It was a blur watching two games played at the same time, but the talent and weakness of the current Oilers is obvious. Some quick impressions:
- Ryan Nugent-Hopkins: I've said this since summer but he should make this team. The Oilers can talk all they want about sending him back, the last #1 overall forward who didn't play the next season in the NHL was back in the days of the Iron Curtain.Delightful talent in that he can do so many things at such a young age.
- Ryan Smyth: Appears to have turned back the clock. He's quicker at 35 than some of these guys are at 25, and with his experience and skill this guy is primed for a excellent season.
- Jordan Eberle: He might be perfect.
- Taylor Hall: He didn't play with the best linemates and was still all over the ice creating.I think I'll call him "Chance" because he gets so many. He can do it alone, and there aren't many you can say that about in the NHL.
- Magnus Paajarvi: Got off to a fast start last year too, I find myself wishing he'd save some of this for the regular season. I think he's going to be an excellent NHL player.
- Teemu Hartikainen: Riddle me this, Batman: how you gonna keep him on the farm?
- Anton Lander: May force a trade. He's pretty damn close to ready if not ready.
- Nikolai Khabibulin: MVP.
- Devan Dubnyk: He looks confident and ready. Good thing too, because I think his backup is going to be Yann Danis by December.
- David Musil: Survived his first NHL pre-season game. It means a lot, because next season he'll have that experience under his belt. I'm telling you, he's on a fast train. If he could improve his footspeed I think Musil has a chance to make next year's team.
- Theo Peckham: What a fun player. Exploded opponents every which way, he should be in the next X-Men movie.
- Tom Gilbert: Thank God and Greyhound for Tommy Gilbert. He might be the best despised defensemen in Oil Country since Paul Coffey.
Exploded opponents every which way, he should be in the next X-Men movie.
ReplyDeleteYou could call him 'Avalanche'. Good to see Mr. Peckman bringin' it already. And I am glad to hear that Lander is forcing the issue already, as it was suspected he might. Send him down, give him a dozen games or more while waiting for some lesser body to hit the waivers or trade line.
And if Musil listens to Serdachny like Lander did, look out.
Khabby = MVP?
ReplyDeleteMost Vile Player!
Neither here nor there, but Sean Couturier got a goal and assist last night in preseason play. Goal came off an unassisted wrister.
ReplyDeleteBrayden Schenn notched an assist. Still can't believe Philly nabbed SC at 8th overall. It's early yet, but Philly could conceivably have replaced Carter with Couturier, and Richards with Schenn (although not this season) and added quality depth in Voracek and Simmonds, while freeing up cap space. Too bad they tossed a lot of those savings into Bryzgalov for 9 years.
Khabby = Make him Vanish Please!!
ReplyDeleteLooking at those highlights, Couturier does seem kinda awkward on his skates, but he managed a partial breakaway, and a two on one rush. Big body didn't seem out of place at all.
ReplyDeleteStranglehold has his work cut out for him if he's going to lead the 2011 class. I'd take Datsyuk over Carter 10/10 though =).
Now to see if the Oilers have those game streams cached.
Look you guys: Mr. Tambellini says NK is the MVP and it would be much better if you just fell in line on this one.
ReplyDeleteSP of .700 is excellent!!! That Wild team is like the 76 Habs.
Khabi = MVP
ReplyDeleteMust Vanish Pronto
LT, any idea when the new site is coming on line?
ReplyDeleteCould've built 3 sites since we last heard from Danny.
Come on people! THink! Considering recent history, there is only one thing MVP can stand for:
ReplyDeleteMore Vodka Please!
Must Vind Puck
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't think it matters how poorly Khabibulin plays this year, he won't be replaced. He may lose his starting job to Dubnyk, but he's an Oiler for the next 2 years.
ReplyDeleteAnd wasn't MVP's Sv % actually an even more stellar .560?
ReplyDeleteI was debating the letter M over a breakfast of leftover apple crisp, with some Balkan-style pulled out from the darkest recess of the beer and cheese cooler.
ReplyDeleteFirst I inspected the lid on this shady container like it was some kind of passport document for a passificist war refugee. On the inside of a circular ridge it read "BB/MA 2011 September 9" only the digit 9 was invisible until Gandalf passed it to a younger hobbit.
