SwedishPoster:
Nice “win without a top performance” game yesterday, those are crucial for long term success, the team looks more solid for every game and it looks like they have made some much needed system changes, playing less scared. McLellan is running the bench hard atm, they were clearly desperate for a good start.

A couple of notes on the season so far.

I think there’s a pretty good chance McDavid flirts with 2 ppg this season, can certainly see him beyond 1.5. Not his sharpest the last few games, but man he looks incredible out there, too freaking good. Looks more competent in his own end as well. On a mission.

Klefbom looks great as well. Health certainly is a part but it seems like the attempt to turn him into an offensive rover has ended. He looks more focused on playing D and move the puck well and not gunning for opportunity offensively which had him losing position and poise. Yawney?

Larsson also looks great. Nasty. And finally he’s starting to show the passing game I’ve been talking about since his first year here, I think in my first post after he was aquired in that trade noone ever talks about I mentioned his stretch passes, heshowcased it pre-NHL and in Jersey, now we’ve seen it here as well. It looks like he’s more actively searching for passing lanes, making plays, as opposed to just getting the puck out. Yawney?

Whoever is behind it they both play more like themselves the last few games if that makes sense. Can’t complain about the results.

Drai is also improving every game. It’s impressive to be above ppg while off your game, McDavidboosted(should be a word) numbers or not. While Chiasson showed the hot hand and Rieder has has had a couple of good games I don’t love them with Drai. They are both pretty good in transition and Chiasson can certainly shoot the puck. But once in the offensive zone I don’t think they have the cleverness nor skill to match Drai’s creativity, they never found any good spots during established play. Drai obviously plays well with high end skill and guys who are smart. Playing him with two bottom sixers is not ideal, they do solidify him defensively though. I can buy Rieder as the third guy on the Drai line, as they have chemistry and Rieder works well as Drai’s defensive conscience plus his skating forces Drai to move his feet in transition. But with Chiasson just like an aging Hollywood star desperatly holding on to former beauty with botox and surgery the hotness is quickly fading.

Nurse looks amazing and terrible. He looks stronger, faster and with better puckhandling than ever. He’s strong one on one. His passing is still a weakness but his shot looks improved. On the other hand his positioning is all over the place and he makes really odd decisions. To my eye it looks like he is getting bad advice from somewhere. The talk before season about improving his offense when he still has things to learn defensively and the roving so far on the ice. Imo he hasn’t shown much natural offensive instincts to become an effective offensive D. He’ll put up some numbers due to his insane ability to carry the puck and no guts no glory attitude. But I think he’ll be more effective if he picks his spot better, focus on sharpening his defensive positioning and consistency. And let the offensive opportunities come to him instead of chasing them. To be fair he has reeled it in the last few games but at the same time he lost some intensity. If he finds that balance we’re on to something.

Brodziak had his best game last game but I wonder how much he has left in the tank.
Marody looked great in his two games. Let’s see how he handles when the grind sets in. Bad timing with the injury.

Yamamoto obviously has skill as evident by his highlight reel goal, is a pretty good defensive player, great forechecker, works hella hard. But it’s still a lot of trying without much result. Still think he could use twenty or so games in the AHL to find some efficiency in the offensive end.

On Jesse. He was always going to take some time to arrive, the Oiler management are on record saying they were trying to fasttrack him by bringing him over early.
I’d argue they have actually slowed down his developement by getting him over early. If anyone has memorized my posting history from two years ago, and who wouldn’t really, you might remember that I wanted to give him at least one season in Finland, two if he didn’t rip it up in his draft +1 year. The reasoning behind holding him back was first of all maturity, physical and mental. Physically he’s one of those lanky guys who won’t grow into his body until 23-24, imo the risk with bringing him over straight away is that the org gets impatient and trades him before he’s close to a finished product, I’m not saying hold him out of the NHL until he’s 23 or that he can’t be useful before that age, I think he is ready to contribute now, just that it will be very difficult to know what you truly have in him until that age. Mentally he just wasn’t ready for a new scenery, one that chews players up and spits them out if they aren’t ready at that, it’s pretty obvious how fragile his confidence is when you see him on the ice.
His game also wasn’t of the quality it needed to be to come over at 18, he was a fine player in the FEL, excellent if you consider how young he was but if he was 25 you wouldn’t consider bringing him over to challenge for NHL time. He had one hell of a skillset, still has, but hadn’t put it all together, still hasn’t.
Imo he needed the extra time in Finland to get more comfortable as a top player against pro players, he’s a guy who wants the puck on his stick, hell on a line with Aho and Laine during the WJCs he was the guy who had the puck the most. To be able to play that game in the NHL you have to be fully confident and know who you are as a player. In Finland he was seen as one of the top talents of the decade and a future star, he had the status to play a difficult game and learn what works and what doesn’t without the risk of being benched or losing his coach’s trust, it’s still a pro league so he wasn’t able to coast or be sloppy but he’d have a lot more rope, even in the AHL they quickly cut his ice time when he made mistakes. For a guy constantly looking to make plays, to be creative, that’s not a confidence builder. I personally think for euros, forwards especially, the AHL is best used as a transition league as opposed to a developement league.
His finnish team also knew exactly what type of player he was, his strengths and weaknesses since he’d been in the club for years, and his personality. He was a young player about to pop as a star in the finnish league and they knew it. I’m convinced it would have been the better route.

But this wall of text is obviously arguing a moot point. The Oil chose a different path and here we are.
Question is how you move forward. First of all I think they have to recognize what kind of player he is. Before coming over his game was a very creative, outside the box, playmaking winger, who was at his best when driving a line making a lot of plays, not always connecting but always looking to create. A good puck carrier who was great when flying through the neutral zone with the puck on his stick, but could bobble the puck and look very awkward with it at times. Pretty developed defensive game overall but with mental lapses. Hard shot but not the best accuracy. Big but not physical. Great powerful skating stride but lacking agility. Inconsistent even within shifts. Very bambiesque where he suddenly could look like he’d never played a second of hockey in his life.
The Oil saw a big guy with a hard shot and thought. Power forward! Volume shooter! Ofc I don’t know this but that’s what it looked like from the way he was deployed and sounded like from McLellan’s comments. That’s not his game. At least it wasn’t. At all. I think he could add those elements to his game eventually but please let him find his natural game first, which is creativity and playmaking, he’s a very unique player type but imo the guy he is most similar in style on the current Oilers is a less physical Drai. The whole deployment thing and McLellan’s comments in media on what they want Jesse to do is really weird to me, if this is what they communicate behind the scene as well I understand if there’s a disconnect.

There’s a lot of chatter on him lacking hockey IQ around the interwebs, there always is when a young player struggles, it’s the go to explanation a lot of the time. I strongly disagree, it was considered a strength before coming over, he was always good at finding lanes and good ice offensively, getting in lanes defensively. I mean the guy was seen as a two way fwd playing against men at 16, even before he hit his growth spurt. I’d say confidence and issues with communication leads to hesistation which leads to slow decisionmaking and a lack of conviction in your abilities. And suddenly you look dumb on the ice, which kills confidence and so on.I don’t think he’s tactically very developed, agree that he’s had a hard time time adhering to system play. Part is probably him getting by on natural talent and instinct before, part communication, part being a square plug forced in a round hole.
His ability to play within the system wasn’t questioned in Finland from what I’ve gathered but it’s obviously a lower level and a familiar environment.

So AHL or NHL? How will Jesse get back on track? I think they had a pretty good idea to start the year putting him with Strome, he did play well if not spectacular, he had a couple of strong games, got promoted to the Drai line, struggled but imo wasn’t terrible and now he’s sat for three games. I’d probably put him back with Strome, he isn’t as twitchy with him as with the big dog centers, he has a chance to take charge as a line driver and the pressure to produce is less pronounced. I actually think he should stay up on merit not just for developement reasons, imo he’s a more efficient player than a couple of the other wingers, he looks akward and does weird things on occasion that makes him look worse. The other option is to send him down, play him big ass minutes, give him rope to play his game within the system and let him find some mojo.

It might seem like I’m making excuses for Puljujärvi. I’m not. He’s a pro athlete, he’s the person mainly responsible for his career trajectory, he has to own it as well but I don’t think the Oilers have been doing him any with the path they chose for him. He is a young kid after all. And to be fair I just want the Oilers to win, I think Jesse could really help with that. Just need patience.

Wasn’t meant to go so long on Jesse, went on a bit of a rant. I’ve bored myself now and no time to proofread. I wrote it on Woodguy’s phone so any complaints on spelling, grammar and nonsensical statements should be directed at him. He looks forward to your letters.

Outstanding post and bang on with your opinions on Jesse.
Now why can’t the management and coaching staff figure this out?