Go Oilers Go!

The puck drops for the 2016/17 NHL season in a few hours.  Edmonton is on the road in Calgary for the first game.  I won't be able to see it as I will myself be on the road at the time, possibly only will get to watch it sometime over the weekend.  This will be the second season with Connor McDavid as an Oiler.  Here's hoping he has an even better season than last (when he scored over a point per game but missed almost half the season due a broken clavicle due those dirty Flyers).

There has been quite a bit of activity in the Northern hemisphere summer at Oilersland.  Probably the most controversial move was the trade of Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson.  So, we now have a strong right D and lost a top winger.  Me, I liked the trade once I got my head around it.  On the assumption that Larsson is as good as they say he is, the team will benefit more than they'll lose on the exit of Hall.  And I must say that I wasn't a great Hall fan.  He was good, yes, but spent too much time being a hero on his own and then getting shitty when it didn't work out.  Not my kind of player.

We picked up Milan Lucic to compensate on the left wing.  I think I'll prefer him to Hall.  Maybe not as individually brilliant as Hall but pretty damn good none-the-less, but he's a team player and sticks up for his mates (I hated him when he was in Boston).  We can do with a bit of grunt up front and we got it with Lucic on the first line.

Nail Yakapov is also gone, traded for picks to the Blues.  As much as I enjoyed watching him play, he was frustrating due always going offside, bouncing off the guys he hit, missing the goal from point blank (not good for a 'sniper').  The fact he wanted to be traded was probably the icing on the cake and he's gone.  I hope he works it all out, but am relieved he won't need to be covered.

Looking at the opening night roster, it's a long way advanced from this time last year.  We have a D, we have two killer lines leading the forwards, we still have a good number one goalie.  There are still a lot of prospects and rookies (three or four?!) on it, including this year's number 4 overall draft pick (Pool Party!), but I am most glad to see Slepyshev on the list.  I first noticed him before I knew he was an Oiler, in a Weber Cup game a couple years ago playing for his Russian KHL team.  He was ferocious and fast.  He only played one or two games with the Oilers last year.  I think he's looking good at the moment.  I am looking forward to seeing him unleash that ferocity (hopefully against Calgary).

Oh well, another Oilers season begins.  It's hard not to be optimistic at this time of the season.   For an Oilers fan, that usually ends within the month, but I'm hoping this year will be different.  They do say, hope dies last but I'm hoping there's more to it than that this time around.

My prediction?  We'll go close to the playoffs, maybe grab a wildcard spot if injuries don't cripple us like they did last year.  We wait...

A HUGE Sunday!

Last Sunday was a big day.  I got to watch my first Pee Wee game as one of my grandsons played his first ever hockey game.  The Puck God then smiled on Edmonton and the ping pong balls of the draft lottery fell our way, securing first pick in what sounds like the best draft in over a decade or three.  And then I got to play till I puked with some friends down at Noarlunga for the first shinny of the year.  What a day!

Pee Wee Penguins!

Blake played his first ever game, accounted well for himself.  You could see him learning the ropes as the minutes passed.  Will be really cool to watch him develop.  Nancy recorded almost the whole game.  I pulled out his bits and put them together onto three youtube clips (below), having finally worked out how to do so in HD.  I hope he enjoys and wish him all the best.

First Period
Second Period
Third Period

Puck God guides the Ping Pong Balls

In the NHL all teams who don't make the playoffs have a chance of winning the first pick in the upcoming draft.  This is done by way of a lottery, with the thirtieth placed team having the best chance of winning, the seventeenth having the least chance.  The Oilers had ended up 28th, giving them a 11/5% chance.  This would be the fourth first in six years if the Puck God smiled on them.  The prize was the right to draft Connor MacDavid.  Things started looking up in Edmonton from the moment we won the pick.  This kid is amazing.

Play till you puke!

