Tag Archives: Leon Draisaitl

The Curious Case of Leon Draisaitl

March 7, 2016 G Money 6 Comments

Welcome everyone, to what is my first analytics post here at BeerLeagueHeroes. I go by the pen name “G Money”, and for the past year I’ve been building up some pretty cool analytic data and visualizations and publishing them on my personal blog, OilersNerdAlert.

The subliminal messages I embedded in those visualizations finally tricked, er I mean convinced, the folks here at BLH into thinking I have mad stats skillz, and so here I am!

(Rather than bore you now, I’ve put a bit more biographic info at the end of the post – so I can bore you later)

My plan here at BLH is to do some deep dives into aspects of the game we all know and love, on topics that are amenable to an investigative/analytic approach … and in so doing, hopefully entertain, educate, and enlighten.

Famous last words! So on to the topic of this post … one Mr. Leon Draisaitl

Dr. Drai’s Forgettable February

Much (virtual) ink has been spilled of late about Leon Draisaitl’s recent slump. Since late January or so, he hasn’t been as effective as he was prior to that, and by extension, neither has his entire line. You can see this by eye, by scoring, and by the stats.

Why?

Here are the most common of the theories that I’ve heard floated:

He’s wearing down from a long season of facing first line duty in Nuge’s absence
He’s fatigued (which is really just the same as wearing down) because he’s young and not used to this much TOI for this long a season
He’s injured

Short of putting a listening device in the trainer’s room, is there anything we can use to help figure out which of these it could be?

Why yes, I do believe there is!

Fatigue

Specifically, let’s see if we can test the idea of whether or not Dr. Drai is fatigued or otherwise wearing down. How would we do that?

Let me float this hypothesis: if Dr. Drai is fatigued, he’s going to become less and less effective over the course of the game. Fair? Even tired people can start strong. It’s in the later periods (or rounds, or whatever) that fatigue tends to assert itself.

So, here’s the idea: let’s look at how effective Draisaitl was at driving shot metrics over the course of the game before February, and how he does during February, and see if there’s a difference.

If he really is fatigued or worn down, we should see that he gets weaker over the course of games in the month of February than he did before February.

If on the other hand it’s just (ha ha – “just”) his overall effectiveness that is compromised, we’d expect that his pattern will show him struggling over the entire course of the game, rather than weakening in the later stages of the game

Does that make sense to you?

It does to me. So let’s test that.

Relativity

But wait!

We can’t just look at Leon’s trace over the month of February vs the rest of the season. What happens if the entire team went into a funk in February (which it kind of did for a while)? What if the entire team was tired? In that case, we’d see a weakening in King Leon’s shot metrics over the game, but it would be reflective of the entire team’s weakness, not his.

So we have to look at Draisaitl’s relative shot metrics – how he did compared to the rest of the team during those two different time periods. That way we can isolate Draisaitl from the overall team trends.

Isolating February

But wait! One more wrinkle!

Is February really the right comparison timeframe? If we don’t pick the right timeframe, we could end up with mixed data, where we don’t adequately separate the good and the bad timeframes. That might be enough to hide differences in the data, so it would be good to confirm whether we have the right timeframe. So let’s take our first quick look at some Draisaitl data:

* Click to embiggen

What is this strange looking duck of a chart?

What I’ve done is looked at three datasets: shot metrics, shot metrics relative to team, and scoring rate. There’s both the raw data and a smoothed version showing for each. Highlighted in purple are the points where it looks like a downturn could be argued to have started, at a peak on either the raw or the smoothed data. In orange are some points where that downtrend might have ended.

It’s not cut and dried (it never is, despite the precision with which we often associate numbers-based analyses), but it does look like February is a separating factor for “good Draisaitl” and “bad Draisaitl”.

Using February vs ‘not February’ as our basis for comparison seems like a reasonable choice.

