December 16, 2014

Talking the Oilers mess, Bishop’s injury, Hodgson-Gagner corollaries and more…

 

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We'll start with the rundown motel of a franchise in Edmonton that shuffled the deck chairs on the patio of its sewage-filled swimming pool as if that would get people to jump in.

 

I realize that Dobber already covered Dallas Eakins' firing and that I declared last week that the Oilers didn’t deserve to be written about but I am weak so here we go…

 

I totally get canning Eakins. The team has played poorly with him at the helm and there is a definite sense of unrest within the franchise as though there is no real leadership here. It's hard to keep going ahead when the results are this dreadful even if the underlying numbers suggest the team has actually been playing better.

 

So Eakins is a scapegoat and now we get the hilarious interim to the interim situation with Craig MacTavish doing double duty as GM and head coach until Todd Richards, their top guy in the AHL the past four seasons, is up to speed.

 

I hate the idea of MacTavish spending the time he should be using on scouting (both at the professional and amateur ranks) and making trades on this bunk roster that has no hope of contending at this point. But if it's just in an interim interim role, well, I guess I can accept that.

 

And I don't hate this Nelson guy. Lots of people are screaming for an experienced guy to take over, citing the lack of leadership during Eakins' tenure and the need for accountability. I don't see why that couldn't come from a rookie coach. I just think that too often when a team fires their coach they immediately look for the opposite traits as though he was just the wrong "type" of coach and not just a bad coach period.

 

That's not me arguing that Eakins was bad either, though it's not like he left us with much in the way of positives. I just think that was a "can't win" scenario.

 

What I like about Nelson is that he has a good track record of coaching the power play. He coached up Edmonton's AHL affiliate to the second most efficient power play in the league this season and they ranked in the top three each of the previous two seasons. I think if nothing else, he can help the Oilers improve the league's third worst power play.

 

That would have real fantasy implications!

 

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has taken a real leap this year but you wouldn't know it because he's on pace for 53 points, which is pretty much the pace that he's scored at his entire career. The difference is that coming into this season Nugent-Hopkins had scored 40.9% of his points on the power play while scoring a power-play point about once every three games.

 

This season Nugent-Hopkins has scored just three of his 19 points on the power play, all in 29 games worth of action. That's a 15.8% ratio and a PPP in just one of every 10 games – a significant decline.

 

If the Nuge was scoring PPP at his usual rate, he'd be sitting at 26 points, on pace for his best season yet.

 

You can tell a similar story with Taylor Hall, although his numbers are down across the board this season. Last season, however, Hall finished fourth in even-strength scoring with 62 points. He proved he can put up elite numbers without the strength of a good power play. Now imagine if he had one to lean on.

 

I'm not saying that there will be a drastic turnaround here. Only improvements across the board can completely stop the losing. Changing coaches won't fix that. But if Nelson can change some of the cosmetics and help us fantasy owners get more out of guys like Hall, Nugent-Hopkins and maybe even the man with a one-timer, Mr. Jordan Eberle, I think we'd all take that as a success. And then wait for next year.

 

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I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention the rumours regarding Taylor Hall that came out after news of Eakins' firing had spread. It would seem that the Oilers are open to any discussion that helps bring about change. It's part of the reason why they made sure not to include no-trade clauses in the extensions for their young forwards. They wanted the flexibility.

 

Odds are nothing comes of this. Who knows what the motives of the leak were here. Maybe this was someone in the Oilers organization trying to light a fire under his arse. Or maybe this is another team trying to nudge the door open a little more.

 

Players this good almost never get dealt, and it's even less likely to happen mid-season. Don't make your plans like Hall is getting dealt to a contender. Instead try and buy (or hold) based on the notion the coaching change helps get more out of him.

 

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Double-whammy of sadness for the Lightning last night. They lost a winnable game against a banged up Penguins squad but more importantly, Ben Bishop went down in the first period and did not return.

 

This might not be as bad of news as it was when it happened last year because the Lightning's goaltending depth in the pro ranks has improved. Evgeni Nabokov isn't much of an upgrade on Anders Lindback as backup but if Bishop misses any time they'll probably give one of Andrei Vasilevsky or Kristers Gudlevskis the chance to run with the starting job.

 

Gudlevskis doesn't have great numbers here in North America but this is his second season playing in the AHL. Vasilevsky is probably the guy they unleash even though this is his first season playing in North America. Vasilevsky is fresh off earning AHL Player of the Week honors and has excelled thus far.

 

We'll have to wait on news of the severity of Bishop's injury but the Lightning are back in action against Philadelphia again tonight so there's little doubt that Nabokov is making that start if Bishop is to miss time. After that, the Lightning have a back-to-back on Friday and Saturday so there is a bit of time off for Bishop if it's not serious. If it is serious then the injury replacement will certainly go on the weekend.

 

The takeaway is that Vasilevsky is the guy to snag if you want to be proactive.

 

Read more on Vasilevsky, Gudlevskis and the rest of the Lightning prospects over at DobberProspects.

 

Some more injury stuff: John Cooper said not to expect Ondrej Palat until this weekend, while Radko Gudas is hopeful to go tonight.

 

With Palat out Alexander Killorn has been skating with Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov. No points for Killorn but he did fire six SOG. I think Killorn's hot streak from a week ago is over now that he's not on the top line. When Palat returns he's looking at third line duties.

 

Jonathan Drouin snagged some top line minutes last night and I did like what I saw. Maybe he gets rewarded for scoring his second of the season with some top line minutes tonight.

 

Kucherov undresses Marc-Andre Fleury: