The Edmonton Oilers lost 3-0 against the New York Islanders, but there were some good stories for the visitors. Jack Campbell played well, stopping 27 of 30. Zach Hyman was credited with 10 high-danger scoring chances, and Cody Ceci had an expected goal share (five-on-five) of 82 percent. The team is heading in a good direction. Need some wins.
As the losses pile up, the pressure to make a deal increases. The Oilers history of early season deals made on the road is not inspiring. Click on link for special $1 subscription (Black Friday!) offer!! https://t.co/Pm92hrbPgi
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 2-2-0)
At home to: LAK, VEG (Expected 1-0-1) (Actual 1-1-0)
On the road to: NJD, NYI, NYR (Expected (1-1-1) (Actual 0-2-0)
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: 4-7-0, 8 points in 11 games
October results: 6-3-0, 12 points in 9 games
Oilers in 2022-23: 10-10-0, 20 points in 20 games
The Oilers had 50 shots last night, 23 high danger scoring chances. That’s a monster amount. You have to score some goals and play a strong defensive game over 60 minutes, but part of the puzzle appears to be in place.
Edmonton is outside the playoffs at U.S. Thanksgiving, you’ll hear much about that in the coming days. The Oilers are two wins outside the playoffs, that’s still running with the pack. Three more losses and we won’t be able to say it, though. The team must win at least a couple more games in November, in my opinion, just to prove they can pulll out of this slump. Edmonton has been a streaky team for exactly one forever, need that good run soon.
THE GOALS
FIRST GOAL: Nuge pass intercepted by the Islanders, two on two except Nugent-Hopkins isn’t on the inside of Pageau when the puck comes flying through the slot. Tyson Barrie did have inside coverage, but he was unable to impact the play in any way.
SECOND GOAL: Evan Bouchard tips the puck behind his goalie.
THIRD GOAL: Another high danger shot, Evan Bouchard failed to impact the play despite being in good position. He also got no support from Edmonton’s first forward back (Leon Draisaitl) on the play.
I don’t blame Jack Campbell on any of the goals. That’s a positive.
SUMMARY
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had three shots on goal, hit the crossbar and played over 20 minutes. He had one HDSC and drew a penalty. That’s a productive evening aside from involvement in the first GA.
Leon Draisaitl had five shots, one HDSC and passed well. He’s physically more capable of fending off checkers than he was earlier, I think that ankle was giving him more trouble than he let on. The turnovers have lessened and he is doing good things. He is 6-4-10 in the last 10, half of the points on the power play. He is 8-11 goals at five-on-five in those 10 games. He’ll post better numbers in the next 10.
Jesse Puljujarvi played well last night, he had two shots, on HDSC, two blocks and a takeaway. At five-on-five, he is 3-8 goals in his last 10, just 0-2-2 offensively. He is working hard and the goals will come. He is excellent at separating player from puck along the wall, had another good night in that area.
Warren Foegele had one shot, a couple of hits, and a takeway. He has him moments, but tries to solo too much at times. I think watching McDavid probably impacts players, 97 makes it look so easy. Anyway, Foegele has been productive in his last 10 games: 3-0-3 in all game states. That’s a productive player (20+ goals). In his last 10 at five-on-five, he is 3-7 on ice goal differential.
Connor McDavid had three shots, three HDSC and five giveaways. The hockey Gods are being stingy with 97 these days, as he’s getting chances but pucks aren’t going in. In all game states, he is 5-8-13 in his last 10 games. He is 3-8 goals at five-on-five while he’s on the ice in the last 10 games. That’s a stunner.
Zach Hyman had all the shots (10) and all the HDSC (9) plus drew a penalty. Several of his chances were goalmouth types. He is 5-11 in five-on-five goals in the last 10. In all game states, Hyman has scored 3-4-7 in his last 10 games.
Mattias Janmark didn’t impact the game with the puck on his stick, but things were headed in a good direction when he was on the ice. Janmark’s impact was secondary on the evening.
Ryan McLeod had five shots, one HDSC and a takeaway. I thought it was one of his more productive games recently. He is 1-7 goals at five-on-five in his last 10 games.
Klim Kostin had three shots, one HDSC and drew a penalty. He’s stealing someone’s job, just not sure who will be heading for the pressbox/Bakersfield when everyone is healthy.
Dylan Holloway had a HDSC and drew a penalty, plus he played over 10 minutes in the game. Played over one minute with 97 and 29, and got some PP time. I like it.
Brad Malone had two shots, three hits, won six of eight in the dot.
Derek Ryan had one shot and one takeaway on the night, he was in the middle of opportunities a couple of time.
Darnell Nurse had three shots, drew a penalty and had three giveaways. Edmonton’s possession numbers last night while he was on the ice were rock solid, expected goals five-on-five out of this world.
Cody Ceci had two shots, one HDSC and a couple of giveaways. This tandem (Nurse-Ceci) is 8-9 goals this season, that’s excellent considering qual comp and the wobbly goaltending.
Brett Kulak was ‘also in photo’ on a couple of goals, I didn’t see him as the primarty culprit on either play.
Evan Bouchard had a tough night, in the middle of a tough season. Had a great chance to pick up an assist on a tipped shot, hockey Gods are made at him currently. This duo (Kulak-Bouchard) is 6-8 together this season.
Markus Niemelainen had one shot, one HDSC and looks more and more comfortable in the role. Played 8:45.
Tyson Barrie had two shots, took a penalty and created some chaos offensively. I thought he looked a little slow on the first goal and was ineffective on that play.
Jack Campbell had a good game. His save percentage is now officially .903 and for me he looked confident and ready on the night. He needs more help on the defensive side, and I do think Edmonton has been having some tough luck without the puck in recent games. Hard nose the highway, I think Campbell is ready to carry his share of the load.
We’re in the last of the 3 remaining years of Draisait’s contract.
Dom’s model still has us at 65% chance, but only projects us out to 94 points.
Reasons?
Captain Jack currently has the 31st ranked SV% for goalies who’ve played over 500 minutes.
Unlucky with the Kane injury
The early returns on Nurse’s new contract aren’t looking great.
Kulak is not a 2nd pairing defenseman
Foggy and JP can’t piss a drop
“Unlucky at the draft.” Broberg isn’t ready for the bottom pairing in the NHL yet, but Guhle who was drafted a year later, is playing 20 minutes per night.
I wasn’t a fan of the Holloway selection due to his low NHLe numbers during his draft year, but I spent too much time hoping for Seth Jarvis to pay attention to much else. Mercer was a LT guy and he was still on the board.
Broberg was an unusual draft selection with big misses on the USHL boys
Our depth is limited to the point guys like Shore and Malone are getting NHL games.
Dom has LAK, SEA and EDM all within a percentage point of making the playoffs so the 65% is a bit deceptive.
If you look at goal differential, Seattle is killing it while scoring more and giving up far fewer goals than either LAK or EDM. I like their chances if the can keep that up.
LAK are wildly inconsistent with sketchy goaltending (sounds familiar) so goaltending might be the deciding factor.
His model also seems to weigh its underlying metrics heavier than the current season record more so than other playoff prediction websites, at least early in the season.
Yes, the biggest issue: McDavid and Drai are both negative at 5 on 5 and aren’t producing anywhere near expectations at 5 on 5.
I think that’s largely a product of not having anyone else on the roster who can produce offense at 5v5 outside of Hyman along with a terrible blue line.
I guess if you were so inclined, you could also include Nurse, Campbell, Puljujarvi, Yamamoto, Foegele, Bouchard, McLeod, Ryan and Kulak simultaneously underperforming their established levels of ability through the first 20 games of the season. Of course YMMV.
Mayan Oil
November 24, 2022 5:35 pm
Peter Gabriel reference, if I’m not mistaken? Let’s hope it doesn’t end up turning into Red Rain and ends up on top of Solsbury Hill instead! Time to start Shaking the Tree and find this team’s epiphany methinks…
Can we rename the Banjo Bowl as Battle of the Giant (Bomber) Hogweed then?
knighttown
November 24, 2022 5:30 pm
LT and this site assign the blame for goal #1 on Nuge. Staples and Bruce seemed to pin it on Barrie. I agree with both but I am curious as to how Campbell played that goal.
A pass from the side wall that gets tipped in BEFORE crossing the “royal road” is pretty rare simply because the tip doesn’t change much. The goalie should be on the post already and then the tip can only go short-side.
If it DOES cross the royal road I can see the need for the goalie to push off to the other post.
So where is Campbell going? Why vacate the near post?
Id suggest at the very least he lost track of Pageau and thought he was back door and urgently pushed off in error.
Looking at the replay on NHL.com, I suppose you could question Campbell’s positioning but Pageau made a great shot. He had about 6 inches of net and he hit it.
Campbell looked like he was swimming away because he kept sliding after the shot, but he was in good position when it happened.
Barrie was by far the most culpable Oiler on the goal IMO since he was inside.
6 weeks ago I would be shocked if one opined that Bouch without injury may not hit a full 4 Schedule A bonuses for $850K and a dollar for dollar cap penalty next season. I think he may still get there, he is that damn good offensively when rolling, but he may be saving money.
I still go long term and the “Klefbom contract” if he’s will to sign it but he’s starting to help out with next year’s cap hit a bit…… hopefully he stops!
Of course he can be worse. While he’s having a greta season and his arrows are directly up, he remains fairly raw, if one thinks that Darnell Nurse wanders, the eyes will open when they see Kesslering. The org is still focussed on him being a defence first d-man and he needs to develop with defensive zone structure game still.
Sure, call him up, but I don’t think he’s ready and he would benefit from a full year in the AHL.
I don’t see him over any of the 3 RD helping the team on Saturday morning.
Bouch is lost in his own end and seems disinterested. He needs a reset.
other than a few stretches Barrie has always been a defensive liability his entire career.
not on Saturday. But sometime when they are back from the road trip get him up for a game. He looked good in camp. He is having a good season. Give him a cup of coffee while Bouch watches a game and maybe figures a few things out. Like danger and urgency in your own end.
