The Oilers entered this season with a roster that was nearly identical to the season prior. While Chiarelli has made a few moves the results remain the same. Last season on this day the Oilers had a record of 9-13-2… today the team sits with a record of 10-11-2. In case it hasn’t already been said it is officially time to call the 16/17 season as the aberration.
The Oilers lost to the Kings to the tune of 5-2 a couple nights ago and even though the Kings are the team full of 30+ year olds it was the Oilers who looked slow.
In case it wasn’t clear, the fact that this graph never dips onto the Oilers side is a bad thing.
Time for some good news! While the Edmonton Oilers sit 6th in their division with 22 points and a goal differential of -12 they play a team that sits 5th in the Central.
Time for more bad news! They sit 5th in the Central with 26 points and a goal differential of +2. The Central Division is one of the best in hockey right now and likely at the end of the year some good teams that should have made the post-season won’t.
LINEUPS
OILERS
Chiasson-McDavid-Draisaitl Caggiula-RNH-Puljujarvi Lucic-Brodziak-Kassian Khaira-Spooner-P. Russell
Klefbom-Larsson Nurse-Russell Gravel-Benning
Koskinen
- Clearly the coach agrees with me regarding Ryan Spooner. After showing nothing since coming to Edmonton, Hitchcock now has Spoonman on the 4th line. For those keeping score at home yes we did trade a 3rd line centre for a fourth line centre.
- Jesse Puljujarvi only played 6:13 at even strength last game but his second most common linemate was Connor McDavid. McDavid has been taking double duty on the fourth line since Hitch came into town and the two players saw 3:25 together.
Tonight Puljujarvi gets a boost as he will be playing with Ryan Nugent Hopkins. Since moving to his own line poor Nuge has been fed to the wolves and forced to be the pivot to lesser linemates.
STARS
Benn-Seguin-Radulov Hintz-Spezza-Shore Nichuskin-Faksa-Pitlick Janmark-Dickinson-Comeau
Lindell-Heiskanen Bayreuther-Polak Hanley-Fedun
Khubodin
4 KEYS TO VICTORY
1) Take Advantage Of Injuries...Take 3? Anaheim was without their two best defencemen, LA was playing their backup backup goalie. In both scenarios the Oilers failed to take advantage of weakened lineups. Tonight will be no different as the Stars are without Klingberg, Methot, and Bishop. 2) Opposite Special Teams. Despite having weapons like Klingberg, Benn, Seguin, and Radulov the Stars powerplay has been lackluster with only 12 on the season. Their penalty kill however is 81.94% which is good for 8th in the league. 3) Still Waiting On Goals. I love Oscar Klefbom. He is a skilled player and has been a workhorse for this team however he has yet to register a goal on the season. With all of the minutes he logs I would suggest perhaps moving a different player to the top unit like Nurse or even Wideman. 4) Doghouse. It's surprising how quickly coaches come to opinions on some players. Rattie was a lock to play with McDavid under McLellan and under Hitchcock he was moved to the fourth line and tonight is a healthy scratch. Ty won't get a chance tonight to earn himself some brownie points and he will have to wait his turn.
FILM OF THE DAY
The Oilers are searching for many things, offense, defense, a new general manager (fingers crossed) so today I am going to go with movies about searching for things.... an odyssey as it were. Oh Brother Where Art Thou is a movie about such a quest and is based entirely off of the Greek Odyssey.