Even though I stopped writing for a while I've been following the Oilers and Pulju closely. I would really really love to have the team succeed as there are so many loyal fans who simply deserve better. I thought Hitch could be some kind of an answer, but I was obviously wrong. It's like his whole approach has changed with all the line blending etc.
And Pulju, I'm typing this one message for now and hope there's no "Pulju can do no wrong" nonsense this time. I'm still staying out of his thread and hope to avoid bullets here.
However anyone feels about him, the eyetest showed he had developed step by step. He'd finally started to contribute offensively (especially with the almost non-existent PP usage and low TOI). He'd scored 4 points in 9 games (7 in 16) so it's the timing of the demotion to the 4th line that bothers me. I also don't understand why Hitch hasn't put the line Khaira-Nuge-Pulju back again.
Those points may not sound like very much, but at least it was as good as any winger scored during that time. And only Chiasson (with plenty of PP time) has better points/60 this season compared to what Pulju had in his last 10 (and probably even 20) games.
Pulju won't score points while playing 6-10 minutes on the 4th line with players like Cave, Marody and Brodziak, having no PP usage. According to EJ grades he's still played pretty well, but those minutes and those linemates don't make gaining confidence easier for him.
Just AHL him or a trade him to a team that gives him a chance on the PP. Am I wrong to say that the one time the Oilers did that it actually resulted in a goal? While Puljujarvi himself needs to keep on working on his issues it must be so frustrating to be in the trade rumours and not even get a chance to salvage something on the PP, which used to be his specialty.
