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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Oilersnation
Random Thoughts
- Looking at the top-nine, we’ve got Nuge, Yamamoto, Foegele, Puljujarvi, and Hyman that are all struggling to score right now, and that makes me think I need to help by heading out into the streets to look for a sacrifice.
- Skinner was always going to take a while before arriving to the NHL level if it ever happened at all, and to see the steps forward he’s taken so far has been a lot of fun to watch.
- If the plan is for Smith to come back in mid-December, we’ll be about a third of the way through the season and all I can think about is how that’s not exactly the easiest time to play catchup in this league. How much will this extended absence matter when Smith comes back?
- Listed at 6’2” with wheels for days, Ryan McLeod has all of the tools needed to develop into a middle-six centreman, and if he can figure out a way to make that happen, the Oilers will have a major to-do item crossed off their long term shopping list.
BLH’s Thoughts: I’m very curious to see if Tippett lets this newly formed 3rd line play out for a period of time here. I think Kassian’s form will probably dictate how long the lines stay together though.
The other day I was thinking about Leon Draisaitl and some other European power forwards like Peter Forsberg and Jaromir Jagr and the thought that came up was how much Jagr and Forsberg loved taking that puck right to the net from the outside. They didn’t give two shits who was going to try and stop them and I see Leon kinda half-ass crashing the net a bit, he likes to do that outside/in move for a quick shot to surprise the goalie, but if he went outside in and drove to the net; he might draw some penalties and/or score… He’s such a tank and so strong, why doesn’t he drive the paint more?
Lowetide.ca
- Samorukov. He’s ready. So is Niemelainen. Someone is getting traded at the deadline.
- One of the things we discussed Saturday morning surrounded winger Jesse Puljujarvi and what he might be able to do with some clean air against lesser competition. The ‘soft parade’ as I like to call it.
- Puljujarvi scored a five-on-five goal, the game winner matter of fact, against a feature pairing (Nicolas Hague-Shea Theodore) and a depth line (Janmark-Howden, with Dadonov along for the ride).
BLH’s Thoughts: As long as Dima and Niemelainen are waiver-eligible, they probably won’t be full-time NHLers, in Edmonton at least. That might make them very valuable trade assets though. Reckon Montreal would have some interest in one of these guys? I’d be on the honker to whoever the new GM ends up being and asking about everybody from Brendan Gallagher to Carey Price to Jake Evans and Joel Armia… They’ve got some really nice players who’d compliment Edmonton’s drive to the post-season very well.
The Hockey Writers Rumors
- Senators captain Brady Tkachuk claimed that he was bitten, not once, but twice by Brendan Lemieux during Saturday’s contest against the Los Angeles Kings.
- Matthew Tkachuk also was asked about his contract situation with the Flames and if he was likely to sign a long-term extension. He said, “Well, I absolutely love it here. It’s been — it’s home for me, my second home since I’ve been, for the last, what, six, I don’t know, I don’t even know what year it is now, but I’ve been here forever and have basically grown up here.”
- Friedman reports there will be changes but there is no set timeline for the Canucks to make a decision on their head coach. Per his report, they considered Claude Julien as bench boss but decided against it. Friedman adds they also considered Scott Walker, but decided against that as well.
- There are big changes coming to the Canadiens management team as the organization announced that Scott Mellanby resigned from his role as assistant general manager Saturday… Jeff Marek adds that no one from the Canadiens have called Patrick Roy or his camp.
