Sunday Scaries: Is it time to get worried about the Oilers?

On Tuesday, the Oilers finally found their game and convincingly beat the Predators.

It was a promising game for the team and us as fans after two terrible games against Vancouver.

Having your team score six goals after struggling for the first two games of the season is a step in the right direction, but only if followed by more steps in the right direction.

Leon Draisaitl, Mayor of Nashville, scored two goals and broke the Oilers’ PPG record with his 127th power play tally. Hyman, McDavid, Nuge, and Foegele were all able to get themselves on the board in what was a fantastic game to watch and enjoy. Jack Campbell stopped all but one of Nashville’s 44 shots on goal for what was easily his best game of the season.

After this taste of winning, I thought that the Oilers would steamroll Philly, too. As you know, I was wrong. The Oilers went into that matchup with the Flyers and lost 4-1 in a game where not much went well on either side of the puck.

Jay Woodcroft had a good summary of the game:

For their final game of the week, the Oilers took on the Winnipeg Jets on home ice and got a promising 2-0 lead in the first period.

The Oilers’ two goals came from defencemen Evan Bouchard and Darnell Nurse and would stand as the only two the team would put up in the game. Winnipeg completed the comeback in overtime, where Mark Scheifele scored the overtime winner to allow them to walk away with the extra point.

 

first, Jack Hughes is on fire so far this season. He has ten points in four games with the New Jersey Devils leading his team and the league. Draisaitl is tied for Second with Nikita Kucherov, William Nylander, John Tavares and Dylan Larkin, all with nine points.

After last night’s game, Connor McDavid is tied for third with a long list of players with eight points each.

There are already some injuries coming to some clubs, with Robby Fabbri out four weeks with a lower-body injury that the team initially thought was day-to-day but turned out to be more serious. Gabe Vilardi is also out for four-six weeks with an MCL sprain. After taking his place on the Jets’ top line and top power play, he will likely be missed for those four to six weeks.

Rasmus Anderson is serving a four-game suspension for a hit on Columbus Blue Jackets Patrik Laine, who was seemingly injured on the play as he did not travel with the team.

Despite the NHL’s ban, Travis Dermott quietly told the league to eff off in his game against the Anaheim Ducks by using Pride Tape.,

Edmonton’s next two games will be challenging for the team as they play the Minnesota Wild in Minnesota, and then the New York Rangers will pay the Oilers a visit on Thursday.

Then, after those two games, it’s the Oilers vs Flames for the Heritage Classic next Sunday at Commonwealth Stadium.

I would be lying if I didn’t say that, as of right now, all of these games are concerning for me, considering the questions surrounding Connor McDavid and his health, as well as the team’s general play thus far. Very few things are going well enough to have any kind of confidence in this team right now.

I am starting to get the Scaries, I won’t lie.

After five games, the Oilers have only one win, which wouldn’t be totally concerning if there weren’t teams like Vegas and Colorado who haven’t lost a game yet this season.

Near the end of the last game, Connor McDavid sat on the bench with a suspected injury to his back/hip left leg area after awkwardly colliding with Josh Morrisey. Jay Woodcroft said he believes it might be muscular, nothing has been confirmed, but after the collision, he did not play the rest of the tied game or overtime period, which was a (justified) cause of concern for many.

The fact that it has only been five games is the only crutch I’m leaning on right now because maybe the Oilers are just struggling to get going this season, but if they keep digging this hole, they are going to have a VERY hard time climbing out of it. At some point, the digging stops and the drowning starts, and luckily, we aren’t there yet. We still have 77 (ouch) games left this season, so lots of time to improve, but it has to start somewhere and the longer this team waits to get rolling the harder this season is going to be for players and fans.