Tag Archives: Todd McLellan

Around the Oilogosphere, Bakersfield Condors, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, NHL Entry Draft, Prospects, Rumors

Around the Oilogosphere – April 3rd Edition – Oilers Prospect Reports, Staying the Course, Top-10 Free Agents, Karlsson/Trouba Rumors, and More!

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Two more games until the end of this disastrous 2017/18 Oilers season that has been derailed by slumps, injuries (disclosed and not), bad coaching, and questionable GM-ing.

That special portion of the Oilers fanbase is looking for their sacrificial lamb. Some yearning for Todd McLellan to be fired or for Peter Chiarelli to get his pink slip but this is what I don’t understand.

Peter Chiarelli’s job was to get the Oilers into the playoffs ASAP when he was hired, right? Why in Sam’s Hell are you all concerned with how he does it?

We’ve got “smart” people complaining that he’s built this team around heavy hockey, well, has he?

He signed Milan Lucic and traded for Adam Larsson (who is +31 since joining the team). He got rid of a jaded goalie for Zack Kassian (nobody was complaining about that deal until this year) but you can’t even say Kassian plays a heavy hockey game if you take the time to watch him. Maroon was brought in and if you’re going to complain about his contributions to the team, then I suggest you head down the QE2 and shack up with the Shames because you’re just complaining to hear your own voice.

Are you going to shit on JJ Khaira’s performance this season? He plays a heavy game but I bet you’d take the time to criticize Chiarelli if he dealt JJ. Does Leon Draisaitl fall into this category as well?

So what I’m getting here is that special portion of the fanbase is so mad that Chiarelli traded their boys in Hall and Eberle (no mention of Yak ever which is unsurprising) for specifically targetted pieces that the team needed that they are blinded to the good things that Chiarelli has done for the team.

My advice: Be careful what you wish for.

The Gagner-Hall years were filled with skill. So much skill in that teams just bullied them into submission. Well, I’ll tell you this much, the bullying hasn’t stopped with those teams and yes, they’re still heavy teams. Those are veteran-laden teams who get the call more often than not.

So we go back to getting to the playoffs and not caring how Chiarelli builds the team to get there. To get out of the division and into the playoffs in the Pacific division, every team has to go through California and to do that they have to outmuscle Getzlaf, Perry, Burns, Thornton, Doughty, Lindholm, Carter, etc.

Many will point to Vegas and say, “SEE!” without taking the time to look at their roster closely. Yup, they’re a fast team and forecheck hard. You can’t deny they’ve also had above average goaltending and the coach has done a wonderful job but have you counted the number of expiring contracts on that team? We all know players playing on the last year of their deal play better (for the most part) and that’s exactly what the Golden Knights are doing and good on them for taking advantage. What will they look like next season?

I think you can look at an Oilers supporter on Twitter and immediately deduce if they are pro-Chiarelli or anti-Chiarelli quite easily and that’s what all of this is boiling down to.

Personally, whoever gets traded or loses their job this summer has it coming. I’m not so far up my own ass that I can’t say Chiarelli made some massive bets on his roster and they backfired. I supported Todd McLellan at the beginning of the year but have found myself frustrated as hell with his staff’s performances 80 games later.

I see the holes on the roster and it’d be nice to see upgrades.

This tweet kind of sums it up for me:

https://twitter.com/Mr_JJT/status/981345249564901376

Speaking of Twitter, I’m going to start blocking people more liberally because it’s getting tiresome going around in circles for the sake of satiating another’s ego or my own for that matter. I’m not looking for people to always agree with my comments but I’m not looking for harassment either. It’s a drain.

OILERS NEWS

Sportsnet – Takeaways: Wild simply too much for nosediving Oilers to handle – It says here that the coaching staff is the least of this club’s problems right now, but tell me how you defend a staff whose special teams are this pathetic?

