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Posts Tagged Taylor Hall

Taylor Hall Cut By Teammate’s Skate in Warmups

Jan 18

Posted by Matt in News | 4 Comments

Taylor Hall, who has points in all but one games played in the new year, was forced to sit out last night’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets after receiving a serious cut above his left eye during warm ups. In what can be described as nothing more than a freak accident, Hall stepped on a puck and lost his footing during warm ups and slid into Ladislav Smid, taking out his feet. Smid and Hall both crashed into the boards as teammate Corey Potter was swinging around. Potter attempted to leap over the crashing duo, but only caused more damage as his skate hit the head of Hall. Fortunately, Corey Potter managed to not hit Hall directly in the eye during the accident. The cut was severe enough, however, as Hall required 30 stitches to close the wound.

“This is one of those fluky things. It just happens, not much we can do about it.” Oilers head coach Tom Renney said of the injury to Hall.

An incident such as this, however rare and fluky it may be, should bring up the question of whether or not players should be required to wear helmets during warmups. Hall, who typically wears additional facial protection with a shield, could have walked away from this incident unharmed had he been wearing his typical game set-up. Instead, he was forced to be scratched from the game against Columbus which they eventually lost. Edmonton plays again tomorrow in St. Louis, and only time will tell if Hall will be ready to go. If not, a situation which could have been avoided with a helmet and shield leads to more missed games from star players and additional frustration for Oilers fans.

Check out the video of the incident below and sound off in the comments. Do you think this whole problem could have been avoided in any way?

 

Here’s a nice photo of the aftermath – Taylor Hall with 30 stitches on his forehead after being cut.

 

Taylor Hall Head Cut Stitches

Taylor Hall after receiving 30 stitches in his head. Hall was cut by teammate Corey Potter's skate after a fluke accident during warmups.

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2011-12 NHL Season Preview: Edmonton Oilers

Sep 25

Posted by Eddie in Season Previews | 1 Comment

Alex Hemsky is part of the supporting cast of Oilers behind sophomores Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle and Magnus Paajarvi.

Offseason Losses: Kurtis Foster, Andrew Cogliano, Sheldon Souray, Jim Vandermeer

Offseason Additions: Ryan Smyth, Eric Belanger, Andy Sutton, Cam Barker, Ben Eager

Last Season Ranking: 15th in the West

Offense: For as bad as they may be as a team, they will have an exciting offense. They have an ensemble of young players due to having high draft picks over the last several years. They are led by franchise players Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle. They also have the grizzled vet (Shawn Horcoff) and young veteran (Alex Hemsky) that should be able to create and generate goals. Should Hemsky stay healthy and play 76+ games, a 65-point season isn’t too much of a stretch. That number can also depend on the play of Hall who plays on the other wing.

Just like Taylor Hall, No. 1 overall draft pick Ryan Nugent-Hopkins looks like he is NHL ready at the ripe age of 18. Early preview guides have him centering the second like with Smyth and Eberle, but depending how he performs in the first 10 games of the season, he could find himself back at the junior level should he struggle to find the net. NHL teams have until the 10th game of the season to send junior-eligible players back down before they are stuck in the NHL for the season.

The team is still young and rebuilding, and they have to find a way to increase goal production. They finished 27th in the league with an average of 2.33 goals per game, and they made an “addition by subtraction” move then they traded Dustin Penner to Los Angles at the deadline and brought back Ryan Smyth. Third liner Magnus Paajarvi could be one of the best young third-line players in the league, as the right winger is behind Hemsky and Eberle in the RW depth chart. The Oilers might be pressured to win soon while they are well under the salary cap and the young talent is playing on their first contact. Should they fail to win once Hall, Eberle and others reach time to negotiate their second contract, they might hit the highway for greener pastures.

Defense: The Oilers have youth and depth at the forward position, but the cupboard is just about bare on the blue line. Besides Ryan Whitney, there isn’t much to get excited about with the defensive unit. They lacked a shutdown defensive pair as well as a puck moving defenseman who could help get the forwards going. They tried to plug those holes with Barker and Sutton, but the impact they will have is still yet to be seen.

