AT RANDOM: ARE WE THERE YET?
7 years ago
I’ve long believed trying to sell NHL hockey in the greater Phoenix area is destined to fail, and it’s been mostly that in terms of fan support over the last decade. Now, there’s talk about building a second arena for the Arizona Coyotes despite the fact their current home, Gila River Arena, isn’t even 15 years old.
My first question is: what comes first, the completion of the new $400-million project being discussed for nearby Tempe or the Coyotes returning to respectability on the ice under the direction of GM John Chayka, the 27-year-old analytics wiz who is putting the team together? That’s a tough call, given that the young Coyotes in their first season under Chayka are sitting dead-last in the Western Conference with a 6-10-2 record and just 14 points.
In that regard, there are some parallels between the rebuilding Coyotes and the Edmonton Oilers, who will come calling on Chayka’s team in the Valley of the Sun tonight with a 12-8-1 record in their first season of calling Rogers Place home after a decade out of the playoffs. The Oilers, at long last, appear to be on the upswing. For Chayka and the baby-faced Coyotes, they’re just getting started and there’s nowhere to go but up. Sound familiar?
Framed in that, we’re going to get yet another indication of where the Oilers are at as they take on the Coyotes tonight and in a rematch Sunday in Edmonton. These are two games the Oilers, who come in on a three-game winning streak, have absolutely got to win if they’ve really come as far as many think they have in their first 21 games.
WANDERING IN THE DESERT
I’m not saying two games against the Coyotes, any two games this early in the season for that matter, will make or break the Oilers in terms of the standings, but there are many tests along the way for a team still learning what it takes to win. Beating a team that’s 11 points behind you in the standings just a quarter of the way into the season is one of them for Pete Chiarelli’s Oilers.
If the Oilers have improved as much as we’d like to think they have, they won’t give even a single thought to the standings – something that should be made easier by the fact the Coyotes have owned them in recent seasons. The Coyotes are 19-0-4 in their last 23 games against the Oilers and have lost just once in regulation time in the last 29 meetings (24-1-4).
As impressive as the Oilers looked in spanking the Chicago Blackhawks 5-0 Monday and in a 6-3 comeback win in Denver against the Colorado Avalanche Wednesday, this set with the Coyotes is one of those tricky testers. What you don’t want to see if the Oilers coughing up two points, as they did in a 6-2 loss to the injury depleted Buffalo Sabres back on Oct. 16.
Simply put, these two games against Arizona are more small steps in the big picture Oiler fans have been waiting 10 years for. If that sounds like a cliché, there’s a reason for that – good teams, truly good teams who want to be taken seriously as legitimate playoff contenders as the Oilers do, don’t lose games like these against a team like the Coyotes. Full stop.
WHILE I’M AT IT
- As much as coaches tend not to want to tinker with a line-up that’s winning, I won’t be surprised to see Todd McLellan put Benoit Pouliot and Mark Letestu back in the mix tonight after three games out. While I’m not a huge fan of Pouliot, he’s a useful player when he’s on his game and I don’t see the need to healthy scratch him yet again.
- Despite this four-point night in Denver, I didn’t like what I was seeing from Milan Lucic in the first half of the game. While Lucic is never going to be a gazelle, he simply wasn’t moving his feet enough early on. That’s been the case, to my eye, too often this season. For me, the key to Lucic isn’t how much he bangs or goes to the net – he does that without fail – it’s how quickly he gets there.
- With 27 points in 21 games to lead NHL scorers, Connor McDavid is averaging 1.29 points per game. McDavid is on pace for 106 points. The Oilers haven’t had a 100-point player since Doug Weight (104 in 1995-96). The Oilers haven’t had an Art Ross Trophy winner since 1986-87 when Wayne Gretzky had 183 points. Only five players on the Oiler roster – Pouliot, Letestu, Andrej Sekera, Jonas Gustavsson and Matt Hendricks were even born then.
- Jordan Eberle, by the way, has 7-9-16 through 21 games for a .75 PPG. At that pace he’ll finish with 61 points, the fourth-highest total of his career despite a 10.9 shooting percentage, his lowest through seven seasons.
Listen to Robin Brownlee Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the Jason Gregor Show on TEAM 1260.
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