You can never have too many Finns. The Oilers have a long and rich history with Finnish players at the draft, dating back to Jari Kurri and Raimo Summanen. Hartikainen is a big (6.01, 210) left winger who has improved since draft day to the point where he is generally regarded as a 6th round steal.
The Oilers story is
here. My winter look at this player is
here. He's improved his skating and he has good skill with some grit. Plus he's a Finn, which long time Lowetide readers know is a ringing endorsement. Capgeek doesn't have the numbers yet, but I'll post them when they have them up.
Hartikainen signed, Eberle and MPS both named 'Player of the Game' for their respective games.
ReplyDeleteThis friday's starting off on the right foot.
Good signing. Just need to get MPS & Nash signed now...
ReplyDeleteAs Ice Cube would say "today was a good day"
ReplyDeleteYou can never have too many Finns.
ReplyDelete...unless one of them is Jarkko Ruutu.
:)
This guy looks like a player.
>You can never have too many Finns
ReplyDeleteHow can you leave out Risto Siltanen?
They should have retired #8 when he left.
(I would rather live in the distant past when the recent past is so crappy.)
Halfwise: Risto was drafted by St. Louis.
ReplyDeleteGood news. I'm interested to see how he does.
ReplyDeleteSomewhere Zona is popping a bottle of bubbly.
Taylor Hall just did a face plant into the boards in the first Mem Cup shift. Lordy.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAnyone watching the Bruins collapse against Philly?
ReplyDeleteUp 3-0 in the 1st now it's 3-3.
Taylor Hall is back and just scored a sick goal. I'm in shock. Seriously. That hit he took in the first part of the game was chilling. Wow. Just wow.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking that Hunter may be partially correct. Taylor Hall may be the thick skulled hockey playing machine sent from the future to score goals. You can smash his head through the end boards and he'll just get back up and keep coming.
ReplyDeleteThat was a brutal looking injury and I know he was bleeding too. I cannot imagine Taylor Hall is completely fine after that hit.
ReplyDeleteBut that goal was sublime. Holy hell I'll remember this period for awhile.
Taylor Hall, level 5 Rogue Apprentice, with +1 skates of swiftness, +2 enchantment of constitution on his skull, and +1 scoring bonus to die rolls.
ReplyDeleteIndeterminate saving throw bonuses on sustaining injury and stealing goals.
ReplyDeleteTaylor Hall might be the best "saw him good" prospect the hockey Gods have sent us in awhile. He just made a sweet pass to (I think) Henrique for a great chance.
ReplyDeleteHe's superfreak.
Holy Hand Grenades of Antiocke! Just saw a replay of that head dive into the boards, the leakage of blood, and then the goal.
ReplyDeleteHow is he NOT concussed after that?
I'm starting to get worried about what will happen if the Oil don't draft this kid. He's obviously a T1000 series terminator. If only they'd have gotten the Toronto pick from Boston with Ryder for Souray and Grebeshkov at the beginning of the season =O.
Just scored again. He's Robocop.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the goalie was a little screened on Hall's quick shot, but he should have had his five-hole closed.
ReplyDeleteI still think a deal with Boston can be made; my version looks a lot like Penner and Brule for Ryder and the #2.
ReplyDeleteA lot of things will make their way through an open 5 hole given enough space and good timing.
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ReplyDeleteSimon Gagne scores. 4-3 Philly, 7:08 left in the 3rd.
ReplyDeleteYKOIL, are we still talking about hockey here ;).
I'd trade Hemsky + 31st overall for #2 + Ryder. I have no idea if Chiarelli would make the deal... but its a no brainer IMO.
ReplyDelete3 years into the future:
Hall ( est 3M cap hit)
Seguin (est 3M cap hit)
83 lesser replacement (est 4M cap hit)
or
Seguin (est 3M cap hit)
Hemsky (est 6M cap hit)
Wow, just wow. In a microcosm of the series, the Flyers some back from a 3-0 series deficit, and a 3-0 Game 7 deficit to win 4-3.