* Data for this chart was downloaded from war-on-ice.com

Draisaitl, before the walls fell

Here’s the centrepiece chart for this analysis:

This is visualization of Draisaitl’s shot metrics over the course of games excluding February. These are ‘score and venue adjusted’, meaning they try to account for the score state in each game and whether it’s a home or away game.

It’s “Corsi over the course of the game”, so of course I’m calling it Coursi, as a matter of course. What else could I call it?

First impression? Man, is Draisaitl a strong player! Every period, the team is better with him than without him. And apart from a couple of short letdowns early in both the first and second periods, he remains strong throughout. In fact, 51 to 56% means the Oilers are pretty much an elite team when he’s on the ice. Quite encouraging.

Now, let’s temper this a little bit – Draisaitl has spent most of this season with Taylor Hall. We already know Taylor Hall is elite. We already know Taylor Hall drags pretty much every single player on the Oilers above breakeven when he’s on the ice. But the good news is that Drai was with Hall throughout February, so fortunately we don’t have to worry too much about that particular teammate effect biasing our comparison.

The key chart in some ways is the third one – the purple smoothed line shows Draisaitl’s results when compared to the team as a whole. We’ll get back to that line later!

* Data for this chart was scraped by my own scripts directly from NHL data. Corsi calculations use score and venue adjustment factors provided by Micah Blake McCurdy (hockeyviz.com).

Draisaitl on the ocean

Here’s Drai just in the month of February:

That’s quite a contrast, yes? You can very clearly see that Drai is not doing nearly as well in February. That’s true on an absolute basis, AND on a basis relative to the team – the purple line on the rightmost chart dips below the breakeven line a lot more often than it did outside of February.

Hang on a sec, though. That’s not what we were looking for. We were already pretty sure that Drai had a tough February. What we wanted to see is any evidence of fatigue.

Do you see one? I don’t. There is no noticeable downward slope on that purple line.

Looks to me like our man Drai’s issues, whatever they are, are something that stay more or less steady throughout the game.

Direct Comparison

We can see that effect even more clearly if we isolate the two smoothed ‘CoursiRel’ lines on a single chart:

Again, I’d say it’s pretty clear. February is lower overall (more time below breakeven). It is also more volatile. But it’s not sloping downward over the course of the game.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest to you that whatever is ailing Leon Draisaitl – it’s probably not fatigue.

One More Control

One last chart for you. When we look at the chart above, we see quite a difference in character between the two curves. Enough that, while it doesn’t appear to be fatigue, it certainly implies something.

Or does it? What if it’s a data artefact?

We are comparing a fairly large data set (all the games played outside of February) with a small one. Maybe it’s just that the small dataset is inherently more volatile.

So let’s look at a comparison dataset. It was suggested to me that Matt Hendricks, who plays primarily as defensive third/fourth line guy facing mostly similar competition through the season, might make a nice comparison. So here’s exactly the same pair of lines for Matt Hendricks:

Certainly, you can see a difference between the two, as you’d expect. February is more volatile, indicative of a smaller sample size.

The overall character of the two curves, though, is similar. In other words, over the course of the game, Matt Hendricks has been pretty much the same player in February as he was prior to February.

And for our purposes, that’s good. That at least provides some reason to believe that the difference we’re seeing with Draisaitl is a real one.

Conclusion

So the evidence doesn’t indicate fatigue. So what could the issue be?

My opinion?

I think Drai is injured. Not enough to keep him out, but enough to impair. He took some vicious (uncalled … naturally) cross checks and a few shot blocks in January that visibly hurt him. That would be consistent with the overall reduction in his game, and also what appears to be a recent improvement in March (7 games in 11 days doesn’t seem like the ideal circumstances to address a fatigue issue!)

Or maybe, just maybe, it’s a garden variety slump! Those happen too.

Either way – I’d say it’s unlikely it was ‘wearing down’. It’s not definitive, certainly. No single study is, especially a relatively casual one like this.

But I feel comfortable in saying that this analysis suggests we should look elsewhere.

What say you?

Post Script and Bio

There you have it – my first article for BLH. I hope you enjoyed it. My plan is to average about one a week. Some lighter, some heavier, but hopefully always at least somewhat interesting!

A quick word about me for those not yet asleep: I’ve been an Oilers fan for uncountably many years – including the glory years. Maybe that’s what has kept me going, even as I’ve spent so much time living in the land of the bovine enemy.

I’m unquestionably a numbers guy, but just FYI, I “watched the game” for about 35 years before I ever got into the whole fancystats thing. I do this stuff as a hobby, but when I’m not watching hockey or talking hockey online (my wife calls them “my imaginary friends”) I’ve got the aforementioned wife, plus three kids and a cabin in the mountains to keep me hopping.

P.S. I’m a huge Rush fan, so a lot of my posts will have a Rush lyric easter egg embedded – though today I went with Star Trek.

Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

The Sensational Six: A New Core

February 11, 2016 Beer League Hero 6 Comments

Three A’s and two C’s… Surely McDavid will be wearing a letter soon…

We’ve all read countless blogs and articles by journalists, bloggers, or fans alike detailing how to build a competitive and hopefully successful hockey team. The common theme amongst them is that you build down the middle, goalie-defence-center. Wingers are complimentary in most cases and they no matter how skilled they are, they rarely bring championships to teams alone. I think every team in the NHL would love to have drafted Ilya Kovalchuk, Marian Gaborik, Rick Nash, Alexander Ovechkin, or Taylor Hall but to build a team around them? Maybe no. Only Ovechkin’s Capitals and 11 years after being drafted no less, are coming to fruition. Kovalchuk, Gaborik, and Nash all seen post-season success with different teams and Taylor Hall has yet to get a sniff of the playoffs. Pat Kane seems to be the only winger that has seen consistent success but I imagine we could argue if that Chicago team was built around him or Toews, I’d say both but that’s just me.

This brings us to the Oilers who have built this team bass ackwards and if we just look briefly at their first rounders from the last say 10 years we’ll see the following:

2006 – No first round pick (Jeff Petry was first selection in 2nd round)
2007 – Sam Gagner (C), Alex Plante (D), Riley Nash (C)
2008 – Jordan Eberle (R)
2009 – Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson (L)
2010 – Taylor Hall (L)
2011 – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (C), Oscar Klefbom (D)
2012 – Nail Yakupov (R)
2013 – Darnell Nurse (D)
2014 – Leon Draisaitl (C)
2015 – Connor McDavid (C)

I suggest you go over to Lowetide’s page and sift through the plethora of articles on the Oilers’ past drafts. Mr.Mitchell has some of the best analysis an armchair GM could ever want with regards to the Oilers.

But if we’re to Coles Notes this mutha I’d say the Oilers slipped on a few banana peels from 2006-2010. One could argue that the Oilers could’ve taken defenseman John Carlson instead of Jordan Eberle in 2008, Ryan Ellis instead of Paajarvi in 2009, they could’ve taken a center in Tyler Seguin instead of Hall in 2010. Maybe the team could’ve found a way to select teenage captain Gabriel Landeskog in 2011 and highly-regarded blueliner Ryan Murray in 2012. It’s all conjecture though at this point isn’t it? But one fact being, if they didn’t make the picks they did, McDavid would be elsewhere.

I’ve said all along that I could see a day when the Edmonton Oilers are a team without Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nail Yakupov. what seemed like a blessing at the time getting all those 1st overalls may have actually been a curse (except for 2015 of course). But never has an NHL team in my era won on skill alone AND built from the wings in.

I reckon starting with Darnell Nurse, the team has started on the right path. Oscar Klefbom was another great pick, I think that the jury is out on Sam Bennett vs. Leon Draisaitl. I would’ve been happy with either to be honest. I love that we have that big puck possessing center in Leon but I do enjoy Bennett’s game too. And Nobody was going to go wrong with McDavid.

One side note, in the last two drafts (2014 and 2015) the Oilers moved their all of their 2nd and 3rd round picks. They did so in trades which is fine because now we have Cam Talbot and Griffin Reinhart but it sure does leave the cupboard drafty. I put big value in the first three rounds of the draft and prefer my teams to keep those picks unless they’re moving up (see last year’s draft for Toronto) or acquiring bona fide NHL players.

If you were to ask Oilers fans which players are the core of this team last year they’d most likely have said Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Oscar Klefbom. The year before that they might’ve said Hall, RNH, Eberle, and Yak. I remember the PRV, Gagner, Eberle, Hall core at one point and If you asked those same fans today they’d probably tell us Connor McDavid, Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Leon Draisaitl, Oscar Klefbom, and Darnell Nurse.

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Peter Chiarelli has had three-quarters of a season to look at this team and evaluate it. He’s built a competitive team before with Boston, a Stanley Cup winning team and when I look at those Bruins teams that went to the finals I see something that is VERY different from what the Oilers have today.

What did I see with those Chiarelli ran Boston teams? I seen commitment from the players not only to the game but to each other. I seen sacrifice and a willingness to compete for each other. A team that was dedicated to both ends of the ice. I seen a team that had swagger, a collective ego, no individuals on that team survived, be it big names like Tyler Seguin, Phil Kessel, or Doug Hamilton.

The Edmonton Oilers in 2016 are not bereft of these qualities but they certainly do not bring them to work on a daily basis. I fear for the future of some of these young stars that make their living playing for the Oilers today. I’ve heard that some of the players that were once untouchable aren’t so anymore and that is sad because if they are indeed moved, then the team has more or less wasted a lot of time and money on their development for another team to enjoy.

I think you have to ask yourself when was the last time we seen an Oilers team that stuck up for themselves and each other. The Florida game where Hall was knocked on his ass and Hendricks decapitated Ekblad? How about instead of one game, think back to an entire season when they did it. When’s the last time the Oilers’ opponents didn’t look at the team as the easiest team to play in the league? When’s the last time you watched the Oilers lose a game and were happy because at least they took a pound of flesh from the other team? Do you remember the last time the fans at Rexall gave the Oilers penalty kill a standing ovation? Or just a standing ovation for their play on the ice for that matter?

Not all is lost for Oilers fans if the team decides to move on from Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, RNH, and/or Yak. This team is going to be built right under the guidance of Chiarelli and McLellan. The team is being constructed through the middle, as it should be, and I reckon there’s a new core…

Chiarelli’s Core

Connor McDavid (C) – No surprise here. The young superstar will be the face of the franchise moving forward. Hell! The face of hockey for the next 15 years!
Leon Draisaitl (C) – This German Tank has absolutely blitzkrieged the NHL this year. Just recently has it looked like he’s hit a wall. No doubt about it, he’s got the size and skill to become one of the best players in the NHL.
Oscar Klefbom (D) – We haven’t seen the Swede much this year but of what we have seen, he’s shown us he’s the best defender we’ve got. A large puck moving, intelligent defender who can break up the cycle. The way I see Klefbom is that he brings a slightly less aggressive style to the rink than Brent Seabrook but is comparable to the ‘Hawks defender in every other way.
Darnell Nurse (D) – Mean MFer who can skate like the wind and has some offense. A lot of people have likened him to Chris Pronger but I wonder if he’s more along the lines of a better skating Jason Smith or Sheldon Souray. The blue-collar worker in Edmonton will surely respect Nurse’s game.
Andrej Sekera (D) – He’s signed for 6 years so he’s in it for the long haul and after a tough first month we’re seeing what ‘Rej brings to the table. He’s a calming influence on the blue and he’s the most offensive defenseman the team has. I have to wonder if he’ll be what Sergei Gonchar was to the Penguins in the mid 2000s.
Brandon Davidson (D) – Who was the defender on the ice in the dying minutes versus the Devils? Not Sekera or Nurse. Davidson was. This fella has been in the making for 3 years and is looking as studly as ever on the back-end. He’s getting big minutes and I can’t remember one game this season where we’ve shat all over his game. He’s been performing well consistently and the coaching staff are rewarding him for it. Can’t wait to see him signed this off-season.

