Ramblings: Bye-Bye Blues. Also I think the Oilers scored a goal or two (May 08)

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So the Oilers’ strategy was to stake themselves to such a big lead that they couldn’t possibly blow it. Great strategy – worked like a charm.

I watched a 3-0 lead evaporate in each of the previous two games, and turned off both games and went to bed because I knew how overtime would end up. And I was exactly right. But these are superb lessons for the young Oilers to learn and if they get eliminated, they’re going to take this experience and go even further next year. But as they showed last night – they don’t want to wait a full year. That 7-1 pounding was shocking to say the least. And Game 7 you just know that the young Oilers will jump to the lead. So the questions will be – can they hold it?

John Gibson was chased after giving up three goals on six shots. His ho-hum save percentage for the playoffs took a nosedive and now sits at an ugly 0.903. Basically, if Gibson gives up four goals on 30 shots in Game 7 Wednesday and the Oilers win, then Gibson exits the playoffs with a 0.899676 SV%. Yes, below hockey’s Mendoza line. And that’s a pretty big black mark after two rounds and 11 games of hockey. Gibson’s career playoff stats are 8-6 with a 0.907 SV%. I don’t think Anaheim is getting any better in the future, so it’s a black mark that Gibson would have a lot of trouble wiping clean.

Ryan Getzlaf has been a superhero for the past two months and even when his team was white-washed and he had huge players draped all over him – he still managed four shots on goal and six hits last night.

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But the big story of the night was Leon Draisaitl. See that? I managed to get nearly 600 words into the Ramblings before finally mentioning the guy who had five points in one game. It gives him 16 points in the postseason and he now sits second in scoring. Amazingly, Connor McDavid was held pointless! McDavid has nine points in the playoffs (12 games).

McDavid ended the season with a 14-game point streak and 25 points in that span, so you know that entering the playoffs he was just fine. But teams have obviously keyed in on him – four points in six games against the Sharks and five points in six games against the Ducks. In the world of McDavid, that’s “shutting him down”. But while teams key on him, who’s watching Draisaitl? Here is how Coach Todd McLellan spread out his offense last night. Also note how the size  is distributed, with Kassian, Lucic and Maroon each on a line (I actually remember musing about this in the Fantasy Guide last summer):

The Oilers played the game without Oscar Klefbom and Andrej Sekera. Klefbom poked his head out during warm-ups but then was deemed to be not ready. Eric Gryba and Griffin Reinhart actually saw over 13 minutes of action…but then again, with a 5-0 lead in the first period, you can feel pretty safe throwing pretty much anyone out there. Reinhart even picked up an assist. After the game, the coach said that he expects Klefbom to be back for Game 7.

With Klefbom and Sekera out, McLellan still wouldn’t turn to Adam Larsson for the power play, instead giving the ice time to Matt Benning. Larsson has a respectable six points in 12 playoff contests.

With four points last night, Mark Letestu now has 11 points in 12 games. He sits ahead of McDavid in the scoring race. So who grabbed Letestu in their playoff pool? Letest-druce!

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The first team has been eliminated from the second round – and Nashville moves to the semi-Finals for the first time in their history.

Alex Steen suffered a broken foot in Game 1 of the Minnesota series and played every playoff game except one. Still managed seven points in 10 games. Hockey!

Nail Yakupov never got into a playoff game due to an undisclosed lower-body injury and with his contract up I strongly suspect that we’ve seen the last of him in the NHL.

Jay Bouwmeester finishes with a minus-5 in these playoffs. Joel Edmundson a plus-12. Edmundson also had an impressive six points.

Thanks for coming out David Perron. One point in 11 playoff contests.

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With Craig Smith back last night, here is how the Nashville line combinations looked:

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In the AHL, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton were eliminated by Providence late last week and so the Penguins called up a slew of their Black Aces, including Derrick Pouliot and Daniel Sprong. I wish I had better news for Pouliot owners, but while a veteran minor-league defenseman like David Warsofsky managed to get six points and post an even plus/minus, Pouliot had two points and was minus-2. He’s just not taking the AHL by storm the way fantasy owners need to see.

While I was snooping around the AHL website I noticed that Danton Heinen, our old pal from his preseason glory days, is lighting it up in the playoffs. He has four goals and eight points in seven games for Providence.

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Minor note – Columbus prospect Daniel Zaar signed to play the next two seasons with Malmo in the SHL. Zaar started to show some promise with a strong 2015-16, but last season he took such a big step back that he pretty much took himself right off the organization’s radar.

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The 2017-18 products are now up in the shop for pre-sale! The Fantasy Prospects Report is out on June 1 and the Fantasy Hockey Guide (my 12th) is out August 1. Some notes on this:

1. Tax is now charged based on your location. Meaning for the first time, US/International/Alberta readers save $$. Previously they had to pay 13% HST. Now every province pays their own tax rate, and International readers pay nothing for tax. First time ever – I have a new accountant who sees things differently. Great news for at least half of you!

2. USD$ currency is now at $1.37 Canadian. I can't help this, but what I'm able to do is – for pre-sale only – offer a 5% coupon for the Keeper League Fantasy Pack. Coupon Code for the KLFP is: win1

This is only for the month of May (i.e. only for pre-orders). But I feel this will take a bit of the sting out of the nasty exchange rate. I try to keep my pricing based on a $1.20 – $1.25 exchange rate and it's been higher than that for a couple of years now and I have no idea how this will bounce in the coming months.

3. If you've never tried out the Fantasy Hockey Geek Draft Kit, now is a great time to order it – just $5 via our DraftKings deal – basically if you buy my Guide (or one of the packs) and deposit $5 into DraftKings, they'll buy your Geek Draft Kit ($15.99 value)

Details for all of these things are in the shop here

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Edmonton’s five super-quick goals to start the game: