Pre-Game Talk: Oilers v LA

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

From the Oilers page:

The Oilers are on the ice for practice at the Kings practice facility in El Segundo, California.

Forward lines are:
Draisaitl - McDavid - Kassian
Rieder - Nugent-Hopkins - Chiasson
Lucic - Khaira - Puljujarvi
Gambardella - Brodziak - Rattie

Defence pairings are:
Nurse - Larsson
Jones - Petrovic
Gravel - Russell
Manning

Looks like Benning and Spooner sitting this one out, not sure why, assume minor injuries.
Sounds like Talbot will be the starter going back to Kostco v Anaheim.
Chaisson expected to play, Russell not sure.
Yamamoto still nursing that hand/wrist injury.
--
Edit, bottom 6....

Click to read more...

 

[McDrai]

Can't wait to be dicked around by the refs on this California road trip

 

[North]

From the Oilers page:

The Oilers are on the ice for practice at the Kings practice facility in El Segundo, California.

Forward lines are:
Draisaitl - McDavid - Kassian
Rieder - Nugent-Hopkins - Chiasson
Lucic - Khaira - Puljujarvi
Gambardella - Brodziak - Rattie

Defence pairings are:
Nurse - Larsson
Jones - Petrovic
Gravel - Russell
Manning

Looks like Benning and Spooner sitting this one out, not sure why, assume minor injuries.
Sounds like Talbot will be the starter going back to Kostco v Anaheim.
Chaisson expected to play, Russell not sure.
Yamamoto still nursing that hand/wrist injury.
--
Edit, bottom 6....

Benning doesn’t necessarily have to be injured to be sitting out. He is our worst d man when it comes to defending.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Benning doesn’t necessarily have to be injured to be sitting out. He is our worst d man when it comes to defending.

I doubt he would be sitting out a practice unless ill or nursing an injury - maintenance day.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Can't wait to be dicked around by the refs on this California road trip

True. The Cali refs seem to be bought and paid for. Expect the usual obstruction that McDavid has to fight through that wont get called and for an Oiler to look cross eyed at a King/Duck/Shark and get 5 and a game.

 

[ZJuice]

Lucic will score. I am sure of it!

 

[Del Preston]

Lucic will score. I am sure of it!

This is gimmick infringement.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Spooner I'm assuming is a healthy scratch. 5pts in half a season and the only reason he's in a lineup is production. He doesn't do anything else and is one of the weakest 200ft players on the team. I keep saying this guys NHL career is all but over.

I like the first line, and Rieder has still been limited by injury, but I like the config and trying that. Although Kings will bang against us so we'll see how it goes.

Kings got jobbed last night against Tampa. Lightning with officials in their pocket as usual. First minute of the game Kopitar gets hooked on a breakaway and no call. Then Lightning get all the calls, 4min pp and then a two minute 5 on 3. All first period, game over at that point. All weak calls. I turned it off at that point. The NHL sure does love Tampa. Kings played with some grit till they fell behind. Look like an angry team on some nights. Some nights they don't care, but they will play Oilers hard. Should be a good game.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Btw another ouch moment for Puljujarvi being sunk back to 3rd line but the guy shows very little urgency to force anybodies hand staying in topsix. Chiasson injury, Cagg trade was huge opportunity to crack into the toplines but last few games have been disappointing. You just can't be a top prospect and have that kind of meager production half way through as season.

 

[McDrai]

Spooner I'm assuming is a healthy scratch. 5pts in half a season and the only reason he's in a lineup is production. He doesn't do anything else and is one of the weakest 200ft players on the team. I keep saying this guys NHL career is all but over.

I like the first line, and Rieder has still been limited by injury, but I like the config and trying that. Although Kings will bang against us so we'll see how it goes.

Kings got jobbed last night against Tampa. Lightning with officials in their pocket as usual. First minute of the game Kopitar gets hooked on a breakaway and no call. Then Lightning get all the calls, 4min pp and then a two minute 5 on 3. All first period, game over at that point. All weak calls. I turned it off at that point. The NHL sure does love Tampa. Kings played with some grit till they fell behind. Look like an angry team on some nights. Some nights they don't care, but they will play Oilers hard. Should be a good game.

From Eberle to Spooner. What great asset management.

