Monday, March 14, 2011

Hartikainen to the Show


















The Finn is in. It took a Swede with a Finnish background (MPS) to do it by applying a slapshot to Shawn Horcoff, but Teemu Hartikainen will be recalled to Edmonton this week in time for the Phoenix game. We've discussed Hartikainen as a possible recall since a hot January and this week it will come to pass.

The season is lost, but there are some silver linings. The rookies have been splendid, and now the Oilers have added a Finn. That's a good day.

60 comments:

  1. Didn't the Oil have a couple of Finns a while back? I recall they were pretty good...

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  2. What jersey is that? Does OKC have a third jersey already or was it a theme night?

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  3. Didn't the Oil have a couple of Finns a while back? I recall they were pretty good...

    Mr. and Mrs. Haakana think that that's kind of you to say.

    I don't know the exact definition of "snull", but I'm pretty sure it applies to this team.

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  4. Penners Replacement!!
    He plays hard and wants to be here!

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  5. @victormorg

    But he is half as fast....but twice as physical...

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  6. There goes the Baron's playoff hopes... but still, good on the kid for having an awesome season and not just covering, but simply blowing away his draft bet. I'm not expecting him to do anything special in his time here, but he's earned his shot for sure. Can't get enough of hearing the rave reviews for his play on the farm (see Neal Livingston at C&B), with people saying he's carried the team on his back at times... not bad for a 20 year old who's next game will be playing for his fourth team in four years (KalPa Jr, KalPa, Barons and now EDM).

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  7. Man I feel bad for the Barons, they're in a dogfight for a playoff spot, and now they've lost Hartikainen on top of already losing Omark, Reddox, Plante, and Giroux.

    I don't see how you can lose 5 impact players and still compete for a playoff spot. Good on Harski though, he's certainly earned it.

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  8. Stuaffer said this morning that Giroux was going back down. He was not on the plane coming back to EDM.

    If Horcoff is hurt then that still leaves them short. Right?

    I will be interested to see Teemu's skating. It was the big knock against him that caused him to drop to the 6th round.

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  9. Maybe they get Peck's back for Thursdsay and move Struds to forward.

    He's played that before (equally as bad, but still).

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  10. So are players moving up and down exempt from waivers right now?

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  11. Every Teemu who's ever played in the NHL has been absolutely elite, so here's hoping.

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  12. Ed said...
    So are players moving up and down exempt from waivers right now?


    Oh god, I hope so. I wouldn't want to lose one of these bums!! What would we do?!?!

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  13. I say the Oilers get creative and have players zip back and forth between OKC and Edmonton on a daily basis.

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  14. well I was thinking more about picking up a warm body from another team but yeah that was funny with all that hilarious punctuation.

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  15. Every Teemu who's ever played in the NHL has been absolutely elite, so here's hoping.

    As they are all elite, you should have no problem naming them.

    Starting...now. Go!

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  16. This is Hartikainen's pre-party invite to the Big Show. Hopefully he'll impress, even when the Oilers are handed their heads by everyone except Colorado. Hopefully this is the end of the JFJ experiment and Teemu can take his place on the roster, but not the IR.

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  17. Good on them to give him a taste.

    Although, I'm still not watching the games.

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  18. SumOil, Righto, I guess I had Plante on the brain for some reason.

    The only Teemu I can think of is Teemu 'Ketchup' Selanne.

    Also I hope Winnipeg gets the Jets back in time for Teemu to play one fairwell game there with Doan =). How cool would that be? Then Tambellini can trade Khabibulin for to them to reunite all the active original Jets. Ah, it's so much nicer here in fantasy land.

    regema: what the management of the Oilers need, a royal enema.

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  19. *contarih* to someone's partial game report of the Rebels/Hit Men game, somebody liked RNH's game enough to pick him as 2nd star in Calgary. The fact that games stars mean nothing is countered by it being a road star.

    Last local regular season chance to Hop on the Hoppy bandwagon on Friday night; Red Deer is in town to play the Oil Kings. How often do you get a chance to watch two playoff bound hockey teams live in Edmonton?

