Campaigns for the Next 'Faces of the NHL'

Patrick Kane at Deadspin.

Taylor Hall at Our Hometown.

And the news over the All-Star Game Weekend was that Columbus will host the 2013 All Star Game. This blog at this time next year will be getting some major coverage with me dispatching things from front and center to make some memories.

God I hope Taylor Hall is in C-Bus that weekend. It will be neat to have fans from all over Europe and Canada in town to see our city and celebrate hockey.

Oilers lose 3-2 Ovetime Thriller to Canucks

[Event Summary]
[Cult of Hockey]

I'm glad I watched this overtime, it was action-packed and high flying. The Oilers fell on the short end of the stick in a shootout after Ales Hemsky tied it up.

Taylor Hall, Goal #16. This one of the re-direct variety on the powerplay:

Taylor Hall's Shootout Magic Downs Sharks 2-1

 [Event Summary]

[Cult of Hockey]

I've never understood why in the game of hockey when you hit a shootout goal that wins it, you don't get credit for a goal. It leaves things feeling hollow.

Oilers lose Battle of Alberta 6-2 to Flames

[Event Summary]

[Cult of Hockey] [Edmonton Journal] [NHL.com]

In Saturday night’s dismal 6-2 loss to Calgary, what the fans were glued to, above all, was the passion and competitive fire of winger Taylor Hall, and not merely because of that raccoon-like shiner on his left eye.

Even as the seconds were ticking away in the third period of the club’s latest loss, there was Hall on his knees in the Oilers net, trying to stop a shot by Lee Stempniak, who buried the puck in the empty net for his third goal of the game.

Hall cursed, picked himself up, skated back to the Oilers bench, broke his stick and hollered at no one in particular and the whole team in general something to the effect of  “Why don’t we have a goalie?”

Oh boy. The Oilers better turn things around and start developing a winning culture at all costs here soon.

Taylor Hall looks like SHIT

Says he will try and play Saturday in the Battle of Alberta. He's definitely out tonight. Man these Edmonton Oilers are snake-bitten.

Bad Luck on the Glass

[Event Summary]
[NHL.com highlights] [Cult of Hockey]

Tonight I got to sit behind the goal on the glass. I came to see Taylor Hall, I waited all year for this. And here's what happened, in the corner I was sitting in moments before I got to my seat.



I found out from a guy who was watching warm-ups after not seeing Hallsy out there. The whole game went by and I didn't get to see him play. I have such rotten luck.

That said I did my absolute best to take in the atmosphere and enjoy the game. The Oilers did not hold it down for me. Better luck come March. Literally. 

Here's Ladislav Smid. He took a huge shot into the boards late in the game. Win or lose, he seems to play hard.

Here's the Bulin Wall. He makes up one half of my fantasy goalie roster. The other half was in net and had a rough night for the Oil.

Just another face off right in front of us.

One of the assistant captains Ryan Smyth. He looks like a hockey player.

This shot was captured by accident, but ended up being a pretty good close up of Ales Hemsky.

Stinger, the Blue Jackets mascot rallying the troops.

Smid, Smyth, Paajarvi goofing around before game time.

Theo Peckham almost mixed it up with Rick Nash a few times. My buddy called him "Peckman" just like Don Cherry.

Ryan Jones, the best hair in hockey.

I can be seen at the tail end of this goal that made it 3-2 Jackets:


You can see me on Dorsett's empty netter, for a split second:


Here's my buddy in a couple of shots behind the net (lower right hand corner in the black. I'm just out of the shot in the red):

And again:

Headed to a Hockey Game Tonight!

One of the luxuries of living in a 'hockey town' is that you can see a lot of stars on opposing teams when they come to town as the visitor. Living in Columbus, Ohio; the only reason to go to the arena is to take in the aesthetics of the design, and to see the visiting team.

Tonight it's not just any visiting team, but it's my team the Edmonton Oilers in town. No Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, no Jordan Eberle. But Taylor Hall will be in uniform and the Oilers will hopefully notch their second straight win.

The first and only time I've ever seen the Oilers live, they collapsed and lost to the Jackets. I have a good feeling about tonight's game.

