The Oiler Super-Rookie 2016 tour continues tonight as the team takes on Patrik Laine and the Winnipeg Jets. Edmonton just blew their last 3 games, which were deemed “winnable” by most people. The Oilers are leaving points on the table right now and if they can’t get back to winning then there are going to be a lot of angry Oiler fans.

The biggest complaint right now is that the secondary scoring has dried up. The Oilers haven’t scored a goal that McDavid has not at least had an assist on since the 1st period of the 1st game against the Coyotes. That’s 8 periods of hockey where if it isn’t manufactured by McDavid then it isn’t happening. That’s not good enough. He is leading the NHL in scoring with 31 points, but the next highest scoring Oilers have just 17 points. It’s a 14 point gap between him and his teammates.

Those three players (Lucic, Eberle, and Draisaitl) are on pace for 58 point seasons and that is nothing to sneeze at, but it sure feels like they are getting those points because McDavid is dragging them along. If these players don’t start pulling weight on their own then it’s going to make for a frustrating winter. Edmonton needs to be more than a 1 line team.

Thankfully, Draisaitl is scoring and hasn’t played much 5v5 with McDavid (that might change tonight). The problem with Draisaitl is that his goals are coming away from 5v5. Goals are goals are goals, and I get that, but the big German center has just a single goal 5v5. It’s all coming from the PP (which has gone cold). Edmonton needs to unlock Leon’s 5v5 offense soon.

Equally problematic has been Nugent-Hopkins continued scoring drought. There’s a lot of hand wringing going on about 93 and it’s understandable. I do, however, believe he will come out of this funk. He’s shooting an abysmal 4.3% overall and just 1.89% 5v5 so far this year. If Nuge was shooting at Lucic’s current 5v5 percentage then he would have 5 or 6 goals already 5v5 alone. Nuge’s shots per 60 minutes is 2nd on the team at 10.64 shots/60.

To make matters worse for Nuge, his most common linemates this season have been Pouliot and Kassian. Both of them only have 4 points in 21 games. So Nugent-Hopkins is shooting and shooting but nothing is going in and at the same time his most common linemates over the first quarter of the season were utterly useless in the offensive zone. The ultimate effect is that Nugent-Hopkins has a PDO of 96.7 which is 20th of 22 Oilers who have played at least 25 minutes 5v5.

He looks way worse than he should but it doesn’t change the fact that goals arent going in frequently enough for that line. There’s a reason the lines keep getting juggled every few games. This team is looking for any change it can that might spark some life back into the sticks of the 2nd line.

LINEUP

Yesterday in practice these are the combinations that were tried. Fayne was recalled and Gryba put on IR (no idea what the injury might be). We might see Fayne draw in for Benning after he made some tough decisions against the Leafs.

Lucic McDavid Draisaitl
Pouliot RNH Eberle
Pitlick Caggiula Slepyshev/Kassian
Maroon/Hendricks Letestu Puljujarvi

Klefbom Larsson
Sekera Russell
Nurse Benning

Talbot
Gustavsson

OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME

1) Finnish Rookies. Edmonton and Winnipeg took the two top Finnish prospects in the draft 2nd and 4th overall. Patrik Laine is on track to be a Calder trophy finalist. Jesse Puljujarvi is on track to finish his year competing for the Calder Cup in the AHL. Puljujarvi is struggling to find his way onto the scoresheet with just a single goal this year. Laine is tied for 2nd in the NHL with 13 goals on the year. He’s been everything the Jets hoped and dreamed for when they drafted him 2nd overall. That laser-beam shot is Ovechkin-like and is going to be his calling card in the NHL for years to come. If he wasn’t playing against the Oilers I’d say he’s a pleasure to watch. Instead I’m going to be terrified every time the puck is on his stick.

2) Shilling For Scheifele. Of all of the young players I have been wrong about (and the list is massive) I was never more wrong about someone than I was with Scheifele. I thought the Jets were making a mistake bypassing Couturier to go after Scheifele with the 7th pick in the 2011 entry draft. Boy, do I look pretty stupid now. Scheifele has 6 more career points than Couturier in 118 fewer games. Since Jan 1st 2016 Scheifele is 5th in NHL scoring. This season alone, he is tied for 2nd in NHL scoring, 5 points behind McDavid. The former Barrie Colt has increased his scoring output in every single NHL season and at 23 years old he looks ready to hit his prime. He’s the real deal as far as NHL centers go these days.

3) About The Power Play. The Oilers have given away these last few games in part by having a brutal power play. Whatever Jay Woodcroft is doing needs some serious work. That was the focus of practice yesterday. The club has a problem with a lack of right shooting players who can one-time the puck. For that reason, Mark Letestu is getting PP time and the coaching staff had everyone (not named Puljujarvi) working on their shots yesterday. The Power Play going dark is costing them points in the standings. They don’t have a lot of choices for who to run the point. At this point I will take all kinds of experimentation and even Letestu can be a suitable choice. The PP cannot just be “Let McDavid do the work”. It has to be better as a unit with all 5 members pulling in the same direction.

Puck drops tonight at 6PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet Oilers. Game On!

Follow me on Twitter @Archaeologuy

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