Sportsnet – Oilers Prospect Report: Kailer Yamamoto Offers Promise Up Front – Of the top four prospects in the Edmonton Oilers organization, none were drafted first overall. In fact, one is a deep first-rounder, another from Round 2, and then a fourth- and fifth-rounder — a sign the Oilers are perhaps figuring out how to find players below the No. 1 spot in the NHL Draft.

The Oil Knight – OHL Playoffs Round 2 – Niagara vs. Hamilton – Despite the success in the Regular Season vs. the Bulldogs, Niagara is going to be in tough in this matchup.

The Cult of Hockey – Fans should be wary about buying “stay the course” narrative from Edmonton Oilers – Heading into the season, most folks predicted the Oilers would be one of the top teams in the NHL. On paper, this looked like a good-to-great team. There is a serious gap between these expectations and how things turned out. I see a number of possible courses of action…

Oilersnation – Monday Mailbag – UFAs, trading the first round pick, and Al Montoya

Oilersnation – Let’s find some positives from this season

The Hockey Writers – Oilers Six Thoughts: Benson, Maksimov, Skinner; and Others – Here’s a quick recap of what’s transpired during the CHL’s first-round action, and how the Oiler prospects are doing.

NHL RUMORS

Dreger and Friedman ponder cap space usage for Canucks

Friedman | Surprise team could pursue Karlsson trade

Ranking the Top-10 NHL Unrestricted Free Agents at Season’s End

McKenzie | Trouba probably looking to drive real hard bargain

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Around the Oilogosphere, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Prospects, Rumors

Around the Oilogosphere – April 2nd Edition – Lucic’s Numbers During His Slump, Determining the Hart Winner, A Partner for Leon, Firing McLellan, and NHL Rumors

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I can’t say I’m ever happy when the Oilers lose, maybe the year when everyone was tanking for McDavid, but certainly not when the Oilers are playing the Calgary Shames. I will say this though, from the 2nd period on, that was a good hockey game and for me, that’s all I can really ask for.

But the man who has drawn the most focus from that installment of the Battle of Alberta was Milan Lucic. He had a couple of chances to score, he was hitting, he was backchecking, and best of all he was stirring the pot baby!

I loved what Milan Lucic did there. He has had a VERY tough season on the scoresheet and there are a lot of people saying he’s finished as an NHLer (at age 29, give your head a shake if you’re one of those people) but the worst thing that I heard after the game last night was this from Rob Soria;

Now, Rob is one of the more experienced writers who blogs about the Oilers and he’s a pretty decent guy on the whole but maybe we should take hitting right out of the game too. We wouldn’t want to offend anyone.

Either way, it’s a BS comment, in my opinion, given that Mike Smith is the biggest a**hole goalie in the league and deserves everything that he gets.

As for Milan Lucic, I did some digging about and was quite surprised with some of my findings.

I went to naturalstattrick.com and set up some filters (5×5, 500 min TOI, forwards only, 12/23 to 3/31) and simply got his numbers for the duration of his slump.

In that time frame, did you know that he has the best CF% on the team (51%)? Did you know he has the 4th best Shots For/60, Fenwick For/60, and Scoring Chances Against/60 on the team? His Scoring Chances For % is #1 on the team and his High-Danger Changes For % is #2.

Now if we expand the focus to league-wide in that same time frame (using the same filters) we’ll find that Lucic still rates highly. I put some comparables (184 skaters) in brackets behind his league rank to give you an idea of who his peers are in each category)

CF/60 – #62 (Malkin, Couture, Wheeler)
CA/60 – #95 (Cogliano, P.Kane, Toews)
CF% – #88 (Ovechkin, Johansen, Hall)
FF/60 – #55 (E.Kane, Backstrom, Benn)
FA/60 – #56 (O’Reilly, Panarin, Marchessault)
FF% – #52 (W.Karlsson, Getzlaf, McDavid)

