A great performance by Holtby really negated what I thought was an excellent game by the Oilers. The buzz-phrase of the week has been “Moral Victory” for Edmonton’s squad, and that isn’t without reason.

The Oilers have been turning in better performances only to go up against hot goaltenders or come out on the wrong side of 1 goal games. Standings be damned, this is a better Oiler team than the last several years and people are coming back from injury.

Importantly, the players that the team took at the top of the draft are all contributing, aside from a severely snakebitten Nail Yakupov. Some have suggested that the young players contributing has been a surprise. I don’t think it’s quite right to say that the success of Nurse or Draisaitl is a surprise. Maybe the degree to which Draisaitl has been scoring, but not that he has been successful.

Both of these young men were taken high in the draft in their respective years. Nurse was 7th Overall. Draisaitl was 3rd Overall. These kids are supposed to succeed. It’s news when they don’t. Today they feature heavily in the success of the team. Draisaitl’s scoring prowess is obvious, but it’s his defensive ability that makes him a reliable player for the top 6.

Nurse’s raw abilities also make him a pleasure to watch, but it’s the fact that his feet are calming down that makes me most happy. In the last game he was playing tough minutes against a good team and looked cool as a cucumber. Watching him get his feet under him at this level is fun because he has all the tools to affect the outcomes of games. He has the speed and instincts to ramp the game up and the physicality to stop it dead in its tracks.

Players like these two, plus Hall, RNH, Eberle, and Klefbom are the reason I believe these “Moral Victories” are going to start turning into real victories soon enough. Edmonton is turning the corner under Todd McLellan. They haven’t been rewarded for it, but this has been a very positive month and that’s been without McDavid or Schultz. It can get even better in the not too distant future.

I can’t speak for all Oiler fans, but I’m certainly not nearly as negative about the state of the 30th placed team in the NHL as I thought I might be at the quarter mark of the season. The 7 points between Edmonton and Vancouver will be difficult to make up, but the Oilers are poised to chip away at it.

Too little, too late? Maybe, but after a decade where progress hasn’t been felt, this time it could be the light at the end of the tunnel we’re seeing faintly in the distance.

LINEUP

Nilsson gets the start yet again. Lander draws back in. Otherwise its samesies.

Hall Draisaitl Purcell
Pouliot RNH Eberle
Hendricks Letestu Yak
Korpikoski Lander Pakarinen

Klefbom Fayne
Nurse Sekera
Davidson Gryba

Nilsson

OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME

1) Yak’s Attack. As we all know I’m a fan of what Nail Yakupov does out there on the ice. I like the passion, the energy, the physicality. He’s a divisive player because you either really like him or you really don’t, it seems. Right now he’s completely snakebitten. The common criticism is that he hasn’t done anything since McDavid went down to injury, but that would be incorrect. He has been doing things. He just isn’t getting rewarded. Yak has 1 bloody point since McDavid’s injury and it wasn’t a goal. Despite the results, he has put 17 shots towards the net in that time. In fact, he has the 2nd most shots and shot attempts on the Oilers. His shooting percentage is a brutal 3.9% right now and he attempts a large number of shots. People remember the misses and focus on the fact that the goals arent going in. It’s perfectly valid to point to those things to a certain degree, but it’s lazy to conflate those things with the idea Yak has been invisible. He is very visibly getting chances.

2) Staaled. The Hurricanes made the Staal brothers the cornerstones of their franchise a few years ago. They had no idea what kind of a mistake that would be. If we throw in Cam Ward to the mix, that’s a trifecta of players who have really let the franchise down this year especially. Eric Staal was always the good brother of the two, but with 12 points in 21 games he isn’t providing enough, especially making 8.25M this season. Jordan Staal is their 3rd highest paid player and he only has 6 points in 21 games. The Staal’s are not being paid to be 4th and 5th in team scoring.

3) Strong Systems. Carolina is 15th in the East in points but 3rd in the NHL in Corsi For percentage 5v5. This is a club that controls shots and shot attempts but has been getting brutal puck luck, no doubt reflected in the scoring totals of the above mentioned Staals. Their PDO in an NHL worst 95.7 which is a combination of both brutal shooting and problematic save percentages. If there’s any team that’s “due” for a good outcome it’s probably Carolina. The Oilers can ill-afford to look at the standings and assume they can easily create chances. Although, it might be fair to start assuming they can capitalize on the ones they do create.

Puck drops tonight at 5PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet. Get Better, Connor!

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