Oilers Need Lucic To Wake Up

Milan Lucic will make this Edmonton Oilers team a more difficult club to play against.

Remember when this was being sold to the fanbase this past offseason? Well, I surely do and I was quick to drink the kool-aid being sold. With a track record like the one of Milan Lucic, none of us had much reason to argue against the intangibles that Looch would likely bring. His physical nature would definitely be a welcome addition to a team that has lacked a physical backbone. Surely, Peter Chiarelli changed that with the signing of Milan Lucic.

Well, fast-forward to the present and we now find ourselves half-way into the first season of the 7-year, 42-million contract signed between the club and Lucic but something is definitely awry. The intimidating entity that was built up in successful stints in Boston and LA has yet to translate to the City of Champions and it is starting to become more and more evident to the Oilers faithful as we reach a critical point in the season.

He started off his Edmonton Oiler campaign by playing on McDavid’s left-wing. Much had been made of this duo in the offseason, with Lucic doing his best impression of a McDavid fanboy shortly after he signed with the club. And, while many criticized the length of the contract, things started off pretty decently for the big man. In his first game of the season, Looch gave the Roger’s Place crowd a taste of what he wanted to bring as he fought Flames tough-guy, Deryk Engelland. He followed up this game by putting up 5pts in his first 7 games, leading the majority of us to believe that he had made the smooth transition into Edmonton. In the months of October and November, Milan Lucic produced at a respectable pace alongside Connor McDavid, notching 16pts in 23 contests.

However, it wasn’t long after these first few months where things started to go sideways. While Lucic was producing, there were still some evident struggles that existed within his game. His speed and his choices with the puck had been put in question early in the season but, since he was producing, not much was said about it. When December rolled around and the production came to a screeching halt, then many people started to realize the problems that this caused.

While he continued to be a stalwart on the power-play, Milan Lucic’s 5-on-5 numbers regressed dramatically. His skating was noticeably laboured and he was being knocked off the puck way too often. While most could have predicted his slow skating nature, not many anticipated his passive play on most nights. Lucic was brought in to be an impact player, not a passenger, and this is exactly what he has become, a passenger. A player of his caliber should be able to tow his own line to some degree.

Despite these obvious flaws, we have had glimpses of what Lucic can bring. Just recently, in a game against the Predators, Lucic went on a rampage. A big hit behind the net led to a retaliatory penalty; on the ensuing power play Lucic tucked away the game-tying goal. He got in the heads of the opponent, which is exactly what he has to do on a regular basis. He is the type of player that opposing teams will have to prepare for.

Unfortunately, Lucic has been plagued with a terrible case of inconsistency, and we haven’t seen him threaten often. As of February 16th, he tallied 31pts in 58 games played – a respectable number. However, even with this being so, he has only served an underwhelming 30 penalty minutes to date, a far-cry from what was expected.

For now it seems like he will be seeing extended time on the Oilers second line. Alongside Leon Draisaitl and Anton Slepyshev, the opportunity for him to finally hit his stride is there for the taking. He looked decent in the recent 5-2 win against the Coyotes but, he’ll have to be even better if the Oilers want to secure that playoff spot sooner rather than later.

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