SF/60 – #55 (P.Kane, Benn, Konecny)
SA/60 – #102 (Panarin, Stepan, Draisaitl)
SF% – #87 (Trocheck, O’Reilly, Eberle)

SCF/60 – #46 (Ehlers, Kadri, Oshie)
SCA/60 – #123 (P.Kane, Marner, Toews)
SCF% – #85 (Kopitar, McDavid, Laine)

HDCF/60 – #14!!! (JVR, Rakell, Eberle)
HDCA/60 – #129 (Tatar, Jenner, MacKinnon)
HDCF% – #53 (Kucherov, Zuccarello, Hall)

Those are the good numbers. Where Lucic is struggling is in the goal metrics but that’s nothing new. In fact, that’s where Chia-haters and anti-Lucic folks go to dine heartily.

GF/60 – #174 (Drouin, Sobotka, Strome)
GA/60 – #164 (Barzal, Kucherov, Monahan)
GF% – #180 (P.Kane, Anders Lee, Josh Bailey)

Lastly, I want to point out that his PDO is .954 and that’s good for 180/184 skaters. What do we hear about players that have low PDOs? Eventually things will regress to the mean. But we don’t hear that about a 29-yr-old Milan Lucic, do we? We are told that because of his style of play (one that has yet to force him out injured for any period of time) he’s more likely to be in decline than other players his age that are experiencing this kind of slump. (stats courtesy of naturalstattrick.com)

I suppose that DOES sound good if you were against the signing in the first place or you don’t like players like Milan Lucic. I imagine you’d want to see him fail because for some narcissistic reason because in your world that means you were right… And being right trumps everything in the short term.

I can’t wait until next season…

So I can see why the coach would want to put Lucic out there when the team needs a goal. Now, where he asks Lucic to go on the ice and what he tells him to do, that’s a different story.

Regardless, at the end of the day, Milan Lucic must find a way to be a difference maker on the ice. Be that with a hit, a fight, using his body to win a board battle or create room on the ice for a linemate, a shot, pass, or even a goal; it’s up to Lucic to find a way.

I would like to urge you to forget about his salary though. It is what it is and now it’s on the coach to find a place for him to be as impactful as possible. If that is the 3rd line, so be it. If that is on the 4th line, so be it. You have to get rid of his idea that there are 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th lines. Every coach will tell you that whatever line is running onhot on a given night, that’s the top line.

I’m sure Ryan Callahan and David Backes don’t take as much shit as Lucic does making what they make and producing what they produce. Just like Lucic didn’t take as much crap last year when the Oilers were in the playoffs.

OILERS NEWS

The Cult of Hockey – Connor McDavid, Claude Giroux, Nathan MacKinnon Rank Highest for Individual Achievement in NHL This Year – It’s no easy matter to determine which player deserves to be the National Hockey League’s Hart Trophy winner, the award given to the player deemed to be most valuable to his team in the regular season each year.

The Hockey Writers – Will the Oilers Really Fire McLellan? – With the season all but over and the Oilers about to head golfing for the summer, the organization is rumored to be taking a good, long look at the roster, the coaching staff, the management and other areas that let the team down this season. No doubt, there will be people who lose their jobs. Is one of those people the head coach?

Edmonton Sun – Puljujarvi’s Progress a Slow Process – He hasn’t caught up to the pace of the game on a consistent basis so his skills can take over naturally. And until he does, there will be nights like Saturday against the Flames where the 19-year-old Edmonton Oilers winger gets 13 uneventful minutes.

The Oil Knight – Oshawa/Niagara Series Recap – t was a very chippy series with plenty of penalties and where 2 players were suspended. Oshawa did their best to try and punish the Ice Dogs physically but Niagara did a great job after that first game of just settling down and playing their game and letting their skill take over.

Oilersnation – Finding a Partner for Leon Draisaitl – Could the team still use a skilled volume shooter to ride shotgun on their top-line? Sure, but you could argue that a more glaring need is finding a competent line mate for Leon Draisaitl who, if all stays the same, will be centering the teams second unit next season.

