Killer’s Back and Has Woodcroft Separated Connor and Nurse?

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GAME 25 2022-23: CAPITALS AT OILERS

Bakersfield is down several players and it seems as though the organization is more focused on the career of (checks notes) Drake Rymsha than Xavier Bourgault. One is on the No. 1 PP, the other is not. That’s not cool in terms of development.
I don’t get it. Bakersfield is losing and playing like crap with veteran minor leaguers, surely to God they can lose and play like crap (with the promise of a better tomorrow) with the kids? The minor league team isn’t going to develop jack squat with the current coaching decisions.
This is no way to run a railroad. I understand trying to win hockey games and being competitive, but giving power-play time to Rymsha (with due respect to the player) over Bourgault is simply bad coaching. Whatever bias landed Colin Chaulk on that square, he needs to change course and right soon.

BLH’s Thoughts: Ah… So we’re back to the Gerry Fleming days in Bakersfield. LT is right though, this isn’t the way to develop hockey players.

I think Chaulk’s experience or lack thereof might be showing here. He’s got ties going back to the Red Wings and former coaches/players of that organization, so maybe this was a Holland favor. Although I noticed in his last season he played on the same club as former Oilers netminder Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers, so who really knows? Maybe he’s good in the room. I mean most of his coaching came with the Brampton Beast of the ECHL and in the four seasons he was there he missed the playoffs twice and couldn’t get out of his division the other two times.

Oilers today:

Draisaitl-McDavid-Yamamoto
Janmark-RNH-Puljujarvi
Kostin-Shore-Ryan
Benson-Malone-Holloway
Hamblin

Nurse-Ceci
Kulak-Barrie
Broberg-Bouchard
Murray

Skinner
Campbell

Not on ice:
Hyman

— Bob Stauffer (@Bob_Stauffer) December 4, 2022

GM25: Capitals @ Oilers

Who’s Hot for Washington

#8 Alex Ovechkin – Three goals and three assists in his last five plus 22 shots.
#73 Conor Sheary – Two goals and two assists in his last five on 13 shots.
#74 John Carlson – Three goals in his last five in addition to 14 shots and 11 blocks.

Who’s Hot for Edmonton

#97 Connor McDavid – 12pts in his last five games (5g+7a).
#29 Leon Draisaitl – 11pts in his last five games (6g+5a).
#2 Evan Bouchard – Three goals and two assists in his last five.

BLH’s Thoughts: Look, Yamo’s back to night and the Caps are going to be without Darcy Kuemper most likely and they’ve only managed to win three of their last ten games. The Oilers have to take the two points this evening.

If you remember the last time these two met up the Oilers lost 5-4 and of those five goals four of them were on the PP. Hilariously enough, all of Edmonton’s goals were scored at even strength. So, I think it’s safe to say that it would be a good idea to stay out of the penalty box tonight.

Something else to keep an eye one, how much TOI Darnell Nurse gets with Edmonton’s top line. I thought I might’ve caught something in the Montreal win and that being the separation of Nurse and McDavid. It could all be in my head but I think Nurse played more with RNH’s line and Bouchard played more with Connor’s and my feeling is, if that’s true, that might be due to 25’s inability to pass the puck.

Now, wouldn’t that be something if Woodcroft has come to the conclusion that he can’t have McDavid and Leon making 200ft drives every time they’re on the ice with their $9M buddy because he can’t pass. Fack! That is quite the bill to be stuck with if that indeed is the cause of separating those three. I can see why he’s not first choice on the PP because the QB actually needs to be able to throw some sauce on his dishes without killing the guy he’s passing to.

Darnell is a hammer, not a scalpel. It will always be that way and the sooner that an Oilers coach sees that and gives him a proper partner, the better things will get. It’d help if he stopped zone entries from time to time and stepped up to block some god damned shots.

That said, Bouchard playing with Nurse sorts this little issue out to a degree, does it not? I’d bet that’s why we’ve seen Barrie with Nurse as well.

Anyway, watch tonight and see how many passes #25 completes, how many icings he causes, how often he rims the puck around or refuses to hit anybody but one of his friends coming out of his own zone.

Trade Rumors

Spector’s Hockey

Allan Mitchell recently noted the “worst-kept secret in Edmonton” is the Oilers’ search for “a rugged depth forward who can impact the game physically.”
- The Boston Bruins have two in Trent Frederic and A.J. Greer. Others include the New Jersey Devils’ Nathan Bastian and the Philadelphia Flyers’ Zack MacEwen.

https://twitter.com/SportsnetSpec/status/1599593028448325632

BLH’s Thoughts: Fucking Oilers beat writers cannot trade Puljujarvi out of Edmonton fast enough, can they? Foegele makes a shade less than Jesse but why the hell would they suggest him? Warren, Rafa Lavoie, and one of Edmonton’s better dmen prospects should be good enough to get that deal closed. If not, move on. The Oilers RW depth is not great and if Holland deals the best of the bunch I don’t see how that will help the team. Especially since Puljujarvi is coming on now (5x’d October’s production in November) and Jesse having one of the worst PDO’s in the entire league amongst RWs.

I can’t see Boston moving those two grinders and NJ isn’t trading Bastian. That 4th line of theirs that he plays on is fantastic. So that leaves Zack MacEwen and he’s one of Tortorella’s favorites…

Best bet for the Oilers is that they just play better hockey and somebody will pop up closer to the deadline. If something were to happen, shouldn’t it have already happened considering that Edmonton is going to play Minnesota twice this week? If you remember, the Wild pushed Edmonton around a little bit last week by matching Ryan Reaves, Marcus Foligno, and Joel Eriksson Ek with the McDavid, Draisaitl, Puljujarvi line…