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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Lowetide.ca
- I do think Barrie has value and should fetch something in the summer.
- I think Tippett would be wise to drop Bouchard from the heavy PK rotation and tack on several PP minutes a game.
- Not sure which of his wingers should move down the depth chart, but this line is stale. It is not 29’s fault.
- When they move Hyman to RW, it’s important JP is the one to stay on the 97 line.
- I’d run Benson a little higher and keep the fourth line intact.
- Yamamoto scored three goals in the previous 10-game stretch, that’s a number that warrants keeping him inside the top-six. He isn’t shooting a lot, that’s something on his resume, but he shoots from high-danger areas so boasts a career five-on-five scoring percentage of 11.94 percent. I cheer like hell for him, but KY needs to deliver more.
BLH’s Thoughts: So LT wants to run Benson up the ladder, but at what player’s expense? Is that a scenario where Hyman takes Yamamoto’s spot, Nuge and Foegele move up, and Sceviour comes out?
Foegele-McDavid-Pulju
RNH-Leon-Hyman
Benson-McLeod-Yamo
Shore-Ryan-KassianI dunno. I think the bottom six gets caved in, especially the third line.
So would you move Killer to the 4th line for 5 minutes of TOI per game? You can’t do that can you? Maybe you could… That might be one of those “tough love” conversations Gregor was talking about on Friday.
Edmonton Sun
OILERS NOTES: Some goals would be nice right now
- When Leon Draisaitl has 13 goals in the last 14 games and all of the other forwards on the team not named McDavid have 15, there is a serious balance issue.
- Zack Kassian has one goal in the last 17 games. For Warren Foegele, it’s none in 18. Jesse Puljujarvi’s goal Tuesday is his second in 14 games.
- Hard-working Zach Hyman found the net in just two of his last 13 starts. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has two all year. Kailer Yamamoto has six points in 25 games worth of second line minutes.
- And the fourth line is a black hole of offence, with Derek Ryan, Colton Sceviour, Tyler Benson, Kyle Turris, Brendan Perlini and Devin Shore combining for three goals in 74 man-games.
- Bear is not a sure thing for Saturday. He is fresh out of COVID protocol and was a late scratch Thursday in Calgary after coming down with an illness during the pre-game skate.
- “I can’t speak for everyone, but I can speak for the guys who have a chance to go to the Olympics in our room and they all want to go,” he (Darnell Nurse) said.
- A 1-0 deficit might not seem like much, but when it happens every game, or 13 of the last 16 games in the case of the Oilers, it hurts on a number of levels.
- Mike Smith, who’s been out since the third game of the season with an ankle injury that has described since mid-October as ‘just about ready,’ skated Friday and is being listed as just about ready.
BLH’s Thoughts: There’s a chance tonight that the Oilers could have themselves a night one way or another. I think the Canes have a bug going through their room and it’s taking its toll on their blue line. They’ve got Ian Cole (bottom-pair dman) on the top pair with Jaccob Slaving (who’s apparently not 100%), Brady Skjei with Jalen Chatfield (who?), and Brendan Smith (tough dude) paired up with Maxim Lajoie (again, who?)…
That means no Jake Gardiner, no Tony DeAngelo, and no Brett Pesce. Ethan Bear is day-to-day and so is Jordan Martinook for their forwards.
Now, Freddy Andersen has had his way with the Oilers since his days with Anaheim and I wouldn’t bet on that stopping but this group in Edmonton has a ridiculous amount of frustration building. I think it would be foolish to disregard the amount of firepower at the Oilers’ disposal and even though Carolina is on a three game winning streak, they’re only 5-4-1 in their last ten.
With that in mind, Carolina has only allowed three goals or more five times this year… Like I said, it could go either way tonight but in a big way. My advice would be to shut down Aho and the rest should follow… Pulju’s buddy has 9pts in his last 5 games.
The Daily Goal Horn
- “There’s no love lost between the Flyers players and Alain Vigneault,” Frank Seravalli said on the Rundown podcast. “I can tell you from talking with Flyers players, they feel like he’s arrogant, doesn’t communicate well, and doesn’t spend a lot of time communicating with players.”
- Yesterday at the Board of Governors meeting, they approved the sale of the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Fenway Sports Group. The big question going forward is what will the new ownership do with some of their aging assets like Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. Both players will be UFA’s this summer.
