It’s no secret that things haven’t been superb in northern Alberta over the past few weeks. While the Edmonton Oilers are destined to make it back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, some fans are concerned about whether the team is capable of making another deep postseason run as they did last year.
Since the 4 Nations Face-Off, the Oilers are a measly 3-6-0, including a disappointing 3-2 loss at the hands of the Buffalo Sabres, the last-place team in the Eastern Conference, on Monday night.
While many factors could be blamed for the team’s recent shortcomings — poor goaltending, for one — the lack of secondary scoring hasn’t helped Edmonton’s cause, either. This, despite the Oilers having one of the most efficient power plays since the league-wide pause, scoring at a clip of 38.9 percent on the man advantage.
As of Wednesday, the Oilers (37-23-4) are second in the Pacific Division, now trailing the Vegas Golden Knights by five points.
The topic of depth scoring arose during the Coaches Room segment of Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE. Former QMJHL head coach Jon Goyens joined Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk to discuss what has gone wrong in Edmonton over the past few weeks.
Goyens: Chris Knobloch said, “If you’re not contributing offensively, you can also be contributing to the offense of the other team.” I think that’s a huge issue right now with the Oilers. It’s crazy because there’s elements like their forecheck is so-so, but yet they are by far, since the 4 Nations, number one in offensive zone possession time. The problem is, there is no secondary scoring.I made this kind of comment about the [Montreal] Canadians recently, where they have a top three and a bottom nine. If Draisaitl and McDavid are on the same line, you’re almost looking at the same type of situation in Edmonton. There is no depth scoring. So, what I’m looking at is, they are getting to certain spots, but they just can’t finish…It’s the old saying you wouldn’t hit water if you fall out of a boat, and that’s kind of what we’re seeing from the Edmonton Oilers.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here (Goyens starts talking at 19:19)
