We are so close to the end of the season everyone. There really isn't too much left to discuss until we take a couple deep breaths and look back on what the heck happened to get us to where we are now.
Tonight Edmonton plays against Anaheim and for the third game in a row they will get a team on the second of back to backs after playing Calgary. The Oilers have looked good through this last homestand going 2-0-2 but it's important to remember the above fact. Edmonton has had a favorable schedule over the last week.
LINEUPS
OILERS
Draisaitl-McDavid-Kassian Khaira-Cave-Chiasson Gambardella-RNH-Gagner Lucic-Brodziak-Rieder
Klefbom-Larsson Nurse-Russell Sekera-Benning
Koskinen
DUCKS
Rakell – Shore – Silfverberg Sprong – Henrique – Perry Sherwood – Steel – Terry Jones – Grant – Rowney
Lindholm – Manson Fowler – Welinksi Megna – Holzer
Gibson
3 KEYS TO VICTORY
1) Race For The Rocket. A few commentors thought the idea of Draisaitl winning the Rocket over Ovechkin was ridiculous. Ovi has 1 goal in his last 6 games...Leon has 5. A goal against the Dallas Stars now puts #29 only 2 goals behind... it is the story to follow for the remaining of the season.
2) Wrong About Kassian. I will happily admit when I am wrong. A couple of months ago I felt that the best thing for Edmonton was to move Zack Kassian at the deadline. He was in the middle of a heater and with one more year left on his near 2 million dollar deal, I felt the time was right to acquire some assets while clearing up cap-space. Since the deadline Kassian has 7 goals and has looks to be the Oilers new Patrick Maroon. Kassian brings a level of speed and grit to the top line and has produced with the opportunity given. 3) Chiasson Is Back Too. Alex Chiasson fell off a cliff in January, coming down from his ridiculously high shooting percentage which was to be expected. Lately we are seeing Chiasson start to even out and provide some secondary scoring once more.
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KASSIAN AND CHIASSON ARE NOT THE SOLUTIONS MOVING FORWARD
Zack Kassian and Alex Chiasson are providing some much needed secondary scoring right now. This is a good the for the Oilers moving forward and I would absolutely have both of these men in my lineup for next season. However I cannot stress nearly enough that this doesn't mean the search for scoring forwards is not needed.
Kassian and Chiasson should not be pencilled in for the top 6 next season. Management now knows that they can play there in short bursts and having players like that in the lineup is extremely valuable.
We have gone through this too many times in the past few seasons, Aberg, Caggiula, Rattie, Puljujarvi, Khaira, Yamamoto the list goes on. We see these players who have shown to be bottom 6 forwards or unproven talent have small strings of success with top end players so management believes they will continue to improve. When these players inevitably stop producing, the team is left with bottom 6 forwards and unproven talent trying to shoulder too much weight.
The Oilers have some secondary options right now however the greatest need moving forward is still at least one more top 6 forward.