There’s barely any time to think about the loss to the Ducks, because the Oil have to take on the Sharks tonight in the last leg of the California road trip. The trip, thus far, has been a disaster. The Oilers have been just close enough in both games to remind the club of a time when winning was possible, but the outcomes of the games remind us that the team has been set up to fail since the summer.

Aside from McDavid desperately dragging the team along with him, the standout performance of the trip has belonged to Andrej Sekera, and not for good reasons. Sekera’s game is getting worse instead of getting better. The Oilers were hoping for their 2nd best defender to return when Sekera was cleared to play, but what they’ve been given is just a liability.

Sekera blew out his ACL against the Ducks in the playoffs and the loss really hurt Edmonton in the series, which you can forgive the team for being unprepared to deal with it. However, the club knew Sekera would be gone for months and they opted to do nothing to help their blueline. Instead, they chose to believe they could hold the fort until Sekera could return and he would act as a sort of deadline addition.

In a summer filled with bizarre decisions, this was the one that I was most hopeful for. If the plan could *just* work then maybe the Oilers had a chance. Recall that at one point in late December the team was still only 4 points back of the pack. An impact player added then to the blueline might have given the team a fighter’s chance. It was nothing more than blind hope.

Any reasonable expectation for a 31 year old defender only 7 months removed from major knee surgery, wearing a brace, and without any summer training regime does not include “impact” performance. Hindsight shouldn’t have been required, but looking back it’s clear that the choice to depend on Sekera while adding nothing to the top 6 defenders was a back-breaking mistake.

Sekera, through 18 games this season, has found himself at the very bottom of the defense in CF%, FF%, SF%, and GF%. He is an anchor that is dragging everybody down. His GF% is a brutal 13.3% on the virtue of being on for just 2 Oiler goals and 13 opposition goals 5v5. Obviously PDO is insanely low, but we still have a very ineffective player while he’s struggling with his return from injury.

It goes without saying that I had a huge problem with signing Russell to a $4M x 4 year deal with NMCs and NTCs in June. One reason for this being it forced Edmonton into an unbalanced position (in the L to R ratio). The Oilers are deep at LHD and have been for years. Nurse, Klefbom, Sekera, Russell, Davidson (added mid-season) are all lefties. Then the prospect pool is really skewed to the left as well. The other reason was that it locked Edmonton into keeping the same defense that came up short in the playoffs last season.

Why does handedness matter? Well if you watched the game last night you would have seen that Kris Russell was one of the worst players on the ice (plus one good play) and his lowest moment was a turnover from a backhand pass attempt that went directly to the Ducks and in for a goal. It was the product of a poor player getting too many minutes AND playing his off side. A right-handed defender would have been making that pass on his forehand, and the likelihood of booting that pass for a ridiculous turnover is significantly lower.

Chiarelli and the Oilers doubled down on the idea that the blueline didn’t need Sekera’s impact for half the year and that Sekera could return at full impact for the final half. The blueline was not changed from a year ago and that has proven as disastrous as any other gamble taken by this hapless Management team.

LINEUP

Let’s guess that Sekera takes the day off and so does Talbot. Caggiula is also doubtful

Maroon McDavid Puljujarvi
Lucic Draisaitl Cammalleri
Khaira Strome Kassian
Slepyshev Letestu Pakarinen

Klefbom Benning
Nurse Russell
Auvitu Davidson

Montoya

OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME

1) Moving On. There’s no opportunity to over-think the last performance because they need to get back into action again tonight. The bad defensive plays, the frustration of the Power Play, the missed chances all need to be in the rearview mirror. Edmonton has a chance to finish this road trip on a high note. It’s not the outcome they wanted in terms of points earned, but with this schedule it is going to be difficult to dwell. The team is playing a lot of hockey with very little rest.

2) Slappy. One of the bright spots yesterday was Anton Slepyshev’s play. His goal was highlight-reel material and the product of an aggressive play with the puck. He took it to the net with speed. Sometimes you see flashes of real brilliance from Slepyshev, and yesterday was one of those occasions. He has size. He has the ability to get up to speed. If he could put it all together with any consistency he could be a regular in the top 9, but he’s just so volatile. I’m not one of those who thinks he’s going to be a star in the NHL, but he has real skill. He just needs to tap into it.

3) From Everywhere. The Sharks are an interesting team in that they are currently sitting in a playoff spot, but outside of Burns they really don’t have a player really driving offense. Their contributions are coming from all over. Logan Couture is leading their forwards in scoring with just 40 points in 50 games. However, they also have Pavelski, Thornton, Hertl, and Labanc in the 30’s. This isn’t the same deadly Sharks that they used to be, but they are finding contributors. Edmonton needs to play a smart game.

Puck drops tonight at 8PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet. Game On!

Follow me on Twitter @Archaeologuy

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