The Day After Yesterday

I’m going to start this off by happily exclaiming it only took ONE REGULAR SEASON GAME for McLellan to move Taylor Hall off of Connor McDavid’s wing…. ONE!

Lines today at practice: Hall-RNH-Purcell, Pouliot-McDavid-Korpikoski, Yak-Lander-Slepyshev, Hendricks-Letestu-Klink.

— Jack Michaels (@EdmontonJack) October 9, 2015

I distinctly remember pontificating upon this in my Edmonton Oilers Season Primer.

I’ve got a bone to pick off the bat here. Taylor Hall and Connor McDavid do not have any chemistry and they should end this little experiment. Nail Yakupov had more goals assisted on than Hall did in preseason and they were on completely separate lines. Hall can’t even keep up with McDavid on the ice. 97 is way ahead of him all the time but then again in Hall’s defence (which I’m rarely speaking in) he’s way ahead of everyone but the difference being Hall is supposed to be on the same wave length given the amount of time the coaching staff have had them together for.

I guess the Oilers Head Coach has been watching the same games I have, and in a more specific manner I talk about it here:

How long until we see Hall reunited with Nuge and Ebs? I’d say sooner than later, especially if Hall doesn’t produce right away. Sorry I’m kind of all over the place here.

Of course Eberle is still hurt but when he comes back he’ll be reunited with Hall and Nuge.

Now it all seriousness I didn’t expect it to take a single regular season game for the two to get separated, I thought Todd McLellan would’ve given them at least a week but the Oilers were eaten alive in the possession department last night which wasn’t a surprise.

Here’s a quote from McLellan after today’s practise:

“In particular, I’m not sure that Taylor and Connor have connected real well, even throughout the exhibition season,” says McLellan.  The two have combined for just one goal in their games together so far, with Hall tallying in the pre-season against Vancouver

Let’s check out a War-On-Ice chart or two from last night’s game.

The Blues really took the Oilers to task after the first period and who’s kidding who? Everyone expected this to happen. I was however a tad surprised that the Oilers didn’t score a single goal on their own. Their only tally came off an own goal bank shot even Mike Massey would’ve been proud of. I thought with Brian Elliott in net they would’ve gotten at least one.

Friend of the blog Ryan Robinson (@ryandlace) released another of his Oilers Vlogs wherein he touches on a few things from last night’s game including Teddy Purcell. I completely agree with Mr. Robinson in his assessment of TP, butter soft and well deserving of the Golden Plunger award.

I was listening to the Oct.5th episode of Oilers Now! when frequent caller and uber Oilers fan K-Jam called in and asked this question:

K-Jam: Do you think the Oilers would be listening if there were people calling about Purcell or Fayne? Do you think that would be of high interest to the Oilers?

Stauffer: I certainly think they’d be listening if someone called about Purcell at this stage

That’s a pretty big tell from Stauffer in my opinion. He leaves Fayne out of his response but includes Purcell. This is one of Bob Stauffer’s ways of letting things out without actually saying them directly. Don’t try to rack your brain as to who would take the maritimer off the Oilers hands. Purcell’s ticket is way to big and the snails that live in my garden move faster than him. But Bobby Stauff works for the team and has his ears to the ground, so if you ever want to know what the Oilers “might” be thinking of doing or who they “could” be interested in; listen to Oilers Now! and try catch on the little subtleties.

Skip ahead to 15:00 to listen to the conversation between K-Jam and Stauffer below.

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Personally I was pleased with the team’s effort. I was jacked with the performance of the 4th line though and if you go back up and look at the charts from War-On-Ice you’ll see they dominated their opponents in the possession game. The caveat being the Blues 4th line might not be that great…

I’m looking forward to tomorrow night’s game vs. the Predators as I’m hopeful for another consistent high energy game from the Oilers. Do I think they’ll win? That’s a tough call. Maybe Pekka Rinne will get hurt or Shea Weber will trip over his own beard. One thing is for sure, Connor McDavid and the boys have their work cut out for them…

-BLH (@beerleagueheroe)

The Beer League Heroes Merch Shop is still offering some SWEET shirts, take a moment to browse what we have to offer. Surely there’s something there for yourself or a loved one. I know recently our customers have been all over the kid’s shirts with the 97C design on the front. It’s a cute option and a great way to show off one’s love for vintage hockey; not only that but it’s one of the few shirt options that come in the new Oilers 3rd jersey color, the other being our long-sleeve shirts.