If Whitney suffers an injury, the team might be doomed. Before he got hurt last season, they started playing solid hockey around the .500 mark. He was leading the team in minutes, points, and plus-minus. The Oilers went into a tail spin by losing 14 of their next 17 games after he got hurt.

Goaltending: This could be the biggest question mark. They have an aging vet in Nikolai Khabibulin and a young keeper in Devan Dubnyk as the 1-2 combo. Khabibulin is coming off the worse season of his career with a back injury and a 10-32-4 record. Not to mention the distraction he had off the ice last season. With that hopefully behind him, he could focus on the task at hand on the ice. Dubnyk, 25, looked good at times last season. But just like Detroit’s Jimmy Howard during his rookie season, didn’t look like he was ready to be the main man in goal.

Penciled in the third position is 31-year-oldYann Danis, who carried a 8-17-3 record with Khabarovsk of the KHL. He will likely see more time with Oklahoma of the AHL (pending the health of Khabibulin) along with 20-year-old draftee from 2009 Roy Olivier.

Playoff Prediction: Not playoff bound. They will be exciting for your fantasy team and to watch in person, but I believe they need to go the route of the Detroit Red Wings and have two young goalies who can grow and develop with the rest of the team. They have one piece of the puzzle with Dubnyk but they could use a high-pick on a goalie or defenseman in 2012. What could work in their favor is they picked No. 1 the last two seasons. The last team to do that was Ottawa in 1995 and 1996. The season after that, they began a streak of 11 straight playoff appearances.

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Edmonton Oilers 2011 Skills Competition

Jan 24

Posted by Matt in Media | 1 Comment

Over the weekend, the Edmonton Oilers hosted their annual skills competition for their fans. I think its easy to say, especially after watching the following videos, that the Oilers have some great young talent with incredible hands on their roster. Are these guys going to be an force in the NHL in a few years? Watch some of these moves and let us know what you think. To watch more videos from the rest of the skills competition, head over to the Oilers official site.
Magnus Paajarvi

Taylor Hall

Sam Gagner

Linus Omark

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Hockey World Blog Season Previews 2010: Edmonton Oilers

Sep 25

Posted by Eddie in Season Previews | No Comments

Kep Offseason Losses: Ethan Moreau, Patrick O’Sullivan, Fernando Pisani, Mike Comrie

Key Offseason Additions: Taylor Hall, Kurtis Foster, Alexandre Giroux, Colin Fraser

Last Season Ranking: 15th place, West

Number one draft pick Taylor Hall is projected to play on the second line to begin the season. Only time will tell how soon he will graduate to the top line in Edmonton.

Number one draft pick Taylor Hall is projected to play on the second line to begin the season. Only time will tell how soon he will graduate to the top line in Edmonton.

Offense: If there was any consolation for finishing DFL (if you don’t know what DFL means, see definition #1 here), GM Steve Tambellini was able to start the rebuilding process with number one draft pick Taylor Hall. Hall will be a full-time player in the league this season, expect him to start on the second line with Sam Gagner and Jordan Eberle. Gagner failed to match the production of his 49-point rookie season two years ago. If he ends up playing with Hall full-time, look for both of those players to score a lot of points. The top line is expected to be Dustin Penner, Shawn Horcoff, and Ales Hemsky. If Hall starts out playing well and Penner struggles, don’t be surprised if new head coach Tom Renney will put the rookie on the top line.  The Oilers possess more youth than a college freshman orientation class, and must do better than their 27th ranking of 2.51 goals per game.

Defense: It’s scary for a team going into a season when you had the worse goals-against average the season before. Even more scary is when you lost your primary two-way forwards (Moreau and Pisani) and the top six forwards are more one-dimensional than two. The top four defenseman are Tom Gilbert, Sheldon Souray, Ryan Whitney, and Kurtis Foster. What each of them lack is size and a shutdown mentality. Looks like the Oilers will have to win a lot of high scoring games in order to compete.

