Edmonton Oilers Talk: Olympic Frustrations, A Wafer Thin Roster, and the Latest NHL Rumors!

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 in the dark, McDavid bitterly disappointed

That’s what makes it so frustrating — the Olympics, and men’s hockey, are still a go, but the NHL isn’t going.
“For me, it’s the biggest stage in sport. It’s on such a global scale and everybody wants to play on that stage. I can’t say how disappointed I am. It’s really upsetting.”

BLH’s Thoughts: The Chinese government shutdown the city of Xi’an recently. There are around 13 million residents there and for each household, only one person can go out every two days to buy food and other necessities until further notice.

Don’t talk to me about the frustrations of not being able to play a game while you sit warmly in your multi-million dollar mansion on the outskirts of Edmonton.

Xi’an is just one of the cities that China wants to see getting closed down and we all know that you only see what the ROC’s masterminds want you to see. What about the places they don’t want you to know about while all the Olympians are filing in and checking into their COVID bubble “winter resort”? The Chinese do not want to lose face here and an Olympic failure would do just that… So they’re going to do everything to make the public think everything is going to go off without a hitch…

But yeah, let’s cry over not being able to take part in that debacle instead of taking the opportunity to offer well wishes to the Olympians who do risk it and head over.

Cult of Hockey

Samorukov, Broberg in, Kassian out as shorthanded Oilers return to practice

The additions of Philip Broberg and Dmitri Samorukov on an emergency basis brings the Oilers’ defence corps up to the minimum six required. The squad is currently missing no fewer than five (5) left-shot defenders: Kris Russell and Markus Niemelainen are both injured, while Darnell Nurse, Duncan Keith and William Lagesson are all in COVID protocol.
That leaves an ultra-thin corps on the left side of Slater Koekkoek along with Broberg and Samorukov, who will be making his NHL debut next game unless another defender is cleared to play.
Right winger Zack Kassian is a new addition to the COVID list, where he joins Jesse Puljujarvi along with Nurse, Keith and Lagesson.
There is also some good news in net, where Mike Smith was a full participant in practice. Smith has missed the last 26 games with an ankle injury, during which time Mikko Koskinen and rookie Stuart Skinner shared the load.

Foegele-McDavid-Hyman
RNH-Draisaitl-Yamamoto
Shore-Ryan-Sceviour
Benson-McLeod-Turris
Perlini

Koekkoek-Barrie
Broberg-Bouchard
Samorukov-Ceci

Smith
Koskinen
Skinner

— Bob Stauffer (@Bob_Stauffer) December 26, 2021

BLH’s Thoughts: Wowza! Look at that defense. Man, those are some bare bones and the forward group has five top-sixers along with seven 4th liners… It’s gonna be tough sledding for a little while until the rest of the team gets out of COVID protocol.

Even though the roster is wafer thin, the group still intrigues me. I want to see how it will do considering how much of a downgrade it is from the regular day-to-day group.

Knock on wood, but how have McDavid and Draisaitl been able to avoid going into protocol this year when so many of their teammates haven’t?

The Hockey Writers Rumors

Daily Faceoff’s Mike McKenna writes that Tarasenko’s unhappiness over how the club handled his multiple shoulder surgeries dating back to 2018 has left him soured on the relationship. He believes things can’t be repaired, even if Tarasenko is being a professional.
Over the past couple of days, we’ve reported that Zach Senyshyn has requested a trade out of the Bruins’ organization and he’s the second player to do so this season. Jake DeBrusk was the first and for Bruins fans, the question will be, can the Bruins get back anything close to the value of what these two were pegged to hold when they were drafted in the first round of the 2015 NHL Entry Draft?
The Montreal Canadiens cleaned house and brought in Jeff Gorton to find a new GM and set the team back on the right track, potentially going the rebuild route… This could mean trading names like Ben Chiarot, Brendan Gallagher, Carey Price, Jeff Petry, Tyler Toffoli, David Savard, Jonathan Drouin, and others.