GDB 52.0: Perron in Paradise
By Jason Gregor
9 years agoDavid Perron has scored 6-3-9 in 12 games with the Penguins. He is averaging 19:12/game, but he is also -6. It is interesting to note that he has already played more 5×5 minutes with Crosby, 140, than he did with every Oiler except Teddy Purcell (191) and Mark Arcobello (250).
Perron wanted more icetime in Edmonton and he expressed the team should have balanced out their lines from time to time. He played fewer 5×5 minutes with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 47, than any other centre in Edmonton. Perron never asked for a trade, but he did express concern about icetime and opportunity.
“The guys that are there are good players. It is right to keep going with them. They drafted them, they are building with them so I understood the situation that they were going to go with them as the first line. However, I believe in this league you need more than one line to have success. I felt at times we could have tried and spread it out more to have more success. It is not a frustration thing and I gave 100% effort while I was there and I’m proud of that,” Perron said to me this morning.
He is correct in stating you need more than one line to win, and when the Oilers weren’t scoring early in the season, it might have been better to put Hall/Eberle with Acrobello and RHN with Perron and Purcell or Yakupov.
It is all hindsight now, but Perron never asked for a trade. He voiced his opinion, and my concern is that instead of taking it to heart the organization traded him away. The did have depth on the wings with Pouliot coming back, so dealing Perron still left them with four potential top-six wingers, but the overall depth of the team was weakened by trading Perron for a draft pick.
We’ve heard rumblings that playing with Crosby is difficult. Perron doesn’t think so, but he admitted you have to be leery of your place on the ice. “You can’t get caught watching Sid,” said Perron. “You have to try to not always look for him and just play the game.”
Perron also explained what surprised him the most about Crosby was how explosive he is through the neutral zone. “Hall and Nuge are very fast, but Crosby explodes with his first step. I’m not sure he is faster than them, but he really comes out of the zone with a burst. After a few games, coach told me I had to come down lower in the neutral zone or our zone so I could have enough speed to come up the ice with Sid. Coach switched me to the right side after a few games, because when I’m on my forehand I don’t have to take that extra stride coming out of the turn and that allows me to be quicker,” Perron explained.
It seems like a small thing, but Perron said circling lower has really helped him keep up with Crosby through the neutral zone and into the attacking end.
LINEUP…
Taylor Hall and Benoit Pouliot won’t play tonight. Hall’s bone bruise on his ankle flared up again in San Jose, while Pouliot was wearing a walking boot after the game. Todd Nelson said both are day-to-day and wouldn’t state what Pouliot’s injury is, but unless the boot was a decoy I think we can safely say he has a foot injury.
Iiro Pakarinen was the most NHL-ready player in OKC according to head coach Gerry Fleming, and Pakarinen will get a great opportunity tonight playing alongside Nugent-Hopkins and the suddenly red-hot Jordan Eberle.
You need two scoring lines and Derek Roy and Nail Yakupov have some chemistry so keeping them and Teddy Purcell on a line is the right decision by Nelson. Pakarinen plays a similar game to Pouliot, so slotting him on the first line is a natural.
Luke Gazdic will draw back in on a line with Anton Lander and Matt Fraser.
The D corps is the same and Viktor Fasth gets another start in goal. Fasth has played very well the past two weeks.
QUICK HITS…
It would be like me saying all women should not trust bloggers because Harrison Mooney and Steve Lepore lost their jobs because they were creeping on women via social media. Lumping all bloggers together is foolish and so is saying all MSM are alike. It simply isn’t the case.
Stating that one personal email between a writer and the PR person would automatically impact their decision making seems odd to me. From my understanding the context of the conversation was two guys who talk regularly and the email was between them. I’ve had many players, coaches, managment and PR people say things to me and vice versa in a text or email that didn’t automatically mean they became biased because of their view of one situation or person.
There are good, average and great bloggers just like their are good, average (me) and great members of the media. Everyone will like people for different styles. I’ve had many great email exchanges with WoodGuy (Darcy) discussing hockey and analytics. We don’t always agree, in fact rarely, but he brings up good points as do I. Speeds has good insight on the CBA. Blackdog Pat and I have exchanged numerous messages over the years. I have great chats with LT and learn stuff from Willis’ articles. I enjoy and respect their opinions, but that doesn’t mean I respect or like all bloggers, and it also doesn’t mean that those I dislike makes me instantly disagree with the stances in their articles.
