The Hurricanes role into town tonight and the Oilers look to turn this thing into an actually Winning streak. After an excellent performance against the Tampa Bay Lightning they were thoroughly outplayed by the Capitals but still found a way to win. The 3rd period in particular was just the Oilers enduring wave after wave of Washington's attack.
GOALTENDING
There's no question that the Ben Scrivens we are seeing now is the Ben Scrivens the Oilers were hoping for when they handed him the 1A job in the summer. In his 6 appearances between the pipes he has been an even split of Jekyll and Hyde. His first 3 were .808, .800, .793 which gave the team no chance of winning at all. The start had everybody questioning their sanity, but The Professor persevered through it and pulled himself together. His last 3 starts have been .966, .917, .941 which has given the Oilers everything they needed to start this potential win streak.
Teams have nothing if they don't have the goaltending, just ask Carolina. Cam Ward has been in decline for some time now and the slide looks to be taking the one time Conn Smythe Trophy winner *spits* to even lower depths. Not that I feel bad for the Hurricanes *spits*. Anton Khudobin hasn't had a great start either for the Canes. He has provided their only decent start but it still wasn't good enough to net the club a Win. Carolina remains the only team to have yet to record a single victory.
It shouldn't take too much imagination for the Oilers to put themselves in the shoes of their opponents so they know how hard they will be playing to break their winless streak. The Oilers don't deserve the right to overlook anybody on the schedule, even a winless team on the 2nd half of a back-to-back. When the team can prove that they eat lower tiered teams for breakfast then maybe it would be understandable if they take their foot off the gas pedal once in a while. But, until they finish a season out of the lottery there should never be a night off for these guys.
LEON
This is game 8 for the kid and there will be no shortage of digital ink spilled about what the Oilers should do with the kid. I'm of two minds on this topic. On one hand I don't think another year in Junior will hurt him at all. On the other, I think there's every chance that, like most raw rookies, Draisaitl will get better as the season wears on.
I don't believe there's a lot of merit to the notion that there isn't anything Draisaitl can learn in the WHL. There is plenty he can do and I think we've seen that here. His offensive game is developed well enough to be dominant at the CHL level but he can always work on his defensive responsibilities. As Jonathan Willis points out,
Draisaitl's defensive responsibilities are not as expected given the fact that he plays C. Eakins has him playing more like a Winger than a Centerman on the forecheck. More time with the Raiders can help further develop his defensive awareness without sacrificing goals for the NHL club.
Then again, the last game was his best and I think there's something to the idea that he's getting a little bit better every day. He is getting better chances more consistently and I think his 1st goal is only a matter of time. Against the Caps his line had the best possession rates on the team. LD was a team high 61% CF on a night when the whole team was only 33%. It should be a big feather in his cap.
Ultimately I would feel much more comfortable sending him back to the WHL if MacT finds himself a Center via the trade market. I keep coming back to Brayden Schenn and wondering what it might take to acquire him.
LINEUP
Despite the fact that they were drastically outplayed, I don't expect any major changes for the lineup. Scrivens should play and there shouldn't be anybody coming out so Acton can go in. I would say that RNH be up against the Canes big line again, but I don't think they have a big line, so Gordon will likely match up against Jiri Tlusty and leave the Hall line to run over whomever else is left. Eberle is rumoured to be injured and it's likely his shoulder. This would explain a lot about his extremely uninspired play of late.
Hall RNH Eberle
Pouliot Arco Yak
Purcell Draisaitl Perron
Hendricks Gordon Joensuu
Marincin Fayne
Ference Petry
Nikitin Schultz
Scrivens
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) Back On The Attack. The Oilers managed just 20 shots against the Caps and only 12 from forwards. Whether by straight shots or by all Corsi events it's clear that the Oil were unable to get their attack going at all. They had trouble gaining the zone as the Caps walled up the Neutral Zone. The Canes have played relatively low event hockey too. They have been excellent preventing shot attempts against them but they haven't turned that into a swing of shot attempts for. Statistical oddity this early into the season or a tactical/personnel issue? Maybe both.
2) The Nuge Is Huge. That summer of training he was finally able to get in under his belt has turned that shot of his into a real weapon. It was ok before, not good but not comical. Now he's getting comparisons to Messier or Sakic. It's all a little much and we should take what the Rogers crew of noisemakers say with a huge grain of salt, but it still stands that he added a significant weapon to his arsenal that still has unreal awareness and supreme skating in it.
3) Jultzing Around. I don't think that it's any coincidence that Justin Schultz has been more more effective in the last two games compared to where he was in the first 5. Schultz was playing between 22.5 and 27 minutes a night but only generated 7 shots in those 5 games. In the last 2 games he has been under 20 minutes a night and already doubled his shot total. Those 7 shots in the last 2 games have been of the dangerous variety and add a level of Offense the team expects out of him.
Puck drops tonight at 7:38PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet Oilers. Game On!
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