Interesting. I looked back at the 7 years prior to Barrie landing in Edmonton, and his GF% Rel is positive in 6 of them, the year in Toronto being the exception. So that’s 9 of 10 seasons… i think we can put the liability label away. History tells us he’s an outscorer at 5v5.
Tarkus
November 24, 2022 12:49 pm
Prospecticaciousness!
North Bay actually does play tonight, meaning Petrov could return to action this night. He continues to lead the Battalion with 9-16-25 in 19 GP.
Why would it be Last Chance Texaco? He is a right shot D who hasn’t failed anywhere. Carolina didn’t want to trade him. He is arguably at least as good as anyone the Oilers have on the right side, and certainly not any worse.
But Carolina ‘didn’t want to trade him’? Come on. They also wouldn’t play him. Chatfield, Smith, Cole, Coghlan and de Haan all played ahead of him for Carolin in the last calendar year.
Also disagree he’s ‘at least as good as anyone the Oilers have on the right side’.
We are paying Barrie and Foegele a combined 7. 25 million for 2 more years. Vancouver is paying Bear 1.8 million for this year only.
Which team is being more cap efficient with those dollars?
I still hate that trade.
Why is Barrie getting lumped in? Should we throw in a big contract that is unrelated to Bear fom the vancouver side as well, just to be fair (and completely ignore the irrelevance)?
Would you have passed on Barrie after that season though? Bear for sure was not the answer. (Although I certainly did not want to deal him and Jones at the time) Does Barrie hold no trade value?
Interesting. Hadn’t heard that. What I’d read is that Sweeney was on his last legs as GM so he played his ‘get out jail free’ card (ie fire the coach).
GM is not the power player there from what I understand. Hockey Ops rolls up to Cam Neely.
When you consider the courage that Salming demonstrated throughout his career AND life, it’s shameful that Don Cherry perpetuated the ‘Chicken Swede’ myth for so long.
Xenophobia. That’s all it ever was. I think it was hard for those who lived through either WWs to think otherwise. Unquestioned patriotism was essentially a survival mechanism.
Sad day. Crazy to think he managed a trip to Toronto and an appearance at the 100 year anniversarybfor swedish hockey during the final two weeks of his life. He must have battled so incredibly hard to manage that considering how brutal ALS is in the late stages. I’m happy he got to experience the tributes and love from the hockey world. Also happy the illness didn’t drag out.
He was a big hero for me as a kid despite the majority of his career being before I was born and a very small child. He was born in the very northern part of Sweden, like myself, so he was always this almost mythical figure and legend for me and lot of other hockey loving kids in my hometown but when I read his autobigraphy in my early teens he became a proper hero, a role model. That book made one hell of an impression on me and it’s had a lasting effect on how I take on challenges and work towards my ambitions. And yes as a teenager you have these books that “changes you” but still, his story resonated with me in a big way.
This is a man who lost his father in a mining accident when Börje was just five. So he and his big brother Stig grew up with just their mother, both brothers made the Swedish national team. Pretty cool in a world of hockey dads. When Börje signed with Brynäs in the swedish top division as a 19 year old his brother was already on the team. There’s this story that after an intra squad game the two brothers started fighting on the ice, they kept fighting so eventually one of the coaches turned out the lights in the arena to make them stop. Incredibly competitive the both of them.
Börje is well known as a trailblazer for Swedes(and euros) in the NHL but the truth is he(and his brother) was a trailblazer before he’d even set foot on NA ice as their father was Sami, the indigenous people in the north of Sweden, and at the time they were still seen as second rate people by a lot of swedes(some idiots still do ofc). Both brothers had to endure a fair share of racial slurs. His name Salming comes from Salmi the name of the Sami village where his family is from.
Just an incredible life and a man who I’ve never heard or read a bad word about as a person.
A long post on a non-Oiler but I hope you can forgive me on this day.
The love shown, the irrepressible generosity of spirit and humbleness of Borje and his former teammates at the tribute made my “allergies ” act up something fierce. When they helped him hold his arm in the air to wave to the fans and his friends in the presentation, to a man, were tearing up in doing so, you could feel their gratitude for each other and the depth of their personal loss. The world is a lesser place for his passing, but a greater place for his presence on so many levels. Sail on, good sir, sail on. A giant walked among us, may we all strive to be as tall.
I understand why Toronto wants to claim him but Börje Salming was a pioneer whose arrival impacted all of hockey. The first great European (trained) star in the NHL, a brilliant defender AND attacker, and “tougher than a bag of batteries” to steal a great line from the Sawchuk poet Randall Maggs.
i cried real tears today at the news of his passing, an emotional response that the intellectual side of me recognizes as a marker of true greatness / impact. Previous “honourees” include the likes of Jean Beliveau, Gordie Howe & Johnny Bower. (Different category entirely from those gone too soon from tragic circumstances, even as there is an element of that in Salming’s final chapter.)
Börje Salming paved the way for the Swedish Invasion that hit the WHA the very next year in the form of Anders Hedberg, Ulf Nilsson & Lars-Erik Sjöberg to name 3, & for the Finnish, Czechoslovak, & ultimately Russian hockey migrations that each have enriched the NHL, all within the next 2 decades. But with due respect to Ulf Sterner & Inge Hammarstrom, Salming was the trail blazer.
Among the bravest hockey players I’ve ever seen. Salming’s courage in 3 playoff series vs the Broad Street Bullies was something to behold. I shall also never forget his phenomenal showing at the inaugural Canada Cup in 1976, itself a pioneer of a sort.
i was a Leafs fan until the merger & for several years there in the back half of the ‘70s Salming was my favourite player on the planet.
His return to North America earlier this month under the ravages of ALS provided all hockey fans one last memorable moment. What a way to go out.
RIP Borje Salming.
KnightRain
November 24, 2022 10:58 am
I think all teams know how to play the Oilers right now. Teams come out super aggressive and pressure us early trying to score first. When they do they can play more defensive and wait for our enevitable turnovers and leading to odd man rushes and chances. Last night was just the latest example. We were outplayed, as we didn’t get a shot til the 12 min mark or so, but managed to survive. But we were scored on early in the second. After that it was just them waiting for our miscues.
When we score first we are a different team. The opposition can’t sit back and they have to press, playing into our game.
I thought we were decent in the D zone last night but, again, bad luck hurt us. PK goal that shouldn’t happen(especially with two guys covering the guy heading to the net), PP own goal and a goal after we hemmed them in for a long time.
Simply put, we need to bear down earlier and force teams to open up. Our D needs the forwards to help to be effective. When we have to open up to catch up in a game we leave them exposed and they just aren’t good enough to get the job done on their own.
If the guys aren’t playing the system you implement, tweak the system to one that they can. It’s the coaches job to give these guys structure they can succeed in. This system, obviously, isn’t working. Find one that works.
leadfarmer
November 24, 2022 10:54 am
Unfortunately that hole at 2LHD has become a crater that has now swallowed Bouchard.
This year’s D depth is a little like the one 2 seasons ago. Nurse and Russell on the left was not much different from Nurse and Kulak (Koekkoek/Jones vs Nieminen/Murray is a wash). On the right prime Barrie and Larsson was better than the older versions of Cecil and Barrie is, while the 3rd year Bear was probably slightly worse then the 2nd year Bouchard is.
If anything, the cap space situation means they can only hope to add a Kulikov type and hope that works out. The cost would be dear to god rid of a contract and get an useful player back, and I do not see Holland is that desperate yet.
I still think they should try break up Nurse/Cecil to see if they can rebalance the lineup a little better so they have 2A/2B/2B pairs instead of a 1/2B/3 pair (with the definition of a 2B pair being not required to be sheltered and be able to play opposition to a draw, bend but not break). Even if they only deploy the 3rd pair 10min a game, that is still 1/5 of the game they need to worry about line matching or otherwise compensate for a the weaker D.
Don’t think Chychrun will be the target yet. More likely a slid stay at home type, frustrating as heck to play against in front of our net, with the ability to get the puck out of danger. Chychrun’s injury history and likely price tag are no go’s for me. His contract is very nice if he is healthy, but it doesn’t matter how good of a deal you get on a family sedan when you really need a work truck.
Excellent point – the old ways are like neural pathways, the old path that is beaten down and comfortable, and these two likely revert to them without even knowing it. Just when they thought maybe there’s a new path, it was boarded up…poor guys, no long lasting positive reinforcement to a new way.
He’s not even on regular IR, he’s on the active 23 man roster.
LTIR wouldn’t do anything in addition to regular IR unless they are going to use the cap space.
When Benson is activated, they will need a roster spot – either assigning someone or placing Yamo on IR (retroactive, he’d be eligible to be activated at any time)
W
November 24, 2022 10:44 am
Question,
if plus minus is such a outdated useless stat why is goal share 5on5 such an advanced stat?
Because it rules out the major flaws of traditional plus/minus which is applied to odd-man situations like shorthanded goals & empty-net goals.
Frequently the results are close, but it’s an odd thing about some analytical types that they love to denigrate some of the early history of analytics by pointing out all the shortcomings of those first attempts & declaring the metric worthless. As a person with interest in both analytics AND history — and by extension, the history of analytics — it pisses me off to be honest.
I still use +/- as a quick-n-dirty single number right in the boxcars to give generalities like “is this guy an outscorer or is he getting killed” knowing full well that a better answer is available once one considers his deployment & drills down into secondary sources.
Playoff results are all that matter. I would rather start on the road against the Flames. There’s only one problem you have to make the playoffs first.
I don’t think Holland is going to try that hard on the trade front. We need his Son to give him a nudge with his elbow like he previously did on the Coaching change last year.
How is the best player in the world getting outscored 5 on 5?
