The Edmonton Oilers took a bold approach to free agency, giving money and term to a couple of fancy stats darlings. Numbers Game breaks down the signings of Benoit Pouliot and Mark Fayne.. The Oilers Get: LW Benoit Pouliot, D Mark Fayne and D Keith Aulie. Pouliot, 27, has been a hockey nomad, bouncing from team to team in recent seasons, but hes been pretty good at each stop along the way. While playing for four different teams (Montreal, Boston, Tampa Bay, N.Y. Rangers) in the past four seasons, Pouliot has put up strong possession numbers in each stop and hes been a pretty effective goal-scorer in limited time. He had a career-high 36 points in 80 games for the Rangers last season. The issue that crept up with Pouliot, and was particularly notable during the Rangers Stanley Cup run, was his alarming tendency to take offensive zone penalties and that lack of discipline can be frustrating but, in the grand scheme, Pouliot has been drawing more penalties than he takes. He has good size and plays enough of a physical game to get under the skin of the opposition from time to time and Pouliots willingness to go to the net could give him a shot at a 20-goal season if he ends up playing a bigger role in Edmonton. Where Pouliot fits with the Oilers is a bit of a question. He looks like a third-line left winger -- thats the role that hes handled effectively -- and the Rangers do have enough talent on the right side that they could have some decent offensive production out of their third line. While Pouliot is lauded by those who appreciate advanced stats, most would do a double-take before signing any third-line winger to a five-year contract. Maybe five years and $20-million was the cost of doing business, but that does seem like a serious commitment, particularly if there isnt room for Pouliot among the Oilers top six forwards. The Rangers have some holes to fill up front, and knew that they would not be able to get him re-signed at market prices, especially when the Oilers were willing to spend at this level. Fayne is a 27-year-old defenceman who has good size (6-foot-3, 215 pounds) and plays a sound defensive game, something that is sorely needed in Edmonton. There were two defencemen in the league who played tough opposition, started more shifts in the defensive zone yet finished with a better shot differential per 60 minutes than Fayne. One was Zdeno Chara and the other was Faynes frequent partner, Andy Greene. The interesting part of that possession success is that, last season, Fayne was the weak link in that pairing -- Greene had much better possession stats (54.2 Corsi%) without Fayne than Fayne had (47.2% Corsi%) without Greene -- but that was a flip of the year before, when Fayne was at 57.2% without Greene and Greene was 54.4% without Fayne. Ultimately, Fayne has been a reliable defensive defenceman who should upgrade the Oilers and, signed for $14.5-million over four seasons, hes not unreasonably priced if he can handle top-four minutes in Edmonton. The Devils have some young defencemen on the way up, including Jon Merrill, Eric Gelinas and Adam Larsson, that can take over some of the minutes that Fayne had been playing. 25-year-old Keith Aulie is a 6-foot-6 defenceman who has played 136 career NHL games, but has been crushed in possession terms, over his four NHL seasons. Hard to imagine that hes anything more than a spare part, even for the Oilers. While Pouliot and Fayne arent marquee names, they have been quietly solid players for several seasons. While the Oilers went long on Pouliots term, they were aggressive to acquire a couple of players that ought to make them more competitive. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. 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Chris Mullin Jersey .com) - They didnt meet in the regular season, so Sam Houston State might be saying it won the de facto title game between the two Southland Conference co-champions Saturday.ATLANTA - Coach Ron Rivera and the Carolina Panthers are headed back to the playoffs.Owner Arthur Blank and the Atlanta Falcons could be preparing to hire a new head coach.In a winner-take-all regular season finale, the Panthers easily beat the Falcons 34-3 to win the weak NFC South on Sunday.The victory gave Carolina (7-8-1) a division title for a second straight year, a first-time achievement for the franchise, as the Panthers prepare to host Arizona in a wild-card playoff game on Saturday.Atlanta (6-10) has collapsed since nearly winning the NFC title game two years ago. The Falcons, losers in 22 of their last 32 games, could have different leadership in the next few days if Blank fires Smith in the next day or so.Though Smith won two division titles and made four playoff appearances in his first five years, those achievements werent enough to prevent Atlantas collapse over the last two seasons.If he is fired, Smith will leave as the winningest coach in the Falcons 49-year history.Smith said he never saw Sundays horrible performance coming after what he thought was a good week of practice and game-planning.It sends a signal to me that I didnt get the job done, Smith said. Im the one thats held responsible for it.A few things to consider for both teams:WHATS NEXT: While Blank decides what to do with Smith, Rivera will have his team back at work preparing for Arizona.Despite being 3-8-1 following a lopsided loss at Minnesota on Nov. 30, Carolina rallied while division rivals Atlanta and New Orleans fell apart.Our guys are the kind of guys that we want, Rivera said, and I just felt if we kept playing and kept taking care of our business that we would get that opportunity.EVEN KEEL: To avoid a letdown against the Cardinals, linebacker Thomas Davis wants everyone in the Carolina locker room to remember how empty it felt to lose at home in the playoffs last year to San Francisco.We hosted a playoff game last year and didnt fare well, Davis said. We understand that as a team. Were going to remain foocused, and we have to make sure we do a good job of making sure that we take care of business at home.ddddddddddddMIX EM UP: Falcons receiver Roddy White said the offence was surprised by the zone coverage Carolina deployed and was disappointed that Atlanta never seemed to adjust.They mixed up a bunch of different coverages and didnt play a whole lot of man coverages, White said. They dropped eight, they dropped seven and they rallied to the ball. They did a good job of that and kind of confused us early in the game that we werent prepared for.YOUNG AND TOUGH: The Panthers, who started a franchise-record seven rookies on both sides of the line in last Sundays home win over Cleveland, got a boost defensively from rookie starters Bene Benwikere and Tre Boston and reserves Adarius Glanton and Kony Ealy.The foursome combined for 10 solo tackles, one sack, one interception, one forced fumble and one pass breakup.Said Boston, who picked off Matt Ryans pass to Harry Douglas and returned it 84 yards for a touchdown on the last play of the third quarter, I think it was our best overall defensive game that we played this season. From seven, back seven, we just all did our jobs. Were coached to play to our potential.LONG, HARD FALL: Ryan wanted to win the game and the division, not just for Smith, but for everybody on the team.I think it was about everyone in our organization, Ryan said. I think when we came into this game, it wasnt just about Mike. It was about us as a team. We wanted to continue to play and we felt like we had the right team to do that.BY THE NUMBERS: Rivera improved his career December record to 15-3 since 2011. ... The Falcons dropped to 5-1 against the NFC South. They went 1-9 outside the division. ... Panthers QB Cam Newton has averaged 7.7 yards per carry in 60 career rushing attempts against Atlanta. Newton was Carolinas leading rusher with 51 yards. 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