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Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Sunday Night Pint

Beer League Heroes Sunday Night Pint #11: Ladies Night!

Hayley Wickenheiser

Welcome back to the Beer League Heroes Sunday Night Pint! Now, if you’ve never experienced the SNP then you’re in for a treat tonight. It’s Ladies Night and we’re talking puck with three of the brightest and best female bloggers in the the whole Oilogosphere! Jackie Dawson (@jackiedee16) and Meg Fowler (@mig14) from The Oilers Rig as well as Oil On Whyte‘s Sammi Silber (@sammisilber)!

So without further adieu, let’s get this SNP Ladies Night Edition started!

WHICH TEAMS WILL MAKE THE STANLEY CUP FINAL AND WHO’LL WIN IT ALL?

JD: First off…anyone who says the Oilers are going there is nuts. I’m an Oilers fan, and I’d love to see it but I’m also a realist. They’ll improve but they’re still going to have growing pains so don’t expect the world from them this year.

From the West, I think you’ll see Chicago in the mix again…they’re just a well oiled machine. St. Louis had such a great season last year it will be hard to count them out as well. However, I think we might see Anaheim pull it all together this year so I’m predicting the Ducks to come out of the West.
In the East…the Rangers and the Habs will likely be contenders, but never count out a team like Detroit… They somehow manage to make the impossible possible every now and then. In saying that though, I think this year belongs to Tampa Bay.
So I’m going to go out on a limb and predict a Ducks/Lightning final with Tampa taking home the Cup.

SS: The Capitals and the Blackhawks will be in the finals.  I think the Caps can win it in seven games.  Their team looks ready to take it all this year.

MF: SInce I can’t even jokingly say the Oilers without running the risk of being booed off the internet, I’m going to say that we’ll see a SCF between Montreal and *shudder* Anaheim. the Ducks have made some moves this offseason, and have long been competitive in a very competitive Western Conference. There’s only so long a team with a goalie like Price and a pretty strong D can go without winning it all; changes they’ve made up front will also help take them over the hump and into the finals.
I’m taking Montreal in 6.

WHO’LL BE THE FINALISTS FOR THE CALDER TROPHY FOR ROOKIE OF THE YEAR?

JD: There’s a very good rookie class this year, and I’d be crazy not to think Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel will be candidates…I mean, it kind of goes without saying.

Although I don’t think they’ll have these kinds of numbers, I hope it’s similar to the Crosby/Ovechkin battle of the rookies. When it comes to throwing in a 3rd choice…I’m going to go with Arizona’s Max Domi. The kid was a superstar at the World Juniors and I think he will have a seamless transition into the NHL.

SS: For the Calder trophy, it’ll be Eichel, McDavid and I’m going to throw Domi’s name in there.

MF: At the risk of coming across like a total homer, I’m going to guess McDavid, Eichel and some other guy. Honestly, unless one of those two has a season-ending injury early in the year, I can’t see the conversation going beyond them. Obviously, I’d like to think that McDavid will win, not necessarily because he’s the best rookie (even though he clearly will be) but because he will add the most to the team. (Apparently that’s how things are decided… remember the 2011-12 season, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins not winning the Calder despite being the better player AND doing more in 20 fewer games? I do too.)

WHAT DOES THIS YEAR’S BATTLE OF ALBERTA HAVE IN STORE FOR OILERS FANS?

JD: It may be safe to say that the Battle of Alberta will be an actual battle this season. The Oilers have made so many changes in coaching and lineup and have looked like they fixed their give-a-damn, which means an actual work ethic!

The Flames are a relentless hard working team that has a compete level that took them to the playoffs last year, so I think we’ll see an all out war between the two teams.

SS: The Oilers are going to SLAY the Flames in every game in this year’s Battle(s) of Alberta.  In fact, Oilers will win em all, but not by a dominant score. Two games to overtime. The rest? Regulation wins.

MF: Hopefully more wins. they’ve been woefully outplayed for the last hundred or so games against the Flames. I’m hoping they take their split squad preseason results to heart when they play the Flames this year. I think the teams are markedly different from years past, with a ton more talent on the ice. I’m expecting fast-paced, hopefully high-scoring games that will all end with Oilers Ws. There’s not much I enjoy more than watching the Flames get beat by the Oilers, so hopefully I’ll get to see that at least once. Or twice.

MUSICAL GUILTY PLEASURES

JD: I’m fairly eclectic but hands down Maroon 5 is my favorite band and has been for years. I will literally listen to anything by them!

I’m also a big fan of CCR, Metallica, Def Leppard, Daughtry and Bon Jovi when I need to rock out.
When it’s time to dance, Katy Perry, 80’s Madonna (not new Madonna) and Michael Jackson always get me on my feet. Basically any 80’s tune will do that really.

SS: I love Florence + The Machine. I can’t name a time when I’m NOT listening to them.