ReplyDeleteLord, I didn't think I'd ever see a 3-0 comeback.
Laviolette must have a gigantic horseshoe up his ass. Geebus. I hate the guy.
ReplyDeleteI remember the Islanders comeback it was crazy. It is long lost now but they beat a pretty good hockey club (offensively anyway).
ReplyDeleteLucic is the new Donny Marcotte, didn't see that one coming.
So LT, can we agree that Boston is not 'clutch'?
ReplyDeleteIn a microcosm of the series
ReplyDeleteAt 3-1, I asked myself - "I wonder if this is going to be a microcosm of the series". I don't often use the word microcosm, but today is a good day to do so! Microcosm!
Awesome, the 1st or 2nd Western seed will have to face the 8th or 7th Eastern seed.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, this will end well for the Eastern Conference Champion.
Can't believe that just happened. So happy I stayed in to watch hockey tonight.
ReplyDeleteOh fuck. 8-0. I almost went to this game, but Showerhead was busy.
The other Finn gets a stat!
ReplyDeleteRajala with a nice pass to get Brandon on the board.
ReplyDeleteNow if Rajala can score 4 goals and get 3 more assists the Wheat Kings will have a chance. That and I'd be one happy camper.
I thought Brandon was supposed to be a powerhouse?
So LT, how do you feel about Mr. Hall? :P
ReplyDeleteIts been a very good day to be an Oiler fan without having the team actually play.
For fans of an organization that have had very little to cheer about since the first week of December,today has been a pretty good day.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad when the best day for the Oilers all season long is on a day that they don't play.
ReplyDeleteThen again it was partially because of that fact.
I need to stop posting now. This is what happens when I have an empty house for the first time in 3 months. I stream hockey and litter LT's board =).
uni:
ReplyDeleteIt's better than what Pat McLean does with an empty house ;)
bookie: It'll happen at least once more in my lifetime, but I don't think any of us can name the date. :-)
ReplyDeleteThis is an awesome game by Hall. I don't really even care about the goals, but to drive into the corner like he has all night is a real tell.
He's like Mark Howe when he played wing. Tough and skilled.
DG, thanks for that...now there's a mental image I'd like burned out of my mind *shudder*.
ReplyDeleteYou can almost see the mustache cascading over his lips as he shapes a wordless "oh".
Lucic is the new Donny Marcotte, didn't see that one coming.
ReplyDeleteLucic is bigger, faster, but Donny Marcotte was more skilled.
Marcotte was more like Pat Hughes than Lucic I think.
I was at the Calgary game when Hughes hung 6 on Calgary himself.
Messier was suspended and watching the game from the Zamboni door. A buddy and me had tickets right at along side the Zamboni opening and cheered Messier all night (we were 12)
Went down and got his autograph between periods. This was back when "THE MOOSE IS ON THE LOOSE" still hung from a bedsheet at Northlands.
Woodguy: Lucic was the man caught for the too-many-men penalty tonight. He joins Marcotte, who was the poor bastard caught against the Habs those years ago.
ReplyDeleteTambo on Eberle,Dubnyk,draft and Hartikainen
ReplyDeleteL.T.,
ReplyDeleteWell shit.
I don't think I've heard Tambo that happy since, well, ever. It's good to see that he's at least acknowledging fact that there is something brewing here. At least he didn't downplay everything.
ReplyDeleteIt's 10:30 and I'm in the office. What did I miss?
ReplyDelete;)
FYI: Hartikainen deal is 3yrs / $875k per year.
ReplyDeleteSo a 6th round pick nearly got first round money? Wow. Good on the kid, I guess.
Moose:
ReplyDeleteHow is that nearly first round money?
Gagner gets double that, for instance, and likely has a lot more bonus clauses he can hit as well.
Great day for the Oilers, and a lot of great discussion here today too.
