Oct 10, 2010

Okay, So I Missed It...



Okay, so stop criticizing me.  What I meant was, I didn't post to commemorate the first game of the year.  I didn't talk about the excitement of a new season, or the hope that the Oilers Organization has been slipping into every mention of the team since the draft; I didn't talk about how Hall, Eberle, or Paajarvi were making their NHL debuts, or how I was looking forward to watching Hemsky in a regular season game again.

I'm sorry, I figured that much was obvious.

Regardless, it was a phenomenal game, and I can't help but feel that I don't really care how the rest of the season goes.  On Thursday I watched potential.  I watched what the Oilers could be. I watched what the Oilers will be in a few years.  I watched as Rexall Place exploded with ecstasy, with roars of appreciation, with euphoric relief.  Relief that we weren't going to be both the worst team in the league and the most boring to watch.  Relief that the kids were fitting in alright with an NHL pace.  Relief that Hemsky seemed his old self out there.  Relief that we shot the puck while on the powerplay.  Relief that the Oilers weren't going to suffer another series sweep at the hands of our neighbours to the south.  Relief that we scored more than one or two goals.

Relief that there really was light at the end of this tunnel.

That's right Oilers Faithful, after all these years of drastically less than repetitive mediocrity, we have something to look forward to.  It's been awfully dark in Edmonton these last few seasons, and to see the light of day coming on the horizon is a most welcome change.

The Oilers are at home once again tonight.  The Florida Panthers are in town.  Good luck boys, and I look forward to watching you in a couple hours.

Oct 3, 2010

Last Pre-Season Game of the 2010-2011 Season

It's the last game before the regular season starts, and the Oilers overall have been better than I expected.  Magnus Paajarvi and Jordan Eberle have performed at a level that I wasn't expecting them to reach.  Hall, while a little less impressive, is also the youngest of the three and has the least playing experience, so I think he'll come along with age.   Paajarvi has some nice size to him, and so does Hall, and that will work to their advantage.  Eberle, while smaller, has insane hockey sense, and some pretty decent chemistry with Horcoff.  I'm excited to see if Paajarvi can click with Hemsky the way that some people have suggested. 

Some of the smaller name guys have been rather impressive as well.  I like Ondrus, and Vande Velde; also Jones and Giroux have their moments.  On the back end things get a little murkier.  It's obvious that Whitney, Gilbert, Smid, and Foster will likely make up the top four.  The bottom two are a little less obvious. Peckham, while a favourite heading into camp, has not been all that impressive, and some guys that are lower on the depth chart, like Petiot and Belle, have out-performed him come game-time.  Vandermeer is also in the mix, though he has his moments of lackluster play to consider, and a penchant for taking penalties at terrible times, which Peckham has been guilty of as well.

The goaltending situation is something that needs to be dealt with.  To be honest I though Khabibulin looked terrible against Calgary on Friday.  Granted, his team didn't give him a whole lot of help, but he wasn't stealing
the show either, and some of those saves that a team needs a goaltender to make?  He missed them.  He looked good against Vancouver though, and anyone who bets money that he doesn't make the team is probably a fool.  The JDD-DD debate is one that a lot of people have weighed in on, and I don't know where I stand.  Personally I think that Dubnyk is a more composed goaltender, and I think he would be my choice over Deslauriers, though he has his share of upside as well.  I won't even pretend I know the answer, and I'll try to do my best to stand behind whatever management's decision is on the netminders.

I haven't been able to dedicate as much time as I would've liked to watching the Oilers this preseason (University is tough sometimes), but I thought they would be much worse than they are.  That said, most of their success came from games against lackluster lineups (with the exception of the first game vs. Vancouver), but we haven't iced a full NHL lineup yet either, and by the looks of tonight's lineup we're not planning on icing an NHL lineup until the season opener.

The Oilers are playing a half-NHL, half-Minors squad against what is pretty darn close to the Flames' starting lineup tonight.  I'm not expecting much out of them, but then again, I wasn't expecting much out of the squad in the first Vancouver game either.

