Tonight an ex-Oiler can take his opportunity to twist the knife a little on his former club. The Oilers dumped their 2nd best player in Taylor Hall two summers ago, but the Devils struggled and the Oil flourished in the immediate aftermath. Now the tables have turned and it’s the Devils who are the toast of the town while the Oilers try to salvage their season.
The mouth breathers and Kool-Aid drinkers bought in 100% to the pathetic idea that Hall was a problem for Edmonton, when all evidence pointed to him being a lone bright-spot in an era of utter darkness. The propagandists in the media pushed the storyline that the team’s performance meant that the Oilers even won the trade that sent out a premier offensive player for what is ostensibly a lumbering 3D. They said it enough that the rubes even started to believe it, not that they needed help believing that Chiarelli was going to fix all of Edmonton’s problems.
The few who dared suggest that the trade was poor from day one were drowned out by the clamor of the many who used the team’s success to justify their sad delusions. Hall was a poison – a cancer! The team was better off without him. He just falls down all the time anyway. Larsson’s not a passenger, he just sits beside the driver and has no control over the vehicle! It was really Hall for Larsson AND Lucic!
Chiarelli must have been told so many times that he did such a good job removing Hall that he figured the natural step to making the Oilers even better was removing Eberle – we’ll see him later. And as the propagandists cheered and chanted, the betting line in Vegas made Edmonton an odds-on favorite to win a Stanley Cup.
Chia! Chia! Chia!
He was robbed of that NHL executive of the year award! Didn’t you see what he did? He traded Taylor Hall and almost won 2 rounds in the playoffs!
Chia! Chia! Chia!
For some it was a terrible nightmare. For others it was their fantasy played out in front of their eyes. For all of us, waking up from it has been wretched and loathsome. The Oilers have no depth of scoring. They have netted 17 5v5 goals all year and only 4 have come outside of McDavid, Maroon, Nuge, or Drai. That’s 4 players making up 76% of all the 5v5 goals the team has scored a month into the year. The aftermath of trading away and failing to replace elite skill in their top 6 two years in the row is difficult to cope with.
How did it all go so right a year ago and then all go so wrong now? I don’t know. Maybe trading away your best players for diminishing returns isn’t actually the way to go. Maybe it never was the way to go at all.
Taylor Hall and the 9-2 Devils face the Oilers tonight. Enjoy. LINEUP
Andrej Sekera took the morning skate today with the team and led the stretch. He’s still weeks away at least and hasn’t been cleared for contact. We wait. Yamo looks out of the lineup and Slepyshev takes his spot.
Maroon McDavid Draisaitl Lucic RNH Slepyshev Caggiula Strome Jokinen Pakarinen Letestu Kassian
Nurse Larsson Klefbom Benning Auvitu Russell
Talbot
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) Killing. The Oiler Penalty Kill is actually killing the team’s chances at making the playoffs. The Oiler kill is sitting in 31st place with a brutal 68.3% on the season. It is a sore spot right now, and this is no small measure due to the fact that the team bought (inexplicably) one of their better penalty killers in Benoit Pouliot. The former Oiler averaged a team low 44.9 Scoring Chances Against per 60 minutes (44.9 SCA/60) last season. They are missing his prowess on the PK. It is also an issue that McDavid is way off his average last season. He went from about 55 scoring chances against per hour to about 70 chances against per hour.
2) Depth. If the Oilers continue to get no scoring from their bottom six, then this season is going to keep heading for the ditch. Jussie Jokinen is snakebitten in a way that is unbelievable and it’s infected his playing partners. Jokinen, Khaira, Pakarinen, Caggiula, and Letestu haven’t even been on the ice for an Oiler 5v5 goal this season. It’s Strome, Letestu, and Kassian that have to drive those bottom two lines and start chipping in. If not from them, then an unlikely hero is going to have to emerge from the remainder. There is too much pressure on the top lines carrying the team. Someone has to break through and pot an ugly one.
3) Regrets. Taylor Hall’s Devils are the at the top of the Metropolitan Division with a 9-2-0 record and a perfect 5-0 on the road. He has 15 points in 11 games this year and the media in New Jersey talk about how this player is willing his team to wins. Oiler fans who paid attention know they’ve seen that side of Hall before. He was determination personified as an Oiler and anyone who says different doesn’t have an opinion worth trusting. He’s crushing it as a 5v5 scorer again and once again pushing the river of shot attempts with his team. He should be flying up the left side of the ice causing problems for the right defensemen stuck defending him.
Puck drops tonight at 7PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet. Game On!
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