Minard Down; Peckham Out; Arsene Up

Chris Minard sucked.  He was on the ice for a total of twenty-five scoring chances.  Six of them were for the Oilers.  That's bad.  His EV Corsi rate was -54.16 per sixty minutes which is just deplorable.  The next worst forward is Liam Reddox at -35.08 and the worst regular is Ethan Moreau at -21.45.  So, two and half times as bad as Ethan Moreau.  That's bad.  It's interesting because he put up some good numbers in the AHL and just this season.  He's a quality AHL player and yet, for some reason, he was just plain awful with the Oilers.  It was only five games and less than an hour on the ice so maybe it was just a bad couple of weeks.  At any rate, we won't be finding out whether or not he really is this bad at the NHL level since the Oilers mercifully sent him back to Springfield before the game against San Jose.

Then during the game against the Sharks Theo Peckham was injured and, I expect, is likely done for the season.  The early  prognosis is a separated shoulder with serious swelling so there's some possibility that he could be back before the end of they year.  I doubt that it's a good idea though.  Given the value of having Peckham play is in evaluating whether he's prepared to be an NHL player next year (hint: he's not), there's really not much value in having him play through an injury.  With Peckham out the Oilers recalled Dean Arsene for what is an absolutely fantastic opportunity.  Honestly, the Oilers are probably a better hockey team with Arsene in the lineup than they were with Peckham, though they're chance to win a gooning contest has gone down.  Arsene will have about ten games here to show his stuff.  Most of the people he's competing with for a job next season are going to be right there on the ice with him.  If he can outperform two of Strudwick, Johnson and Chorney he may have another NHL contract waiting to go along with a head-start going into next year's camp competition for the 6th through 8th defence positions.  I hope he does well.