Get your dick straight, Connor. Quit trying to be Rocket Richard and backcheck, for fuck’s sake.
dustrock
November 24, 2022 10:39 am
Oilers feeling the pressure I think. As Holland said last year, the answer has to come from in the room. He only fired Tippett when there was literally no choice.
I go back to Herdman’s “Holy Trinity” for the coach: team spirit, team chemistry, tactical awareness. Different sport, obviously, but should apply here too.
By eye:
TEAM SPIRIT – remember Jokey Jay Woodcroft, always with a smile on his face, giving pleasant, well-worded press conferences? Don’t see many smiles on this team right now. They are playing tight and they (still!!!) don’t have the confidence of a top team
TEAM CHEMISTRY – laughed on DNB’s latest article at The Athletic, one commenter said his girlfriend was watching the players and asked if it was a “cliquey” team. He said he didn’t think so, the girlfriend said “well I only see McDavid talking to Draisaitl and Nuge and nobody else”.
TACTICAL AWARNESS – where do we begin? There’s no easy wins in this league anymore. They’re not skating on the forecheck and backcheck, teams have realized hard pressure is the easiest way to defeat the Oilers and they don’t really have an answer.
I’m not smart enough (and frankly, I don’t watch all game, every game anymore) to figure out what is different about this team 5v5 with Woodcroft, but I believe most systems in the NHL are fairly similar at this point and it mostly comes down to execution.
What worries me is the comments from some of the players “well, it’s not like it’s March” or “it’s still early in the season, we have time to figure it out”. Hopefully that’s just puffery for the journalist and they don’t actually believe it, but by eye, that seems to be the attitude. “We’ll be fine”.
Bruce McCurdy
November 24, 2022 10:20 am
McDavid & Draisaitl are 1-2 in the league in scoring, but 5v5 tells a very different & sobering story. Currently McDavid is in a 17-way tie for 41st with 11 points, & Draisaitl in a 29-way tie for 78th with 9. Both have well over 2/3 of their points in other manpower situations than the primary game state.
Zach Hyman is currently Oilers’ top 5v5 scorer with 12 points, good enough for a 13-way tie for 28th.
I think a major issue 5v5 this season has been that there’s not really been any line combo showing much of anything in terms of chemistry. Can’t recall a single line that’s been more than the sum of it’s parts.
I hate McDavid with Hyman and Foegle, he needs at least one player on his line with more subtle skill, some vision and hockey sense, an ability to find soft ice, Hyman is fantastic at what he does but he has the blinders on quite often with the puck on his stick and is more of a very high end meat and potatoes player. Don’t mind him as the third best player on McDavid’s line but not the second best.
Drai’s line was the only line last night where it looked like some chemistry was brewing but every line Jesse has been on has eyetested fairly well without much of anything in terms if actual results.
McLeod has some nice individual plays but has been out of synch with pretty much every linemate he’s had. The fourth is nothingness.
This lack of 5v5 jam combined with a struggling transition game is a bad bad way to win hockey games and has forced McDavid to be a one man army and Draisaitl to try the hail mary play far too often.
Defensively it’s a new theme every night PK breaking down, major positional errors, brutal givaways, terrible goaltending and last night soft coverage.
I don’t like the McDrai option to start games but they might have to go there for a bit to jump start the team. Ideally leaving Hyman-Nuge-Pulju as a second line as they should be pretty defensively strong and with at least enough offensive pop between Hyman and Nuge to break even most nights and outscore some. Don’t have time to dig into how they’ve done in the past but on paper it looks solid. Hyman and Nuge have looked good together by eye before.
The third wheel for McDrai is tricky without Kane. Holloway got some shifts there last night and it might be an idea, don’t think he’s really done anything to deserve the promotion but when he’s made plus plays it’s been in the offensive zone which is where that line should be most of the time. And he wouldn’t be carrying the puck much through the neutral zone which so far has been pretty painful…
Good points. Who do you think this guy is “he needs at least one player on his line with more subtle skill, some vision and hockey sense, an ability to find soft ice”? Holloway maybe? It would be nice to see some more reps.
I cringe at the thought of McDrai, but maybe it is necessary at this point, particularly for the first 10 minutes. Sad, but true??
I had been thinking getting Nuge to 3C, this is a challenge with the injuries to Kane and KY, but something in the bottom 6 needs to happen and I am running out of ideas….
So I know there will be arguments but out of the top 6 we are missing Kane and Yamo. I know, Yamo????? But at the end of the day, we are missing 1/3 of the top 6 that had a great playoffs. I think this team misses Kane more that we could have imagined. At the same time, they are out and we have to make do until they are back. Yes, a bit of backchecking and support would go a long way here. The leaders have to commit to filling this void. Thinking all they need to do is score is mistaken. I cannot believe Woody can not see this and make the adjustment. But McD and Drai should have figured it out as well. It is perplexing why things are as they are.
By my eye – Leon – at 5 on 5 seems quite content to occupy the same spot as he does on our PP. Looking to distribute the puck, via pass from the corner.
He posts himself by the rink board advertising away from the net looking to distrubute.
Most teams are onto the is act though.
Leon needs to be taking the biscuit to the home plate area imo.
I have been posting on here about this for days, in response to the premise that a big issue is bottom six scoring.
Top 6 scoring is an issue – both of McDavid and Drai are below 50% goal and this team goes nowhere unless those guys are near 55% if not higher.
Don’t look at the P/60 for McDavid and Drai – its not flattering.
Ladainiantomlinson
November 24, 2022 10:19 am
Thanks LT for pointing out the up arrows, always necessary to see this as w hole, and not in isolation. Of coarse, they can pull through this. They are a good team, at least on paper, how could you not be when you have the two best players in the world, at least to my way of thinking.
To my eye, and it makes sense, the big guys are trying too hard, and the level of play becomes unfocused. Old pathways kick in, and they’re just human and want desperately to win, thus becoming less effective. It’s a human story.
Perhaps old school, but it seems to me the front of the Oilers net, and to some extent the opposing teams net, should become a “knife fight” where you can’t casually have a cup of coffee and a smoke. I’m old, so remember Fogolin and Huddy etc making the front of the net a terrible place to be. I would add Pronger, but we all know that. I’m not picking on Bouchard, who is a brilliant and wonderful player, but man oh man, can he grab a bit of this knife fight mentality. I know you can’t necessarily teach it, but his often leisurely and casual approach to this area is dumbfounding. Others are guilty as well, and Nurse can’t be the only one who spits nails. Bouchard will be fine, as will the others, but it is frustrating
Yup, excellent point. He always treated that area like a warrior….shit, where is the Oiler’s knife fighting warrior, apart from Nurse, who can do it but isn’t in the same category as Jason Smith
The front of the nets is precisely where the Oilers are weakest and the main reason why they are losing. They have little presence in front of the net in either end (except for JP and Hyman in the O-zone).
cowboy bill
November 24, 2022 10:12 am
Could they call up Broberg and send Bouchard down? Something to consider anyway.
Interesting? You are correct Bouch hasn’t played 160 NHL games. I Have no idea why he isn’t waiver exempt? Maybe they have made an error in cap friendly.
Cap friendly has him at 4 seasons now (counting his 2018-19 season with 7 games, and the 2020-21 season where played 14). That makes him waiver eligible this season
Nashville had the lowest point total of all playoff teams last season – 97. They were 15 games over .500
Edmonton is .500 after 20 games. 62 games remaining. The math says 35-20-7 or something similiar will be neccessary to get in. That is no easy task, regardless of schedule. They are going to have to rattle off 8 out of 10 at some point,
I think KH should try and make a trade for a proven defenseman.
This is a good way of looking at it. Your projected necessary record works out to 101 point pace over 82 games. That leaves very little room for error. Certainly not enough time for KH to sit on his hands and let this tire fire work itself out.
Your projected necessary record works out to 101 point pace over 82 games.
Thanks for pointing that out. A 101 point pace is not overly daunting at all.
They’ve got to do it obviously, but they had 105 (projected) and 104 points the last 2 seasons. That’s with all the ups and downs, they were at a 119/120 point pace under Woodcroft last season iirc.
I still believe the right move was a summer trade of Barrie out for a RHD that can play solid D and tough minutes (good PK). He was worth his contract this summer after a good year and playoffs….now, not so much.
Barrie has had a tough couple of games but he’s been one of the better d-man on the year, relative to expectations, and I don’t think his trade value is any different now than a few months ago (except its tough to move material cap in-season).
No. Barrie has had a couple of good defensive games this year. The majority are like the recent games. He has been for the vast majority of games played in his career a defensive liability.
Holloway might need to hit the weight room,he sure gets knocked around a lot. He’s a big kid, but somehow still seems to lack that man strength. I’m sure it will come eventually.
I think he gets knocked around because he is getting there a half second late and not ready to take/make a hit. Just slightly off balance. His hockey IQ is improving and his feet are catching up. Just not there yet.
Learning to be in a better body position against his opponent would help.
teddyturnbuckle
November 24, 2022 9:38 am
Seeing a bit of desperation come into the Oilers game which will hopefully breed good habits. I’d like to see the team fire more point shots with two guys in front of the net tipping pucks on the power play when they face a hot goaltender. I thought Bouchard was a bit unlucky last night and he received no help from the forwards on the 3rd goal. After a hot start Ryan McLeod has gone ice cold and he is avoiding contact like the opposing team has leprosy. There are too many guys on the Oilers who think they are goal scorers but in reality they don’t bring much of an identity at all.
You know, I read this last night as well about point shots and two in front when facing a hot goalie. I disagree. I think when facing a hot goalie, you need to crash the net, get him off his game. The OIlers tried this with a lot of down low plays. They just needed to be a bit more physical.
“There are too many guys on the Oilers who think they are goal scorers but in reality they don’t bring much of an identity at all.”
