Game Nine 2017-18: Stars at Oilers
The Edmonton Oilers are back home and have a nice stretch of games at Rogers. If they were firing on all pistons, we could count on a large slice of the available points—but this season has a different feel to it. In our last episode, the head coach was sending out an S.O.S. for a 1R, perhaps operating out of home base will bring him some answers.
PIKES PEAK, YEAR OVER YEAR
- Oilers in October 2015: 3-5-0, goal differential -5
- Oilers in October 2016: 7-1-0, goal differential +12
- Oilers in October 2017: 2-5-1, goal differential -9
Game Nine a year ago was that strange 2-0 loss to Ottawa, Craig Anderson shutting out the club on an emotional evening. Cam Talbot stopped 20 of 21 but the story was in the other goal. Edmonton isn’t scoring goals, the GF-GA per game (1.88-3.00) in sharp contrast to one year ago (2.96-2.52). They can’t fire 23 players, so there is abundant pressure on the coach. Nothing imminent of course, but Todd McLellan has a lot to ponder over the next three days. His roster, his lines and pairings, will tell us a lot about who he wants to go to war with on this roster.
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM OCTOBER
- At home to: Calgary (Expected: 1-0-0) (Actual 1-0-0)
- On the road to: Vancouver (Expected: 1-0-0) (Actual: 0-1-0)
- At home to: Winnipeg, Ottawa, Carolina (Expected 1-1-1) (Actual: 0-3-0)
- On the road to: Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh (Expected 1-1-1) (Actual 1-1-1)
- At home to: Dallas, Washington (Expected 1-1-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- Overall expected result: 5-3-2, 12 points in 10 games
- Current results: 2-5-1, 5 points after eight games games
It took some time for the team to settle down defensively and now they seem hesitant in the offensive zone. The shooting percentage is going to regress and I think we should be able to count on at least one win in the next two games that will round out this week. I expect we will see a watershed offensive evening at some point in the next week or two, but timing is unknown.
Photo by Rob Ferguson
TRADE WINDS (SPEED)
- Elliotte Friedman: “I think that they are going to look for speed. I think they are going to try to find some players around the league that have some hop to them, because they need guys fast enough to play with McDavid.” Source
Speed is abundant across the NHL and can be procured—some of it at less than prohibitive prices. Michael Grabner in New York won’t cost a lot, Matt Duchene in Colorado will. I think the Oilers are probably reaching the conclusion that Kailer Yamamoto needs another year before entering the NHL full time. I further believe the club isn’t sold on Anton Slepyshev in a feature role—not at this point in time, anyway.
That means a trade, or recall of Jesse Puljujarvi. Fans should be open to either, there’s something about the roster as currently constructed—and its usage—that doesn’t rhyme.
MCDAVID’S WINGERS IN PITTSBURGH
It is rare to see a veteran NHL coach spend an entire NHL game casting about for solutions but we saw just that thing on Tuesday night in Pennsylvania. Once Todd McLellan moved away from Kailer Yamamoto as 1R, he tried a lengthy list of the roster, including his clear preference Leon Draisaitl.
- This is via NaturalStatTrick.
- McDavid’s wingers included all forwards save Nuge and Jujhar Khaira.
- The players under a minute could be coincidental or shuffling coming off a penalty kill, someone has a skate problem or missing a shift due to short-term injury. The guys getting three minutes or more had to be the coach trying out an idea.
- After all the Nuge on RW talk over the summer, he didn’t try that idea. Makes sense, Leon was just coming back from injury. If chemistry doesn’t chime soon, we may in fact see that kind of deployment.
CONNOR MCDAVID ON CHEMISTRY
- “It definitely takes a few games, 5-6 games to really get a good idea. To really, fully get chemistry with someone you have to play together for a long, long time. It’s been nice that Leon, Patty and I have been able to stick together for a long time now and I definitely hope that continues. It’s easy to find each other out there, because we’re all pretty comfortable.” Source
Connor McDavid and Kailer Yamamoto have been on the ice together for 61 minutes at 5×5, 65 percent Corsi and 65 percent shot share. Scoring chance share? 67 percent. High danger scoring chance share? 25-8, 76 percent. Goals for and against? 2-2. Kailer Yamamoto is going to be an excellent NHL player, I’m convinced he’s a better prospect than Jesse Puljujarvi long term, but this year he isn’t cashing chances. That’s not a shot at the young man, we saw Leon Draisaitl and Jesse Puljujarvi go through the same obstacles as rookies. Connor McDavid with Leon Draisaitl is a better plan. All day, all the time. Source
HELP!
