Follow @SMaloughney In case it hasn't been made abundantly clear yet, I am a big fan of what Valentin Zykov could be for the Edmonton Oilers. The 23 year old winger fell out of favour in Carolina and was playing on the fourth line with Brock McGinn and Martin Necas where in his last 5 games, was averaging roughly 9 minutes a game.
Before the season began I picked Rod Brind'Amour as my dark horse Jack Adams winner. With Dougie Hamilton joining the team, the emergence of talent in players like Aho and Terevainen, and winning the lottery with Andrei Svechnikov the Hurricanes had the potential to be a threat in the East.
Instead Svechnikov spent a fair portion of the beginning of the season on the third and fourth lines, despite being one of their best shooter at 5 on 5, Terevainen is nowhere close to the pace he scored at last season, nor is Dougie Hamilton. I'm spending a fair amount of digital ink talking about the Hurricanes when the Oilers are playing the Wild, but I want to stress that Zykov was not being used properly in Carolina, and the Oilers may have stolen a good player for nothing.
CHIASSON SLOWING DOWN It was going to happen eventually. Alex Chiasson has been the darling story for the Oilers this season; the player who started as a PTO is now the third leading goal scorer this season. At one point his S% was hovering around the 50% mark which is as incredible as it was unsustainable. Even now he is hovering around the 30% mark which will continue to drop. This isn't to say Chiasson is not a good player, but the time is going to come sooner than later for him to be taken off the top line, as he is doing little right now to deserve staying there.
TIME FOR DRAISAITL TO GO BACK TO THE SECOND LINE I wrote yesterday my opinions on "line drivers," and that Leon Draisaitl is more than capable of producing offense on a line away from McDavid as long as he has some capable supporting cast. In the Oilers last 7 games, McDavid and Draisaitl have only connected with each other for one goal in regulation, and while they haven't lacked chemistry, the offense has not been there.
Draisaitl has 4 assists and no goals in his last 7 games while Ryan Nugent Hopkins has 2 goals and 3 assists. RNH and McDavid have already proven to work and if I was Hitchcock, I would reunite those two players while slotting Draisaitl back onto his own line.
LINEUP
OILERS
Chiasson-McDavid-Draisaitl Khaira-RNH-Puljujarvi Lucic-Brodziak-Kassian Zykov-Spooner-Rattie
Klefbom-Larsson Nurse-Russell Gravel-Benning
Talbot
- Cam Talbot gets the start after looking much more like his old self against the St. Louis Blues. Hitchcock has said already that Mikko Koskinen will get the start against Calgary which is an interesting strategy. Talbot doesn't have to worry when he is starting next and he can simply focus on the game in front of him.
- Zykov hasn't played in a game since November 6th so starting him with controlled minutes at home, on the fourth line makes perfect sense. Hitch will do as Hitch does and double shift Connor McDavid meaning we will likely see Zykov with McDavid at some point tonight.
- Cooper Marody was called up after having a 3 point night with the Condors, but he will be scratched tonight. I am curious to see what the plan is with Marody as it makes little sense to call him up to simply be a warm body, when he could be playing meaningful games with the Condors.
WILD
Zucker-Staal-Granlund Parise-Koivu-Coyle Greenway-Eriksson Ek-Niederreiter Foligno-Fehr-Hendricks
Suter-Spurgeon Brodin-Dumba Seeler-Pateryn
Dubnyk
- Stalock started in net for the Wild last night in a 2-0 loss to the Flames so Dubnyk will get the nod tonight.
4 KEYS TO VICTORY
1) A Better First Period. The Oilers coming back from a 2-0 deficit against the Blues made for an entertaining game, but if Talbot had not bailed the team out they could have easily been down 4-0. The Wild are not an exciting team to play against and if the Oilers allow them such a lead they will happily sit back on it and play a trap game.
2) Bring out the Second Unit. At first glance it makes sense that Hitchcock has been riding the top unit powerplay so much, considering the second unit has been ineffective all season. Unfortunately, by having all players on the top unit playing the full 2 minutes, the overall effectiveness has waned. Since the start of December the Oilers are 0/11 on the powerplay. Something clearly needs to change.
3) Not Wild. Minnesota are the absolute antitheses of their name. They are an average team in almost every metric and have the ability to suck the fun out of the game of hockey. Lately Hitchcock's Oilers have adopted a similar quality, utilizing team defence and limiting chances against, at the cost of reduced high danger scoring chances. Any coach would rather take a one goal win over a 7-5 performance and tonight could be a snoozer. 4) A Preview Of A Future First Line? Zykov-McDavid-Rattie might not be a line that at first glance strikes fear into the hearts of opponents but we have seen McDavid produce more with less. As I touched on, Hitchcock will likely roll McDavid over the boards with these two players over the course of this game. If these players can click together, it leaves the door open for RNH and Draisaitl along with Jesse Puljujarvi to be a competent second line. Fingers crossed here.
FILM OF THE DAY
This one won't be for everyone...kind of like the Minnesota Wild. Many people know Solaris, the sci-fi movie starring George Clooney, but fewer people know that it is a remake of a Russian film back in 1972. With Russian born Zykov making his debut I picked a solid Russian movie.