Thursday, July 26, 2018

Cam Talbot

Welp folks, it's here. The dog days of summer. The most boring time to be a hockey fan. Most of the NHL action is over with. The off-season has ground to a halt, with only some signings and stuff being announced. However two recent articles over at OilersNation have got me wanting to write something. The first, was about Evan Bounchard's defensive "deficiencies". My response to that article?

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I fucking quit.


Not even a new season and some of the people have already turned on him. This is a new low even for you assholes!"

Needless to say, I was pretty ticked off. But that's not what this post is about. No, no, no, no. Today I'm writing about an article on ON, posted 2 hours ago; titled High/Low: The Goalies.

Now I HATE when someone writes an article about a goalie, especially on ON, for three reasons.

1. They complain about how Talbot plays:

As a former goalie myself, I get infuriated when goalies make stupid mistakes. Whether it be making a ill-advised trip out of their crease to grab a loose puck behind the net, or trying to catch a center ice dump-in from center ice in their glove, resulting in the puck ending up in the back of the net. However, aside from a few hiccups, I saw no issue with Talbot's play last season.

2. They try to argue that Talbot is a career backup goalie:

Now I'm not going to post what I wrote on OilersNation about Talbot's stats. It'd be long, and quite frankly, it'd be tedious (copy and paste I know, but I'm lazy). So I'm just going to post my totals for him. Keep in mind, MY stat tracking went back to the 2009-10 season when he was playing at the U of Alabama. Over an 8 year career of playing goalie at the CHA, AHL, ECHL, and NHL levls, Cam Talbot has played a total of 403 games. In that span, he has won 194 games, lost 165 regulation games, and lost 30 Overtime games. In that entire time, he has a 2.50 GAA, and a .918 SV%. If you're still unconvinced that Talbot is a starter, let's take a look at some comparables.

Cam Talbot - 2.50 GAA, .918 sv%
Frederik Anderson - 2.54 GAA, .918 sv%
Brayden Holtby - 2.41 GAA, .919 sv%
Tuuka Rask - 2.26 GAA, .922 sv%
Sergei Bobrovksy - 2.44 GAA, .920 sv%

So if Cam Talbot "isn't a starting goaltender", then none of these other guys are.

3.  Goalies, as a whole, are hard to pin down from season to season (more on this below). 

When I was listening to the Steve Dangle Podcast, talking about that crazy day on June 29th 2016, special guest, Andrew Berkshire, said something interesting. That goalies are hard to track because their stats are massively impacted by the team in front of them. He used Tuuka Rask as an example. For reference, Rask had a 2.56 GAA and .915 sv% in the 2015-16 season. A downgrade from the 2.11 GAA and .927 sv% he had put up the previous 3 seasons.

So no, I don't think Edmonton should get rid of Cam Talbot. His career speaks for itself and last year was a down year for him. Plain and simple. He hasn't lost his touch, he hasn't suddenly forgotten how to play goalie. He had 1 bad year. Cam is a wonderful goalie, and he has put together good stretches of play for us before. I'm happy to have Cam back between the pipes and I look forward to him shutting the naysayers up. And I'll happily wear my Cam Talbot jersey, loud and proud!

Thursday, July 5, 2018

Grading Chiarelli's Off-season

Welp we've reached the worst part of the NHL off-season folks. The "deadzone" as I like to call it. The time between now the and the start of training camp is one of the most boring times for hockey fans, because the madness of the draft, development camp, and free-agency is now over. Sure, there are plenty of free-agents left, but the good times have come to an end, at least until September. So with this "deadzone" now in effect, we hockey fans, bloggers, writers, and insiders have to keep busy somehow.

So today, I'm going to be doing a grading of Peter Chiarelli's off-season so far with Edmonton. An off-season that I feel, has been very profitable for Peter. In this grading, I'm going to be looking at 6 "categories" for the various events Peter has had a hand in. They are, coaching changes, trades, the draft, the re-sign phase, and free agency. Now of course, Chiarelli could still make a signing or a trade. Which is fine. I'm only grading him up until July 5th at 9:43 am ET. I will be giving grades out of 5, because a number grading is easier than doing A+, A, A-, etc. Let's get started.