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  20. FINNally he is coming to save the season of despair ....

    jousl ... they had to jousl with the roster to do it !

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  21. Love the Finns, but it's been a while since we've had one that was any good. Pitkanen could play, but he was gone as soon as he arrived. Markkanen was a good backup, and Rita/Salmelainen's biggest contributions to the team were what they brought back in a trade.

    Hartikainen should be able to fill those shoes fairly easily.

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  22. If he plays more than 10 games his ELC starts right?

    Playing him 12 games and burning a year would be terrible.

    Play him 9, tell him what to work on and send him back.

    Should be good for him (and others) to measure his game against NHL opponents.

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  23. WG, he burns a year of his ELC playing in AHL regardless.

    Its only guys who go back to junior or some places in Europe who don't use up a year of their ELC.

    After all, he is getting paid in accordance with his ELC as it would have a provision for both his NHL and AHL salary.

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  24. Well at least Giroux returns to the Barons. I hate that we've had to pick them clean so much this year.

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  25. did anyone notice how many points TH has down in the A?

    42....

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  26. Ducey,

    You're right.

    I was thinking about MPS.

    Since he's 19, if he played in the AHL this year his ELC would "slide" one year.

    From Cap Geek:

    If a player aged 18 or 19 signs an entry-level contract with a club (with his age calculated on Sept. 15 of the year he signed the contract) but does not play in at least 10 NHL games, the contract will "slide" or be extended one year. The extension does not apply if the player turns 20 between Sept. 16 and Dec. 31 in the year he signed the contract.

    Depending on the contract's structure, the player's cap hit can be affected either by an increase or a decrease. Players who sign at age 18 can have their contract extended (or "slide") two seasons.

    CBA reference: Section 9.1 (d) (P. 23-24)


    Since Hartikainen was 20 when the year started his ELC is ticking.

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  27. Its only guys who go back to junior or some places in Europe who don't use up a year of their ELC.

    No, you can "slide" the ELC in the AHL as well if the age is right.

    Since 18 & 19 year old players from the CHL can't play in the AHL you usually only see it on Euros.

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  28. You know it happens, but when you watch it happen you feel like something bigger than you is pulling strings.

    Funny, I get that same feeling every time Jones scores.

    I know that I will be *agladar* when this season is over.

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  29. Fun fact about the Oilers' terrible drafting:

    From 1984 to 2000 the 2nd best Oiler drafted in the first round was:

    BOYD DEVEREAUX!

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  30. Listening to Stauffer...he talked about the Oilers drafting Landeskog. If he's the BPA, why not? Hall and Landeskog in the top 6 would make us a tougher team, not signing enforcers that play 3 minutes a night.

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  31. FPB

    I think you are missing out Jason Arnott. They drafted two good players in the first round, Arnott and Smyth.

    They actually drafted also Martin Rucinsky but traded him for Ron Tugnutt who they lost in the expansion draft the next season.

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  32. This is a pretty interesting site if you are interested in earthquakes.

    Records all the earthquakes around the world in the past week and posts locations on google maps.

    If you switch to satellite view you can see the tectonic plates.

    The amount of large earthquakes in Japan has been astounding.

    The "after shocks" over 6.0 are numerous.

    Usually that size of earthquake is large enough to hit the news on its own.

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  33. Anyone watches that show on the NFL network called Top 10?

    They did one on the worst teams, and I wonder if the NHL did one on that, where those Oil teams would rank.

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  34. did anyone notice how many points TH has down in the A?

    42....


    Its the curse of Zach Stortini. When he was sent down he had 41 career NHL points. The rash of injuries to 42 point guys happened after he was sent down.

    Plus he is wearing "24" in OKL. A reverse 42.

    Obviously, he put a curse on anyone on the Oilers who got more points this year than he had in his career.

    Oilers Managment could likely reverse the curse by bringing him back up, but then they would be held hostage by possible future huggy bear curses.

    As Dennis points out, obviously management has selected TH as a numerological counter to the curse.

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  35. Ducey,

    Hair usually plays a big part in magic.

    Maybe Zorg needs to be called up and they can shave his whole body clean.

