Death by 1000 cuts. That’s the way Peter Chiarelli described what has been ailing Edmonton since the season began in his presser today. It seems pretty accurate. It’s not just one thing that’s hurting the Oilers. It’s a whole bunch.
It’s the play of Cam Talbot. It’s the wonky Penalty Kill. It’s losing Eberle’s scoring. It’s Puljujarvi not quite up to where the team wanted him. It’s Oscar Klefbom’s early defensive woes. It’s not replacing Pouliot effectively. It’s Kassian scoring 0 goals. It’s not being as healthy as last season. It’s just a whole lot of things.
I think deep down every fan wants to hear that their team is going to try to improve, and I’m certainly in that boat too, but Edmonton should have their sights set beyond this season. Rentals aren’t the answer.
When Peter Chiarelli says he’s looking at opportunities to improve, I come back to the fact that history suggests teams in Edmonton’s position do not make the playoffs. It is a cold and brutal fact. 1 team in over a decade has come back from this position and it took major changes to goaltending and coaching. Neither look like viable options for the Oilers.
So Edmonton looks like a sunk ship for this season, but that doesn’t mean they have to panic. The Tampa Bay Lightning had a disappointing season and missed the playoffs. They made a major deal with Drouin, but they held out and took a great prospect for him. They didn’t just get rid of him for nothing or for short term gains. Edmonton might be able to improve significantly and STILL not make up enough ground.
Edmonton’s sights cannot be focused on saving this season. It has to be on saving the overall direction of the club. The battle might be lost (barring miracle runs) on the season, but there is a core nucleus that can still be built around. It’s been getting smaller and smaller the longer Chiarelli has been GM, but it’s there. He just has to start actually building.
LINEUP
Same lineup. Puljujarvi remains in the pressbox
Lucic McDavid Cammalleri Maroon RNH Slepyshev Caggiula Drasiaitl Strome Pakarinen Letestu Kassian
Klefbom Benning Nurse Larsson Auvitu Russell
Talbot
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) Strome v Strome. The Strome brothers get to play each other for the first time this season. They’ve actually played head to head before on October 21st 2016. Ryan Strome potted a goal in 14 minutes while his little brother was -1 on the night in almost 11 minutes of ice time. This is the first game back for the younger Strome since he was sent to the AHL for 15 games. All he did in that stretch was score 8-18-26 with the Roadrunners. He beat that league up and is looking to make his mark on the NHL now. As for Ryan, he scored on a beautiful shot in his last game and is looking to keep building off a recent run of offensive productivity. He has 6 points in his last 8 games and with Leon as his center there ought to be more opportunities coming his way.
2) Keep Going. The Oilers have struggled greatly with consistency. One good game has turned into a bad one the next night. The flu has decimated the team and injury is a concern for players like Klefbom and Benning. Still, the team needs to find a way to keep the smart, hard play going from game to game. The leaders on the team need to be the ones charging ahead. McDavid, RNH, and Draisaitl have to take this team by horns and will them to compete night in and night out. No different tonight. Yeah, the Coyotes are awful. So what? Beat them into submission and for the love of all that is holy, skate!
3) Depth For The Win. The depth on the wings might be lacking (it is) but depth down the middle is not. Nugent-Hopkins is going to soak up a lot of tough minutes then Leon and Connor are going to make life difficult for defenders. If Edmonton is going to play in this configuration then that is the path to victory for them. No matter which game, one of McDavid or Draisaitl has to be putting on a show. The three scoring line gambit is that teams literally do not have enough good defenders to keep up with your forward lines all night. Let them run whichever pairing they want against McDavid because Nuge is coming over the boards after him and Drai after him and then it’s McDavid all over again.
Puck drops tonight at 7PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet Oilers. Game On!
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