Remember coaching pee-wee at year end party where you give out the little rewards? Fastest skater, most goals, sportsmanlike…….then you get down to the last 5-6 kids and you are racking your brain “my lord, just what in the heck did this kid do?”
Chelios is a Dinosaur
November 24, 2022 9:35 am
Thanks LT I needed this outlook, having not been able to watch games for the past two weeks I can almost hear the butter-soft defense over the Atalantic as I check scores every morning.
I’m not going to “worry” until December – if they continue to struggle against weaker opponents we got issues. Then again, I remember at one point during last year’s 12-game losing streak thinking it was the END. But they turned it around. Thing is, they turned it around after changes were made… what changes will be made this year? Why no talk of a player’s only meeting or some such thing? Pick it up, gentlemen.
winchester
November 24, 2022 9:30 am
I will say that was a very good game by Jessie Puljujarvi yesterday.
What was the name of that pillow you used to promote LT? Thats the Oilers, wonderfully soft to play against.
Remember in 7-3 streak? Even McDavid was hitting all over the ice.
But its not just about hitting, its every 50-50 battle. Puck possession, defending, corners, net front, back check. If you don’t want to call it soft, call it intensity. And though we do see some intensity, Oilers come up short over 60 minutes.
The most noticeable factor between Oilers and their opponents is how well one group defends the house, and how poorly the other defends their house.
Im full supporter of the roster talent. “One of the best forward groups in the league” pre-season. Was everybody so wrong? I don’t think so. 50 shots on net says there is talent. 0-3 result says its not working properly. The other teams are shutting them down, then exploiting our defense.
But Im not willing to give them a pass just yet. Even if they had puck luck and won last night, no way was it it good enough. I don’t care about few next games win/loss, Id like to see them fix their problems, then the wins will pile up.
The most noticeable factor was Sorokin. That game could have easily been 6-3 Oilers. Not saying Campbell didn’t play well, because he did. But it was Sorokin that stole it. You have to cut the boys some slack. They have some young players that are just dipping their toes in. What they really need are a couple more solid vets on the blueline. And maybe they should start to deploy that 1-3-1 scheme that they have so much trouble dealing with.
They have more trouble with fast 2-1-2 pressure forecheck.
Bouchard needs to sit a game. The coach has to start sending some messages. They message isn’t “you suck” The message is we need your responsible game night after night, we need to trust you to do as asked, as coached, as you know how to do – thats the game we need.
Deliver that and your shots will start getting through, your chances will come.
Those are epically bad numbers and actually match the eye test well. I say sit him in the PB to get a different view of the game for at least a game.Maybe he will see the lanes better.
Agree Campbell was good last evening. Unfortunately, he was the 2nd best goalie in the game.
Pretendergast
November 24, 2022 9:16 am
MacT addage: you win games you should lose at the end of a winning streak and you lose games you should win at the end of a losing streak.
Ppl can hem and haw about the quality of this team but last nights effort cant be seen as a major downbeat imo. 50 shots and the entire third in their end. Plenty of high quality looks. This team fell behind and pushed back and didnt get the result.
Feels like im saying the same thing about the soccer team this morning. MAN even tying Belgium wouldve been outstanding.
Two goals against were the result of lack of commitment on the backtrack. The Oilers are putting too much effort into the wrong things, and not enough effort into the right things.
Skating hard towards your own end isn’t sexy. It is hard. No one will go ooh and aah when it is done right, because it has to be done over and over, each time making the right decision about the right player to chase and stick too.
Doing the right thing when it is hard when nobody is watching or noticing is hard. The Oilers lack this mental toughness. They demonstrated they could do it after the coaching change last year.
Good teams that play a consistent low variance game will usually prevail over time against high variance teams that rely on hero plays. Heroes only make a difference when the team plays a consistent low variance game.
I think that on this particular team, its more difficult doing those hard things, when everybody wants to follow the leaders, who are creating breathtaking offense.
I agree with this. I will add that its nice to have lots of pressure but after 60 seconds its time to change and get fresh legs out there to continue the forecheck. Draisaitl is a classic example. He won’t change if his team has possession in the opponents end. He stays out there too long and then is too tired to back track when the play goes the other way.
Teams that don’t come back harder than they go forward don’t win in the modern NHL. Since defensemen are quicker and more skilled and move the puck quicker, back pressure has become more important than forecheck pressure. Turnovers from back pressure lead to more rush chances with the opponent out of structure defensively. (McDraivid would be more dangerous attacking an opponent out of structure without time to setup up the 1-3-1).
McDavid would have fewer skaters to stickhandle through, and Draisaitl would have fewer giveaways on the attack.
The thing is. Everyone HAS to do it. All the time. The good teams do it.
Encouraging game from Campbell. Encouraging game from McLeod. Encouraging game from Holloway, among others.
oilersjo
November 24, 2022 9:06 am
This is by eye. They seem to be trying to hard to make a difference. Making one move to many instead of short passes they are holding on looking for home run. the bottom six are fine when they are allowed to play enough to get in a groove.
With the caviat that I havent been able to watch recently I do wonder if they are ill equiped to deal with the fact that teams are jacked up to play (and beat) the Oilers. People like Keith and Smith and even Kassian brought a level of experience and snarl in the face of that – I worry the Oilers, for all their talent, are simply too soft.
So do teams not get jacked up to play the Bruins, or the Lightning, or the Avs? I guess that Crosby, Malkin and Letang have been just flying under the radar all these years. Must be terrible to be an Oiler, with the entire league circling the calendar as must win games against Edmonton.
The leadership on this team sucks – that’s on Connor, Leon, Nurse and Nuge … over the past 10 games, they’ve all been awful. The Leafs just beat NJ missing Reilly, Muzzin and Brodie … yet Oiler’s fans keep bringing up injuries as an excuse.
You can’t change out those high priced stars and upgrading the 2LD position will cost at least 1st… that’s not realistic, or advisable as the Oilers are currently a lottery team. So you change the coach, and hope that the next one can finally get through to those 4 and get them to lead by example and demand better accountability.
If those 4 guys played as hard and as smart as Zach Hyman does, this team would not be sitting outside of a playoff spot on the eve of American Thanksgiving.
Zach Hyman works hard. That’s for sure. Less sure about how high his hockey IQ is.
who
November 24, 2022 9:02 am
1st goal was on Nuge. He had the goal scorer marked all the way through the neutral ice and for some reason decided to peel off when they got to the Oiler hash marks. Inexplicable, unless Barrie called him off. Just another instance of the Oilers not sorting out a defensive coverage.
And yes, Nuge did have inside position. He was between his check and the Oilers goal. More importantly, he was perfectly positioned to control his opponents stick when the pass was sent. For some reason, he just decided to leave his check. Baffling.
2nd goal was simply Bouchard trying to intercept a pass rather than tying up his opponents stick. I’m not even sure he knew there was a Devil behind him.
3rd goal was simply a case of the Jersey dman beating Draisaitl to the Oilers slot. Unfortunately this happens a lot to the Oilers. Every Oiler that was back had a man marked. The Jersey dman turned it into a 4 on 3.
Nuge was horrible defensively against the Devils as well, letting his man go several times. Yet he got second star. The game recognizes the points.
SayItAin'tSo, Gretz, SayItAin'tSo!
November 24, 2022 8:53 am
Mkay just like a month ago I need to heed LT. Gonna, step off the ledge and follow LTs optimism.
Agreed more good than bad last night. But the Bad was Bad Bad. Perimeter play after the first 15 minutes changed and had a purpose of driving to the net. Nice arrow.
Agreed the Bouch is having a helluva tough go. Needs a positive bounce and a rocket goal and he’ll snap out of it.
Forwards need to tighten up that defense to lighten the load on Dmen.
I didn’t like that the 3rd goal hit Soup on the glove but there was no support otherwise… Lots of fault, not one to blame. Thought Soup looked as solid as Tampa game overall. More please!
Rags are a volatile lot and coming all the way back from the Left Coast. Come on let’s catch them sleeping guys come on! Dear Coaches – give that 2nd PP Unit a few at bats, get everyone rolling.
Summarizing!
Petrov returned to the North Bay lineup tonight and contributed an apple to their 5-0 win, perhaps starting a new point streak? We wait.
MoneyPuck now has the Oilers chances at making the playoffs at 20.2%
https://www.moneypuck.com/predictions.htm
We’re in the last of the 3 remaining years of Draisait’s contract.
Dom’s model still has us at 65% chance, but only projects us out to 94 points.
Reasons?
Captain Jack currently has the 31st ranked SV% for goalies who’ve played over 500 minutes.
Unlucky with the Kane injury
The early returns on Nurse’s new contract aren’t looking great.
Kulak is not a 2nd pairing defenseman
Foggy and JP can’t piss a drop
“Unlucky at the draft.” Broberg isn’t ready for the bottom pairing in the NHL yet, but Guhle who was drafted a year later, is playing 20 minutes per night.
I wasn’t a fan of the Holloway selection due to his low NHLe numbers during his draft year, but I spent too much time hoping for Seth Jarvis to pay attention to much else. Mercer was a LT guy and he was still on the board.
Broberg was an unusual draft selection with big misses on the USHL boys
Our depth is limited to the point guys like Shore and Malone are getting NHL games.
Miss anything? 😉
Dom has LAK, SEA and EDM all within a percentage point of making the playoffs so the 65% is a bit deceptive.
If you look at goal differential, Seattle is killing it while scoring more and giving up far fewer goals than either LAK or EDM. I like their chances if the can keep that up.
LAK are wildly inconsistent with sketchy goaltending (sounds familiar) so goaltending might be the deciding factor.
His model also seems to weigh its underlying metrics heavier than the current season record more so than other playoff prediction websites, at least early in the season.
Yep.
Broberg is ready for 3rd pairing – he’s just getting up to speed with missing a bunch of time with 2 ailments – he’ll be up in the next few weeks.
Yes, the biggest issue: McDavid and Drai are both negative at 5 on 5 and aren’t producing anywhere near expectations at 5 on 5.
I think that’s largely a product of not having anyone else on the roster who can produce offense at 5v5 outside of Hyman along with a terrible blue line.
Sure, quality of linemate matters but I thought “a scrum could score 20 playing with McDavid….”?
Also, that personnel is essentially the same as last season give or take a Duncan Keith.
In any event, no matter the underlying reasons, McDavid and Drai underproducing eat 5 on 5 and losing the goal share is a massive issue.
I guess if you were so inclined, you could also include Nurse, Campbell, Puljujarvi, Yamamoto, Foegele, Bouchard, McLeod, Ryan and Kulak simultaneously underperforming their established levels of ability through the first 20 games of the season. Of course YMMV.
Peter Gabriel reference, if I’m not mistaken? Let’s hope it doesn’t end up turning into Red Rain and ends up on top of Solsbury Hill instead! Time to start Shaking the Tree and find this team’s epiphany methinks…
Yes
Darn you knowledge of great music is breathtaking, good sir. I doff my cap to you! Loving your book, BTW….great fun and very illuminating!
Can we rename the Banjo Bowl as Battle of the Giant (Bomber) Hogweed then?
LT and this site assign the blame for goal #1 on Nuge. Staples and Bruce seemed to pin it on Barrie. I agree with both but I am curious as to how Campbell played that goal.
A pass from the side wall that gets tipped in BEFORE crossing the “royal road” is pretty rare simply because the tip doesn’t change much. The goalie should be on the post already and then the tip can only go short-side.
If it DOES cross the royal road I can see the need for the goalie to push off to the other post.
So where is Campbell going? Why vacate the near post?
Id suggest at the very least he lost track of Pageau and thought he was back door and urgently pushed off in error.
went for a little slide-y for sure.
I’d say Barrie has more responsibility because he was on the inside.
I wondered the same/similar on the CoH podcast. Short side is not easily explained.
IMO thisnhas been an issue all season. There was not much danger on that play and yet possibly 3 Oilers played it poorly. EASY GOAL AGAINST.
It’s so hard to score (ask Edm depth players). Edm has given up too many easy goals where a nunber of players make questionable decisions.
#THISISUS
Looking at the replay on NHL.com, I suppose you could question Campbell’s positioning but Pageau made a great shot. He had about 6 inches of net and he hit it.
Campbell looked like he was swimming away because he kept sliding after the shot, but he was in good position when it happened.
Barrie was by far the most culpable Oiler on the goal IMO since he was inside.
https://www.nhl.com/video/pageau-directs-pass-in-for-a-shg/t-335517748/c-13887781
?
Overall , he has a .876 with a 4.15 GAA over 11 games this season.
At 5v5, NST has him at 0.890 (29th for over 450 minutes played)
–> Edit, you meant that his save percentage last nigh was .903?
Yes. In the “summary” I had it at .900 but it changed overnight.
Sorry, I had originally misread what you had written. My initial thought was how on earth did Jack drag his SV% over .900 from one game.
No worries.
6 weeks ago I would be shocked if one opined that Bouch without injury may not hit a full 4 Schedule A bonuses for $850K and a dollar for dollar cap penalty next season. I think he may still get there, he is that damn good offensively when rolling, but he may be saving money.
I still go long term and the “Klefbom contract” if he’s will to sign it but he’s starting to help out with next year’s cap hit a bit…… hopefully he stops!
he does like denting opposing players shin-pads this year.
IS there a way Kesselring could come up for a few games within the cap and roster structure? He can’t be worse than 2/3 of the RHD at the moment.
Of course he can be worse. While he’s having a greta season and his arrows are directly up, he remains fairly raw, if one thinks that Darnell Nurse wanders, the eyes will open when they see Kesslering. The org is still focussed on him being a defence first d-man and he needs to develop with defensive zone structure game still.
Sure, call him up, but I don’t think he’s ready and he would benefit from a full year in the AHL.
I don’t see him over any of the 3 RD helping the team on Saturday morning.
Bouch is lost in his own end and seems disinterested. He needs a reset.
other than a few stretches Barrie has always been a defensive liability his entire career.
not on Saturday. But sometime when they are back from the road trip get him up for a game. He looked good in camp. He is having a good season. Give him a cup of coffee while Bouch watches a game and maybe figures a few things out. Like danger and urgency in your own end.
I don’t see them scratching Bouchard but, if they really wanted to, I think Broberg on his right side would be the play before Michael K.
Let’s hope so
As true as this may be his 5on5 GF% in his 3 years with the Oilers has been:
52.4
54.0
50.0
His GF% relative to team has been:
+4.8
+6.3
+11.7
It might be time for folks to stop complaining about what a big problem Tyson Barrie is.
Interesting. I looked back at the 7 years prior to Barrie landing in Edmonton, and his GF% Rel is positive in 6 of them, the year in Toronto being the exception. So that’s 9 of 10 seasons… i think we can put the liability label away. History tells us he’s an outscorer at 5v5.
Prospecticaciousness!
North Bay actually does play tonight, meaning Petrov could return to action this night. He continues to lead the Battalion with 9-16-25 in 19 GP.
Incidentally, they’ve now moved up to #9 in the latest CHL top ten rankings.
Puck drop @ 5 p.m. Kinuso time.
Ethan Bear with the GWG last night. Good for him. Given how poor the Dys’ D depth chart is, you’d have to think this is Last Chance Texaco for him.
Why would it be Last Chance Texaco? He is a right shot D who hasn’t failed anywhere. Carolina didn’t want to trade him. He is arguably at least as good as anyone the Oilers have on the right side, and certainly not any worse.
We’re going to have to agree to disagree on the “hasn’t failed anywhere” narrative I’m afraid.
Totally agree it’s not last Chance Texaco.
But Carolina ‘didn’t want to trade him’? Come on. They also wouldn’t play him. Chatfield, Smith, Cole, Coghlan and de Haan all played ahead of him for Carolin in the last calendar year.
Also disagree he’s ‘at least as good as anyone the Oilers have on the right side’.
We are paying Barrie and Foegele a combined 7. 25 million for 2 more years. Vancouver is paying Bear 1.8 million for this year only.
Which team is being more cap efficient with those dollars?
I still hate that trade.
Why is Barrie getting lumped in? Should we throw in a big contract that is unrelated to Bear fom the vancouver side as well, just to be fair (and completely ignore the irrelevance)?
No.
Had the Oilers kept Bear, they would not be paying Foegele and could have passed on Barrie.
Would they be any worse defensively?
Hmm, I see the arguement.
Would you have passed on Barrie after that season though? Bear for sure was not the answer. (Although I certainly did not want to deal him and Jones at the time) Does Barrie hold no trade value?
Oh,oh. I agree with this post.
What’s the temp in Hell today? Did Satan purchase skates?
Ducks with their first win in regulation last night. How does Dallas Eakins still have a job?
#ItCouldAlwaysBeWorse
They are perfectly fine with losing.
Contrast that with Boston who fired their HC after a winning season!
Well none of the players were going to play for him. Even Krejci came back
Interesting. Hadn’t heard that. What I’d read is that Sweeney was on his last legs as GM so he played his ‘get out jail free’ card (ie fire the coach).
GM is not the power player there from what I understand. Hockey Ops rolls up to Cam Neely.
Borje Salming has passed.
Sad day. One of my favourites….
It was sad to see him the way he was. He is in a better place. Best and favorite leaf player ever
RIP.
For those who missed the tribute:
https://youtu.be/8Neiv8xwhDQ
Thanks for posting this. Great to see.
When you consider the courage that Salming demonstrated throughout his career AND life, it’s shameful that Don Cherry perpetuated the ‘Chicken Swede’ myth for so long.
Xenophobia. That’s all it ever was. I think it was hard for those who lived through either WWs to think otherwise. Unquestioned patriotism was essentially a survival mechanism.
On to Valhalla.
Sad day. Crazy to think he managed a trip to Toronto and an appearance at the 100 year anniversarybfor swedish hockey during the final two weeks of his life. He must have battled so incredibly hard to manage that considering how brutal ALS is in the late stages. I’m happy he got to experience the tributes and love from the hockey world. Also happy the illness didn’t drag out.
He was a big hero for me as a kid despite the majority of his career being before I was born and a very small child. He was born in the very northern part of Sweden, like myself, so he was always this almost mythical figure and legend for me and lot of other hockey loving kids in my hometown but when I read his autobigraphy in my early teens he became a proper hero, a role model. That book made one hell of an impression on me and it’s had a lasting effect on how I take on challenges and work towards my ambitions. And yes as a teenager you have these books that “changes you” but still, his story resonated with me in a big way.
This is a man who lost his father in a mining accident when Börje was just five. So he and his big brother Stig grew up with just their mother, both brothers made the Swedish national team. Pretty cool in a world of hockey dads. When Börje signed with Brynäs in the swedish top division as a 19 year old his brother was already on the team. There’s this story that after an intra squad game the two brothers started fighting on the ice, they kept fighting so eventually one of the coaches turned out the lights in the arena to make them stop. Incredibly competitive the both of them.
Börje is well known as a trailblazer for Swedes(and euros) in the NHL but the truth is he(and his brother) was a trailblazer before he’d even set foot on NA ice as their father was Sami, the indigenous people in the north of Sweden, and at the time they were still seen as second rate people by a lot of swedes(some idiots still do ofc). Both brothers had to endure a fair share of racial slurs. His name Salming comes from Salmi the name of the Sami village where his family is from.
Just an incredible life and a man who I’ve never heard or read a bad word about as a person.
A long post on a non-Oiler but I hope you can forgive me on this day.
The love shown, the irrepressible generosity of spirit and humbleness of Borje and his former teammates at the tribute made my “allergies ” act up something fierce. When they helped him hold his arm in the air to wave to the fans and his friends in the presentation, to a man, were tearing up in doing so, you could feel their gratitude for each other and the depth of their personal loss. The world is a lesser place for his passing, but a greater place for his presence on so many levels. Sail on, good sir, sail on. A giant walked among us, may we all strive to be as tall.
