Too many Oilers making habit of shooting blanks
The Edmonton Oilers’ big horses are doing their job through a woeful early stretch, but others haven’t left the barn.
Connor McDavid, Patrick Maroon and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who’s greatly improved his faceoff numbers from a career 43 to 56 per cent, have 14 of the team’s 24 goals through 11 games. And Leon Draisaitl has eight points and two goals in seven games after his concussion issues.
So all’s good on that front, although McDavid, Maroon and Draisaitl play together, so it’s looking like a one-trick pony line on a lot of nights, which is a problem.
“The guys we projected to score are scoring, so we can’t throw everybody into the envelope,” said Oilers coach Todd McLellan.
Draisaitl has two goals and six assists in seven games and had two goals and four assists in 11 last year. Nugent-Hopkins has five goals and two assists after having one and four last season. Maroon has four goals and five assists after having three and one a year ago.
“It’s the bottom six that haven’t got anything done. Some of the wingers haven’t gotten anything done offensively and that’s concerning,” said McLellan.
It’s not just the seventh through the 12th forwards, though.
Top-six winger Milan Lucic has one goal on 23 shots. Ryan Strome has one goal on 22 shots, and that was on the power play.
But there is a paucity of secondary scoring.
Way too many zeros.
Zack Kassian. Drake Caggiula, Jussi Jokinen, Jujhar Khaira, Anton Slepyshev, Iiro Pakarinen and teenager Kailer Yamamoto have yet to score on 81 shots.
Throw in Lucic and Strome’s 45 total shots and that’s nine forwards with two goals on 126 shots through the Oilers’ 3-7-1 start.
Kassian and Slepyshev, who sprained his ankle before camp, were both terrific in the playoffs last spring and counted on for possible top-nine spots. But they can’t get anything done, just like the other support players.
“We have to look at their skillsets. Some are very good forecheckers, others have the ability to get tip-ins, goals in tight. There’s ways of manufacturing offence,” said McLellan. “Some of the players are creating chances themselves or for others but they haven’t been able to finish. It’s a matter of pushing a bit and players relaxing a bit.”
This is the public face of McLellan. Behind closed doors, his already-turned-grey hair is getting greyer by the minute because it can’t always be McDavid or Maroon or the others, with Lucic the most prominent player struggling with a 4.3 shooting percentage.
When asked for an analysis of Lucic’s play, McLellan talked plural and singular.
“We need more from a lot of players. To single out individuals is a tough thing but if you’re asking about him specifically, yes we need more,” he said. “He knows it. His physicality and tenacity around the net are important to our team and we see it on the power play where he gets opportunities with shots in tight and on scrambles, but five-onfive, it has to happen more.
“But collectively we have to get more consistent, one through 60 minutes.”
For sure, there’s other reasons why the Oilers have three wins in 11 games; bad penalty-killing, bad power play, struggles from their top defence pairing of Oscar Klefbom and Adam Larsson — who are now broken up — and average goaltending numbers from Cam Talbot, who saved them night after night last season.
But you can’t win if nine of your forwards are shooting blanks.
Kassian may be the poster boy for what ails the bottom six. When he’s on his game, he’s skating, banging, getting in people’s faces, making players mad at him. Last year he had two goals and four points. He has one assist in 11 games this season, but maybe more importantly, his hard-charging style hasn’t been there, at least after the first week.
Kassian knows he’s not part of the solution right now.
“When your team is, I don’t even know what our record is, just that we’re losing a lot of games, everyone needs to be better, including myself,” said Kassian.
“We all wish we could be 50-goal scorers,” he said. “But we need more secondary scoring in order to get out of the slump we’re in.”