My friend Tyler and I will be sitting in the corner on the glass. Lots of pictures and goodies to come.

Oilers choose ICON as Project Manager for YEG Arena

Good read over at the Oilers official site about the new arena project:

The City of Edmonton and the Katz Group have selected ICON Venue Group (ICON) as project manager for Edmonton's proposed downtown arena. In the last 10 years, ICON has been project manager for nine new arenas, including Pittsburgh, New Jersey, Phoenix, and Denver.


“We are pleased to have a company with the credentials and experience that ICON brings to this project,” said Rick Daviss, the City’s newly-appointed Executive Director of the Downtown Sports and Entertainment District Project. “We continue to work on Council’s direction of getting to 60% design and getting a guaranteed maximum price and ICON has a strong history of being able to deliver exceptional design and, should we proceed to construction, of delivering projects on-time and on-budget.”

Rumor has them breaking ground in April of 2013.

Hall's Overtime Wrister beats Kings 2-1

[Event Summary]

[Cult of Hockey]

I didn't have the chance to watch the Oilers last night other than periodic glances at the box score throughout the game. Right as I was going to bed, Taylor Hall hit the winning shot in overtime, his 15th goal of the season to finally snap the Oilers losing streak. Great passes by Hemsky and Horcoff set up the winning wrist shot by Hall from 18 feet out. 

Here's what Cult of Hockey had to say about Hall's game, and he scored another great game on their 'game score' scale.

Taylor Hall, 8 – He and linemates Gagner and Hemsky brought it all night, and were finally rewarded when Hall struck for the game winner on an overtime powerplay. The personal rivalry between Hall and Drew Doughty (both pictured) is already exceptional, and promises to go to another level at such time as realignment gets approved.



Tomorrow night my friend and I are going to be attending the Oilers game here in Columbus, sitting on the glass. It's the first time I've ever gotten to see a hockey game up that close, so I'm pretty excited.

Oilers lose 2-1 in Overtime to Devils

EDMONTON 1

VS.

NEW JERSEY 2
-------------------------
[Cult of Hockey] [Event Summary]

While tonight's game wasn't particularly exciting, it was very interesting as there were many little things to look at and watch during the 60 minutes of play. I don't know if I'll capture them all, but there were certainly more stories than usual.

The deciding feature of tonight's game was New Jersey's ability to get sticks on the puck and break up scoring chances. Many players, and especially Parise and Kovalchuk did this very well all night long and it kept the Oilers from scoring despite the fact that they were getting the puck in good shooting areas and generally carrying the play. This was somewhat surprising considering the Oilers lineup, but the Devils don't appear to be very good at much else outside of their top line.

The Oilers had their chances to win this game. They controlled the first period (especially the first ten minutes) and also got two consecutive powerplay chances to start the second. That should normally be more than enough for a team to build a substantial lead against a weak opponent and take it home. I am in fact quite confident that if even only Mr. Eberle was added to this lineup, that would have occurred. Understaffed as the team was, they were not able to take advantage and despite a strong push in the third, they wound up on the losing end of things tonight.

The way Renney used his lines tonight was rather interesting. The first period and specifically early saw more use of the fourth line than usual. I was quite surprised by this, especially considering Milan Kytnar may have still been digesting his airline snack mix and working the kinks out of his plane/taxi legs. They played okay but it seemed strange to use them in this manner. After a somewhat lacklustre PP (mainly because his linemates stood still and were not open), Renney benched Hemsky for a PP shift. This only lasted one shift and when he came back he had the same level of jump he was showing 5-on-5. In the third period, Renney played the Hall-Gagner-Hemsky line more often, reading just as he should have that they were really the only line going. Overall it was a better coached game than others of late. The only thing late that baffled me was Ben Eager's shift with very little time to go, that nearly resulted in 2 slashing penalties.

It is tough for a team to win when it really only has one line that can score. I'll get into it more in the individual breakdown, but lines 2-4 didn't have much of a hope tonight. 3 and 4 were put together this way with what scrap parts we had lying around, and 2 had an off game both 5-on-5 and on the PP to some extent. They didn't necessarily put forth a bad effort, they just didn't have any real offensive jump tonight.

