Off the Grid

For months now I, along with some good friends have been planning our beginning of summer camping trip, well that trip just ended and being “off the grid” so to speak, in the middle of nowhere with no cell reception, nothing but fish, fires and beer. Great week away with the boys that’s for sure, but what the hell Oilers? You wait for me to be away to start dropping the news! COME ON!

Well news they made, with a player signing, coaching changes and of course the announcement of Nicholson as the new Vice-Chair of the new Oilers Entertainment group things look to be heating up and maybe we can expect a bit more information leading up to the draft. Lets Review;

Coaching

I was beginning to get a little worried that the coaching was going to stay status quo. After MacTavish and Eakins stated they were going to take “a few weeks” to assess the damage and then make decisions on the future of the staff. I thought maybe that few weeks had passed and we were going to be left with more of the same.

Enter Craig Ramsay, a coach I mentioned back in April, a long time NHL player and coach. I think by shipping out Buchberger and bringing Ramsay in is the right move. Eakins was a bit all over the place last year when it came to style of play and systems. Ramsay will be able to come in and help stabilize those inconsistencies.

Alex wrote a good piece on the hiring here.

Jason Gregor over at OilersNation also has a good interview posted with Dallas Eakins about the hiring of Ramsay.

There is also a piece up at NHL.com where they have Ramsay giving some analysis on the Stanley Cup Final Series. From that article there a tonne of great quotes from the Oilers new coach, but this one kind of stuck out for me;

As a team you can’t look at it and say, ‘We’re not as good as them, we can’t beat them,'” Ramsay said. “Part of the job of a coaching staff is to explain why they can win and then follow through on it. The players have to look at things they’ve done well. They have to concentrate on their successes, and their power play looked awfully good.

There is also a pretty in depth interview with Craig Ramsay from way back in April from David Staples. Talking about how he analyzes games using video and scoring chance data.

And then there is this beauty of a quote from everyone’s favorite blogger Lowetide about the whole situation;

“ You’re going to see the Oilogosphere fall all over themselves talking about Ramsay as an option and how far we’ve gone back talking about him, but the answer is probably a decade or more. He’s that good, and he’s an Oiler.

I’m going to have a beer, and then I’m going to have another one!”

Yep, this was a good move.

Pinizzotto

This is not huge news, but again I like it What is does is give the team some depth down the wing. S.P brings size, additude and a pretty decent skating ability to the bottom six. I don’t think he’ll be a regular with the Oilers, but IMO he’s a hell of a much better option at fourth line with than say, Luke Gazdic.

There are a few good pieces on Pinizzotto here, and here. Check them out for some more in depth analysis. There is a quote from Jonathan Willis that sticks out for me re: Pinizzotto ;

“This is a pretty nice to player to have as an NHL recall option and in the role of AHL veteran. It’s not just that Pinizzotto is a physical player – though he is – but he’s an honest-to-goodness hockey player who can be effective at both ends of the rink.”

As always good stuff from Willis and like I mentioned above SP is a decent opti
on as a fourth line winger.

New Company New Face

The biggest and perhaps least interesting news is the addition of former Hockey Canada boss Bob Nicholson. I like the idea, and have mentioned him in the past in regards of a replacement for Kevin Lowe. But there is something about this appointment, alongside the former Prez of hockey ops, as Vice-Chair that I really like. The idea, at least the one I’m getting, is that they plan to make the Oilers Entertainment Group a mogul of sports and entertainment.

There’s nothing wrong with that, purchase a few European hockey clubs, possibly another minor and/or junior team, this stuff was talked about indepth yesterday afternoon in an interview with Nicholson by Jason Gregor on TSN 1260. You can listen to the complete interview with Gregor here.

I also like this move because I have the feeling that Lowe and Nicholson will be so involved in expanding the OEG brand around the world that it will leave Craig MacTavish and the rest of the hockey ops guys more time and less interference to focus on the on ice product.

Some good pieces on yesterdays hiring can be read here, here and here.

So Now What

Well of course things are going to get busy from now up until the first few weeks of July. One thing to watch for soon is we know that the Oilers coaching staff is complete, they’ll go with Eakins, Acton and Ramsay only this year. But Todd Nelson has interviewed for the job in Carolina and even though it’s unlikely that he’ll get that job, with the mass of experienced coaching talent available, he may end up somewhere that isn’t OKC.

And of course there are the trades. Rumors continue to swirl between Edmonton and Philly, there has also been talk that the Oilers are looking to move up to the first overall pick. We do know that MacT wants to upgrade the defense and we could see some of that happening sooner than later via trade soon. For a list of potential targets have a look at the Off Season Target series here at the Oilers Rig.

Hell Maybe I’ll just have to disappear again for a bit to get some more action from the Oilers office.

To all you Dad’s out there make sure you have a great Father’s Day today. I’m going to enjoy it for sure.

Thanks for Reading