Edmonton Oilers Rumors: Matheson Hints at Oilers Interest in Phil Kessel

This is your TL/DR (too long, didn’t read) summary post where excerpts are taken from the best of the best when it comes to Edmonton Oilers blogs. BLH gives you his two cents on the latest posts being published in the Oilogosphere! Including those from Lowetide.ca, The Athletic, Oilersnation, The Cult of Hockey, Copper N Blue, Oil on Whyte, and more!

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Cult of Hockey

Edmonton Oilers overcome slow start, nervous finish for 5-3 win in the desert: Cult of Hockey Player Grades

• CONNOR McDAVID . 8. 6 shots. 3 hits. Was 36-16, 69% in All Events CF. His first assist was the 400 ^th of his career. Named the game’s 2 ^nd Star.
• ZACK KASSIAN . 8. Elevated to the 1 ^st Line and made his coach look like a genius with an excellent, 3 ^rd Star performance. Had 5 shots on net.
• LEON DRAISAITL . 9. Dominant… Named the game’s 1st Star. Leads the NHL in goals and points with a remarkable 20-20-40 in 19 games.
• CODY CECI . 8. Ken Holland sure got a lot of heat when he signed Cody Ceci to the contract in the off-season. But 19 games in, the bet has paid off handsomely.
• KRIS RUSSELL . 8. The veteran was thrust into the #1 D-man role due to injured to Darnell Nurse and Duncan Keith and delivered in spades. Led the blue line crew in TOI with 22:56. High Danger chances were 7-1 in the Oilers’ favor with Russell on the ice. 3 hits, 3 blocks…
• TYSON BARRIE . 8. Earned his first assist on the 1-1 goal and is 2 ^nd on the 4-2. Had 2 shots of his own and added a hit in 22:07.
• KAILER YAMAMOTO . 4. The least effective of the trio on the 2 ^nd line. Was on the ice for 4 High Danger scoring chances against and just 2 For. 1 shot, a give-away and -1 in 16:04.
• WILLIAM LAGESSON . 4. William Lagesson’s 5-alarm turnover off a soft clearing attempt resulted in the 4-3 goal.
• TYLER BENSON . 6. 8:16 of ice-time is actually one of his busiest evenings in the NHL so far this season.
• PHILIP BROBERG . 7. The kid looks like he has always played in this league. A shot and a hit in 21:29.

BLH’s Thoughts: Broberg continues to look very solid, so I’ll give him that. Big test is in the next game when Edmonton takes on Vegas. The Golden Knights have some very talented forwards and I believe Max Pacioretty is coming back after his long layoff. 

I didn’t like this game for the Oilers. They started off like shite AGAIN and the PP saved the day again… This club cannot continue to rely on the man advantage to save its ass so much and it also has to find a way to get the wingers scoring or else Connor and Leon are going to end the year with 200pts a piece and the rest of the roster will be scraping by. 

Arizona’s physical game plan, I get it. The roster doesn’t have a lot going for it, so why not get bangin’? Well, I wish the Oilers would find the time to give that back. McDavid getting smoked from behind into a post, that’s unacceptable from a team perspective and a league one. Can somebody step in and do the NHL a favor and save itself from making a terrible mistake? 

Speaking of doing something, Bouchard almost threw hands with Phil Kessel. The NHL’s current Iron Man was digging around on Stu Skinner’s glove after the whistle, so Uncle Evan gave him a shove to which Kessel responded with a cheeky, some might consider dangerous, trip that sent Bouch to the ice. He did not take kindly to that and the scrum ensued. 

Is that the guy we want punching his way out of scrums? One of the team’s best young defenders? Come on… This team is lacking a certain something in my opinion. 

Edmonton Sun

Draisaitl and McDavid take bite out of Coyotes who didn’t roll over

• Draisaitl did just as much with his 19th and 20th goals and two feeds, so he has a league-leading 40 points in 19 games. Only Gretzky has ever reached 40 in less than the first 20 Oiler games, so the company doesn’t get any better than that.
• Kassian, who moved onto the line with Draisaitl and McDavid, also had two assists to go with his goal in his best game of the season.
• … in a rough-house game that had a fair bit of nastiness with McDavid driven clavicle to crossbar by defenceman Ilya Lyubushkin after his first-period power play goal-mouth score.
• On the whole, much more engaged physically than against the Stars.
• …with the win, they’re now 7-5 when allowing the first snipe. They got their usual production from McDavid and Draisaitl (blast that squeezed past Wedgewood) but this was more grind and grit than entertainment with Kassian amplifying the blue-collar work with some nice hands.
• They got through the game with Russell, playing his 889th, William Lagesson (28th but first this season) and Philip Broberg (third career) just fine on the left side.
• Because Keith is only day-to-day (upper body), the Oilers didn’t recall another left-shot prospect defenceman from Bakersfield for the road trip which ends in Vegas Saturday.
• Kessel played his 920th straight game… Kessel, in the last year of his contract, will be traded at the deadline, for a draft pick and likely a prospect. The Rangers would definitely be interested; maybe the Oilers, too.

BLH’s Thoughts: That last little tidbit is interesting, isnt’ it… What would Phil Kessel look like on a line with Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid? That kind of trade sure fits Ken Holland’s style of trade deadline work. Reckon ol’ Kenny can get Kessel to waive his modified no-trade to go to the frozen tundra of Northern Alberta if the American has his sights set on sunny Las Vegas though?

The Daily Goal Horn

NHL Trade Bait Tracker