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!
The latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation comes from all of the internet’s top sites like Spector’s Hockey, The Fourth Period, NHL Trade Talk, The Hockey Writers, Sportsnet, and TSN just to name a few!
If you’re short on time but want to keep up with the day’s Oilers news, you’ve come to the right place!
Give us a follow on the socials!
- Youtube: Beer League Heroes Channel
- Twitter: @beerleagueheroe
- Instagram: @beerleagueheroes
- Facebook: Beer League Heroes
Lowetide.ca
- Oilers can’t look past the Kings, who are a good defensive team. Jonathan Quick has turned back time, as have Drew Doughty and Anze Kopitar. Alex Iafollo, Adrian Kempe and Viktor Arvidsson give this year’s LAK more depth and balance, and there are youngster pushing.
BLH’s Thoughts: This is what LT posted yesterday before the Kings game and he hit the nail on the head, didn’t he. The Oilers couldn’t buy a shot on net in the first period and Jonathan Quick had Edmonton’s number when they decided to shoot (how about that fantastic toe save on Puljujarvi’s blistering one-timer?)…
Do you notice a theme with Edmonton’s losses, when the skill fails to show up, what’s left for the Oilers to rely on? The other teams that are beating McDavid’s team are doing it on pure work ethic.
Personally, I don’t like that the coach is fine with allowing as many shots as the opposition is getting even if each shot might be considered a turnover to some degree. With the amount of talent this team has, they should be the one attempting to win the shot volume competition, shouldn’t they?
Oilersnation
Off the Top of My Head
- Draisaitl is better than anybody this franchise has had in a long, long time who isn’t named McDavid. To have a duo with as much game as No. 97 and No. 29 bring to the table in tandem, you’ve got to go right back to the glory years when the Oilers paraded up and down Jasper Avenue on the regular.
- I’ve sure liked what I’ve seen from Markus Niemelainen in the two games he’s played since arriving from Bakersfield. At this early point in his pro career on this side of the Atlantic, there are some rough edges to knock off for sure. That said, Niemelainen, 23, plays with a fair bit of bite. The big Finn likes to bang, and I won’t be surprised if he’s doing it here full-time next season.
- Colton Sceviour doesn’t have much to show for the 13 games he’s played in terms of numbers with 0-1-1, but I like him on RW on a third line with Derek Ryan and Warren Foegele more than I like seeing Zack Kassian taking up space over there.
BLH’s Thoughts: Sceviour and Niemelainen should get more minutes and Russell and Kassian should probably play less at this point. Derek Ryan isn’t going much to convince me he’s worth 3rd line TOi either…
I had a follower contact me the other day and make the claim that when everything’s all said and done, Draisaitl will be one of the top-5 best players of all time. With the way he’s going right now, I wouldn’t put it past him. He displays a lot of attributes from the greats who I grew up watching like Mats Sundin, Mario Lemieux, and Jaromir Jagr.
The Hockey Writers Rumors
- Friedman also suggested that Gorton is thinking about hiring a GM that some might find unexpected. Specifically, he might be thinking about an agent. “The person who I believe they are interested in who is an agent is Kent Hughes, who’s born in Montreal, he is bilingual, now in the Boston area so there is a connection to Gorton…”
- Friedman offered some additional details on the DeBrusk trade talk and said the Bruins are legitimately trying to accommodate his trade request but the team is looking for a player of equal value to DeBrusk and only when it works on their timeline.
- The Stars have apparently settled on their goaltending duo of Braden Holtby and Jake Oettinger and that means shopping one of their other two netminders.
- As per Dan Robson and Hailey Salvian of The Athletic, long-timer NHL defenseman and now Seattle Kraken captain Mark Giordano is not ready to hang up his skates when this season comes to a close.