Re: Taylor Hall
ReplyDeleteApparently the guy is half a dozen sandwiches short of a picnic for 6. If you slam the basket into boards, no sandwiches get upset. :)
uni: yeah, I'm juvenile that way.
ReplyDeleteSad part is that right after I posted I thought of the 'right' way to say it: "A lot of guys will score on an open 5 hole given enough space and some good timing".
Not quite cake topped with pie quality but still pretty good.
I liked Boston, as a team, better than Philly but needed Philly to win. Right about now is when
a) MacGregor should be quoted as saying the Oilers are mighty impressed with Hall; and
b) An Oilers scout should be seen/interviewed by the local rag (not Edmonton)
That's just me though.
It's funny... they made a movie about Taylor Hall a few years back. Lead was played by Bruce Willis. Didn't matter what the guy did to his body, he was fine. Survived a train crash. Lifted a metric ton. It was called "unbreakable" I think.
ReplyDeleteHow Ironic would it be in a year that the Oilers are decimated by injuries, they get a player who can't be hurt?
Are Oiler fans over sensitive to guys getting blown up/taken down due to shit show that has been the IR the past 4 years?
ReplyDeleteHonest question, and I'm not saying I'm not one of them.
Hall is awesome. Now they just need a big bastard to go ape shit when Boogard and Scott run Hall.
ReplyDeleteHoly shit, I think Hall kicked himself in the back of the head on that hit.
ReplyDeleteDo you rate him for always getting up or do you mark him because it keeps happening?
Boondock: Yes.
ReplyDeleteIt's all coming together....
ReplyDeleteHall has Homer Simpson syndrome.
His skull is super thick, so he can't be knocked out!
Now, as long as we can keep him away from getting decked by a heavyweight, we're golden.
And hey, if we can convince him to pull that Crayolla out of his nose, he'll probably think the game better than Gretzky..
Hartikainen got the same entry level contract as Rajala and Motin, 25k more than Vande Velde and roughly 300k more than Kytnar or Cornet.
ReplyDeleteSo, not too out of line with reality IMO.
Jordan, that's pretty funny. I made an allusion to that very movie when LT first posted about Hall's propensity to get 'blown up'.
ReplyDeleteI called him Unbreakable to Souray's Mr. Glass.
That kid just reminds of a T1000 programmed to play hockey. Or as LT mentioned RoboCop, he even kinda looks like Murphy. Both take a lickin' and keep on tickin'.
LT: Marcotte got a bad rap. It was someone else.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it was Lucic, either. Sabotka jumped early so I thought it was him, but now they're saying Savard faked him out.
Whatever, what an unmitigated total fucking disaster for Boston. A colossal collapse. Their fans will never, ever trust the Bruins again. No lead is safe.
In other news, David Krejci is one hell of a hockey player.
If Hall isn't unbreakable, he could be in a wheelchair by the time he's 25. The guy has no apparent regard for his own preservation. I've only watched the guy a handful of times and have seen him absolutely lit up, dangerously so, at least four times this season. Exciting but scary.
ReplyDeleteNow imagine fully mature men with malice aforethought laying those hits on him rather than other punk kids.
As soon as Hall went head first into the boards I looked over at my friend and said I guess we're taking Seguin. I thought he might have been paralyzed.
ReplyDeleteThen he comes out just minutes later and scored an unbelievable goal. I looked over to my friend and said I guess we're taking Hall.
PDO:
ReplyDeleteI was probably thinking in terms of base salary. Gagner makes $875k base, plus $750k in signing bonus money.That's why his cap-hit is $1.6. I guess Hartikainen's number could include bonus money though.
Traktor - When he got hit I thought the exact same thing.
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to wonder if Hall isn't a bit like Hemsky in that you applaud him for his guts and willingness to put himself in those positions, but sooner or later the body pays the price of valor.
Well in regards to Hall and that performance tonight. Whoa. The kid is something else. How did he 'shake that off'?
ReplyDeleteWilling to play with a concussion? Yes.