To cap off a great day I made my way down to Noarlunga for the first for the year of the occasional shinnies that are organised amongst my peers in C Grade.  Unfortunately there were a lot less of us than had originally stuck their hands up, six actually.  Which meant playing 2 on 2 for an hour was absolutely exhausting (especially as am coming off a lung complaint over the previous week), so I got to feel that strange pride that comes from playing till you puke.

A Great Afternoon to end off a Great Day!

Ice 23 

My Annual NHL Post Season Post

Oilers - what can I say?  They ended up second last in their Division and Conference, and third last in the League.  I think they had about 43 players grace the ice with their presence though the season, which is quite a few.  I followed things as well I could from the other side of the world, found it all very interesting, found a few players I like.  Will be interesting to see how it evolves in the off season.  Better luck next year.

Playoffs - sixteen teams have made the playoffs.  Here's my picks for the first round:

Redwings over Tampa Bay
Ottowa over Montreal
Islanders over Washington
Rangers over Pittsburgh

Vancouver over Calgary
Winnipeg over Anaheim
Chicago over Nashville
St Louis over Minnesotta

About half of my picks are educated guesses, and a quarter are sentimental favourings, so it will be interesting to see how it pans out in the next couple weeks.

The Week and a Bit that was.

April 2nd (Easter Thursday) was Blake's first hockey training with his new team mates and opponents.  He'd been wary due the fact that he had a school sports day beforehand, but made it and did his best and did quite well.  He will account for himself well in this league, didn't embarass himself despite being one of the youngest, smallest and least experienced players out there.  

April 3rd (Good Friday) I went down the school in the late morning before my day was going to get busy.  I realised very quickly that Good Friday was not going to be the day to be shooting record scores.  In fact, my heart wasn't in it at all and for the first time ever I abandoned my shooting drills through lack of interest.  Instead, I just lazily skated around the court for about twenty minutes of low intensity half hearted drills.  Then I skated home.

As a side note, we had two groups of visitors, afternoon and evening.  In the afternoon I met Vic, a Canadian who had (of course) once played hockey.  In the evening I met Neil, who had played ice hockey some time in the eighties in Adelaide.  First time ever I met these guys, first time ever I've met two people in one day who have a hockey history independent of mine.

April 4th (Easter Saturday), I confirmed my willingness to play inline hockey at Gawler in the winter season.  On the assumption I'll play 2nd Division again, I opted to stick with the Wheelers as first preference but stated could change teams, divisions, days available (eg can play either Saturday or Sunday) to suit the coordinator's needs.

I also got confirmation that will be in the first Noarlunga Shinny of the off season, two weeks later.  There are more skaters than spots available for these shows, is great to be in at the start.  I won't be attending them too frequently, but it is really nice to know that I'm able to play with this group of comrades.  It will be fun to play and compare tales of our respective seasons and experiences.

April 5th (Easter), take a friend (Steve) to watch the C Grade All Stars game at the Ice Arena.  It was his first ever game and he enjoyed it more than he thought he would.  He ended up watching the whole of what turned out to be a good competitive game.

April 8, I walked around with a grin for the rest of the day once I learned that Edmonton had beat the LA Kings 4-2, making things very tough for LA to get into the playoffs (they subsequently failed to do so).  I was too tired after a busy day at work to go skating that night, so for the second Wednesday in a row didn't go to the Ice Arena.

April 11, Go skating down the school in the morning and put a couple hundred shots on target.  Interspersed with about eight drills of limited duration involving puck carrying and handling.  Didn't push it hard either at the school or on the hill climb home due the fact that I hadn't skated for over a week and was a little light on hydration.  For my efforts, scored a record 35% shooting rate for the first hundred shots!

7/10/12/6, 8/8/6/3 (30%)

So, despite very little skating, not a bad week and a bit.  I have had a good rest.  Perhaps as a result, have noticed my knee is almost back to full mobility - there is no discomfort or pain produced in any of the postures and angles that previously did so.  Just in time for the commencement of my off season campaign.

Inline 25 and 26

Purple prose for the Blue and Orange

Edmonton won their third game in a row!  They haven't been victorious outside of Edmonton since some time last month.  And they haven't been winning much (at all(!)) against Western Conference teams all season.  With only six games left in the season and no playoffs for a record 9th year in a row the win probably doesn't mean a lot in the big picture unless you're a Colorado fan (they have a bare theoretical pathway to the playoffs if they win all their remaining games and others lose theirs).

Or an Oilers fan. It means a lot to us, especially those of us here in the antipodes.  Back in their native land, it has brought out the most extreme purple prose I've seen all season.  Here's an example...

We can’t look away from games of this magnitude. Indeed, they command a heightened alertness in our souls. We gaze deeply into them like some sort of change in the cosmos. A kind of eclipse over our lives.

Ken Price posting at Copper and Blue
 
What can I say but GO OILERS GO!

Beards, and a (weak) Chuck Norris joke.

From Oilers Nation:

#77 MessyEH!

Wanye wrote:

DOES ANYONE ELSE CORRELATE EBERLES HOT STREAK TO HIS SEXY BEARD? PLEASE PROVIDE STATISTICAL PROOFS IN YOUR COMMENTS

A rugged beard creates 100% more awesomeness. This awesomeness transcends the galaxy, to effect everything.
14s beard is such a beard.They only come around once every 2 thousand years. Moses had such a beard. Jesus had a kick ass beard. Now one Jordan Eberle has found the power of the beard.
From ancient scripture
"One beard to rule them all, One beard to find them, One beard to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them."
Chuck Norris is jealous of Ebs epic beard right now.

I can only agree with the sentiments (albeit, Chuck Norris could only ever envy Chuck Norris, I'm sure!).

A finals week off - Part 1

The Wheelers' win last Saturday night marked the start of a two week break from competitive hockey, with the next game being the Grand Final next Saturday night.  I've learned that a week off can be a dangerous thing, especially when about to play a winner take all final.  So I've made an effort to remain hockey focused during this past week.  This has been both on and off of my skates.  This post is about the off-skate hockey week I've had.

Last Sunday, I watched the last two periods of the Redwings v Kings Game at the Ice Arena.  This was the second of their first round playoff series of three games.  The Kings had won the first.  This game, the Wings won.  After this game I watched the first period of the Flyers v Sharks.  It didn't seem as high a standard as what I'd just seen, though I did think that Jana was playing an excellent game in D for the Sharks.

On Monday, I watched the Edmonton Oilers score four goals in ten minutes to beat the Leafs 4-1.  As an Oilers Fan it was good to watch, that ten minutes.  Their season has been awful, though I have gotten to appreciate it in all its depths due the fact that I am subscribed to NHL and have therefore watched maybe twenty games online, some of them live.  Tomorrow I might watch them play the Flyers.

On Thursday I went back to the Ice Arena to watch the deciding game between the Redwings and Kings, along with about 150 other viewers.  That's pretty good for a C grade game.  It really felt like playoff hockey and was a great game to watch.  Redwings won out 2-1 and went through to the finals against the Flyers.  Renee scored the game winning goal in the third, I thought she played a great game.  In fact, it was great to see a bunch of players I've played with and against over the past year having a really good game.

Friday, I watched Winnipeg defeat the Blues 2-1.  I had thought it would be a tight defensively strong game, which it was.  And it was pretty exciting at the same time, the goalies (particularly Pavalec for the Jets) really shone.  Both the style of game and skater were markedly different from Edmonton's smaller framed more agile set of play and player.  If Edmonton can one day make 'it' work, they'll be fantastic (yawn).  Until then, I have a soft spot for the Jets and if they make the playoffs they'll be who I follow.

Today (Saturday) I drove the hippy van to Gawler to watch the Semi Final between the Shufflers and the Rockers.  To my surprise, the Rockers with only four skaters came out clear winners over the full strength Shufflers.  Paul scored 5 of the Rockers 8 goals against the Shufflers only getting 3.  The Pfeiffers were there also to scout it out.  I think we are agreed that we are playing the preferable opponent next week, but we'll have to be on our A game again.  Should be good.

