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Oilers vs Canucks: A Year in Review
December 31, 2016, 4:27 PM ET [77 Comments]
Matt Henderson
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • RSS • Archive • CONTACT
I would like to extend you all a Happy New Year’s tonight. Make sure you take an Uber or some other service if your plan is to celebrate the death of 2016 this evening. This is a year that most would like to forget. From Bowie to Fisher we’ve lost giants in arts and entertainment all year long. Sure, people die every year, but come on!
Anyway, the Oilers are 11 points ahead of where they were after 37 games last season and poised to compete for top spot in the Pacific if they can maintain something resembling their 14-4-4 record against the Western Conference this year. 2016 has seen some wild swings for Edmonton but the team is trending in the right direction and that should give us plenty of hope for 2017.
If we can take a few minutes to look back on the year that was we can see lots of change to this club. Some of it was about moving parts in and out, some from the natural growth and development of the young players the Oilers have come to depend upon. Here are the highlights of 2016 from where I sat.
GETTING HEALTHY
Upon the opening of this year both Oscar Klefbom and Connor McDavid were hurt, robbing the team of their best offensive and defensive players. The combined effect of missing these two players was indeed crippling. Neither Draisaitl nor Letestu could handle the extra load and Nugent-Hopkins would suffer his own injury as well in early 2016.
McDavid had broken his collarbone when fringe NHLer Brandon Manning jumped on his back and drove him shoulder first into the boards in a pathetic attempt to stop 97 from walking around him. It worked and the Oiler center didn’t return to action for 13 weeks after a successful surgery.
Now, 13 weeks is roughly 5 weeks longer than most athletes seem to take healing from this kind of injury so I don’t know exactly what happened with the Oiler center here. The team seems to have wanted him super healed, but hey, all it did was prevent McDavid from winning the Calder trophy, so it saved them money, I guess. Either way, 2016 didn’t start great for McDavid.
Klefbom, meanwhile had sustained a hand injury but while healing from that he developed a staph infection in his foot because his skate boot was causing some kind of irritation. The infection apparently had one heck of a time healing and became re-infected to the point where they had to cut some meat out of his foot. Klefbom didn’t play a regular season game in 2016 until October. He has played just 37 games this calendar year.
Nugent-Hopkins broke his knuckle blocking a shot and had to get the knuckle surgically re-attached to his hand with a screw. This happened in January 2016 but he managed to come back in March that same year. Thin dude, tough as nails.
Fortunately for the Oilers, the 2016 story was about a return to health as much as it was about injury. The team has managed to keep all of its 4 centers and top 4 defenders healthy from the start of this new season. There have been injuries, but the most depended upon players have been healthy and impactful. The one with the least offensive impact (Nugent-Hopkins) has been snake-bit for sure, but he’s also having a great defensive impact.
GETTING BIGGER UP FRONT
The mainstream guys are in love with these moves, but what matters to me is that Chiarelli didn’t just add some big men, he added big men who can play hockey. For a very long time the Oilers were perceived as a small team. They certainly didn’t have big men who played a heavy, grinding game.
Part of Chiarelli’s hockey philosophy has always placed a premium on that kind of size that can wear teams down over time. That’s great, but Edmonton has been trying to draft the next Milan Lucic since their pick was used to take Milan Lucic years ago. Well, good news, they can stop doing that because they got the real Milan Lucic to play for them.
The addition of Milan Lucic via Free Agency was not the summer move Chiarelli will be remembered for the most, but it was the biggest feather in his cap. Lucic is on pace for another typically Lucic season, and that’s all you can hope for when you sign a player in free agency. He hasn’t meshed with McDavid the way all had hoped, but he’s scoring at a decent clip and he’s a good possession player. The final years of his contract should be scary, but that’s a problem for future Chiarelli.
In probably the best value deal Chiarelli has made as an Oiler, he also added Pat Maroon in 2016 to the club. He gave up a mid round pick and Martin Gernat plus the Ducks retained 25% of Maroon’s salary. Amazing.
All he’s done since joining the Oilers is score 19-12-31 in 53 games and develop the best on-ice chemistry with McDavid. He plays a meat and potatoes north-south style, he’s big, and he has decent hands. For $1.5M on the cap you cant ask for more. If the Oilers had any damn sense in their heads he would be McDavid’s fulltime LW but they are still hoping Lucic sticks there. No matter, he’s been a fantastic addition to the team.
