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Oilersnation
Monday Mailbag – Are you concerned about Kailer Yamamoto?
What did you think of Markus Niemelainen’s game?
- “I think you need to keep guys fresh too. Nemo has had a couple of rough games and I think giving him a breather with back-to-back’s coming up would be a good idea.”
Is it time to start getting concerned about Kailer Yamamoto?
- “Yamamoto can’t be fed top-six minutes all year if he isn’t scoring.” – Cam Lewis
Is it time to start getting concerned about Kailer Yamamoto?
- “Jason Smith. Edmonton could use a rugged, tough, and physical D-man in their top six who is great on the PK and can play tough minutes.” – Jason Gregor
BLH’s Thoughts: I’m actually okay with Niemelainen so far and I dig that the coaching staff is giving him the reps he needs. Also, they stick with him even when he’s had a tough shift or period. He offers an element that nobody else on Edmonton’s defense has in their toolbox and I’m talking about everybody in the whole organization. Nobody open-ice hits like Niemo not even Nurse.
Yamo’s going through something, it’s painfully obvious and I said weeks ago that you can’t be putting him in the top-six if he’s coming back from an upper-body injury. He needed to be put down in the bottom six long long ago and his minutes and deployment should’ve been handled with a helluva lot more care than it was. Now we’re here with Killer on the 4th line. Mark Spector says Jesse Puljujarvi won’t be re-signed this summer if he continues on his current pace, why in the world would they keep Yamamoto if he continues on his?
A 1990’s-era Oiler to bring back? Some say Smytty, some said Doug Weight, others had dmen like Dave Manson, Roman Hamrlik, and Bo Mironov. Nobody selected Mark Messier!!! Nobody said Curtis Joseph!!! What about Vincent Damphousse, Bill Guerin, or Tommy Salo? I’m picking Cujo.
GM13: Oilers @ Capitals
Who to Keep an Eye on for Washington
- #92 Evgeny Kuznetsov – This guy kills the Oilers every time they play it seems. He’s got 10pts in 13 games when facing Edmonton and he’s not scored even one goal this year so far…
- #35 Darcy Kuemper – The goalie that was almost an Edmonton Oiler has a record of 1-2-1 in Washington’s last five games. In that time he’s sporting a 1.73 GAA (nice!) and a save percentage of 0.942 (wowzas!)… He alone might give his banged up Capitals squad a chance.
- #8 Alex Ovechkin – Is almost at a goal/game in his previous five. He’s on a massive heater and Edmonton best not be spending a lot of time on the PK with the way Ovie is shooting.
Who to Keep an Eye on for Edmonton
- #22 Tyson Barrie – Barrie’s got four points in his last five games, a team high for dmen, and I like betting on players who are already in a groove. He’s doing that whilst playing from the bottom pairing too…
- #13 Jesse Puljujarvi – All of the JP supporters, like myself, are dancing with joy and collectively saying “FINALLY!” but with that in mind, if Jesse continues to put up goose eggs on the scoresheet, that’s going to be a tough pill to swallow.
- #71 Ryan McLeod – Cloudy started the year like a bat out of hell but he’s gone ice cold and I don’t think that adding Derek Ryan to his wing will do anything to solve his scoring woes. He’s scored three goals and added ZERO assists this year, however, all of those goals came in the first six games of the year and since then it’s been a dog’s breakfast. Two shots in his last five…
BLH’s Thoughts: So… Washington has possibly SEVEN regular roster players who will be out of the lineup tonight. They include, Nik Backstrom, TJ Oshie, John Carlson, Carl Hagelin, Tom Wilson, Connor Brown, and Dmitri Orlov…
If I said that this is a must win game for Edmonton, would I be talking smack? I mean, they can’t be losing to teams who are this down on their luck health-wise especially when their roster is extremely healthy.
Now, on the line shuffling. I feel like this team would be better off long-term if they adopted a strategy that saw the team go with the 3-headed monster. Meaning they would stop stacking the top two lines and then sounding all befuddled when those lines are shut out as if that meant the bottom six would pick up the slack…
Personally, I think these lines would offer a much better challenge for opponents on the road because they’ll have the last change,
- Kane-McDavid-Puljujarvi
- Holloway-Draisaitl-Hyman
- Nuge-McLeod-Yamamoto
- Foegele-Shore-Ryan
There’s no point in complaining about having a $5M player on the 3rd line and a $3M player on the 4th line because the roster is set now. The lines should be formalized with winning in mind first and foremost and I don’t think that’s been the case so far.
The most interesting things about the combinations above are you’re giving Holloway a shot with Leon so that Bob Stauffer can bring up old references to Taylor Hall and Draisaitl’s “instant chemistry”, you’ve got the power of the Nuge, a veteran who’s having a great start to the year, and you’ve got a “20 goal scorer” on the right flank along with one of the best skaters in the history of the NHL down the middle.
The team is simply way deeper, full stop. The offense goes down the lineup way more and the defense of the forwards improves all throughout.
What nullifies any moves Jay Woodcroft does with his forward group is the weakness on defense and I’m not going to stop saying it until Ken Holland addresses it. That’s the defense. It lacks a 2nd pairing dman and the absence of Duncan Keith is showing massively. Philip Broberg isn’t ready for that role (and won’t be for at least this season and possibly next.) and Brett Kulak is a 3rd pairing defense. Markus Niemelainen is also a 3rd pairing blueline. The right side of the D is fine but the left side doesn’t mirror the right in terms of talent. They need another Cody Ceci to sort that out and before you say Carson Soucy, he’s not it and I don’t care how good his +/- is… Vladdy Gavrikov out in Columbus is probably him but Stauffer was saying he’ll probably be asking for Ceci-like money but I suppose if you want a Ceci on the left side then you’ll have to pay for it… What do you think?
Trade Rumors
Spector’s Hockey
- TSN: Pierre LeBrun reports the Montreal Canadiens have been talking about a trade with the Washington Capitals though they haven’t progressed beyond the discussion stage.
- He mentioned Evgenii Dadonov, Jonathan Drouin and Mike Hoffman as trade candidates.
- THE ATHLETIC: Eric Duhatschek recently wondered if Timo Meier will become trade bait at some point in this season.
- Meier is earning an average annual value of $6 million but he’s earning $10 million in actual salary for this season. That’s how much it’ll cost the Sharks to qualify his rights unless the two sides agree to a new contract with a salary-cap hit.
- SPORTSNET: Jeff Marek reports “there’s been no moving of the needle whatsoever” in contract extension negotiations between the Vancouver Canucks and captain Bo Horvat.
