Time for celebration is short for the Oilers on the heels of that overtime win against the Ducks because tonight the team has to face the Minnesota Wild. A great sequence from Sekera below the net to Draisaitl out front ended the game. Jordan Eberle picked up 3 assists and Nugent-Hopkins finally got one through for a goal.

Edmonton’s 2nd unit Power Play looked very good last night, pushing the pace after the McDavid unit was unsuccessful. Drake Caggiula’s 1st career NHL goal is hopefully the 1st of many this season. As McLellan note after the game, Caggiula had some chances early on that raised eyebrows. There was a shot early in the 1st period that he redirected onto net that set the tone for the team. They opened the game quite strongly before the Ducks could re-assert themselves.

In the story of the Oilers season, McDavid is the biggest feature, but the emergence of Leon Draisaitl is becoming a fun story to watch. Today he is 20th in NHL scoring and has picked up 13 points in his last 10 games. He’s second on the team with 21 points in 26 games and on pace for a 66 point season. Importantly he’s only been paired with McDavid for 2 games on a regular line. This is a young player whose continued development is central to Edmonton’s success.

Draisaitl, former 3rd overall pick, has been used at both the wing and at center. The most success he’s had offensively has come as a winger, but the dream is that offense will translate to when he plays center in the future. The Oilers rely heavily on Nugent-Hopkins to soak up difficult matchups. Even though Nuge is shooting at a low percentage, the underlying numbers suggest he’s doing well in his role. It’s important to keep that in mind before we forecast Draisaitl into the 2C spot right away.

As a versatile forward, Draisaitl just might yet be the 2C of the future for Edmonton, or he might take on that Joe Pavelski role on the Oilers. He’s an interesting player who might be good on the faceoff dot and more than capable of playing down the middle but who offensively is best unlocked on the wing. I am open to him playing both positions but I would be wary of trading someone like RNH to make room for him at center.

Something to note with Draisaitl is that a lot of his offense is coming from the PP. His Points per 60 5v4 is the 6th highest in the NHL among forwards with at least 50 minutes played on the man-advantage. It’s even higher than McDavid’s scoring rate on the PP. We don’t necessarily need to believe his scoring is a mirage, but we can wonder how much it’s connected to McDavid in that sense.

It is definitely important to acknowledge that, after last year partnered with Hall and what we’ve seen this year, Draisaitl is best when playing with other high end players. I don’t want to use the word “complementary” like a bad thing here, I just think he’s best when he’s working with players who play the game at full speed.

An Oiler team with McDavid, Lucic, Eberle, Nugent-Hopkins, and Pouliot all producing is a dangerous club. The team is scoring 3 goals per game. In a league that is famously “3-2”, over time, the team that scores an average of 3 is going to win a lot of games.

LINEUP

Same lineup but Gustavsson plays. Let’s hope he gets lots of run support. Davidson isnt ready yet, but he’s joining the Oilers on the road so he must be close.

Lucic McDavid Draisaitl
Pouliot RNH Eberle
Pitlick Caggiula Slepyshev
Maroon Letestu Kassian

Klefbom Fayne
Sekera Benning
Russell Larsson

Gustavsson
Talbot

OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME

1) Broken Streak. McDavid failing to register a point might have been a good thing for the Oilers going in the 2nd game of a back-to-back. Connor McDavid had a 7 game point streak in which he had picked up 15 points snapped against the Ducks. Know what we know about McDavid, not scoring is something that seems to bother him. Not that he needed extra motivation, but I have a feeling we’ll see 97 pushing for more chances tonight. He’s the best player in the NHL. I think I can say that without too much controversy. Minnesota allows the fewest goals against in the league. That’s a direct challenge I’m interesting in seeing play out.

2) No Doubting Dubnyk. As mentioned above, the Wild have given up the fewest goals in the NHL. Now, they have a couple games in hand on the some teams so they might climb the list yet. Carey Price gets a lot of the love when it comes to goalie talk, and it’s well deserved with a .946 save percentage. However, former Oiler Devan Dubnyk is righty on his tails with a .945 save percentage of his own. He leads the NHL in shutouts and there aren’t too many more people saying things like “If you have to ask the question…” when it comes to Dubnyk’s place among NHL goaltenders. Minnesota is among the lower 3rd of NHL teams in terms of shot and shot attempt percentage. Their goaltending is just super human.

3) Caved In. The pairing of Russell-Larsson was brutalized in terms of shot attempts last night by the Ducks. The final 5v5 numbers were 10 for and 26 against with Russell on the ice for a 27% CF on the evening. No other Oiler defenders were below 50% in shot attempts. In the 19+ minutes that Russell played at even strength, the Oilers managed just 5 shots on net. With Jim Matheson and Scott Oake openly discussing the team giving Russell and extension, all evidence points to him being a Trojan Horse defender. He looks good but takes the team out from within. We’re going to be looking to see if that pairing can bounce back or if they stay hemmed into their own zone against the Wild. So far, Russell is at the bottom of Edmonton's defense in many significant categories.

Puck drops tonight at 7:30PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet Oilers. Game On!

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