With the NHL about to make Overtime next season consist of 5 minutes 3v3 we can start to wonder how the Oilers might conceive of their lines for the extra time. This exercise is purely for my entertainment since we are months away from having any idea how McLellan would like to structure these lines, but the Oilers have options.
Should Edmonton try to get extremely proactive with their 3v3 deployment they could very well go 3 forwards at a time and they have the guns to run some frighteningly talented lines. That bit about 3 forwards might seem pie in the sky but during the AHL OT experiment this past season there were teams that were icing lines of 3 forwards to try to win games. I imagine for the most part we’d see a 2F-1D combination most of the time.
Edmonton has its fair share of talented young players to throw over the boards if McLellan so chooses.
FORWARDS
Taylor Hall Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Jordan Eberle Connor McDavid Nail Yakupov Teddy Purcell Leon Draisaitl Anton Lander
DEFENSEMEN
Justin Schultz Oscar Klefbom Martin Marincin Darnell Nurse
The Defense is pretty thin right now and hopefully within 2 weeks this list looks a lot more impressive from their end, but the Oilers have an embarrassment of riches to choose from at the Forward positions.
I think the club could easily run three conservative lines for 3v3 that consist of:
Hall – RNH Klefbom
Eberle – McDavid Schultz
Yak – Lander Marincin
I think some combination of the first two units is a given. Hall has excelled at 4v4 play and giving him more room is a frightening proposition. We know RNH has the passing ability and the skating to make him an unreal candidate for 3v3 play. Eberle will get shifts in OT because he is such a brilliant finisher and McDavid is the future of this team. He was killing teams short-handed in the OHL. Going 3v3 is probably not fair for the rest of the league.
As for the 3rd unit, that could be any combination of the remaining players I listed at the beginning of the article. It just stands to reason that whoever gains the coach’s trust will get their chance. For example, I can see Teddy Purcell getting the benefit of the doubt over a player like Lander because of the Veteran factor. I can see Yak not getting shifts if the staff questions his defensive abilities. I imagine that unit will be a lot more fluid than the two before it.
The one thing you won’t find a lot of with the combinations mentioned above is much by way of defense. At this moment there isn’t anyone you can look at and say “He can do it all…, at least not yet. Maybe Nurse will get there. Maybe Klefbom will continue his straight line of development. But at the moment it’s certainly a weakness. The good news is that RNH is a very defensively conscious player and McDavid has a reputation for voracious back-checking. However, the coaching staff will likely find the team defense lacking. That’s on them to correct.
The AHL 3v3 experiment proved that this format should greatly reduce the need for Shootouts. The action should be intense and the Oilers have the guns to be a dangerous team in the new format. Of course that’s all dependent on them finding a goalie who can keep them in games long enough to make OT, but I guess it’s one thing at a time here.
Follow me on Twitter @Archaeologuy