Post-Game Talk: Zzzzz in Seattle

[Oilhawks]

Why is the poster still here? Poster has admitted to not being Oilers fan and just here to stir.

Good question. Part of the unofficial "I hate the Oilers so much that I'm in love with them" crew that has a few other members that can't help but obsess over the team and fanbase like a jealous ex. It's pretty pathetic, tbh.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

There is one spot that is going to have to go to a $750k forward.

The options are:
Benson
Malone
McKegg
Griffith
Virtanen

It’s not like there is a tonne of stiff competition. Just pick the best of the bunch and hope they don’t hurt you too much really.

Early line for me:

Malone
Benson
Virtanen
McKegg
Griffin

 

[Drivesaitl]

Good question. Part of the unofficial "I hate the Oilers so much that I'm in love with them" crew that has a few other members that can't help but obsess over the team and fanbase like a jealous ex. It's pretty pathetic, tbh.

Not much to do in Winnipeg is my first and second guess.

As if I need to mention it once again McDinger is a Jets fans and a Blue Bombers fan posting here just to get a rise out of people. Last time I checked that rhymed with roll.

 

[TheNumber4]

Good question. Part of the unofficial "I hate the Oilers so much that I'm in love with them" crew that has a few other members that can't help but obsess over the team and fanbase like a jealous ex. It's pretty pathetic, tbh.

I’d be banned the moment i stepped into HF leafs or HF flames to troll their fans. So I don’t. But apparently these rules don’t apply when trolling Oilers fans.

 

[harpoon]

Any idea if this is archived? I only caught the last 5 minutes of the game.

In the highly unlikely instance that you are able to find an archive, don’t waste your time. That was brutal. It would be going too far to say that anyone played well. First look at Janmark in Oiler uniform was not impressive at all. Couple of guys had some good shifts (Benson, Kesselring, 47 - not sure who that was cause the stream was so bad). Guys that you were hoping might show up (Virtanen, Broberg) were mostly invisible. I guess Fanti played OK for a kid.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I’d be banned the moment i stepped into HF leafs or HF flames to troll their fans. So I don’t. But apparently these rules don’t apply when trolling Oilers fans.

Should be pointed out though that the Oilers board mods do a lot of long punting here. Most Oilers fans have enough sense to stay out of dodge. This doesn't apply to the out of towners that post to stir here. So that the volume of out of town baiters is greater here. Jealousy I guess.

 

[harpoon]

The one thing I'll give Benson is he's started to add a lot of jam to his game. That doesn't grow on trees these days

I don’t disagree. And good for him. But he’s no tough guy, and this is the NHL. He’s going to chirp and face wash the wrong guy one day and that’s not going to be pretty at all.

 

[iCanada]

I don’t disagree. And good for him. But he’s no tough guy, and this is the NHL. He’s going to chirp and face wash the wrong guy one day and that’s not going to be pretty at all.

Maybe. Maybe not. We've got some tough cookies on our team that play big roles, Benson doesn't necessarily need to be squaring off with Tom Wilson.

But I would tend to agree that perhaps a Malone is more suited to the role.

 

[Paralyzer008]

Can safely send down Reid Schaefer - have barely noticed him in both games, not close yet and junior season is starting.

Pleasantly surprised by Luke Esposito's game tonight, it was good!

I will be in the minority by saying this but here goes...Broberg AND Niemelainen didn't really blow my mind today or anything. I still think that's an open race and honestly, Samorukov should be considered in the mix there.

 

[KCC]

Solid effort tonight. But icing an AHL lineup top to bottom means you knew offense was going to be hard to come by.

 

[belair]

Can safely send down Reid Schaefer - have barely noticed him in both games, not close yet and junior season is starting.

Pleasantly surprised by Luke Esposito's game tonight, it was good!

I will be in the minority by saying this but here goes...Broberg AND Niemelainen didn't really blow my mind today or anything. I still think that's an open race and honestly, Samorukov should be considered in the mix there.

