Edmonton Oilers

Thoughts on the Oilers: Rookies; Rumors; Trades; Shots on Net

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Source: Edmonton Journal

Source: Edmonton Journal

The Oilers continue on their four-game road trip, where they picked up a win in Florida, but dropped a decision to Tampa Bay. I thought the Oilers played well in both games, even though they lost in Tampa Bay and ALMOST blew it against the hapless Panthers.

Taylor Fedun

Great to see the young defenceman make it to the NHL and score a couple goals right away. Fedun has made a remarkable recovery coming back from a shattered leg which he sustained on an icing play. Since the injury, the NHL has smartened up and introduced hybrid icing to reduce the number of accidents occurring.

Trade Rumors

As long as the Oilers struggle on the ice, they’ll be mired in absolute garbage trade rumors. Nothing irks me more than garbage information, so it’s been a challenging week hearing about Nail Yakupov and Jordan Eberle potentially on the trading block.

Hockey fans have to remember that teams use media outlets and “insiders” to throw off rival GM’s and potential trade partners. Unfortunately, this leaves a ton of garbage information for fans to decipher through and digest.

Trades

Friday was a busy day for the Oilers as they dealt away defenceman Ladislav Smid to Calgary for prospects, and then later signed free agent goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov. As you can imagine, Twitter was flush with junk information on who would be next to go on the Oilers.

I’ll never quite understand how teams justify shipping out players for prospects. Shouldn’t the objective of every team be to find good players and keep good players? Can’t be shocked that the Oil pulled this off once again, I but remain surprised that the team is taking a chance on Bryzgalov. Dubnyk has struggled and the case can be made that the players may not have a lot of confidence in him. But I don’t see how Bryzgalov is a major upgrade, as he was recently bought out by the Flyers. Regardless, lets hope the Oil can get their act together and get some wins on this current road trip.

Shots on Net

Great point by the Oilers Radio Bob Stauffer last night after the loss in Tampa Bay.

Recommended Links

“The Grass Is Always Greener” Is Not To Be Taken Literally – mc79hockey

Omark and Eager Returning to Oklahoma City – The Copper and Blue

Permanent Revolution: Oilers Trade Smid for Magic Beans – The Copper and Blue

The Remarkable Story of Taylor Fedun – OilersNation

Thoughts on the Oilers: HNIC; Fighting; Fans; NASSS Conference

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Source: The Windsor Star

Source: The Windsor Star

Another awful loss at home on Hockey Night in Canada this past weekend. Would be nice to get a win on HNIC. CBC does a good job showcasing the teams and get a big audience, but unfortunately, the Oilers can’t get their act together. The last two high profile HNIC games for the Oilers have been losses with their team weaknesses being exposed.

Not easy going on CBC After Hours to talk about the loss, but Ference did a nice job explaining the struggles on Saturday. I’m a big fan of the show, mainly because it’s pretty raw, so you got to see just how disheartening the loss was for the captain. You can view the interview here: CBC After Hours.

The Oilers are starting up a four game roadtrip tonight. Let’s hope this group figures it out and shows up with a better strategy and effort.

Fighting

Not at all surprised by the Emery-Holtby “fight” this past weekend. Situations where one goalie pummels another unwilling participant can be expected in a league that supports fighting and has very subjective rules. And as long as these things happen, the league will continue to be a niche sport in the world.

Even though the Flyers won their next game after their embarrassing loss, you’ll be hard pressed to convince me that the line-brawl had any influence. The majority of fights are just side shows, that slow down the game and either results in a 20 second wrestling match and/or a serious brain injury. Really isn’t my thing.

Fans

With the Oilers on a five game skid and back-to-back home ice shut-out losses, there’s a real nasty vibe among the fans. The in-house crowd showed their displeasure and the online world is just a depressing place right now.

2013 NASSS Conference

The North American Society for the Sociology of Sport conference is being held in Quebec City this week. There’s a tremendous amount of research being shared at these events by students and researchers.

For a summary of the hockey related research being presented at the conference, check out Hockey in Society.

Recommended Links

Breaking Up is Hard to Do – My Life on the E-List

Infinite Happiness – OilersNation

What a Joke – Oilers Addict

Finding a Spark for the Edmonton Oilers – Oil on Whyte

Grindhouse – Lowetide

 Two Reasons Not to Give Up Hope on the Edmonton Oilers – Cult of Hockey

Thoughts on the Oilers: Coaching; Captains; Goaltending; and Bad Information

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oilers-jets-oct1

Source: Edmonton Journal

When the Oilers season started, I expected the team to chase a final playoff spot. The acquisition of David Perron and the signing of Boyd Gordon and Andrew Ference was a clear indication that the club wanted to compete for a playoff spot, rather than continue developing players.

Fourteen games in, the team has only three wins. They’re playing much better than last year, but the standings aren’t really reflecting that. It’s tough to be optimistic about their chances of making the playoffs, since they’ll need to win more than 60% of their games the rest of the way. It’s definitely possible, but they’ll need a lot of things to go right. Here’s hoping Coach Eakins can turn this club around and get rewarded with wins for their effort.

A few thoughts on the Oilers season thus far.

