Was last night’s pre-season tilt with the Vancouver Canucks Jesse Puljujarvi’s coming out party? Because he had a “whale” of a game (sorry, not sorry). He was the best player on the ice for both teams and that included Vancouver’s best player in Bo Horvat.
There’s lots of talk about Jesse’s stick and how he’s looking more confident and if you’re the type that reads a lot of the content here then you shouldn’t be surprised by this performance. We’ve been talking about it all summer on Twitter and I also wrote a couple of posts mid-summer about his new equipment and summer training regime.
July 23rd: Summer Update on Puljujarvi – First mention of a shorter stick is here as well as a different blade.
August 2nd: “I don’t even think about the AHL” – Puljujarvi – In this blog, photographic evidence of his new stick and more details on his summer training.
Jason Gregor’s been trying to be the big news breaker in regards to Pulju’s stick but we all know who broke that news LONG before he did.
What I’m going to be interested in today is hearing how many times Bob Stauffer uses the word “pop” when talking about Puljujarvi or how many times Gregor talks about Jesse’s stick…
Anyways, let’s get back on track here. None of this is important if Jesse isn’t playing as well as he did last night, so let’s talk about that.
Yessa’s play was not all that different from last season. He was assertive physically, he shot the puck well, and he disrupted the Canucks zone exits with his speed and stick checking but what set this performance apart from last year was his confidence with the puck on his stick. He was taking players on 1v1, he was getting to the puck first and making plays by using his body frame and strength.
For example, on the Caleb Jones goal, the puck is sent in deep and Jesse hunts it down, then he’s first to the puck and he manages to tie up not only the puck but the Canucks defensemen (Hutton) and hold onto it long enough for his linemates (Strome/Khaira) to come in to knock it loose so that Strome can gather it up and deposit it to a pinching Jones in the slot for an easy goal.
Puljujarvi was integral to that goal and that unselfish play alone is a good indicator of how much he’s matured as a player since last season. I’ve always maintained that his defensive game is one of the better ones on the Oilers, it’s his offensive game that has to catch up. Usually, it’s the other way around for young players.
It wasn’t all good for him though. He tried to be a bit too individualistic a couple times that resulted in offsides but I can forgive him for those. At least he’s making an effort.
He might be looking a bit faster too. Something to keep an eye on.
It wasn’t all Pulujarvi though. Ty Rattie was on form in the 2nd half of the game and Kailer Yamamoto was FLYING last night.
What I was most impressed with from the top three RWs was their play off of the puck. They were tenacious, quick, and relentless. I loved every minute of it. The only time the Oilers weren’t looking dangerous was when their 4th line was out there.
Ty Rattie’s play at the end of the game where could’ve been greedy and tried to score the hat-trick goal but instead just mucked it up in the corner and wore the clock down might’ve been one of the more impressive plays in the game. That kind of character is exactly what the Oilers are going to need this year if they’re to make the playoffs.
Todd McLellan said that he talked to 5 or 6 or the right-wingers trying to make the team and he said there aren’t enough jobs for all of them, so somebody has to go out and win them. I’m paraphrasing of course but you get the gist, right?
I think that Rattie and Puljujarvi are on the team and they’d basically have to play themselves off of it but Kailer Yamamoto is really making a case for himself. On the other hand, Drake Caggiula is not looking good at all. He was absolutely invisible vs. the Canucks. Mind you it’s one preseason game but he needs to have as many good games as he can with the likes of Kailer Yamamoto playing the way he is.
Same goes for Zack Kassian. I loved that he was slamming Canucks each chance he could get but I don’t think McLellan was happy about that penalty he took behind the Oilers goal. I don’t mind it because he was getting molested by a Canuck that he’d finished a check on and the refs never called it. He was pissed and he took it out on Granlund. The worst part about that is Vancouver scored on the PP but I’d rather have that Zack Kassian than the passive one we saw last season.
The goaltending was a bit better last night eh?
Nice of Goldobin to shoot that right in Talbot’s glove, wasn’t it?
All kidding aside, Talbot was on form last night and Montoya played solid too. Exactly the kind of goaltending that the Oilers need going into 2018/19. Thanks to them and some really bad luck for Vancouver (Horvat and Goldobin had some real chances to put the puck in the net that just went wide and Jake Virtanen hit the crossbar), and the seven power plays for Vancouver didn’t help Edmonton’s cause but thanks to the Canucks shitty PP, the Oilers weren’t punished for their undisciplined play and they came away with the “W”.
I asked on Twitter if anybody was impressed with the Oilers defense and pretty much got a resounding no. None of the defenders really had a good game. Jakub Jerabek had a really nice play where he caught a Canuck on a partial breakaway and knocked the puck off his stick but he was largely unnoticeable for the game. Jason Garrison was looking like perhaps the game had passed him by, Caleb Jones got turnstiled by Bo Horvat that nearly led to a goal, Kris Russell couldn’t get the puck off his stick fast enough at any point in the game, Keegan Lowe looked like he was puckhandling a grenade for the most part, and Matt Benning couldn’t really get anything going.
So thank you goaltending…
Nolan Vesey was sent to the Oilers AHL affiliate in Bakersfield and Ostap Safin was re-assigned to Saint John (QMJHL) after the game. Expect to hear some news about Safin being traded since his junior team already has 2 imports (Filip Prikrl and Maxim Cajkovic) no their roster already. I guess Halifax has an open import spot, so perhaps Safin will go there and line up with 2019 draft eligible Raphael Lavoie this season.
Next game is this Thursday in Winnipeg.
I expect the same sort of roster to line up for that game. Maybe Lagesson, Bear, Bouchard, and Nurse get some action in that one. I would think that Mikko Koskinen gets another shot. I don’t think that the Oilers major names on forward will play. It sounds like Edmonton wants to save them for Europe and usually the bigger names will play at home anyhow. So we’ll wait and see on that front.
A new season means a new design! Click the image above to get the new Pulju shirt!
