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Edmonton's Offense From The Blue: A Critical Failure |
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Edmonton’s defense was, by far, the biggest failing of the club. This is not news. This is already known. If I’ve mentioned it once, I’ve mentioned it a thousand times. That said, it’s still always fun to look into just how bad it really was.
I contend that the Oilers have been undone by substandard defense to such a degree that it affects every aspect of their game. Shot suppression, shot generation, wins, losses, offense from the forwards, everything. Everything is negatively affected by a defense that is largely comprised of players who should just be happy to even playing in the NHL.
When I discuss what Edmonton needs on the blueline to get better, one of the most common things people want is someone who can shut down opposition forwards. Somebody big and mean who plays 25 minutes plus against the Getzlafs, Kopitars, and Thorntons of the NHL. When names get brought up who don’t fit that mental picture there’s a lot of resistance. “I don’t want another Justin Schultz!” is something I hear a lot.
I want to be clear, the Oilers need ALL KINDS of better defenders. Yeah, obviously they need a right handed defender who can play 25+ a night with Oscar Klefbom and not drag the play down. But, they also need a defense that can add offense. They need puck movers.
There’s nothing wrong with a defenseman who is smaller but has offensive ability. There’s nothing wrong with what Justin Schultz was supposed to be. The fact of the matter is that Justin Schultz didn’t fail because he’s a small offensive defenseman. He failed because he’s a small offensive defenseman who didn’t produce any offense.
Schultz had just 10 points in 45 games with the Oilers this year. That’s terrible for a player expected to put up points in an offensive role, logging big minutes, and playing with the team’s elite Forwards. Just to make things worse, and hammer home this point, Schultz actually only put up 4 even strength points in 45 Oiler games. This is incredible for all the wrong reasons!
Not to just harp on Schultz, the Oilers defense as a whole was entirely lacking offensively. When Klefbom went out the best remaining offensive defenseman was Sekera. After seeing Sekera for a whole year and reviewing his career statistics, I’d be comfortable slotting him in the 2nd pair as secondary offense from the blue. He’s a generalist. He’s good at lots of things but not great in any one area. That’s valuable, but Edmonton needs a lot more help. And Lord help them they tried lots of different people.
Edmonton actually used 14 different defenders over the season, proving once again that quantity isn’t a good replacement for quality. Here are their offensive contributions using standard scoring numbers:
Sekera 81GP, 6-24-30
Klefbom 30GP, 4-8-12
Davidson 51GP, 4-7-11
Schultz 45GP, 3-7-10
Nurse 69GP, 3-7-10
Fayne 69GP, 2-5-7
Clendening 20GP, 1-5-6
Gryba 53GP, 1-5-6
Oesterle 17GP, 0-5-5
Pardy 9GP, 0-3-3
Reinhart 29GP, 0-1-1
Nikitin 11GP, 0-1-1
Ference 6GP, 0-0-0
Hunt 7GP, 0-0-0
Woof.
I looked at offense from the blueline for all 30 NHL teams. I looked at 2 categories only: Points by Defensemen & Even Strength Points by Defensemen. Edmonton’s defense wasn’t just bad by NHL standards. It was the worst.
The only team with a comparably bad defense, offensively, was New Jersey.
In the NHL this year teams averaged 149.8 points from their defense. At even strength NHL teams averaged 106.6 points from their defense.
The Oilers were 30th with 102 total points from their blueline and 29th with 72 even strength points from their blueline. Well maybe the Oilers were just extremely terrible at scoring goals, especially at even strength. It makes sense, a generally bad team that cant score is going to have low scoring totals from its defense too.
Not exactly the case. It’s true, Edmonton isn’t among the NHL’s Goals For leaders. In fact, they’re 26th with 199 Goals For this season. But they’re actually better than that 5v5, where they’re 21st ranked in Goals For this season. Edmonton isn’t even that close to last in either category, but their defense is. The only conclusion I can come up with is that Edmonton was finding ways to score despite their defense, not with their defense.
So while it’s absolutely true that the Oilers need big, bruising shutdown defenders, the truth is they need a lot of help offensively just to get a defense that contributes at a league average level. They need offense from the blueline.
Does having contributions from the blueline help you make the Playoffs? I can’t make a direct link with any kind of statistical certainty (it’s not my area). What I can say is that, this year, of the top 15 teams in points by defensemen 73% of them made the playoffs. Of the bottom 15 teams in points by a defensemen only 33% of them made the playoffs.
So when the Oilers make a deal to acquire a smaller, offensively minded defender you wont see me complaining. Edmonton needs people who can move the puck up to their forwards as bad as anything else right now.
Follow me on Twitter @Archaeologuy
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • 
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