The theme of today’s post is help! and the exclamation point is necessary. Todd McLellan needs the Nuge line to score goals and he badly needs Ryan Strome to post some 5×5 offense. The biggest issue is finding a 1R for Connor McDavid to turn those Corsi’s and HDSC’s into goals for Edmonton. The answer to all three problems? Leon Draisaitl. I think Todd McLellan chooses Leon for the CMD line, leaving Peter Chiarelli to add some speedy winger for Nuge or Strome’s lines. I am hopeful they give Anton Slepyshev a try in the coming days.
CONNOR MCDAVID QUOTE TO FRANK SERAVALLI
- “I don’t know what it is. I just think guys haven’t been very good.” Source
That’s part of it, 10-bell chances have to cash at a higher rate and the goalie was off in the early days of the season. That said, this team needs a boost. Edmonton began the year with a 1R depth chart of Leon Draisaitl, Kailer Yamamoto, Drake Caggiula, Zack Kassian. Perhaps we’ll see that lineup tonight. At some point, the Edmonton Oilers will move Yamamoto to Spokane unless the young man starts to cash these chances. Jesse Puljujarvi waits near the corner of North by Northwest, and trade market beckons.
LOWEDOWN WITH LOWETIDE
We have a full boat of guests today, beginning at 10 on TSN1260.
- Bruce McCurdy, Cult of Hockey. Where to play Leon, what to do about Kailer?
- Scott Burnside, Senior Digital Correspondent, Dallas Stars. We talk to an old friend about an old nemesis for the Edmonton Oilers.
- Rob Vollman, ESPN and NHL.com. Top offensive pairs in the NHL, Kucherov and Stamkos are on fire, McDavid and Leon can carry a team.
- Frank Seravalli, TSN. How frustrated is Connor McDavid?
10-1260 text, @Lowetide on twitter. See you on the radio!
Makeup call for the makeup call??
Hope we don’t see this ref crew anytime soon.
That’s it… we’re definately losing this game… oilers can’t score on the pp, and our pk is garbage…
I agree with these slashing penalties being called. The question is the more blatant ones not called. Mcdavid trips on possible break away with ref looking on and faceoff slash on Letestu.
Oilers have absolutely killed themselves with penalties tonight.
3 PPGA wow
F””k special teams!
Shit.
Ugh.
Lazy pk again
Maybe Edmonton should just take an intsy bitsy hit (accidental…) on one of the refs to make a statement?
Not that I condone such violence…
Heartless and gutless to the core
Lack of PK is killing their chance of winning this one.
Caggiula chased the point and broke the shape,
Where’s Wideman when you need him.
/sarcasm
I’m done… white flag!!! Chia is definately signing kelly, and we are trading nuge for pennies. Calgary fan at work is going to have a hay day tomorrow…
Oilers are a shell of themselves from last year…
Connor really having to engage in some stick-fencing around the net.
And soon, the season – credit to LT, he saw this coming months ago
2 Stars on McDavid now after the whistle.
Time for a line brawl? Team bonding event!
Wtf was latestu doing? He was 15 ft from where he should be there. Could use a pitlick on the pk
Gryba got absolutely greased by hanzel
Oilers have got to stop the bleeding. Man. They should have owned this game. Shot themselves in the foot. Got to at least get a point out of this. They finally score 3 goals in a game and they give up 4. It’s ridiculous.
Can we blame it on Draisaitl’s concussion?
That Gryba hit really pissed off the Stars.
Not so special teams.
Yeah, I’m done watching, possibly for good.
Something against the written rules of the game happens every time someone touches the puck.
The game has no integrity, and the results have no meaning if the rules are applied completely randomly.
This was really clear in the playoffs last season, it is more of the same this season.
Probably an overreaction, but I can’t invest this much time in something so blatantly inconsistent.
THE GOLDEN NUGGET!!
8 minutes buys, we need a goal.
Beauty nuge
Nuge scored.
Only one way to find out 😇
Nice play by Benning!
YES!
Wow my feed is slow. Nuge just scored now.
4 goals??? woooot
attaboy Nugey.
Yeah!!
No more dumb penalties.
Nuge is good.
OK do that again!
Lucic to Nuge
I see beautiful days and I feel beautiful ways
Loving that turnover turning to an equalizer
everything’s gone
midnight orange, white and blue.
