When Peter Chiarelli traded Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson and then signed Milan Lucic this past off-season, the “heavy hockey” narrative was thrown around quite a bit. The idea was that with Lucic, in addition to Patrick Maroon and Zack Kassian, the Oilers could compete with the big and physical teams in the west. Those teams, for the most part, reside in California.
The Cali built Oilers. That’s the narrative we’ve heard for weeks now. From Chiarelli himself to the men in the locker room, all we’ve been told is that the more physical and bigger Oilers wouldn’t get pushed around in California. This was a team that wouldn’t get bullied, a team that wouldn’t get run out of the building.
On Tuesday and Thursday night, that narrative was tested. I regret to inform you all that it was also debunked. The Edmonton Oilers went to California and just like every year since 2006, the Oilers got crushed on the scoreboard.
The club went 0-2 during their brief stint, were outscored 8-3, didn’t lead for one single second, and were behind in the first ten minutes both nights. It was a poor, and quite frankly discouraging, performance that reinforced that these Oilers are more November showing than October showing.
Deflating Plays:
I thought it was going to be different, and for about four minutes it actually was. The Oilers came out guns blazing in Anaheim and actually took it to the Ducks. They heavily outshot them in the first stretch of the game and could have had two goals. Then Zack Kassian took a stupid penalty (a theme on this trip for the team) and it was over from there.
Nick Ritchie scored on a partial breakaway thanks to a lazy and stupid change by the Oilers and the game was effectively over. That play deflated the club and tilted the ice completely in Anaheim’s favor. They carried the play until it was 3-0 midway through the middle frame, and by then it mattered not if Edmonton closed the gap in terms of play, which they could only do for a short stretch.
In Los Angeles, it was a terrible mistake by Jordan Eberle and then a blown assignment by Oscar Klefbom that allowed Jeff Carter to score the eventual game winner, shorthanded, in the second period. Edmonton had stormed back and tied the game, only to give it right back on what should have been a momentum educing powerplay. LA locked it down from that point and it was another two points gone.
These are the same poor plays, the same catastrophic mistakes that Edmonton has made for years, especially in California.
Poor Starts:
The outrageously bad change in Anaheim cost Edmonton the opening goal and it was all over from there, because this team needs a five minute period after they get scored on (Seriously, McLellan told the LA broadcast that). In LA, the Kings controlled the play from the get-go and were rewarded with the game’s opening two goals. By then it was too much for Edmonton to recover from.
When you constantly play from behind, you will lose a lot more often than you will win. In this five game stretch, Edmonton has given up the first goal in, you guessed it, five games. They’ve been down multiple goals in three of those games, and they haven’t led in four games. The last time Edmonton had a lead was in the third period against Pittsburgh, nearly two weeks ago.
These poor starts are a huge issue and plagued Edmonton on this trip. Outside of the first four minutes in Anaheim, the Ducks and Kings were able to push the Oilers around and control play early. That set them up with leads that allowed those teams to coast to victory on both occasions.
Battles An Issue:
This was the most discouraging thing. Edmonton lost a lot of battles, far more than they won to my eye. In Los Angeles, the Oilers were beaten along the boards and lost most of the battles for loose pucks. The Kings were able to out-muscle the Oilers and generate offensive looks off of those battles.
Same thing happened against the Ducks, where Anaheim’s third goal was a result of a won battle. In the third period, the Ducks won just about every single 50-50 puck out there as they slammed the door shut. Edmonton never got anything going in that third period offensively, even with a 5-on-3. The urgency wasn’t there, the compete wasn’t there, the ability to win battles wasn’t there.
Final Thoughts:
The Oilers were built to compete within the division, but this week they were handled quite easily by the Ducks and Kings. Oilers Insider Bob Stauffer said that we would learn a lot about this team during that two game stretch, and I think we did learn something.
Sure, the Oilers won a few more battles than usual and battled back to briefly tie things in LA, but overall they simply were not good enough on this road trip, not by any margin.
Built to compete in Cali? I’m not sold on that one bit, in fact I’m starting to lean on the side of “this isn’t a very good hockey team”.
9-8-1 and handled quite easily in California. Get your parachutes out folks, we’re skydiving now.
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