Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

Welcome to the Neno's Place!

Neno's Place Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality


Neno

I can be reached by phone or text 8am-7pm cst 972-768-9772 or, once joining the board I can be reached by a (PM) Private Message.

Join the forum, it's quick and easy

Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

Welcome to the Neno's Place!

Neno's Place Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality


Neno

I can be reached by phone or text 8am-7pm cst 972-768-9772 or, once joining the board I can be reached by a (PM) Private Message.

Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

Would you like to react to this message? Create an account in a few clicks or log in to continue.
Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

Many Topics Including The Oldest Dinar Community. Copyright © 2006-2020


    Oilers vs Sharks: The Battle For Pacific Supremacy

    jedi17
    jedi17
    jedi17
    Moderator
    Moderator


    Posts : 10738
    Join date : 2013-02-20
    • Post n°1

    Oilers vs Sharks: The Battle For Pacific Supremacy Empty Oilers vs Sharks: The Battle For Pacific Supremacy

    Post by jedi17 Fri 23 Dec 2016, 7:32 pm

    Oilers vs Sharks: The Battle For Pacific Supremacy

     Edmonton Oilers Blogger • RSS • Archive • CONTACT
    The Edmonton Oilers are playing for top spot in the Pacific Division tonight. Let the record show that the date is December 23rd and the year is 2016. The Edmonton Oilers are not a great team, but they do appear to be a good team. After 10 hopeless years where the Playoffs weren’t even worth wasting a wish on, this feels pretty good.

    I have a laundry list of changes I want to see made. I can spend thousands of words highlighting the weaknesses of the team. Let’s take this moment, at this time of year, to focus on the positives. It’s the Christmas season, I’d like to focus on some things about the Oilers that make me happy.

    1) Connor McDavid. What else can be said about him that hasn’t already been written? He’s the most dynamic forward in the NHL. He and Sidney Crosby are the two best players in the NHL and while it doesn’t look like Sid is ready to pass the baton just yet, he’s 29 years old and McDavid is just 19. He’s still eligible to play in the World Junior Hockey Championships. I’ll never forget the day Edmonton lucked out in the lottery and we are witnessing what made us all so damned excited.

    2) Progression from Draisaitl. Players do not progress in a straight line. This cant be stated enough. They have ups, and downs, and they get streaky a whole hell of a lot. Leon Draisaitl was drafted to be a big scoring center and he’s becoming a big scoring center. He’s on pace for a 73 point season and he’s leading the team in goal scoring. He’s just 21 years old and has the best years of his career ahead of him. You have to love what you’re getting out of the 2A/B center this season.

    3) Actual Depth. Part of what made the Oilers so weak has been their lack of depth in key areas. When you think of Edmonton at center over the last decade, you could circle only Horcoff or Nugent-Hopkins and be confident they were NHL players. After them it was a steady stream of AHL tweeners or kids who weren’t ready for prime time. This season the Oilers are still young down the middle, but everybody is an NHL player. I’m especially thankful for Nugent-Hopkins and Letestu who are taking on heavy defensive duties which has freed up McDavid and Draisaitl. Letestu is really heating up too.

    4) Healthy Klefbom. Oscar Klefbom had a staph infection in his foot (do not google image search that) which kept him out of the lineup after being originally injured in early December. He’s already played in 5 more games this season than he did in all of last season. He’s a bit up and down (and his PDO is brutal) but he’s young and a solid puck mover. The team simply didn’t have enough top 4 defenders a year ago and that’s because he missed 52 games. His return from injury has been a huge boost to the club.

    5) Having Actual Expectations. The Oilers have been able to con a lot of people out of setting reasonable expectations for years. The whole rebuild was predicated on abandoning expectations of success in the short term for long term gain. The problem was that at no point until this year did anyone actually transition out of the no expectation climate. Ok, I railed against it for a long time but I barely count. This year the team has started to perform and, while I still hate how he went about it, Chiarelli made sacrifices to put together an NHL defense that could compete in the league today. This is a team that fans can finally say *should* compete for a playoff spot. In fact, at this point missing the playoffs would be devastating. And no, it doesn’t matter that they were bad a year ago and we should just be happy if they are close. Malarkey. I expect this team to be in the Playoffs this Spring. That makes me happy.

    LINEUP

    The Oilers made it official, Pitlick will miss the remainder of the season with a torn ACL. Good grief. 

    Lucic McDavid Eberle
    Maroon Draisaitl Puljujarvi
    Pouliot RNH Caggiula
    Hendricks Letestu Kassian

    Klefbom Larsson
    Sekera Russell
    Davidson Gryba

    Talbot

    OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME

    1) I Don’t Want To Let The Wookie Win. In this case I’m talking about Brent Burns. The hairy love child between the Yeti and a Viking Berserker is in the co-lead for points on the San Jose Sharks with 30 and he’s one point back of the lead in points by defenders in the NHL as a whole. He is a hulking beast at 6’5”, 230 pounds but he’s a good skater and the offense moves through him. He’s NHL’s leader in shots by defenders by a mile and he’s outshot all of his forward teammates on the Sharks as well. He’s a possession monster, a 5v5 points machine, and Power Play performer as well. He’s the total package. He plays 24:31 a night. With him on the ice the Sharks have 30 goals for and 19 against 5v5. Without him on the ice the Sharks have 24 goals for and 31 against. If there’s a name circled it’s Brent Burns. 

    2) Under-Letestimated. One of the most interesting players on the Oilers is actually Mark Letestu. He had a brutal season offensively last year. In terms of points per game it was his worst NHL season. He had 9 points 5v5 all of last year and he played 82 games. This season, in just 32 games, he’s matched that output. The acceptance of Letestu as a Power Play contributor has also been positive. He only part of the way through these first 30-odd games started getting regular time. As someone who is clearly the 4th center on the team, he has made himself integral to team success by playing a role extremely well. On limited minutes he is accomplishing a lot. His shooting percentage is a little high, so the goal totals are a bit inflated, but so far the Oilers are getting full value for this player and success will continue if he keeps producing. He has 11 points in his last 11 games. 

    3) Pitlick Gone. This space could have been used to talk about all kinds of things, but I’ll dedicate it to Tyler Pitlick who once again has been failed by his body. This time the young man has torn his ACL and will miss the remainder of the regular season (at least). Before this it was his spleen that ruptured on a big hit. He’s had previous knee trouble in Jr and in the AHL. There is just nothing this kid can do that his body will not undermine. I wrote previously, elsewhere, that the Oilers should have just moved on from him because he cant stay healthy. I thought this year would be different. Or at least I hoped that was the case. He had 8 goals and was playing just 10 minutes a night. He looks SO MUCH like an NHL player that it’s painful. The 62 games he played in the AHL during his rookie pro season stands as the most games that Hockey DB has any record of him playing in any 1 season of his hockey career at any level. The door is opened for someone else to play in his spot. Internal and External applicants are welcome to apply.


    Puck drops tonight at 8:30 PM on Sportsnet Oilers. Game On!
    • Back to top
      Current date/time is Fri 22 Nov 2024, 7:25 pm