When I got home this evening I had the house to myself so started to watch a bit of A League soccer (Adelaide United v Melbourne Victory) when realised the third Mighty Ducks movie was on another channel.  So I've just watched the third Mighty Ducks movie.  A bit of an eye opener.  I did like the philosophy of the D presented as the team's core - being confident without the puck, not too careful, not too careless.  A bit disturbing to see the portrayal of juvenile hockey concussions (meant as comedy when filmed, with what we know about head injuries twenty years later it has becoming horrible viewing), or the romanticism of the 'Bash Brothers' as the way to deal with physical opponents.  Anyways, a good film.

Finally, United drew 2-2 against the Victory.

Game Day - Predators (2) d Knights (0)

We lost in the late game at the Ice Arena last night against the Predators.  They scored two goals within a few minutes during the first period.  They had the stick on us during the first, it was much more even from there on.  Shot count for the night was 16 -17 (their way) with them winning the first period and the Knights getting more real shots after that.  In fact, they only really had one good shot in the last two thirds of the game when I was caught having to deal on my own with a two person rush and it ended up ringing off the pipes.  We had a handful of good shots in periods two and three, with the puck almost trickling over the line with less than a minute to go being the least lucky.

We stay on top of the league for penalties, with Aaron taking two and Tom another.  I think it's fair to say that neither was at their best to start with, though both put in good games and were responsible for the majority of our attacks.  Andy probably played the most tightly of us all.  Henry returned from his latest O/S jaunt and played a good solid game, much of it in D when it became obvious that we needed another D because Tom was struggling and Jonesy and Chris were playing their hearts out rotating through centre on the first lane. So our D had two neophytes (Henry and me) and the need for softer than usual minutes for the others that joined us there.

We had a new skater, Beau, who is very very fast but, like everyone starting out with us, needs to learn his required positioning and not chase the puck so much.  Dan and Lachy did ok, each of them making an effort to keep the pressure on while in the opposition zone (and Lachy having at least one good shot on goal).  In my view, everyone contributed to what I saw as a reasonable game on our part.  In fact, we had a generally higher level of skill and speed than the opposition, but lacked on the teamwork (especially during the first).  Although we played with the most number of players we have had to date (11 plus Bec the fill-in goalie) we were still missing two good defencemen (Mike and Cam).  Almost all of our shots were blocked simply by good goalie body positioning, same as had happened during the previous game and shoot out.  We do miracles getting the puck to the goal, and then shoot it straight into the goalie!  I know we're better than that.

What was disappointing was that we didn't play as well as our team could.  If we had, I reckon we'd have had a lot more shots on goal - and then it would have been up to the Puck God.  Things being as they were, however, (and maybe because I'm an Edmonton Oiler fan and thus used to looking towards distant horizons) I was pretty upbeat after the game.  The potential is there and it's pretty huge.  That's my view, anyway.

As for my game, it had its ups and downs.  The main positive is that I actually played, albeit with an extra tight strapped knee.  First shift was great.  I hadn't even got to the face off circle for my second shift, however, when I twisted wrongly somehow and was imobilised by the 'discomfort', I returned to the bench on one leg as soon as we'd cleared the puck from the zone.  I gave it a few minutes, did four more shifts in the period.  Did about the same in the following two periods.  Had no further issues with the knee.  It was a scary moment though!

My game itself, I was happy with it.  I spent the whole game in D.  Iced the puck twice in the first period, both unnecessary icings.  I think I iced it once each period after that, and both instances were forgiveable and one wasn't called.  Right at the end of the second I was trapped alone in our zone with a mass breakout happening, two of them coming down the centre and the puck carrier on my left wing.  I was busy positioning to coral the single skater towards the boards and leave his shooting to Bec, while also covering the two centres and threatening to intercept or block them if the puck was passed instead of shot.  Somehow they managed to screw that one up themselves but I was happy with my positioning, considering it was a three on one.

