Tag Archives: Sharks

Armchair GM, Edmonton Oilers, Michael Sifeldeen, NHL

I’ve Got a Burnsing Desire

Allow me to start off with a preamble here: I love Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. I think he’s one of the best and most underrated two-way centers in the entire league. He’s a great kid. Keeps his head down, does his job, does work around the community, and is just generally a likable guy. I’d be gutted if we lost him.

THAT SAID…

What if he doesn’t have a breakout season here in 2016-17? That’s not to say as if he’s necessarily been “under-performing” in his first five seasons in the league. But you can’t say he hasn’t been a little… soft. Last year he dropped 27 games due to a broken finger, and he’s missed 44 total games in his career thus far. The more worrying thing is that he suffered in 2012-13 from the classic 21st century Oilers ailment known as “Shitty Shoulderitis”, and has already had it worked on a couple of times so far in his young career.

Now, this isn’t to say that he’s a broken man and a lost cause, it’s just a general comment on the physical aspect of his game: it just really isn’t there. Sweet baby Nuge doesn’t take sustained punishment by the NHL goon squad too well. Thankfully, he’s a smart kid, and is gifted with incredibly high hockey IQ, so he doesn’t necessarily need to play the toughest game out there. His intelligence on the ice gets him to where he needs to be and generally keeps him out of where he shouldn’t be. Generally.

I still can’t help but think that, as much as I like the guy, if a certain German stud steps up big time and shows he’s ready to sidle up into the 2C spot behind #97, and maybe a guy like Drake Caggiula ends up proving he can anchor a bottom-6… Well then that’s where things could get interesting.

THE TRADE

Here’s how I see it going down. We’ll have to wait for the 16-17 season to play itself out fully, see who gets moved where, who doesn’t live up to the hype here and there, but I see Edmonton shopping out Nuge to a team who needs a solid, 50-point, two-way center who can drive plays and collapse effectively when those plays don’t always work out. (Who couldn’t use that, right?) But specifically, a team like Minny or Columbus. Call me a cynic, but I just can’t see Pierre-Luc Dubois being the savior for that team. By the end of this season, RNH is still locked into a very reasonable $6M contract for another 4 whole years. That is a tasty deal for a long time, something a team on the receiving end of his skill set can build around.

I see us getting at least a 2nd round pick + top-4 d-man or top-9 forward or prospect out of an RNH trade, but that doesn’t matter so much when we look at…

THE TAKE

Literally the most normal photo I could find of this animal

Brent Burns. I want him. And not just for his ridiculous facial hair or ASG breakaway showmanship. He’s just so goddamn good. And as a 6’5″, 230-pound, right shot offensive defenceman, he’s exactly the type of hockey player that Peter Chiarelli is having exquisitely deviant dreams about right now.

Burns put up 27 goals and 48 assists (75P!!) in a full 82-game campaign last year. His boxcars read like this for his career so far: 797GP-141G-282A-423TP. He’s +3 in RelCorsiFor% averaged for his career. His playmaking is elite with a FirstA/60 rate of 0.53. He’s a giant goon and is a nightmare to play against because he’s so offensively strong while simultaneously being huge and very difficult to break past for opposing offensive players. He’s just so goddamn good.

He’s also coming into free agency at the end of this season. And his contract expiry is such that not only does San Jose not have to resign him before the dreaded expansion draft rolls around, he also doesn’t need to be protected from the clutches/talons/swords of the Las Vegas BlackJackKnightBirds or whatever they’re called this week. To me, this is a perfect storm for Burns to be testing the waters and seeing what a new team might be willing to give him to essentially cap off his fine career.

THE DEAL

Right now, Burnsy makes $5.76/per. A very respectable deal, no doubt. He’ll want more. So if the Oilers just so happen to find themselves, oh, I dunno, ~$6 million dollars richer by the end of next season, what can we reasonably offer Brent Burns that would convince him to pack his bags and head up to E-town?

Well, he’ll be 32 by the time this move is even viable. So I don’t see us wanting to offer him anything over 6 years. He’ll probably want to pull a Weber and be playing (“playing”) into his 40s, but it won’t happen. GMs are way too leery about those deals with defenceman nowadays, considering the fact that Arizona Coyotes legend Chris Pronger is still technically an NHLer. I think Burns will ask for 8, we’ll counter with 5, and ultimately settle on 6 years at something between $7.5-$8M. A huge contract, no doubt. But ultimately a workable one when you consider that we just made $4.5M more dollars by shockingly not resigning Nikita Nikitin, and we’re going to find another $3.25M when Andrew Ference’s contract goes away at the end of this season.

