The Oilers’ win over the Canadiens on Monday night was one of the most exciting victories I’ve seen in the last few years. The way they came out in the third period and just took over that hockey game was incredible to watch. From McDavid down, the entire team seemed to find a new level and the Habs really didn’t have much of a chance once that happened.
It was also a bit of a new look Oilers team in terms of how Dave Tippett was deploying his lineup. We saw Josh Archibald jump up onto the McDavid line and Ethan Bear was reunited with Darnell Nurse on the top pairing. Today I want to focus specifically on the Archibald-McDavid-Puljujarvi line.
That trio spent a total of 5:33 on the ice together at 5v5 and in that time, they outshot the Canadiens 8-0 and outscored them 3-0. Montreal only had two shot attempts in that time and both of them were blocked. Natural Stat Trick (who I used for all the numbers in this piece) even said the Oilers had six high-danger Corsi events. The numbers were incredible.
That got me thinking about the idea of Archibald sticking around in the top six.
Archibald has never been considered a top-six winger. He’s now in his second season with the Oilers and in that time, his most common linemates have been Riley Sheahan and Jujhar Khaira. However, almost every time he’s been thrown up onto a line with McDavid, the results have been good.
At 5v5, he’s spent just under 200 minutes with Connor McDavid and in that time, they have been outshot 110-99 but have outscored the opposition 15-9. McDavid’s 5v5 GF% with Archibald is 62.5% and without him, it’s 50.32%. Archibald’s GF% without McDavid is 30.65% so there’s no doubt that he gets a major boost from playing with McDavid, but there’s also no denying that the Oilers are very productive when they’re on the ice together.
With Draisaitl, the results haven’t been as good. He’s played just 86 minutes at 5v5 and the duo have a SF% of 42.42% and a GF% of 33.33%. Far from ideal. That duo really doesn’t work. But Archibald and McDavid, for whatever reason, do.
With Archibald and McDavid on the ice together, the Oilers have a 5v5 GF/60 of 4.51. That’s the best number of any forward with at least 100 minutes on McDavid’s wing in the last two seasons.
I’m not sure if that’s a combination that Dave Tippett will want to be running heading into the playoffs, I’m sure either Ryan Nugent-Hopkins or Leon Draisaitl will be on his wing for game one of the first round, but the idea of throwing Archibald up on the McDavid line is interesting.
I’ve been a big fan of the idea of putting the Nugent-Hopkins, Draisaitl, Yamamoto line back together. They’ve always been incredibly productive together and I’m fairly certain that they’d work together. The issue with putting that trio back together is that it doesn’t leave a good winger for Connor McDavid to play with.
McDavid can clearly produce with Archibald on his wing and another thing that makes this conversation even more interesting is the emergence of Jesse Puljujarvi. The big winger has found his scoring touch and has proven over the last few months that he knows how to play with McDavid.
If Puljujarvi is the more skilled winger for McDavid, then maybe Archibald can be the hard-working forechecker who creates turnovers and makes life difficult for the other teams’ defenseman in the corners? Maybe he can be that lines Kailer Yamamoto.
A lot of the talk around the Oilers has been focused on finding a skilled left-winger to play on the Leon Draisaitl line so that Nugent-Hopkins could stick with the McDavid line. But what if putting Archibald up there allowed Tippett to reunite the second line that worked so well together last year and didn’t make McDavid’s 5v5 minutes any less productive?
Patrick Maroon wasn’t a bonafide top-six winger back in 2017, but he found a way to be productive with McDavid. Sometimes it isn’t all about skill when you’re playing next to the most skilled player in the world. Zack Kassian has had his share of hot streaks when with McDavid and right now, he doesn’t look like nearly as good of a hockey player as Archibald.
I’m not here to convince you that Josh Archibald is going to be the long-term solution on the Oilers’ top line. I don’t think he is. But come playoff time, sometimes all you need to do is capture a little lightning in a bottle. One player getting red-hot for three or four weeks could be the difference in bowing out of the playoffs early or going on a long run. He isn’t the sexiest name but maybe Archibald could give the Oilers top six a spark.