I was happy with various aspects of my game, in that they showed an increasing utility in defence.  In no particular order, highlights included - advancing to the blue line when the puck was in their zone a lot more, carrying the puck from our zone to theirs on one occasion and a shorter distance on another, covering the slot and, when necessary, the crease and not having a shot unleashed when I was doing so, combating in the rear corner boards until a team mate cleared it, keeping the stronger skater on the outside if I was tracking them in, a couple nice clearing passes, a tough battle in defence of our blue line which resulted in at least four players on the ice and me staying on my knees with hands above my head to ensure didn't get done for handling the puck, retreiving and holding the puck when it was cleared from their zone a couple times before passing it in for a second go, playing solid minutes, close to twenty at a guess.  Having my lower than ideal conditioning level be sufficient to keep me fit and agile to the end.  Not having any goals scored against us while on the ice.

And that's about as good as it can get for a new D on a losing team!

GP 2 G/A/Pts 0/0/0 +1 1/1/0

Good luck Tyler!

One of my favourite hockey blogs for over a year now has been Mc79, a statistical analytical oiler fan blog.  The guy that wrote all the posts and did all the number crunching was Tyler Dellow, a mad oilers fan living in Toronto.  I learned a lot from his stats, more from his writing.  I was lucky to be introduced to this aspect of the game by this guy.  I think his site had the most readable content in the field, and thus the most accessable.  The fact that he's an oilers fan just made it all the more relevant.  And the fact that the content was pretty good?  Well, that just made the whole exercise even more valuable.

The other night I went to check his blog.  It wasn't up any more.  It's been going for about ten years.  There'd been no warning.  This was weird.  My first thought was 'oh no, something bad has happened to Tyler.'  I nosed around a bit on a few news sites.  I learned there that something else had happened.

Tyler has in fact been hired as an advisor to the Oilers' coach, Dallas Eakins!  I presume part of the deal was he take down all the freely available analysis he's posted over the years.  'Great!' to the first, 'Bugga!' to the second.  For him, personally, I am very happy.  For me, and all the other readers of his site like me, I am sad.  For us readers who are also Oilers fans, I guess it all cancels out and I'll wait and see how it pans out.

In the meantime, I just want to say a big THANKS to Tyler for introducing me to a whole 'deep' level of this game I've come to love, and say that I really hope it all works out for you!

Sweaters Pt 1

If you play hockey you probably have learnt that you can never have too many hockey sweaters.  Team sweaters should only be worn for game days, leaving a lot of practices to wear something else.  Odds are they'll get pretty grubby and smelly unless they get washed frequently, so you shouldn't just wear the same one again and again.  Add to that the occasional need for someone to change into red/white/blue/black colours to even up the sides in a small rink game or a shinny, and there's need for a few different sweaters.

That's my excuse, anyway, for beginning a bit of a collection of the things.  Add to that the fact that they tend to have interesting designs / bright colours /an emotional 'tone' and it then becomes somewhat easy to take them up as a type of regular clothing in their own right.

I started my collection with an Edmonton Oilers sweater I saw at the markets in Sydney a bit over a year ago.  To that was added a Canadian (away (white) colours) from the International exhibition game in June last year.  I got a Vancouver blue top on my next Sydney trip.  Then, gave the missus a shopping list for her next trip to the markets and she came back with Colorado, Montreal (with 2009 centenary epulettes and #11 - Koivu on the back (then time captain before being traded to Anaheim where he remains)) and Redwings sweaters.  The Redwings was her idea because she liked the red (more on this one later).

And this weekend, I was in Sydney with the wife again, and again it was a trip to the market stall to see what they had...

Came back with a St Louis Blues one (royal blues with a stylised yellow note as the front symbol, #41 - Halak on the back) and an oldschool Columbus Blue Jacket sweater (18th Century cannon logo on white roundel in front of a dark navy blue top, with lacework).  Also another one which I won't describe here because it's a gift for someone...

Next weekend I'll be picking up my own Vikings sweater (Royal blue, Viking helmet with crossed sticks beneath ala jolly roger on the front), and a Wheelers sweater (maroon, no logo).

