Skip to search.

Trending Now:

  1. Brad Richards
  2. LA Kings
  3. NY Rangers
  4. Coyotes
  5. Ryan Suter

Oilers Blogs

Puck Daddy on the Oilers

  • Dominik Hasek wants NHL return; Tortorella on Game 6; Nash to Boston? (Puck Headlines)

    Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.

    • We love this photo from Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals. We also can't imagine how many people mistook Chad Smith of the Chili Peppers for Will Ferrell.

    • Dominik Hasek, 47, would like to play in the NHL again. As a backup? As a training camp invitee? Doesn't say. But we'd love to see it happen. Preferably in Tampa Bay in a tandem with Dwayne Roloson, so he can have someone to reminisce with about the discovery of fire. [Malik]

    • Steve Yzerman doesn't rule out trading for a goalie for the Tampa Bay Lightning: "My preference," Yzerman said Thursday night, "is to go with a little bit younger guy that maybe has a little less experience that can step up and play well for us now." [TB Times]

    • Coveted NCAA prospect Justin Schultz is reportedly leaving Wisconsin, giving the Anaheim Ducks a 30-day window in which to negotiate exclusively with him before he joins the Leafs, errrr, becomes a free agent. [Ducks Blog]

    • Rick Dudley has left the Toronto Maple Leafs for the Montreal Canadiens as an assistant GM. Tim Wharnsby of CBC on Dudley's mixed results. [CBC Sports]

    • Joe Haggerty breaks down a Rick Nash the Boston Bruins scenario: "Fact: The Blue Jackets are asking for too much for Nash at this point. This hockey writer can only see the superstar winger coming to Boston if Columbus is willing to take on Krejci or Tim Thomas in exchange for their franchise cornerstone. That may or may not happen." [CSNNE]

    • Glendale councilwoman calls Canadians interested in the Phoenix Coyotes' relocation "poachers." Mark Spector pounces. [Sportsnet]

    • John Tortorella on Game 6: "I thought we were on our heels, and you have to give credit to Jersey, too, a little bit, for putting us on our heels. But I think as we've been going here, I think entering tonight's game we're in the right mindset and that's going to be very important for an important game." [NYDN]

    • World Juniors made $22 million in Alberta. For a tournament that Canada lost. Crazy dough. [TSN]

    • How about Ralph Krueger as the new coach head of the Edmonton Oilers? Is that something you might be interested in? [Oilers Nation]

    • Puck Daddy favorite Heidi Androl will be covering the Los Angeles Kings for NHL Network during the Final. Huzzah! [NHL.com]

    • Those high school kids who made racial tweets about Joel Ward after his Game 7 goal vs. Boston sure did learn a lesson. Nearly three weeks without school activities! Man, that's like being thrown in a gulag! [Gloucester Times]

    • Moral of the story? Don't bitch about embellishing if you're embellishing. [s/t Nicholas Ramirez]

    • Dustin Penner on the adulation being given to the Los Angeles Kings: "I think I set a personal best for most messages received, even when comparing it to Anaheim in '07. And that was another new experience, seeing that many people waiting at the airport for you. It was around 4,000 people, and seeing that is something you wish you could relive at a moment's notice, because you probably won't get that visual again until you win it all, if we do." [LA Kings Insider]

    • John Davidson on his future with the St. Louis Blues: "As of right now, Tom, who I have a lot of respect for, is deciding in his own mind how he wants to have the organization set up," Davidson said. "He bought a hockey club and he runs the business. We don't know what he's going to do. He might keep everything exactly the same. He might not keep everything exactly the same. I have no idea what he's trying to do." [FS Midwest]

    • Matt Hendricks and Mike Knuble of the Washington Capitals join the "You Can Play" movement. Said Hendricks: "For me, those areas are black and white: What's right, and what's wrong. If I have the opportunity to help in any way — to clear up those areas and make them more black and white — I'll take that opportunity. Hockey is a great game and anybody should be able to play it. And it doesn't matter if you're gay or straight in my opinion. It comes right to the slogan: if you can play, you can play. And as we move forward as a society, people are more open and they're willing to share a lot more freely. But it's not where it should be. It should be a lot easier than it is right now." [Dump 'n Chase]

    • Puck Stops Here says Jonathan Quick for Conn Smythe, takes a shot at Abel To Yzerman. [TPSH]

    • Debating shot blocking in the NHL. Says Ken Campbell: "Did you ever pause to think that blocked shots are down because teams are less inclined to shoot because they realize the chances of it reaching the net are about as good as Snookie joining a nunnery? No wonder blocked shots are down. It's pretty difficult to block a shot when all your opponent is doing is passing the puck around the perimeter. Now instead of launching bombs from the point, they're working it in deep and hoping to get the puck up and over the mass of humanity in front of the net. Oh, the excitement!" [THN]

    • Finally, the black and white footage on this clip at the start and finish is pretty awesome. It's like the "Wizard of Oz," only instead of brilliant colors in the middle it's drab hockey scenes.

  • Trending Topics: In praise of Jeff Carter, Mike Richards; ‘While The Men Watch’ criticism

    Trending Topics is a column that looks at the week in hockey, occasionally according to Twitter. If you're only going to comment to say how stupid Twitter is, why not just go have a good cry for the slow, sad death of your dear internet instead?

    Things are going exceedingly well for the Los Angeles Kings lately.

    They're in the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1993, when they needed four or five Hall of Famers (depending on if you count Rob Blake, and I do) and a virtual All-Star team to get there. They got there by beating the first-, second-, and third-seeded teams in the West. They beat them all with alarming ease, winning 12 of 14 games in a run of terrible efficiency not seen since the 1988 Edmonton Oilers won a Cup in 18 games.

