It’s been about 2 weeks of us being back with the regular NHL season in play and there has been a multitude of storylines happening from around the league (from Jack Hughes & Alex DeBrincat making a case for being Hart nominees, to Vegas having a remarkable 6-0-0 start, to Auston Matthews having back to back hat tricks in his first two games). But the one big topic of conversation around the hockey world is the poor and weak (1-3-1) start by the Edmonton Oilers, finding themselves at 29th in the league with teams like Anaheim and San Jose (both of whom are rebuilding and this was a bit expected). To make matters worse, it was announced this past week that Connor McDavid, the best player not only for them, but in the league, will be out for 1 to 2 weeks, with an undisclosed injury (something muscular as noted by head coach Jay Woodcroft in his last press), and possibly missing the Heritage Classic.
But is it time to panic? Well, yes and no. Let’s review. This is only 2 weeks into the season and we are seeing other playoff calibre teams struggle (Minnesota Wild & Florida Panthers), and it is an 82 game season. The key for the Oilers is that there is still time (although panic and lack of confidence can always creep in). But the problem is that this team set the expectation for themselves (and maybe pundits overshared it) of this season being a “Cup or Bust”. McDavid said this in his end of year press conference, Well it isn’t either, but the team is showing some grave mistakes (looking at the miscommunication between Darnell Nurse & Stuart Skinner) resulting in the game tying goal vs Winnipeg last Saturday. Edmonton just seems to make a lot of mistakes, not paying attention to detail and it is costing them. They are failing to play a full 60 minutes and this was most evident in the game against the Philadelphia Flyers. This falls on the coaching staff to have the team ready to play and be aggressive. Adjust as necessary.
The other panic is that they are the only team in the NHL left without a goal scored in the 3rd period, from a team that had a 3.96 goals for last season and were first (they would just outscored their opponents). Right now in 5 games, they have 2.60 goals per game, so it’s a big drop. This is because their top guys like Kane and Brown, are struggling to produce. Certainly you have enough depth to be competitive, but when you pair McDavid and Draisaitl 25 minutes into game 1, that’s a panic move. They also have a 71.43% on the penalty kill and take too many unnecessary penalties, something that hurt them in the past 2 post seasons, and they need to be more disciplined. Again, that’s on the team to be ready and it seems like they expect to coast through the season. Other teams want to compete and personally believe (rightfully or not) that they can make the postseason. They need to be ready for both Minnesota Wild and the New York Rangers this week, then Calgary for the Heritage Classic.
But it also doesn’t help that now their captain is out, as it will require others to step up. This doom and gloom without McDavid is understandable, as they have a 19-22-9 record without him all-time. But it shows that they can still win. It’s just a glass half full/empty view, so it’s not the best, but not the worst. It also doesn’t bode well when McDavid brings people back early for Captain skates to get people going. Finally goaltending has been meh, but both Jack Campbell and Stuart Skinner have struggled and no one has really taken their reigns between the pipes and make the net theirs. Jack Campbell has a .902SV% with a 3.66 GAA while Stuart Skinner has a .814SV% and a 4.29GAA. This will have to change and they do need more saves, but they also need to clean up their game in the defensive zone.
But I still believe in this team as they are getting 32 shots per game, and that should be enough (count posts or being goalied) and so they aren’t getting all the goals in (look at that game vs Vancouver Canucks and Casey DeSmith). Their top 9 guys should also get going, and with McDavid out, is a great opportunity as they will get a chance (Kane is now on the top PP, after making some unique comments on Saturday Night on Hockey Night in Canada). They have a chance to make an impact and get going and we will see soon enough what this team is, what their identity is, without McDavid. Can they still be a powerhouse, and get themselves out of this mess. So there is hope and I believe in Woodcroft, but the team just has to play their system that worked last year, as it helped them be successful.
But what do you think? Is this the real Edmonton or just an anomaly for a start?
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- Pawel ‘The Cat’