No need for forgiveness…a wonderful tribute to a great man.
Thanks for sharing your unique perspective.
Beautiful. I loved it. Thanks for sharing.
I understand why Toronto wants to claim him but Börje Salming was a pioneer whose arrival impacted all of hockey. The first great European (trained) star in the NHL, a brilliant defender AND attacker, and “tougher than a bag of batteries” to steal a great line from the Sawchuk poet Randall Maggs.
i cried real tears today at the news of his passing, an emotional response that the intellectual side of me recognizes as a marker of true greatness / impact. Previous “honourees” include the likes of Jean Beliveau, Gordie Howe & Johnny Bower. (Different category entirely from those gone too soon from tragic circumstances, even as there is an element of that in Salming’s final chapter.)
Börje Salming paved the way for the Swedish Invasion that hit the WHA the very next year in the form of Anders Hedberg, Ulf Nilsson & Lars-Erik Sjöberg to name 3, & for the Finnish, Czechoslovak, & ultimately Russian hockey migrations that each have enriched the NHL, all within the next 2 decades. But with due respect to Ulf Sterner & Inge Hammarstrom, Salming was the trail blazer.
Among the bravest hockey players I’ve ever seen. Salming’s courage in 3 playoff series vs the Broad Street Bullies was something to behold. I shall also never forget his phenomenal showing at the inaugural Canada Cup in 1976, itself a pioneer of a sort.
i was a Leafs fan until the merger & for several years there in the back half of the ‘70s Salming was my favourite player on the planet.
His return to North America earlier this month under the ravages of ALS provided all hockey fans one last memorable moment. What a way to go out.
RIP Borje Salming.
I think all teams know how to play the Oilers right now. Teams come out super aggressive and pressure us early trying to score first. When they do they can play more defensive and wait for our enevitable turnovers and leading to odd man rushes and chances. Last night was just the latest example. We were outplayed, as we didn’t get a shot til the 12 min mark or so, but managed to survive. But we were scored on early in the second. After that it was just them waiting for our miscues.
When we score first we are a different team. The opposition can’t sit back and they have to press, playing into our game.
I thought we were decent in the D zone last night but, again, bad luck hurt us. PK goal that shouldn’t happen(especially with two guys covering the guy heading to the net), PP own goal and a goal after we hemmed them in for a long time.
Simply put, we need to bear down earlier and force teams to open up. Our D needs the forwards to help to be effective. When we have to open up to catch up in a game we leave them exposed and they just aren’t good enough to get the job done on their own.
If the guys aren’t playing the system you implement, tweak the system to one that they can. It’s the coaches job to give these guys structure they can succeed in. This system, obviously, isn’t working. Find one that works.
Unfortunately that hole at 2LHD has become a crater that has now swallowed Bouchard.
And we’re back to Mcdavid and Drai trying to do too much because rest of the team can’t piss a drop on offense
Beginning to worry about how much we’re gonna overpay for Chychrun
This year’s D depth is a little like the one 2 seasons ago. Nurse and Russell on the left was not much different from Nurse and Kulak (Koekkoek/Jones vs Nieminen/Murray is a wash). On the right prime Barrie and Larsson was better than the older versions of Cecil and Barrie is, while the 3rd year Bear was probably slightly worse then the 2nd year Bouchard is.
If anything, the cap space situation means they can only hope to add a Kulikov type and hope that works out. The cost would be dear to god rid of a contract and get an useful player back, and I do not see Holland is that desperate yet.
I still think they should try break up Nurse/Cecil to see if they can rebalance the lineup a little better so they have 2A/2B/2B pairs instead of a 1/2B/3 pair (with the definition of a 2B pair being not required to be sheltered and be able to play opposition to a draw, bend but not break). Even if they only deploy the 3rd pair 10min a game, that is still 1/5 of the game they need to worry about line matching or otherwise compensate for a the weaker D.
This team is in win now mode.
Can Chychrun hurt a fly?
Don’t think Chychrun will be the target yet. More likely a slid stay at home type, frustrating as heck to play against in front of our net, with the ability to get the puck out of danger. Chychrun’s injury history and likely price tag are no go’s for me. His contract is very nice if he is healthy, but it doesn’t matter how good of a deal you get on a family sedan when you really need a work truck.
The d-man acquisition is Orlov.
Washington isn’t going to sell any time soon though. Agree beyond that, but Orlov won’t be available until well into 2023 if at all.
Holland will want to see Broberg for a stretch before he makes a move of substance in any event…..
Excellent point – the old ways are like neural pathways, the old path that is beaten down and comfortable, and these two likely revert to them without even knowing it. Just when they thought maybe there’s a new path, it was boarded up…poor guys, no long lasting positive reinforcement to a new way.
Big time.
But as Bruce points out – McDavid and Drai are struggling at 5 on 5 as well
( for gods I mean)
Is Yamo on the LTIR? He’s been out of action for almost 3 weeks.
Last game was Nov 8th, so yeah 16 days and counting. Not on LTIR as far as I know, but they don’t need his money for anything else at the moment.
He’s not even on regular IR, he’s on the active 23 man roster.
LTIR wouldn’t do anything in addition to regular IR unless they are going to use the cap space.
When Benson is activated, they will need a roster spot – either assigning someone or placing Yamo on IR (retroactive, he’d be eligible to be activated at any time)
Question,
if plus minus is such a outdated useless stat why is goal share 5on5 such an advanced stat?
Because it rules out the major flaws of traditional plus/minus which is applied to odd-man situations like shorthanded goals & empty-net goals.
Frequently the results are close, but it’s an odd thing about some analytical types that they love to denigrate some of the early history of analytics by pointing out all the shortcomings of those first attempts & declaring the metric worthless. As a person with interest in both analytics AND history — and by extension, the history of analytics — it pisses me off to be honest.
I still use +/- as a quick-n-dirty single number right in the boxcars to give generalities like “is this guy an outscorer or is he getting killed” knowing full well that a better answer is available once one considers his deployment & drills down into secondary sources.
Thanks. You think they would just update the stat a bit.
plus/minus counts PK goals against but not PP goals for. Ditto when the net is empty.
“plus/minus counts PK goals against but not PP goals for. ”
Should it be the other way around?
“plus/minus counts PK goals *for* (as +) but not PP goals for(as +)”
“plus/minus counts *PP* goals against (as -) but not PK goal against(as -). ”
The logic behind was that PK goal for is a rare thing(count toward a +), while PK goal against is an expected(not count toward a -).
Not sure about the empty net piece.
For the higher offensive players, empty net goals against can add 12 plus minuses.
My biggest concern is related to the players’ verbal over the last few weeks which essentially provides:
“At least we aren’t playing like this in March – its only November”
“We were worse at points last year and it turned out OK”
Playoff results are all that matter. I would rather start on the road against the Flames. There’s only one problem you have to make the playoffs first.
Holland is going to have to pull something off, like Lowe did when they squeaked into the playoffs with Pronger and co. way back when.
I don’t think Holland is going to try that hard on the trade front. We need his Son to give him a nudge with his elbow like he previously did on the Coaching change last year.
Roloson
Spachek
Samsanov
Tarnstrom
Kevin Lowe had an all-time deadline (preceded by an all-time offseason).
McDavid seems pretty irate in games & obvs post-game.
Reminds me of Drai’s body language during the slump last year.
Then McDavid should play better.
How is the best player in the world getting outscored 5 on 5?
Get your dick straight, Connor. Quit trying to be Rocket Richard and backcheck, for fuck’s sake.
Oilers feeling the pressure I think. As Holland said last year, the answer has to come from in the room. He only fired Tippett when there was literally no choice.
I go back to Herdman’s “Holy Trinity” for the coach: team spirit, team chemistry, tactical awareness. Different sport, obviously, but should apply here too.
By eye:
TEAM SPIRIT – remember Jokey Jay Woodcroft, always with a smile on his face, giving pleasant, well-worded press conferences? Don’t see many smiles on this team right now. They are playing tight and they (still!!!) don’t have the confidence of a top team
TEAM CHEMISTRY – laughed on DNB’s latest article at The Athletic, one commenter said his girlfriend was watching the players and asked if it was a “cliquey” team. He said he didn’t think so, the girlfriend said “well I only see McDavid talking to Draisaitl and Nuge and nobody else”.
TACTICAL AWARNESS – where do we begin? There’s no easy wins in this league anymore. They’re not skating on the forecheck and backcheck, teams have realized hard pressure is the easiest way to defeat the Oilers and they don’t really have an answer.
I’m not smart enough (and frankly, I don’t watch all game, every game anymore) to figure out what is different about this team 5v5 with Woodcroft, but I believe most systems in the NHL are fairly similar at this point and it mostly comes down to execution.
What worries me is the comments from some of the players “well, it’s not like it’s March” or “it’s still early in the season, we have time to figure it out”. Hopefully that’s just puffery for the journalist and they don’t actually believe it, but by eye, that seems to be the attitude. “We’ll be fine”.
McDavid & Draisaitl are 1-2 in the league in scoring, but 5v5 tells a very different & sobering story. Currently McDavid is in a 17-way tie for 41st with 11 points, & Draisaitl in a 29-way tie for 78th with 9. Both have well over 2/3 of their points in other manpower situations than the primary game state.
Zach Hyman is currently Oilers’ top 5v5 scorer with 12 points, good enough for a 13-way tie for 28th.
I think a major issue 5v5 this season has been that there’s not really been any line combo showing much of anything in terms of chemistry. Can’t recall a single line that’s been more than the sum of it’s parts.