Defensively, both teams put forth a fairly solid effort using very different styles. I'm not sure what style the Oilers are deploying exactly, but aside from a couple of flurries the Devils didn't really get much. The Oilers got the chances, but as noted above, the Devils stick-play shut them down pretty effectively and they didn't have the personnel to wear down the opposition.
--------------

Khabibulin
- Can't complain. He made some excellent saves on Devils chances that seem to come in from much closer on average than other teams. The Devils set up little pass plays very close to the net (almost too close) and #35 had to be quick. Not much to be done on the Kovalchuk goal...he showed how a breakaway king does it right there. I suppose he could have pulled an NHL 12 style diving poke-check, but Kovalchuk is probably quick enough to dodge that.

Hordichuk-Kytnar-Eager
- I'm guessing these will be five and change of the most memorable moments of #64's life. He certainly didn't shame himself out there, only giving the puck away a couple times and nearly scoring a goal from the side of the net in the second period. He was certainly rushing the puck out there, and often passing back to his defencemen who were safer targets, but for a guy who leapt off a plane and sped to the rink? Decent enough. Hordichuk landed some hits but also let up on a couple others. He seems far too cosy in his roster spot right now and is not going out of his way to make a difference. On nights like tonight he simply skates around, hits a couple people, and returns to the bench. Eager was okay I suppose but mostly invisible. I would've liked to see him play with Lander and Paajarvi to be honest, as he tends to jump at offensive chances well, but there weren't many of those tonight. He is also neglecting his duty to play the physical game even more so than Hordichuk.

Paajarvi-Belanger-Lander
- Ahh, the line built to...I'm not sure what. Everyone was of course interested and glad to see Magnus back in town. Aside from one relatively decent scoring chance he had a pretty quiet night. I know people wanted to see him crash the net...though probably not his own net as he did in the second period. He was okay in terms of getting into the play and working for the puck, but there was nothing really new to his game, he didn't get much chance to shoot or pass, and he did not use his speed to get open in dangerous areas. It is just game one, but I hope there's more to his return than this. Lander got hit a bunch tonight. He usually takes the beating pretty well, but by the third tonight he looked quite shaky and tired. It is good that he plays a physical game and indeed laid a couple very nice hits, but he should also protect himself a little better. No real offensive action from him tonight. Eric Belanger got two very solid shooting chances. One went right into Hedberg's midsection and another went into the pad for no rebound. While the shot choice on the second was good (credit to Hedberg for controlling it), the first was horrible and was a better chance. I don't know why he doesn't have a wrist shot he can use. He was also on the powerplay and nothing new was going on there...PK was solid as per usual. Frustrating that #20 wasn't winning races to pucks tonight though. Might have had something to do with the way he had to position himself I suppose.

Smyth-Horcoff-Jones
- This line might have under performed most when compared to expectations. Horcoff had a really tough night. You could see the effort was there, but for some reason the body wasn't willing and he lost or quit on several races for the puck tonight. He made an awkward weakly-shot mess of a chance that Smyth set him up for, and didn't have much else to give in the offensive zone. On the PP he was okay, but drifted out of position and got lost a couple times. People tend to forget that #10 is actually a very good goalie screener and he's gotten away from that lately. Smyth obviously played a huge part in our only goal by providing a perfect screen (it looked like he was virtually sitting on Hedberg's right shoulder), but aside from that had a weak game. He missed several pucks that were directed towards him in front of the net, didn't win as many corner battles as usual, took a stupid penalty and also made a bunch of errant passes to absolutely no one. He had Horcoff open and all the time in the world on one play in the first and didn't even come close from behind the net. It was ugly at times. He looks so tired. Jones didn't have a lot of jump despite the promotion. I expected less of him than the others so I'm not going to judge him too harshly. He at least hit a couple people and pushed the puck forward in limited icetime.

