It’s way too early to press the panic button. Edmonton Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft knows his team hasn’t played their best yet, but he’s confident they will.
“I don’t think all of our team play has run on all cylinders yet,” Woodcroft said this morning. “We work to find solutions, and when you have seven dressed Ds, it allows you to move these pieces if someone is not playing well,” he continued when asked what he thought. of his defensive pairs.
The Oilers are coming off their best defensive effort of the season, even though it ended in a 2-0 loss to St. Louis. The Blues scored a power play goal early in the game and an empty net late in the game, but Edmonton didn’t give them much at 5×5. The Blues managed just 18 shots on goal at 5×5 and little chance of high danger. It was a step in the right direction defensively.
However, the offense didn’t do much. He never scored and didn’t create many quality scoring chances. It was a sparsely contested game – a very different game from last Thursday’s 6-4 win over Carolina, which was filled with goals and chances.
The Oilers would love to play defensively like they did against the Blues, but they need to generate more offensively. They’ve only scored five 5×5 goals in five games: two against Carolina and Calgary and one against Vancouver, and they haven’t scored a single 5×5 against the Sabers or Blues.
The Oilers’ overall offense has been good as they rank 14th in the NHL with 3.20 goals per game. Not great, but not terrible. They need to produce more than 5×5, especially against a Penguins team tonight that leads the NHL in goals.
The Penguins are 4-0-1 and have scored 26 goals in five games. The Penguins have crushed teams 19-4 at 5×5 this season. Meanwhile, Edmonton was outscored 9-5. You can’t win in today’s NHL if you don’t score. Of course, you can’t give up four or five goals per game, but you have to win some games 6-4. You can’t expect to win 3-2 every night. Ask the New York Islanders. It no longer works. Fortunately.
Edmonton hasn’t had much trouble scoring at 5×5 the past few seasons, and the odds say they’ll start scoring eventually, but the projections aren’t the reality. They need to start burying more chances.
“We have to be tougher around their net,” Ryan McLeod said. “We’re getting pucks there, but maybe we should have more body there to hit in the extra chance. Go a little bolder and try to put one on and get things going. McLeod was talking specifically about his line with Jesse Puljujarvi and Warren Foegele, but his description fits the entire offense.
Edmonton circled the net a lot. They have the third most shots from the slot in the NHL, but they haven’t been able to turn those chances into goals. Zach Hyman, Leon Draisaitl, Kailer Yamamoto, Warren Foegele, Jesse Puljujarvi, Derek Ryan, Devin Shore and Dylan Holloway (when dressed) are still looking for a goal at 5×5. Only four forwards have scored a 5×5 goal, and no one has two.
Meanwhile, the Penguins are receiving offensive contributions from all of their forwards. They’ve only used 12 forwards so far, and Ryan Poehling is the only one who hasn’t scored 5×5. The other 11 have one and five Penguins forwards already have two+ 5×5 goals.
Maybe the Oilers can slow down the Penguins offense tonight, but I doubt they’ve stopped them completely. The Penguins are averaging 5.20 goals per game, the best in the league. The Oilers will need to show offense if they hope to finish their six home games with a 3-3 record.
GDB PRESENTED BY BETWAY
Lubricators
Kane-McDavid-Yamamoto
RNH-Draisaitl-Hyman
Foegele-McLeod-Puljujarvi
Shore Ryan
Nurse-This
Kulak Barrie
Murray Bouchard
Niemelainen
Campbell
Edmonton will play the same lineup for the third straight game. Dylan Holloway skated with the group this morning, but he won’t be playing. He will go on a road trip and should play.
There were many defensive pairings against the Blues. Darnell Nurse logged 25 minutes at 5×5 and played 13 minutes with Cody Ceci, five with Tyson Barrie and 4:28 with Evan Bouchard. The three DRs — Ceci, Barrie and Bouchard — all played between 4:20 p.m. and 5:10 p.m. Bouchard played 5:10 with Brett Kulak, 4:28 with Nurse and 4:21 with Ryan Murray.
They used different combinations and they all worked because the Oilers didn’t allow a 5×5 goal, but Woodcroft explained how having seven dressed Ds allowed him to have different looks if players weren’t playing. good. We could see similar splits tonight, especially if there aren’t many penalties.
penguins
Heinen-Crosby-Rakell
Zucker-Malkin-Rust
McGinn-Carter-Kapanen
Caggiula-Poehling-Archibald
Dumoulin-Letang
Pettersson-Petry
Joseph Rutta
Jarry
Jake Guentzel will miss his second straight game. They moved Teddy Blueger to the LTIR, to free up space, and they recalled forwards Drake Caggiula and Samuel Poulin. Rickard Rakell gets the bump to play alongside Crosby.
Here’s a great illustration of the Penguins dominating at 5×5 this year.
Kris Letang has the lowest GF% (GF-GA) on the team at 71.4%. He scored five goals for and two against, and that’s the lowest percentage on the team. (Ruhwedel played one game and was not on a for or against goal). Jan Rutta leads the Pens with a 7-0 GF-GA. Every row and every D pair outplays the opposition.
MATCH DAY PREDICTION: Edmonton takes a 4-3 win to tie its home record at 3-3.
OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTIONS: McDavid collects two points. He has 18 in nine career games against Crosby.
NOT-SO-OBVIOUS PREDICTIONS FOR GAME DAY: Puljujarvi scores his first goal against the Penguins and first of the season.
#GDB #Oilers #hunt #full #game #p.m #SNW