Surprise me?

The team lineups are as follows:

Edmonton:

Dustin Penner (27) - Andrew Cogliano (13) - Jordan Eberle (14)
Alexandre Giroux (12) - Sam Gagner (89) - Gilbert Brule (67)
Linus Omark (23) - Colin Fraser (16) - Ryan Jones (28)
Steve MacIntyre (33) - Ryan O'Marra (42) - Ben Ondrus (25)


Ladislav Smid (5) - Theo Peckham (49)
Jason Strudwick (43) - Tom Gilbert (77)
Richard Petiot (37) - Shawn Belle (45)

Jeff Deslauriers (38)
Devan Dubnyk (40)

Calgary:
Tanguay - Jokinen - Iginla
Hagman - Backlund - Bourque
Glencross - Meyer - Jackman
Ivanans - Sutter - Conroy

Regehr - White
Bouwmeester - Giordano
Brodie - Pardy

Kiprusoff
Karlsson

Mar 3, 2010

What a joke.

 
Goodbye Lubo.  I'm a lot angrier than I realize right now, but you were a fantastic player, and I'd take you over Souray any day.  
Please forgive me if I seem irrational, but this trade is one of those trades that we'll look at next year, and probably the year after and ask ourselves how Tambellini ever got the job, or maybe be a little less harsh and ask ourselves what they spiked Tambellini's coffee with that morning that made him think this was a good idea.  Need cap room?  Fair enough, but Lubo's contract wasn't one of the contracts that was a problem in my eyes.

Probably spiked the coffee with whatever was in Lowe's coffee the day he offered Horcoff that damned contract that has us handcuffed to mediocrity for a long time.

Here's a question I have:  Where's our backend offense now?  We certainly don't have much going up front, so what exactly are we planning on doing?  Hall?  Eberle?  MPS?

I suppose we'll wait and see.

Feb 19, 2010

Panic? Not yet.

 
            Canada won last night's game against Switzerland, but that's not the part that has Canadians worried.  Canada jumped out to a 2-0 lead early in the second period; a lead that was abolished by the end of the middle frame as the Swiss scored two even strength goals: one a perfect shot a little under 9 minutes in, and the other a lucky bounce with less than 10 seconds to go in the second period.  This tie held up through the third period and the OT period, and the game went to a shootout where Sidney Crosby scored on his second attempt as the fourth Canadian shooter.  Brodeur stopped the subsequent Swiss skater, and Canada won the game 3-2.

            Because we won the game in extra time we only get 2 points for a win.  This is due to the three point system that international hockey utilizes; a system that makes complete sense and which I'd like to see the same system put to use in the NHL.  We now sit in second position in our group with 5 points; the USA in first with 6 points.  We'll definitely qualify for the finals, but if we want the best shot at a good seed we'll need to beat the US on Sunday.  

            I feel like last night was an 'I'm in your head' game.  Canada was doing well while we were ahead, but once the Swiss tied the game it caused the Canadians to think, 'Oh god, not again.'  These men were under a lot of pressure: playing the team that knocked them out of competition four years ago in front of a home crowd that simply would not have tolerated another loss to the Swiss.  Canada did not play terrible last night, and I don't think we can complain about the result when the Russians lost to Slovakia last night in the shoot out.  Slovakia has some really nice pieces.  While I know that it wouldn't happen, if Czechoslovakia ever reunited we'd have to make room for them in the top nations of hockey, and even without that I can see both Slovakia and the Czech republic becoming contenders in due time.

            And to the Americans that felt the need to dig in our wounds last night: no one who is actually confident about their team's abilities talks that much.  We'll see you on Sunday, and may the best team win.

Jan 16, 2010

Oilers @ Sharks; How is the Organization Going to Do This?