We also have our magical, high-profile player-accumulating tool known as Connor McDavid, and let’s not forget that Burns played for years with Todd McLennan behind him on the bench, and you’ve got to think that if the combo of McD + Chia gets us Looch, McD + MacT could get us Burns…

Anyway, keep in mind here that while San Jose is struggling to say the least with cap space, they are on the verge of losing Thornton and Marleau and their accompanying cumulative $13.4M to unrestricted free agency next season as well. So you never know, maybe they’ll throw the cheque book at Burns and tell him to write in a number he likes. Or, maybe they’re going to clear house and start from scratch. I know I’m sure hoping it’s the latter. Sorry, Nuge.

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Edmonton Oilers, G Money, NHL

Oilers at Sharks Preview – A classic Lottery vs Playoffs matchup

TALE OF THE TAPE:

Game: Edmonton Oilers (76 gp, 29-40-7, 65 pts, DFL in the Pacific Division, 4-6-0 in their last 10) at San Jose Sharks (73 gp, 41-26-6, 88 pts, 3rd in the Pacific Division, 6-4-0 in their last 10)
Location: SAP Centre, San Jose, CA
Time: 8:30 PM MT
Where to find it: TV: Sportsnet Oilers – Radio: 630 CHED

Edmonton Oilers Preview:

Hey, another 40 regulation loss season!

Coming off a hard-fought but seemingly inevitable loss to Bettman’s Pet Puppies, there are three interesting threads to tonight’s game:

  • How many scraps will Darnell Nurse be in?  The Sharks have brought up their minor league enforcer Mike Healey for the game, but with Nurse joined by Kassian, Maroon, Cracknell, and Reinhart, the Oilers have no shortage of thorned beef.
  • Will the Oilers finish in 30th?  Or can they scrape themselves out?
  • The Sharks can clinch a playoff spot with a win.

Nurse had this to say about the incident with Polak:

“It was a heat of the moment thing,” said Nurse. “Obviously, you don’t want to ever see guys hurt or anything like that. It was probably crossing the line, but it’s over now. You guys are worried about what’s going to happen tonight. We’ll see. Both teams are looking for wins, so I’m looking forward to going out there and playing.”

A good starting point for the Oilers would be to score a goal, which they were unable to do the last time they faced James Reimer, who gets the start.

The injury bug remains the story for the Oilers, as the Golden Nuge is once again on the shelf, this time with a mild concussion.

Jordan Oesterle and Griffin Reinhart had a terrific game against Arizona; the Sharks represent a major step up in competition, so it will be interesting to see if the two can achieve similarly good results tonight.

Nurse and Clenden were torched against the Yotes – don’t think we can reasonably expect better against the Sharks … but then again, Nurse will probably be on high alert the whole game, so what effect might that have on his overall game?

Cal-Bot 3000 (19-25-4, 2.51 GAA, 0.919 sv%, 3 SO) starts for the Oilers.  Expect a rough and tough game tonight, and Cam will need to be at the top of his game for the Oilers to have a chance.

GOILERS!

Nurse quote from oilers.nhl.com.

Oilers Projected Lineup (from LeftWingLock):

Patrick Maroon – Connor McDavid – Jordan Eberle

Taylor Hall – Leon Draisaitl -Zack Kassian

Lauri Korpikoski – Mark Letestu – Nail Yakupov

Matt Hendricks – Adam Cracknell – Iiro Pakarinen

Andrej Sekera – Mark Fayne

Griffin Reinhart – Jordan Oesterle

Darnell Nurse – Adam Clendening

Sharks Projected Lineup (from FearTheFin):

Tomas Hertl – Joe Thornton – Joe Pavelski

Melker Karlsson – Logan Couture – Joonas Donskoi

Patrick Marleau – Chris Tierney – Joel Ward

Dainius Zubrus – Nick Spaling – Tommy Wingels

Paul Martin – Brent Burns

Dylan DeMelo – Justin Braun

Brenden Dillon – Roman Polak

Fancy Stats Bonus Material:

OilersNerdAlert player dashboards for the Oilers and Sharks (click to embiggen – click here for an explanation of how to read this chart).  Damn these Sharks are dangerous, and Jumbo Joe is ridiculously good – period – never mind “for his age”.