    They have done all of this despite suffering from something that would have ripped apart most teams' chances like a bird going through a jet engine, and brought considerable shame on the parties responsible.

    Namely, two of the team's three highest-paid forwards haven't been especially good in terms of putting points on the board.

    Mike Richards and Jeff Carter have a combined 20 points in 14 playoff games. That includes only eight goals, three of which came for Carter in Game 2 against Phoenix. Not great totals for two guys who combined are making just over $11 million against the cap, especially when Dustin Penner and Justin Williams both have comparable point totals (both of them having more than Carter's mere nine).

    The narrative has been that this has been a season in which they proved their doubters wrong because they're not actively being detrimental to their teams, as they apparently were in Philadelphia, but that they need to pick up their individual games. And they could probably do that if not for the fact that Darryl Sutter is positively burying them at every opportunity.

    Behind the Net shows that both are starting considerably less than half their shifts in the offensive zone, and are getting outshot by hefty margins as a result; with Richards and Carter occupying the team's third-worst and actually-worst Corsi rates in these playoffs.

    But nonetheless, both have been on the ice for more goals for than against (not necessarily hard when you're winning 12 of your 14 games, admittedly), and are also wrapping the majority of their shifts in the offensive zone despite starting more than 54 percent of them 180 feet in the wrong direction.

    They've also been doing it against the toughest competition the Kings face.

    All of which is a long way of saying that Darryl Sutter has been using them largely in shutdown roles. And despite that fact, they and their linemates have scored pretty consistently. Of course, it probably doesn't make sense to use two guys making more than $5 million apiece as shutdown players over the long haul, and neither has really tapped the potential they showed in the past, which netted Richards an Olympic team invite, Carter a 40-goal season and both fat, long contracts.

    But if the practical upshot of putting them out there in those situations nets Dustin Penner a starring role and frees Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar to become the kind of force they've been for the Kings in these playoffs, then it's pretty hard to criticize either Sutter's personnel decisions or the performances of Richards and Carter.

    Obviously, the team would like to see them put more shots on goal — Richards in particular fewer than Trevor Lewis — and certainly start filling the nets at a more convincing rate, but they'll certainly settle for this.

    If either one gets even the slightest scoring touch going for themselves in the Finals, then the team that emerges from the East will probably see their Stanley Cup dreams wiped out in a hurry.

    The problem with "While the Men Watch" isn't that it's sexist (but it's that too)

    So much hate for the "While the Men Watch" audio channel that CBC is going to broadcast in a laughably misguided attempt to woo the approximately four people in Canada who have little to no interest in hockey (who's generalizing now?).

    Most have categorized it as sexist, and it certainly is that. In the video Julie Veilleux linked on this site yesterday, the women — I hestiate to call them masterminds — behind While the Men Watch sickeningly refer to themselves as "Sex and the City meets ESPN," which assumes that anyone in the universe was actually looking for an intersection of such things.

    There are a lot of problems with the whole concept, and the fact that it's shockingly misogynist isn't even at the front of the pack.

    Sure, it basely assumes women are shallow idiots not interested in the sport, but the real issue is that any kind of pandering like this is always going to be poorly-received, especially when it plays exclusively to stereotypes related to race, gender, nationality and so forth. Can you imagine, for example, how insufferable an audio feed for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals would be if it was done specifically for people who like that whole "Jersey Shore" culture?

    "Eyyy lookit this guy, he's gettin the puck to his buddy there, bada boom bada bing it's in the net!"

    "Ohhhh that play was better than my mother's red sauce! I bet these guys can't wait to go party after this one!"

    "Don't go in the corner with Dustin Brown you'll get whacked!"

    It would, rightly, be called out as offensive and terrible.

    And the other issue is that any women who might sit there and let their husbands tell them what they're going to watch, will almost certainly not be able to convince him that listening to two morons blather on about the makeover tips they'd give Anze Kopitar and whether Matt Greene could be their boyfriend is a viable way to spend his evening with the Stanley Cup Finals. This reeks of men in a board room trying to guess at what women want, then finding two cartoon characters to deliver it.

    I'm sure more than a few people will check it out for Game 1 thanks to a morbid curiosity, and I have faith that the internet will dutifully compile the dumbest garbage these ladies have to say into YouTube videos. But think of it this way: In all the discussion about this in the media and on Twitter, how many people have said that this is even a slightly good idea, or one with any merit?

    They say any publicity is good publicity, but they don't say the same about insipid gender role-reinforcing female minstrelry during hockey games, and there's a good reason for that. It's extremely offensive and will only serve to get people upset.

    Pearls of Biz-dom

    We all know that there isn't a better Twitter account out there than that of Paul Bissonnette. So why not find his best bit of advice on love, life and lappers from the last week?

    BizNasty on the radio's hard choices: "At this point I'd rather sacrifice my ears to a whole Nickelback album than hear the song 'Someone that I used to know' one more time."

    If you've got something for Trending Topics, holla at Lambert on Twitter or via e-mail. He'll even credit you so you get a thousand followers in one day and you'll become the most popular person on the Internet! You can also visit his blog if you're so inclined.

More Puck Daddy »

The Copper & Blue The Copper & Blue

from
More The Copper & Blue »

Oilers Fans on

  • Oilers Fans on Flickr
  • Oilers Fans on Flickr
  • Oilers Fans on Flickr
Go to Oilers Flickr Group »

Oilers Blog Roll

Are we missing a great Oilers blog?

Let us know by submitting a url: