What The H-E Double Hockey Sticks

Ok, what is going on here? Besides the “injuries” or whatever to The Nuge and Ebs, the big news right now is the healthy scratching of Oilers defenseman Jeff Petry.

On the benching Coach Eakins said ” He hasn’t had a training camp. His game is coming and he continues to get better,”. EXCUSE ME? Petry has arguably been the best defenseman through the two games this young season. Eakins goes on to say that it was a tough decision but Petry is still rehabbing. Listen I’m happy that Nurse is getting a chance at his first real NHL action but at the expense of one of the only defensemen that was doing a decent job of defending, what the hell.

After the news @Woodguy (one of my favorite follows on the twitters because he’s good at math and doesn’t sensor Sh*t) gave us a bit of insight on just how much Petry was contributing to keeping the puck away from his own end;

Oiler’s D RelCor so far: NIKITIN 14.1 PETRY 12.3 FAYNE -1.2 SCHULTZ -8 HUNT -9.8 FERENCE -10.3 Le’ts scratch Petry! #GreatestTankBattles

— Woodguy (@Woodguy55) October 14, 2014

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and last season;


.@mikebayrak Led the team. Last year’s RelCor among D: MARINCIN 15.5 BELOV 7.1 PETRY 6.8 PLARSEN 0.6 FRASER -3.7 SCHULTZ -4.9 FERENCE -8

— Woodguy (@Woodguy55) October 14, 2014

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Petry has been good, as far as good among Oilers defenseman can be. Nikitan and Fayne have played against the toughest competition (The Flames and Canucks top lines). But as far as the other two pairings Petry was the only one carrying his weight, of note, Jeff Petry hasn’t been on the ice for one goal against. The Oilers allowed nine goals through the first two games, nine goals and he hasn’t been on for one of them (I said it twice so you’d read it twice and let it sink in). Petry also boasts the second best corsi for among Oilers rearguards. I just don’t understand.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve been a proponent of Dallas Eakins since he’s become the head coach but this decision along with a few others regarding defensemen have me wondering if he has a grasp of how to build an NHL D core. It behooves me that Martin Marincin isn’t up right now playing alongside Petry like last year, where the two were easily the most successful of the bunch. The NHL is about winning games, something the Oilers should be desperate to do after the last eight seasons, this is not the time to be messing around with what might look good where.

The only real logical explanation I can come up with is that Craig MacTavish is close to a trade involving Petry and are sitting him to avoid injury. There are a few things with that hypothesis that still don’t make sense to me though, why say he’s scratch because he missed camp? Between the lines “He’s out of shape”. And two, why would you not ice the best team you can until the trade is made? If something doesn’t happen before the team plays the Arizona Coyotes later today, well then I just don’t understand what the hell is going on here.

Sorry Rant Over

Thanks for Reading.