I had a chat with the stall holder this time, enquiring at the absence of 'L' sized tops (so it goes comfortably over my body armour) or of 'S' ones (for the kids) and she explained it by the fact that they're all remainders.  Hence, no Winnipeg Jets, few of the other 'minority' teams, the old designs that have been supplanted in the most recent season (which is good as I wouldn't wear the stars and stripes design of the present bluejackets top, but I do like the older gun logo), etc.  The numbered sweaters become remainders when the player is traded (hence, my Montreal player these day is with the Ducks, and my Blues player was traded earlier this year to Washington, making the sweaters almost worthless on the usual market).

Maybe I'll continue this in another post some time...

Tigers, Rebels, Oilers, Canucks, Canadiens - can you tell me which one is different?

Being, as I am, half Canadian but living half a world away from Canada, I guess I've been aware of ice hockey for quite a while.  Even went to a game in Medicine Hat, (Alberta, Canada) as a kid.  Can't remember much hockey as such, the problem of being a kid and seeing a game amongst all those standing adults was as evident there as it was in the terraces at local footy games of the time.  I do remember watching the game a little, (an impression of size, speed and force still lingers as I write this).  My great memory of the night, though, was the great pile up of kids that formed a scrum on top of a puck that had ended up in the crowd.  I can't remember the detail, but I ended up with the puck in my victorious hands and a certain swagger in my step for the rest of the evening.  And the other kids stopped freaking at my aussie accent. I still have the game puck, complete with almost unscratched Tiger logo on it.

It's strange, therefore, that I kinda support the Red Deer Rebels in the Western Hockey League.  Maybe because I like their logo or their name, maybe because I stayed there for a few hours on my next trip to Canada (2012 - albeit didn't know they existed at the time).

At a higher level (ie. the National Hockey League) the choices of team(s) I support is simpler to understand.  I'm an Oilers follower because my family are mainly from around the Edmonton area (dim memory of the name 'Gretzky' when I was there as a kid (the year before he went pro)).  This didn't change up to being a supporter/fan when I was there two years ago, despite the fact that I was intrigued by ice hockey being on telly all the time (it seemed) just about everywhere, because no one I spent much time with was too enthused about hockey.  I didn't realise how depressing it was for them all that Edmonton was (is) seemingly stuck to the bottom of the league ladder, and how this dampens hockey conversations.

Spending time in Vancouver, amongst Canucks fans as their team entered the post-season as Conference leaders, watching Johnathan Quick and Cory Schneider battle out a great first game of round 1 playoffs (against the eventual Stanley Cup Champions that season, the Los Angeles Kings), I developed a soft spot for Vancouver.  Which was fine, except that they never seemed to do well after I got to know of them.  So I'm glad that underneath my continuing support for the Canucks I have a bedrock of oil.

While in Vancouver I also met a cousin's spouse who came from Winnipeg originally and was so obviously bursting with pride at the renaissance of the Jets' franchise in its home town, with all the starry eyed romance that goes with a come-back-kid story, that I got sucked in also.  The parting gift to me of the treasured Winnipeg Jets tee-shirt merely guaranteed that I've since taken a fairly keen interest in the Jets.

And my fourth team in the NHL?  The remaining Western Canadian team (Calgary Flames)?  Of course not!  Being an Oilers fan, that would be spiritually impossible, for starters.  And, secondly, I just couldn't do it.  Sigh.  No, but it is still a Canadian team.

The Montreal Canadiens, to be precise.  It's taken awhile, but a combination of my missus getting me a Montreal sweater with Koivu's name on it - being the centennial jersey of the Captain in his tenth season with the club (2009), and therefore feeling obliged to wear it occasionally, a more than passing enjoyment of the playing style when I've seen them on telly, and an appreciation of much of the hockey writing produced from its legion of fans, I've gotten interested in their journey this year.  And with that interest has grown fondness.  And the relief that at least one of 'my' teams will make the playoffs this year so that I'll have a natural team to support!

So, here's my excuse to pose the question of this post's title with a video reference to one of my childhood heroes...