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G7: Oilers vs Blues - First Road Trip Begins |
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The Edmonton Oilers are a good team but I don't yet know if they are a great team. At the very least I think fans should at least enjoy that they are going to be a fun team. The win against the Pittsburgh Penguins was a fun game. After falling behind 3-1, being outshot in the first period 19-9, the Oilers roared back, laying in on against the Penguins in the second, outshooting them 26-4 and coming out with a 5-3 lead. A great goal by McLeod (more on him in a second) and that would be enough as the Oilers walk away with a 6-3 win and finish their first homestand 3-3-0.
There are still big questions on the blueline; Ryan Murray does not look like he should be playing regular NHL games, and while I like Brett Kulak's game he is not looking like he is handling top four minutes at a consistent basis. The only pairing that has been good for the Oilers is the Nurse and Ceci pairing which still has some adventurous moments due to Nurse's desire to play forward at times. That all being said, this team showed against Pittsburgh that the best defense can be a great offense. Be prepared for a bunch of high scoring games.
Jay Woodcroft made some adjustments to his lines and it looks like we should expect those to run for the time being:
RNH-McDavid-Hyman
Kane-Draisaitl-Yamamoto
Foegele-McLeod-Puljujarvi
Shore-Ryan
Nurse-Ceci
Kulak-Barrie
Murray-Bouchard
Skinner
The top six was clicking as good as we have seen this season under these new lines but today I want to talk about the third line.
This trio has played a total of 22 minutes together at 5 on 5 and the numbers are looking very promising, albeit in a small sample size. While this trio has allowed a 5 on 5 goal against and has not scored one themselves, the have out-chanced the opposition 13-4 in scoring chances and 4-1 in HDCF. Their xGF% sits at 73.93%. Put in simpler terms, this line has done an great job at out chancing the opposition and as long as they continue to play as they are the goals should start to come. Foegele and Puljujarvi have both been forechecking like crazy and have caused their opponents all sorts of trouble while McLeod is finding more ways to use his speed to get to the proper areas to produce.
Against the Penguins, we saw Derek Ryan (who also had a great game), make a nice back pass to McLeod who didn't hesitate to fire a hard shot off past Jarry. McLeod, despite playing on the third line and not on the top unit PP has 3 goals on the season and is tied with Draisaitl and RNH in goals. I would not break this unit up any time soon.
Tonight Stuart Skinner gets the start meaning that Jack Campbell will play tomorrow against the Hawks. Skinner has a 0.944SV% in his two games this season and unfortunetly doesn't have a win under his belt even though he stopped 31 of 31 against Calgary and allowed 3 against Buffalo after the Oilers collapsed in the second period of that game. I hope the team in front of Skinner can provide him far more support and get this goalie his first win of the season.
Enjoy the game tonight!
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • 
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