Hall-Gagner-Hemsky
- Excellent effort from this line tonight. Hall and Hemsky a step above Gagner, but all-around they were very good. You could see Hemsky was going very early on, and save for a couple crossed wires and the fact that the Devils could focus all their defensive energy on these guys, they win the game going away in the first. Hall unfortunately whiffed on a couple passes in that period with his linemates open that were setting up as truly great scoring chances. He also made a mistake when Petry jumped into the play, made a brilliant fake-shot-to-pass move and Hall missed it because he'd stopped skating. Then he missed a Hemsky pass to Hall's office because he slacked for a second behind the net. I'm not ragging on the guy, just pointing out how much could have happened. I noted Hemsky's shift off earlier; he'd been great 5-on-5 prior to that, and was very good on the PP afterwards. He really controlled the flow of the play and set up both Gagner and Hall numerous times while having at least 3 scoring chances he generated on his own either stopped by Hedberg or deftly deflected by some of the Devils' best efforts of the night. As for his goal, I find it very revealing that so many people don't understand what happened there. It was not that Hemsky just shot because; he saw Smyth screening and the Devils forward had backed off of him, giving him a shooting lane. As well, there were not any good passing options because Potter had to make such an awkward play at the blue line. It was an excellent read by a guy who knows what he's doing, not just "firing it". I still believe he's supremely miscast playing that old MacTavish-style half board position, but that appears to be what we're stuck with. Gagner had a good game in that he played an excellent support role, stayed out to finish shifts and make sure there were no bad changes, fought hard for the puck and went to all the right areas for shots. It was disappointing that he misfired on several occasions and didn't dish the puck as good as he can, but was still very solid effort.

Potter-Peckham
- I was fairly impressed these guys survived the night. Potter I expected to play well but the pairing is a mismatch brought on by necessity. Potter was his usual self, jumping in a few times, making a key play to set up our goal, and making several hits that ended plays and got the Oilers the puck. I have to say that the penalty at the end of the third was pretty weak...especially after the way this game was reffed in the first period. If I were a player I'd have no idea what to expect most nights. It was a very clutchy-grabby New Jersey game in the first...and there was nothing. The Devils play a style that can often lead to penalties in the modern game (active sticks are frowned upon), but the first indicated it was a passive referee night...not so. Peckham did alright for himself, but he just can't contribute enough to the transition game to be useful when we need a boost. I'm still wondering where the big hits are as well...another game goes by without one.

Petry-Smid
- Kind of an all over the place game from these two. Petry made some utterly brilliant offensive reads including the set up to Hall and a couple of slap-passes that completely froze the Devils defenders. He also made shooting miscues and blew his defensive coverage a couple times. I"m going to chalk that up to growing pains and too much responsibility tonight. Loved the offensive passing from him, truly. Smid was having a very solid defensive game, but made a mistake that led to the winning goal. You cannot sell out flat like that on a 4-on-3 PP. It just won't work if the other team has any skill, and the goal by that shoulda-been-Oiler showed you why.

Sutton-Teubert
- They did quite well. Sutton made a horrendous giveaway in his own zone...only to make a brilliant set up pass on the very same shift. Aside from that 30 seconds, he kept it pretty quiet and didn't take any dumb penalties or jump badly into any rushes. Teubert played a solid, simple, physical game. He's passed Peckham (aside from maybe PK) and tonight's game was another example of that.
------------

Tough one. In a playoff season I'd be happy with the point on a night when we're that understaffed, but it is just disappointing at this stage. Need wins to feel good...at least it was an interesting game.

Hockey Weekend in America & Hockey Day in Canada

Glad to see there is another Hockey Weekend Across America (presented by Reebok) and another Hockey Day in Canada on consecutive weekends in February.

One of those two weekends I'll head to my local rink and definitely try to play some hockey. I plan on reading Bob Probert's book again in February "Tough Guy".

February is the best month for Hockey to get the spotlight and really flourish, and it's the best time of year for the sport. I cannot wait to celebrate both days.

Taylor Hall playing some great hockey

Taylor Hall has been playing like a man possessed lately.