Edmonton Oilers, Zach Laing

Oilers vs Sharks Preview – California Dreamin’!

2 Comments

TALE OF THE TAPE:

Game: Edmonton Oilers (26-35-7, 59 pts) vs San Jose Sharks (36-23-6, 78 pts)

Location: San Jose, California

Time: 7:00 PM MT

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

Edmonton Oilers Preview:

With the Oilers losing Brandon Davidson to injury, the depleted Oilers made the move to use their final available post-deadline recall and brought up Griffin “Big Cat” Reinhart.

What the team has done with Reinhart has been great, and they have shown plenty of patience to allow this young man to grow as a player and as a person. After all, Griffin is still only 22 years old.

“He’s come up in the past and given us some good games and then responded down the road with one or two average ones,” said Oilers Head Coach Todd McLellan. “We’ve stressed that to him as an organization, not only here at the NHL level, but at the American League level. He can give you some real good nights and then he’s got to respond and maintain that. That’s what we’ll be looking for.”

He has a lot more developing to do and giving up on a former fourth-overall pick at this point would be foolish.

Not all defencemen are able to step in and play. Look at Brandon Davidson. While there are definite differences when it comes to the expectations of a fourth-overall pick vs. a sixth-round pick, but the patience shown by the Oilers with Reinhart will only benefit both parties moving forward.

He draws in tonight alongside Adam Pardy on the third pairing.

The Sharks are a tough foe, and they showed that last night winning a 2-1 game against the Flames despite getting heavily outshot and out chanced. They are a team destined for the playoffs this off season being quietly led by Joe Thornton and the 63 points in 65 games he has put up this year.

Thornton has been a treat to watch his whole career, and in my opinion is a sure fire Hall-of-famer.

After becoming a much bigger team within the last eight days, it should be interesting to see how the Oilers play against a heavy Western conference team like the Sharks.

Lauri Korpikoski and Nail Yakupov have swapped lines, and Korpi will see time with McDavid and Eberle.

Quotes from oilers.nhl.com.

Predictions for tonight:

  1. Oilers beat the Shorks 3-2.
  2. Lauri Korpikoski continues his recent hot-streak, and scores a goal tonight.
  3. The Big Cat has a strong showing, and gets an assist.

How did last games predictions go:

  1. Adam Pardy has to get some anger out after being waived, and fights one of his former teammates.
  2. In another physical affair, Patrick Maroon leads all Oilers with 5 hits.
  3. The Jets fall to the Oilers 4-3.

No fight for Pardy, but he had another strong showing.

Maroon tied for second in hits with two, and Adam Cracknell led all Oilers with four. Close, but no cigar.

While the score was off, it was still a one-goal game and the Oilers came out on top.

0.5/3

San Jose Sharks Preview:

San Jose will play its second game in Alberta in as many nights after a 2-1 overtime win at the Calgary Flames on Monday. The Sharks have won three of their past four games and are 18-5-4 since Jan. 9. Goalie James Reimer likely will start Tuesday after Martin Jones made an NHL career-high 47 saves against the Flames. Brent Burns has scored in four straight games; he’s the first defenseman to score more than 23 goals in a season since Mike Green had 31 with the Washington Capitals in 2008-09. Joe Pavelski’s goal Monday was his 30th of the season; he leads the NHL with nine game-winners. “Right now, you’ve got to keep pace with everybody,” Pavelski said. “Everybody’s playing good. We understand our game’s got to improve over the last week, week and a half. It can get better.”

— NHL.com

Line Combos and Starting Goalies c/o Left Wing Lock:
Oilers (Cam Talbot):

Taylor Hall – Leon Draisaitl – Patrick Maroon
Lauri Korpikoski – Connor McDavid – Jordan Eberle
Nail Yakupov – Mark Letestu -Zack Kassian
Matt Hendricks – Anton Lander – Adam Cracknell

Andrej Sekera – Mark Fayne
Darnell Nurse – Adam Clendening
Griffin Reinhart – Adam Pardy

EDM Injuries: Oscar Klefbom (leg infection), Andrew Ference (hip), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (hand), Eric Gryba (knee), Benoit Pouliot (shoulder), Brandon Davidson (knee).

WHY HOCKEY GODS????? WHYYYYYYYY!

