I’M THE FACE
Taylor Hall is off the IR and headed for OKC. I don’t know how many players in AHL history have had Taylor Hall’s skill set, but it is not a high number.
Hall is likely to play top line LW, but if the season includes a lot of AHL at-bats there’s a chance he moves over to center. Jason Gregor mentioned today that Hall was told by coach Todd Nelson he’d be playing alongside the Nuge and Eberle this weekend.
Not bad, not bad.
Eberle’s the face. It would appear Yakupov is the gun. Hopkins is the mind. Maybe Hall is the shoulders?
I hope #4 takes this time in OKC to figure out finishing at the pro level. Ditch the backhand-five hole crap and start getting ruthless.
LMHF#1,
I’d say Eberle is the hands.
I agree with LT… Hall is the face and will be for the next decade at least.
let’s build a FrankenOiler!
Nuge – Brain
Eberle – Hands
Schultz – Legs
Hall – Heart
Yakupov – Mouth
if i had to pick a face it’d be Ladi Smid’s, since his face is the best at blocking pucks : ]
striatic,
Hair: Smyth
Liver:Khabibulin
Cerebellum (sense of balance): Anyone but Jones
Wallet: Horcoff
Eyes: Horcoff for the freakiness
Spare Parts: Whitney
Ha! Love the comments.
LMHF#1, I believe that was one of the things Hall mentioned he would work on in OKC. Probably read that in a Gregor interview at ON.
Ryan Smyth circa 2006 vehemently disagrees with this statement.
Not sure how i feel about putting that line together. I’d rather see hartikainen and paajarvi get the opportunity to run with the big boys.
Its supposed to be about development right? I fail to see how having a super line in the ahl helps develop the rest of the team.
Hall will be the face for roughly 2 years until Gretz….oops..Nugent Hopkins starts outscoring him by 25+ points per year.
I think Eberle is the eyebrows, Hall is the teeth, Nuge is the beard and Yak is the groin
I kinda think along the same lines. I might initially look at having all 3 of them on separate lines, maybe something like:
Hall-Arcobello-Pitlick
Hartikainen-RNH-Tyrvainen
Paajarvi-Lander-Eberle
Give each line an NHLer. it means one of them will be out there nearly all the time at ES, if you’re down a goal or two later, maybe you load a couple lines up?
I’d also be tempted to look at moving Hall to C once he’s up to game speed, see how that looks.
In other news:
Tracy @TreenasOil
Meeting Garfield for a late dinner tonite.
DSF,
I do not think that “news” means what you think it means.
I think it means Stauffer is hungry.
Screw the rest of the team. Developing and building chemistry for players that will actually see the NHL when the lockout ends is what the Oilers should care about.
Thats news?
wow, if OKC fans are aware of the star power of Hall, they might actually draw…um…maybe 52 more fans!
LoDog,
I tend to agree, but this will be good for all the rest of the AHL players development since they’ll have to earn ice time.
Gotta go Hall-Nuge-Eberle at least to start.
People need to stop propping up Hartikanen. If he’s good enough for the Oilers he’ll show that on his own, not being boosted by unrealistic stats playing with the NHLers.
Now to do something about the Barons’ defense. They need one more good stay at home guy.
Hall should not be playing, period. He should be resting that shoulder as long as he possibly can. I don’t care if the doctor’s said the shoulder is 100%. Giving it additional rest can’t hurt and can only help. Stupid stupid move by the player and the organization by risking injury in meangless games.
I suspect Hall will only play with RNH and Eberle until he’s got his game back. Once the Barons are clicking it would make sense to distribute the talent more uniformly among the lines.
I agree with you but presumably he’s already taken an extra month. At what point does it become enough extra time? He’s young and needs to play too, especially if the NHL starts back up, and even if it’s doesn’t. The alternative is him not playing. The organization has been poor with this sort of thing in the past but I think since it’s only for AHL games they must have had the sense to hold him back as much as is beneficial.
delooper,
Barring a quick deal once his game is at a high level he’s on another line and the centre experiment begins.