Can you believe that Milan Lucic scored a goal!? The house on my roof nearly lifted off when he scored (I’m still pissed at him btw) and we even saw how it re-energized the Oilers as they were flying after that goal was scored. But the veteran savvy of the Sharks withstood the pressure and didn’t allow the Oilers to get back into the game.
I asked a source close to the team if there was anything positive that the Oilers could take away from a game like that and I was told, “Lucic-RNH-Puljujarvi”. I can’t disagree with that.
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Jesse Puljujarvi has put up two points in two games now. I hope thi sis the start of a very productive final half of the season for him. He’s starting to take advantage of his speed, size, and strength a little more and is reminding me of Hall-of-Famer Dave Andreychuk a bit with his net-front play. Albeit a version of Dave Andreychuk that could skate a bit better.
I love me some Ray Ferraro and I listen to as many episodes of his podcast (The Pulp Hockey Show) and as many of his radio spots as I can. I think he shoots it straight the majority of the time and I appreciate his candor and forthrightness.
Episode 143 of The Pulp Hockey Show had a small tidbit on the Oilers that I’d like to address and it’s regarding something I think near every anti-Chiarelli Oilers fan is willingly and ignorantly forgetting. That being injuries.
I often wonder what people think a coach can do. He can’t play. You know, Todd McLellan is a good coach. Hitch isn’t going to go out there and give them depth scoring, they still don’t have it. McDavid, Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins, Chiasson, and… Oh boy, I hope somebody else. Like that’s kinda how it goes.
Look at their last three games. They stunk. They were terrible in LA. They were unreal the next night in Anaheim. They were terrible in San Jose. That’s their last three games. And so,
Todd McLellan was 8-2-1 when they started the year. Then they went 6-7 and something or other and he got fired. Right? They had a losing streak. 1-6-7 and then he got fired. Then they went 8-2-1 under Hitch, then they went 3-9-1 since then.
That’s funny, not a word about injuries to important players here. I’m sure if you asked Ferraro he might tell you that every team goes through injuries in a season and I would agree with that. But, how many teams lose two of their best defensemen and keep winning?
The value of top 4 D? Vegas were 8-11-1 while Nate Schmidt was suspended, they are 16-4-3 since he has been back. Nashhville went 9-9-1 without PK Subban, are now 15-6-1 with him. Edmonton has gone 1-6-1 w/o Klefbom and Russell; 17-12-2 with them in the lineup
Let’s look more recently at some teams who have sustained injuries to key players and their records.
The Anaheim Ducks with all of its secondary scoring, high-potent defense, and Hart caliber goaltending can’t seem to shake off a losing streak that’s now up to 9 games. The mighty Ducks have ONE win in their last ten and they are one of the worst scoring teams in the NHL. Why do you think that is? Do you think it has anything to do with injuries to Rickard Rackell, Corey Perry, Cam Fowler, etc?
(FYI to those Oilers fans who are crapping all over Chiarelli for allowing Pontus Aberg to be picked off of waivers, he’s now a healthy scratch for the Ducks after going pointless in seven games and racking up a Yakupov-like minus ten in that time…)
The Colorado Avalanche are 2-6-2 in their last ten. A period of time where for varying amounts of time they lost their starting goalie, a top-4 defenseman (Zadorov), and one of their core bottom-6 players in Colin Wilson. Now the team is losing its collective shit and the infighting has begun.
Things got HEATED between Nathan MacKinnon and Jared Bednar on the Avs' bench. 😬 pic.twitter.com/X0PQrDzA1e
The Vancouver Canucks are playing so hot without their top man in Elias Pettersson. The Buffalo Sabres have gone 5-4-1 in their last ten and I would imagine ailments to Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart have contributed to that lovely record. How’s Ottawa doing without their top defender? How about the NJ Devils without Hall?
Elias Pettersson’s nickname is “Alien”. Here’s a shirt to celebrate it! Click the image to buy one!
