Omark, of the Beast

Linus Omark, adding to Dan Ellis' Problems

Dan Ellis' problems just keep getting funnier this season.  A day after being effectively replaced by a man a decade his senior, Dan Ellis hears about Linus Omark coming back to the NHL.

Omark belongs here.

Not because he's supremely talented.  Not because he's too good for the AHL.  Not because he has nothing to learn there.  He belongs here because he will learn here, and he won't learn in the American League.

Omark has attitude.  He has it in abundance, he reeks of it.  He has swagger, (over)confidence, and an undeniable will to succeed.  It remains to be seen if Linus Omark is an Edmonton Oiler or just Edmonton Omark, but that will come out in time and the Oilers will deal with it then.

Omark's attitude may help the Oilers win, especially right now.  But that, too, isn't particularly relevant at the moment.

The thing about Omark is that he has attitude and personality that transcend his size.  This isn't a particularly common trait and I suspect most hockey players, certainly Canadians, are taught to internalize their determination and stubbornness.  Sidney Crosby is the ultimate example.  Matt Duchene isn't far behind, and I'm sure we can throw Sam Gagner into that bunch.  They're small players.  Why?  A six foot tall player, like Taylor Hall, is a big body.  You take an inch - just an inch - away from him, and he becomes a five footer, someone who will struggle with physical contact, unless he "plays big" and has "heart".  Weighing 195-205lbs doesn't help.  Just ask any TV or radio commentator, or anyone on the forums.  In the silly American measuring system we're stuck with, an inch - the right inch, the last inch - adds a foot.

Omark may have grown up with metric but everything about him speaks of someone who's been told all his life "you're small" and "no", but unlike most of us, he didn't ignore it, and he didn't accept it, but he motivated himself with it.

There are many things he could learn in the AHL, but he can dominate in that league with speed and talent alone.  Whatever shortcomings he has, he overcomes with his production.  As someone who seems to have created himself by hearing every criticism and then smashing it right back into his accuser's face, Omark strikes me as the kind of player who wouldn't listen to a coach there.  Patrick Roy has two Stanley Cup rings plugging his ears.  Linus Omark has a 5-goal game and the knowledge that the Barons collapsed without him.  But an NHL coach, at what is the undeniably highest level of hockey in the world?  Especially when that coach can pop in video from a game and go over the regular doses of humility Omark faces on NHL ice?  That's a different story.

Will Linus be out of his depth?  Possibly, for a while.  Will he make mistakes with (and especially without) the puck?  Almost certainly.  Will he refuse to acknowledge them at first?  Likely.  But there's a Michael Jordan-esque intensity about Omark.  An anger.  A defiant will to prove everyone around him wrong, a need to find a challenge and beat it down until it's dust.

Jordan Eberle, Sam Gagner, Matt Duchene and Sidney Crosby had calmly, quietly fought through the stereotypes of being just "five feet" tall with determination and their play on the ice.  Omark, by contrast, is loud, brash, even arrogant, but seems lit on fire by the challenges thrown his way.  Here's to hoping his talent level continues to match his determination.