 

[BlackDogg]

Lucic will score. I am sure of it!

Call him Powerball.

 

[McBeastMode]

Lucic will score. I am sure of it!

Baby steps...Lucic will get a shot on net..

 

[oobga]

dare I say, this is a must win?

 

[oobga]

Baby steps...Lucic will get a shot on net..

woah woah, slow down. How about we start with him just getting his stick on a puck within 20 ft of the net.

 

[Drivesaitl]

From Eberle to Spooner. What great asset management.

Ryan Strome even has 10pts this season. TWICE as much as spooner and rarely even on a PP.

Eberle's worst season is as good as Spooners best ever season. Its astounding really.

Chia has managed to get worse return in each move. It'll be a real test to see if he can trade Spooner for worse garbage to continue the trend..

Reality is we probably waive him, get nothing, and some other poor team trying to tank picks him up. Nobody would if the Rangers had not bought back part of the contract.

I'd wonder too if Spooner was the forward we tried to shop to Chicago and they insisted on Caggiula. Indirectly Spooners non performance may have cost us even more than we know for sure.

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

Yah spooner sucks. I actually thought he had offensive potential when we picked him up. Strome is better than him and that’s saying a lot.

 

[McDrai]

Ryan Strome even has 10pts this season. TWICE as much as spooner and rarely even on a PP.

Eberle's worst season is as good as Spooners best ever season. Its astounding really.

Chia has managed to get worse return in each move. It'll be a real test to see if he can trade Spooner for worse garbage to continue the trend..

Reality is we probably waive him, get nothing, and some other poor team trying to tank picks him up. Nobody would if the Rangers had not bought back part of the contract.

I'd wonder too if Spooner was the forward we tried to shop to Chicago and they insisted on Caggiula. Indirectly Spooners non performance may have cost us even more than we know for sure.

I doubt Spooner is tradeable. Most likely he is placed on Waivers and someone picks him up. As for Strome, he was at least useful defensively and would have worked well in Hitch's system.
I bet if you told an Oilers fan back in 2010-2012 that Eberle would be traded and the end result would be a waiver worthy forward they would have laughed at you

 

[ThreeOfAPerfectPair]

This will be the end result of the Eberle saga.

 

[North]

From Eberle to Spooner. What great asset management.

We know. Do we have to keep restating it over and over?

 

[Soundwave]

This will be the end result of the Eberle saga.

 

[McShogun99]

Ryan Strome even has 10pts this season. TWICE as much as spooner and rarely even on a PP.

Eberle's worst season is as good as Spooners best ever season. Its astounding really.

Chia has managed to get worse return in each move. It'll be a real test to see if he can trade Spooner for worse garbage to continue the trend..

Reality is we probably waive him, get nothing, and some other poor team trying to tank picks him up. Nobody would if the Rangers had not bought back part of the contract.

I'd wonder too if Spooner was the forward we tried to shop to Chicago and they insisted on Caggiula. Indirectly Spooners non performance may have cost us even more than we know for sure.

The only way we can downgrade the Spooner trade is if we find a way to trade Spooner for Lucic.

 

[Stoneman89]

I doubt he would be sitting out a practice unless ill or nursing an injury - maintenance day.

He's become one of the elite guys that gets to have time off now.

 

[Fixed to Ruin]

This will be the end result of the Eberle saga.

Only the Oilers can take a former 80pts forward and turn it into negative cap space.

 

[bone]

From the Oilers page:

The Oilers are on the ice for practice at the Kings practice facility in El Segundo, California.

Forward lines are:
Draisaitl - McDavid - Kassian
Rieder - Nugent-Hopkins - Chiasson
Lucic - Khaira - Puljujarvi
Gambardella - Brodziak - Rattie

Defence pairings are:
Nurse - Larsson
Jones - Petrovic
Gravel - Russell
Manning

Looks like Benning and Spooner sitting this one out, not sure why, assume minor injuries.
Sounds like Talbot will be the starter going back to Kostco v Anaheim.
Chaisson expected to play, Russell not sure.
Yamamoto still nursing that hand/wrist injury.
--
Edit, bottom 6....

What? 11 goals combined half way through a season between the six of them is good isn't it?

 

[boredem]

This will be the end result of the Eberle saga.