The facts are Dellow had some very insightful work, but he was also loved attacking people online. That was his schtick. People can dislike him, but that doesn’t mean his work wasn’t solid, or that they automatically brushed it off. We all saw Derek Van Diest, Rob Tychkowski and Mark Spector take shots at Dellow on twitter when he was hired. They didn’t hide their disdain for him. That is their right, and Dellow never hid his for them or others which was his right.
I had disagreements with Dellow as well. I only base people on my personal interactions with them, I don’t base it on how they deal with others, because we are all different and unless it involves me directly I might not know the exact situation. Dellow liked to take shots, some of them warranted, but he liked to twist the knife in deep at times. That is fine, but when I sent him a shot about his failed law career, which was true, he didn’t like it. To me that showed he could gladly dish it out, but didn’t have thick enough skin to take it. After that, I stopped interacting with him. I continued to read his stuff, but didn’t comment on it. I never read his stuff believing it was wrong because of our personal interaction, that was separate from what he was writing about. He had stuff that made me think, he had articles I agreed with (Ribeiro signing and Iginla bad signing), and he wrote articles I disagreed with (Pouliot being the best free agent signing of the summer).
My viewpoint was not skewed at all due to how I felt about him. I respect his work, not how he interacted with people, and to me the two are very different.
I think it is time people let go of the supposed feud. Guess what, not all media members get along, so why would people expect every blogger and every media person to be chums? I suggest we all just move on. It is okay to disagree — often that is where we can learn things — but disagreeing doesn’t automatically equate to a lack of respect or being impartial.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING…
From the Pensblog…
The Pens begin their annual Western Canada swing with the first of three games in four days tonight in Edmonton against the last place Oilers. The song remains the same for the Pens who have played mediocre hockey since Christmas. They are 4-4-2 in their last ten, and basically just looking for signs of life at this point.Talking points for tonight…– Evgeni Malkin is back in the lineup. Malkin has arguably been the Pens MVP so far this season, his return should jump-start an offense that has only two goals in its last three games. He had three goals and seven assists in his previous eight games before the lower-body injury that has kept him out of the last five.– David Perron is back in Edmonton. We assume this what recidivism would feel like, except he’s only revisiting his former prison.– Edmonton is really bad, though they are 4-2 in their last six and 5-5 in their last ten (that’s actually really, really good for them).– Pens are 9-3-1 against the Western Conference this year. They split two games against Edmonton last season. They’re 5-0-2 in their last seven games against the Oilers, and 2-0-2 in their last four at the Rex.
TONIGHT…
GAME DAY PREDICTION: No Hall, no Pouliot equals no winning streak. Oilers lose 4-2 in a fairly entertaining game.
OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Perron scores.
NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: With the amount of empty seats at games recently the Oilers marketing staff starts thinking of ways to keep the fans entertained and excited. WWE was in Edmonton last week and they come up with a plan to have a Royal Rumble of Edmonton hockey writers. They believe fans will pay to watch Dellow, Tych, Willis, Spector, Stauffer, Henderson, Van Diest, Woodguy, Rishaug, Staples, Gazzola, Batty, Wanye, Strudwick, King, Nielson, Fenwick, Wilkins, MacKinnon and BlackDog battle it out in the ring. LT, McCurdy, Jones, Matheson and Brownlee will be the managers, because they are too old wise to participate and Mean Gene Principe will be the referee because he is the most likeable guy ever and is free of bias. There will be ten surprise entries on the night of the RR and rumour has it Kevin Lowe, Yukon Jack, Marc Majeau, JJ Hebert, Dallas Eakins and Rocky Thompson have begged for a chance to enter. Make this happen Oilers, make it happen.
Recently by Jason Gregor:
- GDB 51.0: Sharks watching Petry
- Don’t trade Hendricks or Gordon
- GDB 49.0: The McDavid Bowl
- GDB 48.0: The Nelson factor and Hall injured
- World Cup, All Star game and Mike Richards on waivers
- Monday Musings…
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