He scored in Dallas, as he scored in St. Louis, as he scored in Buffalo, as he scored in Chicago.
He also beat Niklas Backstrom in St. Paul, Minn., before he took Nate Prosser’s stick smack in the mouth and looked like he’d been stung by a bee, his lip swelled so badly. He got clubbed over the back of the head in St. Louis by Roman Polak’s lumber and was back about two shifts later with 10 stitches on his ear-lobe, a hazard of the business.

He didn’t score in Long Island, N.Y., or Vancouver, but he hit three posts against the Islanders and was a going concern against the Canucks. He had 31 shots during the seven games, including six against the Stars on Saturday, with another four shots that were blocked or went wide.

Hall has scored 29 points in 32 games. If he hadn’t missed seven games after hurting his shoulder in late November at Denver, where he mistakenly tried to take on old junior foe Ryan Wilson and took a crushing shot along the boards, he could have close to 40 points.

“He was on a mission this trip ... showing the passion you need in order to win in this league,” said Oilers coach Tom Renney, who played Hall for 24 minutes and 18 seconds in Vancouver; 20:16 at New York in a juicy battle with John Tavares, another first overall draft pick; 21:37 in Buffalo; and 22:33 against Dallas.

He played a whopping 20:17 even-strength against the Stars. With more penalties, maybe he’d have been out there 25 minutes. Part of that is Jordan Eberle, his Edmonton roomie, hurting his knee after just 1:53 and Renney looking down his bench and constantly spotting Hall.

“Taylor wanted the puck all the time. He wanted the responsibility of his team’s performance, never mind his own. That’s where champions start,” said Renney.


Another 4-1 loss took place on Saturday Afternoon in Dallas. Hall kept his point streak going, but it's coincided with an Edmonton losing streak. The Oilers lost Jordan Eberle for the foreseeable future; joining him with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on the injured list.

Oilers get back into the swing of things mid-week. I'll be back to write about it.

Oilers lose Thursday Nighter in St. Louis

[Event Summary]

[NHL.com] [Cult of Hockey]

It's becoming a common occurrence. Another night, another Taylor Hall goal, another 4-3 loss. The season is slipping away from the Oil. The Oilers also got the news that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins will be out 3 to 4 weeks with a separated shoulder.

We're just to that lull part of the year. I'll have the game on Saturday afternoon, but I like the Oilers players seem to know it's an exercise in futility. They'll go out, they'll lose, but they'll find a way to fall just short; and rinse wash repeat.

Right now I'm trying to just enjoy the development of Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle (Eberle added another goal last night too). That's what it's all about. Also I'm trying not to screw things up too badly on my hockey pool, but my fantasy lineup has been missing Scottie Hartnell now for two games this week (my own fault, I didn't update my lineup) of which he's scored a goal and he had 18 hits or something nuts in the Winter Classic.

Video of Taylor Hall's 13th Goal of the Year:


How about the fricking game the Bruins had last night against the Calgary Flames? A 9-0 win, Tyler Seguin nets his 16th goal of the season on a tip in, while adding two more assists.

Oilers fall short in Buffalo

[Event Summary]

[Edmonton Journal]

The Oil played in Buffalo last night, where I've heard that they still hand out nice score sheets with your admission at the door to The First Niagara Center. 

I had this game on while watching the Michigan-Virginia Tech bowl game, and I have to say the Oilers played inspired hockey, taking this into the 3rd period tied 2-2. Somehow from there I just had a feeling that they wouldn't be able to hold things, that Buffalo would find a way to eek out this victory and sure enough, if I'd bet it I would have been right. 

This was their first game without Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Ales Hemsky said that the boys gave up.

Here's Taylor Hall's beauty Goal #12 on the season:


One of my resolution as a hockey fan was to pay better attention to the WJHC going on right now, and when they started a few days before Christmas. I've failed miserably. Russia and Sweden going for the gold.

Oilers win in Chicago 4-3

[Event Summary]

[NHL.com] [Edmonton Journal]

Three Stars: 

*Ryan Smyth

**Taylor Hall

***Jonathan Toews 

The Oilers earned a win last night, but even in winning they had an element of defeat. Ryan Nugent Hopkins got hurt.

Taylor Hall's 11th Goal of the season (powerplay):