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Edmonton Oilers rookie Jesse Puljujarvi was sent to Bakersfield of the AHL Monday. The breaking news can be found here, in a post from the Cult of Hockey’s David Staples.

It is a move that you will be hard-pressed to find opposition to. Quite to the contrary, many feel the big Finnish winger should have been there a long time ago, even perhaps right from training camp. After all, Puljujarvi has yet to find his groove in the NHL (a goal and seven assists in 28 games, for the 4th Overall Draft Pick), and his ice-time (when he was in the lineup) had been whittled down to a handful of minutes per game. From a pure on-ice performance point of view, I can see where the critics are coming from. On the face of it, it is understandable to scratch your head over it a bit.

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But there is another view to consider.

Remember…Jesse Puljujarvi is a kid, just eighteen today (he won’t turn nineteen until May), a teenager living in an adult world. He is living in Canada for the very first time. He is away from his home and his parents. When he arrived at training camp, he spoke precious little English and his comprehension was only a little bit better.