WHICH OILERS WILL SHOW UP?
Last game raises questions: Jones
The question has changed.
It’s gone from “Are the Oilers for real?” to “Which team is Edmonton going to be?”
Now there’s a danger here of this hockey team — 7-1 to start the season and getting people giddy — coming home from Minnesota to curse their fickle fans and critical media for “one bad game and …”
But you can’t blame Edmonton’s hockey-savvy fans — fans that have experienced 12 of the last 13 seasons out of the playoffs — for watching that 3-0 loss to the Wild and not only holding their noses but thinking “we’ve watched this movie before.”
The Oilers have been shut out in their last two games — 152 minutes and 38 seconds in all.
Connor Mcdavid has been held pointless in three straight games for only the second time in his career — 201 minutes and 20 seconds in total.
Off the last two games, Edmonton appears back to “Stop Leon Draisaitl and Connor Mcdavid and you beat the Oilers” mode.
The renovations general manager Ken Holland made, allegedly upgrading the bottom six, may have improved the penalty kill and lowered the goals against to this point, but the Oilers are last in the league in shots on goal and had a grand total of three scoring chances against the Minnesota Wild.
And where’s the secondary scoring?
Now-injured Joakim Nygard scored his one goal in the Oilers’ second game of the season.
Look at the rest of them. Combined, Gaetan Haas, Marcus Granlund, Riley Sheahan, Josh Archibald, Patrick Russell and Joel Persson have a grand total of no goals. Zero. Zip. Zilch.
Four of them don’t have any assists, either, as is also the case with 0-0-0 veteran Jujhar Khaira.
Yes, this is a team that has played six of their last eight games on the road. And yes, until Tuesday, their compete level was excellent.
So give them a pass? Look the other way and pretend that game didn’t happen?
Maybe. But that last game featured the last-place team in the Central Division coming to the rink to play desperate hockey and the Oilers failing to compete at all.
Head coach Dave Tippett’s team was outplayed in every single facet of the game. And it wasn’t like goaltender Mike Smith let in a couple of soft ones early. He was their best player.
For fans who have watched the Oilers go on winning streaks here and there and then allow themselves to let down, suffer a couple of losses, lose all confidence and allow it to turn into a couple of weeks of losing, the warning lights are flashing for the first time this season.
If the Oilers return home, where they remain undefeated at 4-0, and are determined to prove this is a team of substance; if they choose to look at the next stretch of games as a chance to triumph over adversity together, then all is well.
The Oilers return home to play Washington on Thursday and Florida on Sunday having completed their first 10-game segment, putting up a 7-2-1 record and depositing 15 points in the bank. Do that with the remaining 10-game segments, or even anything close to that, and the Oilers will not only be back in the playoffs but have home-ice advantage.
Last year, the Oilers were a major mess on the penalty kill, ranking 30th overall at a 74.8 per cent success rate. After the first 10 games this season, they’re tied for fourth at 88.2.
Edmonton finished 2018-19 ninth on the power play at 21.2 per cent. This year, they’re tied for first at 35.7 despite the recent goal drought.
Last season, the Oilers were 20th in goals per game at 2.79 and only five other teams were worse in goals against at 3.30. So far this year, they’re ninth in the latter category at 3.0.
They were minus-42 in goals for and against last season. They came home from Minnesota at plus-7.
In the faceoff circle, the Oilers finished 25th in the league. They’re currently 20th.
If they keep those numbers up, all will indeed be well. But they’re not going to stay up there with what you just watched. So it’s a fair question.
“Which team is Edmonton going to be?”
Yes, this is a team that has played six of their last eight games on the road. And yes, until Tuesday, their compete level was excellent.