Swedish Oil by dohfOs

So, listening to the Jason Gregor show where he and Robin Brownlee were talking about the latest move the Oilers made, or didn’t.. depending how you look at it.

The Oilers roster is “full” so they had to send one down (or make another move). Gregor had MPS pinpointed on a plane leaving for Oklahoma City (Barons) and I don’t blame him. MPS haven’t produced so far and he’s not been used as much as most people thought he would be going into this season. It didn’t happen, MPS remains with the team and Teubert sent to the minors. Gregor asked for people to call in and discuss the topic, but living in Sweden.. well, that would cost me a shitload of money (sorry, but you’re allowed to curse pretty much wherever in Sweden) so I obviously didn’t. I decided to post some thought here instead.

Apart from MPS being able to help the team down in Oklahoma the main thing people talk about is that this is hurting the development of the Swedish player, he’s not playing enough - he NEEDS to play more for crying out loud! Well.. yeah sure, I see your point. And to an extent, that is true. But, at the same point remember the fact that he is a Swede. We do things differently and we always have compared to the NHL. Each team in the Swedish Elite League (SEL) play 55 games per season, so talking regular season, if you’re healthy the most games you can play is 55. MPS is currently on pace for 77 games this season, and that’s in the NHL. That total will most likely be less even if MPS would stay in the NHL all season long  but even if it does and even with less ice-time than he “perhaps” would have wanted, he will see way more ice then he would’ve, had he still been playing in Sweden. Does sitting in the pressbox hurt his development? Nah.. I wouldn’t say that it does. He’s stabilizing himself in the town, getting to know people, earning a healthy sum (keeping him happy), not being spit at by the Swedish media core for getting sent down (I’ve touched on this before, Swedish media think little of the AHL) and he gets to practice - and play with some of the best players in the whole wide world and he’s got everything he need develop well (trainers, coaches, material.. well you name it - the life of a NHL pro). The same thing can be applied on Anton Lander and his development. Even when them Swedes don’t see as much ice with the Oilers - they still see a whole lot more than they would’ve in Sweden (there are reason why many Swedes look at the NHL and laugh due to the amount of games, 82, that’s played).

So does it hurt his development? No. Would he develop better by playing with the OKC Barons? Perhaps - we can’t possibly know. It could do wonders, but a worst case scenario it could lower his confidence even more. I’ve never looked at MPS as a neutral scorer, he’s more of a 2-WAY player in my eyes and what happens if he doesn’t produce big number in the AHL and he’s “stuck” there all year? ..as someone said - the AHL ain’t a easy league to play in whatever most people tend to think - no guarantees. Add to that, Lander and MPS are best buddies, they feed from each other off the ice. Send one down, you’d do best by sending them together. Some look at a demotion as a motivation factor. But trust me, sitting in the pressbox is motivation enough to get hungry and wanting to improve.

With all of this said, I’m all for sending MPS down, wouldn’t mind and to have just 6 D-men active doesn’t make sense, especially with the freaky Sutton injury close in mind. I personally don’t believe MPS won’t be able to cope with being sent down. He’s a big guy so that doesn’t bother me. All in all, it might be a tricky question but one thing remain easy - Oklahoma City Barons could sure use both of Magnus Pääjävi and Anton Lander.

There’s more too it, wrote the above spontaneously and on the rush.. so let’s take that another time.

Oh, don’t forget: #freeTulupov