Pre-Game Talk: Oilers vs. Avs. Saturday February 16th.

[Reimer]

At the very least, his 53% in the faceoff circle would be nice.

So how the **** does a big oaf like Boyle have a 53% FO percentage but Gagner and RNH hover around 40%.

 

[McPuritania]

Way to ruin my Saturday night

I'm not needed to ruins someone's saturday night, the Oilers can do that all themselves.

 

[SeriousBusiness]

So how the **** does a big oaf like Boyle have a 53% FO percentage but Gagner and RNH hover around 40%.

Judging by the stats, it's experience. Three years ago, Boyle (25 years old at the time) was in the 38% range. His FO% increased steadily each season subsequent to that.

 

[Niet]

So how the **** does a big oaf like Boyle have a 53% FO percentage but Gagner and RNH hover around 40%.

Faceoffs require a lot of strength not just finesse. If you can overpower the other players stick you're going to win more faceoffs than you'll lose.

 

[McOilbleeder]

Good job oilbleeder, i don't care what the other refs say about you when you aren't around.

What about dnicks17?

Et tu dnicks17?

 

[nexttothemoon]

Man, I've been spoiled by this compressed schedule... still 48+ hours to go before another Oilers game and it seems like it's taking forever.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

So we're having a hard time scoring and we sit Nail? Paajarvi could be due to being banged up in the last game as he took a big hit and was grimacing on the bench. That said if we plan on keeping Smyth beyond this year and lose a guy like Paajarvi to waivers then they need to be taken out back and have some sense beaten into them.

 

[nexttothemoon]

Is there confirmation that Yakupov is out of the lineup for the game on Saturday? Seems like a long ways in advance to have the lines already written up.

 

[Red Deer Rebel]

I don't think there's any confirmation, but Stauffer was suggesting pretty strongly that Paajarvi would be coming out. He asked Debrusk what he thought about that and Debrusk was pretty surprised, though PRV was playing well, was driving the net, etc.

We'll see what happens.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

I don't think there's any confirmation, but Stauffer was suggesting pretty strongly that Paajarvi would be coming out. He asked Debrusk what he thought about that and Debrusk was pretty surprised, though PRV was playing well, was driving the net, etc.

We'll see what happens.

At some point you have to either trade Paajarvi or play him. Either he's good enough or he's not. Signing Smyth for 2 years was a piss poor decision. FFS he requested a trade here for family reasons, if we offered him 1 year at his current salary and told him to take it or leave it what's the worst that would've happened? He signs in Calgary? He would've taken the 1 year or he would've completely ruined his legacy here. If Smyth played well this year we could've signed him for another year, since he's not we could've told him league minimum with no guarantee of an NHL spot or you can retire. Now we have Paajarvi potentially bouncing in and out of the lineup and up and down from the NHL to the AHL, waived our heavyweight, and all in all while this is already frustrating we have 1 more year of this crap unless management has the balls to waive Smyth if his play continues to suck. Does our bottom 6 even have a plan? Paajarvi and Harski are waiver eligible next season, Smyth is signed as are Horcoff, Belanger, and Eager. Jones is presumably in the plans as well, maybe Petrell too. It just seems like a hodge podge.

 

[fuswald]

Yak Belanger Smyth.
Yak tears down the left wing and circles around the net ending up on th right wing where he's comfortable and by that time Smyth parks in front of the net (barely made it) and Belanger behind the net. YaKupov then passes back to Whitney who should be just entering the zone, but wait, Whitney is still plugging past centre. The puck heads for our zone and Smyth, who is pissed by all this, whacks the nearest player and gets a penalty. Good thing any way because it was Whitney who just finished turning and is after the puck.

Dubnyk saves the day on the 3 on 1.

Not to worry, Belanger will get the draw.

 

[Expatriate]

Yak Belanger Smyth.
Yak tears down the left wing and circles around the net ending up on th right wing where he's comfortable and by that time Smyth parks in front of the net (barely made it) and Belanger behind the net. YaKupov then passes back to Whitney who should be just entering the zone, but wait, Whitney is still plugging past centre. The puck heads for our zone and Smyth, who is pissed by all this, whacks the nearest player and gets a penalty. Good thing any way because it was Whitney who just finished turning and is after the puck.

Dubnyk saves the day on the 3 on 1.

Not to worry, Belanger will get the draw.

 

[CorpseFX]

i like this: Hartikainen-Gagner-Hemsky

Hartikainen needs to make some dirty hay on that line. hopefully they do.

Yakupov needs to find his game a bit (in the sense of adjusting to the NHL game)

 

[402]

Is there confirmation that Yakupov is out of the lineup for the game on Saturday? Seems like a long ways in advance to have the lines already written up.

What!?! No that is not true at all.

 

[Worraps]

i like this: Hartikainen-Gagner-Hemsky

Hartikainen needs to make some dirty hay on that line. hopefully they do.

Yakupov needs to find his game a bit (in the sense of adjusting to the NHL game)

From a strictly hockey sense, I prefer:

Hartikainen-Gagner-Yakupov

I feel that Yakupov can do more with the space that Hartikainen creates than Hemsky can.

That said, I am generally in favour of Hemsky getting as much offensive opportunity as possible; so as to make moving him at the deadline lucrative.

 

[Baby Nilsson]

What about dnicks17?

