHL….so maybe we can give him the benefit of the doubt?

I tore into Nikitin during the pre season in a stinging article. I’ll hold my tongue for now.

Around the League

 

Highlights

Connor McDavid was featured on 60 Minutes. Here’s the link on YouTube

 

A bit late, but TSN recently did a Top 10 3v3 Overtime Goals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Gso4yyRgGg

 

Brayden Holtby is a Jedi.

 

The Week Ahead

The Edmonton Oilers play FOUR times this week and it’s a tough four game road trip.

Monday they visit Boston and Tuesday face the New York Rangers in back to back games.

Thursday they visit the Madhouse on Madison and the Chicago Blackhawks and finally Saturday they visit the very beatable Colorado Avalanche.

That’s the week that was! Follow me on Twitter and have a wonderful week Oil Fans.

 

Armchair GM, Edmonton Oilers, Fancy Stats, Zach Laing

Oilers vs San Jose Preview – Sayonara, Fayne.

TALE OF THE TAPE:

Game: Edmonton Oilers (11-15-2) vs San Jose Sharks (14-13-0)

Location: Rexall Place, Edmonton, Alberta

Time: 7:30 PM MT

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

Edmonton Oilers Preview:

In what came as nothing short of a surprise, the Oilers made the decision to place Mark Fayne on waivers for the purpose of reassignment to the Bakersfield Condors. Mark has struggled these past two seasons, and it is apparent that his game is nowhere close to what the Oilers need.

Fayne has certainly turned heads in Edmonton this year, but it’s for all of the wrong reasons. This season Fayne has one assist, a 45% CF and has been our worst defenceman in terms of on-ice scoring chances. When he was brought into Edmonton, I thought it was a solid move. After all, he did have some solid underlying numbers and showed that he could be a solid top-four guy. A year later, that has clearly changed.

What has been his failing point? Well he has simply been beat out of a job at this point. The emergence of young Brandon Davidson and Darnell Nurse forced the hand of the Oilers brass to make a decision. Those two guys have been playing some solid hockey of late. The move is an interesting one. It will allow for the guys in Edmonton to get some more ice time, effectively trimming the Oilers defensive corps down to seven guys.

There have been lots of people fighting both sides of the argument, and I have yet to fully figure out where I stand. With that being said, I am leaning more towards the side of Fayne just not being that great of a defenceman.

There is definitely a chance Fayne gets picked up on waivers too.

One factor that plays into it is that Fayne has a $3.625 cap hit for two more years. According to War-on-ice’s buyout calculator if the Oilers were to buyout Fayne’s remaining contract, they would owe him $1.16 million until 2019-2020. With Nikita Nikitin and Ben Scrivens already in the AHL and Fayne soon to join them, it is apparent Peter Chiarelli is trying to distance himself from some of these signings and field what he feels is the best possible lineup.

Tonight, Todd McLellan and his new Oilers squad look to get back at the team that he parted ways from.

“I think we’re starting to get things in place a little bit more,” said McLellan. “I don’t think early in the year we got comfortable, we got cocky or arrogant by any means. We’re not at that. Earlier in the year, if we won one or two, we were still trying to get our systems in place, we’re trying to figure out players. I think we’re a little more set right now, if that makes any sense, with how we want to play certain situations. So we’re playing better in those areas. Big test for us tonight and I expect us to pass it.”

I have been saying this for sometime now. It was unrealistic to expect the team to come out of the gates this year and hit it out of the park. There were a large amount of changes both on and off the ice and I am not surprised to see things starting to click for the Oilers; I mean, the team is on their first three game win streak since October 17th – 21st where they beat the Flames (5-2), Canucks (2-1OT) and the Red Wings (3-1).

Systems are coming in place, players are understanding their roles better and the coaches and management teams are realizing where the talent lies in this Oilers group. As the season moves on and when the Oilers return to a healthy team, I am really intrigued to see what happens.

The Otherside:

San Jose could turn to backup goalie Alex Stalock after Martin Jones was pulled after allowing three goals on 14 shots in 23:11 of a 4-2 loss at the Calgary Flames on Tuesday. Stalock made 18 saves on 19 shots. Center Logan Couture had an assist in 12:38 of ice time in his first game since Oct. 13; he missed 23 games with a fractured right fibula. “He’s obviously pushing to get back in, and I give him a lot of courage for coming out and doing that,” coach Pete DeBoer told CSN Bay Area after the game. “I can count on one hand the number of practices he’s had. We knew that he was going to have to work himself in, and that’s what it looked like tonight.” The Sharks have lost a season-high four straight games and could be without defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic, who has missed the past two games with a lower-body injury. San Jose has scored six goals in four games. – nhl.com

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


Oilers (Anders Nilsson):

San Jose (Martin Jones): 

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

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snuo4LUJ7Uo]