Player Discussion Jesse Puljujarvi '18-19 Season Part II

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North

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Jun 25, 2009
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Show how, is there some kind of system or language where you sign with your hands? This is not some fantasy novel, we use words in the real world.

Learn to speak Jesse.

Signed Todd

Nonsense.

On ice examples, video, etc can be used.

Jesse is learning English. It may not be perfect but he is working on it.

Todd has abdicated his responsibility to coach Jesse while also being completely inept coaching the rest of the team.
 

ResilientBeast

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Jul 1, 2012
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Puljujarvi has skill. I think one of the issues is that the entire team is lacking in skill. Trading him now is a panic move.

I'd much rather see the coaches step up to the plate and make some changes to the lines:

RNH - McDavid - Rattie
Rieder - Draisaitl - Puljujarvi
Lucic - Strome - Caggiula (could care less if Lucic pouts - he's on the top PP ffs)
Khaira - Brodziak - Chiasson
Kassian Yamamoto (possibly to Bakersfield for seasoning)

The Oilers are still two top 4 D and two top 6 forwards away from being a playoff team. I have no doubt that Chiarelli and McLellan will take the fall unless the GM, in particular, can pull off some miracle deals to add to the roster. On paper, the Oilers aren't good. So far this season, they've been at that level on the ice.

Honestly how hard is it for McLellan to figure this out. Puljujarvi has played his best hockey when playing with talent, he isn't a driver like Hall who can control a line.
 

Delicious Pancakes

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Obviously Todd can't speak Finnish. How do you expect him to communicate that to him?

Come on, that's just ignorant. If you paid any attention to interviews with reporters this fall it's clear Jesse understands English well enough to answer even complicated questions.

The issue is how Pulju is utilized and how he gets no rope with McLellan despite having had a really good pre-season. As others have stated McLellan is not doing Pulju any favours. A decent coach would put Pulju in positions to use his strengths while he works on his weaknesses, not staple him to the bench because his game has some weaknesses. Also, the issues Jesse does have aren't costing the team goals like some other players who are given plenty of opportunities.

Fact is, and it's obvious at this point, Pulju is and has been in McLellan's dog house and I don't see how he finds his way out when McLellan gives him minimal and sporadic ice time. It's tough to get your confidence back when the coach won't put you out for long stretches of a period despite having good opportunities (ie: yesterday's 4 vs 4 where Caggiula and Strome got a full shift to start the 4 vs 4 after a shortened Oilers PP) to put your skills to good use. There doesn't seem to be a reason or a rhyme to why he get benched either, he can be playing poorly or playing well and he still gets benched for long stretches regardless. Meanwhile other players make mistakes and get thrown back out with regularity, there's definitely a double standard.

He plays well defensively too so it's not like when he's out there the team bleeds chances against because of him. Yesterday he struggled with the puck at times for sure, but you could tell that he didn't have the confidence he was playing with two weeks ago where he was strong on the puck, skating fast and making plays. Like what the hell are the conversations going on behind the scenes to kill somebody's confidence like that? Better question yet, why doesn't the coach recognize his approach with this player isn't working and try something else? Pulju wasn't a player that struggled like this before coming to the Oilers, it's not just on him, put in some f***ing effort to try and salvage this guy's game.
 

PulYou

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Feb 16, 2018
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While 17 and dominating the World Junior Championships some Finnish analysis suggested that his game would suffer playing third or fourth line.

"...However, his success with various line combinations tells his great Corsi numbers can't be only thanks to his linemates. Dropping Puljujärvi to a 3rd or 4th, or into a chechking role might hurt his stats..."

One just assumes that a good team of coaches would realise the same at NHL level as well? Or is using Pulju in grinding role intentional?

And here is the source:

Statistical analysis from the Finnish League: Jesse Puljujärvi and Patrik Laine
 

CornKicker

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I honestly don't see the "skill" with this player. This is a lot like Yakupov where skill is a tag that's applied but I don't really see any dynamic puck skills with this player.

McLellan is not helping him, but he's really does not look very dynamic offensively to me either.

I can see why Columbus passed on this guy he is nowhere close to a Matthews or Laine.
wow, either you have not watched him play at all or you have mad eup your own narrative and use sampling evidence to support your engrained views.
 
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HockeyHistorian

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I guess a player without skill just wins the WJC scoring as a 17-year old... He is very skilled. The thing is that he has a weird skill set. He has great vision, shot, skating, defensive awareness, you name it. It's just that he has a glaring weakness in puck-handling, which is easy to see.