I agree with Schaefer. But I will say that I like the poise with the puck. 2nd period PP he handled the puck confidently and made a couple nice passes through traffic under pressure.

Give him a couple seasons, see how he fills out and it'll be interesting to see what kind of player we've got.

 

[sandhu111]

I just don't buy it because most of the Jam Benson is bringing is between whistles jawing. He does it lots, and it really means nothing to me. maybe belt some guys. Maybe respond when a dirty play happened. he really did none of that, neither did Virtanen. Both could be showing more.

You'd think near Million buck pay would be a motivator. You wouldn't know it. Lot of guys would dream for a shot.

I don't see Benson as a physical player but he has added that to his game. Goes out of his way to finish a check. When Hamblin got knocked in the head he was the first one in.

 

[Aerchon]

Benson is a deeply flawed player.

Not only has he had to make up for foot speed (with seemingly some success), he is not big, but also his scoring ability is horrendous. He is barely able to score at the ahl level. If forced to pick between Benson and Virtanen, Benson looks better IMO but Virtanen is almost certainly going to out score Benson significantly at the nhl level.

 

[CrazyJoeDavola]

I have no doubt that Broberg will be an NHL dman one day. But I really don’t know what he projects to be. I just wish he would use his skills and skating more. Looks like he’s trying to play too safe to me.

I feel like he's been cucked by the coaching staff to turn into a conservative play it safe dman

 

[nexttothemoon]

So after 2 exhibition games... not a lot of stats to throw out there yet... but in the interest of looking at "something"... here's the Relative Corsi on ice numbers at 5vs5 for everyone on the Oilers so far:

Player​	Position​	GP​	CF% Rel​	TOI​
Tyson Barrie​	D​	1​	40.62​	10.28​
Luke Esposito​	L​	1​	27.94​	8.83​
Dylan Holloway​	C​	1​	25.53​	11.38​
Kailer Yamamoto​	R​	1​	16.88​	8.60​
Seth Griffith​	C​	1​	16.67​	6.45​
Ryan McLeod​	C​	1​	12.03​	13.73​
Alex Peters​	D​	1​	11.56​	10.18​
Brad Malone​	C​	1​	9.05​	11.63​
Evan Bouchard​	D​	1​	8.14​	18.55​
Philip Broberg​	D​	1​	7.35​	10.05​
Tyler Benson​	L​	2​	7.06​	23.13​
Jake Chiasson​	R​	1​	4.79​	7.50​
Derek Ryan​	C​	1​	3.7​	7.77​
Jesse Puljujarvi​	R​	1​	3.36​	13.63​
Brett Kulak​	D​	1​	1.34​	18.68​
James Hamblin​	L​	2​	0.32​	21.27​
Jake Virtanen​	R​	2​	-0.42​	17.57​
Xavier Bourgault​	C​	1​	-1.59​	12.02​
Jason Demers​	D​	1​	-1.85​	14.50​
Devin Shore​	C​	1​	-2.73​	7.80​
Warren Foegele​	L​	1​	-3.07​	13.65​
Michael Kesselring​	D​	1​	-4.55​	10.73​
Ryan Murray​	D​	1​	-11.54​	14.60​
Markus Niemelainen​	D​	2​	-12.62​	25.98​
Dmitri Samorukov​	D​	1​	-14.49​	14.42​
Mattias Janmark​	C​	1​	-14.72​	7.80​
Noah Philp​	C​	2​	-16.46​	18.15​
Greg McKegg​	C​	1​	-22.22​	8.97​
Reid Schaefer​	L​	2​	-36.51​	16.45​

For some reason naturalstattrick doesn't have stats on Wanner yet so his Corsi relative numbers aren't listed.

 

[sandhu111]

Benson is a deeply flawed player.

Not only has he had to make up for foot speed (with seemingly some success), he is not big, but also his scoring ability is horrendous. He is barely able to score at the ahl level. If forced to pick between Benson and Virtanen, Benson looks better IMO but Virtanen is almost certainly going to out score Benson significantly at the nhl level.

