Based on lines and pairings yesterday at practice, Kailer Yamamoto will play a depth role tonight. It will be the first time this season, and was predictable. Yamamoto is a complementary offensive player who is usually on the strong side of possession. His career numbers confirm it. Is this a crossroads for Yamamoto’s career? I don’t believe it is.
THE ATHLETIC!
- New Lowetide: Oilers top prospect is unclear for the first time in a dozen years
- Lowetide: Oilers prospects crowding AHL roster, ice time at a premium
- DNB: Why Oilers’ latest ‘pathetic’ performance from Jack Campbell is a growing issue
- Lowetide: Oilers rookie Stuart Skinner is chasing history
- DNB: Devils stun Oilers in Edmonton: How 7 seconds changed the game
- DNB: Ryan Smyth on Oilers memories, keepsakes and the current team: Q&A
- Lowetide: Making room for Dylan Holloway
- Lowetide: Edmonton Oilers start October slow but finish month strong
- Lowetide: Oilers prospect Tyler Tullio adjusting quickly to AHL
- DNB: Oilers’ Skinner, an Edmonton native, closes door on Flames
- DNB: The Oilers have a third line that’s settling in
- Lowetide: Early season trade unlikely for the Oilers
- DNB: How the Oilers can manage Connor McDavid and star players’ workloads
- Jonathan Willis: Jakob Chychrun would look good on the Oilers, but is there a deal to be had?
- Lowetide: Edmonton Oilers reasonable expectations for every player in 2022-23
- Lowetide: Oilers top-20 prospects, summer 2022
WHAT TO EXPECT IN NOVEMBER
- At home to: NAS, NJD, DAL (Expected 2-1-0) (Actual 1-2-0)
- On the road to: WAS, TBY, CAR, FLA (Expected 1-2-1) (Actual 0-0-0)
- At home to: LAK, VEG (Expected 1-0-1) (Actual 0-0-0)
- On the road to: NJD, NYI, NYR (Expected (1-1-1) (Actual 0-0-0)
- At home to: FLA (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- On the road to: CHI (Expected (1-0-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- November expected result: 7-4-3, 17 points in 14 games
- Actual November results: 1-2-0, 2 points in 3 games
- October results: 6-3-0, 12 points in 9 games
- Oilers in 2022-23: 7-5-0, 14 points in 12 games
The key for Edmonton is to end losing strreaks before they reach five or six games in length. The New Jersey game hurt and the Oilers were a no-show against the Stars. Comes a time when you’re drifting, comes a time when you settle down.
OILERS POSSIBLE LINEUP (5×5 GOAL SHARE)
I like the new lines, the group needed a freshening and it appears to be on the way. A team can’t perform as poorly as this one did against Dallas and expect status quo.
The new McDavid line has played together 265 minutes five-on-five in the last 2+ seasons. Shot share is 55, goal share is 52, expected goal share is 60 percent. It has skill, a defensive conscience and a finisher (McDavid). My only concern is that the trio might not blast off instantly and down 1-0 I think Jay Woodcroft might go to the nuclear option (McDavid-Draisaitl).
The new Draisaitl line has played just 12 minutes together (0-1 goals) but on paper should be a dominant line. I didn’t think the coaching staff would give the two best wingers to either elite center but we are here. I wonder about Kane’s health, so that could be part of it. Washington has 14 forwards who are averaging over 10 minutes a night, Edmonton has nine, so Woodcroft might be tempted to short shift this trio and then send them back out instead of the fourth unit. This could be an electric trio.
The McLeod Project has played 51 minutes together, 2-0 goals, 60 percent shot share and 66 percent expected goals five-on-five. That’s a pretty solid No. 3 line for Edmonton.
The fourth line is a hodge-podge BUT could easily be Holloway-McDavid-Yamamoto in a heartbeat.
YAMAMOTO
Yamamoto is on the verge of 200 NHL games. Per 82 games, he has averaged 17-23-40. That’s enough to keep him in a top-six role until someone better arrives, or someone just as good emerges from the farm system. He is 24, and we can assume is about to reach his peak as a hockey player. Injuries aside, and they are a major factor, it would be folly to send this player away. He isn’t 40, he scored well last season (20 goals) and he’s streaky. I will bet on him to recover. When is anyone’s guess.