Hell, even the Leafs aren’t looking as invincible as they attempt to cope with the loss of their no.1 and no.2 goalies.
Injuries have a real impact on teams no matter the depth and I think it’s BS when people compare McLellan’s part of this season to Hitch’s. It isn’t fair at all. McLellan had a healthy roster! Hitch hasn’t!
Gretz- I mean, Chiarelli brought in those two defenders (Alex Petrovic and Brandon Manning) as insurance at the request of Hitchcock. Now due to a bad hit, Petrovic is out. Now, would you rather have your choice of Jason Garrison (now playing in Sweden), Chris Wideman (now playing in the AHL), and Matt Benning (clearly not a favorite of Hitchcock) or Benning and Manning?
You might not like Manning right now but he’s a much better option than Garrison and Wideman.
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I don’t think Matt Benning will be here long anyhow. I got word from another source (that I don’t usually hear from) to keep an eye on him and that dovetails with the messages I’ve gotten from my regular sources.
My feeling is that he’ll be sent out and a winger who is having a tough time getting traction will come back the other way. A player like Charles Hudon from Montreal.
Oh just imagine the outrage when MacTa-, I mean Chiarelli sends away a contract worth $1.9M in return for one that is only worth 650k!
“HOW DARE HE REMOVE A SERVICEABLE DEFENSEMAN IN RETURN FOR A BOTTOM-6 WINGER!!! THE WEAKNESS IS ON DEFENSE, NOT FORWARD!”
Bla bla bla.
Now to show I can be fair, here’s the remaining portion of Ferraro’s comments on the Oilers.
They’re not good enough to sustain long periods of good play. That’s more on the manager than the coach.
They’re a team that’s going to fight for a playoff spot. That’s because the West has got some teams that aren’t exactly piling up points. You get down into the wild card, Colorado who’s stumbled all over the place, they’ve got 48 (points), Minnesota’s got 45 (points), Anaheim’s got 45 (points), Vancouver’s got 44 (points), Edmonton’s got 43 (points).
Colorado, Minnesota, Anaheim, Vancouver, Edmonton. Those five teams, two of them are going to get in.
Edmonton can do it, sure. They’re just not a great team.
I’ll say this. I do not give one rat’s ass if the Oilers are a great team or not. If they make the playoffs, that’s all that really matters at that point, right? Fans of the ’06 run to the Stanley Cup final should know all about going into the post-season as the 8th seed.
But could this fanbase put down their torches and pitchforks long enough to enjoy it if it did happen?
It seemed like everyone was talking about Jesse Puljujarvi yesterday on Oilers talk radio or in the blogosphere. I counted 7 different personalities commenting on him and I’m going to share what each of them said for you and then you can decide if you believe they are talking out of their aces or what they’re telling us holds water.
If I missed anybody please let me know! Buckle up because this is a long-form post this morning.
**I started writing this post early in the morning Edmonton time (late night Taipei time) and now that I’ve awoken here in Taipei I can see there’s a shite ton of posts on this with much more opinion. But I’ll be honest, I’ve not got the time to go through all of that. So I hope what I’ve presented to you is of value and if possible, I’ll put out a part 2 if the messages have changed. – BLH**
Veikko. "Deserves more"? I believe in Jesse. But he has to EARN currency with his teammates and the coach. Puljujarvi remains a work in progress and needs to better understand the nuances of the NHL game. Patience! https://t.co/fR9xH67IZk
Merriam-Webster defines the word nuance as “a subtle distinction or variation”.
“EARN”
“CURRENCY”
What the f*ck is Bob talking about? How in the world is Puljujarvi supposed to “earn currency” on the 3rd line and the 2nd PP unit when neither line really gets enough TOI to make a noticeable impact on the game? Maybe someone will tell us below.
Here’s what the several different pundits had to say about Jesse Puljujarvi yesterday on Oilers talk radio or the blogs.
BOB STAUFFER (OILERS NOW)
Everybody’s just gotta relax here. But I personally don’t believe that Puljujarvi should be on the 1st unit PP and based on his play over the last three of four games, there’s no way you can play him with McDavid and frankly, I think the best spot for him is to play him with Strome and Lucic on the 3rd line. Give him matchups against 3rd defense pairings, give him 2nd unit PP time.
He has to learn the nuances of the North American game.
There’s something there with the player but it’s not happening so far and for those of you who have revisionist history that say “Well, the Oilers took him too high.” Guys were ready to block slapshots in the nude when Puljujarvi fell to Edmonton at four. The Oilers had him ranked 3rd on their board. They did not have PL Dubois ranked in their top-4 because they had Sergachev ranked 4th and they thought they were going to get Sergachev at the draft. You can argue they should’ve had Tkachuk ranked higher. Fine. I personally like Tkachuk, I understood the concerns with him. His skating was a little bit of a concern, the fact that he was playing with a broken ankle in the Memorial Cup that year, I liked a lot about what Matthew Tkachuk brings.
But in terms of Puljujarvi, I don’t think he should be handed front-line opportunity and I still think the Oilers need to be patient.
The only way I’d consider trading him is if you got another really good young prospect back. Would you trade him for Anthony Mantha from Detroit who’s minus 12 in 9 games this year and has got one goal? He’s 24. He scored 24 goals last year. Would you do a deal like that?
CRAIG SIMPSON (HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA)
I go back and I’ve said it I think many times to you (Stauffer) and about different players, I’m a firm believer in taking responsibility as the player and you can sit in an armchair and say he’s not getting this chance and he’s not getting that chance.
You have a chance everyday, everyday at practise, every single game, to show that you’re ready to play and make an impact and the difficulty of becoming a really good everyday NHL player is that consistency factor. Can you do it night-in and night-out? it doesn’t always mean that it’s scoring goals and I’ve said to you (Stauffer) before and I heard you talking about Hemsky and I’ve relayed a number of stories talking about helping him as a rookie trying to understand what we’re trying to get out of you as a player.
It’s not about cheating and trying to score goals, it’s about how you have to play to have success to stay in the lineup, to play bigger minutes and the goals will come on the heels of that.
I’ve just said watching Jesse in the American League, I just found at some point you have to take that responsibility of being hard everyday and being an impactful player and being impactful doesn’t mean scoring a goal.
Being impactful means playing with that energy and drive every game, getting in on the forecheck and you turn pucks over. Can you make some plays? Can you forecheck hard and play a couple consecutive shifts in the offensive zone?
All of those little things will build up that currency you’re talking about for Puljujarvi and I’m a firm believer when you start on a consistent basis playing that way everyday, the goals will come and the offense will come on the heels of that but I think a lot of times guys expect the offense to be there without putting in that work
JASON GREGOR (TSN 1260)
Part 1:
I’ve said this all along. I wouldn’t even have Puljujarvi in the NHL.So that to me is on the organization not on Puljujarvi. I’m not upset at Puljujarvi as a player. At all. Do I think he’s NHL ready? No, I don’t. Do I think that’s a bad thing? Not at all. Because the majority of 20-year olds in the world aren’t ready. They’re just not.
We saw a no.3 pick, Dylan Strome, play in the minors last year, why can’t an Oilers 20-year-old play there? It’s not Siberia. It’s not the end of the world if he plays there and if you’re Jesse Puljujarvi, sure it would suck at first to go down to the minors, I get it.
He wants to be playing, he wants to be scoring. You can’t tell me it’s fun and you can’t tell me his confidence is where it should be at this stage of his career. It just isn’t. He’s not making many plays.
So, me personally, I’d send him down there and I’d play him on the top line and I’d play him a ton. I’d play him on the PP, I’d play him on the PK, and if he makes mistakes, I’d put him right back out there because it’s the American League and that’s what it’s for. It’s for developing players. And you have a full-on strategy and you sit down with Jay Woodcroft and you say, “Jay, we’re playing him this many minutes a night because he needs to get his confidence back and it might take some time. Deal with it.”
