The Oilers are 5-1-0 after 6 games and are at the top of the Western Conference. Even as young as this season is, the Oilers have not started this well since the mid 80’s. Last year they didn’t get their 5th win until the 13th game of the season. Edmonton has 4 regulation wins against Western Conference opponents. As Oiler radio play by play man Jack Michaels noted, the team did not have 4 regulation wins against Western Conference opponents last season until March. MARCH!

If Oiler fans are a little excited, you can probably forgive them. Their team hasn’t had results like this (mirage or real) in a very long time. It’s too early to plan parades, but goodness gracious this team has suffered a long time and it finally looks like things are paying off. There are still plenty of concerns, mind you, but the core strength down the middle look like it is paying off and the top 4 defenders are at least capable of getting the job done. That isn’t something the Oilers could have said at any point since this Rebuild began.

The addition of Adam Larsson to the top pairing has indeed stabilized it as the Oilers hoped, at least early on. It came at significant cost, but the duo of Klefbom and Larsson are getting the job done for roughly 21 minutes a night. They lead the Oiler blueline in shot attempt percentage despite also taking the highest percentage of defensive zone starts. Adam Larsson is much more physical than I anticipated. What’s promising is that Klefbom hasn’t played all that well so far, suggesting they can be even more effective when he starts to play the way he’s capable of playing.

The Sekera/Russell pairing has been a lot less successful with regards to possession numbers, but they have been positive in Scoring Chance percentage (as recorded by NaturalStatTrick.com). Russell is also riding a team high PDO of 108.8 so good things are happening when that duo is on the ice (despite much being out of their control). I expect that if possession continues to be negative that eventually the scoring chances will catch up to that line, but the partnership for Sekera and Russell, as it is for Klefbom and Larsson, is still new. They are still learning the other’s tendencies.

What’s important is that there are four NHL players in Edmonton’s top four. The one with the most question marks (Russell) has played relatively well for the team and the other three are performing pretty much as we expected. This time a year ago, Schultz, Fayne, and Ference were all playing for the Oiler defense and they’ve been replaced with Larsson, Russell, and Nurse. It’s an upgrade and there’s very little doubt of that.

LINEUP

Davidson is on IR, Hendricks is out for weeks, Caggiula is out with no updates on his condition, Fayne’s mystery ailment is probably something awful to a tendon.

Lucic McDavid Eberle
Pouliot RNH Kassian
Maroon Draisaitl Puljujarvi
Pitlick Letestu Lander

Klefbom Larsson
Sekera Russell
Nurse Gryba

Talbot
Gustavsson

OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME

1) Great Eight. Alex Ovechkin will go down in history as one of the greatest goal scorers the National Hockey League has ever seen. When adjusted for era scoring, he is up there with legends of the game. With 528 goals in 844 career games he has been an awe-inspiring player. He’s just 30 points away from breaking 1000 in his career and he’s only 31 years old. He’s had three consecutive 50 goal seasons and he will want to make this the fourth. However, he’s off to a “slow” start. He has just one power play goal so far this season to go with his two 5v5 goals. He’s one of the best power forwards in the league. He was second on the Caps last year in hits while also leading them in goal scoring. He’s a treat to watch and most of the time that’s all defenders can do, watch.

2) Buzzsaw Ryan. With the Oilers at home against the Caps, I imagine we’re going to see McLellan run Nuge’s line up against Ovechkin. One of the strengths of the team that I alluded to earlier was the depth down the middle. This will not always present itself in the form of three scoring lines. Sometimes it will appear with Nuge’s line getting the job of trying to keep the opposition’s top line off the scoresheet while the other two scoring lines get an easier path to the attacking zone. This line combined for a great steal (RNH), pass (Pouliot), and goal (Kassian) against the Jets, but we should be happy if they can defend against these great players.

3) Penalty Kill. Edmonton’s Penalty Kill is riding a high right now. They’ve killed off 20 of 23 penalties and scored two shorthanded goals of their own. In raw percentage they are 10th in the NHL, which is great news for the Oilers. However, that’s very much on Talbot’s shoulders so far. The Oilers are 27th in 4v5 shots against per 60 minutes, 25th in Fenwick against per 60 minutes, and 19th in Corsi Against per 60 minutes. Per NaturalStatTrick the Oilers are 19th in shorthanded Scoring Chances against per 60 minutes. What I’m getting at is they shouldn’t be overly confident that the penalty kill is getting the job done so much as Talbot has been getting the job done. With Ovechkin on the prowl, tonight should put that PK to the test.

Puck drops at 7:30 PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet West. Game On!

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