Edmonton is back at it tonight against the Ottawa Senators, but we need to take a minute to talk about their performance against the Devils.
That was one of the best overall games that the Oilers have played this season. Dare I say the 1st and 2nd periods were Edmonton’s most dominant this year. Yeah, they didn’t score a lot of goals, but they controlled the game to a great degree. In the 1st the 5v5 attempts were 23-9 Oilers. In the 2nd they were 21-10 Oilers. In the 3rd they were 17-9 Oilers.
The team spent almost the entire game in the New Jersey end of the ice, generating over 40 shots on net. Schneider stood on his head and was the only reason the score wasn’t 4-1 for the Oilers before the end of the 3rd. Props to Hall and Zajac who were the only line to get close to breaking even, but McLellan’s team smothered the Devils.
Lander and Letestu were on the ice for only two shot attempts against the entire game. Connor McDavid was on the ice for 24 shot attempts for and just 9 against. His line was incredible and he was dancing all night. If you thought that McDavid looked a bit sluggish the past couple weeks I can agree with you, but last night was the electric, high-speed McDavid we’ve come to love. He was unlucky to come away with just a single point because he was buzzing all night.
One has to think that picking up a couple of assists 2 games ago was the spark McDavid needed to get going again. He has opened up a 3 point lead in the scoring race, ahead of Malkin and Tarasenko. There’s going to be fight to stay at the top of league scoring, but if he keeps playing like he did last night the points are going to come in big bunches for the 19 year old captain of the Oilers.
The Senators are currently holding down the 3rd spot in the Atlantic Division with 5 fewer points in the standings than the Oilers who are 2nd in the Pacific. They also have games in hand on their competition. Overall this is a much stronger team than the Devils club that the Oil faced last night. They’re in the bottom 3rd for goals per game and generally appear to rely on scoring by committee. The only Senator scorer in the top 50 of the league is Erik Karlsson (36th).
By that same token, the Sens are one of the more stingey teams in the league, ranked 11th in goals against per game. To be honest, I find it difficult to find how this team stands out from a fancy stats perspective. They are middle of the road in shots, attempts, and unblocked attempts. Craig Anderson and Mike Condon are providing quality goaltending and that’s good enough to allow an otherwise unspectacular team to be competitive in games.
LINEUP
Gustavsson plays. Oh god.
Maroon McDavid Draisaitl Lucic RNH Kassian Pouliot Caggiula Eberle Hendricks Letestu Lander
Russell Larsson Klefbom Benning Sekera Gryba
Gustavsson Talbot
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) Erik’s Legs. Erik Karlsson is averaging 27:11 per night on Ottawa’s back end. Maybe one day that Chabot kid will allow Karlsson to play a little less, but right now McDavid and company can expect to see a lot of EK out there. Only Byfuglien and Suter play more than the mobile defender. Only Brent Burns and Victor Hedman score more from the blueline than Karlsson does. He’s a consistent threat to score, he skates like the wind, and he transports the puck very well. Edmonton and Ottawa played last night, Karlsson logged 28:58 in the shutout loss. One has to assume the plan is to punish Karlsson every chance they can get and hope that there’s a little less jump in those legs than normal.
2) Looch & Nuge. Last night all of the lines looked good but they need Lucic, Nugent-Hopkins, and Kassian to keep that chemistry going. I have concerns about Kassian’s place in the top 6 since he’s never shown an ability to score while wearing Oiler silks. However, the partnership between Lucic and Nugent-Hopkins could become the basis of a very strong 2nd line for Edmonton moving forward. Together they’ve played 83 minutes and had 52.3% of the shot attempts, but only 14.3% of the goals. That is wildly unbalanced and I expect some more goals to come out of it for Edmonton if they keep the combination together.
3) I-N-T-E-N-S-I-T-Y. Bobby Ryan is returning to action tonight. He hasn’t played since New Year’s Day and was a healthy scratch Saturday against the Capitals. Bruce Garrioch categorizes his absence as a mystery. Boucher was pressed about Ryan’s absence and his response was only that “He wasn’t able to play…, and “There’s complex things that don’t need to be said here.… You couldn’t make people want to know more about why someone was missing then by saying those words! Ryan has had a disappointing season with 7-7-14 in 32 games. He’s being paid to score and it isnt happening. Will his return to the lineup spark some offense? I hope not.
Puck drops tonight at 5PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet. Game On!
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