GDB 10.0 Wrap Up: Edmonton Oilers fall to 2-7-1 with 5-2 loss against Nashville
8 months ago
It feels like the decade of darkness is back.
On Saturday afternoon, the Oilers took on the Nashville Predators, losing 5-2 and dropping to a record of 2-7-1. Yikes.
There were some positives in this game, such as Raphaël Lavoie making his National Hockey League debut. Moreover, the power play was efficient, generating their only two goals of the game in three attempts. The mythical second unit also got a goal from Darnell Nurse, with Ryan McLeod picking up his first point of the season.
THE WRAP UP IS PRESENTED BY BETWAY
Their second power-play goal game was from Zach Hyman, assisted by Evan Bouchard and Connor McDavid. However, these were the only positives from Saturday’s game.
Let’s start with Jack Campbell, who, as you could imagine, was not good Saturday. He faced 34 shots and allowed five goals for a .853 save percentage. The stat can be misleading at times, but in no way was Campbell good enough, as you can see on Nashville’s first goal.
His five-year, $25,000,000 contract was bad when it was announced, but he had a .888 save percentage in 36 games in 2022-23, and an even worse .873 save percentage in five games to start this season.
As our own Zach Laing points out, if the Oilers were to buy out Jack Campbell, he’d cost $1,500,000 a year for six years, but at that point, who do the Oilers find to replace him?
The game wasn’t just on Campbell though, as the team’s defense gave up far too many odd man rushes, including this one that led to Nashville’s fourth goal of the game
To make matters worse, McDavid still looks injured, which is quite worrying for a team that relies on McDavid to be the best player to have ever laced up skates.
At this point, “it’s still early” isn’t even true, as we’re already 10 games into the season. Edmonton has only mustered up five points, which on top of a great Vegas Golden Knights start, makes winning the Pacific Division nearly impossible.
With no cap room available and a limited prospect pool, where do the Oilers go from here to get better? I have no idea, and I’m not sure Ken Holland does either.
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