Monday Mailbag – How do you fix the power play?

It’s mailbag time again, my friends, and that means I’ve taken the questions you’ve sent me and fired them over to our panel of writers to get all the answers you’ve always been looking for. I say it every week, but this segment is entirely dependent on you guys to make it work, so send me your questions. You can email me at baggedmilk@oilersnation.com or hit me up on Twitter at @jsbmbaggedmilk.com. Enjoy.

You can talk about being in a playoff race, but with 62 games still to go a lot could change. If they pick up ten points in next ten games I’d say they will look like a team that should be able to compete for a playoff spot.

I think the Oilers need to gather 15 points from the 15 November games. If they do, the club will enter December with 24gp and 29 points. That gives them a good position entering the heart of the season.

I don’t see more than three wins in this segment for the Oilers, so 10 points is a reach unless they can pick up four loser points. With the 7-2-1 start, only getting seven or eight points won’t be the end of the world — if it’s eight, for example, they’ll still have 23 points after 20 games. As for talking playoffs (or not talking playoffs) you’re getting ahead of yourself. They won’t be so good or so bad after 20 games that you can count them in or out.

They did well in the first “easier” part of the season. As a player you don’t get to far ahead of yourself. You just focus on the two points you can grab that night. A coach I had would always say “Two points in November is worth the same as two in April.”

Edmonton absolutely needs to come out .500 in the stretch if we want to talk playoffs. If we want to get really excited they should be above that. If they continue to get mangled then it’s time to worry about whether October was a mirage.

If we come out 0.75 maybe we can talk about playoffs. If we win five of the next ten games I would still be happy, but the inner Oiler in me will always be paranoid about double digit losing streaks.

If the Oilers can figure out a way to float around .500 then they could be in good shape coming out of the road trip. Unfortunately, they wasted a couple games to start the trip and now they’ll have some work to do in order to catch up.

Honestly, I think some are looking for every touch on Connor to be a penalty. He has the puck a lot, so he will have guys on him and not every play has been a penalty. However, sadly the NHL doesn’t want to call obstruction, so he like many other superstars will be endure more holding than most would like. For reasons I don’t understand the NHL seems okay with obstruction.

Yes. He got off to a brilliant start and teams will key on him. The NHL is a tough league, but he is a brilliant player. McDavid will not impact every night, but he will post a tremendous season and emerge as the best player in the game.

All the best players face what McDavid is facing now. That’s how it works. I don’t think he’s taken too much abuse.

I remember playing against Sidney Crosby his first few years and he would always feel like he was getting abused and talking with the refs. He is a great player and he is a target. Everyone wants to slow him down and not let him get going. I think 97 is going to have to get used to it.

Yes, I think he takes too much abuse. However, that’s what happens to star players in the NHL. They get beat up all the time. McDavid especially is going to get beat up because defenders need to obstruct him in order to stop him. He’s the best skater in the NHL and he’s a puck carrier. That’s a recipe for abuse. Referees won’t call everything because PPs would be 7-2 in favour of the Oilers every game.

I’m trying not to be too worrisome over McDavid cause he’s a big kid and can handle himself, but I definitely wish Lucic or someone would have punched out Kadri last week. I don’t mind the non-call on Kadri’s OT winning goal, but i’m shocked about the other calls that haven’t gone McDavid’s way. If anything, you’d think Connor should be a little more protected by the officials than an average player (even though I hate talking about this stuff). I just always remember commentators comment how people aren’t allowed to get away with slashing Sidney Crosby like that. Why not McDavid too?

I’ve definitely noticed and I wonder when he’s going to start getting those calls go his way. I’m specifically thinking of when Erik Karlsson had McDavid in a headlock, right in from of the official, and there was no call made. That said, the biggest problem the Oilers have is not that Connor isn’t getting calls it’s that their power play has been brutally ineffective.

I suspect he will play over 65 games this year. The Oilers needs a good start and he was playing great so there was no need to rest him. They had easy travel schedule as well. To be one of league’s best goalies he needs to be  able to play 60+ games and be solid in the majority of them.

He is getting plenty of rest between games and appears to want the net. Ride the wave!

