The Oilers beat out the Calgary Flames on Saturday night but not because they out-played them. They won because ultimately they only needed their firepower going for 30 minutes against some weak goaltending. The Oil didn’t bother to show up at puck drop for what seemed like the 22nd game in a row. The Flames outskated a team featuring Hall, Eberle, RNH, Hemsky, and several others on the Oil who should be the ones doing the outskating on a nightly basis. Luckily for the club Devan Dubnyk has strung together about 3 good starts, that being one of them.
I cant imagine that Dallas Eakins is at all pleased with the way that his team is coming out of the gates but what more can an NHL head coach do to get his team to battle? Should practices be tougher? The Oilers were a banged up group on the mend, still are to some degree. Surely you couldn’t blame them for easing off the gas pedal a bit in practice, although maybe the intensity needs to be dialed up a bit. Outside of that, which may be nothing at all, the issue lies at the feet of the players themselves. These are professionals and the motivation should be coming from within.
Another thing, that is no surprise to Oiler fans or anyone who even casually follows the team, is that they lack strong physical elements on their top 6. Taylor Hall is no shrinking violet, but he isn’t exactly a punishing forechecker either. Eberle and Nugent-Hopkins play sound positional games. Hemsky is all flash and dash with the puck. Lord knows he’ll take a hit to make a play and go to hard areas of the ice, but again he isn’t about imposing his physical will on the opposition. Gagner’s good for a good physical exchange every once in a while but not while he’s wearing that dog cone the vet gave him so he doesn’t chew his stitches. There just isn’t someone there who can be counted on to up the intensity even without the puck.
The forecheck in general has been questionable for some time as the Oilers were forced early on to make changes to their “Swarm” defense in light of Dubnyk’s uneven play. Now the Oilers are at a place where they may be able to get back to playing an aggressive system as goaltending has stabilized. Tyler Dellow has a couple of posts on this subject
here and
here. It is an interesting topic. The Swarm was tweaked because the Oilers were giving up Grade A chances that were going into the net. There were a lot of unblocked shots from the slot just before those changes were made, but now the Oilers are just allowing more shots in general and are having problems creating their own.
A more aggressive system that puts the puck onto Oiler sticks sooner is what this club needs because they aren’t built to grind teams down defensively and win one-on-one puck battles. If Eakins is true to his word then we should start seeing that system re-implemented very soon.
LINEUPS
Justin Schultz should draw back in and Larsen will be out with a wonky back so he will be inserted on the pairing with Belov. Not that Schultz has had a great season by any stretch but the Oilers need what he can bring to the table. One of the biggest issues facing the team is the inability of their defense to get the puck up ice and to their dynamic forwards. Schultz can do just that with both his legs and his passing ability. The Oil continue to scratch Arcobello in a series of questionable decisions. Frankly, Acton brings so little to the table compared to Arco that the decision just sticks out as blatant nepotism.
Hall RNH Eberle
Yak Gagner Hemsky
Smyth Gordon Perron
Joensuu Acton Gazdic
Belov Schultz
Ference Petry
N. Schultz Potter
Dubnyk
The Blue Jackets are 7th in the Metropolitan Division and in no small part because Bobrovsky is no longer providing Vezina quality goaltending. He isn’t bad, really, just sort of average with a .912 save percentage. No doubt they were counting on him maintaining his .932sv% and 2.00 GAA from last year but that has proven to be a bad idea considering Bobrovsky has no history suggest that’s where his true talent level is.
Foligno Johansen Umberger
Jenner Dubinski Atkinson
Comeau Letestu Mackenzie
Chaput Anisimov Boll
Murray Wisniewski
Johnson Tyutin
Nikitin Savard
Bobrovsky
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) Fast Start. It takes this team too long to get skating in the game. I’m not stalking about a fast start in the sense of scoring one early. I just get tired of seeing the team on its heels for the first period. They need to come out with their legs going.
2) Pressure. If the Coach is telling the truth then we should be seeing a more aggressive forecheck which should help get the puck back into their possession sooner. And it’s about time. Early on the Oilers were doing well by many possession stats like Corsi and Fenwick, but they fell off a cliff and haven’t returned since the early portion of the season.
3) Nuge Gets Huge. RNH has just 3 points in his last 10 games. I’ve seen him ring shots off the post at least 4-5 times in this recent stretch but the team really needs his production. Rishaug has noted that RNH will sometimes stay too far out on the perimeter. The team needs him making his way closer to the net. The kid is magic with the puck on his stick. He’ll break out of this slump soon enough.
Puck drops tonight at 7:38PM Mountain time on Sportsnet. Game On!
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