Et tu dnicks17?

terrible french dude

 

[Red Deer Rebel]

At some point you have to either trade Paajarvi or play him. Either he's good enough or he's not. Signing Smyth for 2 years was a piss poor decision. FFS he requested a trade here for family reasons, if we offered him 1 year at his current salary and told him to take it or leave it what's the worst that would've happened? He signs in Calgary? He would've taken the 1 year or he would've completely ruined his legacy here. If Smyth played well this year we could've signed him for another year, since he's not we could've told him league minimum with no guarantee of an NHL spot or you can retire. Now we have Paajarvi potentially bouncing in and out of the lineup and up and down from the NHL to the AHL, waived our heavyweight, and all in all while this is already frustrating we have 1 more year of this crap unless management has the balls to waive Smyth if his play continues to suck. Does our bottom 6 even have a plan? Paajarvi and Harski are waiver eligible next season, Smyth is signed as are Horcoff, Belanger, and Eager. Jones is presumably in the plans as well, maybe Petrell too. It just seems like a hodge podge.

Yep, having Ryan Smyth here for 3 seasons at the end of his career when he's in his late thirties is a bit ridiculous.

Should have been handled differently, and when Jones comes back the log jam is going to be even worse.

Personally, I think they need to look at trading Ben Eager. I'd much rather have that than see Paajarvi and/or Harski constantly scratched in order to make room for Smyth.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Yep, having Ryan Smyth here for 3 seasons at the end of his career when he's in his late thirties is a bit ridiculous.

Should have been handled differently, and when Jones comes back the log jam is going to be even worse.

Personally, I think they need to look at trading Ben Eager. I'd much rather have that than see Paajarvi and/or Harski constantly scratched in order to make room for Smyth.

My problem is that IMO Eager is a needed commodity here, he is our most physical bottom 6 player. It may come down to Petrell Vs. Paajarvi. I don't mind Lennart and what he brings and he's been growing on me a bit this season, but I still see him as a 13th forward in an ideal world. IMO management needs to strong arm Smyth if he doesn't turn it around. He likely strong armed them into the 2 year deal (our management is dumb at times but IIRC they preferred a 1 year deal) so he can reap the rewards of that contract by being told to retire or become a player coach in OKC or risk getting claimed by another team. If this team is ever going to be serious about winning then lesser players need to be in the PB, waived, or retire. We can't have the Whitney's and Smyth's of the world losing games for us when their on ice contributions are minimal.

 

[Worraps]

terrible french dude

"Et tu, Brute?" (pronounced [ɛt ˈtuː ˈbruːtɛ]), meaning "Even you, Brutus?" (or 'You too, Brutus?') is a Latin phrase often used poetically to represent the last words of Roman dictator Julius Caesar to his friend Marcus Brutus at the moment of his assassination. However, there is no evidence that Caesar actually spoke these words, and the fame of the quotation is purely due to Shakespeare's using them in his play Julius Caesar. The quotation is widely used in Western culture to signify the utmost betrayal.

 

[dustrock]

Part of the problem is that it's not like the kids have pushed out the vets permanently on the bottom 2 lines. Krueger's job is difficult right now because there's nobody who is a mandatory player there.

 

[McHandsomeDoc]

I see other teams do scratch highly touted rookies. Bookmark this right next to Hall saying he doesn't want to play center.

What!? Would you care to elaborate on this ridiculousness? If they were looking for a centre so badly, they should have just drafted Seguin. Oh but wait, they did draft a 1st over-all centre, the very next draft. They knew exactly what they were drafting when they chose Hall - a blitzkrieg winger. Why are we "bookmarking" it when Hall says he's not comfortable playing centre? What are you implying?

 

[sepHF]

Tougher level of competition. Teams are actually throwing shutdown lines against the Hemsky line because they're the ones producing for us most of the time, and Gagner is getting tougher face-off matchups because of it.

Hmm it seems to me like he played harder minutes last year and ended up at 47%. Maybe it's because of our injuries he's had to take more draws then normal and isn't getting protected.

We have Belanger but is he a teacher? Do the kids go out of their way to try learn like the kids of the past?

Not sure why after every practice we don't have all forwards spending 15-20 minutes working on draws.

Well Horcoff is also a faceoff vet (his shoulder injuries have hurt his numbers) but him and Belanger are two good faceoffs vets, if they can't teach the kids then maybe they're just not very good at faceoffs?

Not everyone can make an immediate impact like Adam Oates did. I wish though.

The points on that graph would look similar to water usage graph during the superbowl game. Not sure what you consider a steady increase.

As for the Belanger comment yeah sure but clearly he isn't teaching the kids anything. Or else RNH and Gagner aren't smart enough to take notes.

Well he went from 41% in his rookie year up to 47% last year, one bad year in the middle and this season is far from over. I'd like to think that he can bring it up a bit and isn't suddenly a 40%< on the dot.

 

[McDNicks17]

What about dnicks17?

Et tu dnicks17?

How dare you!

We could have been pals, but now I'm too hurt.

And shocked and offended.

And... and hurt.

 

[Lay Z Boy GM]

I wonder if we'll ever get to see Hall and Yakupov on a line. With that speed and firepower they would be a handful. Might be too crazy though.

 

[nexttothemoon]

I wonder if we'll ever get to see Hall and Yakupov on a line. With that speed and firepower they would be a handful. Might be too crazy though.

I'm sure we'll see it soon if Krueger can't kickstart some scoring with the other 57 line combos he's likely to try.