Welcome to The Week In Review According To Me (TWIRATOME), a regular Monday feature breaking down the week that was for the Edmonton Oilers. Most weeks might take on the feel of autopsy, sifting through symptoms and clues to determine the cause of disaster, but all are worthy of examination before moving forward.
What Happened?
The Oilers looked like roadkill on Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Kings, falling behind early and narrowly avoiding a shutout thanks to a late goal that made it 6-1. Wednesday night in Arizona offered a better start. Edmonton jumped out to an early lead and held onto it for nearly seven minutes, but the Coyotes rallied in a back-and-forth affair before disposing of the visitors, 7-4. The Oilers returned home Friday night to host the Vancouver Canucks, but couldn’t beat Ryan Miller in a 2-0 shutout loss.
Standings Snapshot
The road back to relevancy already looks insurmountable, especially when you consider that each team in the Pacific is averaging at least a point per game. That’s the disappointingly low bar I’ve set for the Oilers, and they would need a four-game winning streak just to get back on pace. Any team in the NHL can win four consecutive games. Will the Oilers? No. Not giving up a league-high 4.8 goals per game and seeing their offense dry up completely. The playoff race is over, and there isn’t even snow on the ground.
Best Reason to Freak Out
Take your pick. Mark Arcobello is currently the Oilers’ first-line centre. Dallas Eakins made Jeff Petry a healthy scratch last Tuesday. Justin Schultz is averaging over 24 minutes a night. Mark Fayne? 16:31. Strangely, Eakins decided to keep Oscar Klefbom over Martin Marincin, based on a “better… training camp, and then didn’t even play Klefbom before sending him down and calling up Marincin. If you actually scratched your head at all these decisions your index finger would be worn down to a nub.
Week’s Worst Moment
Trailing 4-3 to the Coyotes midway through the third period, the Oilers had showed signs of life and threatened to fight their way back from a two-goal deficit. That’s when Ben Scrivens let the air out of the comeback in the worst way possible. Arizona forward Mikkel Boedker dumped a backhand shot on goal from the top of the slot that hit Scrivens in the crest, rolled down his body, slipped through the five-hole, and made its way to the back of the net. After the game, Scrivens remarked that “I gotta play better.…
Week’s Best Moment
Minutes before Scrivens’ gaffe, Taylor Hall chipped a puck past Zbynek Michalek at the blueline to spring a two-on-one with Mark Acrobello. It looked like a jailbreak. Edmonton’s best player feathered a perfect saucer pass over to Arcobello for a one-timer over Arizona goaltender Mike Smith, cutting the Coyotes lead to 4-3. The goal gave the Oilers some momentum and put the home crowd on edge. Sadly, trailing by a goal in the third period was as close as Edmonton would come to actually winning any game last week.
Special Teams Report
PP: 3/15 – 20% (down from 50% last week) PK: 14/19 – 73.7% (up from 66.6% last week)
The power play, which had been an early bright spot, turned into a dark smudge. The Oilers went 0-for-9 on the man advantage last week, failing to convert on a single opportunity, and allowed a shorthanded goal. Perhaps Brad Hunt’s absence from the lineup for two games factors into the results, but if the power play relies that much on a 26-year-old AHL veteran with three games of NHL experience something is horribly wrong. The penalty kill performed much better, allowing only two goals on 10 opportunities.
Completely Useless Advanced Stat
PDO – 90.8
To calculate PDO, you add up a team’s even-strength shooting percentage and save percentage. This shockingly low number is a result of the Oilers having the third-lowest shooting percentage and second-lowest save percentage in the NHL. Statheads will tell you that these numbers indicate extremely bad luck, and then patronize fans by stating the obvious, telling them the team is bound to win a game. However, anyone who’s actually watched the games will tell you the Oilers’ play indicates an extremely bad team.
Simple Stats
Goaltending Glance
LVP of the Week
Scrivens was well on his way to earning this dubious distinction, but redeemed himself with his performance against the Canucks. Instead, Justin Schultz wears the dunce cap. He was a disaster against the Kings and Coyotes, getting caught out of position multiple times and proving that he’s completely incapable of defending passes from below the goal line. Despite playing on the first power play unit, Schultz refuses to shoot the puck, registering only three shots on goal in over 75 minutes of ice-time last week.
MVP of the Week
Taylor Hall is the heart and soul of the Edmonton Oilers, and should have been given the captaincy long before Andrew Ference wowed Eakins with his VO2 max testing and commitment to the community. It’s Hall’s team, whether he wants it or not. Each Oiler fan’s greatest fear is Hall reaching his breaking point, deciding he’s tired of playing for the league’s doorstop and demanding a trade out of town. He had another strong week, scoring two goals and an assist in three games, and recorded a positive plus-minus.
Looking Ahead
The Oilers are back in action tonight, hosting Steven Stamkos’s Tampa Bay Lightning. They say lightning never strikes twice, which is good news for the Oilers, since this will be Tampa Bay’s only visit to Rexall Place this season. After another round of licking wounds and shrugging shoulders, Edmonton welcomes Alexander Ovechkin’s Washington Capitals on Wednesday. Rounding out the week, the listless Carolina Hurricanes visit on Friday, presenting the Oilers’ best opportunity to win their first game of the season.
ryan.garner@hockeybuzz.com
Reliving the horror, recapping the #Oilers week that was. TWIRATOME: Oilers Off to Worst Start in Franchise History http://t.co/eHsOK97OzL
— Ryan Garner (@RyGarner) October 20, 2014