Deleted
The does PK appear to be the single biggest issue at the moment. It has been terrible. Currently 3rd worst in the league, giving up 14.27GA/60.
There is hope, since it was actually quite good under Woodcroft last season. 5th best in the regular season (6.13GA/60). Also 5th best in the playoffs (6.11GA/60), though 2nd best of the 8 teams to make it out of the 1st round.
Hopefully the staff can get it turned around quickly.
Edit: the players and staff.
This is a Leon comments – well, it seems they need coaching on this – I know the coaches have provided the system/structure but they don’t have confidence in what to do at this point, from what I can tell:
Daniel Nugent-Bowman
@DNBsports
·
2h
On the PK: “I’m no penalty killing juggernaut. Right now, we’re a little hesitant. We don’t really know when to pressure and when not to pressure. We just sit back and teams just find a way to take advantage of us there. It’s something that needs to be cleaned up.”
Aye this matches the eye test and could be said about their efforts in the Dzone more broadly. There’s definitely been a passivity to that aspect this year. My bet is it’s everyone getting used to the new Dmen (biggest area of roster turnover this fall) and working to implement the ManWood systems.
Theyll fix it, the sooner the better, but they’ll fix it.
the gales of November commin early – the captain and crew are a bone getting chewed..
The biggest issues affecting this team…1) Team Defence(shots against,goals against, penalty killing, mediocre defence core, goaltending. 2) Secondary scoring. Having said this, if the defensive game was working then 3-4 goals per game would be winning you at least 80-85 percent of your games. But of course, most are looking at people not scoring goals…..mind boggling to be quite honest.
Per NST, he’s tied for 128th with 11 (at 5 on 5) and tied for 156th with 12 (all situations)….
This is amazing to me. I think he had three blocked tonight and didn’t hit the net on a good chance…I want him to score so bad to open the floodgates…hopefully…
Kris Russell is still unsigned and hasn’t retired (that I know of)…..
That man can kill penalties……
I hope a true contender picks him up at the deadline. Great pickoff for injuries if needed for playoffs. Russel is just resting for 23+ blocks a game in the playoffs.
Need a massive reduction in goals against.
Get us a D-man Holland.
A bit unfair that Ovechkin has played through one labour dispute and had 2 seasons affected by Covid. If not, he’d probably be at around 825 to 845-ish goals. He’d only need 60 or 70 goals to catch Gretzky, instead of 106. In fairness, I guess Gretzky went through 1 labour dispute late in his career and would have around 8 more goals as well.
Gordie Howe was even luckier, with no labour disputes when he was playing.
Also, no worries about contracts since the Red Wings GM just presented it to Gordie and Gordie signed it every time without having to worry about anything but playing hockey.
Gordie Howe retired for two years, and also had 174 goals in 6 WHA seasons.
and also didn’t have the benefit of 82/84 game seasons….
Gretz also didn’t have the benefit of 3 on 3 OT and, well, had his production decreased by Gary Sutter…..
Sure.
Interesting points. Ovie is number 1 in era adjusted goals and well clear of Gretzky in that regard. Fake stat…I know…but it puts his scoring prowess in context.
McDavid, Hyman and Nuge were fantastic …I thought Drai was just okay tonight and Kane was 38CF% which matched my eye with him.
Folks, you can point to there numbers all day but outside of the group above- there is just not a lot going on.
Foggy
Yamamoto
JP
You can almost make a case now that 2 of 3 players are now hurting the team.
How about try playing some defence instead of worrying about offence? Good teams shouldn’t have to score 6 goals to win a game.
I’m not smart enough to break down PK systems but I do know that the Woody Condors’ PK over the years was not all that great and I hear that PK is mostly structure/systems based (i.e. often more impactful than personnel)…..
Yams playing under 7 minutes, hurt, benched or the flu?
Dumb penalty.
Don’t worry!
Everything is going to be alright!
Rob Brown: Oilers PK has a 67.9% kill rate. Now couple that with the number of dumb penalties.
This is a coaching issue as much as an execution issue. Way too damn passive and this is also a 5v5 problem right now.
this happened in a swoon last year too so it can be course corrected. I’m sure it will be but it’s annoying.
