Going into last night's matchup against Vegas, the Golden Knights had won 6 straight and the first period showed why. The Oilers couldn't touch the puck, Vegas stood them up at the blue line repeatedly, and easily took away the cute plays Edmonton tried to make.

Luckily someone threw a chair or brought out the ice baths in the second period because the Oilers woke up and dominated the next 20 minutes.

The most notable thing for me in that game was watching the Oilers blueline. Every player on the blueline was skating hard and making quick transition plays out and you can see what Stan Bowman and the coaching staff want out of this blueline. Bouchard, Walman, Kulak, Stecher, and Ekholm are players who are capable of making fast passes under pressure to move from the defensive zone through the neutral zone. Darnell Nurse isn't as great of a passer but he has improved this season, most notably in leaps and bounds in using his excellent skating ability to his advantage instead of over-skating the play.

The Oilers were without McDavid and Ekholm; two key players both up front and on the blueline and managed to win against one of the best teams in the West. Having key players injured this close to the playoffs is not ideal in the slightest but I hope the coaching staff continues to rest them for as long as needed and not force them back before they are ready. If the Oilers can play how they did in the final 40 of last game, they can win even without those players.

Who comes out of this lineup when everyone is healthy? Up front, once McDavid, Frederic, and Kane are back I think Kapanen, Jones, and Janmark are the obvious choices. Kapanen had an excellent game against the Golden Knights but he simply has not shown enough consistency to merit a role in the top nine and he doesn't grind enough to fit on this fourth line. Similar notes to Jones. Janmark should also be sitting as he does nothing at even strength but Knoblauch uses him the third most among forwards on the PK and we haven't seen anyone else get much of a push.

Next guy to remove from the lineup would be Podkolzin. He isn't killing penalties and if Kane is healthy, he seems like a far better option to pair with RNH and Arvidsson. After that I would argue Henrique... followed then by Jeff Skinner. I say all this because somehow Jeff Skinner will be the one getting scratched.

---

Watching that game against the Golden Knights one thing was very clear... this team will only go as far as their goaltending allows. The Oilers are one of the deeper teams in the NHL both up front and on defense but none of that will matter if they get sub .900 goaltending.

Here are Pickard's last 5 starts - a 4-1-0 record:
Golden Knights - 0.909SV%
Flames - 0.929SV%
Kraken - 0.828SSV%
Utah - 0.967SV%
Islanders - 0.960SV%

Now here are Skinner's last 5 starts - 2-2-1 record
Stars - 0.810SV%
Kraken - 0.875SV%
Jets - 0.813SV%
Rangers - 0.955SV%
Devils 0.864SV%

Right now, Calvin Pickard has been the better goalie and at least posted around league average netminding. There have been games where the team has left Skinner out to dry but at some point he needs to make some of these saves. With Skinner dealing with injury and Pickard playing good enough, I don't think it is crazy to think Pickard might have the net in Game 1.

Thanks for reading.

Join the Discussion: » 6 Comments » Post New Comment

» RNH + Others Stepping Up

» Oilers Looking Better + Draisaitl and Wolf

» Just Don't Have It

» Could We See Marner Sign with Edmonton

» Oilers Trade Deadline Thoughts