Ten games ago the Edmonton Oilers sat at a record of 3-7-0 and everybody was wondering what the hell was going on. Wasn’t this a team that was supposed to be trending up? Wasn’t all the upheaval supposed to result in a much better start to the year? The Oilers were STILL in Auston Matthews country. Well after twenty games the team has improved slightly but they’re still wading around in Lake Matthews!
As of today, the mighty Oilers are sitting at 7-12-1. We have seen improvement in the standings yet the team is tied for last place with the woeful Colorado Avalanche. Last place… Boy is it hard to justify such a beginning and we try, oh lord we try but I can’t sail away with the boys on this one. Whilst 4-5-1 is something that I could get on board with, we’re going to need to see a few more 10 game spurts along those lines before I believe this team is out of the gutter.
In all fairness we (the fans) were told time and time again that this team wouldn’t be a playoff team but nobody said anything about a last place team! I mean honestly, did you expect to the defence to be this bad and for Cam Talbot to summon the spirit of Peter Ing to start his Oilers career off? Did Anton Lander’s mojo leave town with Todd Nelson? And the last point to sh*t on the team, did you think that the Oilers would be running McDavid, Draisaitl, Reinhart, Nurse, Davidson, and Slepyshev 20 games in?
That’s the bad, here’s the good.
Leon Draisaitl has come in like gangbusters since Connor McDavid went down with injury and has racked up an amazing 17 points in these ten games. I believe six of those ten games being multi point affairs. The German Gretzky has combined with the Canadian Kurri (Hall) to become one of the NHL’s most dangerous duos.
Jordan Eberle has returned! He’s scored 3 goals in 7 games which is par for the course with him.
Darnell Nurse might possibly be the Oilers best defenceman apart from Oscar Klefbom. 1g-4a-5pts +1 and 16 shots in 11 games is a pretty sweet statline. I believe he sits in the top 5 for rookie defenceman scoring.
Teddy Purcell! Wow! Has he ever decided to turn the heat up on his performances. Ever since cutting 4 inches off his stick he’s been putting up the digits. Is it a result of playing with Leon and Taylor though?
The Last Ten Games
MTL: 4-3 win – What a comeback!
CGY: 5-4 loss – Talbot’s cursed!
PHI: 4-2 win – The injury… Don Cherry flips his lid.
PIT: 2-1 loss – The posts…
CHI: 4-2 loss – Panarin and Kane go beast mode on the Oilers.
ANH: 4-3 OT win – TEDDY wins it in OT! Oil came back three times in this game!
ARI: 4-1 loss – Oilers blew their load in the first five minutes. Max Domi took care of business.
LA: 4-3 loss – Talbot and the defence… Woof! The comeback was nice though.
CHI: 4-3 OT loss – That rush by Draisaitl and the subsequent save by Crawford on Hall… Lordy Lordy…
NJ: 5-1 win – Wa-wa-wa-washout! Draisaitl and Hall go wrecking ball on the Devils.
The Numbers
Taylor Hall #4 in NHL scoring. (Draisaitl #44 between Malkin and Steen)
Taylor Hall #3 in shots.
Oscar Klefbom #24 in dman scoring in the NHL (between Chara and Letang) and #27 in blocked shots.
Darnell Nurse is #4, Brandon Davidson is #6, and Griffin Reinhart is #21 in rookie dman scoring.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins FO% is 43.6…. Crikey!
The Oilers are #4 in goals against.
#15 on the PP
#22 on the PK
#22 in Faceoff win %
#5 in goals scored in the third period
#3 in goals against in the 1st period
#4 in giveaways
#4 in takeaways
Top Three Scorers
Taylor Hall – 9g 15a 24pts
Leon Draisaitl – 7g 10 a 17pts
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – 6g 9a 15pts
The Prorated Record (Approx)
28-48-4 for 60 points give or take. So we’re up about 10 points from the last 10 games. It’s a wonder what this team might be doing with McDavid and Yakupov firing on all cylinders? 2016 can’t come fast enough.
The Next Ten Games
WAS (a) – Caps are running on nitro right now. I’m not sure if the Oilers can match it. LOSS
CAR (a) – I def. think the Oilers can beat the Hurricanes. WIN
DET (a) – I also like the chances versus the Red Wings. WIN
PIT (a) – On the back half of a b2b, I don’t like Edmonton’s chances here. LOSS
TOR (a) – This looks like a win on the surface but the Leafs are playing a very tough brand of hockey. WINBOS (h) – Back home I think I’ll take the Bruins who are starting to turn it around. LOSS
DAL (h) – Stars/Capitals Stanley Cup anyone? LOSS
BUF (h) – Edmonton’s first glance at Eichel. Should be interesting. I’ll take the Oilers here. WIN
SJ (h) – San Jose is always a tough go. LOSS
NYR (h) – The Rangers… So hot right now. LOSS
So if everything goes to my plan the Oilers’ next ten games should see them go 4-6-0… Rough. That’s a step back.
After Twenty Games What Do We Know?
We know that the team is still struggling on the defensive side of the game. The Hamonic rumors perked everyone’s ears and there’s still a possibility that the Oilers could pick him up or perhaps they just bide their time until McDavid is healthy and see what it’s like to run three scoring lines before making any brash decisions.
We also know that the team is showing a compete and pushback level that hasn’t been present for almost a decade.
Here’s to a much better than predicted next ten games! See you at game 31!
Take Care!
BLH (@beerleagueheroe)
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