I’m gong to keep being negative… apparently that works…
WE SUCK! we will never score another pp goal again! Calgary is the better team! Wait.. that might have gone too far… scratch that last one..
Plus lack of a power play
Too bad they can’t play this entire game at ES.
That was a very nice play by Nurse.
Next step is that slap shot…
Nurse is good.
Oh FUCK OFF
whattashift
These refs really don’t want Dallas to lose.
Maybe Nuge Isn’t so bad in the cycle, the key being getting him the puck away from coverage.
Please Nuge get a hat trick
How the heck did that not go in?
Oilers own 5 v 5. If they’d stayed out of the box this game would be 4-1 Oil, easily.
Damn damn damn damn damn.
A little ballroom dancing for McDavid with Benn there… weird…
Benn hugging McDavid. How cute.
Cue GMoney conspiracy theory
Kassian was mugged earlier in that sequence.
Geez have to get at least a point now or will be like a kick in the nads!
How you ask? Because.. wait for it…. Oilers…
deardylan,
Lucic gets an assist despite himself.
Klef, wut?
I’ve always got time for a good conspiracy.
That Benning kid!!
Big b
Matt Benning scored.
!!!!!
Good for you Benning! Boy he needed that!
Benning!
Benning
I see beautiful days and I feel beautiful ways
Loving his first goal of the season
everything’s gone
midnight orange, white and blue.
Benning seeing eye shot!
That’s two “lucky” bounce goals tonight of the type we have not seen all season.
HELL YEAHHH!!!!
Oh sorry I mean… WE SUCK! Oilers are missing the playoffs!!!
Radulov scores again!
Hat trick for Radulov.
Ha.
Benning and the Oilers really needed that one. Boy.
Oh no – here comes a 5 vs 6
Come on boys, bring it home, we need this one.
Secondary scoring. It’s a beautiful thing.
WE GOT ONE OF THOSE GOALS?
Were the refs pissed we were successfully killing the clock? Why the whistle?
And there’s your SP% meat regression
Get the Nougat out there!!
Why are people booing?
Holy cow we needed that…
So… about that pk…
Huge comeback win. 🙂
Good deal, lots to build on from this one.
OILERS!!!
I NEVER DOUBTED YOU!!!
#notamasterpiece
Literally
Golden Nugget!
This should be a turnaround game.
Progression to the meat!
Roll with it boys!!! Thought Benning looked really good tonight.
Eat shit refs.
Eat shit Stars.
And eat shit low PDO.
Right out of the Dallas Stars’ logo.
3 points back of Calgary with a game in hand. Gain some momentum please.
So how many times does a team lose the special teams battle 3-0 and still win the game??? Boy we needed that 2 points!
So much secondary scoring I think it counts as tertiary scoring. Nuge was huge. Nurse was fantastic. The penalty kill was a dumpster fire.
Gotta get these Special Teams straightened out.
We won the 5 on 5 against a really good team tonight however.
They were nooooging.
Seems like the Oilers play teams that get lit up the game before. #Caps
That was a big win. (duh).
Funniest stat of the year on the ridiculous reffing in the NHL is that slashing calls are up 495% from last year. Total PPs up 18%.
So everyone talking about the non-calls on everything non-slash, it’s real, and it’s spectacular.
Good fighting by the team, good reminder that puck luck will change and possession has its advantages.
Please Gord figure out the PK right quick though.
Nuge is secondary scoring for sure. I think Benning counts as tertiary. Literally.
I would like to think that they will figure out the special teams.
I am impressed by the 5v5 systems though man we need some bottom 6 scoring.
Klef-Lars seem to be back to normal.
I do believe Talbot and Sekera were EDM’s best PKers last year. His absence is felt
Primary scoring showed up too. Leon had a great game. Would not be surprised if he wakes up tomorrow with some whiplash from that dirty hit from behind from Hanzal.
That I would say is literally a material win.
Big bounce back effort from Nuge!
I thought he gripped the stick a bit less tight after the Benn goal and it paid off.
For Nurse I thought That last penalty was bad but otherwise he had another strong game.
NYC-Back-to-Tokyo Oil (Gentleman Backpacker),
You were bang on re: 5v5 play. Very good effort from the team tonight. Gutsy win.
Now start rolling!
I thought the scoring would come from the primary side picking up more so than the secondary. Drai coming back and all. That part happened, but how many times do the Oilers score 5 goals and McDavid only has one point? If Nuge can get going that’s huge for this team. The question was always who was going to step up to fill those-who-shall-not-be-named’s boots. If he can do that, that’s massive.
