There are just 10 games left. We’re almost through here and I’m just trying to glean any sort of plan for the future out of this mess. Edmonton’s season may have been wasted by a visionless management team whose hockey sense is equal to their common sense, but at least there has to be something at ice-level happening that makes you believe there’s a plan somewhere…right?
The coaching staff appears to finally have abandoned the plan to revive Lucic’s season. It only took 3.5 months. McLellan played him with McDavid, preventing his top player from climbing to the top of the scoring race, and when that failed he was still a mainstay in the top 6 and the top PP unit. The club kept trying to jam that square peg into the round hole long enough that t went from frustrating to comic to just sad.
At least now it seems as though Lucic has been moved to PP2 and is playing on the 3rd line. That contract will be an anchor on the team for another half-decade barring Dale Tallon swooping in to save the day.
But while the Oilers are FINALLY taking a common sense approach to Milan Lucic, the plan with their other players seems unestablished at best. They have Slepyshev and Puljujarvi firmly in the bottom six while Rattie, Aberg, and Caggiula get prime opportunities ahead of them. At this point the coaching staff’s fetish for Caggiula is at least well-established. We know Todd loves Drake, even though nobody can explain why. So what gives with Aberg and Rattie ahead of Puljujarvi and Slepyshev?
Slepyshev, as rumor would have it, is being courted by the KHL. They want this young player to return to Russia and they will likely pay more than the Oilers will to have him. Is that why he’s been relegated to the 4th line? As Jonathan Willis pointed out, since the new year, Slepyshev is 4th on the Oilers in P/60 but he’s being kept out of the lineup or having his minutes suppressed.
Puljujarvi has been in a terrible funk since he was taken away from the top 6. This is a player the Oilers drafted very high and need to become a top 6 player, but they refuse to play him in the top 6. If he isn’t playing with the best players in offensive situations at the NHL level then perhaps the best place for him is back in the AHL where he can play 20 minutes a night and do the things you want him to do.
The refusal to use either of these players in favor of relative newcomers to the organization, who are also not likely to win fulltime spots in the top 6 next season, is a strange one. I don’t follow McLellan’s logic. It’s not as if these players had earned their time with the organization. This is not the result of a meritocracy.
I simply don’t know what this team wants to accomplish in these final 10 games if giving Puljujarvi the chance to gain chemistry in the top six so he has a better chance of winning the job and starting next year strongly isn’t a priority.
LINEUP
Klefbom has returned home for his shoulder surgery. He is done for the year. No Kassian tonight. Sekera is unlikely.
RNH McDavid Rattie Caggiula Draisaitl Aberg Lucic Strome Puljujarvi Slepyshev Khaira Pakarinen
Nurse Larsson Russell Bear Auvitu Benning
Talbot
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) Patchwork Defense. Sekera appears to be out tonight and Klefbom has finally been shut down to get a required shoulder surgery. That leaves a defense that likely nobody had drawn up when they planned for the year. Nurse and Larsson will be leading the charge tonight. Matt Benning has been playing well since the calendar switched over and Auvitu is a wild man. The Russell-Bear duo will have a lot of eyes on them. They are certainly the weakest defensively, but Bear can move the puck and for his warts, Russell can skate. This group will be tested.
2) Carolina Committee. The Carolina Hurricanes lack that mega star every team wishes it has, but they make up for it with some scoring by committee. Edmonton has McDavid, who is that superstar player capable of dominating the game with 89 points. However, after that, the point production collapses to Draisaitl at 62 then RNH at 38 points. It just takes 3 players to go from the top to 38 points (it’s an arbitrary number but follow along for a minute.) Conversely, the Hurricane’s top scorer has just 58 points, but from to the last player with 38 points you need to go from Teravainen through Aho, Williams, Skinner, Staal, and Lindholm.
3) Special Team Adjustments. One of the things you may have noticed with Edmonton’s penalty kill is that the coaching staff has finally abandoned that bizarre “L… formation that lined everyone up in a vertical line. The result has been a much better PK in recent weeks. Similarly, in the last game, McLellan took Lucic off the top PP unit and replaced him with RNH. The new change immediately saw them produce 7 shots in one opportunity. With some damned common sense this team didn’t need to suffer and it’s finally showing.
Puck drops tonight at 5PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet West. Game On!
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