May 2011? Ewww, even for me. No wait, MA is french for September. No, that's Septembre. (Good catch before first coffee.) No wait, MA is french for "best before". It means avant, something avant.
Mieux/meilluer/mauvais? Which one, which one? Mario Lemieux or Mario Lemauve? Think, dammit, think!
Had to settle for my BBC (best before coffee) interpretation (by this point I had forgotten it was also in English). "Best after September 9". Here goes, hope it doesn't kill me.
Now that I'm supercharged with superbugs, I'm still failing to puzzle out "Khabibulin MVP".
It means that the fresh tub we bought yesterday is more appealing, doesn't it? Is there any other possible view? No wait, it's Latin for Mensis!
Hormensis: the phenomenon in which low doses of toxins produce stimulating effects.
From Joe Random harmless blog:
Studies have even shown that one of the most infamous environmental toxins, dioxin, is beneficial at very low doses. ... According to the EPA, there is no “safe” level of dioxin. And yet in rats, low doses of dioxin have been shown to greatly reduce the incidence of tumors. ... So the story does not appear to be as cut and dried as the EPA would have it.
There, he proves his case by injecting dioxin right into the carotid of common sense, and nothing bad happens after all.
Yeah, and if you unload a shotgun into the control panel at a nuclear power station, you might or might not generate a heaping dose of extra electricity for a day or two.
There was a time when people took Radium as a stimulant--it worked great until your bones melted. This was worse than it sounds, because much of the damage was caused by radiation from decay products, not the radium itself. Long after you recovered common sense, the burn intensified.
Meilluer or mauvais? Judging by my mood ring, we have an answer.
Bunz just tweeted that he's on his way back to MedHat so the junior cuts must have happened last night or this am.
ReplyDeleteKhabby, Jones, and Brule are huge drags on this team in terms of taking roster spots from superior players.
Who signed that guys to such terrible contracts?
Why hasn't v3.1 cleared those contracts out? Isn't that his specialty?
As a clue in the NY Times crossword puzzle, MVP renders as "Maybe vanquish palsy?"
ReplyDeleteI don't do crosswords much, my subconscious continues to solve the ones I didn't get (usually most of them) for days afterwards.
Many Victories Prevented
ReplyDeleteI was at the game last night, in Edmonton. First off, a disclaimer... much of the defensive play by the Oilers was in the other end of the rink where I couldn't see well.. so I saw mostly offense, and not a whole lot unfortunately. My impressions though...
ReplyDeleteThe all-Swede line was fantastic. Omark is a hell of a player. Very hard to get off the puck. Of the three, he's easily the most physical and strongest despite being the smallest. I think he's the straw that stirs the drink on that line. But no question, all 3 have chemistry. They were great. Omark took 2 bad penalties, but the Oil were in the box for a LOT of that game.
Barker... wow.. I was very pleasantly surprised. He likes to jump in on a rush or lead a play. He also has an ability to slow the game down a lot. He takes charge out there and has a lot of poise, like Whitney does. I think I'd love to see him and Gilbert stay together because I think they pair up pretty well.
Hall.. unbelievably good offensively last night. Did he get any points? No, but this was his first game back in a long while, and I completely agree about his nickname being "Chance". He generated quite a few last night. If this is rusty Taylor Hall, I can't wait to see his polished game.
Tyrvainen... this guy is underrated. He's a hard little worker. I can't believe the guy is only 5'10". I have to really question that because he plays like he's 6'3"... moreso than Omark. Oklahoma is in for a real treat because the numbers game says that he'll be there along with Hartikainen to start the season. He's physical, and he has a good nose for the net.
Those were my impressions that stood out.
Close the thread LT, Undisclosed Personal Reasons for the win.
ReplyDeleteMuch vaunt preceded.
ReplyDeleteMyopic valuation pleases.
More vapid pretense.
Damn, the bugs have got me, should have read that label one more time. With a third line added from Casey at Bat it would almost make a nice Haiku.
Much vaunt preceded,
Myopic valuation pleases;
Mudville's valiant poser,
Most vapid pretense.
One of those might stick.