I hate McDavid with Hyman and Foegle, he needs at least one player on his line with more subtle skill, some vision and hockey sense, an ability to find soft ice, Hyman is fantastic at what he does but he has the blinders on quite often with the puck on his stick and is more of a very high end meat and potatoes player. Don’t mind him as the third best player on McDavid’s line but not the second best.
Drai’s line was the only line last night where it looked like some chemistry was brewing but every line Jesse has been on has eyetested fairly well without much of anything in terms if actual results.
McLeod has some nice individual plays but has been out of synch with pretty much every linemate he’s had. The fourth is nothingness.
This lack of 5v5 jam combined with a struggling transition game is a bad bad way to win hockey games and has forced McDavid to be a one man army and Draisaitl to try the hail mary play far too often.
Defensively it’s a new theme every night PK breaking down, major positional errors, brutal givaways, terrible goaltending and last night soft coverage.
I don’t like the McDrai option to start games but they might have to go there for a bit to jump start the team. Ideally leaving Hyman-Nuge-Pulju as a second line as they should be pretty defensively strong and with at least enough offensive pop between Hyman and Nuge to break even most nights and outscore some. Don’t have time to dig into how they’ve done in the past but on paper it looks solid. Hyman and Nuge have looked good together by eye before.
The third wheel for McDrai is tricky without Kane. Holloway got some shifts there last night and it might be an idea, don’t think he’s really done anything to deserve the promotion but when he’s made plus plays it’s been in the offensive zone which is where that line should be most of the time. And he wouldn’t be carrying the puck much through the neutral zone which so far has been pretty painful…
In a perfect world I think Hyman would be best on the 3rd-ish line and roving up as needed.
Hes the driver and net crasher those guys need and he creates a ton of space.
But agreed he’s not really suited for McD or Leon’s wing game in and game out. He’s a dog on a bone when you need the subtle skills to.
This isn’t a negative IMO, the guy is a beast, it’s about maximizing the lineup.
Totally disagree
You’d have a pretty good team if Hyman could only make the 3rd line.
That’s not the Oilers.
I don’t think he’d play 3rd line anywhere in the league.
Yamamoto, on the other hand… I hear that’s championship-level depth, if Yamo were a 3rd liner.
~I don’t know where I heard that, but I’ve heard it about 1,000 times.~
Good points. Who do you think this guy is “he needs at least one player on his line with more subtle skill, some vision and hockey sense, an ability to find soft ice”? Holloway maybe? It would be nice to see some more reps.
I cringe at the thought of McDrai, but maybe it is necessary at this point, particularly for the first 10 minutes. Sad, but true??
I had been thinking getting Nuge to 3C, this is a challenge with the injuries to Kane and KY, but something in the bottom 6 needs to happen and I am running out of ideas….
So I know there will be arguments but out of the top 6 we are missing Kane and Yamo. I know, Yamo????? But at the end of the day, we are missing 1/3 of the top 6 that had a great playoffs. I think this team misses Kane more that we could have imagined. At the same time, they are out and we have to make do until they are back. Yes, a bit of backchecking and support would go a long way here. The leaders have to commit to filling this void. Thinking all they need to do is score is mistaken. I cannot believe Woody can not see this and make the adjustment. But McD and Drai should have figured it out as well. It is perplexing why things are as they are.
Worth noting that McDavid and Draisaitl are also #3 and #4 in the league in average TOI/GP as well.
Weirdly those two have scored a bunch of non-5v5 even strength points. I’d assumed it was all PP production but it’s not that simple.
Their 11 and 9 5v5 points jump to 18 and 15 at even strength (5th and 21st in the league).
That doesn’t excuse their 5v5 production, but it’s unusual and interesting.
By my eye – Leon – at 5 on 5 seems quite content to occupy the same spot as he does on our PP. Looking to distribute the puck, via pass from the corner.
He posts himself by the rink board advertising away from the net looking to distrubute.
Most teams are onto the is act though.
Leon needs to be taking the biscuit to the home plate area imo.
Draisaitl literally skates into his favourite corner and doesn’t move all shift.
I have been posting on here about this for days, in response to the premise that a big issue is bottom six scoring.
Top 6 scoring is an issue – both of McDavid and Drai are below 50% goal and this team goes nowhere unless those guys are near 55% if not higher.
Don’t look at the P/60 for McDavid and Drai – its not flattering.
Thanks LT for pointing out the up arrows, always necessary to see this as w hole, and not in isolation. Of coarse, they can pull through this. They are a good team, at least on paper, how could you not be when you have the two best players in the world, at least to my way of thinking.
To my eye, and it makes sense, the big guys are trying too hard, and the level of play becomes unfocused. Old pathways kick in, and they’re just human and want desperately to win, thus becoming less effective. It’s a human story.
Perhaps old school, but it seems to me the front of the Oilers net, and to some extent the opposing teams net, should become a “knife fight” where you can’t casually have a cup of coffee and a smoke. I’m old, so remember Fogolin and Huddy etc making the front of the net a terrible place to be. I would add Pronger, but we all know that. I’m not picking on Bouchard, who is a brilliant and wonderful player, but man oh man, can he grab a bit of this knife fight mentality. I know you can’t necessarily teach it, but his often leisurely and casual approach to this area is dumbfounding. Others are guilty as well, and Nurse can’t be the only one who spits nails. Bouchard will be fine, as will the others, but it is frustrating
We need a Jason Smith. Calgary lucked out by Tanev not getting his usual half a year of injuries.
Yup, excellent point. He always treated that area like a warrior….shit, where is the Oiler’s knife fighting warrior, apart from Nurse, who can do it but isn’t in the same category as Jason Smith
The front of the nets is precisely where the Oilers are weakest and the main reason why they are losing. They have little presence in front of the net in either end (except for JP and Hyman in the O-zone).
Could they call up Broberg and send Bouchard down? Something to consider anyway.
I guess not. He isn’t waiver exempt.
They can call up Broberg without sending out Bouchard. Losing Bouchard to waivers is a bad idea, despite his recent struggles.
Why would they lose Bouchard to waivers? He is on his ELC and he hasn’t played in 160 games yet.
He would need to clear waivers to be sent down. According to cap friendly he isn’t waiver exempt. But who knows he might clear. What a gamble though.
there is ZERO way bouchard would clear waivers. absolutely zero
Interesting? You are correct Bouch hasn’t played 160 NHL games. I Have no idea why he isn’t waiver exempt? Maybe they have made an error in cap friendly.
Bouch still on ELC, no?
Absolutely. What other contract has he signed?????
Cap friendly has him at 4 seasons now (counting his 2018-19 season with 7 games, and the 2020-21 season where played 14). That makes him waiver eligible this season
Yes, but capfriendly has him as waiver eligible.
You would think he would still be waiver exempt though? Must be a mistake.
Moot point, there’s zero chance he gets sent down & next to zero chance he even gets *sat* down.
Agreed.
I wonder if it’s because he’s already played 122 NHL games.
Extremely bad.
Nashville had the lowest point total of all playoff teams last season – 97. They were 15 games over .500
Edmonton is .500 after 20 games. 62 games remaining. The math says 35-20-7 or something similiar will be neccessary to get in. That is no easy task, regardless of schedule. They are going to have to rattle off 8 out of 10 at some point,
I think KH should try and make a trade for a proven defenseman.
This is a good way of looking at it. Your projected necessary record works out to 101 point pace over 82 games. That leaves very little room for error. Certainly not enough time for KH to sit on his hands and let this tire fire work itself out.
Thanks for pointing that out. A 101 point pace is not overly daunting at all.
They’ve got to do it obviously, but they had 105 (projected) and 104 points the last 2 seasons. That’s with all the ups and downs, they were at a 119/120 point pace under Woodcroft last season iirc.
I still believe the right move was a summer trade of Barrie out for a RHD that can play solid D and tough minutes (good PK). He was worth his contract this summer after a good year and playoffs….now, not so much.
Barrie has had a tough couple of games but he’s been one of the better d-man on the year, relative to expectations, and I don’t think his trade value is any different now than a few months ago (except its tough to move material cap in-season).
No. Barrie has had a couple of good defensive games this year. The majority are like the recent games. He has been for the vast majority of games played in his career a defensive liability.
We will disagree on the analysis of Barrie’s overall play on the season.
Of note, they have already rattled off 7 of 10 once this season and I’m sure they will have a few more runs like that.
What are the breaks pre/post Kane injury?
Hattrick Maroon really derailed this season.
Trying to get Holloway a goal late in the game was such a smart move by Woody. All was lost, yet he still tried to get a positive out of the game.
Holloway might need to hit the weight room,he sure gets knocked around a lot. He’s a big kid, but somehow still seems to lack that man strength. I’m sure it will come eventually.
I think he gets knocked around because he is getting there a half second late and not ready to take/make a hit. Just slightly off balance. His hockey IQ is improving and his feet are catching up. Just not there yet.
I think hes strong enough, more likely his application of strength. Takes time. Archibald is excellent in applying all hes got into a hit.
with More minutes at least we/he/coach can see what he needs to work on.
Speaking of Archie we’re missing a shit disturber yet Holland sits on his hands.
Who do you suggest?
Archie was a shit-distruber?
If they are looking for that player they should sign Luke Esposito to an NHL deal….
Learning to be in a better body position against his opponent would help.
Seeing a bit of desperation come into the Oilers game which will hopefully breed good habits. I’d like to see the team fire more point shots with two guys in front of the net tipping pucks on the power play when they face a hot goaltender. I thought Bouchard was a bit unlucky last night and he received no help from the forwards on the 3rd goal. After a hot start Ryan McLeod has gone ice cold and he is avoiding contact like the opposing team has leprosy. There are too many guys on the Oilers who think they are goal scorers but in reality they don’t bring much of an identity at all.
You know, I read this last night as well about point shots and two in front when facing a hot goalie. I disagree. I think when facing a hot goalie, you need to crash the net, get him off his game. The OIlers tried this with a lot of down low plays. They just needed to be a bit more physical.
