Oilers at Ducks, G36 2024-25

The Edmonton Oilers had a few tryptophan warriors on the ice yesterday afternoon, and coach Kris Knoblauch looked past the walloping Adam Henrique received from the Quinton Byfield trio. As I mentioned yesterday, events conspired against the road team (Hyman gets hauled down, slash on Bouchard’s stick, the rare occasion an official doesn’t blow the whistle due to a broken goalie mask) and that’s exactly the type of hurdle the team will see in road games during the playoffs. Not fair? So what, that’s the job.

The Athletic article today is about Matthew Savoie’s spike, Noah Philip’s imminent recall, and two more Condors making their presence known from the town Buck Owens built. Article is here.

WHAT TO EXPECT IN DECEMBER

• On the road to: VEG (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 0-1-0)
• At home to: CBJ, STL, TBAY (Expected 2-1-0) (Actual 3-0-0)
• On the road to: MIN (Expected 0-1-0) (Actual 1-0-0)
• At home to: VEG, FLA, BOS, SJS, OTT (Expected 4-1-0) (Actual 4-1-0)
• On the road to: LAK, ANA (Expected 1-1-0) (Actual 0-0-1)
• At home to: UTA (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
• Overall expected result: 9-4-0, 18 points in 13 games
• December results: 8-2-1
• Oilers in 2024-25: 21-11-3, 45 points in 35 games

Edmonton is on a 105-point pace and that may mean another first-round matchup with the Los Angeles Kings. Now, I don’t believe it is wise to draw any conclusion from yesterday’s game, but a recall of Noah Philp might be on the horizon. I wrote about it in The Athletic article above, Philp is ready and could be a real solution. Giving him playing time on the fourth line, with Mattias Janmark moving back to the Henrique trio, is a strong option. This is the time to do it.

THE NUMBERS

The second line is the one to trumpet today, that trio was terrific. I also liked Kapanen and Brown on the first goal (with Emberson) although I think Brown gave it back on the first LAK goal. The real story is Henrique getting a steady diet of the Byfield line and the coaching staff saying ‘yeah, let’s keep going here’ and I do understand last change belonged to Jim Hiller. Even with that knowledge, seven minutes of Byfield-Henrique resulted in 0-3 goals in five-on-five and 0-4 goals overall. I think it’s fair to point that out and wonder if Knoblauch is learning as an in-game manager. Seems like an easy fix would be ditching the fourth line and running Janmark on Henrique’s line.

I don’t know why the Oilers don’t call up Philp. The coaching staff is clearly fading Derek Ryan because foot speed (there’s no other reason to do it) and Janmark in the middle hurts two lines at once.

At five-on-five, the McDavid line was well marked by Anze Kopitar’s outfit and Mikey Anderson-Vladislav Gavrikov. Zach Hyman got free a couple of times in the game state and of course all three men picked up a power-play point.

The Draisaitl line faced the Danault line and the Clarke-Edmundson pairing, doing very good business. I’m not sure when the Oilers are going to move Podkolzin down, the results on-ice have been good despite some lack of scoring by the player. Janmark with Brown and Kapanen spent 4 seconds together and scored.

Jeff Skinner is a player in the National Hockey League.

Defensively, I noted both Emberson and Mattias Ekholm as doing multiple good things, and would name only Troy Stecher as a player who maybe chased a little. Other than that, I’d blame pucks off feet and poor old Adam Henrique. I suspect he’ll rebound today. Recalling Noah Philp today might wake up some struggling veterans, but it’s first game after Christmas so overreacting is unwise.

Stuart Skinner was mostly fine, I didn’t like the GWG but the whistle should have ended play before the shot. The refereeing was rancid yesterday and did impact the result in my opinion.

Matthew Savoie is 4-4-8 in his last five with the Bakersfield Condors. I wrote about him today in The Athletic article linked above. This is a quality prospect, close to the NHL.