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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Edmonton Sun
Edmonton Oilers power play opening at break-neck speed
- Those Habs hold the all-time NHL single-season power-play record of 31.88 per cent… The Oilers, five games into this season, have a power-play percentage of 47.06.
- Last year’s Oilers, playing a coronavirus-shortened season, finished fourth on the all-time power-play list at 29.5 per cent, with the New York Islanders teams of 1977-78 and 1978-79 ranked third and fourth at 31.1 and 31.2 per cent, respectively. The 1982-83 Oilers ranked sixth at 20.3 per cent.
- This power play, through the remaining 77 games of this season and for the rest of this ‘McDavid-Draisaitl Stanley Cup Window’ that is five games into the rest of this decade, its place in history will be a fabulously fun to follow story line.
- I’m betting it ends up in several spots on the all-time top 10 list.
BLH’s Thoughts: Don’t get your hopes up but the 1977-78 Montreal Canadiens won their third consecutive Stanley Cup that year. The ’78 and ’79 Islanders never made it further than the 2nd round of the playoffs in those respective seasons, but from ’80-’83, they won four Cups in a row. The ’83 Oilers got to the Cup final only to be defeated by the aforementioned Islanders, but then went on their own run of five championships in seven years.
In fact, the only team mentioned who didn’t win a Stanley Cup the year of said PP% or shortly thereafter amongst the group listed above is last year’s Oilers. That said, would it shock you if McDavid’s men won it this year or next akin to what Denis Potvin’s Islanders did in the late 70’s and early 80s?
Lowetide.ca
- Let me ask you a question: What if Slater Koekkoek and Devin Shore were called for jury duty and couldn’t get out of it. OR, got stuck in an elevator in a building that featured the slowest response team on the planet? What if the Oilers were forced to recall William Lagesson and Ryan McLeod and insert them into the lineup immediately? Would that make a massive difference to the Oilers?
- NHL teams need McLeod, Lagesson, Niemelainen types pushing up, but those jobs can also be filled through trade, free agency and even waivers at times. Replacing Nuge? Hyman? Puljujarvi? That’s a very difficult process, requiring some planning over a period of years.
- A quick final note on Lavoie. He’s four games in now, and hasn’t played a ton. I mentioned last season that Lavoie is working out some habits, and needs to keep his feet moving, needs to be more efficient as a skater (I think his foot speed is fine but am not an expert in this area).
BLH’s Thoughts: Lavoie has a history of being a streaky scorer, so for him to start the year slowly shouldn’t shock too many. We’ll want to see him start to chip in sooner than later before he gets into Yamamoto territory though. I can’t see things getting that bad for Rafa because he’s a big bodied guy and a natural goal-scorer, if he keeps his feet moving and parks his ass around the net, eventually the puck is going to go in.
Bob Stauffer (630CHED) made an interesting comparable for Ryan McLeod on his radio show yesterday. He said Darren Helm has a lot in common with McLeod with regards to how their careers started.
Helm dressed for Detroit’s farm club in Grand Rapids over 60 times in 2007-08 and then played 18 games in the playoffs for the Red Wings, but couldn’t claim a full-time spot with Ken Holland’s club in ’08 and was sent back to the AHL where he played another 55 games.
McLeod as a point per game player in Bakersfield until the last ten games of the year where he played for the Oilers plus four more games in the post-season, but this year, he was unable to take advantage of the opportunity and now he’s back in the AHL producing at a point-per-game again whilst working on some of the shortcomings that cause him to be sent down.
I can see what Stauffer is saying, but was never as good as McLeod offensively at the AHL level and McLeod’s playing style is almost polar opposite to Helm’s. The former Red Wing is a much more abrasive forward whereas McLeod is more of a playmaker.
With all of that said, both of these players can fly!
The Daily Goal Horn
- “It is no secret that Kessel wants to be traded. It has been a storyline since the summer, and the Coyotes are working feverishly to grant his wish. As long as Kessel brings effort on a nightly basis, it’s hard to envision Tourigny, a first-year NHL coach, making the decision to pull him from the lineup.” – Craig Morgan, gopnx.com
- I believe that Tarasenko is whom most teams would prefer to land, but with the Blues off to a hot start they’ll likely hold onto him for awhile. Plus, Kessel is cheaper on the cap and will cost much less to acquire.