Oh, I forgot, I think the bank shot by Maroon off a Dallas player counts as quaternary scoring–when you have own goals by the other team.
The old Bandwagon took some serious damage tonight!
You can always count on Dallas for some good firewagon pond hockey.
Washington another good PP team but they aren’t Dallas 5 on 5.
Patrick Laine looked an awful lot like Milan Lucic trying to catch up to Phil Kessel in overtime tonight.
Jason GregorVerified account @JasonGregor 1m1 minute ago
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“Confidence. I’m trying plays I wouldn’t have last year.” Nugent-Hopkins on four goals in nine games.
Munny,
I wondered the same. SN didnt offer an explanation. It went from Oil possession to timeout
I wouldn’t say our PK was poor tonight. The Stars PP was amazing. Best one I’ve seen this year. Mental note. DONT TAKE 5 PENALTIES!!!
Scrivens…Klinkhammer…Brule… on Canada’s Olympic team?
If they win gold can we re-sign them after saying sorry?
This game gives me some hope, with concern. Outscored our special teams tonight, but showed some resiliancy at 4-3. Cautious optimism.
What’s with the weird offside rule where they blow it down when the non-offending team has the puck? In a game where possession matters so much, it’s kinda whack to take possession away like that. At the very least, it should be an auto-all-the-way-down face-off, right?
This was a bit of a nail in Moto’s coffin.
Top 6 is looking set.
That’s kinda the way I saw it too. Or, was our (poor) PK allowing them to look so good? And why does our PP play from so far away from the net? The Stars PP seemed to always to be moving in closer and closer to our net, looking super dangerous, and consequently very successful.
Oh well. Job done. The streak begins at 1.
LETS GO OILERS…CLAP, CLAP, CLAP-CLAP-CLAP
Good results by Nuge. He has to be a factor like that nearly every game to earn that cap hit.
I don’t believe he’s as good defensively as some fans think he is, so I believe he needs to be scoring at a strong clip to be a valuable piece.
Edmontons PK is bad. Stars shouldn’t be able to wing it through the box like that. Its not a surpise really. Too many inexperienced players there.
Would like to see the Oilers use Drai in front of the net on the PP the way the Stars use Been. Almost posting up. He can pass from there, deflect, collect rebounds, screen, use that long reach and backhand. Oilers like to have him down low but to the side with McDavid.
That was fun.
The clients are out drinking and I’m driving back to Calgary.
Gasoline Aleey is, sketchy.
Who knew they could score 5 goals in one game?
Did you take your clients to the game?
Dear Lowetidians,
The Oilers scoring woes are all my fault. I placed the thumb of one of the mini-gloves on my rear view mirror, inside the hand hole of the glove (when I had finally returned them to their rightful place a few days ago), thus preventing the proper flow of scoring vibes. I realized my mistake around noon today. No worries, all is good now, the balance has been restored and the boys will be scoring from here on in.
My apologies for all the angst and flashbacks to the dark decade.
It will never happen again!
I only saw the first half of the game. How did Nurse play? Did he maintain the high level of play from the Pittsburgh game?
Compared to what, Brooklyn?
Stay outta of my town sweetheart, it’s not for the soft
Great predictions,
don’t let the door hit you on the way out F face
Somehow your even more embarrassing then that last fuck
Listening to Bruce and David discuss the game tonight on Cult of Hockey. I usually agree with their take on the game but saying Kahira had a good game is quite a stretch.
He had a good first shift ot two and probably had 3 shots on net right off the hop but watch the tape after that. He suddenly became hestitant and slow to make a decision or move the puck and as a result he turned the puck over in his end two or three times when he could have easily have moved it.
Surprised Tmac played him at all in the third.
Yup, couple bankers from Calgary and one based out of Edmonton – I got us SN Club seats which worked out great.
I don’t drink, obviously, and have meetings this morning in Calgary so decided to drive back after the game.
Clearly I’m not waking up at the usual 3:40 am for the gym, especially after being awake for 21.5 hours (the drive from Red Deer in was probably not smart) – a well-deserved day off.
Great game.
Yup, Nurse had a very strong game again – one penalty we could have done without.
I’m not sure I understand the comment.
I will be in Brooklyn for the game there in a couple of weeks – looking forward to seeing the Barclays Center.
OriginalPouzar,
Most parts in western Brooklyn are harmless. Barclay Center is not good for hockey.