THE TRADE
The most controversial change of 2016 came in the form of what I consider the most lopsided 1 for 1 trade of the year (in the entire NHL). At the end of June, Edmonton sent out elite LW Taylor Hall to address the gaping wound at the defense position. Coming back to the Oilers was defensive defenseman Adam Larsson.
The big Swedish defender has been getting some poor luck beside Klefbom this year, but otherwise he’s exactly the player I expected except he’s meaner than I thought. The mean streak in Larsson is nice to see considering it’s not the first thing you think of when you build a mental image of a Swedish defender (I know, don’t judge a player by his passport). Larsson definitely adds a top 4 player to Edmonton’s blueline. They needed a righty badly and Ray Shero knew it.
The Devils sold a man dying of thirst a cup of water for a million dollars and a night with his wife, but at least Chiarelli didn’t die of thirst, right? Hall is the best player on the Devils but the Devils are an incomplete club, much like the Oiler teams of years past. A great number of Oiler fans are prepared right now to call the trade a win for the team regardless of Larsson’s individual performance because the team as a whole is better. I’m not one of them, but I understand their sentiment.
It was the lowest point of 2016 for me, but your results might vary.
REDEMPTION
What I would like 2016 to be remembered for, with regards to the Oilers, is that in the final quarter of the year the club began its transition back to respectability. Yeah, it’s largely fueled by the incredible Connor McDavid, but who cares? He’s ours. Own it.
The team as I write this is 2nd in the Pacific in points, tied for 2nd in the West in Goals for, and owns a killer record against their conference. This is the best Oiler team in a decade and missing the playoffs, while still possible, would represent a massive disappointment.
Edmonton has great young talent up front in the form of McDavid, Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins, and even Puljujarvi. They have some great young talent on the back end in the form of Klefbom and Nurse along with some great potential in Benning, Jones, and Bear. This is a team that can still grow in 2017. With some contracts departing at the end of June, they ought to have room to sign their best young players long term and still have room to add to their shrinking list of needs.
We end 2016 on a positive note for the Oilers. In April they were at the bottom of the Pacific Division. In December they are competing for the top. That’s a massive change for this or any club, and it’s the positive note I want to end this on.
LINEUP
Sekera is out again, he apparently was so ill he lost weight and has been battling fatigue. He might be ready for the game against the Blue Jackets. Fayne was activated and sent to the AHL. Oesterle has been recalled (he's been injured for most of the year too). Same lineup as the previous game.
Lucic McDavid Eberle
Maroon RNH Draisaitl
Pouliot Caggiula Puljujarvi
Hendricks Letestu Kassian
Klefbom Larsson
Russell Benning
Davidson Gryba
Talbot
Gustavsson
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) Tragical History. The Oilers apparently have not won a game on New Year’s Eve since 1985. Yeah. It’s a 31 year history of losses (or ties but the kids wont remember what those are). That winless streak is older than most of the Oiler roster. Good news though, the Oilers didn’t have Connor McDavid in any of those games before. Send 2016 home whimpering with a big win over the Canucks tonight and celebrate like a champion. Take an Uber home, kids.
2) Sedin Trickery. The Vancouver Canucks are still Henrik and Daniel Sedin’s team. Bo Horvat has wrestled himself into 2nd on the team in scoring sandwiched between the twins, but it’s probably not the fantasy it sounds like on paper. The Sedins have used and abused the Oilers forever but they are indeed slowing down in their advanced age (36). The dynamic duo have propped the Canucks up on their shoulders for a long time but a series of moves by the Canucks dealt away most of the help they had this team is rebuilding whether they are admitting to it or not. Still, you just know one of these two is good for a power play goal against the Oil.
3) Resolution. I guess this one comes down to resolve. The Oilers have been accused of playing up or down to their opponents for a long time, but this year the verbal from the players themselves has been about confidence. The team feels like they can win every game they play in. The next step from confidence that they can do it is the resolve to play the game “the right way” night in and out. Against the Kings, the Oilers played a controlled game and won the possession battle and ultimately came away with 2 points. If they are resolved to play that way against the Canucks then there are more points to be had.
