Game Day Notes: Carolina Hurricanes at Edmonton Oilers

Some stats, thoughts and notes heading into tonight’s tilt between the Oilers and Hurricanes.

>>Laurent Brossoit will make his first start of the season and third appearance. He has stopped 25 of 27 shots in 57 minutes after coming off the bench in Vancouver and vs. Ottawa. “I don’t see it as me and Cam are competing for a spot. I really see it as, we’re a team. The better we are a a tandem, the better we both have to be to earn our opportunities. The better I have to be to earn starts, the better I’ll be long-term,” Brossoit said this morning.

>>LB was scheduled to get a start in the first five or six. We have to play him. He has to develop. We don’t want Cam playing 73 games again,” said Todd McLellan. McLellan also recognized Talbot is working on some areas of his game after a few rough outings.

>>Matt Benning skated this morning, but he was off the ice very quickly after the morning skate and he won’t play tonight. He is ill according to McLellan.

>>Carolina scored four goals in their first game vs. Minnesota, but only have two in their last two games. They won in a SO, lost in OT and then lost 2-1 in Winnipeg in regulation on Saturday night. They have outshot the opposition 109-75. They don’t give up many shots or scoring chances.

>>The Oilers have outshot teams 155-127. I don’t buy it is simply due to score effects. They outshot Calgary 45-27 in a 3-0 shutout. They scored first in Vancouver and outshot them 13-6 in the first period and were ahead 20-11 in the first period of game three over the Jets. They have actually had a good start in three of four games, but couldn’t finish vs. Winnipeg and played way too loose allowing two goals. Their first 17 minutes against Ottawa were horrific. They had one shot and trailed 2-0. If you take out the Calgary game and the first period vs. the Jets the shots are 90-89 in the other eight periods.

>>The Oilers special teams have been anything but special. Their PK is 31st at 70.6%. They have allowed five goals on 17 kills. Carolina is tied for 6th at 87.5%. They have only been shorthanded eight times in three games. Edmonton’s powerplay 26th at 8.3%. They are 1-for-12 on the man advantage. Carolina is 19th at 16.7%. They are 2-for-12.

>>Sherwood Park resident Cam Ward will make his first start of the season for the Hurricanes. This is his 13th career game vs. the Oilers. He is 6-4-2 with a .902sv% and a 2.51 GAA. He is 1-3-2 all-time in Edmonton.

>>I’m curious what people think about the Oilers CF% right now. They are ranked #1 in the NHL at 59.5%. Do you think that is an accurate reflection of how they’ve played? I doubt most of us would. They haven’t played very well, but they also aren’t as bad as some have been saying. It is also a very small sample size, but it interesting to see a team who has struggled mightily the past two games sit 1st in the NHL. If you use Corsi adjusted they are still 3rd in the NHL thus far. One stat will never tell us everything about the game, and I didn’t point this out to devalue CF%, but just a reminder that it, like many stats and “eye-test” can be just as misleading.

>>Carolina is good in the dot again. They are 7th at 53.1%. The Oilers are 20th at 48.8%. The crazy stat for the Oilers is they are 67% in the dot while shorthanded. They have won 16 of 24 faceoffs while shorthanded. Most teams are under 50% when down a man, but Edmonton has been very good on the draws, but then can’t get the puck out. Case in point was the second goal vs. Ottawa on Saturday. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins won the faceoff cleanly, but Adam Larsson partially fanned on his clearing attempt up the boards. Ottawa kept it and and three passes later the puck was in the net. Winning the faceoff while shorthanded is huge, but if you can’t clear it out, often it comes back to haunt you.

>>I’m amazed at what people will believe, and more importantly what rumours they like to spread despite not actually knowing the situation. “I heard Draisaitl got knocked out at a bar,” has been flooding my email and texts for the past five days. What’s hilariously ignorant is not one person has mentioned where it happened. Why? Either it didn’t happen, or people don’t know the entire story. Bar owners talk to one another and if something like that had occurred they would know about it, and they would have seen video of it. I’ve been in the back offices of many bars and they have video of every area of their establishment. And guess what. I spoke to numerous bar owners/managers the past few days and they hadn’t heard anything. I’m not saying 100% it didn’t happen, and of course the Oilers won’t confirm it if it did. If someone did see something, let me know and I will report, but if you are someone who has spread the rumour without knowing for sure if it is accurate, grow up. You give fans a bad name. Is it possible a fight occurred in a bar, you bet, and it wouldn’t be the first time a 21-year-old man, NHL player or not, was involved in a tilt. But until I get a credible source telling me they saw firsthand, or has video or it, I won’t join in the rumour spreading.

>>Here is the play Draisaitl got hit on.

>>It doesn’t look overly dangerous, but concussion symptoms impact players differently. Some are affected right away, while others experience the symptoms later on.