He won’t sustain his current pace. The Oilers have had a good schedule in terms of lack of back-to-back games so I don’t see fatigue as an issue at this point.

Every goalie is different but I do know they like to play. If they get enough rest on off days they can go for a while. This is all new for Talbot, he has never been “the man”, so he and Todd will have to figure it out.

I think goalies can play way more games than we credit them for. I would be using the backup in back-to-back situations or once performance dips. That’s it. My starter gets every other game. Twenty games for a backup is way too many.

Talbot has #DadStrength now so as far as I’m concerned he can play 70 games this year without a muscle cramp!

Right now, Dadbot looks like he could play all 82 games if he needed to. The guy is a professional athlete so I think his stamina will be fine as long as they don’t start trotting him out there on back-to-back nights.

I would add a second right shot on the PP, even if the player isn’t as gifted offensively as Draisaitl.  But first I would strongly encourage them to stop being so selfless and start shooting the puck when they are in a good spot. I wouldn’t freak out. I’ll bet they score a few and be over 20% within a week. It is early and one or two good games can change the perception of the PP quickly.

I would wander down the hall and ask the GM where my RH hammer shot defenseman is.

Oilers are getting more pucks through to the net from above the circles but they still need more people at the net when the puck arrives. Would like to see more second and third chances instead of one and done.

I want more puck movement early and a quick shot within 10 seconds of puck drop. That is what gets the killers running around.

I’d get Puljujarvi playing with McDavid as fast as humanly possible with Maroon in front and Lucic doing board work. Second unit is RNH, Eberle, Pouliot, Draisaitl. Nurse and Klefbom are my defenders. I like the idea of separating Eberle and McDavid. Puljujarvi has a better one-timer and Eberle needs to get back to working for his chances.

What we need on the power play is four more Connor McDavids. To be honest, the power play has “looked” much better this year. They have good puck control in the zone (when they get it), unlike last year when they could never even set something up. They obviously need to shoot more, and recently they have been, they just still can’t score goals. Frustrating stuff.

Until the Oilers get a big shot from the point I don’t know what can be changed aside from getting more shots to the net. As it stands now, the Oilers have no blue line option to fill that power play role and it leaves the other teams only having to cover four guys instead of worrying about a big point shot.

I remember playing road hockey with my older brother, mom and dad on our driveway at the farm. It was fantastic. I loved it. Great times with family playing a game we all enjoyed.

Sitting with my Dad at my Grandpa’s house watching the Toronto Maple Leafs against the Montreal Canadiens. My Grandpa was drinking Lucky Lager beer and smoking a pipe, and my Dad explained to me why Mr. Horton and Mr. Keon were the best players on the ice. That happened about 100 times in my youth.

My uncle tying my skates. He had to improvise because he was missing most of his right thumb, but he always got them just right. He also taped my sticks from heel to toe with black tape, old school, at a time when a lot of kids were using white tape and only taping their sticks at the toe.

I remember the Oilers losing to the Kings in the playoffs. I was crying but wasn’t really sure why.

Flooding the community rink with my dad. It felt like we were out there in the middle of the night. I was cold and bundled up. Not sure how young I was but small enough that everything seemed so big. The lights at the rink gave everything kind of an eerie glow. My dad was my first coach but I didn’t fall in love with hockey until I was older, well past the time I had stopped playing organized hockey. Hockey was one of the few things I had in common with my dad. So that memory in the rink is one of the first memories I have bonding with the old man, doing something together. He died when he was just 53 years old. I like thinking about these memories of us doing things together.

My first hockey memory was probably one of my first ever memories which I think is pretty cool. It was my first time skating. I just remember myself looking down at the ice while holding onto a chair while trying to balance on the ice. After that I remember not being able to stop, so the toes of my skates were always worn out cause I would just skate into the boards to stop myself. Pretty significant memory so I’m not surprised I can still remember it!

My first memory was of my dad bringing me to an Oilers/Red Wings game and then taking me downstairs to stand outside of the Oilers room to wait for autographs. When I was a kid, you were allowed to stand outside of the room and wait for the guys to walk out, and I filled up quite a few game programs with signatures as a result. First game with my dad will always be memorable.