    Then take all the hair that was removed and burn it at center ice with all the Oiler players (hurt and healty) skate around the fire backwards while chanting "KEN LOWE"

    Should work.

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  36. WG

    I believe there have been over 400 aftershocks and counting. Those rocket scientists at the Jet Propulsion Lab say they expect approximately ten aftershocks over 7.0 and probably one over 8.0 over the course of the next couple of years. Down down down into a burning ring of fire...

    And in other news, strangely uranium stocks were down today.

    Intones: what the monk do.

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  37. Top ten lists are what you make them.

    If I'm not mistaken, some of those great Montreal teams had a Red Army component to player procurement. I watched some old-time footage on YouTube the other day. Kharlamov was drool-worthy. Sixty seconds of "saw him good" you're hooked for life. It's still awfully hard to enthuse about Red Army on a top ten list, just because of how the team was constructed.

    Any team assembled mostly through an open draft that earned itself an expansion wing in the Hall of Fame would rate pretty high.

    You can name half a dozen boys on the bus synonymous with their special flair. You could even play Family Feud with most of those guys. Mark Messier: One hundred people surveyed said "Messianic elbow".

    And I'd even give a special guest appearance to Esa Tikkanen, the J.R.R. Tolkien of trash talk.

    Family Feud doesn't enter playoff rounds until you get to Andy Moog. One hundred people surveyed said "screened by Grant Fuhr".

    When the Pacific Rim tugs on the Japanese corner of the bedsheet, it's far away, but it makes me nervous. With the threat of giant aftershocks, I think Harper's first priority will be evacuating those expensive Cyclones.

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  38. The ensueing Nuke Meltdowns are of an even greater concern then aftershocks.

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  39. Speaking of meltdowns, don't forget to watch "your tone" when you address Brownlee over at Oilersnation.

    The guy's legit and he deserves the kid gloves and respect that hardly anyone else seems to need.

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  40. It's a bit early to upgrade Fukushima Daiichi over TMI. It's already worse than TMI as reported in the media at the time. That much I'll grant.

    Long after the official TMI report, the decommission of TMI by Idaho National Labs (circa $300m project IIRC) was still going strong. Long project. I think they had to build custom robot Sawszalls. The whole thing was carted away on trains to Idaho with little publicity.

    When they finally cut through to the bottom of the reactor vessel, the melt zone was only a few feet from China syndrome. Things the official report had considered fully intact were slag metal cinderblocks on vivisection.

    One of the main recommendations out of Idaho National Labs in the aftermath was more telephones. Rumour has it there was a guy who knew the facility trying to dial in with the correct interpretation of the melt-down (they were doing exactly the wrong thing), but couldn't get through because of all the politicians holding pressers of reassurance in the foyer.

    IIRC, the wrong thing was thinking they had too much water when they had too little. I don't know what possessed me to slog through all those TMI reports and after reports one evening circa 2002. Six hours of nuclear physics fine print. Fascinating as hell, but I'm not keen to repeat it. I seem to have a morbid fascination with the ashes of failure.

    And by the way, the correct physics of a bullet entering the brain is that the head goes in the opposite direction of any brain mass ejected as a result of cranial containment failure of the impact pressure wave (typically occurring in the nasal passage area which has weak melon structure). Bullets have mad energy, but insignificant momentum compared to a frontal lobe fountain. Samuel Jackson likely discovered the front seat was just as messy as the back seat, if not messier.

    Another amazing factoid from TMI was the line printer backlog queue. Thousands of downstream fault conditions were spewing out ferociously while the operators still had no grasp over root cause. There was no facility in the control room to sift for primary indicators. Reams of minutia. Frantic evaluation with no useful action while headed for epic fail. Tambi would have been right at home.

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  41. I seem to have a morbid fascination with the ashes of failure.

    Sooo you're an Oiler fan then?

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  42. Deadmanwaking: Old news. Man. Try. :-)

    sitizz: dyslexia married to lack of phonological awareness.