Alternate ending: Milks vapid prattle.
ReplyDeleteYeah, close the thread. Most victories prevented is in the stars.
While we're talking 2011 draftees, surprise 7th OV pick Scheifele had 2 goals and 2 assists last night for the Jets.
ReplyDeleteUndisclosed personal reason with the comment of the year!
ReplyDeleteI was in the scrum with Tom Renney after last night's game in Saskatoon.
ReplyDeleteI asked him more of a clarification question: 'Is Khabibulin your starting goaltender?'
He gave a rhetoric 'coach's answer' but basically the answer was 'no', they haven't dubbed NK the starter. And by the way a confident looking Dubnyk played last night (would've been a 1/2 game shutout if it weren't for breakdown leading to Olesz goal), I would HOPE the Oilers brass sees what the right option is if they truly want to compete.
On Khabibulin: Without some kind of psychic, we will likely never know the internal machinations of Oilers management concerning the signing and keeping of Khabby. However, in the field of speculation, I still believe that signing the "MVP" was a Katz decision/directive as much as anything. The rhetoric with this goaltender has gone above and beyond the normal process of keeping a guy's spirits up. This may be because really ripping into the guy might be seen as insulting Katz at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI know Katz gets a lot of credit for the rebuild notion, but he was whale hunting before that. Bringing in a well-known, cup-winning goalie is just the kind of thing a rich, neophyte owner might do after other high-profile UFAs have rejected him.
Twilight GM (the complete edition)
ReplyDelete===========
Much vaunt preceded,
Myopic valuation pleases;
Mudville's valiant poser,
Milks veinous prat.
Prat or prattle? Pratt for symmetry? (Adjust your browser to render typewriter art.)
Heinous + venous + vain = veinous.
As a child I always regarded spelling as a degree of freedom. My teachers directed me toward mathematics. I'm a statistician now.
Never knew prat was a backside until I looked it up.
Venous prat is a little extreme, even for the bald eagles of ours truly.
Many people - myself included - said that the 28 contract was this season's version of the hamstringing 67 pact signed last summer and that looks like a good bet right now.
ReplyDeleteTambo Almost got rid of Brule to the Kings but now he has to get rid of both of them.
And the Rehabby thing is just suck a fucking mess.
Just how many cups of that coffee did you have this morning, Deadman?
ReplyDeleteI'd say the nicest thing about last nights games was seeing how comfortable Nugent-Hopkins looked playing alongside and against actual NHL players. From the looks of things, he's not going anywhere.
ReplyDeleteJust how many cups of that coffee did you have this morning, Deadman?
ReplyDeleteMy guess: All of them
You can OD on caffeine like Deadman, or let your google do the walking...http://www.acronymfinder.com/MVP.html
ReplyDeleteI kind of like "Marginal Value Product" and "mean vertical plane," but really "Most Victories Prevented" pretty much makes them all irrelevant.
Last year:
ReplyDeleteMethuselah Vanquishes Propriety
But we've retired that one, haven't we?
Must Visit Pine
ReplyDeleteTambo Almost got rid of Brule to the Kings but now he has to get rid of both of them.
ReplyDeleteThere he managed to dump another plug that he added to the team in Fraser.
If it wasn't for the Belanger signing his pro additions to the team would be all terrible.
NOTE: Smyth barged his way onto the team, I do not credit that trade to v3.1. I do credit v3.1 for dumping flotsam on the Kings in return, the problem is that far too often he is the one who brought the flotsam into the organization.
DMW,
ReplyDeleteReally like the Methuselah reference.
How about:
Methuselah's Vanished Professionalism
Still doesn't touch UPR's.
Tencer Sez...
ReplyDeletedantencerOilers announce that Jeremie Blain (D), Brandon Davidson (D), David Musil (D) and Tyler Bunz (G) have been re-assigned to their CHL teams.
UPR FTW
ReplyDelete@Ribs
ReplyDeleteMust Visit Pine is up there for me. A beauty.
So with Davidson back to junior, only Martindale and the Russian defenseman are without contracts and we're 1 under the limit. As the games get tougher through the course of the preseason, Martindale will probably be less effective, but I still don't think a 5th year in Ottawa is going to do him any good. He should be making the jump to the AHL IMO.
