News and Blog Report: Training camp & Preseason News & Notes, **New Pole Added**

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Is it possible that Nurse was banged up in playoffs?
Physical limitations can cause brain farts trying to compensate

He wasn’t anywhere near his best for large stretches last season and in playoffs became worse. He did get hurt but it was in the finals when he turned into a hit along the wall I think Game 5. That is the injury that he was apparently nursing (no pun intended) this training camp according to Stauffer.

The playoffs last year and the 1 series against Colorado when he was injured.

His play has been pretty consistent other than those 2 things

He wasn’t hurt all playoffs and he had a lot of bad stretches last year. Plus he didn’t play with that edge and nastiness that seems to bring out the best in him - that’s what Coffey and KK wants him to get back to in order to get back to being more dominant like he can be.

 

[Louis Cypher]

Brown is the #6 guys so get ready for it. Man is HFOil going to be a pleasure to read when that inevitably happens lol

I think Brown and Stecher will interchange depending on who we are playing and how Emberson plays.

My head is spinning. How has Gleason been waived but not Josh Brown?

Gleason shoots left.

 

[foshizzle]

I think Brown and Stecher will interchange depending on who we are playing and how Emberson plays.


Gleason shoots left.

Stetcher, right now, has been far better than both

 

[nexttothemoon]

Stecher is the best partner for Nurse... he's steady defensively... has very good hockey iq (and you know he has to have high hockey iq because a smallish lower offense dman doesn't play 494 games in this league without being a very smart hockey player). Plus Stecher skates reasonably well and can move the puck out of the zone.

Biggest concern is whether he can stay healthy... but every game he's in the lineup... I think he's a positive on his pairing whether that's on the 2nd or 3rd pairing.

Just out of curiosity I looked at how good the NHL teams were that Stecher has been with over the years:

16/17 29th
17/18 26th
18/29 23rd
19/20 17th
20/21 27th
21/22 25th and 14th (13 games)
22/23 27th and 16th (20 games)
23/24 27th and then Oilers who were 9th (7 games)


He's been on a whole lot of mediocre teams which I'm sure skews his stats somewhat. This Oiler team is easily the best team he's been on and already in his small sample with the team he had 2 assists and +4 in the 7 games he appeared in.

If Emberson can't hack it on the 2nd pairing... Stecher will be solid there... and at the deadline the big upgrade can be made to really improve the 2nd pairing going into the playoffs.

 

[Burnt Biscuits]

Last season:
Desharnais in 78 games: 1g 10a +3 playing 15:44 per game on one of the best teams in the league

Brown in 51 games: 3G 7a +2 playing 14:45 per game on one of the worst teams in the league.

Brown needs to cover about one extra shift per game to make up for the loss of Desharnais.

They’re both bottom pair do nothing plugs. They aren’t difference makers either way. Browns been a bottom pair plug for nearly 300 games in the league. Kulak will be good enough to cover him just like he was good enough to cover Desharnais.

Emberson is the big question on whether he can repeat his 30 games from last season with an expanded role and expectations.


22 minutes a night, a plus player and 30+ points isn’t going to crater your 2nd pair.

Nurse is far from good value on his contract, but he’s not going to crater your second pair on his own.

Brown is not on Desharnais's level and even within the org the preference was Desharnais they just couldn't sign him to a $2M contract, even if the skill level is somewhat comparable and J. Brown is a better skater, Desharnais's defensive awareness is much better, he's better on the PK, he competes harder in the dirty areas, and he's very good at being a pain in the butt to play against as his nickname Seaweed suggests, he's just always on or around guys, crowding them and making them fight for their space.

J. Brown's career he's pretty much only played on really weak d-cores and even then got scratched plenty, his analytics aren't good and he straight up got outplayed in pre-season by not only every NHL d-man we have, but also every AHL d-man we have with the possible exception of Hoefenmayer.

You can also look at how the coaches deployed the 2 our coaching staff played Desharnais over both Kesselring and Stecher when those were available options and in Arizona, Stecher and Kesselring were higher in the pecking order than J. Brown, I think that should be somewhat telling.

The only 2 seasons he didn't put up a bad GF% were 2 seasons he had an unsustainably high PDO (one being last year and the prior being his sophomore season). Also AZ has been one of the best teams in the league at getting good performances of the cast-off depth players and tweeners, a lot of players who left that team went on to play worse for the team that followed.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Bingo. Brown is the direct Vinny replacement, the size, grit etc. so he's going to get the nod at least to start the season. I think it's a lock tbh.

Brown is the Vinny replacement (for now, let's see what happens with waivers), but Vinny also didn't play 9 of their last 10 playoff games. I think the Oil want the option to have size in the lineup when the situation calls for it (especially as they'll be without Kane for the foreseeable future), but I don't see them blindly playing him over Stecher, Emberson, or even Dermott/Gleason who have all been better.

Also it's not like Bakersfield is swimming with heavyweights, and I'd say it's a bigger requirement to have one in the AHL vs. NHL, I suspect Brown will be bouncing between the Bakersfield and Edmonton throughout the season.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Stecher is the best partner for Nurse... he's steady defensively... has very good hockey iq (and you know he has to have high hockey iq because a smallish lower offense dman doesn't play 494 games in this league without being a very smart hockey player). Plus Stecher skates reasonably well and can move the puck out of the zone.

Biggest concern is whether he can stay healthy... but every game he's in the lineup... I think he's a positive on his pairing whether that's on the 2nd or 3rd pairing.

Just out of curiosity I looked at how good the NHL teams were that Stecher has been with over the years:

16/17 29th
17/18 26th
18/29 23rd
19/20 17th
20/21 27th
21/22 25th and 14th (13 games)
22/23 27th and 16th (20 games)
23/24 27th and then Oilers who were 9th (7 games)


He's been on a whole lot of mediocre teams which I'm sure skews his stats somewhat. This Oiler team is easily the best team he's been on and already in his small sample with the team he had 2 assists and +4 in the 7 games he appeared in.

If Emberson can't hack it on the 2nd pairing... Stecher will be solid there... and at the deadline the big upgrade can be made to really improve the 2nd pairing going into the playoffs.

I don't get the idea of tossing Emberson straight into the top 4 and with Nurse. Yes, it looks like a good fit, but this is a guy with 30 games of NHL experience, who is going to a new team. It's okay to pump the breaks a bit and start him in an easier situation.

Imo the best play is start Stecher with Nurse (as you highlighted), and work with the idea that he's likely going to get injured after 30 or so games. But that gives you 30 games to get Emberson up to speed playing with Kulak and see what the team has in him. Similar to what they did with Broberg in the playoffs: Started off with Ceci, went to his offside with Kulak, and was eventually moved up to Nurse's pairing.