MF: I have Ace of Base – The Sign on my phone. I listen to it once in a while, totally shame free. I also REALLY love Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red White and Blue” because it’s the most singable country song ever (besides Chattahoochee by Alan Jackson), even if the subject matter is horrifyingly, well, horrifying.

Thanks for joining us this week! Let us know your thoughts in the comments below on today’s topics! And if you’re not following Jackie, Meg, or Sammi on Twitter then you’re a fool! Just kidding but I highly recommend giving them a follow, as you can see; they know their puck!

One more thing before I let you go though. This February on the 26th there’ll be the bestest Oilers shindig of the month at least. It’s The Oilers Rig’s 3rd Annual OilersRig Live4MS Charity Auction! The swag they get at these charity auctions is UNREAL! Not only that but you get to hang out with fine folks from the Rig and watch a hockey game together, maybe get on their live podcast and contribute to a worthy cause. Keep an eye over at The Oilers Rig’s website or their Twitter for more info as there should be some more on this by the end of the month!

 

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

Edmonton Oilers Trade Proposals from Fans

Let’s be honest with ourselves here. We tend to overvalue the players on our team and undervalue players on other teams and most time to the extent of side-splitting hilariousness. So I’m going to try and make this a weekly thing where I look for the most ridiculous or realistic fan trade proposals regarding the Edmonton Oilers circulating the oilogosphere and comment on them. I imagine a majority of them will come from HFBoards. So without further ado, there are some humdingers!

This first one is what I call “The Ditka”.

To Arizona Coyotes: Nail Yakupov and the #16, #33, #56, and #78 picks this year
To Edmonton Oilers: The #3 overall

The gist of the deal is obvious. Reunite McDavid with Strome or add Noah Hanifin… Boy that’s a lot to give up for one guy. On the other hand, what are the odds that any of those other picks have the same impact in the NHL as a Strome or Hanifin?

The second deal on the docket is as follows:

To Edmonton Oilers: Alexei Emelin and the rights to Magnus Nygren
To Habs: Teddy Purcell (50% retained salary) and a 2015 4th round pick

I don’t know… I like a good hard hitting defenceman as much as anybody else and God knows that Purcell is as useful as tits on a boar but $6m seems like a hard hit to take to get rid of Purcell.

The third proposal:

To Edmonton Oilers: Tom Wilson
To Washington Capitals: Nail Yakupov

There’s a part of me that really likes this. Is Wilson the modern day Dave Semenko?… Could he be? I think there’s one foregone conclusion though, someone on the right wing is going to get moved sooner or later and this team needs someone willing to let the other team know that roughing up our stars will not be tolerated.

Proposal #4:

To Edmonton Oilers: Derek Stepan, Cam Talbot, Carl Hagelin and Kevin Klein
To Rangers: The 1st overall pick

So the guy that wrote this believes that he’s helping the Oilers so much by getting them a top center, a goalie, a complementary winger and a “solid” defenceman at the minimal cost of Connor McDavid… What I don’t understand is how people come up with these ideas sometimes. Would you deal that for Mario Lemieux or Gretzky, Crosby or Ovechkin? Crikey! What have any of those Rangers done lately?

Here’s another beaut!

To Edmonton Oilers: MA Fleury and Evgeni Malkin
To Pittsburgh Penguins: The 1st overall pick and Ted Purcell

I guess Edmonton’s salary cap is infinity times a million and thanks for being nice enough to take Purcell….

This proposal has me thinking:

To Edmonton Oilers: John Gibson, James Wisniewski, 3rd round pick (2015)
To Anaheim Ducks: Nail Yakupov, Ben Scrivens, and the #16 pick this year.

As I said earlier, one of Yakupov or Eberle will be moved at some point and the Oilers could use player like Wisniewski on the point. Gibson is sure to be a helluva goalie sooner than later but do you make this deal knowing that the Oilers defence is strife with overpaid veteran defenders?

Here’s another with the Rangers:

To Edmonton Oilers: Dan Girardi and Cam Talbot
To Rangers: The #16 and #56 picks this year and Nikita Nikitin

There’s something to really like about this one. Dan Girardi would be a perfect fit on the Oilers and a great presence for the younger players like Nurse. Could he be the kind of partner that would calm Justin Schultz’s game down?

The last proposal of the day:

To Edmonton Oilers: Alex Edler, Eddie Lack, and Zack Kassian
To Vancouver Canucks: The #16, #33, #56 picks this year and Martin Marincin

I guess the overall point of this charity is so that the Canucks can accelerate their rebuild?… What? Because inter-division rivals LOVE helping each other out…

Well I hope you enjoyed the read. I had a good laugh going through the trade boards over at Hockey’s Future in order to bring this to you. If you heard any proposals that have made you piss your pants, feel free to send ’em over in the comments below!

Before you go, I’d love it if you headed over to the Beer League Heroes T-Shirt shop and took a gander. Maybe pick one up and help keep this team afloat if you’re so inclined. We’d really appreciate it!

Thanks for reading!

– BLH