Follow @SMaloughney I don't know about everyone else, but I'm still beaming about the Oilers 4-1 victory last night. Edmonton played their most complete game of the season last night. Overall the Oil did a solid job of containing Ovechkin and the rest of the Caps ability to generate offense at will; Washington still dominated at times but that should be expected playing against a strong team. The important fact is Edmonton weathered the storm.
Holtby was rock-solid for Washington and prevent a couple huge scoring chances. The score could have been 6-1. The goals that did go in were the result of players not named Connor McDavid. In fact, aside from a selfless play by Nuge at the end of the game to give Connor the empty net goal, #97 was held off the score sheet.
Some thoughts in no particular order:
- Evan Bouchard scored his first goal of his young career last night on the powerplay. Yamamoto fed the puck up to the point where Bouchard unleased a quick wrister past Holtby. I appear to be in the minority of people who believe that Evan Bouchard should stay with the team. He has progressively improved with each game and is arguably the best passer the team has on the backend. The team has put themselves into a position where Bouchard is one of their 6 best defenders and I'm of the belief that they should not purposefully hurt their team to send him down.
- Ryan Nugent Hopkins scored a beautiful short handed goal. RNH tracked Carlson and intercepted his attempted pass, firing a wrister past Holtby. It's easy to forget that Nuge is still only 25 years old despite playing in his 8th NHL season. The best may be yet to come from #93.
- Chiasson continued his goal per game pace with one against his old team. Chiasson has 3 shots on goal and 3 goals... after spending a couple hours on the math that means he has a 100% shooting percentage. That probably won't last but the player who came on as a PTO is making the most of his icetime. Kassian should be worried.
- Draisaitl had an interesting game. Leon was strong on the puck all night and made a number of good plays but his line was absolutely caved in the possession game. The team still does not have a for sure answer to a skilled winger to play with Drai.
- Talbot wasn't overly busy last night but he played a strong game. The Pittsburgh game was the first time this season I really felt Talbot was only meh but last night he rebounded in a big way making some key saves.
- Shout out to Oscar Klefbom for playing his best game of the season. Despite not making it to the scoresheet Klefbom had an active stick all night breaking up a number of the Capitals rushes. Edmonton needs Klefbom to play like that every game to anchor that top pairing.
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The Pacific Division is wide open.
Many Oilers fans I'm sure were just as happy to see Calgary get pummeled to the tune of 9-1 last night. Before the season began I cast my doubts on Calgary making the playoffs for two simple reasons; they had downgraded their defence with the loss of Hamilton, and Mike Smith slowing down. Both seem to be occurring with Mike Smith allowing 4 or more goals in 5 of 7 of his starts.
The LA Kings who I before the season began picked to finish second in the division lost their 6th straight game last night and are dead last in the conference and only a point above the Red Wings who have a game in hand. They aren't getting scoring and they aren't getting goaltending.
Anaheim after starting the season 5-1-1 have lost 4 straight. Any stats person will tell you that the Ducks have relied heavily on Gibson being brilliant and little else. If John Gibson isn't being superhuman the Ducks are a pretty mediocre team.
By no means am I suggesting that the road has been cleared for Edmonton to make the playoffs...we have to reach the end of October. So far Edmonton has shown a surprising amount of resilience in what could be their toughest month of the season and have done themselves a huge service by playing above .500.
Edmonton goes on the road against Nashville who they have always struggled against and Chicago who is playing some good hockey before returning home to face the Wild. The team cannot afford to let off the gas through any of these games, a three game losing skid would erase the hard earned work the team has done.
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Jesse Puljujarvi
There is quite the stir growing around young Jesse right now. Some people (wrong people) are ready to declare him a bust. Others feel he hasn't been given enough opportunity while others argue that he hasn't earned enough. I fall somewhere in the middle of the two camps.
After playing with confidence through pre-season Jesse seems to have lost all of it with only one goal through his first 7 games. People, including his coach have been quick to point out his lack of production while failing to bring up that Yamamoto, Lucic, Rieder, Strome, Caggiula, Khaira, Kassian, and most of the defence have also failed to produce.
I won't argue with the coach who decides to scratch Jesse for a game because he wants to send a message that he feels the young player can play better... however if that one game becomes two or we continue to Puljujarvi play less than 10 minutes a night I will raise huge concerns.
Play Jesse with Draisaitl, or play him with Strome and Lucic on the third line, or send him down to the AHL where he can play on the top line, personally I have no issues with any of these choices as long as the team makes a decision.
The constant flip-flopping on where to put him while holding him to a different standard than other players is doing nothing to help the team or the player. Sitting him for one game will not hurt his development but failing to be consistent and providing him some sort of support will.
Thanks for reading