Goaltending: Who knows who will be in goal for the Oilers. Nikolai Khabibulin signed a four-year, $15 million deal before last season. That turned out to be a mistake then he appeared in 18 games and suffered a back injury. The team allowed him to rehab in Phoenix where he was arrested for DUI. With his legal troubles and back injury lingering over the team’s head, they have to rely on Jeff Deslauriers and Devan Dubnyk. Dubnyk is the goalie of the future in Edmonton. He is young (24 years old), still new to the NHL game (19 games played), and has the size needed to cover the crease (6-foot-5, 200 pounds). Look for Dubnyk and Deslauriers to split time to determine the true No. 1 goalie if Khabibulin can’t play this season.

Season Outlook:Renney must change his style according to his players, which is what former bench boss Pay Quinn failed to do. Quinn tried to use the youth to play an up-tempo style until he realized they weren’t really good at it. He then tried to play a conservative forecheck system until that blew up in his face as well. Depending on how his team begins the season, Renney has to use the players to his advantage and play the style most suitable for his team. Edmonton has what it takes to become a playoff team in the future, but don’t expect them to make the playoffs this season. Look for them to finish anywhere between 11th and 13th in the conference.

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Fantasy Hockey Draft Preparation 2010 – Left Wings

Aug 28

Posted by Chris in Fantasy | No Comments

With NHL training camps set to begin about four weeks from now, it’s time for fantasy hockey managers to start reengaging their brains and begin planning for their upcoming Fantasy Hockey Draft. Most drafts will take place in the latter-half of September, but it’s never too early to start looking for that gem of a late-round pick, the underrated talent who is set for a breakout season or the veteran presence who is due for a rebound year.

Today’s Position: Left Wing

Left Wing has some very talented players, but be diligent in your drafting because these players go very quickly and very high in the draft – and you definitely do not want to lose out on some of these names.

If You Have a Top 3 Pick – Take Ovechkin. Don’t ask why, just do it.

If You Can’t Take Ovechkin – Then definitely consider Ilya Kovalchuk. Again, this is a no-brainer as Kovalchuk netted 40 or more goals in each of his past five NHL seasons and will probably continue that pace this year.

Phoenix+Coyotes+v+New+Jersey+Devils+rLtNBLrL2yZlThe Secret Is Out On – Zach Parise (pictured). Despite a breakout season in 2008-09 where Parise posted 94 points, he was still somewhat of a wild card. Well, his 84-point season last year showed that he isn’t a fluke and you can expect him to tally 30+ goals and 80 or more points this season as well.

Still Under the Radar Is – Simon Gagne. With potential to top the 70 point plateau, Gagne suffers from inconsistency and is somewhat injury-prone, which keeps him off the radar for many fantasy owners. With 40 points in 58 games last season, if Gagne can stay healthy he might shoot back up near 70 points if he plays on one of Tampa Bay’s top two lines centered by either Lecavalier or Stamkos.

Look for a Rebound Season From – Alex Tanguay. After a disappointing outing with Tampa Bay last season, Tanguay will return to Calgary where he did quite a bit of damage offensively in 2006-07 with 81 points. The Flames are hoping that Tanguay can recover that scoring touch and help boost the team’s struggling offense and will probably be given every opportunity to succeed.

Look for a Breakout Season From – Ville Leino. After being traded to the Flyers at the trade deadline, Leino came alive when the pressure was on in the playoffs and tallied seven goals and 14 assists in 19 playoff games. Look for Leino to benefit from playing on a team that is deep and very talented offensively. Fifty points could be within reach if Leino works hard for it.

Keep An Eye On – Taylor Hall. As the number one overall selection in the 2010 Entry Draft, Hall will be given every opportunity to succeed in Edmonton. Chances are he will immediately land a spot on one of the top two lines and Hall is expected to score a lot of goals in an Oilers uniform. Keep an eye on him to see if those goals start coming as early as this season.

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Seguin Inks with the Bruins

Aug 4

Posted by EB in Fantasy, News | No Comments

Tyler Seguin will be a good fantasy pickup for any league, but don't expect him to be the top point getter of an already deep rostered Boston Bruin club.

Tyler Seguin will be a good fantasy pickup for any league, but don't expect him to be the top point getter of an already deep rostered Boston Bruin club.

The Boston Bruins have come to terms with second overall 2010 NHL draftee Tyler Seguin.

