The Oilers recalled David Musil on an emergency basis because Nikita Nikitin has suffered some kind of foot injury. Assuming he plays tonight he will be Defensman lucky number 13 that the Oilers will have used this season. You know your season has gone off the rails when you're digging this deep into you system. It's really no different than when you know you have nothing to eat in the house and you start opening drawers and cupboards that you KNOW have nothing in them. It doesn't matter. You're desperate.
The book on Musil forever has been that he's a smart defender but with skating issues. Blueliners don't survive in the NHL with skating issues anymore. And young Defensemen with skating issues rarely even get cups of coffee at this level. I hope his struggle with speed and agility on the ice have been grossly overstated because if not the Flames will find a way to take advantage of it.
The last two games have been unmitigated disasters and one narrative making the rounds is that the Oilers players lack a commitment to Winning. Let me say this. The Oilers might be too inexperienced to know how to win, but I don't question their commitment.
If the Oilers aren't committed to winning then that comes directly from management. This roster is not built to win. Who are the Defensemen you can win with? Who are the Goaltenders you can win with? Am I supposed to think that the Oilers can beat the Kings or the Ducks with what they currently have if only they tried harder?
I don't think so.
This is Edmonton's Defense as of this morning
AHL Schultz AHL AHL AHL Aulie
And I'm being pretty generous not listing Aulie as an AHL as well because he too spent time in the AHL. And the sad part is that I honestly believe that two guys of those who played in OKC this year are better than Schultz.
When the Oilers try to take on Getzlaf, Perry, Gaborik, Kopitar, Hudler, or the Sedins with this group are we really expecting good things to happen if they only want it bad enough? This isn't Peter Pan. David Musil isn't going to fly if we clap our hands together and believe.
And when the Defense predictably falters the only thing standing between the opposition and a goal is Ben Scrivens or Tyler Bunz. Forgive me for not holding out a lot of hope. With a team built to make mistakes one of these guys is going to have to bail out his team once in a while and that's just not happening.
The Oilers have used 4 goalies this year and only 1 of them has a .900 or better save percentage. ONE.
Scrivens .893 Fasth .888 Bachman .908 Bunz .750
And here's the worst part. You can't even blame the pathetic Defense for most of the goals against because the pucks that are going in are supposed to be routine stops. We're not talking about Grade A chances from the slot. These are Long bombs from the point or weird angle muffins that are going in and there's nothing more the skaters can do to make the shots any easier to stop.
The best theory I've heard was that the cumulative effects of playing behind a bad team have destroyed the confidence of the goaltending to the point that EVEN IF the Defense makes the right play the goalie doesn't trust it and over compensates anyway. It's crazy that we're resorting to this level of guessery with the goaltending.
League average hovers around the .914 mark all the time. LEAGUE AVERAGE. And Edmonton's starting goalie is 20 points BELOW that! Even if you believe that the team playing in front of the goalie has an impact on the rate that saves are made surely you can't think it's THAT big of a difference. There's no evidence to support it does to that degree. Here is a link to a tweet Steven Burtch put out about expected save percentage based on the number of difficult shots teams allow. by his calculations we should expect Scrivens to have a .912 save percentage. Not an .893 save percentage.
At any rate, I don't question the commitment of the players. I just don't think they're good enough. It's unfortunate because you can always try harder, but you can't just dial up your talent.
LINEUP
The great migration from Oklahoma is almost complete. Anyone who is even a shadow of a prospect has already been recalled. The Oilers aren't even calling up good players anymore because they want the Barons to succeed. That's why we have Bunz, that's probably why we have Musil. Things were out of hand and we started seeing Hall play with RNH and Eberle a little more against the Kings. I wonder if the big line gets reunited formally before the end of the year. Klinkhammer sat against the Kings and that was a mistake.
Pouliot RNH Eberle Purcell Roy Yakupov Hall Lander Miller Gazdic Hendricks Klinkhammer
Klefbom Schultz Marincin Aulie Davidson Musil
Scrivens
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) Hate Calgary. Look, talent is a problem and the team hasn't had a reason to play the games since November. If there's one motivation for tonight then let it at least be a little hate. Just a bit. Hate that they have been getting the stops all year. Hate that they haven't been forced to tank for years and still have young players like Gaudreau, Monahan, and Bennett. Hate that they are playing for the playoffs. I don't expect that motivation to turn the Oilers into winners but at least the game will have some passion. HNIC games have been bombs for the most part this year. Give us something to cheer about.
2) Bennett? The Flames recalled Sam Bennett but there's a good chance he won't actually play tonight. I think it would be a dramatic entrance into the NHL and I like a good story so I kind of hope it happens. Sam Bennett might end up being singlehandedly responsible for keeping Lawson Crouse in the conversation as a top 10 pick. When he returned to Kingston after shoulder surgery Bennett scored a lofty 11G-13A-24P in just 11 games. His playoff performance was a more earthly 3 points in 4 games but expectations are going to be high for Bennett in Calgary. He's a talented kid.
3) Playing For A Future. With a little more than a 3rd of the lineup (and almost the entire Defense) coming from the AHL and not having cemented themselves as legitimate NHLers this team is made up of men playing for their futures. Musil wants to prove he's still a prospect. Marincin needs to prove to his GM that he's a full time NHL player now. If Fraser plays he needs to prove he's more than a tweener. There are only a handful of games left. Time is running out.
Puck drops tonight at 8:10PM Mountain Time on CBC. Tank On!
Follow me on Twitter @Archaeologuy