In EA Sports terms he has a poor puck control and shot accuracy, but most other skills are very good except poise - that is the skill to use your skillset to its fullest potential. The Oilers have done no favours to his development. It's almost as if Todd doesn't know the player and what he can do.
 

Soundwave

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I guess a player without skill just wins the WJC scoring as a 17-year old... He is very skilled. The thing is that he has a weird skill set. He has great vision, shot, skating, defensive awareness, you name it. It's just that he has a glaring weakness in puck-handling, which is easy to see.

In EA Sports terms he has a poor puck control and shot accuracy, but most other skills are very good except poise - that is the skill to use your skillset to its fullest potential. The Oilers have done no favours to his development. It's almost as if Todd doesn't know the player and what he can do.

This is kind of a problem, it's hard to be a "skilled" player in the modern NHL if you lack both puck handling ability and an accurate shot, this is the same problem Yakupov had.
 
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Jarey Curry

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May 2, 2015
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Might have something to do Tkachuk actually has a brain and knows how to play hockey.
Well are you certain Pulju doesnt have brains and is unable to play hockey? If so, he will never become a serious top 6 nhl player ever... Are you saying hes not gonna make it anywhere even if given a proper chance or five?
 

Chet Manley

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I don't understand the thinking that the team is ruining him by not handing him enough icetime. The team is absolutely starving for an effective RW and secondary scoring, it's there for Puljujarvi's taking. Blame the team for rushing his development or not teaching him well, but arguing about minutes or linemates seems a bit silly as the need for someone to step up has never been so glaring.
 
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GameChanger

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I guess a player without skill just wins the WJC scoring as a 17-year old... He is very skilled. The thing is that he has a weird skill set. He has great vision, shot, skating, defensive awareness, you name it. It's just that he has a glaring weakness in puck-handling, which is easy to see.

In EA Sports terms he has a poor puck control and shot accuracy, but most other skills are very good except poise - that is the skill to use your skillset to its fullest potential. The Oilers have done no favours to his development. It's almost as if Todd doesn't know the player and what he can do.

The strange thing about his puck-handling is when he's confident there doesn't seem to be a problem. It may not be at the same level as some of his other strengths, but there are moments when he looks very confident with the puck.

Some of those can be found from the highlight videos, such as this penalty shot at the start of the WHC, when he was still full of confidence (at 0:20):



I'm not saying that's like the coolest hands in the world, but there was a lot of pressure so he had to trust his skills to try that.
 
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PulYou

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I think his puck handling is hurt when lacking confidence, but I am with scouts here, when they write:

"Puljujarvi’s at his best when he’s got the puck in full flight, but that doesn’t mean he’s rendered useless during the slogging matches."

"Able to use his size, reach and stickhandling skills to retain the puck in speed. A smart player at both ends of the ice, both on and off the puck."

"He’s a good playmaker with strong
puck-handling skills."

HOW GOOD IS JESSE PULJUJARVI?
 

PulYou

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I don't understand the thinking that the team is ruining him by not handing him enough icetime. The team is absolutely starving for an effective RW and secondary scoring, it's there for Puljujarvi's taking. Blame the team for rushing his development or not teaching him well, but arguing about minutes or linemates seems a bit silly as the need for someone to step up has never been so glaring.

I guess You have not followed closely the matter, but to me "he's earned" many times to be playing with top six. To Pulju there's seem to be no winning with McLellan though... So grinding it is.

You probably heard McLellan saying it in Sweden. Jesse has to bully his way out there. That's McLellan's caption. And if You have followed Jesse's game, he is not the bullying kind of player...
 
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HockeyHistorian

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His puck-handling is kind of choppy even when he is feeling it, but he can deke and do all sorts of good things with the puck even if he is not the smoothest. The absolute worst thing about his puck skills is that the puck seems to go under the toe of his blade when he is receiving passes or shooting the puck from a non-ideal body position. This to me suggests that he would do well with a stick with a lower lie, because his posture while skating is quite hunched and low.

I want to press that this, in my opinion, is not preventing him to become a succesfull NHL player. It's mainly preventing him getting minutes under Todd's reign.
 
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McShogun99

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Well are you certain Pulju doesnt have brains and is unable to play hockey? If so, he will never become a serious top 6 nhl player ever... Are you saying hes not gonna make it anywhere even if given a proper chance or five?

If Yakupov was a right shot and 4 inches bigger he would have been a star with his skill set.
 

GameChanger

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It'd be lovely if players weren't affected by mental things, but after all they're human beings and obviously Puljujarvi has some learning and growing up to do in that field. But I feel it's a shame again there were some unnecessary things making things more difficult already in the 2nd game.