Oilersnation – Oilers Prospect Update: Benson and Hebig are No Joke 

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NHL RUMORS

NHL Rumors: Edmonton Oilers and the San Jose Sharks

NHL Rumors: John Tavares and the New York Islanders

NHL Rumors: St. Louis Blues and the New York Islanders

NHL Rumors: Capitals, Islanders, Rangers, and Canadiens

 

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Armchair GM, Around the Oilogosphere, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Rumors, Trades

Around the Oilogosphere – March 24th Edition – Who Had a Worse Season, the Flames or the Oilers? Which Oilers Should be Traded This Summer? Plus More NHL Trade Rumors!

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So we’re switching things up with our “Around the Oilogosphere” segment. Instead of posting individual snippets and linking to them as a post, we’re going to basically make a “Oilers blogs of the day” sort of post. Not sure if it’ll be daily or weekly but we’ll work that out. We’ll probably include some links from other NHL news as well like trade rumors or major happenings.

Either way, you can enjoy coming to one place to get all your Oilers links (minus the athletic ones because they’re behind a paywall) and information.

Enjoy!

OILERS NEWS

Oilersnation.ca – Loving Auvitu – I would love to see Yohann Auvitu back with the Oilers next year as their seventh defenseman.

Oilersnation.ca – Dare To Dream Oilers Fans – Today, however, we will look at some positives and reasons Oilersnation can believe next year might be better. One of the positives is something no fan, media, blogger or even member of the organization thought was possible even a month ago. Could it happen?

Oilersnation.ca – 3 Thoughts on RNH – At various times season, some fans opined it made sense to have Edmonton Oilers’ GM Pete Chiarelli trade Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and his $6-million salary to address holes in the roster. Others insisted that coach Todd McLellan should play him on the wing alongside Connor McDavid rather than have him languish as an overpaid and under-utilized third-line centre.

The Hockey Writers – Surging Oilers Forwards: Who Stays? Who Goes? – Who on the Oilers is really as good as they seem to be? Who isn’t as bad as it appears and who will stay and go after a summer that must include some changes in order to get back into the playoffs.

The Hockey Writers – Are the Flames Worse off Than the Oilers? – For any Oilers fan that thinks their season was bad, remember what’s happened to the Flames, and the cost they paid to be this bad.

Cult of Hockey – Talbot, Larsson, and Strome Are Getting Their Games Together – This is an Oilers power rankings for the month of March. Basically, scoring each Oiler on their performances for the month so far

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TRADE RUMORS

My NHL Trade Rumors – Hurricanes, Flames, Coyotes, Oilers, and Maple Leafs

My NHL Trade Rumors – Canucks, Panthers, Capitals, and Sharks

Fan Rag Sports – Friedman | Flames may be trying to land first-round pick

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Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

Did Connor McDavid Throw Todd McLellan Under the Bus with His Post-Game Comments?

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Oilers Captain Connor McDavid’s post-game interview with Mean Gene Principe was short and sweet and possibly very much to the point… If you haven’t caught what he said after the game, I’ve prepared the clip for you below. The audio is a little quiet so you might have to turn up your volume. I did my best to jack it up but it’s still not to my satisfaction. I hope you can hear it thought.

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Principe – Did the three of you work together better and faster than you’d thought things might work?

McDavid – I dunno, we played together for a long time- er, 5 or 6 games now. But you know our team is switching it up so much that that is little bit of a long time for our group. It’s definitely nice to be able to play with a couple of guys for an extended period of time and we’re finding each other.

Did McDavid just throw his coach under the bus?

Not good for Todd McLellan if that is the case. If his star player and the NHL’s star player is unhappy with the way he’s running the team, I wouldn’t count on him being with the coach next season.

‘Tis a tad out of character for McDavid to do something like this though, isn’t it? He’s pretty mild mannered and well behaved in front of the camera but then again, maybe he’s growing tired and he’s picked his spot or maybe he’s a bit high on his horse here?

