Welcome to Garner’s Gripes, a new column running each Monday that will feature a sampling of my beefs and complaints regarding the Edmonton Oilers. Actually, it will probably be a 50-50 mix of positive and negative observations, but I like the way Garner’s Gripes sounds. Enjoy!
Putting Nurse Omission in Perspective
Regardless of which team we root for – good, bad or the Edmonton Oilers – we’re all guilty of a little homerism from time to time. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Homerism fuels spirited debate with fans of opposing teams, drives the wackiest of wacky trade proposals, and justifies any and all emotional ties to Denis Grebeshkov. Homerism also ignites our fury when we feel that players from our favorite team are slighted. That brings us to Edmonton Oilers prospects Darnell Nurse, who failed to receive an invitation to Team Canada’s selection camp for the 2014 IIHF World Junior Championship.
Whenever you mix homerism with patriotism you have the ingredients for a powder keg of emotion. That emotion can lead people’s views to become horribly distorted. For instance, anyone who is now rooting for Team Canada to fail because of Nurse’s omission from the team is not only a moron, but a moron who’s consumed by an unhealthy level of bitterness. As an Oiler fan, would I like to see Nurse play for Team Canada and the World Juniors? Of course. However, his lack of participation isn’t going to stunt his development or hinder his ability to become a productive NHL player someday.
When I was a younger man, I was guilty of putting an ordinate amount of stock in a player’s participation in the World Junior Tournament. I felt that if a player didn’t represent his home country at the tournament, there was virtually zero chance that he could ever become an NHL star, regardless of his hockey resume. Conversely, in my mind, if a player excelled at the tournament his stock went through the Rexall Place roof. Was I wrong? Just compare Logan Couture to Jordan Eberle, two players with vastly different international experiences but virtually identical NHL careers.
Couture’s Team Canada snub motivated him to prove people wrong, and some NHL pundits consider him a certainty for Canada’s Olympic team in Sochi. At the end of the day, I would much rather have a prospect who feels slighted use it to push himself to the sport’s highest level, rather than being handed a ticket to Malmo, Sweden for a glorified exhibition. Nurse is a very promising NHL prospect, and you can make a strong case that he belongs on Team Canada. However, I would caution people against letting homerism cloud their vision of what Nurse currently is today, or what he’ll be going forward.
No Call as Bryzgalov Becomes Roadkill
I’m not usually one to complain about referees. They’re called upon to officiate one of the fastest, most physical sports on the planet, and it’s a thankless job that they pull off much more capably than their peers in the NFL, NBA or MLB. However, you won’t see many plays as egregious as the non-call on Dallas Stars forward Ryan Garbutt for running over Ilya Bryzgalov on Sunday. Goaltenders have always been heavily-padded sitting ducks, and they’re subject to all kinds of abuse that either prevents them from doing their job or puts them directly in harm’s way.
Maybe if Garbutt had shown any attempt to deviate from Bryzgalov’s dome I might feel a little differently, but he plastered the Oilers netminder, who’s likely to miss some time with one of the most blatantly obvious “upper-body” injuries I can recall in quite a while. Some might argue that Garbutt simply lost his footing on a partial breakaway, and Bryzgalov was collateral damage. The league has to do a better job of protecting the most vulnerable guys on the ice, and if players are held responsible for errant high sticks (regardless of intent) they should also be held accountable for plowing into goaltenders who can’t avoid contact.
With Bryzgalov on the shelf, the Oilers goaltending situation is now back to square one. Jason LaBarbera has been called up from Oklahoma City to serve as Devan Dubnyk’s backup, a man who’s been given up on and left for dead more times than James Bond during the first 28 games of the season. Dubnyk played like a champion in relief during the Oilers’ eventual victory over the Stars, and we’ll see if he can pull off another death-defying escape tomorrow night against the Phoenix Coyotes, who rank fourth in the NHL with 3.12 goals per game.
Speaking of the Oilers as a whole, how about a little love for a team that’s rolling right now? Winning five of their last seven games is phenomenal. Of course, the skeptic in me is quick to point out that some of those wins have come over non-playoff teams, and the seven-game stretch has been tainted by a couple absolute stinkers, but nobody’s going to turn down victories. Watching Dubnyk tomorrow night, I’m sure my fingers will be crossed tight enough to cut off circulation, but a win over the Coyotes could help to ensure a rosier outlook during next week’s edition of Garner’s Gripes.
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