MARTIN
Yesterday for a few brief minutes the AHL website noted that Martin Marincin had been recalled by the Edmonton Oilers. It was promptly removed and the club denied Marincin was being recalled. Naturally this was rather curious because it also appears as though the Barons recalled a defender from the ECHL.
One potential reason why he was listed then unlisted could have been that yesterday was one of the CBA mandated “Off Days… for the team.
This is the CBA on "Off Days" saying they are a day off for ALL PURPOSES. Maybe the Marincin thing is related to that pic.twitter.com/GhAwNYoP3X
— Matt Henderson (@Archaeologuy) October 16, 2014The language, as is often the case, is vague enough that the Oilers could have overlooked it but the suggestion here is that the mandated day off is a day off for all things. This day off would include travelling and potentially assignments. How far reaching the off day might be is only a guess but it seems at least one plausible scenario.
In any case we should expect to see Marincin recalled today. After 4 games of trying to prove something (we honestly don’t know what) the Oilers are doing what they should have done in the first place. It was a mistake to demote the big Slovakian blueliner and after 4 winless games and decreasing effectiveness from Brad Hunt, Andrew Ference, and Justin Schultz the Oilers have apparently come to their senses.
I don’t think the Oilers would have been 4-0 if Marincin had been an Oiler from the get-go, but I think they would have played better hockey along the way. Now he might ACTUALLY not be up to speed because he’s only played in 1 AHL game since being sent down (he had an Assist) and the rest of this team has “participated… in 4 games. One last cruel ironic twist from his demotion, I guess.
DARNELL
Darnell Nurse was assigned to the Sault Ste Marie Greyhounds of the OHL this morning. This is not a knock against the young man at all. He shined in preseason and did an OK job at the NHL level. His problem is that the he isn’t (yet) better than Marincin or Klefbom. One could take that to mean Nurse could be as effective as them this year in the NHL so why not just keep him up, but the Oilers aren’t aiming for “Middling NHL Defender… with Darnell Nurse. They want him to be a top pairing monster.
Darnell Nurse isn’t going to learn how to be a top pairing, minute-eating Defenseman by playing 17 minutes of sheltered hockey a night with a questionable Oiler team. If he’s going to learn how to be a dominant player then he needs to be one at the Junior level first. Last year, then Greyhounds GM and current Leafs Assistant GM, Kyle Dubas gave Nurse the highest of praise, saying he faced the best opposition and played huge minutes every night. He was disgracefully overlooked by Team Canada at the WJHC and their blueline let them down. It isnt happening this year lest there be Team Canada officials shown the door.
Darnell Nurse is still the cream of the crop for Oiler prospects and certainly so on the back-end. He will be a fulltime Oiler by next year. Of that I have little doubt.
LINEUP
Well I think we can count on Scrivens getting the start unless the team has lost total confidence in him (they might have). Along with the Marincin and Nurse moves the team sent down Steve Pinizzotto. RNH was on the ice for the morning skate so there still continues to be the hope that he will play in the game tonight. If I’m reading the combos right, the RNH line should be the 2nd line and we should expect Yak to see more ice because of it.
Hall Arco Eberle Purcell RNH Yak Pouliot Draisaitl Perron Hendricks Gordon Joensuu
Nikitin Schultz Marincin Fayne Ference Petry
Scrivens
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
The Oilers took my snide keys to the game from G4 and actually did them so I better not use a lot of sarcasm with today’s.
1) Please Stop The Puck. I don’t believe the Oilers played poorly against the Coyotes, but even if they did I don’t believe it makes Goalies post .785 save percentages. If that were the case we would see every bottom feeding team’s goalie with terrible numbers. We don’t. The evidence suggests that terrible number is on the Goalie, not the players in front of him. Scrivens knows he’s been bad. He’s no dummy, he knows he needs to be better.
2) Eberle Back? G4 was the first time since last season that Jordan Eberle looked like the player he was supposed to be. Maybe loading up that line with RNH and Hall takes away the necessity for him to go at full tilt, maybe he was feeling the effects of injury and just now started to feel better. Whatever the reason, I think keeping the Hall Arco Ebs line might be good for his game because it forces him to be a driving force there. Eberle firing on all cylinders is a requirement for this team’s success.
3) Nuge/Yak Chemistry. By my eye Nail Yakupov has been one of the most dynamic Oilers so far. He has been attacking the puck with speed, laying the body, and unleashing his shot with some regularity. If he and RNH can develop that little bit of magic on the 2nd line then it gives the Oilers a better 1-2 punch than they’ve been getting from the RNH and Draisaitl combo.
Puck drops tonight at 7:38PM on Sportsnet West (or Oilers). Game On!
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