GDB Game Notes: Oilers @ Blackhawks

The Oilers will look to build on their five-game, season-opening winning streak tonight as they finish their road trip against the winless @Chicago Blackhawks. Here are your game day notes.

1. Like the Oilers did last season, the Blackhawks started their year overseas. Chicago and Philadelphia played the NHL’s Global Series game in Prague to open up the season. I don’t think opening the season overseas will make or break a team’s season, but it isn’t the ideal way to get things rolling. Chicago played that game in Prague and then had nearly a week off before their next game. Through a week-and-a-half, they’ve played just three games and have yet to pick up a win. It’s hard to get yourself into a rhythm with that much time between games.

2. The Blackhawks get an easier time acclimatizing to North America after returning home from their Euro Trip than the Oilers did last year. Edmonton finished up in Sweden and flew back to North America for three road games in Boston, New York, and Winnipeg before finally returning home. After that, they hardly had any rest days, playing 16 games in the span of a month. Chicago will also have a jammed schedule for the next month, but, at the very least, they got to return home for a seven-game homestand immediately after their game in the Czech Republic.

3. The biggest issue that plagued the Blackhawks last season was an inability to keep the puck out of the net. They ranked 30th in the league in goals-against thanks to a combination of poor goaltending and bad defence. Chicago’s team save percentage was among the league’s worst last season at .898 and they allowed 34 shots against per game, more than anyone aside from the @Ottawa Senators.

4. The Hawks tried to fix this issue over the off-season with a handful of additions. They signed @Robin Lehner, who finished third in Vezina Trophy voting last season, to a one-year deal worth $5 million. They also traded for @Olli Maatta and Calvin de Haan to add some much-needed depth to the blueline.

5. Has it worked thus far? I mean, it’s only been three games, which is too small of a sample size to draw sweeping conclusions, but we can start to get an idea of what’s working for Chicago. Through those three games, the Hawks have allowed only six goals at even strength. Their undoing so far has been their penalty kill. The Blackhawks have taken 10 penalties this season and they’ve killed off just six of them.

6. Again, small sample sizes here, but that bodes well for the Oilers who are absolutely killing it on the power play thus far. A big part of Edmonton’s early-season success has been their ability to capitalize with the man advantage. They’ve had 17 power plays so far and they’ve converted on seven of them. That 41.2 power-play percentage has been the second-best in the league so far.

7. We won’t be seeing Chicago’s big off-season splash tonight. Instead, it’ll be @Corey Crawford in net for the Blackhawks. Crawford used to be a key cog in Chicago’s 2010s dynasty, but he’s fallen off a cliff since suffering multiple injuries over the past few seasons. Crawford posted a .908 save percentage last season, his worst since he split the net with Ray Emery in 2011-12. Through two games this year, Crawford has allowed nine goals on 72 shots.

8. One completely random anecdote about the Hawks I find interesting is how they’ve traded away players and then re-acquired them a few years later. We saw this with a couple of key contributors from their 2013 and 2015 Stanley Cup teams.

Saad was traded to Columbus in a multi-player deal around Artem Anisimov. He spent two years there and then the Blackhawks traded @Artemi Panarin to Columbus to re-acquire him. Panarin is the much better player, but Chicago was seeking cost certainty with Saad, who had been locked into a long-term deal with the Blue Jackets. Panarin, of course, would leave the Blue Jackets in free agency after two seasons.

The more wild one is the Shaw situation. Chicago dealt Shaw to Montreal for two second-round picks, one of which they used on the steal of the 2016 draft, @Alex DeBrincat. Chicago re-acquired Shaw after three seasons in Montreal for a second-, third-, and seventh-round pick. In Shaw’s first game back at the United Centre, he scored a goal that was assisted by DeBrincat.

9. There are two situations from the Chicago Blackhawks that come to mind when thinking about @Jesse Puljujarvi. First, there’s the recent trade of quality defenceman prospect @Henri Jokiharju for @Alexander Nylander, who was drafted in the same year as Puljujarvi and can’t seem to figure it out in North America. If Nylander can set a good prospect, so can Puljujarvi. Then there’s also Dylan Strome, who looked like a bust in Arizona before finding new life in Chicago. Strome was traded along with Brendan Perlini for a solid player in Nick Schmaltz, then put up 51 points in 58 games with the Blackhawks. He had 16 points in 48 career games with Arizona before that. I doubt Strome ever would have found his game in Arizona and I’m not sure Puljujarvi will in Edmonton either. That said, both of these situations are ones Holland can bring up when discussing trades around Puljujarvi. He should be able to net a decent return for the former fourth-overall pick. He isn’t a complete bust just yet.

10. Strome will become a restricted free agent at the end of the season and it’ll be interesting to see the contract he commands. The Hawks just got Alex DeBrincat inked to a bridge deal worth $6.4 million annually over three years. I would bet they go the same route with Strome.

Another Blackhawks free agent who doesn’t command nearly as much attention as he should is Erik Gustafsson. A fourth-round pick of the Oilers in 2012, Gustafsson never signed an entry-level deal in Edmonton. He became a free agent and signed a two-year entry-level deal with the Blackhawks and eventually broke out in 2018-19 for 60 points in 79 games.

Right now, the market for UFA defenders in 2020 features @Roman Josi, @Torey Krug, @Alex Pietrangelo, @Tyson Barrie, @Jake Muzzin, and T.J. Brodie. I imagine some of those players will ink extensions with their teams, but Gustafsson will have a chance to pull in a major payday this summer if he has another big season offensively.