GDB 11.0: Oilers looking for Offence and Defence (6:30pm MST, SN360)

Photo credit:Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

6 years ago

When Guns N’ Roses, specifically Axl Rose, wrote November Rain, he wasn’t thinking about the love affair between fans and their sports team, but the opening words describe how many Oilers fans are feeling. Their love for the Oilers is strained after an ugly 3-6-1 October that has the Oilers sitting 30th in the NHL and last in goals scored.

When I look into your eyes
I can see a love restrained
But darlin’ when I hold you
Don’t you know I feel the same

Nothin’ lasts forever
And we both know hearts can change
And it’s hard to hold a candle
In the cold November rain

You likely still believe in your team wearing Orange and Blue, but after a fiery 103-point romance renewed your love affair last season, the slow start has you feeling frustrated and disappointed.

New love, or rekindled love, can be invigorating, but with it comes heightened expectations and early this season the Oilers haven’t played up to their potential or expectations.

The players expected to be competitive and so far they’ve struggled. I don’t think it is lack of talent that has them floundering in 30th place, but moreso a lack of focus, execution and smarts.

Their top players are all dressed, except for Andrej Sekera, and while he is good, he isn’t so good the team drops from seventh to 30th without him. The reality is they had very few positives in the month of October.

Patrick Maroon scoring eight points in ten games is a positive. Other than that, they haven’t had many standout performances. Leon Draisaitl has seven points in six games, but only one goal. Connor McDavid has eleven points, but only eight in his last nine games, which for him is under-performing.

The Oilers will be better in November, mainly because I don’t think they can be much worse than they were in October.

Their power play is 29th at 12.1%. There is no reason it should be that bad. They have the same five guys on their top unit, the unit which dominated from December to April last year, but now they can’t score? Their passing hasn’t been as crisp. They aren’t being selfish enough and too often looking for the perfect goal. Get ugly and put pucks on goal and let Milan Lucic or Patrick Maroon bang in some rebounds. Lucic lead the Oilers in PP goals last year with ten. He has zero so far.

Their penalty killing has been abysmal, sitting 30th at 70.3%. My concern with the PK is it hasn’t been that good since November 8th, 2016. In their final 68 games last year and the first ten this season the PK has been bad. It needs to improve, but I don’t see it happening overnight, especially against one of the best powerplays in the NHL tonight. The Oilers best PK strategy will be to stay out of the sin bin versus a Penguins PP that is clicking along at 28% (fourth in NHL) this year.

The players need to play better and the coaches should look at altering their formation on the penalty kill or the Oilers October woes will continue into November and the drips of failure could become a downpour.

LINEUP…

Oilers

Maroon-McDavid-Draisaitl
Lucic-RNH-Yamamoto
Caggiula-Strome-Slepyshev
Pakarinen-Letestu-Kassian

Nurse-Larsson
Klefbom-Benning
Russell-Gryba

Talbot

The Oilers powerplay units have been changed. Draisaitl and Lucic will move to the second unit with Nugent-Hopkins, Strome and Benning, while Caggiula and Maroon go to the first unit with McDavid, Letestu and Klefbom. Whichever unit produces will get more icetime on the PP. There will be a healthy competition.

Penguins

Sheary-Crosby-Horbqvist
Kuhnhackl-Malkin-Rust
Guentzel-Sheahan-Kessel
Archibald-McKegg-Reaves

Dumoulin-Letang
Maatta-Ruhwedel
Cole-Trotman

Murray

Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan switched up his lines for tonight, most notably splitting up Malkin and Kessel. The Penguins powerplay is rolling with 14 goals on 50 chances (28%), but they only have 17 5×5 goals in 13 games. He gave them 13 games to get going and it hasn’t worked, so he elected to switch it up.

Dumoulin and Letang, and mainly Dumoulin, did a good job of containing McDavid in Pittsburgh. It is rare to completely shut him down, but Dumoulin’s gap control was outstanding. Sullivan said this about trying to get that matchup tonight.

Lineups (subject to change) are courtesy of DailyFaceoff.com.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING…

From the Pens Blog

Tonight the Penguins lace them up for another game against Edmonton, it should be nationally televised but it isn’t because nbcsn is doing a great job with their broadcasting rights. How many Lebron vs Curry matchups does the NBA casually not televise? What about Manning vs Brady when Peyton was still playing? Those leagues get it. The NHL thinks you should pay for nhl.tv in order to see the best players, what a concept, but give you a free game on the site every night usually featuring two teams you forgot exist. The Flyers vs Chicago and Nashville vs San Jose are the televised games tonight, for what it’s worth, lol, and there isn’t a free game. If you want to drive people to your online product then this game tonight should be free and available to everyone, instead you’ve made people actively search for the illegal streams you’re trying to shutdown. Great thinking.

TONIGHT…

Photoshop: Tom Kostiuk

GAME DAY PREDICTION: The Oilers start November like they did October, with a win. 3-2.

OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: The Penguins score a powerplay goal.

NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Caggiula scores his first goal of the season and it comes on the powerplay. Maroon picks up another assist and to give him five on the season. He only had 15 last season.

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Source: Jason Gregor, Verified Twitter Account, 11/01/2017, 1:55pm MST

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