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G56 Oilers vs Leafs: Marincin Makes His Triumphant Return

February 11, 2016, 5:26 PM ET [299 Comments]
Matt Henderson
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Oilers shook up their goaltending yesterday by sending Nilsson down to the farm and bringing Brossoit back up.

Nilsson started the year gangbusters with the Oilers. He was perfect in the preseason then started a little slow out the gate but had a strong November, going .915 in that month over 10 games. That was, sadly, his season high as he would drop back down to the .900 or lower up until he was sent down.

The big goalie was too often seen crouching down to the size of a man much shorter than his 6’5” frame. It was regular occurrence to be discussing how much room there was in the top half of his net. Obviously he ran out of chances at the NHL level.

But it’s not just about Nilsson screwing up his chance. The flip-side to this coin is that Laurent Brossoit has been making the most of his AHL time.

The Oiler goaltender has been put through the proper progression as a player in the system. The club made him do well in the ECHL (.923 sv%) before taking on regular duty in the AHL (.918 sv%) and eventually win the fulltime job and excel (.921 sv%) before getting called up by the Oilers for more than an emergency basis.

This year he was an AHL All-Star and he looks like a really solid prospect.

I think in a perfect world he might still play out the rest of his waiver eligibility in the AHL learning his craft, but he’s probably a better stopper than all but Talbot in the organization and he’s earned this on merit. It’s most likely that he gets to play during Edmonton’s upcoming home stand.

***

Martin Marincin makes his triumphant return back to Edmonton. I still really like this player, but there’s no question he has his struggles. Notably, his offense is MIA. He hasn’t registered a point in 35 games with the Leafs.

Allow me to say that despite his offense, Marincin is capable of performing well in the NHL by other metrics. His possession numbers have always been strong, even on a terrible Oiler team before he found his way onto a terrible Leaf team. That’s not to say his offense should be overlooked, but he is still doing things well out there.

I’m going to present a few numbers and then tell you what I think they represent. There can be differences in analysis here.

CF%: 55.2% - 1st on the Leafs Defense (min 200 mins)
CF60: 58.08 – 2nd on Leafs Defense
CA60: 47.12 – Lowest on the Leafs Defense (16th lowest among NHL D)
CA60RelTM: -11.89 – Lowest on Leafs Defense (Lowest among NHL D)
GA60: 1.78 – Lowest on Leafs Defense

Martin Marincin does not play a sexy game. Not even close to it. He doesn’t line people up for the big hit. He doesn’t score or even fire a bomb from the point once in a while. What he does do well is prevent the attacking players from gaining entry into the zone.

He does that one thing so well that when he’s on the ice the Leafs get the vast majority of zone time and shot attempts in addition to having very few goals scored against them. That’s worth something.

Shot suppression is a valuable skill even if it comes by unconventional means, but it obviously isn’t enough to gain any favor with Babcock or with the brass in Edmonton before that. I believe wholeheartedly that it’s a skill that is going largely undervalued, but I’m not going to argue he belongs in the top 4. Not with that missing offense.

LINEUP

Aaaaaannnnd Schultz is back [Confetti rains down from the rafters]. Brossoit was recalled and Nilsson sent down, though Brossoit wont play yet. Kassian is down on the 4th and Pakarinen up on the 3rd. Yak stays married to Letestu, which is also the setup for my new Sitcom on ABC.

Hall Draisaitl Purcell
Pouliot McDavid Eberle
Pakarinen Letestu Yakupov
Kassian Hendricks Letestu

Sekera Fayne
Nurse Schultz
Davidson Gryba

Talbot

OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME

1) McDavid Plays The Leafs. It’s a media circus today because Connor McDavid gets to play the Leafs. The bitterness about the way the lottery played out can still be felt from the eastern media who spilled a lot of digital ink whining about how Edmonton got the phenom and not the Leafs. We get it. It’s a big day for everyone and frankly every game that McDavid plays is exciting, but this might be extra special for him. Will McDavid make this a night everyone remembers? I hope so.

2) Jultzing For Dummies. Justin Schultz breaks back into the lineup after a well deserved healthy scratch. Frankly I thought the team played much better without him and generally does so I’m excited for this experiment to be one day closer to its inevitable end. The clock is ticking for him to look good enough to land somewhere else, even as a pure rental. Garrison is out for 3-5 weeks in Tampa Bay, maybe they would be willing to take Schultz as a stand in (a poor one) until he comes back. If Schultz needs to succeed he has to be smarter. He has to move, defend, and attack, smarter. I’ll settle for just moving the puck out of danger once in a while.

3) Kadri Out. The Leaf center is out with a “Lower Body Injury” *wink wink*. He presumably pulled his groin while making a throat slash gesture the other day. It happens all the time. While Kadri isn’t having a great offensive season, he does lead the Leafs in shots/60 minutes while 5v5. He also draws lots of penalties and plays a physical game. His absence leaves holes in a Leaf lineup that was already pretty weak. Even a terrible Oiler team should be able to win this game. That’s not a guarantee, I’m just saying it’s doable.

Puck drops tonight at 7PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet West. Game On!

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