Injuries to Edmonton’s blueline are piling up right now. The latest was Mark Fayne who appeared to re-aggravate that foot injury. He pulled himself from the game against the Sabres leaving Edmonton with just 5 defenders.
Fayne is now added to a list of players on IR that features him, Brandon Davidson, Darnell Nurse, and Eric Gryba. We are now testing the depth of the organization and as luck would have it Jordan Oesterle is also injured and Griffin Reinhart only recently came back from injury so it’s Dillon Simpson making his NHL debut tonight.
The son of former Oiler, Oiler Coach, and Oiler colour commentator Craig Simpson is a 23 year old defender known more as a jack of all trades than a specialist in any discipline. He’s 6’2…, 197 pounds and has been an AHL mainstay for 3 years. He went to the University of North Dakota and was drafted from that program in the 4th round 92nd overall in the 2011 entry draft.
Simpson has 140 AHL games played, 8-30-38 over that span which started in Oklahoma and moved on to Bakersfield. Offensively, he’s not exactly killing it in the lower leagues. What is nice is that he’s gained a reputation as a responsible defender. Tonight that’s going to be his role. He has to stay within his limits and play a quiet, solid game. If he can do that then he’s going to do just fine. It appears as though he’ll be paired with Benning, who is a more natural puck mover so far. It should help from a stylistic point of view, though both are still NHL rookies.
One of Edmonton’s most improved areas was on the overall makeup of the defense. Even though I disagree with where Russell has been slotted in the lineup, he’s still an NHL defender. The rookie on the blueline is earning his spot and the rest were vets. That’s an NHL defense. It had been years since we could have said that about the Oiler blueline. Even though there are obvious areas of need/concern with it, the effect has been positive.
Tonight is one of the first times the blueline looks like it belongs to the previous regime and that’s because 4 players are on IR. Latest word on Nurse was that he wont be back until January. Davidson joined the team on the road trip but wont be playing during it. Gryba’s injury is a mystery. Fayne’s foot has kept him out of the lineup for a long time before briefly rejoining. The cavalry might not be here so quickly.
This group needs to sort itself out quickly and Dillon Simpson needs to keep his head above water. No pressure.
LINEUP
Lucic McDavid Caggiula Maroon RNH Eberle Pouliot Draisaitl Puljujarvi Hendricks Letestu Kassian
Klefbom Russell Sekera Larsson Simpson Benning
Talbot Gustavsson
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) Smarter Coaching Decisions. I rip players who are struggling and point out their flaws much more often than I do the coaching, but McLellan needs to be a lot smarter in this game than he has been. The pairing he’s been relying on the most at even strength, Russell-Larsson, has not been getting the job done. Fancy stats or by eye, that pairing spends too much time defending and both players look worse for it. It was predictable and that’s on McLellan for sticking with it. The Oilers Head Coach also gave a timeout to the opposition with a minute left in the game and the goalie pulled then proceeded to keep his slowest forward on the ice. I get that Hendricks is heart and soul, but he’s also old and busted. Why the team didn’t have McDavid out as the lightning speed puck-hound that he is will remain a mystery. McLellan needs to smarten up.
2) High Event Hockey. The Philadelphia Flyers play what fans would probably consider a pretty exciting brand of hockey. Coaches would probably not label it that. The Flyers have scored the 2nd highest number of goals for in the NHl with 87 (Edmonton is 4th with 82). They also give up the 2nd highest number of goals against at 85 (Edmonton has given up 9th most at 73). On paper this game looks like it should be a goal-fest. Edmonton has the game-breaking Connor McDavid, but the Flyers have Simmonds, Giroux, and Voracek who are ranked 10th, 13th, and 14th in league scoring respectively. Edmonton is going to put Gustavsson in net tonight which should this game a white-knuckler.
3) Drake To the Top. Caggiula’s offensive instincts have propelled him to the most coveted spot on the team: McDavid’s winger. Edmonton tried a few players out at RW but none have stuck. I didn’t think Draisaitl was bad in the spot, in fact he should get more time if we’re being fair, but life isn’t fair and Caggiula is a natural winger. The trio of Lucic-McDavid-Caggiula has all the requisite skill for a top line, three levels of speed, and a touch of size that could make it a very effective unit in various scenarios. It also frees up Draisaitl to play center again. Caggiula hasn’t scored a goal 5v5 this year, but he’s made a few skilled plays that raise eyebrows. Some of them have been wasted on linemates that weren’t able to take advantage of them. The gamble here is that the rookie has enough offensive instinct to complement the game of the league’s top scorer.
Puck drops tonight at 5PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet Oilers. Game On!
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