Playoffs or bust for Oilers
Former B’s GM Chiarelli almost out of time
Ken Hitchcock barely had time to introduce himself to his new players before jumping behind the Edmonton Oilers’ bench for his first game last Tuesday in San Jose, one in which his new team battled back from three one-goal deficits to win in overtime. But it took all of 45 seconds for the Oilers to demonstrate just a few things that have been ailing them. First, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins lost a defensive zone draw cleanly to Joe Pavelski , who pulled it back to Brent Burns. Ryan Spooner, new to the Oilers but seemingly ready to fit in with the old way of doing things, made a halfhearted attempt to block Burns’ shot. Goalie Mikko Koskinen could not control the rebound and defenseman Darnell Nurse never picked up Joonas Donskoi, who was able to roam unmolested to the front of the net and easily score on the rebound. That was some all-around ugly. The good news for Hitchcock is that none of the failures on the play had much to do with talent. Contrary to the legion of Peter Chiarelli critics would have you think — and, no, I’m not suggesting the GM is blameless in all this — the feeling here is that there is enough talent in the Great White North to win more consistently and be a yearly entrant in the playoff tournament. The Oilers are imperfect and topheavy, but better than what they’ve shown. Hitchcock is the man to prove that — and perhaps saves Chiarelli’s job in the process. In the 18 times he’s been able to finish a season with an NHL team, he’s missed the playoffs just four times — his first year as a coach in Dallas, two seasons with a sad-sack organization in Columbus that he eventually got into the playoffs and with the enigmatic Stars’ crew last year. A few eggs, undoubtedly, will be broken. Hitchcock has never been one to coddle, and that’s not expected to change with him being in what appears to be a short-term situation with a mandate to get the team into the playoffs. And that will have little to do with changing anything about Connor McDavid’s game. Sure, the superstar could use a little polishing on some of his defensive details, but that is outweighed by his offensive brilliance. No, there are other places Hitchcock should turn his gaze, starting with a couple of former Bruins. First, there’s Milan Lucic. The new coach needs to determine just who the 30-year-old Lucic is at this stage of his career. Is the four-time 20plus goal scorer really done as a top-six offensive threat? Hitchcock’s grouping of Lucic with bottom-six forwards Kyle Brodziak and Zack Kassian suggests he believes so, unless it was a motivating ploy. Chiarelli’s much-criticized signing of Lucic (seven years, $42 million) looked OK at first. He had 23-27-50 in his first year of the contract, but it’s been a disaster since then. He had just two goals in his last 67 games going into the weekend. If there’s an ‘on’ switch still to be found, Todd McLellan couldn’t find it. And we can only imagine what Hitchcock’s first heartto-heart with Spooner, a talented offensive player and a very good power play specialist who has little regard for the harder aspects of the game. No, Spooner didn’t blossom once he got away from the demanding Claude Julien. We’ll see if Hitchcock has any more luck in making him more of a complete player. Chiarelli has made his mistakes in Edmonton, though I wouldn’t put the Taylor Hall-for-Adam Larsson swap chief among them. The Oilers had needed to get better on defense and Larsson did that for them, though you’d think he could have gotten more than the one piece. What appears to be his biggest boo-boo was dealing Jordan Eberle for the underachieving Ryan Strome, recently jettisoned for the underachieving Spooner. Eberle is flawed and he was a noshow in the playoffs two years ago (no goals, two assists in 13 games) when the Oilers should have gotten to the conference finals. But it was Eberle’s first time in the playoffs and he’s a consistent 20plus goal scorer. There has been bad luck, too, with injuries on perhaps Chiarelli’s best move, the signing of defenseman Andrej Sekera. Sekera, very good for the Oilers in the first year of his contract, was limited to 36 games last year and is on the shelf again after tearing an Achilles in off-season training. But whether Sekera can return or not, there is still enough on the Oilers’ roster to get them into the postseason. If the players’ buy into what Hitchcock is selling, they’ll get there. If not, then it’s a good bet someone other than Chiarelli will be reshaping the roster in the offseason.
Award chances slim
One of the more disappointing things about Patrice Bergeron’s injury — other than the fact that, along with Zdeno Chara’s banged up knee, will threaten the B’s entire season — is that, with the way he started this season, he not only would have been a strong candidate to win a record fifth Selke Award. If he had continued to produce points like he had been, Bergeron would have been a serious Hart Trophy candidate.
Florida injury woes
Vincent Trocheck’s stature in the game may not be that of Bergeron’s, but like Bergeron he’s a pretty important piece to the Florida Panthers’ puzzle. He’s out indefinitely after suffering a gruesome broken ankle last week in Ottawa. He was off to a somewhat slow start (3-11-14) after a 75-point campaign last year, but he’ll be a huge loss for a team with whom the B’s could be battling for a playoff spot.
Coaching changes
This has been a particularly bloody autumn for NHL coaches. St. Louis decided to whack Mike Yeo just hours before the Oilers made their firing of McLellan official, replacing Yeo with interim coach Craig Berube , with many believing they will eventually lure former Blues’ bench boss Joel Quenneville, himself let go after a decade of getting his Hall of Fame credentials in order in Chicago. Whether that happens or not, it is not surprising that Yeo got the gate. More was expected out of the Blues what with the acquisition of Ryan O’Reilly, who has done his job, and the return Robby Fabbri, who hasn’t caught fire since returning the lineup on Nov. 1. He missed all of last season with a knee injury. Vladimir Tarasenko has under-performed (6-10-16) but the real issue has been in net, where start Jake Allen had an .895 save percentage and a 3.32 GAA. No coach can win consistently with that between the pipes.