Welcome to The Week In Review According To Me (TWIRATOME), a regular Monday feature that sometimes appears on Tuesday or Wednesday when I’m cranky or lazy, breaking down the week that was for the Edmonton Oilers. Most weeks might take on the feel of an autopsy, sifting through symptoms and clues to determine the cause of disaster, but all are worthy of examination before moving forward.
What Happened?
The (expletive deleted) plane has crashed into the mountain! It’s all over, folks. Time to scrape up the pieces, recover the black box, and move along. The Edmonton Oilers closed out a winless five-game homestand with three losses last week. The Vancouver Canucks’ selective effort was enough for a 5-4 victory on Wednesday night, a 2-0 shutout loss to the New Jersey Devils raised anxiety levels on Friday, and Saturday’s 7-1 trouncing by the Chicago Blackhawks rounded out a horrible week.
Standings Snapshot
The Oilers need to go on a seven-game winning streak to get back to averaging a point per game. That’s where we’re at, with Edmonton on an island at the bottom of the standings, having given up the most goals in the division and scoring the fewest. Looking at the raw numbers, it makes you wonder how anyone in management or the coaching staff is still employed, as the Oilers have continued their steady decline since a 74-point season in 2011-12. But sure, go ahead and blame Keith Aulie.
Best Reason to Freak Out
This rock bottom. Tied with the Sabres and Blue Jackets for last place, it has to be, right? Analysts and pundits have been taking potshots at the lowly Oilers for years, asking when the rebuild is going to gain some traction and the team will show improvement in the standings. Now the carefully drafted core is being dissected, as teams have been put on notice that the Oilers are willing to wheel and deal. You have to think things will get better, because they couldn’t possibly get any worse.
Week’s Worst Moment
Chicago’s first goal Saturday night not only opened the floodgates, it symbolized most of what’s wrong with the Oilers. Jeff Petry’s harmless slapshot from inside the blueline misses the net and he’s caught up ice. Taylor Hall can’t hold the puck in the offensive zone. Martin Marincin misplays the Blackhawks’ two-on-one. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins dogs it back into his own zone and doesn’t attempt to make a play on Jonathan Toews. Ben Scrivens is hung out to dry and doesn’t come up with a save. Gross.
Week’s Best Moment
David Perron’s postgame comments after the Devils losss: “We’re all talking about it but something’s gotta change, and when you do those mistakes something needs to happen to you. It’s mistakes that we were doing last year. We keep talking (about) how much better we are this year, but for me it’s the same record as last year. It’s not better. It’s pretty frustrating.” Accountability, anyone? Of course, those comments led to rampant trade speculation that Perron will be the first one dealt.
Special Teams Report
PP: 9/69 – 13% (down from 13.8% last week)
PK: 49/62 – 79% (down from 81.2% last week)
Jiminy Christmas, this is awful. I knew the Oilers’ special teams had a rough week, but had no idea it was this bad. Edmonton’s power play was 1-for-11 last week, failed to even record a shot during a third-period 5-on-3 against the Canucks, and gave up as many goals as it scored. The penalty kill was 10-for-14, completely failing to compensate for the team’s lack of discipline. Dallas Eakins might escape blame for the goaltending, defense, or lack of production, but the special teams is a mess.
Completely Useless Advanced Stat
Edmonton Oilers Corsi For Percentage – 51.1 Percent
Honestly, does this number make a shred of difference? Does it make anyone feel any better about the Oilers bringing up the rear in the Western Conference? Does it offer any hope for the future? No on all counts, and it’s increasingly obvious that the Oilers’ marginal players are taking low-percentage shots from anywhere in an attempt to boost their individual Corsi numbers. Hooray, Corsi dorks! Not only are you draining the fun from the game, but you’re negatively impacting the way it’s played.
Simple Stats
Goaltending Glance
LVP of the Week
Ben Scrivens returns to the LVP position after a few weeks away. Any number of Oilers could have taken up this spot, but Scrivens ran away with it during a dreadful week, allowing 10 goals on 43 shots. It almost makes me laugh thinking back to a time early in the season, when Scrivens had allowed 14 goals on 70 shots after two starts and a relief appearance. “It’s two games,” Scrivens said at the time. Yes Ben, and now you have a .887 save percentage after almost two months. We’ve seen enough.
MVP of the Week
Steve Pinizzotto came out of nowhere (Oklahoma City, actually) to inject a spark and bring a little scoring. He had a goal and an assist against Vancouver, and rounded out his season debut with a fight for the Gordie Howe hat trick. It could be the only hat trick of any kind the Oilers see for a while, but it was nice to see from a guy who many feel won a roster spot during training camp. Sadly, Pinizotto led the Oilers in scoring last week, highlighting the top line’s lack of production.
Looking Ahead
The Oilers escape hostile territory (the Rexall Place concourse) for three road games this week. They’re in Dallas tonight, taking on a Stars team that seems to be getting things together after shuffling through their first 20 games. The copper and blue take their traveling show to Nashville on Thursday night, hoping to avoid offering up a Thanksgiving feast to the Predators. The Oilers are back at it again on Friday night, visiting the St. Louis Blues. Is it too much to except a single win this week?
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