He's a top line fwd in the ahl 153pts in 174 GP... but yeah I don't see it translating to the nhl.

 

[tiger_80]

For the line up I'm going to say the Oilers played ok. Nobody really separated themselves one way or the other significantly.


Some random thoughts:

Broberg played approximately as good as Samourukov did the night before. Ditto Yamamoto to Puljujarvi.

Janmark more good than bad. I liked his game. Ditto Hamblin and Ryan.

Niemelainen best defenseman on the ice 2 games in a row. Although tonight that's not saying much.

Barrie rusty.

Virt did himself no favors. If decisions need to be made tonight for some reason he doesn't get a contract.

Goaltending was ok. Weaker than our guys last night.

I wonder if Niemelainen wins a roster spot and Brobrg goes to play big minutes in the AHL and gets a call-up.

 

[nexttothemoon]

Just wondering why the Oilers only used 5 dmen and went with 13 forwards for this game against Seattle... did anyone hear why they did that?


Hmmm.. just answered my own q I think... since they had Alex Peters on D out there as well... but that doesn't show on the NHL game page (or on naturalstattrick either).

Just saw in the Edmonton Journal they mistakenly called him Chris Peters.

Now I see the problem at naturalstattrick (and NHL.com)... they show Matvey Petrov in the game at a forward position but it was actually Alex Peters who played on D.

They don't have Wanner listed on D as being in the game either at naturalstattrick yet.

I assume the NHL is somewhat sloppy with getting names and stats correct in the pre-season.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Not much to do in Winnipeg is my first and second guess.

As if I need to mention it once again McDinger is a Jets fans and a Blue Bombers fan posting here just to get a rise out of people. Last time I checked that rhymed with roll.

He's gone from here for 9 months which was the max that I could forum ban him and has a shiny new warning as a parting gift.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Kesselring showed well in his first preseason game that I can remember. Still really liking Niemelainen's game. Philp has been low key solid. Benson IMO has eaten Virtanen's lunch. He is playing how you'd expect Virtanen to be playing. One of them clearly really, really wants an NHL job and his first name isn't Jake.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

I don’t disagree. And good for him. But he’s no tough guy, and this is the NHL. He’s going to chirp and face wash the wrong guy one day and that’s not going to be pretty at all.

He's not a tough guy, but Virtanen who should IMO be a Cal Clutterbuck type to try and rejuvenate his NHL career and be able to drop 'em if need be has played a very non physical game. Here's to hoping that some toughness shakes loose on waivers because we sure could use some on our 4th line.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Can't beat an expansion team using a mid/low end AHL team...

We had mostly ahl roster ourselves

This is why I pay little attention to X games till about a week before the real games start

 

[Fourier]

I don't see Benson as a physical player but he has added that to his game. Goes out of his way to finish a check. When Hamblin got knocked in the head he was the first one in.

Benson has always played with an edge and some bite. Even going back to his junior days.

Here is a quote from Woodcroft from May 2019. That was after his rookie year in the AHL.

Why AHL coaches, teammates have no doubt Tyler Benson will be NHLer

www.sportsnet.ca

"What he doesn’t get credit for is his competitiveness and his bite. Or for the subtleties in his game. His board work. His willingness to get dirty to find success."

 

[Perfect_Drug]

I like Jam Benson just fine these past 2 pre-season games, but the telling stat for me is still the 2 measly points in 29 games last season.

We need guys to score 10+ goals in our bottom 6 and Benson doesn't look like he has any ability to do that.

This isn't a Jujhar Khaira situation anymore. We can't litter our bottom 6 with players who bleed goals and can't score any.

I'd love to see the 'story' of hometown Benson overcoming difficult odds and reinventing himself to becoming an effective NHLer on a contending team.... but I'm not sure that's there.

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

I personally don’t think Benson is going to make the team. It would be quite a story if he did though. Anything is possible so I hope he continues his strong play. As the competition gets stronger and stronger as more and more players are cut I’m sure we will get a better picture of where Benson is at.