Follow @SMaloughney This road trip could have easily dug the Oilers into a deeper hole than the one they created for themselves in December. Instead, Edmonton has 5 points in the bank in three games and perhaps more importantly, came out looking like the stronger team against the Bruins and the Leafs, two teams that are playing some great hockey and are close to leading the league.
While some misguided folks might think that the issues in Edmonton revolve around a top pairing defenseman or needing a different goalie, that really isn't the case.
Mikko Koskinen is the Oilers starter. Of the 33 goalies who have played 900 minutes or more at even strength, Koskinen ranks 20th with a 0.917 SV%. That is ahead of names like Gibson, Vasilevsky, Price, Hart, Dubnyk, and Holtby this season. Smith has brought Edmonton's overall numbers down but to Mike's credit he was a major factor in victory the last two games.
The recent struggles of the Oilers which in turn has led to an increase in goals against has been largely due to two factors.
1.) Major defensive lapses by the defensemen AND forwards coming back on the play 2.) A lack of talent and ability in the top 6.
In a very small sample size, Kailer Yamamoto and the new look of the top six is addressing the second issue, which in turn seems to be giving the whole team energy to address number one.
Let's break it down.
Yamamoto has been with the team since December 31st where the Oilers won a 7-5 game against the New York Rangers. Edmonton has points in every game Yammer has played with only one loss coming in OT against the Sabres, a game that Edmonton lost due to too many errors. Yamamoto has gone 2-1-3 in the four games he has played.
Tippett is now running the following lines for his top 6. We will be looking at the Sabres, Bruins, and Leafs games as this group was not the same against the Rangers:
Neal-McDavid-Kassian (Top Line) RNH-Draisaitl-Yamamoto (Second Line)
In Buffalo the Top Line went 3-3 in High Danger Chances For versus Against (HDCF-HDCA). For those not familiar with the term most easily put it's the Grade A chances... shots that have the highest chance of being goal scoring opportunities.
The Top Line went 9-7 in total shots for versus against.
The Second Line went 2-0 in the same category; they created two great scoring opportunities while not allowing any while they were on the ice. One of these chances was the goal Ryan Nugent Hopkins scored.
Perhaps more impressive was in total this trio went 8-2 in shots for versus against, and the most common trio put against this line was the Eichel, Asplund, Reinhart group. Buffalo put their top guys out against the Oilers second line and it was Edmonton who came out on top.
The reason Edmonton lost this game? The Khaira-Sheahan-Archibald line which gave up 2 goals and got crushed in the possession game. They are a story for another day.
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Next up the Bruins. This was one of the more complete games the Oilers as a whole have played in over a month. Boston is a dominant team and there were times where Edmonton was hemmed in their zone and to their and even more key, Mike Smith's performance the Oilers came out with a win.
Neal, McDavid and Kassian clicked better in this game, once again going 9-7 in shots for versus against and coming out on top in HDCF with 2 while allowing only 1 against the Bruins. This line also scored at 5 on 5 while Boston did not. The Bruins did not score a single even strength goal this game.
McDavid and company saw a healthy dose of the Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak trio and while they traded chances both ways, kudos to the Oilers for coming out on top.
Slightly more of a mixed bag for the Second Line. Again, this line did score at even strength but allowed 10 shots on net versus the 6 they took. The website NaturalStatTrick (where all these numbers are from) had the Bruins at 2 HDCF versus this line having 1.
Krejci had his line, including DeBrusk (for part of the game until he was benched) matched up against this line the most.
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Lastly we have the exciting Leafs-Oilers game from last night that saw McDavid truly dazzle in a way that only he can. The second best player in the league also had a pretty solid night, scoring a great powerplay goal from a sweet dish by Chiasson.
Scoring likely the best goal of 2020 aside, the McDavid line went 10-4 in shots for, with 3 of those being HDCF in favor of Edmonton. This line absolutely dominated the Tavares-Nylander duo.
I'm actually a bit surprised to see the numbers of The Second Line in this game. Auston Matthews, Marner, and Hyman matched up against this group the most and while I expected them to be ahead, the truly did outmatched Edmonton here.
Shots For for Edmonton here was 4 versus the 10 generated by the Matthews line with HDCF versus HDCA 4-1 also in favour of the Leafs.
In the end the Draisaitl line still came out 1-0 in the most important category, with Yamamoto scoring a goal but seeing how this line matches against other top lines around the league will be something to follow in the coming weeks.
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We are looking at a very small sample size, and some of these numbers suggest issues with the Draisaitl line being outchanced, but overall this group is coming out on top in terms of 5 on 5 scoring while finding ways to separate their top players and still produce.
Edmonton will look to carry that forward on Thursday when they play in Montreal and hopefully a much better matchup against the Calgary Flames on Saturday.
Thanks for reading.