Part 2:
It’s never about a coach liking or not. Everybody has different things that they look for. I think there’s a lot of fans who love Jesse Puljujarvi, they like his attitude, they like that he hitches rides from Oilers fans, and he’s just a down-to-Earth good kid. What’s not to like? I totally get it.
But you want him to develop. You want him to be an NHL player who could be a difference maker for you in the future. Could be a complimentary top-6 forward. Probably that’s the minimum you’d like from Jesse Puljujarvi.
Is he showing anything right now that says he’s close now? What’s wrong with a stint in the American League?
I think the organization has to get over this stigma that they have with the, “Oh geez, we can’t send anybody down there…” And the thing is they already sent him down. He’s been down there for parts of the last two seasons. So he’ll survive. He’s not gonna wilt at all. He could do it. I totally think he could do it.
Because if it continues and when Ty Rattie and Caggiula and those guys get healthy, I don’t want Jesse Puljujarvi playing on the 4th line. And if the other guys are doing more then they deserve to play because the no.1 important thing for the Edmonton Oilers this year as an organization is to win games. That’s the no.1 important thing and at the same time you have to figure out how to develop your players.
Easy Solution. Play the guys that give you the best chance to win here and if you can develop Puljujarvi and he gains his confidence and he can give you a better chance to win next year, that’s what I want. Because right now, the way he’s played, he’s not doing enough to really impact games.
There are ways to help the team win without getting points and you’re not seeing a lot of that from Puljujarvi. A) He’s not playing a ton of minutes. He’s not doing a lot and he’s a young player.
So I would definitely give him a stint in the American League and I wouldn’t look at it as a negative. I’d sit down and have a mature conversation with him and say “Jesse, we need to get your confidence up. We know your confidence isn’t high. We think you’ve got a lot of pieces that could make you an NHL player but you gotta be playing and you’ve got to be playing a lot. We want you to be on the PK.”
Because look at Jesse Puljujarvi, look at his stick length and everything. Wouldn’t he be a good penalty killer? He could be a guy who could be in your top-6, your PP and your PK. Why not? Let him try it in the American League.
Part 3:
Puljujarvi is a player who doesn’t look confident making plays. He doesn’t look confident thinking the game. He’s also only 20 years of age. I don’t expect him to be ready.
So, for me, I think the Edmonton Oilers got to wake up, grab a clue, and send him to the minors. Shane Doan went down his third year after playing two full seasons in the NHL and Puljujarvi has been 10 games in the AHL last year, 39 the year before. Wouldn’t be the worst thing for him.
Yeah it sucks for your ego short-term but I’ll tell you, if you could talk to Jesse Puljujarvi as a 30 year old and if that meant that going down to the minors for 40 games when he was 20 allowing him to have a ten year NHL career making millions of dollars. He would gladly take it.
RAY FERRARO (TSN)
When I watch Puljujarvi, I see some really good things and then I see some and he looks like a timid kid.
Why don’t they send him down? There’s a couple of reasons I can think, one is cover your ass a little bit. You’ve got another high draft pick and it looks like a failure when the other three guys ahead of him in the draft are already playing in the NHL and they’re producing. Maybe that’s some of it. Some of it maybe that they feel like they can keep a close eye on his development while he plays sporadically in Edmonton.
I know as a skilled player or a player that was supposed to produce, it’s really difficult to have the confidence to make a play when you know that if you make a mistake you’re going to lose your spot, you’re going to lose your ice, you’re going to sit for five or six minutes. So you make the safe play all the time.
When I watch Puljujarvi, I think he’s just trying to survive. He’s not trying to produce. I mean he’s trying to score but he’s not trying to produce, he’s trying to survive.
You mentioned 40 games, I think that’s a mistake. If you’re going to send him (to the AHL), commit to sending him. We’ll see you when we see you. You’re going to tell us when you’re ready by being in the American League and being too good for that league.
