The Edmonton Oilers have been playing respectable hockey as of late, and that is a pretty good sign. They took a step back on Saturday night with a brutal performance against the rival Calgary Flames, and that needs to be addressed. Outside of that however, the Oilers have been playing quite well. There have been a few losses here and there, but overall the team has been better in these last ten or so games, and is finding ways to win. Adjusting to the system?
The Oilers need to work on a few things. First off they need to work on turnovers. Far too often we saw the Oilers turn the puck over at the Calgary blue-line on Saturday night, trying to make fancy passes and pretty up the play. It didn’t work, and the team struggled to generate offensive chances as a result. They lost to a lesser opponent, and lost a chance to really gain some momentum on home ice. That’s a slight problem.
The playoff dream is, and has been for over a month now, dead. That said, the Oilers need to take these last two home games to have a successful homestand. A 3-1-1 record can be considered successful at this point. Forget the start, for the sake of the team and the sake of this torturous “process”, this team needs to start winning games and showing signs.
Outside of working on turnovers, the Oilers need to work on playing a 200-foot game. Taylor Hall has improved here the last few games, but guys like Sam Gagner, Jordan Eberle, Nail Yakupov and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins are far too content to blow their assignments and forget defense in order to generate an extra chance or two. That must be addressed.
The blue-line needs some work too, but we’ve beat that horse to death. I’d say the mix needs to be changed, but we all know that and have talked about it before. I’ll have a potential player movement piece later this week, but I’m going to look at the week ahead here.
The “Can’t Lose Game”
I’m going to borrow a quote from Dan Tencer’s article on Sunday. There aren’t anymore must-wins games for this team, just can’t-lose games, and Tuesday night is one of them. The Carolina Hurricanes come to town, and in all honesty this isn’t a great team. They aren’t awful, but they are certainly beatable. They’ll be in the second-half of a back-to-back stretch too, as they battled Vancouver last night.
The team should be a bit tired, and the Oilers will be decently rested. Against a team with a weaker defensive unit and with what could be their back-up goalie in net, the Oilers must take advantage and get two points here. This is the game that the Oilers have to have, if they get one this week.
The Tough 48:
Thursday and Friday present a tough 48 hours for Edmonton. The Oilers will host Boston, a team that has been to the Stanley Cup finals two of the last three seasons, on Thursday, then head to Vancouver to battle the Canucks on Friday night. The Oilers haven’t beat the Bruins in a almost ten years, and it won’t be easy this time around.
The Bruins are a strong defensive team with a lot of heavy bodies up front and a very strong goaltender. They like to control the pace of the game, and feast on teams that struggle with a system. Game over for Edmonton right? This is a trap game for the B’s, as they come in playing Montreal, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Calgary (Iginla’s return) before facing Edmonton. You know they’ll be looking forward to a date in Vancouver on Saturday too.
The Bruins are banged up right now too, which could benefit the Oilers. The Bruins are a great hockey club, and I’ll be shocked if the Oilers can knock them off. A point here would be nice too. Edmonton must get six of ten points on this homestand, and would need one here.
Vancouver and Edmonton last hooked up in October in a game that turned out to be a blow-out loss for the Oilers. Edmonton needs to grab some wins in the western conference, and this is a good chance to send a statement on the road against the Canucks. Odds are it won’t end well, but it starts a four game stretch where the Oil must win two games.
In Closing:
It’s going to be a very tough week for the Oilers. They gotta beat the Hurricanes tonight, and need at least one point against Boston on Thursday. They do that, and we can say it was a successful homestand. Vancouver will be tough, and kicks off an important road trip. The Oilers will be in tough, but this will tell us a lot about this team and where they are at. Gotta get some points here and show some sort of life.
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