Player Discussion Jesse Puljujarvi Part 9: 98 NO MORE! JERSEY NUMBER NERDS REJOICE!

This is amazing as always Wen

 

Fun fact, Kiss played Helsinki in ‘97.

 

I bet if you ask him, he’d say you’re the best back scroller he’s ever seen,

 

Jesse looked good to my eyes, but I readily admit I am biased. I saw two plays that can be described as bad (that one pass that got intercepted near the opposing blue line and the late penalty). He played a fast and tenacious game and had that one grade A scoring chance.

I looked through the GDT and all mentions of JP on twitter and seems like most people liked what they saw, but some people thought they saw no difference to last time and remained negative.

I think the difference was clear as day, but what did you think?

 

I wouldn't even describe the late penalty as a bad play.

Motte grabbed his stick and Puljujarvi got called for a hooking penalty.

He had more good plays than bad plays.

 

Quite what you would expect from Jesse.
He was more ready than most of player as he had played in Finland earlier.
Now Lets have about 20 games to actually see what Jesse is all about these days.

I do hope we will not see those costly mistakes in 3rd line.

 

I don't think I saw any Oilers-player outside of Leon Draisaitl distinguish themselves in a very positive way in that game. Jesse wasn't particularly good either, tho he didn't look bad by any means. Had he finish his opportunity one on one with Holtby or if Turris finished that nice pass it might have looked different.

If you take out the positives you could see he's a force on his skates. He really gets opposition in trouble when he forechecks, two different occasions with Hughes come to mind where he forced a giveaway. He's noticeably stronger in the corners too.

Oilers need to get their game together before you can really say anything more about his play.

 

The guy was doing enough to get some late looks with the top line. Granted that probably wouldn't have happened if the wingers on the top line actually looked like they were doing something.

The other thing that helped him was that the 2nd line was clicking, so Tippett didn't want to mess that line up so he looked at the lower lines for some extra chances.

Sadly what happened last night could've happened last year. Very similar to last year there are question marks throughout this lineup and if you do your job there is potential to move up the lineup.

 

He should really utilize that skating, reach combo on the forecheck as much as possible. There's likely no D in the entire league that can outskate him between the goal and blue line if he's coming in full throttle so you pretty much force a pass out of the zone. If the rest of his linemates are tight in coverage he'll cause loads of turnovers for the opposing team. And that long stick is hard to read as well, he will catch a lot of D off guard if he learns how to use that stick consistently the way he stole it from Hughes. Especially since his stride is so long, he doesn't really look like he's going all that fast, very stealth as a forechecker. If his offense never takes off that alone could end up making him an effective NHLer and something that will really help his team with possesion.

 

Todd McLellan would have him in the dog house already after that late penalty. Hope pulju isn't having flashbacks. And hope Tippett can keep trying to pump the kid up. Was a decent 1st game back until the end there

 

I only caught the 3rd, but he looked strong on his skates and made a nice pass that Turris should've buried. The game was all but over when he took that penalty, not a good one (seemed like the Nucks player grabbed the blade of his stick) but shit happens.

 

I just don't see it with him...all the physical tools and yes it's only 1 game, but his hockey IQ is incredibly bad
hope I'm wrong

 

The cross-ice pass at their blue line that ended up a goal against was worse.

That's one of those times he needs to realize he's a big, fast bottom six player right now. Get it deep.

 

Yes, it was Macs fault he was shit.
It never ends.
He was ok last night. Thing I dont see with him is he does NOTHING quickly. Nothing. Whether it be thinking, skating, passing, stickhandling, reacting...etc
Thats not to say he cant be an NHL player. I just cant see him being an effective 2nd liner.

 

It was clear he was nervous during first period. Second was much better, in third he tried to force things.
Keep him in third line forechecking and learning small rink plays. Also needs to gel with linemates. Skating and board work looked a lot better, but that part I knew already from his games in Finland.

 

For some people, Jesse would need to arrive at the arena riding a war horse, carrying the severed heads of Boeser, Hughes, and Myers as trophies, then proceed to score 22 goals in a 22-0 win before they’d admit he looked somewhat different.

 

Yeah, he needs to keep thing simple right now. I'm a huge JP fan, and I think he was our best bottom 6 player yesterday, but that doesn't mean much with how the rest of them played. He'll settle in hopefully and iron those plays out, but I still saw lots of good first steps last night he can hopefully build on.

I also think the penalty was pretty iffy, especially at that point in the game, but it is what it is. For his first game back in NA on a line with two guys he's never even met before, it wasn't a bad game.

 

He look faster than ever. That's all I got

 

I only watched the first two periods, but I thought he had a strong game from the d zone out, but he still looks a bit lost in his own zone.

 

He still looks clumsy and gets bumped off the puck way too easily. He needs to use his size and win more board battles. He did show good effort so there is some hope.

 

I don't think there will ever be a player who can keep up with McDavid on the rushes, even if he has the puck, and others just try to keep up

But Pulju has the most straigh-line-speed after McDavid on that team, so he might be the guy to be the first one on the rebounds after McDavid goes coast-to-coast 20 times in a game.

And he is already near elite as the 1st forechecker, he robbed Hughes clean by just skating past him. And the next time he was coming after Hughes in a similar fashion, Hughes shat his pants and fumbled.

Might work even on defence, if Pulju skates around as the 1st forechecker, and McDavid uses a bit more brains trying to pick the passes.

 

98 is more similar than 99, the numbers 8 and 9 are closer to each other in every single font than 7 and 9

Especially on digital boards etc, 8 and 9 have only one stroke difference



For example, I think they may have him have 91

 

He had been wearing #98 earlier as a child, before knowing about coming to Edmonton. He didn't pick it because of Gretzky, McDavid or Edmonton

 

I see it now. Ok, 95 and 93 are also clearly off limits. As well as 89, 59 and 39. Omg, Doug Weight! Just realized what a disrespectful scumbag he is too He wore 39 and 93!!!

 

I think JP actually showed pretty well with McDavid in his second season, but it was such a small sample size that its hard to take much from it. The thing is that, pretty much no one has shown much chemistry with McDavid outside of maybe Draisaitl and Maroon. But I do think the team is better with Draisaitl on his own line. McDavid is an awesome offensive player, no doubt about it, the guy can make nothing out of something, and he drives offense by himself like no other. Draisaitl found his guy but Draisaitl also makes everyone around him much better, he has more layers to his game. Speeds its up, slows it down, holds on/cycles the puck, dangerous passer and shooter. But for many reasons, McDavid is a very hard player to have chemistry with, he doesnt make those around him better to the same degree that Draisaitl does (just very different players). I imagine that JP will get some time with McDavid at some point this season, maybe not so much because of JP, but more because no other RW on the team has shown to have much chemistry with him.