Why Winning Isn’t Helping

When most you read this headline you thought that I was going to talk about how the Oilers need to lose in order to have a better chance at drafting stand out defenseman Aaron Ekblad. But Alas it is not, while I do feel that it would be more beneficial the lower the Oilers finish in the standings as far as the chances of drafting Ekblad, I think it is more beneficial for the Oilers to have a good run up until the end of the season in order to gain confidence going into next year. But not this way.

The Oilers are 7-3-2 in their last twelve games, that’s a pretty damned good record, too little to late though. The way the team has been playing lately they shouldn’t be winning any games. They are being saved by good goaltending and fortunate bounces. Not by solid team play and defensive responsibility. The team just doesn’t have what it takes to be a consistent threat, and not just against the best teams in the NHL against all teams in the NHL.

This team gives up 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 shots per game. The only reason a team like LA, or San Jose don’t score five or six goals is the fact that Ben Scrivens and Ilya Bryzgalov were playing very well. It’s going to be interesting to see how Viktor Fasth performs in his first start with the team, likely on Tuesday against the Wild.

So the Oilers get seven wins in their last twelve they say they’re gaining confidence, they say they’re doing the little things right! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? They have not been competitive in those games, they’ve been outshot in each win badly;

34-29 vs the New York Islanders and didn’t do a damned thing to be competitive in that game until nearly ten minutes into the third.

36-30 vs Ottawa, That game was won solely on the performance of Ales Hemsky. While the Oilers may have scored a goal in each period (Hemsky with two) they didn’t get one shot on net in the first ten minutes of the game and allowed ten.

36-30 vs the New York Rangers, they scored three minutes into the game then forgot how to play hockey until there was only 1:30 left in the third when Nail Yakupov scored the game winner.

44-28 vs the Buffalo Sabres…THE BUFFALO SABRES. Bryzgalov was forced to make 48 saves! The Oilers went 0-5 on the power play, were out hit 29 to 15 and for much of this game they didn’t really appear to be in it.

59-27 vs the San Jose Shark, Ben Scrivens Nuff Said

27-20 vs the Canucks, 3 shots in the first period and 2 goals. Luck was on the Oilers side this night. Helps that David Perron had a hat trick too.

35-27 vs the Nashville Predators. A 5-1 win and perhaps the best game out of the seven Oilers wins. They were still out shot but managed to score 5 goals, so umm Yay?

Those all seem like key elements to build on for success right? Nope didn’t think so. I just hope that the coaching staff and players don’t try and take too much out of these wins. While I like the winning, I’m not about to be fooled that these wins are a sign of successes to come.

I’m not sure what the future holds, and I’m at a loss for what this team needs going forward. I don’t know if its coaching or on ice personnel or both that make this team so inept at competing. I know one thing, it’s still a long road to winning on the regular with this organization. Hope MacT can find some way to shorten it for us.

Let me know what you think, comment below on facebook or hit me up on the twitters @Rustyknuckler

Thanks For Reading