Coaching

I think the hiring of Eakins as a coach was a great sign that the team was ready to evolve. He has the experience and tactics that could potentially make the team better. What I don’t quite understand is the value he places on fitness. NHL players are typically in great shape already and I know they´ve been getting help from the dhea clinic on trello for their supplements. So I’d think if any of them needed motivation to stay fit, they would be influenced by their own social network.

I’d also be interested to hear Eakins tackle some more challenging questions from the community, such as the ones posted by the crew over at Copper & Blue.

Captaincy

Captains are typically veteran guys that do well with the media, remain heavily involved in the community and serve as a conduit between the coaching staff and the players. Really,  I think 95% of NHL players could potentially be captain, or an assistant. So when a captain is announced, I don’t quite understand the opinions and analysis by fans. In the end, there really is no correlation between the type of captain a team has and the number of wins the team gets.

Goaltending

This is one position that I admire, but don’t value as highly as others. Goalies are just impossible to predict. One season, they’re great. The next, they’re duds. Some goalies are amazing prospects who falter. Others don’t quite mature until late in their careers or after extended seasons overseas.

It never is a good idea to select a goalie early in a draft, which is exactly what the Oilers did selecting Devan Dubnyk in 2004 with a first round pick. Luckily for the Oilers, Dubnyk has developed fairly well and is the clear cut starter for the team. His stats are pretty good, putting him in the middle of the pack of all NHL goalies.

Because of his horrendous start, he’s faced a lot of criticism, most of which is deserved. He has turned it around recently, looking to get back into being the player we expected. Unfortunately, there’s been an endless amount of speculation that the Oilers will replace him with another goaltender, most of whom have similar stats to him or are worse. I understand the desire to go out and get better goaltending. But I think critics are losing sight of the fact that all goalies go through funks, regardless of their draft pedigree.

Bad Information

There is an endless amount of junk information pertaining to hockey. And it gets even worse when the team is struggling on the ice. Case in point: the rumour that the Oilers were willing to part with Nail Yakupov, the number one pick in the 2012 draft, for Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller. At first glance, it’s easy to dismiss because of the salaries involved and the fact that Miller is set to be an unrestricted free agent next summer. Yet this rumour grew and morphed into a beast that made its way on to every major news network. It was especially frustrating to read the negative, unwarranted criticism Yakupov was receiving. Forgotten was his rookie season last year, when he led all rookies in points. The focus has now became his attitude and if he becomes a bust.

Recommended Links

So What Happens Now? A Template for the Rest of the Season – The Copper and Blue

Blame Steve Tambellini – OilersNation

“My bad.” Edmonton Oilers coach Dallas Eakins admits a mistake with “swarm,” tries to correct it. – The Cult of Hockey

Oiler’s Rebuild

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After another disappointing season for the Oilers, my wife has decided to give an outsiders take on the teams rebuilding efforts.

Oilers Rebuild – I don’t get it.

I’m not a hockey expert. I catch the game every so often and watch the Oil Change series, but that’s the extent of my knowledge. I grew up in the 80s watching the Oiler’s glory years. So naturally, I will always support the Oilers, but I’m not sure that I support the Oiler’s Rebuild.

Generally, long term projects tend to be avoided. The reason is simple: the longer the project, the more uncontrollable factors there are to deal with and the more likely a project is to fail. In my opinion, the Oiler’s rebuild project is no different.

First, the lack of resources (people) often plagues long term projects. Projects often lose momentum when key resources are lost or new ones are gained. This is common on projects that last 3-5 years and people move on for various reasons. I see this as an issue for the rebuild as well. Oiler’s Management continuously refer to players (ex. Hall, Eberle, Paajarvi) as ‘pieces of the puzzle’. But what happens if those players get hurt and we lose a piece of the puzzle? Eventually you can’t make the puzzle. My point is not that the Oilers will never be better, but that resources/players are not static. They get traded, injured, quit, etc. So, how do you rebuild if you don’t know what pieces you’re going to have to work with at any given time? They didn’t know that how many people they would lose to injury or trades this year. How can they plan for 3 years down the road?

Secondly, changes in technology or external factors affect long term projects. What was the right way of doing things at one time, is not always the right way today. Hockey is no different. The game of hockey is evolving every year – the rules, the players, the techniques, the skill, right down to the ice they skate on…it’s all evolving. Would Wayne Gretzky be the player he was in the 80s in today’s hockey? It’s tough to say since the game and its players are different now than they were 20 years ago. Having stated that, what are the Oilers ‘rebuilding’ to match up to? I see the goal as a moving target. So, how do you assess what you need when you don’t where you, the game and your opposition is headed?

Finally, how do you know when the rebuild is done? How do you measure its progress and success? One might argue that making the playoffs means that the ‘rebuild’ is working. But in 2006, the Oilers made the playoffs and didn’t need a rebuild. Many teams have attempted the ‘rebuild’ , some successful (Pittsburgh, Chicago) but the majority have failed (Atlanta, St. Louis, Florida, Columbus, etc). So what made some of them successful over others? How do you know it wasn’t just a fluke? If we do make the playoffs in a year, then why can’t we just attribute it to work of the players and coaches rather than some complex rebuild formula?

Like I said earlier, I’m not hockey expert. There may be intricacies of a ‘rebuild’ that I fail to understand. But as it stands right now, I just don’t get it.

Oilers4Life