Bordering Insanity

Like most Oilers fans today, I was really excited to hear that Taylor Hall will be back in the line-up tonight vs the Lightning. Linus Omark as well, gets a long awaited call-up, which makes sense given the Oilers weakness at LW right now. Will Acton & Ben Eager will get to sample popcorn from the pressbox, which on any given night where this team is actually healthy, is probably a good thing. However, all of the above doesn’t come without some real head scratching issues for tonights line-up. Most of this line-up we’ve seen before, as a sort of a horror film.

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein

The 2nd Line

Hall has been out less than a month with a knee injury, he’s a thoroughbred so that’s a non-issue. The insanity herein lies with his line mates. Sam Gagner has been back all of 3 games. In those games he’s played timid, looked slow, is obviously playing through pain & when you combine these 3 obvious issues with what seems a 6 year lapse of defensive awareness you end up with an unmitigated disaster in his own end. Then there’s the new Oilers enigmatic 20 year old Nail Yakupov. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of Yak, but like the rest of Oilers Country, it pains me to see him struggle. The puck is like a grenade on his stick this season while becoming a turnover machine with it & a deer lost in the woods without it. This trio may be awesome to watch in a few years from now when they all become the players we hope they can, but for now, I have a bad feeling it won’t end well tonight for them & the better fit at center here would be Mark Arcobello, but I’ll get to him later

The 3rd line

Omark makes his long awaited return to the Oilers line-up tonight. It’s been 592 days since he played his last game as an Oiler & as much as I’ve been a Omark detractor in the past, it’s nice to see him back. He should be well protected on a line with Boyd Gordon who’s been a phenomenal aqcuisition & Mark Arcobello, who I’ll get to in a minute. I understand Arcobello staying on the RW on this line after scoring in Florida, but he’s being misused yet again in the line-up.

The 4th Line

Here’s where more insanity enters the line-up. Anyone who watched Ryan Smyth play center last year closely enough, knew he struggled & for the most part, this years 4th line has played decently enough in a limited role. Turfing Mike Brown a few weeks ago & replacing him with Ben Eager was a good start. Luke Gazdic doesn’t offer much of anything to this line-up outside of some pugilism in moments of garbage time. In an act of nepotism by the Oilers management, Acton was told early on by management to find a place to stay in Edmonton. Scratching Will Acton off of this line-up makes zero sense. Acton has a better face-off % than Smyth & has done well, sticking up for his team mates in a limited role. Keeping Gadzic in the line-up to me is a wasted roster spot. Acton can fill the Gazdic role at center while maintaining depth at center.

The 1st Line

Not much here, pretty much status quo, although I’m never been a fan of playing guys out of position, which is fine when injuries happen, but this roster tonight, for the most part seems healthy. I’m wondering if Eberle is struggling through some kind of injury though? Eberle, Hall & Gagner are definitely not at 100%

Finally to Arcobello. If there’s been an Oilers player this season with more 5 star scoring chances than Arco, name him. He’s done everything the team has asked & done very well at the 2C position while waiting for Gagner to come back. Let’s make a couple of things perfectly clear, Gagner is a threat to score when he’s playing center, his problem remains to be defensive awareness. If the Oilers want Sam to succeed, they need to think about playing him between Hall & Eberle, mostly for protection. So until then, why not let him get back to speed on the wing. Arcobello is the opposite. He’s not a threat to score every night (aside from 2 vs Florida Tuesday) but he is a great passer & is more than adequate without the puck. The notion of starting Gagner & Smyth at center tonight, while playing Arco on the wing & scratching Acton sets the Oilers up for failure tonight.

The one thing you can’t control as management is injuries but surely you can control depth once everyone is healthy. After coming off a win on Tuesday, I’d have hoped we had ended the face meet desk routine. Let’s hope Eakins can make a few adjustments in game tonight because I’ve got a feeling he’ll need to. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That’s the trouble with this team: Fixing things that aren’t broken and not fixing things that are broken.

Thanks for reading!

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