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  43. No one has posted this yet from Matty this weekend:

    "Don’t you think the Edmonton Oilers will pitch Ales Hemsky to Columbus Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson at the draft in June for their first-round pick? They might even take a big gulp and take back Kristian Huselius’s $4.75-million contract this year and next just to get a third first-rounder. If they had the Jackets’ pick (10th right now), plus Los Angeles’s (acquired in the trade for Dustin Penner) at 17, don’t you think they could package those to, say, the Florida Panthers and still get a centre?"

    I don't think the trade rumour is much more than him floating ideas, but I think it's interesting that he thinks they might move up so "and still get a centre".

    Sounds like he's sure Larsson is their pick at 1 or 2. I certainly wouldn't put any money on it being anyone else.

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  44. The ashes of failure?

    what Kevin Lowe sprinkles on his pancakes

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  45. Good lord would trading Hemsky for another lottery ticket ever qualify as stupid.

    kable: Russian physical medium for transfer of electricity.

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  46. SB: there are times when he has some decent insight and I also can't help but look away from just how much shit people over there will eat from him.

    People have blogs or public forums because they Want other people to read and/or participate.

    So, it's the worst kind of thin-skin on display when people begin to delete posts and/or ban posters just because they can't get their own way.

    If you want people to read your message then I don't think you should also try and control the response.

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  47. Marc: I saw that and here's what I thought about it.

    I was convinced that 83 was gonna be moved at the deadline because Matty was talking about it so much. Then, for about two hours we thought - according to Dreger on the TSN panel - that 83 was never available.

    But then 83 confirmed that the puppet had told him he would be dealt if the right offer came along.

    so, we should have heeded Matty's musings all along.

    Translation: 83 is gone.

    they'll attempt to resign him just as much as they did with 27. the Oilers will get magic beans in return. the sphere will in-fight again for a couple of days.

    it's all as fucking original as a wayans brothers movie.

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  48. Matty was on the Team 1260 morning show this morning.

    2 gems from him:

    1). The Oilers better sign Jones and fast, they let Glencross go and better not let it happen again.

    2). The Oilers bottom 6 is fine, but they need to figure out their top 6.

    I yelled at the radio on the first one, but the second one made me laugh so hard I blew snot bubbles.

    Hall of Fame eh?

    I bet Morey Gare shares his views.

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  49. Woodguy - just more evidence confirming how generally clueless the MSM has become - particularly anyone associated with the Oilers. Best way to keep an Oiler mgmt job is make sure the dumb fans are happily sipping pablum and outright nonsense like those comments of Matheson's.

    I'm with Dennis with regard to 83 - he's gone for more trinkets and illusions at the draft. Lowe and the puppet are being rewarded at the draft table for their management incompetence - making a virtue out of failure. It's easy to just keep doing it until the fans revolt or Katz puts aside the boyhood crush and goes nuclear in the executive offices. But Alberta has put up with a generation of provincial government incompetence and no one cares - so why should the Oilers be any different?

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  50. everytime the oilers trade a real player for another high - or high-ish pick - it allows MGMT to push back the rebuild another little bit further.

    the bills never come due because they never dig in their heels and proclaim that now's the time they'll try and compete.

    Jones vs Glencross: I like what 28 brings and I think he's been a good PKer but we'll see what the numbers say. But, when I see him score goals like the one last Fri in Det and that one at home vs Ctl - he calls those twisted wristers - then you can smell the luck and you start to get worried.

    One thing about Glencross was that you could see right off the bat how fast he was and what kind of a shot he had and those are thing thinks you can see translating. The only problem with him - and I'm not sure if this is something the Oilers knew or not - was he seems to have a bit of 10 cent head syndrome as the Oilers do have to motivate him every now and then and that's something he should be past by now.

    You look at him and Brodziak in Minny and wonder if that was the genesis for our new third line and how it got away.

    the other kicker is that after having seemingly dealt Brodziak because they were gonna give his chance to Pouliot - they never did follow through on that either.

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  51. Dennis: Jones is shooting 2% above his career average.

    Speaking of GlenX he's the one having luck this year (17%, 4 above normal)

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  52. Jones is gawdawful. Not worth talking about. He gets absolutely smoked by scoring chances.

    Funny list of AHL scorers. Not a single one hit the magic PPG clip and not a single one amounted to anything. That's no coincidence.

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