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!
The latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation comes from all of the internet’s top sites like Spector’s Hockey, The Fourth Period, NHL Trade Talk, The Hockey Writers, Sportsnet, and TSN just to name a few!
If you’re short on time but want to keep up with the day’s Oilers news, you’ve come to the right place!
Give us a follow on the socials!
- Youtube: Beer League Heroes Channel
- Twitter: @beerleagueheroe
- Instagram: @beerleagueheroes
- Facebook: Beer League Heroes
Edmonton Sun
OILERS NOTES: Yamamoto’s play on second line is tenuous right now
- Kailer Yamamoto, who always gets high marks for his effort and for his ability to steal pucks from opponents who outweigh him by 50 pounds, was benched for all but 97 seconds in the third period Tuesday against Anaheim.
- He was late to helping out on Kevin Shattenkirk’s first goal in the Anaheim game, not in the picture on Sam Steel’s first of two on Mike Smith and threw the puck through the slot after a rush, trapping his teammates on Nicolas Deslauriers’ third Anaheim goal.
- …it’s the lack of inspiration offensively that is most worrisome. Can you be a true second-line winger if you have no goals in your last 16 games?
- And just one in his past 28 (April, 4, 2021 against Ottawa). Are you a real top six forward with eight goals and 21 points over your last 55 games?
- Then again, who would he replace him with? Move Zach Hyman from left to right-wing because he can play both and bring up LW Brendan Perlini for a longer look, maybe a start in Arizona against his old Coyotes club, after his six exhibition goals?
- Was that 20-game stretch in 2019-2020 where he played exclusively 5-on-5 on a line with Leon Draisaitl in the middle and Ryan-Nugent-Hopkins on left-wing an aberration?
BLH’s Thoughts: Last night Yamo had an average game I found. He got stuck in and applied himself in the muck, but boy oh boy is this guy snakebit… I said yesterday that if it was my choice, I’d move Killer down a line or two in an attempt to see if he can regain his offensive confidence, but Tippett had him back up with Leon and Nuge and the result was another goose egg on the scoresheet.
The irony in all of this is that I’ve only seen this one report questioning Moto’s place in the lineup if he can’t score and when it was Puljujarvi struggling, the media were tripping all over themselves to get out the message that he didn’t belong in the lineup and needed to be demoted.
Lowetide.ca
BILL JAMES 10 GAMES
- James looked at fast starts, and I believe he used 10 games into the season as the marker, and found a correlation between winning more than five games of the first 10 and strong seasons.
- So, a baseball season is 162 games, and an NHL season 82 games. Does a fast start in the first five indicate success? Oilers two best seasons above, 2016-17 and 2019-20, saw the club make the postseason. Edmonton did it last year too, but you’ll recall goaltending issues impacted the first month of the year.
- For the record, I have Edmonton finishing 45-27-10, 100 points and in second place Pacific division. When I said second place, the Golden Knights were healthy, so maybe the Oilers win the division. Edmonton was two points away from winning it in 2016-17. The last time Edmonton won the division was 1986-87, the last of six division crowns in a row. What a story that would be for fans! That 1986-87 team was the best hockey team I’ve ever seen.
BLH’s Thoughts: I looked back at a couple of seasons to see which teams started the year hot and how they ended their campaigns and it was mostly the top teams in the league but also shitty clubs sprinkled in for the first ten games. So I’d have to say there’s not a lot to take from any team’s first 5-10 games and Elliotte Friedman’s American Thanksgiving deadline is a much better indicator so far.
The Daily Goal Horn
- Rangers trying to acquire Dylan Strome – Larry Brooks of the New York Post confirmed that interest but noted that minimal progress has been made to this point. “There is no indication that talks between the Rangers and Blackhawks have progressed to any meaningful degree or that the Blueshirts do in fact have interest in the younger Strome,” he wrote.
- David Pagnotta from TFP reported this week that the Knights are still interested in acquiring Eichel. Recent news has the Sabres now willing to take back a contract to make a deal. Reilly Smith could be that contract that goes the other way. He has a $5M cap hit, but will be a UFA this summer.
BLH’s Thoughts:
