Death, taxes and the Oilers failing to defend off the rush.
It’s continued to be an issue this season for the team whose downfall in the playoffs last year, in part, was due to their inability to limit opposing teams’ rush.
The Oilers have been near the middle of the pack in terms of it on the season as a whole, according to Clear Sight Analytics, with the team ranking 18th in high danger chances off the rush and 17th in odd-man rushes against.
But since the turn of the new year, those numbers have fallen off a cliff, with Clear Sight Analytics having the Oilers ranked 25th in high danger chances off the rush and 30th in odd-man rushes against.
Edmonton’s issues in this area have begun to get under the skin of head coach Kris Knoblauch, taking aim at the team after their 3-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Monday night.
“Making a play, making a nice pass, it’s important, but it’s frustrating when some of the guys who aren’t contributing offensively are contributing for scoring chances against, which is really hurting us,” Knoblauch said. “It’s really different if you’re making those plays and it’s leading to offence and once in a while you get caught, but if you’re not creating that offence and you’re giving up those chances, that’s what’s hurting the team.”
And on Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli were joined by former QMJHL head coach Jon Goyens, who dove further into the issues.
Seravalli: As difficult as those clips might’ve been to watch as an Oilers fan, almost like a blooper reel, what’s been more frustrating, I think, to the fan base, has been the way they’ve played defensively. Has it all been on goaltending and not getting the stops, or has it also been the way this team has defended?Goyens: The two elements are you’re going to need some stops. There’s got to be some serious bleeping moments behind the bench at times from players and coaches, where you just need a stop, and the other part is the rush defence has been awful — near the bottom of the league in all categories on rush defence. When we fire up these clips, you’re going to see the first three goals against, you need a stop….
Goyens broke down several clips from recent Oilers games in which the team failed to defend well off the rush. A common theme through them beyond getting some saves has been things like poor gap control, and poor puck management. Some of the examples included defenders either drifting away from players carrying the puck into the offensive zone puck watching, or mistakes on pinches that are turning into odd man rushes the other way.
He would go on to say these issues are fixable.
Goyens: It is fixable because the game isn’t rocket science. The reality is reload, get above pucks. Don’t cheat yourself, don’t fuel the other teams offence and at times, the game can be as simple as get it out, get it in. And right now, you’ve got third or fourth line guys who are overhandling the puck, as we saw in those last two clips, instead of a simple chip, play behind the other teams defenders, and until you can simplify that part, you’re going to keep seeing what we’re seeing right now, which is a 3-6-0 record since the 4 Nations.
You can watch the episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE below, where Goyens dives into the must-watch clips.
Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.
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