First to the micro and the goal against.
I contended that Evan Bouchard slamming on the brakes was high comedy, stopping his momentum, which was careening toward Miller, and then backing out of the way to cover a phantom pass was not the answer.
I texted a junior hockey coach I know, and he told me, “Did he stop because he was scared he was going to actually hit him?!”
But yes, Leon Draisaitl lost his man. Connor McDavid stared at the play along with 18,347 spectators. A big save eludes Stuart Skinner.
A tale as old as Oiler time.
The Oilers are leaning too heavily on their star players
Leon Draisaitl played 25:14 in the loss to New York, which is the second time already this season he’s eclipsed 25 minutes, and the fourth time he’s surpassed 24 minutes.
Connor McDavid played 24:33, his fourth-highest TOI this season. His average TOI is 23:35. That’s 1:32 more than last season!
Edmonton’s top two forwards led all skaters in time-on-ice on Thursday, more than all the defencemen on either team.
This is simply too much hockey for them right now, especially as we acknowledge “October Oilers” struggles and this part of the season doesn’t matter all that much, and it’s about being ready when the time comes along. All the talking points blah-blah-blah.
I’d feel a whole lot better about that sentiment if it were reflected in the ice-times. These are the sorts of minutes you’d expect from top-pairing defencemen.
The team’s record of 5-4-3 would be much easier to justify if newcomers like Matt Savoie (way to get on the board, kid!) and Isaac Howard were routinely getting shifts. The record would be much easier to stomach if rookie mistakes were costing them. Instead, it’s rookie mistakes from Evan Bouchard, Darnell Nurse, and Stuart Skinner, combined with the turn-a-wheel-sometimes, glide-when-I-like play of the top forwards, as they expend and save energy on the fly. While I like the eleven-forward, seven-defenceman lineup at times to create new looks so the Knoblauch blender doesn’t spill over the kitchen — this ain’t the time.
Managing McDavid and Draisaitl’s minutes has to be more of a priority for this long, gruelling season. What benefit is there for an October win if you expend every morsel of your best player’s energy right now?
I’m not suggesting they play 12 minutes a night, but they can play a regular shift for a while, just like Evan Bouchard. Or with the repeated turnovers, they can sit for a while, just like Nurse did on Tuesday.
It’s okay if others take the limelight for a game.
This matters more because we know the wars the Oilers have endured the last two campaigns, and the especially truncated schedule.
Particularly in road games, Edmonton looks lethargic; they seem tired and fatigued. The body language is dogged.
The Rangers contest was the Oilers’ tenth game in 17 days. They will not have consecutive days between games until after a back-to-back on the road Nov. 3 and 4 at St. Louis and Dallas.
They await three days off. They return home Saturday to play Colorado, host Columbus on Monday, and then endure a lugubrious seven-game road trip beginning Wednesday, Nov. 12, which features two back-to-backs.
That’s seven games in 11 days, finishing the trip in a heated rematch against the Florida Panthers on Nov. 22.
Are you kidding me? But every team is going through it right now.
The Oilers look like a team that could use practice.
If everything went perfectly to plan, McDavid and others would play something like 110 games this year (regular season, Olympics, playoffs). That’s an absurd amount of hockey.
And he’s playing 1:32 more on average than last year?
That is unsustainable.
That is concerning.