Coaching Changes:
Grade: 5/5
Reason: Peter's first order of business this off-season was improving the coaching staff behind the Oilers bench. He and most of the fans (myself included), seem to give a vote of confidence to Todd McLellan, but not the assistants that failed miserably with special teams. Jim Johnson was fired, Ian Herbers went back to UoA, and Jay Woodcroft was depromoted (I use this term, because I don't know if going from NHL assistant coach to AHL head coach is a promotion or a demotion) to the head coach of Bakersfield. In their stead, the Oilers hired ex-Flames head coach Glen Gulutzen (recieved with mixed reviews), Manny Viveiros (who coached a good Swift Current Broncos club), and Trent Yawney (who has a track record of running a good PK and developing defencemen). While it is unclear what the actual strategy for these four is (the feeling is that all 4 will work on the special teams equally), this makes up for a strong bench...at least on paper. Hopefully it will lead to NHL sucess.

Trades:
Grade: 5/5
Reason: Peter Chiarelli has made 3 trades since the end of the regular season. On June 8th, Chiarelli sent a conditional 7th round pick to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for Nolan Vesey. Nothing more than a depth move really. Then on the 2nd day of the draft, the Oilers moved up in the draft, acquiring the 61st overall pick from Montreal. In exchange, Edmonton sent the Habs the 71st and 133rd picks. They used the 61st pick to select goaltender Olivier Rodrigue. Mere hours later, the Oilers once again made a deal with Montreal, acquiring goalie Hayden Hawkey in exchange for a 5th round pick in the 2019 draft. All three of these trades are small, depth moves that make sense for the organization, the most important being in selecting the #1 ranked goalie in this years draft (Rodrigue).

Draft:
Grade: 5/5
Reason: Really just for the Bouchard pick. While almost all Oilers fan dislike Peter Chiarelli for his trading resume, they don't generally complain about his drafting. That's because, Peter Chiarelli is usually pretty good at a draft table and this year was no exception. Granted there was some tension in Oil Country in regards to the Oilers 10th overall selection, and the fear it might be moved. But Peter waited and waited and waited, and was rewarded with the chance to select one of Evan Bouchard, Noah Dobson, or Oliver Wahlstrom. While some fans would've liked Edmonton to select Dobson or Wahlstrom, they really can't go wrong with the Bouchard pick. The Oilers would continue their solid draft by selecting Ryan McCleod at 40th and moving up in the draft to select Olivier Rodrigue.

Re-Sign Phase:
Grade: 4/5
Reason: This one is hard for me to do because of my own views on Chiarelli vs the rest of fans views on him. Yes I am aware that Strome and Nurse still need new contracts, but Peter Chiarelli has signed three players. Mikko Koskinen, Drake Caggiula, Matt Benning. The Koskinen signing was met with, understandable, hesitance. Koskinen hasn't played in the NHL, his stats aren't spectacular, and his contract is a bit pricey. It's one of these moves that could either work out and be OK, or burn out and be bad. Only next season will tell. Caggiula was met with A LOT of hate from Oilers twitter. The big problem with this signing was a mix of both the contract value and Caggiula himself. My personally? I like it. Yes Caggiula isn't a top 6 player, but it's not his fault McLellan and Co. kept putting him there. Benning's contract extension was more well received, but there were still some critics. Again, I don't mind this deal. He's still young, he's still developing, plus he'll be seeing more minutes when Bouchard gets sent back to London.

Free-Agency:
Grade: 5/5
Reason: Peter Chiarelli didn't have much money to work with heading into this years free agency. As such, signing a big fish free agent like JVR, Tavares, or Neal was impossible. So instead, Chiarelli focused on players who could help his team. And he struck gold with two former Oilers draft picks, Kyle Brodziak and Tobias Reider. Both players were signed to reasonable, team friendly contracts, both can help the Oilers improve their PK, and both can contribute offensively. Again, smart solid signings.

