After a disheartening loss that saw the team’s losing streak extend to four games, Todd McLellan has whipped out the blender. This time, he’s going back to his old, trusty solution of putting Leon Draisaitl alongside Connor McDavid on the top line. Unfortunately, that isn’t the solution to what ails this team.
The Oilers managed to bust a slump tonight, but unfortunately, it wasn’t the right one. The Avalanche rolled into town on a five-game losing streak and the Oilers, being incredibly obliging hosts, let them slide back into the win column.
After a four-game road trip through the Eastern United States, the Oilers are back in Edmonton for a Sunday night game against the Colorado Avalanche. Here are your game day notes.
Fans have been asking for it for quite some time and it’s finally happened. Both Jesse Puljujarvi and Kailer Yamamoto have been sent to the Bakersfield Condors of the AHL, according to the Oilers’ official Twitter account.
Bob McKenzie put out his Bobcast on Friday afternoon and one of the topics he discussed was the future of young forward Jesse Puljujarvi. I’ll paraphrase the stuff that was interesting and then dive into it.
Good things are happening in Bakersfield this year. The kid line of Tyler Benson, Cooper Marody, and Cameron Hebig are all producing at a point-per-game pace and the young Condors are sitting at 6-4 after 10 games.
Jesse Puljujarvi has had a difficult time acclimatizing himself to the NHL level this season. He’s bounced in and out of the lineup and can’t seem to frequently find playing time on Todd McLellan’s team. According to Mark Spector, the Oilers might opt to send the young Finn to AHL Bakersfield for some seasoning.
It was hoped that one of (or, hell, both of) Jesse Puljujarvi and Kailer Yamamoto could take a step forward this season and fill a top-six role in the Oilers lineup.
Boy, that was disappointing. The Oilers wrapped up their four-game road trip and span of eight games in 13 games with a game against the last-place Florida Panthers. On paper, this looked like an easy win and a nice way to wrap up this tough stretch. Unfortunately, the games aren’t played on paper.
The Oilers, playing in the second leg of a road back-to-back, got outclassed by one of the best teams in the league last night.
The Oilers got down 2-0 early and the Capitals didn’t look back, working their way to a 4-2 victory. The frustrating thing about last night’s game is how Washington’s fourth line did a big chunk of the damage early on and the Oilers couldn’t crack Washington’s backup goalie.
This is a monthly feature in which I’ll take a look at each of the teams in the Western Conference.
