Monday Mailbag – Benning or Nurse

Oh hey there, friendly mailbag readers. Can you believe that we’re only 100 days away from the season already? *sigh* It’s once again your cue to stop doing anything productive and learn something from your pals at the Nation (mostly me*) in this here mailbag. As always, I need questions for next week so email me your question to baggedmilk@oilersnation.com or hit me up on Twitter at @jsbmbaggedmilk and I’ll get it into the rotation as soon as I can. With that, I present another edition of the Mailbag. Enjoy.

Work on it. “When they decide it is an area of their game that needs to improve, they will focus on it,” Mark Letestu told me when I asked him. It comes down to practice, watching film on opponents and putting more of an emphasis on it. Drai and McDavid are young. I can understand why they focused on other aspects of their game to train, since there are only so many hours in a day, but six years in and now improvement for RNH is the concern. McDavid and Draisaitl will improve as they gain more experience as well. But in any game a player can struggle in the dot and still win. Malkin was 15% in game six and Crosby was 21%. It didn’t matter. They won.

I’m no expert so won’t venture beyond what I have read in regard to this matter. “Man strength” is often referenced, and that makes sense, as a player like Connor McDavid will very likely be much better at 24 than he is today. There is also “strong side” and “weak side” faceoffs, so an easy way to fix this quickly is to have a RHC and LHC on each line. Suspect Peter Chiarelli may have that as a goal.

Repetition and experience, which go hand in hand. Work at the skill. No secret here.

Having been one of the NHL’s top faceoffs centermen myself, I can speak from experience when I say that the only way to get better is to train in a remote Russian farmland. Chase around the chickens. Carry large logs on your shoulders. Do some light jogging. That kind of thing.

Or get older and stronger and actually focus on that skill.

Honestly, our bottom six centermen were all around 50% this season. The only guys I would be concerned about is Connor, Nuge, and maybe Leon. I would be patient with Leon and Connor as they just need time to get bigger, stronger, and more experienced. Their time will come. As far as Nuge, who has six years of NHL experience already? Your guess is as good as mine… move him to a wing? (jokes)

Cam Lewis: Players get better at this as they get older and stronger. It’s pretty uncommon you see a teen in the NHL outmuscle a grown ass man. Edmonton has a bunch of kids as their top three centres, so they aren’t going to excel in that part of the game. That said, there’s quite a bit of evidence that suggests it’s more about what your team does after the draw than the actual face-off itself that’s important.

I think a big part of it comes from experience and a willingness to put the work in. I remember early in Crosby’s career when he said he wanted to work on faceoffs and then he came back the next year much better in the dot because of how hard he worked at it. I think the Oilers need to practice the skills more and maybe bring in some outside help. Invest in your assets, man. Unless, of course, you’re of the growing number of people that are showing that faceoffs aren’t all that important.

Benning won’t fill in for Sekera, since he plays RD and Sekera is a LD. It likely will be Nurse unless they sign a vet. Nurse and Benning have different strengths to their game. Nurse’s injury was bad timing. I felt he was just getting in a good groove. Ideally, I’d have them in my third pairing, so they can continue to grow and develop, but today I think Nurse is slightly ahead, due to more games played, but the gap isn’t very big.

I will give the nod to Benning, who seems to be more consistent (something that young defenders force a coach to deal with during development).Benning is about one year older and that is always a factor, and of course, both men are still developing as NHL players. Wonderful to be able to talk about such talented players as opposed to youngsters best described as long shots.

Do we know the other half of second pairing yet? Easier answered when know what happens with Kris Russell and who, if anybody, is added to the mix.

I hope that it’s Nurse who has to fill in for Sekera because the team went out and grabbed an upgraded 2RHD that forces Benning to stay on the third pairing. That way when Sekera returns the team will have improved on last year and the Nurse/Benning pair gets to do their thing with the least amount of pressure.

This is a closer argument than I was expecting once I thought about it a little more. Darnell Nurse has more NHL experience, but Matt Benning has more professional experience if you include his college days. If I’m McLellan, I give them both a chance on the second pairing and see who excels more. I don’t think one of them out-performed the other SO MUCH in a way that they deserve the spot.

Cam Lewis: It’s hard to speculate because we have no idea who’s going to be on the roster to fill certain roles. I would rather see Benning jump into a bigger role than Nurse, because the former plays a significantly smarter and more responsible game, but Benning, being a right-handed defenceman, is irrelevant in the context of replacing Sekera. I imagine Kris Russell will be signed and will slot in as the No. 2 left-handed defenceman because the free agent market is thin and he’s already a familiar face.

Let me start this off by saying I love Darryl. Nurse is an absolute beauty, but I think he should still be on the third pairing. There are times when he still gets himself caught out of position and having him moved higher in the roster than is warranted could leave him exposed. Benning doesn’t seem to make the same kind of mistakes, and would be better suited for that pairing.

I’d argue the 1987 team was better because it added Kent Nilsson and Reijo Ruotsalainen to an already loaded lineup. The 1977 Montreal Canadiens went 60-8-12 and won the Cup. They were dominant. I’d pick either of those teams.

I would probably go with the 1987 crew. They are the one I think of whenever the question comes up. It’s really different shades of brilliant, to be honest, but I would pick 1987. If you review that roster, the talent is so overwhelming.

I have to go with the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens. They lost eight games, had 132 points and won the Cup, going 12-2 in the playoffs. Never liked the Habs as a fan back then, but credit where it’s due.

My memories of that team are a little fuzzy, as I was still two months away from my second birthday when that season concluded. Honestly, the greatest ever team thing doesn’t interest me at all because the Oilers own the game. Their team was so stacked in the 80’s that nobody compares.

Yeah, it’s pretty hard to disagree with that team. Granted I wasn’t even a twinkle in my father’s eye yet, bu they sure sound good!

Cam Lewis: The 2015 post-trade deadline Blue Jays. If Brett Cecil didn’t get hurt, they would have gone all the way.

I’m too young to remember the glory days so I have to go with what I remember. I remember the 2002 Red Wings that won the Cup and thinking about how that team raised the bar. I mean, just look at the roster. Yzerman, Fedorov, Shanahan, Hull, Lidstrom, Hasek, Chelios… so good.

The NHL is the same league that felt teams deserved compensation if a coach or GM they fired was hired by another team and saved the team who fired him money. It doesn’t surprise me. Many of their decisions suggest they don’t have a willingness to admit when they made a mistake. It will likely take another year before they change it, just like it did with the coach/GM compensation.

I have no idea what they’re doing and fear the NHL has the same problem.

Stubborn. Out of touch with what fans want.

I think that making that call in the middle of the Cup playoffs is almost impossible because it’s an admission that the rule is broken. These decisions should be made in the summer when nobody has to save face. The offside challenge is a ridiculous rule.

It’s absolutely disgusting and I hate it. Why do we need to wait until 2022 until Bettman’s gone. Can’t we just fire him? WHO DO I TALK TO ABOUT THIS.

Cam Lewis: There are so many things about the league that need fixing, but the fact that this obviously flawed, buzzkill, PR disaster of a rule is still allowed life makes it impossible to expect improvement elsewhere.

*bends over, farts loudly* That’s about it.

Today is much different than June 17^th, but I would say Minnesota, Anaheim and Pittsburgh because they stand to lose a quality defender or goalie. I expect them to make a trade before June 17^th so the player they lose is not as valuable as who they stand to lose today.

Las Vegas for sure. Their owner thinks they’re going to be good and that won’t happen. I do think that Anaheim is in a very difficult spot with their plethora of defensemen and we should look for a trade (which may have happened by the time you read this).

Anaheim and Minnesota are near the top for me. Bieksa’s NMC is the problem in Anaheim. With the Wild, it’s the number of good defencemen they have.

Expansion is interesting. I think most teams are OK and can accept losing the caliber of player they’re going to lose. There are teams that need to make tougher decisions though. Anaheim has to make a move, I think, in order to not be taken advantage of. Chicago is desperate to make a move to help be cap compliant. These teams are having their hands forced by the expansion process. Columbus has some weird hitches too. It’s tough to gauge because in some cases if a player waves their NMC then it eases pressure on the teams. So in many ways it’s up to the players how painful they make this on their clubs.

I think that’s tough to answer right now because I have a feeling we’ll see a few trades happening before the draft. I think NYR is in trouble with all their forward depth. I’m very curious to find out who they leave unprotected. The Penguins also don’t have a choice but to make a move on one of their goalies. If they opt not to trade any of them, whoever’s left unprotected is going to Vegas hands down.

Cam Lewis: Anybody who’s good is in a bad spot, and anybody who’s young is in a good spot. Pittsburgh, Anaheim, Minnesota, San Jose, and so on are going to lose a good player. Toronto, Arizona, Carolina, and so on are going to fly through unscathed. It’s unfortunate, but I would rather Vegas be immediately somewhat decent than not.

I’m looking at teams like Anaheim, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Nashville… They can only protect so many guys and I think there will be some interesting deals coming up to try and minimize the damage.