I think you could argue Cam Talbot should be there but rarely do we see a goalie included in these “core” conversations.

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No Hall. No Nuge. No Eberle. No Yak. No Surprises.

Don’t be shocked to wake up one day to the news that any or all of these four guys have been traded. Just embrace the change because it’s a sign that the new brass cares for this team. This is Peter Chiarelli’s team now, he puts major value on team toughness, as do I, and it’s a safe call that he probably isn’t seeing that with this squad in 2015/16. Most importantly, none of these boys are his.

So be prepared with ticker tape and champagne or pitchforks and torches because change is coming.

Edmonton Oilers, Edmonton Oilers Post Game Report, Lindsay Ryall, NHL

It’s The Battle of Alberta Part Four . . . With Playoff Implications

January 16, 2016 Lindsay Ryall 1 Comment

Edmonton Oiler fans have been waiting for some time for the Battle of Alberta with the Calgary Flames to be a little more interesting, or at least more competitive. And while we’re a fair distance from the battle royales of the 80’s, the latest edition of the Battle of Alberta promises to be a good one. Considering the Oilers are currently three points behind the Flames, and both teams are trying to stay in the playoff race, there should be no shortage of motivation on both ends of the ice.

What’s Happened So Far?

The Flames currently lead the season series by two games to one, but the Oilers have been playing decent hockey of late and are due for a victory. If that’s going to happen, a number of things need to fall into place, most notably, the Oiler D will need to play way over its head. Besides the defence, there are a number of other interesting sub-plots to review.

Is Zack Ready To Do Some Damage?

The Oiler’s have needed someone to menace the opposition for sometime, and newly acquired Zack Kassian could fill the role perfectly. If he played the odd shift on the top line, opposite wee Johnny Gaudreau, and bullied him a bit, the results could lead to some dysfunction with the Flames. At any rate, Kassian cleary showed in his last outing he can capably keep up, although his cardio is still lagging a touch. Look for Kassian to make an impact, it’s games like these that the Oilers acquired Kassian for.

Time For Yak To Build Some Momentum

Nail Yakupov had a stormer of a game in his return to the line-up Thursday night against the Sharks (1 goal, lots of energy) and needs to follow it up with a repeat performance. We’ve all seen glimpses of his potential and with a good rest and recovery, he looks re-energized. If he continues to skate hard, throw the body, and shoot whenever the puck is on his stick in the O-zone, good things will happen. Personally I think Yak could add a dimension to his game by re-inventing himself as a modern-day Esa Tikkanen and shadow/check Gaudreau to ineffectiveness. Just a suggestion.

What To Expect From The Flames

Winger Michael Frolik has had three goals against the Oilers this season, but has missed 12 games due to injury. He’s a beast on the PK and highly opportunistic. The Oiler’s should be aware of him. T.J. Brodie has been an Oiler killer this year with a goal and three assists. As is standard, the Oilers will need to stay out of the box and block the point shots to limit the effectiveness of Calgary’s D.

Another Edition Of Dr. Drai vs. Sam I Am

For any true hockey people, this debate was put to rest some time ago. But then Calgary forward Sam Bennet had four goals against the Florida Panthers which has Flames’ fans fired up, thinking they have the best pick from the 2014 entry draft. Bennet is more physical, but that’s pretty much where his advantage ends. The Deutschland Dangler has the size to control the game and is a passing wizard. He’s at a point per game clip and has clearly out-played Bennett in head to head matches so far this season. There is a concern that Draisaitl is lagging a bit energy-wise going into the second half of the season, but the All-Star break will help with that. The latest installment of the Battle of Alberta will be another opportunity for Leon Draisaitl to continue to silence any critics.

Projected Lines For The Oilers

Taylor Hall Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Iro Parkarinen

Benoit Pouliot Leon Draisaitl Jordan Eberle

Teddy Purcell Mark Letestu Zack Kassian

Lauri Korpikoski Anton Lander Nail Yakupov

D – Pairings

Andrej Sekera Mark Fayne

Darnell Nurse Justin Schultz

Brandon Davison Eric Gryba

Goal – Cam Talbot

On the top-line Iiro the Hero continues to try to make the most of his opportunity on the top line while Zack Kassian looks to provide some agitation on the third line. Yakupov on the fourth line may provide an interesting dimension if he can continue to compliment Korpikoski and posibly get Lander going.

On the Defense, Schultz paired with Nurse concerns me somewhat. There is a shortage of right hand D at this time, so perhaps this is the only option. Schultz paired with anyone but a veteran steady presence is a concern to me.

Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

BLH’s Edmonton Oilers Mid-Term Evaluations

January 8, 2016 Beer League Hero

I can’t wait to see McDavid blazing past established NHL defensemen again!

The Oilers mid-term evaluation is a chance to see how far the team has come since the beginning of the season and an opportunity to see where they might be headed. Lucky for the Oilers, this year their division is the worst in the league thus making the previously unattainable goal of making the playoffs attainable.

Before the season started I was wary of how many young players the team was projected to begin with and how many more might get the call-up at some point before the All-Star break. I’ve been stunned by the quality of young players the Oilers have been employing this season and equally as surprised with how well they seem to be performing. McDavid, Nurse, and Draisaitl have all been nothing short of amazing! Older and lesser established players in Oscar Klefbom and Brandon Davidson have been outstanding outside of their injuries.

And we can’t go on without speaking to the rising phoenix that is Taylor Hall. Leadership and maturity is oozing from him. He’s taking this team on his back and doing his damnedest to lead them through the stormy waters. Two things are contributing to his meteoric rise, his health and his complete game. They say focus on the defensive parts of your game and the offense will follow. Taylor Hall is as complete a hockey player as he’s going to be and I say FINALLY!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whH9Zy0bevY

But on the other end of that spectrum are players like Nail Yakupov, who can’t seem to shake free from the shackles of the ever-growing opinion that he’s set to be a bust. There’s Griffin Reinhart whom we all thought would step right in to the Oilers line-up and contribute right away. Instead being sent down to Bakersfield and replaced by Darnell Nurse. Mark Fayne, Anton Lander and Justin Schultz definitely fall under the category of disappointment as well. You know, I’ve read that some believe Schultz’s defensive game has improved this season at the sacrifice of his offensive game and that’s fine but the team defense is still sh*tting the bed and now he’s not contributing at either end of the ice… But keep playing him 22 minutes a game because he’s still working out the kinks in his game…

The emergence or re-emergence of veteran Teddy Purcell has been a pleasant surprise to some but not me. It’s no shock to me that a player in his contract year is performing above par.

Speaking of players playing above par… Nuge and Jordan Eberle are not part of that group. I believe they’re playing par for the course. Nothing amazing but not really horrible either. Benoit Pouliot, Matt Hendricks, Lauri Korpikoski, Eric Gryba and Mark Letestu all fall into this category as well. We expected more out of 93, 23 and 14 but we can also be patient with them because they’ve got nothing to prove and we know what we have in them.

The goaltending has been up and down like a roller coaster at West Ed. But it looks to have stabilized for the time being under Cam Talbot. I had my doubts about him earlier in the year but didn’t panic because Anders Nilsson was playing well. Talbot’s bad days seem to be behind him now and I’m stoked for that. The impression he gives me is that he’s a bit like Dwayne Roloson. I think he’s cool under pressure and solid in net. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s exactly what the Oilers have been needing since they sold Devan Dubnyk down the river.

At the midway portion of the NHL season the Oilers still sit in the bottom three of the NHL and they’re last in the Western Conference… again. But they very well could luck out in the second half of the campaign and clinch a wild card spot due to the weakness of the Pacific Division and players returning from injury.

EVALUATIONS

(A+) – Taylor Hall (41gp 16g 25a 41pts) All-Star. De-facto captain.
(A+) – Leon Draisaitl (31gp 9g 23a 32pts) Should’ve been an All-Star.
(A) – Oscar Klefbom (30gp 4g 8a 12pts) Swedish Tank.
(A) – Connor McDavid (13gp 5g 7a 12pts) Pure genius.

(B+) – Darnell Nurse (32gp 2g 5a 7pts) Best rookie defenseman in the league. Fought Lucic.
(B) – Teddy Purcell (41gp 9g 16a 25pts) Uptick in production conveniently timed.
(B) – Andrej Sekera (40gp 5g 10a 15pts) Rounding into form.
(B) – Brandon Davidson (26gp 2g 3a 5pts) Very pleasant surprise. Edmonton’s version of Jason Demers?
(B-) – Jordan Eberle (28gp 10g 7a 17pts) Minus 11… Worst on the team.
(B-) – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (40gp 8g 20a 28pts) No.3 centre now? Not that that is a bad thing but still…
(B-) – Matt Hendricks (31gp 2g 4a 6pts) All heart.
(B-) – Cam Talbot (22gp 7W 11L .910SV%) Cool runnings.

(C) – Benoit Pouliot (32gp 8g 9a 17pts) OZ penalties, benchings, and getting called out by the coach already?
(C) – Mark Letestu (41gp 5g 6a 11pts) solid if not unspectacular.
(C) – Eric Gryba (36gp 0g 4a 4pts) Masher of bodies. Breaker of cycles.
(C) – Anders Nilsson (22gp 10W 10L 1OT) Swedish roller coaster.

(D) – Lauri Korpikoski (33gp 6g 4a 10pts) Not really sure what this guy does out there. He just is.
(D) – Iiro Pakarinen (30gp 3g 2a 5pts) Where’s the offense?
(D) – Luke Gazdic (27gp 1g 0a 1pt) Where’s the muscle?

(F) – Justin Schultz (27gp 1g 3a 4pts) A million dollars for every point! Money well spent… Elsewhere.
(F) – Nail Yakupov (22gp 2g 10a 12pts) Nice guys finish last.
(F) – Anton Lander (40gp 0g 2a 2pts) Time’s up! Say hi to Omark when you see him.
(F) – Mark Fayne (29gp 0g 1a 1pt) Can’t get him out of Edmonton fast enough.

I think overall the team has been unlucky with injuries and that’s a tough pill to swallow due to the way the Pacific Division has been playing out so far. We can only dream of where the Oilers would be if they’d all been healthy up till now.

Going into the 2nd half of the year I expect a trend upwards in the standings when McDavid and Klefbom return from injury and February’s schedule looks to be one that favours a healthy Oilers squad and if the Pacific continues to go the way it has been going, we might see a very exciting month of March. One we haven’t seen in a very long time.

Do you agree with my evaluations? Let me know in the comments below!

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NHL

BLH Post Gamer G35 Oilers VS Jets: Talbot 5000

December 22, 2015 Beer League Hero

Do you remember the old Rocky movies? You know how in every huge fight that Rocky eventually wins he takes a shit kicking beforehand? Well The Edmonton Oilers you’re watching these days are akin to Rocky when he’s fighting Spider Rico in that old church in the first movie. They’re just building up to the big fight with Apollo Creed. The weird thing is for the last ten years they’ve been the Rocky from the first fight with Clubber Lang or the Apollo Creed fighting Ivan Drago. Weak. Last week.

Oilers been taking a lot of punches these years… It’s about time they started punching back.

I mean the last half of the game versus the Jets was the Oilers holding on for dear life and Cam Talbot saving their asses… Again. Being outshot nearly 3-1 and not maintaining possession for any sustained period of time after the 30 minute mark is not the way a successful team plays. Check out McLellan’s comments about the game below and tell me you’re not completely on board with what he’s selling.

