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Lineup Changes Help Highlight All That Is Wrong In Edmonton

November 12, 2018, 4:27 PM ET [66 Comments]
Sean Maloughney
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
After the Oilers played another lifeless and dissapointing game leading to yet another loss McLellan decided to mix up the roster. Here is what the team was practicing with today;



Or to put it another way...

Bottom 6 Forward-Franchise Centre-Player Who Should Be On His Own Line
Middle 6 Forward-Top 6 Centre-Bottom 6 Foward
Black Hole-3rd Line Centre/AHL Callup-Complimentary Player
A Fourth Line

Top Pairing D-Second Pairing D
Young Defenceman Still Prone To Mistakes-Should Be In The AHL
AHL Callup-Overpaid

I will admit I was finding myself buying into the Oilers after the first month of the season. It was a roster full of holes and question marks that managed some good hockey against some tough teams. There was no question McDavid was going to have to carry this team on his back but if the supporting cast could buy in the Oilers had a chance for the wild-card.

This is not a statement of myself declaring this team will not make the playoffs... however it is my belief that if the roster continues to look as it does now than the chances of this team having success will be highly unlikely.

DO NOT PLAY DRAISAITL AND MCDAVID TOGETHER

McDavid and Draisaitl played together for almost the entire 2016-2017 season as well as a large portion of last year as well. While the two play extraordinary well together the issue remains that if neither of those player is on the ice the Oilers ability to score goals drops to below 35%.

Nugent Hopkins and McDavid has been an effective duo and despite the lack of scoring coming from that line over the past 5 games I would not separate these players.

Rieder is not a terrible option on the second line... if he is the complimentary player. However it is now up to RNH to drag Rieder and Captain Luck himself, Alex Chiasson in the hopes of finding production.

Chiasson is not a top 6 player. He is a 28 year old who has never scored more than 13 goals in his career. He has a PDO of 107.9 and still a shooting percentage of 42.9 That is going to plummet and in the next 7-8 games when his offense dries up he will be on the fourth line.

Rattie is the one drawing the short straw here. I question his overall NHL ability to he has managed somewhat consistent numbers with McDavid. The real test of his NHL ability will be whether or not he is able to produce any offense playing with the black hole that has been Strome and more specifically Milan Lucic.

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As I had brought up before, Nurse and Russell were at best a stop gap option that while they were not allowing too many goals, were doing absolutely nothing to help the team contribute. As of now McLellan is going back to the opening night plan of having Benning and Nurse together. I see that being equally as adventurous as the Nurse-Russell pairing.

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A final note. Chiarelli appears on OilersNow today to discuss a few things with Bob Stauffer. This quote immediately jumped out at me:

"None of our Dmen are exceptional passers"


This is a GM who has had this same group of NHL players for more than 2 years now. Unreal.

R.I.P STAN LEE

I have been a comic book fan since I was a kid and my dad showed me the collection of comics he had purchased through the years. Comics, superheros, and other things associated with nerd culture have been a huge part of my life. While it's sad to see the passing of such a giant of the industry he should be celebrated for the joy he has brought to so many.

Back in 2010 Stan Lee created a superhero for each NHL team. For those who don't remember here is The Oiler.

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