As already mentioned after a strong preseason he got one(!) game until he was dropped down to the 4th line. In the first game he was quite invisible, but half of the forwards were worse according to EJ. Less surprisingly it was him who had to step down.

Then there's the linemates. Playing with players like Caggiula and Strome/Khaira (as a center) has been used as an excuse for not producing with other players. Also the line has been changed around Pulju in the last games and in this game the TOI was just around 10 minutes.

I understand a few writers see this as "Jesse can do nothing wrong" type of explaining, but I think it's a no-brainer that these things play a big part. I believe you could take just about any player of his age, put him to the 4th line with changing linemates, no PP time and the TOI of 10 minutes and watch them have a quiet game.

I'm just hoping that there'd be some consistancy around him and a bit of trust shown by the coach. Actually I'd like more, but that'd be a start. Now I said what I wanted so I'm not planning to write more about this for now. It'll be intersting to see what the lines will be tonight.
 

McDrai

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Jesse will thrive under an easygoing coach who won't punish him for every little mistake he makes. He has all of the talent in the world (we have seen what he is capable of in preseason) and should be put in a position to succeed. Yamamoto does not look NHL ready in my opinion and needs to gain some more man strength. I would send him down after 9 games and put Jesse on the 2nd line with Draisaitl.
 

TheWhiskeyThief

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I was talking to someone from Finland last night and he told me that in the Finnish press that his language issue are indeed hindering his instruction and that the team wanted him to lose 10lbs.
 

Chet Manley

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I guess You have not followed closely the matter, but to me "he's earned" many times to be playing with top six. To Pulju there's seem to be no winning with McLellan though... So grinding it is.

You probably heard McLellan saying it in Sweden. Jesse has to bully his way out there. That's McLellan's caption. And if You have followed Jesse's game, he is not the bullying kind of player...
I get where you are coming from. But it's not like the 3rd line is a defensive checking line. Strome kinda sucks so maybe he's a problem, but I expect Puljujarvi to cleanup on the weaker competition that the top 6 is leaving for the 3rd line to play. He could dominant against the other teams worst defenders and force the coaches hand if he's in fact being pig-headed.

JP becoming a star would fix a big hole on the team and I'm sure the coaches, management, and fans are dying for that to happen. I don't see a conspiracy to keep the young man down. He controls his own fate as there are no wingers on this team standing in his way.... like literally none of them are good enough to keep him down.
 
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HockeyHistorian

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Had a solid game today in my opinion. Played with more confidence which was nice to see. He had a few small blunders, but that's to be expected when you try more advanced plays. I give him a B for this game.
 
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GameChanger

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Had a solid game today in my opinion. Played with more confidence which was nice to see. He had a few small blunders, but that's to be expected when you try more advanced plays. I give him a B for this game.

That's my thoughts too. On a couple of occasions he could've made a better choice with the puck, but compared to his linemates he played more with the puck and actually looked quite good most of the time IMO. Not outstanding like at his very best, but progression-wise I think that was a pretty okay game. There was actually one moment where he used his stick very nicely with the puck. I also paid attention to his defensive play and think he was pretty solid with positioning himself, more so than many others in the team.

It's just a shame his shot doesn't get a chance on the PP, as most of the time the 1st unit played the whole PPs and then at the last one he was put with the 3rd line and they failed to get the puck controlled in the offensive zone.
 

Metamind

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Tyrolean

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That's my thoughts too. On a couple of occasions he could've made a better choice with the puck, but compared to his linemates he played more with the puck and actually looked quite good most of the time IMO. Not outstanding like at his very best, but progression-wise I think that was a pretty okay game. There was actually one moment where he used his stick very nicely with the puck. I also paid attention to his defensive play and think he was pretty solid with positioning himself, more so than many others in the team.

It's just a shame his shot doesn't get a chance on the PP, as most of the time the 1st unit played the whole PPs and then at the last one he was put with the 3rd line and they failed to get the puck controlled in the offensive zone.

He should be there in place of Lucic. That's why Mact will be fired soon.
 
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GameChanger

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I went to see if there's player grades available at Edmonton Journal and found this about a week ago written article:

Cam Talbot moving up to where he needs to be in Edmonton Oilers power rankings

How everyone sees players is a matter of taste, but in that ranking Puljujarvi (outside the center/winger Nuge and Maroon who was traded) was the highest of the wingers. I just wanted to bring this up as it was so strange Todd didn't give Puljujarvi more responsibility even after the season was done. I'm sure that would be paying off now.
 
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