LOWETIDE (TSN 1260)
I don’t think anybody wants Jesse Puljujarvi to fail. I don’t think Todd McLellan does, I don’t think Peter Chiarelli does, I don’t think any fan wants Jesse Puljujarvi to fail. In fact, I think most people would be delighted because of the strength of his personality and the type of player he could be, to see him succeed.
And I think he will, I just don’t know if it’s going to be in Edmonton.
Last night was a microcosm of Jesse Puljujarvi’s career in Edmonton. He starts on the 2nd line and he ends on the 4th line, which was a disaster. The line itself was giving up goals left, right, and center.
The two right wings in trouble today are Zack Kassian and Jesse Puljujarvi and I’m not ever going to give up on this guy and you have to be patient.
BRUCE McCURDY (THE CULT OF HOCKEY)
He’s really fighting it and you know he scored one point on the year and mind you it was a very important tying goal in the 3rd period in Winnipeg that ultimately laid the table for a two point win for the Oilers in a game they were trailing but he’s had a lot of things go wrong. He’s taken some bad penalties, some questionable line changes, some of his defensive coverage has been a little suspect and he’s playing like a player, frankly, without a lot of confidence.I don’t think he’s got a lot of confidence from his coach at this point either and that can be a concern.
KURT LEAVINS (THE CULT OF HOCKEY)
I like Jesse Puljujarvi lots. But some sure look at the kid through rose-coloured glasses. He is making a lot of rookie mistakes that are causing problems. Late Saturday, the club needed to maintain the pressure on a Nashville team that had played the night but Puljujarvi took a lazy hooking penalty. Against Boston it was that blind pass up the middle. Poor work along the wall against Winnipeg cost his club zone time (but he finished strong). In Boston, we saw bad line changes. Look: Players of Puljujarvi’s maturity will make mistakes. But when it happens to other players (and it absolutely does), I hear calls for benchings. (source)
Leavins also dedicated an entire post to Jesse Puljujarvi here. A very balanced point-of-view in my opinion.
So while the opinions are different there are similar underlying messages we’re hearing here from former NHL players to pundits alike. There’s something there with Jesse Puljujarvi worth saving and it’s incumbent on the Edmonton Oilers to do the right thing for his long-term development.
I think that Jesse will be scratched for the game versus Washington and I’m completely fine with that. If he’s struggling, give him some time off to watch the game from above. You never know what he might glean from it. Besides, when I was growing up prospects used to get scratched all of the time, it was no big deal. The vets got to play.
That said, the prospects used to come up through the minor system until they were ready to play too…
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This week the Oilers trade talk has been a real treat to experience. We’ve had deals that were never made, deals that are being made up, and an actual trade. The common denominator in all of them, Oilers fans have been given another reason to bitch and moan about Peter Chiarelli.
I mean isn’t it amazing, if you go to the sponsored Oilers blogs like Oilersnation, The Oilers Rig, Copper and Blue, or Oil on Whyte, it’s all FIRE CHIARELLI! Get rid of McLellan!
I get why they do it apart from clicks for the sites but it’s really a shame. I thought re-hashing the Larsson trade every month was bad but this is getting ridiculous (and unoriginal).
Rant over.
The Speculated Trade
Ray Ferraro threw a trade idea out into the wind this week that sparked the fires of discontent amongst Oilers fans. A deal centered upon two stars, Max Pacioretty and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
“What if there’s a deal to be made between Edmonton and Montreal that involves Nugent-Hopkins, and Pacioretty is in it? And there are some other pieces to equal the way that works. Edmonton gets a shooter. Gee, that would look pretty good on McDavid’s side. Montreal gets a centre. Gee that would look pretty good in that centre spot.”
Over at the Athletic, Jonathan Willis also jumped on the “trade Nuge” bandwagon this week and his reason was that all of his numbers are basically the same as they’ve always been but the difference being this year he’s riding a shooting percentage that is 40% better than his career average. Sort of the opposite of what usually happens to an Oiler before he’s traded.