Seguin, the proud prospect of the Ontario Hockey League is expected to make the NHL entry level maximum of $900,000 with a additional bonuses based on production that could bring him in the $4 million range, mimicking that of number 1 overall pick Taylor Hall of the Edmonton Oilers.

With all the sporting news of NFL rookies not signing and holding out for big contracts, or other players signing big contracts but not passing fitness tests, it is good to see the NHL have their ducks in a row in regards to rookies. Seguin and all other rookies will have to earn their place on the team as well as the team’s respect.

Seguin will be under a microscope with the hard to please Bruins fans, but expect him to excel at the role he is given, however do not expect him to match numbers like New York Islander’s rookie last year John Tavares. Tavares posted 54 points on a team that asked him to carry the workload, while Seguin will be coming into a more support roll at the second or possibly third line. It would be surprising if Seguin can put up 54 points in his rookie season, but it won’t be surprising for him to at least hit the 40 point mark.

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Playoff Ramblings

May 17

Posted by Matt in Soap Box | No Comments

Here are some thoughts on the playoffs over the past couple weeks:

My post praising Miroslav Satan’s performance during the playoffs must have been the ultimate jinx. He carried a six game point streak when I wrote about how excellent he had been. In the four games that followed, and an epic collapse by the Bruins, Satan posted zero points, was a minus one, and only had nine shots on goal. Good news for the Bruins though, they’re still going to land either Taylor Hall or Tyler Seguin in the draft this summer.

Daniel Briere has been huge for the Flyers in the playoffs

Daniel Briere has been huge for the Flyers in the playoffs

The Philadelphia Flyers are the first ever seven seed to end up with home ice advantage in a playoff series. How did they pull this off? Well, I think its fair to say that they aren’t necessarily as bad as their seed and 88 point season may indicate. Remember this team has several young, but experienced, scorers. Mike Richards has been great, and Danny Briere has played his best playoff hockey picking up 17 points so far, with seven multi-point games. On top of that, the Flyers are picking up a lot of secondary scoring, especially in Claude Giroux who has six goals and seven assists in 13 playoff games. Ville Leino, a late season acquisition, has even made his presence felt with nine points in as many games. You certainly can’t forget about the defensive prowess this team has, lead by perennial all star Chris Pronger. He’s more than capable of shutting down the oppositions top scorers.

So perhaps the Philadelphia Flyers are finally molding into the team that many thought they were going to be. Maybe the leadership issues and problems in the locker room are a thing of the past. They have all the confidence and momentum in the world right now, and will be a tough team to handle.

The Chicago Blackhawks are outstanding. Young captain, Jonathan Toews has been very impressive so far with 21 post-season points. Goaltending has not been the huge issue everyone thought it would be. Antti Niemi has been solid, and has out-dueled two very good goaltenders in Pekka Rinne and Roberto Luongo.

Things seem to be clicking on all cylinders for the Blackhawks, minus the presence of two players. Marian Hossa had a very good first round against Nashville, posting six points in the series. But since them, he’s been very quiet, much like last year, with only three points in the seven games played since finishing off the Predators. Along with Hossa, Kris Versteeg has been less productive than I expected so far. His six points and minus two rating seem low for a young player with the talent level he has. Remember, Versteeg posted terrific numbers as a rookie last season, but is perhaps seeing a decrease in ice time with the top line being so effective.

The San Jose Sharks are still very much competitive in the west. It seemed like everyone wrote them off after being crushed by the Red Wings in game four of that series. Did everyone just forget that they still had a 3-1 series lead? Even if they were still the Sharks who choke in the playoffs, they could have surely taken one game and prevented the Wings from going on. But instead, they bounced back like a true contender and eliminated Detroit in five.

Montreal is having one of the most impressive playoff campaigns in recent years that I can remember. First, they squandered the top seeded Washington Capitals in seven games. This is a team that featured several of the world’s top players: Ovechkin, Backstrom, Semin, and Green. Then, they followed that performance with a seven game dismantling of the defending Stanley Cup champions. Surely a team that can take out two of the top NHL clubs is capable of making it to the finals, right?

Finally, here’s to hoping for an original six match-up in the finals.

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