Can’t sit back and wait, need to press, need to make them make a play.
I thought Kane played better tonight but still not top drawer. Coach put JP on a leash when I thought he was doing really well earlier. Strange choice there.
Still trying to understand WTF Bouch was doing with his stick up around a guys head who’s 6.5. Man that was a really dumb play after a really piss poorly aware shot into the shin pads.
Bring that 3rd period effort tomorrow night please. No more of this bullshit taking at least 30 minutes a game off.
At least the Flames suck too 😉
They were missing an entire top line and had some left-handed nobody in net. And we still lost.
I don’t care if we gave them 4 PPGs. We should’ve scored 10 on that roster and both McD/Drai benched for the last 10 mins of the 3rd period. Needed to save them for the bigger game tomorrow. Instead…they prolly played 75% of the last period and will be gassed for tomorrow.
Woody…figure it out. Quickly.
Tampa in Tampa on a B2B is guaranteed loss night.
😉
Kane with some really untimely turnovers. Hasty lazy passes. Bad flu?
Never been a huge fan of his decision making. Would not be my first choice for 6 v 5
Kane was the least of the problems.
Agreed. He was much more involved in a good way tonight than the last two games.
This is my thinking. Maybe a couple of guys? Tis the season.
It’s been a bit of a theme at times….
Outworked early by a bunch of ahl lunch pailers. Took penalties when our PK is crap.
No urgency until it was almost to late.
A couple of big saves woulda gone a long way but Stu mostly left out to dry.
This isn’t a talent problem. This is between the ears…
Whoever is responsible for the penalty kill doesn’t need to be merely fired, but fired into the sun as quickly as possible.
Stop passing the puck to Kane. Turnover every time.
He’s been left open a lot. Guess we know why…
Well you aren’t going to win many games giving up 4 ppg’s. Seriously how bad is our pk and can it be fixed?
Man the caps have made alot of their own calls tonight. And the officials listen!
Exactly
Young player sure wracking up a lot of game costing plays so far this season.
Lordly Bouch when the coach drops you out there you can’t shit the bed like that.
Barrie doing sweet eff all on that back check.
Whatever they’re doing on the PK meeds
to end a week ago.
Clawed back but shat the bed when it was all on the line.
LT was right and I was way to optimistic last week.
Nuge.
Another non-5v5 tally.
Dude.
Well, my bit of sunshine from this game.
That’s an incredible pass by Nurse there.
BOOM!!! Nuge!!! Just to make things interesting!!!
If you’re going to play so undisciplined have a good PK. Historically bad again.
LoL….Nuge again
And we’re still in it
Hershey 4 for 5 on the PP
Another race lost to cap off the night
We are going to lose to Hershey?
Wow
This PK is something else…
If this was any other coach…..
Coach 100% needs to take some heat
100%
Jesus Murphy that was a dumb play by Bouchard
Stupid stupid stupid
Geez…Bouch has to lead the league in blocked shots…
god that was stupid
That was stupid….
Man, the Oilers could be the star of a movie called terrible passing.
This ice is awful. Horrible for a puck carrying team like us. Great for a lunch pail team like the very injured Caps. Sometimes you gotta win different ways.
Too cute the last two shifts there.
Caps are slow and are getting beat left and right with chip and chase. Now they’re lining up and letting McD, or Hyman or Drai skate right into them. Get the puck deep and beat them with your speed boys.
This one is there for the taking but they need to work for it.
Can’t defend, most guys can’t make a pass. Can’t pk. Lucky to be in the game.
We must be off the charts for shots shot wide and out of the zone / 60.
So frustrating.
McDavid is pulling the team along. I’m seeing some life!
I hope that was the hook on 97 called, but why did the whistle blow with an Oiler in the slot with the puck?
Well, we go to commercial with a penalty called
We don’t know against which team yet…it should be an Oilers PP but it’s the NHL…
Whistle. Oilers getting a penlty?
Why was it whistled down?
Stupid backwards handed goalies…
Much better effort here.
Caps starting to swing sticks at guys now and I’m seeing some arms come out. Keep pressing and they’ll take a penalty. Keep pressing!
that might have been the fastest I’ve ever seen Boosh move his boots.
Hyman driving the boys’ bus on this road trip so far.