The Oilers are in San Jose tonight, and I've long since gotten over our odds of winning this game. The Oilers, while spending to the cap, are one of the worst teams in the league this season, which puts us into a lottery pick where we stand right now. There have been some fantastic posts over at Lowetide about the organizations situation, as well as possible moves that the organization could be looking to make. Today, however, Lowetide discusses the fact that trades just don't happen as often in today's NHL, and makes the point that the upcoming 'rebuild' is likely to be facilitated more through the draft than trade.

This has some sobering truth to it. Every year we, as Oiler fans, tend to get caught up in discussions about possible trades, and the sad part is that with the amount of trades that go down each year, even at the trade deadline, the trades we theorize are incredibly unlikely. Not just because we often overvalue our players, especially those the organization wants to get rid of, but because trades just aren't common anymore.

Does that mean that we should stop thinking of trades? Absolutely not. Theorizing trades is one of the few things that keep us sane throughout a season like this one, and the last couple seasons as well.

According to NHLNumbers.Com the Oilers have about 0.952 M in cap space. You'd think that we have the worst situation in terms of cap spendage relating to performance, but actually Carolina is worse: 0.262 in cap space and they're in last place in the league.

This puts us in a situation where we need to unload contracts and bring back cheap players, prospects, and/or draft picks. There are a few roster decisions that need to be made about the Oilers. The current roster looks like this:

Shawn Horcoff: 30 yrs old, cap hit of 5.5 for 5 more years after this season.
Dustin Penner: 26 years old, cap hit of 4.250 for 2 more years after this season.
Ales Hemsky: 25 years old, cap hit of 4.100 for 2 more years after this season.
Patrick O'Sullivan: 24 years old, cap hit of 2.925 for one more year after this season.
Fernando Pisani: 32 years old, cap hit of 2.500; last year of his contract. UFA
Robert Nilsson: 24 years old, cap hit of 2.000 for one more year after this season.
Ethan Moreau: 33 years old, cap hit of 2.000 for one more year after this season.
Sam Gagner: 19 years old, cap hit of 1.625; last year of his contract. RFA
Mike Comrie: 28 years old, cap hit of 1.250; last year of his contract. UFA
Andrew Cogliano: 22 years old, cap hit of 1.133; last year of his contract. RFA
Marc Pouliot: 24 years old, cap hit of 0.825; last year of his contract. RFA
Gilbert Brule: 22 years old, cap hit of 0.800; last year of his contract. RFA
Zach Stortini: 23 years old, cap hit of 0.700 for one more year after this season.
Ryan Stone: 24 years old, cap hit of 0.600; last year of his contract. RFA
Jean-Francois Jacques: 24 years old, cap hit of 0.525; last year of his contract. RFA
Ryan Potulny: 24 years old, cap hit of 0.595; last year of his contract. RFA

Lubomir Visnovsky: 32 years old, cap hit of 5.600 for 3 more years after this season.
Sheldon Souray: 32 years old, cap hit of 5.400 for 2 more years after this season.
Tom Gilbert: 26 years old, cap hit of 4.000 for 4 more years after this season.
Denis Grebeshkov: 25 years old, cap hit of 3.150; last year of his contract. RFA
Steve Staios: 35 years old, cap hit of 2.700 for one more year after this season.
Ladislav Smid: 23 years old, cap hit of 1.300 for one more year after this season.
Jason Strucwick: 33 years old, cap hit of 0.700; last year of his contract. UFA

Nikolai Khabibulin: 36 years old, cap hit of 3.750 for 3 more years after this season.
Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers: 25 years old, cap hit of 0.625; last year in his contract. RFA
Devan Dubnyk: 23 years old, cap hit of 0.700; last year of his contract. RFA

Total Cap hit: 59.830
Average Age: 27.1 years

Here's what I'd do with our current roster:

Keep:
Dustin Penner (4.250)
Ales Hemsky (4.100)
Zach Stortini (0.700)
Lubomir Visnovsky (5.600)
Ladislav Smid (1.300)
Khabibulin IF healthy (3.750)

Offer a New Contract:

Sam Gagner
Patrick O'Sullivan
Mike Comrie
Gilbert Brule
JFJ
Ryan Potulny
Ryan Stone
One of JDD or DD

10 FW
2 D


Possible additions via prospects:

Peckham
Chorney

Penner Gagner Hemsky
Brule Comrie O'Sullivan
JFJ Putulny Stone
New New Zach Stortini

Smid Visnovsky
New New
Peckham Chorney

Khabibulin
JDD or DD

Average Age: 25.3
Average Height: ~6'0"
Average Weight: ~203 lbs
Average Height of FW: ~6'0"
Average Weight of FW: ~202 lbs
Average Height of D: ~6'0"
Average Weight of D: ~204 lbs

I'm terrible with figuring potential contracts for players, so I'll leave that alone. I'll also leave the 'New' spots open for later speculation.

This picture I've painted isn't one of drastic rebuild. What I've done is eliminated some of the big contracts. That said, this is all easier said than done. Several of the undesirable contracts will need to be traded or bought out if we're wanting to get rid of them. This also gets rid of some of the log jam in the forwards. Makes our average size a little higher as well. The top six are still a pretty small group (under 6' on average, and ~197 lbs on average, and that's including a 6'4" 245 lb Dustin Penner skewing the numbers), but the quantity of small forwards is decreased. MPS and Eberle are possibilities that should also be mentioned. Eberle is small, though MPS isn't, and with the skill available there it is somewhat likely that one or both of these young men will be on the roster next season, especially if they have strong training camps. The difference in their sizes negates any real effect on the team average, but their contracts, as they'll be entry level, would be good for the team's cap issues.


Back to the Matter At Hand:

The Oilers are in San Jose tonight, playing a team that they have little to no chance of beating.  A good effort and low turnover numbers is all I'm asking.  Oh, and please don't leave the starting Goaltender out to dry...  That too.

Go Oilers Go!

Jan 6, 2010

I'm Tired of Negativity...

Do not mistake this for me calling out the Oiler Faithful for their adamant disapproval of the Oilers' effort and performance, or lack there of; that is not what this is.

What this is, is a confession: I'm tired.

This team takes so much out of me, and it's not even their fault truly. The fact is that I invest so much energy into cheering for this team, and hoping they are going to win, break a losing streak, manage to get a winning streak, or even put in a solid effort for a change.

I have a few New Years Resolutions. One of them pertains to the Oilers:

I resolve to stop investing so much energy into being frustrated and/or angry with my team, the Oilers.

Does this mean that the organization and the team is off the hook? No, definitely not. And it certainly doesn't mean that I'm going to stop caring about the team, because that is all but impossible for me to do. What it does mean is that I am going to stop getting so angry with the team; in essence I'm inviting a little bit of apathy into our relationship. In the relationship that I share with the Oilers I don't think a little bit of apathy will hurt; in fact, I'm almost positive that it will help.

I've heard a lot of people talking about how the organization really takes their fan base for granted. While true, this goes both ways, which is something that I like to remind myself whenever I'm feeling particularly shortchanged in my Oilers-Me relationship.

I'm sure if I asked citizens from Winnipeg or Quebec City - or even Hamilton, who kind of almost received an NHL team this off-season - what they thought of our situation they would be mildly sympathetic. But they would also mention the fact that, while it sucks that our team isn't that great, it would suck far more if we didn't have a team at all.

This is not me letting the team off the hook.

This is me introducing some apathy into my relationship with the team in hopes of improving my overall mood.

Anyone else looking to add some apathy to their Oilers-fan relationship?

P.S.:

Dear Mr. Jordan Eberle,

While you weren't given a gold medal for your neck last night, you were absolutely fantastic in last nights game, as well as the rest of the World Juniors tournament. I haven't seen a kid with your kind of gift for big plays before, being a rather "young" hockey fan myself, and it was an absolute treat to watch you go to work these past couple weeks. I look forward to seeing you in Oilers Silks, and wish you luck with the rest of the season and your hockey career.