My thoughts: If there’s a year to trade RNH, it’s this one unless the Oilers go on a ridiculous tear and are in a playoff spot come trade deadline. His value couldn’t get any higher and the Oilers still need a top 4 right-handed PP specialist on defense. Someone who can transition the puck a helluva lot faster than what the Oilers dmen are doing now. They could also use a proper right-handed 3rd line centre who is a marvel on the PK too and if they acquired both of those pieces in a trade for RNH, what’s the problem?
On the other hand, if the Oilers are looking for a LW who can score, why not simply move RNH to McDavid’s left wing and be done with it. Internal solution utilized!
The Real Trade
Al Montoya from the Montreal Canadiens to the Oilers for a 5th round pick which may turn into a 4th rounder if the former 6th overall pick plays more than 7 games.
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My thoughts: I like it but the folks in the Oilers Twittersphere who think they’re smarterthan everyone else hate it because they think that the Oilers could’ve grabbed a backup off of the waiver wire, even Montoya had they waited for Montreal to activate him off of the IR. The problem with that line of thinking is we don’t know what the price was for those backups and the Oilers defense could be held just as responsible for the poor goaltending performances earlier in the year.
Another thought out there was that 3rd string goalies can be had anything for a 4th round pick but I don’t subscribe to that. If that was the case, we would’ve seen some of these goalies like Pickard, Hutchinson, Hammond, Lindgren, or Sparks with new homes.
Todd McLellan said that they’re worried about Brossoit getting reps but somebody is going to have to be sacrificed for LB to get some games in. I’m guessing Brossoit hits waivers (gets claimed… wouldn’t that be fun fodder for the Chia-haters?), clears, goes down and then Eddie Pasquale goes to the ECHL or is traded/loaned. Nick Ellis, who’s had better AHL stats than Brossoit since taking over in Bakersfield is getting a raw deal here and I feel bad for him.
The Rumored Deal
What did Peter Chiarelli do to Darren Dreger? Geez.
Yesterday on Dustin Nielsen’s show Dreger dropped this massive bombshell that the Oilers had a deal with the Ottawa Senators that would’ve seen Taylor Hall traded for Cody Ceci but Sens ownership needed to approve it, was nowhere to be found, and subsequently Adam Larsson was traded for instead.
Taylor Hall was rumored to be traded for a lot of different dmen before he was actually traded. PK Subban was one, Dougie Hamilton was one, and Kevin Shattenkirk was another. So don’t get your speedos in a bunch by second-guessing Chiarelli’s player evaluation abilities.
We know GMs talk all of the time and they hash out potential deals on a weekly basis and then tweak them up if need be. Sometimes they sit on a trade for months before pulling the trigger.
The timing couldn’t get any better eh? Dreger had been sitting on this little tidbit of information for nearly two years before throwing it out into the world right when the Oilers mired in a 4-game losing streak and the heat couldn’t get any hotter on Peter Chiarelli?
Or was this a veiled shot at Sens GM Pierre Dorion?
Either way, what was Dreger’s motivation to do this? I can’t see any scenario where saying this would benefit anybody but himself or TSN’s radio numbers. He did mention it whilst talking about Edmonton and Ottawa not being good trade partners but still, I do not believe it was mentioned without ill intent aka it was a dick move.
Last Night’s Game
Fack! Was that a fun game to watch or what?!
The win versus the Ducks has their record versus teams in the Pacific to 4-1-0. They’ve outscored their division rivals 23-12 in that time but do you know what the fun part about the rest of the year is?
21 out of the remaining 41 games remaining in the season for the Oilers are against Pacific Division teams… And if you’re worried about that home PK (obligatory statistical preface: #smallsamplesize), the Oilers PK at home versus the Pacific, 85.7% and an added bonus is that their PP is 37.5%.
Peter Chiarelli said that he was going to build a team that would compete in the Pacific and despite how you feel about his handling of assets, you have to agree that he’s a man of his word.