ReplyDeleteIf they don't plan on signing the Russian, then it's a simple solution. However, it sounds like he's been playing pretty well and they don't have the option of sending him to junior like they do with Martindale.
Also, does Musil have a contract, or could they still sign him and not have it count against the 50 now that he's been assigned to jr?
ReplyDeleteI caught the post-game comments from Krueger last night and he basically gave Khabi a free pass.
ReplyDeleteSomething along the lines of ... our defense let us down last night and we didn't play well in front of him. He did not have one negative comment about Khabi, not even a "he's rusty" this is his first start or anything.
If we think they will start DD and ride him til he falters, we are not hearing that yet.
I hope they punt him sooner than later for the sake of the entire team, but it just isn't happening yet.
I still don't think a 5th year in Ottawa is going to do him any good. He should be making the jump to the AHL IMO.
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
I don't think Musil is signed yet.
Think there is room for the russian in OKC?
Fedun,Potter,Marincin, Plante, Teubert and Motin will play.
One of Chorney or Petry will play there too (with Potter and Fedun banging on the door for first call ups as well)
Unless they push Motin down to ECHL or Europe or trade Chorney I'm not sure there is room.
Bra and Panties said MTL was scouting Chorney and O'Marra.
B&P also has NSH scouts in Sask.
I would love to see Blum on the Oilers. Takes care of the 3rd RH D that's needed.
Gilbert, Plum and Petry are 3 smooth skating, good 1st pass RH Dmen.
I'd give up Gagner for him.
MVP thread: Many Variations Proffered
ReplyDeleteIf you're slanting toward the hazard of apple-bobbing for grizzled ASS (All-Star Stalwarts), in an organization which rewards outcomes, it would amend:
Mudville's varicose poser
Mocks vanquished prat.
How hard it is to undo a rash decision.
In other news, this morning Mr Abumrad is in the news having received the MacArthur genius award. I've cited Radiolab several times, recently the one on falling and split second timing in the nervous system (from an episode which I pointed out is not his best).
Khabby = MVP
ReplyDeleteMust Vacate Position :-p
Management Varnishes Pathology if we're pointing the arrow at spin.
ReplyDeleteMawkish Veneration Perplexes
ReplyDeleteThat's sarcasm folks.
The best American born player of all-time, IMHO, hung them up today.
ReplyDeleteLT, that knife you just stuck in my heart and twisted really hurts! Paul Coffey is my favourite hockey player of all time :)
ReplyDeleteWith regards to your assessment of the team's strength and weakness, if I may quote Han Solo, "I think we're in trouble."
D: I don't think LT meant everybody despised Coffey, any more than everybody despises Gilbert. I, for one, was/am a fan of both players. :) But both had/have their detractors, as have many other blueliners that have graced this town over the years.
ReplyDeleteSo when LT says Gilbert is the best despised defender since Coffey, what he really means is that Gilbert is a better hockey player than Tom Poti. Which is a nice compliment.
WG is right when he says 94 forced his way onto the club. He carries a big pricetag this year but it's the last year so his wanting to return home was a big gift for the Oilers.
ReplyDeleteHolmstrom was always compared to Smyth so I hope 94 becomes a guy like him who sticks around in our top 9 at an affordable price.
My view is that Coffey addled and Gretzky exploited. He might have over-committed, but he took more than a few defenders with him. With both sides out of position, Gretzky could weave his magic. I don't think structure was in Gretzky's favour.
ReplyDeleteCoffey also took the coach out of the game, and Bowman didn't like that aspect one bit.
"You can't win playing like that."
Au contraire, Scotty, if you unleash the complementary forces.
Eager out with concussion from the hit by the russian in the Joey Moss cup.
ReplyDeleteThe comedy never stops.
Maybe that keeps Harski up to start the year?
RNH had a really nice game.
ReplyDeleteI hope they keep playing him with Eberle, since Ebs could have scored at least 3 goals had he known those beauty feeds were coming to him.
Dubnyk was also very good. I hope we'll only be fretting about MVP's cap number a month from now.
I hear ya Bruce :)
ReplyDeleteD