The Oilers have completed their first major road trip of the season, heading out east for five tough games. Going .500 was nice – there’s no other way to put it. The team was perfectly average, and showed some strong fight in nearly every matchup.
Over this five-game stretch, the team had a -2 goal differential which is right around where you would want it to be when you’re playing .500 hockey.
The Oilers are set to take on the Dallas Stars at home tonight, then they have a rematch against the New York Rangers Sunday. After that, another road trip.
LITMUS
In my Oct. 29 Ramblings, I talked about the significance of playing .500 hockey through the month of November, which will arguably be one of the toughest this team will have to deal with all year.
What we have been able to see through the first third of the month is that like we thought, this is a team that has some fight in them. Battling back from a 2-0 first period deficit against the Islanders, then coming back from 1-0 against the Red Wings shows that this team refuses to curl into a little ball like they have in years past.
On this roadtrip, there was only one game where the Oilers scored first. Against the Rangers, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins opened the scoring six and a half minutes into the game. In each of the other games, the other team opened the scoring in the first two minutes of the game except for the Detroit game where Abdelkader scored at 8:53 in the first.
These early goals have obviously immediately put the team behind, but no longer are we watching a team that refuses to work. In those matchups, the Oilers answered back with first period goal(s) of their own.
This is a much different Oilers team than what we have seen in years past.
INJURIES
I wanted to expand a little bit off what Jonathan Willis wrote for the Nation on Wednesday. He looked at how the Oilers currently have four forwards and three defencemen who would typically be slated to play in this lineup.
Drake Caggiula, Matt Hendricks, Zack Kassian, Iiro Pakarinen, Kris Russell, Brandon Davidson, Mark Fayne and Andrew Ference make up the list. We all know that Andrew’s days as an NHL defenceman are numbered.
In my opinion, Hendricks, Pakarinen and Fayne will have an really tough time cracking back into the lineup. Age is beginning to catch up to Hendricks, while Pakarinen’s role has been efficiently filled by Tyler Pitlick. It appears Mark Fayne had fallen out of favour in Edmonon as a regular in the line-up.
Drake Caggiula should probably spend some time in Bakersfield. Not to say that I don’t feel his a legitimate candidate to see NHL time soon upon his return, but I think he will need to readjust to the pro level after a solid showing in camp.
Russell, Davidson and Kassian will most likely slide back into the NHL lineup upon their return.
Where does this leave the Oilers? Despite all the injuries, the Oilers clearly have not faltered as they sit atop the Pacific division standings. It will be interesting to see how Todd McLellan and co. decide to utilize these players upon their return.
Point projections over the past fortnight. pic.twitter.com/B6L4BEF3Xo
— Micah Blake McCurdy (@IneffectiveMath) November 10, 2016
The playoff dream is still alive and well folks.
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