December 31, 2016, 4:27 PM ET [77 Comments]
Matt Henderson
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • RSS • Archive • CONTACT
I would like to extend you all a Happy New Year’s tonight. Make sure you take an Uber or some other service if your plan is to celebrate the death of 2016 this evening. This is a year that most would like to forget. From Bowie to Fisher we’ve lost giants in arts and entertainment all year long. Sure, people die every year, but come on!
Anyway, the Oilers are 11 points ahead of where they were after 37 games last season and poised to compete for top spot in the Pacific if they can maintain something resembling their 14-4-4 record against the Western Conference this year. 2016 has seen some wild swings for Edmonton but the team is trending in the right direction and that should give us plenty of hope for 2017.
If we can take a few minutes to look back on the year that was we can see lots of change to this club. Some of it was about moving parts in and out, some from the natural growth and development of the young players the Oilers have come to depend upon. Here are the highlights of 2016 from where I sat.
GETTING HEALTHY
Upon the opening of this year both Oscar Klefbom and Connor McDavid were hurt, robbing the team of their best offensive and defensive players. The combined effect of missing these two players was indeed crippling. Neither Draisaitl nor Letestu could handle the extra load and Nugent-Hopkins would suffer his own injury as well in early 2016.
McDavid had broken his collarbone when fringe NHLer Brandon Manning jumped on his back and drove him shoulder first into the boards in a pathetic attempt to stop 97 from walking around him. It worked and the Oiler center didn’t return to action for 13 weeks after a successful surgery.
Now, 13 weeks is roughly 5 weeks longer than most athletes seem to take healing from this kind of injury so I don’t know exactly what happened with the Oiler center here. The team seems to have wanted him super healed, but hey, all it did was prevent McDavid from winning the Calder trophy, so it saved them money, I guess. Either way, 2016 didn’t start great for McDavid.
Klefbom, meanwhile had sustained a hand injury but while healing from that he developed a staph infection in his foot because his skate boot was causing some kind of irritation. The infection apparently had one heck of a time healing and became re-infected to the point where they had to cut some meat out of his foot. Klefbom didn’t play a regular season game in 2016 until October. He has played just 37 games this calendar year.
Nugent-Hopkins broke his knuckle blocking a shot and had to get the knuckle surgically re-attached to his hand with a screw. This happened in January 2016 but he managed to come back in March that same year. Thin dude, tough as nails.
Fortunately for the Oilers, the 2016 story was about a return to health as much as it was about injury. The team has managed to keep all of its 4 centers and top 4 defenders healthy from the start of this new season. There have been injuries, but the most depended upon players have been healthy and impactful. The one with the least offensive impact (Nugent-Hopkins) has been snake-bit for sure, but he’s also having a great defensive impact.
GETTING BIGGER UP FRONT
The mainstream guys are in love with these moves, but what matters to me is that Chiarelli didn’t just add some big men, he added big men who can play hockey. For a very long time the Oilers were perceived as a small team. They certainly didn’t have big men who played a heavy, grinding game.
Part of Chiarelli’s hockey philosophy has always placed a premium on that kind of size that can wear teams down over time. That’s great, but Edmonton has been trying to draft the next Milan Lucic since their pick was used to take Milan Lucic years ago. Well, good news, they can stop doing that because they got the real Milan Lucic to play for them.
The addition of Milan Lucic via Free Agency was not the summer move Chiarelli will be remembered for the most, but it was the biggest feather in his cap. Lucic is on pace for another typically Lucic season, and that’s all you can hope for when you sign a player in free agency. He hasn’t meshed with McDavid the way all had hoped, but he’s scoring at a decent clip and he’s a good possession player. The final years of his contract should be scary, but that’s a problem for future Chiarelli.
In probably the best value deal Chiarelli has made as an Oiler, he also added Pat Maroon in 2016 to the club. He gave up a mid round pick and Martin Gernat plus the Ducks retained 25% of Maroon’s salary. Amazing.
All he’s done since joining the Oilers is score 19-12-31 in 53 games and develop the best on-ice chemistry with McDavid. He plays a meat and potatoes north-south style, he’s big, and he has decent hands. For $1.5M on the cap you cant ask for more. If the Oilers had any damn sense in their heads he would be McDavid’s fulltime LW but they are still hoping Lucic sticks there. No matter, he’s been a fantastic addition to the team.