I think I saw Foegele undress the goalie crashing the crease which reminds me does the play get whistled when the goalie looses a glove?
“There are too many guys on the Oilers who think they are goal scorers but in reality they don’t bring much of an identity at all.”
Remember coaching pee-wee at year end party where you give out the little rewards? Fastest skater, most goals, sportsmanlike…….then you get down to the last 5-6 kids and you are racking your brain “my lord, just what in the heck did this kid do?”
Thanks LT I needed this outlook, having not been able to watch games for the past two weeks I can almost hear the butter-soft defense over the Atalantic as I check scores every morning.
I’m not going to “worry” until December – if they continue to struggle against weaker opponents we got issues. Then again, I remember at one point during last year’s 12-game losing streak thinking it was the END. But they turned it around. Thing is, they turned it around after changes were made… what changes will be made this year? Why no talk of a player’s only meeting or some such thing? Pick it up, gentlemen.
I will say that was a very good game by Jessie Puljujarvi yesterday.
That was the best JP has skated all season. Really had his legs going. More please.
I always wonder why he is not used in the PK. the reach he has and skating should help he be a decent PKer
I think his last 5 games or so have been very improved.
He seems to have the luck and hands of Charlie Brown.
I really liked when he slammed his stick on the ice in frustration and the scrums he was getting into. Nice to see some emotion out there
I kid, but could Jesse play D? Hmmm? A utility player who can play wing and D could be an interesting role…
Perhaps Jesse and Barrie switching roles from time to time… hmmm? 😉
https://www.denverpost.com/2020/01/13/dual-role-players-nhl-defensemen/ also note Federov did this as well, and did it very well!
This doesn’t seem like a terrible idea.
It worked with Boo-urns in San Jose.
What was the name of that pillow you used to promote LT? Thats the Oilers, wonderfully soft to play against.
Remember in 7-3 streak? Even McDavid was hitting all over the ice.
But its not just about hitting, its every 50-50 battle. Puck possession, defending, corners, net front, back check. If you don’t want to call it soft, call it intensity. And though we do see some intensity, Oilers come up short over 60 minutes.
The most noticeable factor between Oilers and their opponents is how well one group defends the house, and how poorly the other defends their house.
Im full supporter of the roster talent. “One of the best forward groups in the league” pre-season. Was everybody so wrong? I don’t think so. 50 shots on net says there is talent. 0-3 result says its not working properly. The other teams are shutting them down, then exploiting our defense.
But Im not willing to give them a pass just yet. Even if they had puck luck and won last night, no way was it it good enough. I don’t care about few next games win/loss, Id like to see them fix their problems, then the wins will pile up.
I think pillow talk is verboten here. 🤡
Not pillow talk!
but I wonder what Staois is saying right now, or how is he participating?
Great thought.
What do Manson and Staios say to each about the defence?
We could really use 2 players of their ilk right now.
The most noticeable factor was Sorokin. That game could have easily been 6-3 Oilers. Not saying Campbell didn’t play well, because he did. But it was Sorokin that stole it. You have to cut the boys some slack. They have some young players that are just dipping their toes in. What they really need are a couple more solid vets on the blueline. And maybe they should start to deploy that 1-3-1 scheme that they have so much trouble dealing with.
“No slack from you!” Said in best soup Nazi voice
Im not disappointed in the loss, but in the play.
They have more trouble with fast 2-1-2 pressure forecheck.
Bouchard needs to sit a game. The coach has to start sending some messages. They message isn’t “you suck” The message is we need your responsible game night after night, we need to trust you to do as asked, as coached, as you know how to do – thats the game we need.
Deliver that and your shots will start getting through, your chances will come.
They can’t very well sit Bouchard because they’re thin on the blueline. But Yeah, he definitely needs to be more responsible.
In his last 10 games, Bouch is 0-1-1, -10 with on-ice goals of 0-9 at 5v5. Ice cold at both ends of the rink.
scary.
Those are epically bad numbers and actually match the eye test well. I say sit him in the PB to get a different view of the game for at least a game.Maybe he will see the lanes better.
Agree Campbell was good last evening. Unfortunately, he was the 2nd best goalie in the game.
MacT addage: you win games you should lose at the end of a winning streak and you lose games you should win at the end of a losing streak.
Ppl can hem and haw about the quality of this team but last nights effort cant be seen as a major downbeat imo. 50 shots and the entire third in their end. Plenty of high quality looks. This team fell behind and pushed back and didnt get the result.
Feels like im saying the same thing about the soccer team this morning. MAN even tying Belgium wouldve been outstanding.
Two goals against were the result of lack of commitment on the backtrack. The Oilers are putting too much effort into the wrong things, and not enough effort into the right things.
Skating hard towards your own end isn’t sexy. It is hard. No one will go ooh and aah when it is done right, because it has to be done over and over, each time making the right decision about the right player to chase and stick too.
Doing the right thing when it is hard when nobody is watching or noticing is hard. The Oilers lack this mental toughness. They demonstrated they could do it after the coaching change last year.
Good teams that play a consistent low variance game will usually prevail over time against high variance teams that rely on hero plays. Heroes only make a difference when the team plays a consistent low variance game.
This is right on the money Godot.
I think that on this particular team, its more difficult doing those hard things, when everybody wants to follow the leaders, who are creating breathtaking offense.
I agree with this. I will add that its nice to have lots of pressure but after 60 seconds its time to change and get fresh legs out there to continue the forecheck. Draisaitl is a classic example. He won’t change if his team has possession in the opponents end. He stays out there too long and then is too tired to back track when the play goes the other way.
The fact that we often do ‘Ohh and aah” after a great backcheck may be telling in itself…..
First shot was at 12:03. The first of 49 shots in the last 48 minutes.
Sorokin was All-World.
The Devils finally lost to the Maple Leafs. What did the devils have 3 disallowed goals? Gotta wonder??? WTF are the Officials seeing???
Jelly beans! They were seeing Jelly Beans!
No backtrack. No wins for you.
Teams that don’t come back harder than they go forward don’t win in the modern NHL. Since defensemen are quicker and more skilled and move the puck quicker, back pressure has become more important than forecheck pressure. Turnovers from back pressure lead to more rush chances with the opponent out of structure defensively. (McDraivid would be more dangerous attacking an opponent out of structure without time to setup up the 1-3-1).
McDavid would have fewer skaters to stickhandle through, and Draisaitl would have fewer giveaways on the attack.
The thing is. Everyone HAS to do it. All the time. The good teams do it.
Glad you finally climbed on this “backwagon.”
Thanks LT, agree on pretty much everything.
Encouraging game from Campbell. Encouraging game from McLeod. Encouraging game from Holloway, among others.
This is by eye. They seem to be trying to hard to make a difference. Making one move to many instead of short passes they are holding on looking for home run. the bottom six are fine when they are allowed to play enough to get in a groove.
Oilers don’t respond well to pressure and until they do it’s all they’ll see.
With the caviat that I havent been able to watch recently I do wonder if they are ill equiped to deal with the fact that teams are jacked up to play (and beat) the Oilers. People like Keith and Smith and even Kassian brought a level of experience and snarl in the face of that – I worry the Oilers, for all their talent, are simply too soft.
So do teams not get jacked up to play the Bruins, or the Lightning, or the Avs? I guess that Crosby, Malkin and Letang have been just flying under the radar all these years. Must be terrible to be an Oiler, with the entire league circling the calendar as must win games against Edmonton.
The leadership on this team sucks – that’s on Connor, Leon, Nurse and Nuge … over the past 10 games, they’ve all been awful. The Leafs just beat NJ missing Reilly, Muzzin and Brodie … yet Oiler’s fans keep bringing up injuries as an excuse.
You can’t change out those high priced stars and upgrading the 2LD position will cost at least 1st… that’s not realistic, or advisable as the Oilers are currently a lottery team. So you change the coach, and hope that the next one can finally get through to those 4 and get them to lead by example and demand better accountability.
If those 4 guys played as hard and as smart as Zach Hyman does, this team would not be sitting outside of a playoff spot on the eve of American Thanksgiving.
Zach Hyman works hard. That’s for sure. Less sure about how high his hockey IQ is.
1st goal was on Nuge. He had the goal scorer marked all the way through the neutral ice and for some reason decided to peel off when they got to the Oiler hash marks. Inexplicable, unless Barrie called him off. Just another instance of the Oilers not sorting out a defensive coverage.
And yes, Nuge did have inside position. He was between his check and the Oilers goal. More importantly, he was perfectly positioned to control his opponents stick when the pass was sent. For some reason, he just decided to leave his check. Baffling.
2nd goal was simply Bouchard trying to intercept a pass rather than tying up his opponents stick. I’m not even sure he knew there was a Devil behind him.
3rd goal was simply a case of the Jersey dman beating Draisaitl to the Oilers slot. Unfortunately this happens a lot to the Oilers. Every Oiler that was back had a man marked. The Jersey dman turned it into a 4 on 3.
Nuge was horrible defensively against the Devils as well, letting his man go several times. Yet he got second star. The game recognizes the points.
Mkay just like a month ago I need to heed LT. Gonna, step off the ledge and follow LTs optimism.
Agreed more good than bad last night. But the Bad was Bad Bad. Perimeter play after the first 15 minutes changed and had a purpose of driving to the net. Nice arrow.
Agreed the Bouch is having a helluva tough go. Needs a positive bounce and a rocket goal and he’ll snap out of it.
Forwards need to tighten up that defense to lighten the load on Dmen.
I didn’t like that the 3rd goal hit Soup on the glove but there was no support otherwise… Lots of fault, not one to blame. Thought Soup looked as solid as Tampa game overall. More please!
Rags are a volatile lot and coming all the way back from the Left Coast. Come on let’s catch them sleeping guys come on! Dear Coaches – give that 2nd PP Unit a few at bats, get everyone rolling.
Go Oilers!