It’s hard to see why Jesse Puljujärvi’s game ended on Wednesday in the second installment on a bench assignment, writes Sport’s NHL journalist Tommi Seppälä.
11.5. 19: 02 • Updated May 11 19:04
Jesse Puljujärvi there is hot stuff in Edmonton: some would love, some would be willing to give up. The conversation gained new momentum with the head coach Jay Woodcroft on the morning of Puljujärvi on Wednesday morning in a match played during Finnish time.
The Oilers suffered a 4-5 home loss in the playoffs to the Los Angeles Kings and lost 2-3 in the first round of the playoffs. The series is interrupted for Kings on Friday morning Finnish time.
The Puljujärvi match practically ended in the second round at 17.34. The Finn had nine substitutions.
It is difficult to find grounds for bench assignment. The Finnish pier, which started in the triple chain, did not play particularly badly or was in any other way in trouble, rather the opposite.
Although Puljujärvi has played well for the most part, he has been ineffective in the spring: five goals in 41 matches is a poor performance – especially when a superstar has played regularly in the same chain Connor McDavid.
Still, it’s special that Puljujärvi’s game had to end completely 23 minutes before the end of the actual playing time. This is usually the case for players who are leaking on their own or otherwise just lazy. Puljujärvi has not scored many goals, but this does not often make gross mistakes.
Puljujärvi’s seventh change in the second installment lasted as much as one and a half minutes. At the end of the substitution, the heavy-footed winger did not have time to corner before Kings Mikey Anderssonia. Tove later, Kings hit his third hit from the other side.
In addition to this, Puljujärvi made one mistake in the match and in his first change: the unloading disc in his own area did not cross the blue line and the pressure on his own continued. However, the Kings did not create anything dangerous from this.
By the way, Puljujärvi struggled well, went to give a few hard tackles and even created a couple of finish points for others. Puljujärvi lost 0-1 in his game, but won 6–4 in the finish line and 3–1 in the first sector as well. He got to play first in McDavid and Evander Kanen alongside just a couple of minutes, but during that time the chain won 4-0 points and 2-0 dangerous ones.
The Oulu player is no worse than the other players in the team’s second basket. McDavidin, Leon DraisaitlinKanen and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in addition only Zach Hyman has been able to produce a result in the Kings series.
For example, six minutes more per game than Puljujärvi Kailer Yamamoto has posted the same balance (1 + 1) in the playoffs as the Finnish one. In power statistics, Yamamoto has -3, Puljujärvi +1. Yamamoto have scored seven shots in 83 minutes, Puljujärvi eight in 54 minutes.
The two-man show is up again
Benching has always been part of the coaches ’toolkit as a means of arousal and will continue to be so. Still, it feels special that Puljujärvi was thrown so hard.
In addition to Puljujärvi Warren Foegele and Zack Kassian sat almost entirely on the bench for the third batch.
Head coach Woodcroft returned in a tight spot again to the culture that Edmonton should specifically get rid of. When the fertilizer is once again hitting the fan, the group becomes a team of two superstars.
McDavid and Draisaitl themselves nicely lifted the Oilers from another 2-4 loss to extra time. At the same time, however, many may not have noticed that the German star Draisaitl lost 0-3 to the game evenly.
The Kings took this on a 16-9 pace. In the five-match series, Draisaitl’s five-to-five goal difference is 2 to 6 and the scoring ratio is crushingly weak at 39 per cent.
Apparently Edmonton is thought to win the Stanley Cup purely by a game of superiority.
Woodcroft is making the same mistake that its predecessor made Dave Tippett fell. The intention is obviously not to build a cohesive team where everyone has a clear role to commit to. In this way, of course, the matter is presented outwardly, but in a tight spot, credit can only be found for two players.
What is certain is that Edmonton will not grow into a champion team in this way. The solution is precisely in the players behind the superstars. In top sports, no one needs to scold, but there is poor coaching that others are punished while the actions of the star players are looked through the fingers.