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G33 Oilers vs Sharks: Commissioner Gordon Returns |
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Boyd Gordon is back, baby! This will immediately DOUBLE the amount of NHL Centermen that the Oilers have available to them tonight. DOUBLE IT.
The team has been running Hendricks in that spot on the 4th line and he’s done an admirable job in the faceoff dot (his season average is 56.4%) but the facts are that the line needs players with more defensive awareness. Luke Gazdic does a few things really well. He’s tough, he hits, he even directs pucks to the net at a decent clip, but his awareness isn’t at the same level as Hendricks and Gordon.
The 1st goal against in the last game was on Gazdic who overloaded the puck carrier but in doing so left his man completely wide open. Puck in the net. Had he looked around him he would have seen the guy he should have picked up but he didn’t. It’s the kind of play that a team that cannot score enough goals to overcome can’t allow because it was defendable.
The 4th line has gone through a reverse makeover, in my eye, since the start of the year. It started with a trio in Hendricks-Gordon-Joensuu that had a very important role on the team and slowly management/coaching/injury chipped it away until it was just another line filled whose job was simply to not hurt the team. Like the team itself, it’s trending in the wrong direction but Gordon coming back should help.
Steve Pinizzotto has taken over the team’s lead for the worst Corsi For % on the team from Jesse Joensuu. In terms of just CF% the entire 4th line makes up the bottom of Edmonton’s team in that respect, but it’s because of the starts they get. Joensuu was last on the Oilers but getting only 9.4% of his starts in the Offensive Zone. Pinizzotto has taken that spot on the roster so you might expect similar usage, but he has a 21.4% OZ start.
There’s no question that the role of the 4th line has changed. It isn’t all Pini either, with Gordon hurt for a few games and Gazdic drawing in there’s no question that the coach could not keep sending that unit over the boards to face tough opposition in dangerous situations. Gordon’s return is both an addition of talent, a removal of defensive liability, and potentially a means to give that line a role again.
LINEUP
Gordon goes in and Klefbom should be ready to return as well. That means Davidson will come out of the lineup. That is a serious upgrade on the blueline and down the middle. The Oil should benefit greatly from this injection of talent and they need it badly. With 1 win since the Colour TV was introduced, the Oilers are in a bad spot. I’m starting to think they might not make the playoffs. Scrivens stays in net.
Hall RNH Purcell
Perron Arco Eberle
Yak Draisaitl Pitlick
Hendricks Gordon Pinizzotto
Ference Petry
Klefbom Fayne
Hunt Schultz
Scrivens
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) Kid Line Gets Going. I honestly have no idea how it’s going to happen, but Yak with 2 NHL Rookies needs to find a way to get in the game. The media pressure is starting to rise again on Yak who just cannot get it going. He needs to be ripping shots again with some regularity. The issue is everyone on the team is having issue generating shots, but when Purcell goes a few games with 1-2 shots it’s less noticeable. Yak has had 1 game with >2 shots all December and that was on the 1st. Tough to score when you get 1 opportunity a game to do it.
2) San Jose is tied with Vancouver and the Winnipeg at 38 points but they are rolling along at 7-2-1 in their last 10 games. Their Power Play is a blistering 24% on the season. That means the Sharks are roughly TWO TIMES more likely to score on their Power Plays than Edmonton who sits at 12.6% on the year. Edmonton’s PK is a middle of the pack 80.2% and adding Gordon should help. They’ll need him.
3) Primary Scoring. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins pitched in against the Coyotes and his development as a 1C has been wonderful if not slower than one would hope (even if it’s still reasonable) but Taylor Hall has gone missing. He has 1 goal in his last 10 games and it must feel, for him, that he’s never going to break out of the slump. Against the Yotes he was back in the shooter’s position on the PP and I like that so maybe it will help him out.
Puck drops at 8:30PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet 360. Game On!
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