Scratched: Iiro Pakarinen, Luke Gazdic, Nikita Nikitin

San Jose Sharks (James Reimer): 

Tomas Hertl – Joe Thornton – Joe Pavelski
Matt Neito – Logan Couture – Joel Ward
Nick Spaling – Patrick Marleau – Joonas Donskoi
Danius Zubrus – Chris Tierney – Melker Karlsson

Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Justin Braun
Paul Martin – Brent Burns
Brenden Dillon – Roman Polak

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

 [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kcmwXUdDCE]

Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Zach Laing

Oilers vs Sharks Preview – McLellan returns to San Jose, Kassian Debuts, Yakupov Returns and some Oilers Rumours

TALE OF THE TAPE:

Game: Edmonton Oilers (17-23-3) at San Jose Sharks (21-18-2)

Location: SAP Center

Time: 8:30 PM MT

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

Edmonton Oilers Preview:

Welcome back to San Jose, Todd.

The Oilers head coach and his assistants make their first return to San Jose after we hired them away, and the team seems to be ready to get them a win.

“We want to do as much as we can for them as they do for us,” said Brandon Davidson.

The Oilers get two fresh bodies into the lineup as Nail Yakupov returns from injury, and Zack Kassian plays his first game in the Oilers gear.

Earlier today, the Oilers waived Rob Klinkhammer a day after recalling Zack Kassian from the Bakersfield Condors. Kassian is set to draw into the lineup tonight, playing alongside Anton Lander and Nail Yakupov.

Yakupov, who suffered a high ankle sprain after an awkward fall with a linesman on November 27th, will play his first game back tonight after missing the last 22.

I am really excited to see what Kassian can bring to the lineup. His style of play is one that the Oilers have lacked, and if things go the way I think they will, Kassian will be an Oiler for a while.

He is certainly a guy that can be an impact player.

The Oilers are continuing to patiently wait for the return of Connor McDavid. I am firmly in the belief that he has been ready for some time, but the team has decided to hold him back out of fear of reinjury. Despite that, he is going to return at more than 100% which is not a bad thing at all.

He will provide a much needed spark when he does return. I would really like to see him get a game or two in before the All-Star Break.

Last night, BLH wrote an article after hearing from some of his sources that there have been ongoing discussions with the Sabres, Canadiens and Capitals. 

It had been suggested that the Oilers were low-balled by the Canadiens after they offered Lars Eller and Alexi Emelin for Nugent-Hopkins and our 1st, which is laughable. Nathan Beaulieu and Jared Tinordi are two players who I would be interested in from Montreal.

I feel that any deal the Oilers make involving any of the “core” pieces of this team comes in the offseason, but that’s an article for another day.

The Otherside via Kevin Kurz, CSN Bay Area:

Instead, San Jose will try to build off of what it has done lately, including three straight wins and four games in a row in which the club has been pleased with its effort and performance. The Sharks (21-18-2, 44 points) are still seeking their first back-to-back home wins of the season, something they can accomplish on Thursday after they thumped the Maple Leafs last Saturday, 7-0.

“The first time we played against [Edmonton], a staff we were familiar with, there’s a bit of an excitement there. Now for us it’s probably just another game,” Tommy Wingels said. “It will be exciting for him to come back here, but for us, we’ve had that game against him already and gotten it out.”

Sharks coach Pete DeBoer actually got together with McLellan on Wednesday night for coffee to discuss this summer’s World Cup Young Stars team. McLellan is the head coach, and added DeBoer to his staff after the pair served in the same roles at last year’s World Championships for Team Canada. It’s evident they’ve become friends and formed a strong mutual respect.

“He’s excited to be back,” DeBoer said. “For us, this is an important game, so that’s the stuff that’s just noise on the outside for our group.”

Line Combos and Starting Goalies c/o Daily Faceoff:

Oilers (Cam Talbot):
Taylor Hall – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Iiro Pakarinen
Benoit Pouliot – Leon Draisaitl – Jordan Eberle
Lauri Korpikoski – Mark Letestu – Teddy Purcell
Nail Yakupov – Anton Lander – Zack Kassian

Andrej Sekera – Mark Fayne
Darnell Nurse – Justin Schultz
Brandon Davidson – Eric Gryba

San Jose Sharks (Martin Jones):

Tomas Hertl – Joe Thornton – Joe Pavelski
Matt Nieto – Patrick Marleau – Joel Ward
Joonas Donski – Logan Couture – Tommy Wingels
Melker Karlsson – Chris Tierney – Mike Brown

Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Justin Braun
Paul Martin – Brent Burns
Brenden Dillon – Dylan Demelo

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

 

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]