Summary:
Total Grade:24/25
Reason: Peter Chiarelli had a few goals coming into this off-season, and I think he accomplished them all. He wanted to improve the Oilers special teams and he did that with the assistant coach hires as well as the additions of Brodziak and Reider. He wanted to get a RHD who could quarterback a powerplay, and he did that in nabbing Bouchard at the draft. And he wanted to contribute to the depth scoring of the team as well as bring players back who he thinks can help them. Of course, this is something we as Oilers fans have seen before. They make moves in the off-season, pitch them as smart solid moves, and it generally blows up in their faces come hockey season. This year though, I believe it. The moves that Chiarelli has made are smart, solid moves that can pay dividends (at least on paper).Hopefully these will pay off. Because if they do, Peter might be loved in Oil Country again.

Monday, July 2, 2018

Defending my choices

So a couple of days ago, @TheOilKnight & @DirtbagDonny on Twitter, had asked us Oilers fans about our top 3 pet peeves in today's NHL. Naturally I replied with this

"Jeez there's so many things. Here's my 3.
1. Officiating. It's been beaten to death, so I'll leave it at that.
2. Pre-game stuff...particularly with Vegas' being so damn long. It's a hockey game, not a friggin talent show!
3. Social media and how it impacts players and coaches."

And this is a decent list that they went through in Episode 7 of their show, "Late Night with the Oil Knight". And they agreed with me on 2/3 of these, which I don't mind. However, I feel the need to now go more in-depth on them.

1. Officiating:

Originally, I meant how the officiating has become a joke. How the coaches challenges have taken the "flow" out of the game, as well as how they enrage fan-bases because of a) how they're done, b) how long they take; and c) how they seem to get it wrong 75% of the time. This past weekend I was talking with my uncle on Canada Day about officiating and I mentioned how it seems kind of unfair to the refs when it comes to making a mistake. It's like the league won't allow them to go back on a decision or admit they messed up. A good example of this would be Game 5 between Toronto and Boston these past playoffs. On the play, Boston recieved a delay-of-game penalty because the puck went out of play. In real-time speed, it does look like it didn't hit anything going into the stands. However upon review, it was shown that the puck hit the glass before it exited the rink, therefore nullifying the penalty to Boston. However the refs didn't change their mind, even though the evidence was quite clear. I maybe in the minority on this, but how come a ref can't go on the PA and say "I made a mistake"? If the NHL thinks it'll make the game go longer, keep in mind that the coaches challenges already do that. If the NHL thinks it'll make the officials look incompetent, again, the coaches challenges already do that. Again, it would be nicer for them to a) get calls right and b) admit to making a mistake when things are clearly shown to them.

2. Pre-game stuff:

This one I take issues with heartedly. As I stated above, it's a hockey game not a talent show, although you could argue that the"talent show" is the actual game itself. No what I meant by this was two things. Anybody who follows me on twitter, knows I was pretty pissed at all of Vegas' pre-playoff game shenanigans. The actual presentation itself wasn't bad, but it just took too long, to the point where I would tune in at the time the puck is supposed to be dropped, and yet I'm sitting there watching a GOLDEN KNIGHT SLICE A CF-18 HORNET IN HALF! The second thing I meant by this was that some teams, *cough Oilers cough* don't do much for the pre-game show. Some teams *cough Oilers cough* come out onto the ice, PA guy announces the starting lineups, they sing the anthems and then drop the puck and game on. Yes it's short, but it's not sweet and it's quite dull. I mean what happened to the flaming oil derrick? Bring that shit back! Do SOMETHING to make it better. I like simplicity, I like quick and easy, but when you make it too quick and easy, it's not fun and quite boring.

3. Social media and how it impacts players and coaches:

Okay this one I'm going to have to explain, big time. Social media has made our lives better. We can connect with people easier, get news updates as they happen, and follow along with current events easily. But at the same time, it's also allowed for more cyber-bullying, more people to spread their hate and nastiness, as well as the posting of incriminating photo's, videos and e-mails. When I wrote down this as a pet peeve, I was thinking about that picture of Gerard Gallant after he was fired by Florida. I hate seeing that because it's so embarassing for him to see. That picture is never going to go away. And yes he absolutely redeemed himself with how Vegas performed, but for the few months he was without a job, that picture probably haunted him. A picture that would've NEVER have surfaced 12 years ago. Social media has made it easier for people to spew hate towards a player (just look at the amount of people who said f*** you to John Tavares yesterday). Yes social media probably helps teams, coaches and players. But it also makes it easier for those coaches and players to receive hate online. Something that I can't personally stand.