Does it affect his game?
Nope.
Scary.
Hall is a throwback to the prehistoric roots of hockey.
ReplyDeleteWhy hasn't anyone thrown out a Wendel Clark comparison for Taylor Hall yet? Do we not want to go there?
ReplyDeletePS - I don't care if they've got Pronger and Carcillo, they've got Richards, Gagne, Carter, Coburn, and Timonen. They're also not the Habs. GO FLYERS.
(For the record, I picked a Hawks/Flyers Cup final back in September...kind of gave up on Philly mid-season, but their goal differential being better than their standing had me thinking they could go on a run and maybe win a first-round series - now they're Halak-turning-into-a-pumpkin away from the Cup finals).
MacT on Eberle from Barnes'
ReplyDeletecolumn this morning.
"We're not taking him out for a while," said MacTavish. "People underestimate the importance of intelligence and hockey sense. The guy is just on the puck. He knows where it's going before the opposition knows where they're putting it."
High praise indeed.
Also,
Hall's ancestors were the ones who used to jump on the Mastedon's back with a spear instead of throwing it.
Shorter life span, but they got the choicest pieces of the kill and got all the tail in the tribe.
He's seems to be a lot like Smytty where his primitive brain is hard wired for hockey, so any damage to his frontal lobe doesn't impair his hockey as much as the normal player.
Wait a sec. Taktor has a friend?
ReplyDeleteBruce: It was Marcotte. Cherry has spent all these years trying to protect him and I love Donny Marcotte, but it was him.
ReplyDeleteFor those of you looking to see the Taylor Hall Hit and Goal, you can see them both here in this interview with Hall
ReplyDeleteThanks bookie. I am still not convinced that Hall will get up after Pronger 'helps' him into the boards on a similar play at the pro-level. I hope the comments on his unbreakable status are true if the Oil do indeed take him. But I doubt it.
ReplyDeleteGood deal. Now let's sign MPS and Lander.
ReplyDeleteNo way Boston deals that pick. It would be completely foolish.
That's insane. "Terminator" is right. I've been following the Tyler vs. Taylor argument for the last 6 months, but that clip is enough to make me hope it's Hall first overall.
ReplyDeleteI know, "seen him good", but... That clip is insane. How the hell does he manage to move around at all after that? He's a fucking cockroach.
LT: I read something last year from someone who should know that exonerated Marcotte. But damned if I can remember the details.
ReplyDeleteAs for last night's goat, apparently Savard has been singled out as the culprit.
Bruce: Interesting. I know teams deflect this stuff (God knows Cherry did) but Sobotka coming on (he's a LW, no?) would seem to identify Lucic and he was the guy scrambling to the bench.
ReplyDeleteuni and dg - nobody likes a smartass eh? I should know ;)
ReplyDeleteHBomb - I've thought of that comparison for sure and that would be my biggest worry about Hall - he might be a guy who we all love, a hell of a hockey player who is an impact guy for fifty games a year.
Just like Wendel.
I wouldn't decline picking him for that reason although it makes me stop and think. However I would pick Seguin if he projects to be a better player.
Hall is better right now no doubt but that really doesn't matter. We need to pick the guy who will be better in 2020.
LT: From todays Edm Journal:
ReplyDelete"I saw two centremen out there and I said 'What's going on?'," said Boston's Milan Lucic. "I knew there was a miscommunication out there and we got caught."
According to a few twittering reporters, Savard faked out the bench that he was changing up, then didn't. Lucic scrambled to try to recover, but the zebras who let 5,237 infractions go to that point are on a mission from god when it comes to calling too many men penalties this year. Who gives a shit if it decides a playoff series, we're going to call that one penalty every fucking time. Tripping, slashing, boarding, interference, and attempted murder OTOH are discretionary.
Bruce: Good stuff. Did you find the Marcotte item? He was one of my favorites, I'd love to blame someone else. :-)
ReplyDelete