He’s had to deal with what, 9 different wingers this year? So can you blame him for getting annoyed? How long has it taken McLellan to put Nuge on his wing? I’ve been calling for it ever since the World Cup when we say Nuge on MacKinnon’s wing (I think it was MacKinnon’s…) and so many others have been calling for it since game 5 of Milan Lucic’s scoring drought or even earlier.

Ryan Rishaug and so many other’s have been saying that Leon and Connor have to learn to play away from each other and Peter Chiarelli even spoke to the fact that having $27M down the middle was probably not the way to go but having it in the top-6 would be better.

If the NHL is truly moving in the direction of skill and speed, there’s no need for Peter Chiarelli to even consider acquiring Mike Hoffman to play with Connor McDavid next season. You keep RNH with Connor and you ride that mule ragged. Who cares who plays on the RW! Rattie can have it for all I care.

The new concern will be for Draisaitl’s wings because Lucic/Strome/Puljujarvi are looking very promising. Keep the 3rd line intact I say. A whole year together barring injury would go a long way for a young player like Puljujarvi.

I don’t know if anything will come of this but it’s not a good look for McLellan and I don’t think it helps his future with the Edmonton Oilers. Or was Connor McDavid in the wrong here? Should he have kept his comments to himself?

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.

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Around the Oilogosphere, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, NHL Entry Draft, Rumors, Trades

Around the Oilogosphere: March 22nd Edition – News on Puljujarvi, Replacing McLellan, Bob McKenzie’s Thoughts on the Oilers, and More NHL Trade Rumors

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So we’re switching things up with our “Around the Oilogosphere” segment. Instead of posting individual snippets and linking to them, we’re going to basically make a “Oilers blogs of the day” sort of post. Not sure if it’ll be daily or weekly but we’ll work that out. We’ll probably include some links from other NHL news as well like trade rumors or major happenings.

Either way, you can enjoy coming to one place to get all your Oilers links (minus the athletic ones because they’re behind a pay wall) and information.

Enjoy!

OILERS NEWS

Fanrag Sports: Bob McKenzie on Next Steps for Oilers – One question at the heart of the angst of a segment of Oilers fans, though, is whether or not Chiarelli should still be the one sitting at the general manager’s helm.

Cult of Hockey: Craig Simpson on Puljujarvi – Speaking on the Oil’s handling of Puljujarvi on Oilers Now — which sees Puljujarvi getting third line minutes and no first team power play time — Simpson supported the current approach: “I’m not worried about the way he’s being handled…

Oilersnation.ca: Dustin Nielson on Puljujarvi – With the exception of the power-play, penalty kill, goaltending, and overall coaching in general, nothing has frustrated Oilers fans this season as much as the usage of fourth overall pick Jesse Puljujarvi.

Oilersnation.ca: 3 NHL Replacements for Todd McLellan – Whichever side of the fence you’re on, it’s obvious that McLellan’s days in Edmonton may be coming to an abrupt end. Here’s a look at a few options with NHL pedigrees whom the Oilers brass could (and should) target pending the departure of their current HC.

The Hockey Writers: The Oilers’ Maniacal Mismanagement of Montoya – Montoya has played well for the Oilers. However, his continued presence within Edmonton’s roster has raised a handful of questions with respect to the organization’s general approach as well as its vision of both the immediate and long-term future.

NHL TRADE RUMORS

The New York Rangers Are Open To Trading A First-Round Pick – The Rangers have three first-round picks in the 2018 NHL draft – their own, the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning – two second-round picks and two third-round picks. GM Jeff Gorton says there are opening to moving one of their first-round picks.

Dreger on Melnyk billboards and Hoffman trade potential – What has already been a fairly disastrous season for the Ottawa Senators has the potential to get even uglier this summer, depending on what happens in key contract and trade-related areas.

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