Now I suppose we should be happy that the Oilers got away with another one and that’s two points in the books but you can be bloody sure that if the team continues to sell their goalies down the river that their goalies are going to lose their cool.

It’s an odd position to be in isn’t it? For years it was the team not having confidence in their goalies and now it’s the other way around.

We can’t short change the Jets here. They are a really good team and if they can find a way to resign two, if not, three of Byfuglien, Ladd, and Trouba this summer; they should be set. They’re big, fast, techincal, and very smart. If they can get their netminding sorted they could be a powerhouse in the West.

The Kingston Cannonball, The German Gretzky, and The Newfie had major success against the Jets last night. They put up eight points and 6 out of Edmonton’s 21 shots and continue to be a beacon of hope for these Oilers until Connor McDavid gets back. Did you put Purcell in your hockey pool like I told you to?

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Justin Schultz scored… Yeah. I don’t know what to say about this. Good for him? It took him over 20 games to get his first goal. This has to be unacceptable by the coach’s, the GM’s, and his own standards. Yet I’m not so sure he’s all that concerned about it. When you listen to his interviews there’s a lot of “hope” and “confidence” and “lucky” being thrown around out there and I don’t buy a single word of it. I don’t want to hear about hope, I want to hear a guy say to the world that he’s going to go out there and do something like score a goal. Not, “I hope the bounces come my way and I can be lucky enough to put one in.” I think that’s a bunch of BS and it screams ZERO CONFIDENCE to me. You know what I hope for? I hope that we’re lucky enough to see Schultz pull it together so that when he’s traded the team will actually get something of value back.

How about Darnell Nurse taking that shot in the wrist and then coming back like it was nothing? I’m certain he had one or two more blocks after that. The guy is an absolute stud and I’m so jacked, unlike others, that the Oilers took him instead of Valeri Nichushkin at the 2013 draft. In his 25 minutes on the ice last night he put up four blocks, 1 shot, a hit and a roughing penalty at the end of the game after Mark Scheifele slewfooted him. Scheifele is lucky he got as little as he did, I reckon Nurse was going to make an example out of him before everyone stepped in. Although I would’ve loved to have seen Trouba and Nurse drop the mitts.

Brrrr. Must be cold in Edmonton. Pick up a sweet hoodie by clicking the pic!

The return of Mark Fayne went largely unnoticed. Lol. That’s a good thing if you’re wondering. He went +2 on the night and not a gaff that I can think of. Good on him because that is what he is being played to do.

Lastly, the other player that I wanted to touch on was Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. He was 73% on the face-off dot, had two shots, two hits, and played over 20 minutes. That’s great because there are those out there that think he’s struggling this season and that with the emergence of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl that he should be trade bait. I am NOT one of them.

Any NHL player can have one good season, right? So at the moment we have a good idea of what we have in Leon and Connor but there’ll be a time when one or both aren’t going and if Nuge isn’t there to pick up the pace, the Oilers have trouble. We can afford to keep all three for another season at least and then if we need to, make a decision at that point. RNH is the best two-way forward on the team and is quickly emerging into one of the best in the league if not the best under 23 years of age.

We did read yesterday that Nashville is interested in him but is unwilling to move Josi, Weber, or Jones to get him. To that I say, fine. Try to go after Duchene, Stamkos, Johansen, and what ever other NHL superstar center with the conversation starting at Ryan Ellis or Mattias Ekholm. Good Luck!

So at the end of the day the Oilers sit in 2nd last place in the West three points above the Ducks but only 1 point out of a playoff spot. McDavid is skating (and shooting) again and I bet you that he’s back in the first half of January. You think the brass in Edmonton, let alone the NHL, is going to miss an opportunity to put the next great star in the all-star game? Especially one that features 3v3? Book it folks! McDavid will be back sooner rather than later.

Take Care and have a really great Christmas! Stay safe!

BLH