Nurse is growing on me. Another strong night, I read posts saying he took an unnecessary penalty in the 3rd but that’s honestly 95% on Jujhar for making such a bad play
Nurse, and Larsson and Klefbom for that matter, is evidence you have to be patient with young D. LT says five years for prospects but for D I have felt like it takes until age 25 or 400 games.
Always believed in Nurse, although I did think Ristolainen was the better pick. Might wind up being wrong on that. Bad teams do bad things to good players.
Oilers brought along Klefbom well and maybe Nurse, too.
Woodguy v2.0,
RNH will get Seguin/Benn all night and The Testu is there for RH FO. I bet he gets spelled off a bit, he’s on PP1 and PK2.
Missed that entirely.
RNH vs Benn 0:55
McDavid vs Benn 9:13
No forward other than 19-97-29 was over 1:07 (Lucic)
Klef (8:16) and Larsson (8:51) had the Benn assignment too.
Next highest Dman vs Benn was Nurse with 2:52
It worked.
Benn was on the ice for 1 5v5 goals and 27-93-55 with 25-62 were on the ice.
97’s line w/ 77-6 outscored Benn 1-0 5v5.
The other 2 5v5 goals for 97 were scored against Janmark’s line
Janmark was on the ice for RNH’s 2 5v5 goals too.
Janmark vs RNH 4:13 2 goals againt
Janmark vs McDavid 3:13 2 goals against
Rough night for Janmark
*whew*
OriginalPouzar,
I will be there as well.Actually going to all three of their games, NJD, NYI, NYR. We should meet up!
– It’s a lot easier to score goals when the SV% is .857, and not .957.
– I’d say 5×5 our system looked the same, but we scored goals.
– Good to see Lucic, RNH, Strome and our D put up points
– A string of goalies who put up .857 to even out the .956 our secondary scoring will be strong
– Or these goals just a function of bad G, and our secondary guys still suck?
Oilers 4v5 TOI and GA last night:
Player TOI GA
Adam Larsson -4:05 – 0
Oscar Klefbom 4:05 -0
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins 3:52 – 1
Mark Letestu 3:22 – 2
Kris Russell 3:04 – 3
Zack Kassian 2:48 – 1
Darnell Nurse 2:43 – 2
Leon Draisaitl 2:28 – 1
Eric Gryba 2:12 – 1
Jussi Jokinen 2:01 – 0
Connor McDavid 1:16 – 0
Drake Caggiula 1:10 – 1
I have been to Brooklyn once before but we didn’t venture much farther than that famous pizza place essentially under the Bridge.
Barclay Center isn’t a good arena?
I’ll be headed in to Brooklyn earlier in the trip to – Going to Modern Love for the vegan wife.
I don’t think Nurse got the benefit of as much AHL time as Klef did and could have used a nice stretch of 20-40 games down there but, at this point, he is taking huge strides forward and there isn’t much to complain about.
Nurse has been the brightest spot of the early season – hopefully he stays healthy for the year.
It was a great game for the first line – Todd clearly wanted to match 1st line vs 1st line and it worked.
It was a bit of a risky move as that line has had a history of getting running around its own zone against other top lines but, with the addition of Drai, it truly might be the best line in the league.
We fly in the Newark a few hours before the game on the Friday night but I wasn’t able to convince the wife to allow attendance – I guess our entire 5 day trip, which is supposed to be centered around the marathon, can’t be centered around the Oilers. We leave Wed morning so will be gone before the game at MSG.
OriginalPouzar,
Well that’s too bad!
97’s lines went 48%CF and +1 in goals. Almost the definition of “saw-off” except they won the goal battle.
That’s a great DAL line so even if they went 50% GF that would be a good result.
Just need to beat the other 3 lines then.
McLellan running the “nuclear power v power” and that’s probably the right decision.
McDavid will outscore a lot of 1st lines and that’s needed when they don’t shoot 17% 5v5.
Need the 5v4 to cash too.
Grimaldi’s. Even that has been renovated and lost its charm. Good pie still, but not the same.
No, Barclays is not good for hockey. I miss Nassau Loud rink, loyal fans. Only thing was the facility was terrible and too much trouble to get to.
Yes Grimaldi’s – that was it.
One time there was enough for us in any event – I’m excited for Isa’s palace – Modern Love.
That’s too bad – I was excited for Barclays Cneter – we’re row Section 24, Row 9 – i think they are pretty decent seats (bought them a long time ago so I don’t really remember) – either way, I’ll be at an Oiler game in New York – that’s a good night.