THE TRADE
The most controversial change of 2016 came in the form of what I consider the most lopsided 1 for 1 trade of the year (in the entire NHL). At the end of June, Edmonton sent out elite LW Taylor Hall to address the gaping wound at the defense position. Coming back to the Oilers was defensive defenseman Adam Larsson.
The big Swedish defender has been getting some poor luck beside Klefbom this year, but otherwise he’s exactly the player I expected except he’s meaner than I thought. The mean streak in Larsson is nice to see considering it’s not the first thing you think of when you build a mental image of a Swedish defender (I know, don’t judge a player by his passport). Larsson definitely adds a top 4 player to Edmonton’s blueline. They needed a righty badly and Ray Shero knew it.
The Devils sold a man dying of thirst a cup of water for a million dollars and a night with his wife, but at least Chiarelli didn’t die of thirst, right? Hall is the best player on the Devils but the Devils are an incomplete club, much like the Oiler teams of years past. A great number of Oiler fans are prepared right now to call the trade a win for the team regardless of Larsson’s individual performance because the team as a whole is better. I’m not one of them, but I understand their sentiment.
It was the lowest point of 2016 for me, but your results might vary.
REDEMPTION
What I would like 2016 to be remembered for, with regards to the Oilers, is that in the final quarter of the year the club began its transition back to respectability. Yeah, it’s largely fueled by the incredible Connor McDavid, but who cares? He’s ours. Own it.
The team as I write this is 2nd in the Pacific in points, tied for 2nd in the West in Goals for, and owns a killer record against their conference. This is the best Oiler team in a decade and missing the playoffs, while still possible, would represent a massive disappointment.
Edmonton has great young talent up front in the form of McDavid, Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins, and even Puljujarvi. They have some great young talent on the back end in the form of Klefbom and Nurse along with some great potential in Benning, Jones, and Bear. This is a team that can still grow in 2017. With some contracts departing at the end of June, they ought to have room to sign their best young players long term and still have room to add to their shrinking list of needs.
We end 2016 on a positive note for the Oilers. In April they were at the bottom of the Pacific Division. In December they are competing for the top. That’s a massive change for this or any club, and it’s the positive note I want to end this on.
LINEUP
Sekera is out again, he apparently was so ill he lost weight and has been battling fatigue. He might be ready for the game against the Blue Jackets. Fayne was activated and sent to the AHL. Oesterle has been recalled (he's been injured for most of the year too). Same lineup as the previous game.
Lucic McDavid Eberle
Maroon RNH Draisaitl
Pouliot Caggiula Puljujarvi
Hendricks Letestu Kassian
Klefbom Larsson
Russell Benning
Davidson Gryba
Talbot
Gustavsson
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) Tragical History. The Oilers apparently have not won a game on New Year’s Eve since 1985. Yeah. It’s a 31 year history of losses (or ties but the kids wont remember what those are). That winless streak is older than most of the Oiler roster. Good news though, the Oilers didn’t have Connor McDavid in any of those games before. Send 2016 home whimpering with a big win over the Canucks tonight and celebrate like a champion. Take an Uber home, kids.
2) Sedin Trickery. The Vancouver Canucks are still Henrik and Daniel Sedin’s team. Bo Horvat has wrestled himself into 2nd on the team in scoring sandwiched between the twins, but it’s probably not the fantasy it sounds like on paper. The Sedins have used and abused the Oilers forever but they are indeed slowing down in their advanced age (36). The dynamic duo have propped the Canucks up on their shoulders for a long time but a series of moves by the Canucks dealt away most of the help they had this team is rebuilding whether they are admitting to it or not. Still, you just know one of these two is good for a power play goal against the Oil.
3) Resolution. I guess this one comes down to resolve. The Oilers have been accused of playing up or down to their opponents for a long time, but this year the verbal from the players themselves has been about confidence. The team feels like they can win every game they play in. The next step from confidence that they can do it is the resolve to play the game “the right way” night in and out. Against the Kings, the Oilers played a controlled game and won the possession battle and ultimately came away with 2 points. If they are resolved to play that way against the Canucks then there are more points to be had.
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