Monday Mailbag – Should the Oilers stop blocking shots?

Can you believe that tomorrow is the day when Connor McDavid finally returns to the lineup? It’s been three long months, but he’s finally coming back. Well… he’s coming back tomorrow, but waiting one more day is a lot better than waiting three months! Until then, we need to find ways to kill time, and the mailbag is here to help you. Enjoy.

I think blocking shots is part of penalty killing for sure, but we can debate its use at other times. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is a complete player, and as such he is going to be killing penalties. I can’t speak to technique — maybe these young players need Jason Strudwick to come over for a session or two — but I have no quarrel with the idea of blocking shots. Injuries are part of the game, and Nuge killing penalties is just good business. I am less convinced McDavid should be a PK guy.

I’ve never heard McLellan say he demands players block shots, but if you are on the PK then it is expected. I wouldn’t play my stars on the PK, because most don’t know how to block shots properly, and I wouldn’t waste valuable practice time teaching them that. They can excel fine without it. I think the new culture of everyone blocking shots is terrible for the game, but I don’t see it changing. It is just another aspect that makes hockey more boring than it used to be. I believe hockey is become less exciting every year and the NHL needs to eventually address it.

I don’t see unrelated injuries impacting a coach’s philosophy on shot blocking or his expectations on same. I’m not crazy about everybody diving in front of pucks, but that’s just me.

I think blocking shots is a part of winning. However I don’t think players need to put their hands out like goalies to stop the puck. Line up with the shooters stick — this makes it easier for the goalie to predict where the shot will go.

Nuge aside, they luckily haven’t really had anyone go down due to injury long term due to shot blocking. I grew up being taught that you basically do everything in your power to stop the puck from reaching your net, including throwing your body in front of it, so my gut reaction is, “It’s just part of the game” type of thing. But as guys get bigger and stronger, and shots get harder and harder, I do have more of a hard time justifying your top end guys going out there and getting in the way of point shots. And I mean what’s more valuable: a healthy Nuge playing every game and helping your team win, or blocking one shot that probably wasn’t going to go in anyway? And as we’ve talked about ad nauseam this season goalies seem to be getting better and better every year, so I think we’re getting to a point where shot blocking is not remotely as valuable as it was 10, 20 years ago. Long story short PLEASE DON’T MAKE CONNOR GO OUT THERE AND BLOCK SHOTS!

Blocking shots is an expected part of the job, and with good reason; it makes it tougher for the opposition to score. Todd McLellan has talked about the need to do it safely, and that seems like the key issue to me: making sure that when players go to block shots they’re facing the blast head on and standing up whenever possible so as not to expose less protected areas. 

Seeing Matt Hendricks get hit in the nuts with that puck made me think that they should not only ban blocking shots, but replace all pucks with foam pellets. And don’t even get me started on how bad I feel that poor Nugey broke his… cleaning hand. 

I saw the Eberle injury and it looked like an everyday play. So that was a fluke for sure. Others, like Klefbom or Nuge, are part of the game and tough to avoid. Hopefully Edmonton has a change of luck for next year.  Conditioning? I can’t speak to that but skating in the NHL seems like a tough thing to do when you are not in shape.

Conditioning has little to do with broken bones or deep bruises (McDavid, RNH, Klefbom, Hendricks, Korpikoski). Yak got tackled by a ref and Eberle’s was a shoulder issue — not a conditioning thing. They have bad luck and the organization seems a bit cursed. Since 2009 the Oilers are sixth in man games lost to injury. Having younger players who aren’t physically as mature as other teams might be a small part, but mainly they have terrible luck. If I was them I’d have a Shaman or someone else “cleanse” their room, or at very least bless their new rink before playing in it. I don’t see how it would hurt.

What does conditioning or a reckless style have to do with Connor McDavid’s busted collarbone or Nail Yakupov’s ankle sprain or a puck that breaks Oscar Klefbom’s knuckle/hand or a concussion from a head shot? Nothing. Frustrating that injuries pile up, but I don’t see any connection.

I do not believe in curses although I do believe in witches. Many of the Oilers’ injuries have been bad luck. I do think that players become more likely to become injured when they are tired. This doesn’t mean they are out of shape just means a lot of games and maybe too much ice time.

I’m going with curses. The Oilers are still repaying all that karma from the 80s dynasty by constantly being terrible, and I think the injuries are the bad side of the whole “use this monkey paw to wish for all the number one draft picks” thing that Katz seems to have gotten himself into. On top of that, now we’ve forsaken Rexall by building Rogers Place, so even it was like, “Oh what so I’m not good enough for you anymore? FINE THEN CHECK OUT ALL THESE RUTS IN THE ICE!!” No other explanation makes sense to me.

I think it’s overstated. Edmonton was below average in terms of man-games lost in 2012-13, according to mangameslost.com. They were sixth in 2013-14, but near the bottom of the league by that site’s quality of losses metric. They were 12th in 2014-15 and again near the bottom of the league by quality of losses. Every team has injuries, and prior to this year I don’t see a pattern of particularly bad fortune in that department.

I squarely blame the injury problems on Chris the Intern. Things really started taking a turn for the worse when he started writing the injury report. If you’re looking for someone to blame, make it Chris. 

I think there is an impact, yes. For me, I would bet one of Justin Schultz or Mark Fayne are heading out of town. Schultz because Clendening duplicates his skill set, and Fayne because there may be value for Fayne in the marketplace and another righty (to add to Gryba, Schultz and now Clendening) may have been warranted.

I don’t see it impacting much. He is third pairing depth, which they have a lot of. It helps he is a right shot and gives them a bit more depth on that side, but I don’t see how his appearance makes Chiarelli hungrier to make a deal. I’d hope he was starving to make one prior to adding him.

Don’t know the player well enough to know what impact he’ll have. Adding depth in an area of need is never a bad idea. For now, I see Clendening as that.

I think this opens up the right side of the D to trade options. I don’t know that Adam is a long term solution based on his NHL play this far into his career but he can fill a hole if someone leaves.

I think it makes Schultz more expendable, if that was even possible at this point. I still don’t know much about Clendening but from everything I’ve ready he’s in a similar mould as Schultz (high end offensive D-man in the AHL still trying to find his way in the NHL, similar in size, etc), so I can see Chiarelli looking at him as a stop gap in the very least to fill the hole left by Schultz at, or before the trade deadline. Best case scenario he’s a long term solution in the 4-5-6 role on the right side, which leaves one less hole for Chiarelli to fill, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

I wonder a little bit if what Chiarelli was hearing from other general managers didn’t inform the Clendening acquisition. In a lot of cases, teams want to keep contracts neutral, so a warm body comes back when a rental player is shipped out. All the Clendening add means from a deadline perspective is that when Chiarelli starts making subtractions on the right side of the blue line he doesn’t need to bring a body in.

On the North x NorthGretz podcast I declared that Justin Schultz will be traded this week. I also predicted Connor McDavid would be back on New Year’s Eve, and again two weeks ago against Calgary, so you know I’m good. 

Braden Holtby, Duncan Keith, Erik Karlsson, Jamie Benn, Taylor Hall, Alex Ovechkin.

What are rules of the league? Straight up points, or are goals worth more? PIMs? Shots on goal? Depends what rules are. If it is just straight points and it’s a keeper league: Patrick Kane, Jamie Benn, Connor McDavid, Erik Karlsson, Brent Burns and Braden Holtby.

Kane, Benn, Seguin, Karlsson, Burns, Holtby.

Goalie: Lundqvist

D: Duncan Keith, Drew Doughty

F: Jamie Benn, Jonny Toews, Pat Kane

McDavid, Ovechkin and Benn up front, Subban and Doughty on the back end and Corey Schneider between the pipes.

I hate to say this, but it really does depend. If I’m reading your question right, we’re talking about fantasy hockey, though you don’t specify a keeper league or a one-year deal. If we’re just looking over the rest of this year I’d be super boring and go with Patrick Kane and the Dallas Jamie Benn/Tyler Seguin duo (which gives you a nice LW-C-RW balance). On defence, Erik Karlsson is obvious and Brent Burns is scoring goals at a ludicrous pace. In net I don’t trust Carey Price to get back soon enough or Cory Schneider to collect wins, so it’s basically a coin toss between Corey Crawford and Braden Holtby. I think I’d take Holtby but it’s close.

Benn, Toews, McDavid up front, Karlsson and Weber on D, 1999 Dominik Hasek in net. 

What do you consider a luxury item? I will say swim-up bar with endless drinks (that is one), luxury hotel attached to the swim-up bar, Mary Anne from Gilligan’s Island. Oh, and it is all comp’d.

A chef — I want to eat well.

A masseuse…

A big screen TV with internet access.

A helicopter. I won’t need the other two.

1- Blistex Lip Medex

2- Body Pillow

3- Neil Diamond greatest hits

Some kind of solar powered generator so that I could power one of those TVs with a built in DVD player and a DVD copy of “How To Get Off A Desert Island” so I get could the hell out of there. And if that DVD is not available than a copy of Terminator 2 as it is the best movie of all time.

First item, no question, is my Kindle. I’ve got enough on there to read to last several years on a desert island, and maybe I’ll finally finish Moby Dick. Naturally I’ll need some kind of solar panel hookup for that. Finally, if I could arrange for a crate of Highland Park to wash ashore, that would just about do it.

Machete, fire stick, box of porn (assorted). A guy can get lonely, ya know?

Can you believe that we’ve been through 37 McDavid-less games since that horrible November night when he crashed into the boards and broke his angel wing? Three months have past, and we’ve all been left to pray for his return and find any means possible to pass the time until then. The wait is nearly over, and we’re throwing a charity shindig at the Pint Downtown to celebrate. 

What does your ticket get you?

As always, 100% of the proceeds for the Connor’s Better will be donated directed to the Inner City Children’s Program in an effort to help “foster positive interpersonal relationships, self-confidence, resilience, and skills acquisition in inner city, at-risk, low income children in elementary and junior high settings through holistic, year-round programming and community collaboration.”

Tickets are available here and will also be sold at the door.