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How Are The Oilers Doing in the World Cup Prelims So Far?
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Chris the intern
Sep 13, 2016, 16:00 EDTUpdated:
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We are a few days into the World Cup of Hockey preliminary rounds, and I though that now is the perfect time for a look at the Oilers that are playing in the tournament. These first few games have without a doubt made me even more excited for the real tournament to get started on Saturday! 
There are four Edmonton Oilers taking part in the tournament; Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins play for team North America, and Leon Draisaitl and Andrej Sekera play for Europe. In the preliminary round, each team was matched up with another to play back-to-back games, followed by a third game against another team. It just so happened that our own boys faced off against each other for two games in a row, with Team North America winning both games. 

If you thought that putting the youngest team in the tournament up against the oldest team in the tournament would allow the young team to skate circles around the old guys, you were right. That’s exactly what happened. Team North America did what they do besmt and showed the rest of the tournament what they can do against more experienced teams. The more experienced teams definitely took notice too. Drew Doughty had this to say after the North American beatdowns on team Europe. 
“I haven’t watched any of their games, but obviously I’ve heard what they’ve been doing, a couple guys around the room watched the games and were talking about it and saying how fast and good they looked. I kind of figured that. I thought that they’d be a team that caught a lot of people by surprise.”
Team North America obviously made an amazing first impression and showed that they are to be taken serious. That being said, what I care more about is how our Oilers are doing. They will be missing valuable training camp time because of the World Cup so I think it’s important that we keep our eye on them throughout the next couple of weeks. 

Connor McDavid


What’s not to love about Connor McDavid? Last Thursday was the first time in months that we got to see Connor skate in a competitive game, and it took no more than five minutes for him to take my breath away. He was making end-to-end rushes and had the crowd standing on their feet and cheering for him in his first couple shifts. Safe to say that the time off this summer hasn’t put a damper on his play. If anything, it gave him time to work on his weaknesses (what weaknesses, am I right?), which made him even better. 
In an article earlier this week, Jason Gregor had this to say about Connor’s first couple of games:
“He looks stronger in the faceoff dot and I noticed some small changes in how he approaches and attacks the faceoff… At the end of last season, he mentioned he wanted to improve in the dot, so I shouldn’t be surprised he looks better. He’s driven, and he’ll work on small parts of his game to make his overall play even more dominant.”
I’ve been seeing a lot of people worry how Connor hasn’t put up any points in his first two games yet. I really don’t think this is a concern whatsoever. He is still playing an amazing two-way game and contributing on both ends. Connor doesn’t need to put up points with Team America cause he has 20 teammates that are capable of doing it. Remember how he didn’t put up any points in his first couple games as an Oiler and some thought we were all doomed? And then he went on to contribute over a point per game? I think he’ll be alright. 

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

Nuge has also been solid through the first few preliminary games. He’s been playing a bit of second line centre, a bit of third line centre, and even a bit of wing time with Nathan MacKinnon in the middle. Since it’s only the preliminary games, I don’t think there is such a thing as a depth chart right now. Lines will change and I’m sure Nuge will settle into a role as time moves on. In the meantime, he’s been playing some classic Nuge-hockey. Working hard on both ends of the ice, winning faceoffs, and battling hard in one-on-one battles. His one goal can summarize his work ethic in the tournament so far. 
If Baby Nuge’s work ethic here doesn’t inspire you then we don’t know what will. #MotivationMonday
A video posted by OilersNation (@officialoilersnation) on

You can catch Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins play one more time before the actual tournament begins on Wednesday against the Czech Republic. 

Leon Draisaitl

Unfortunately for Leon, he was on the other end of the North American beat down. He hasn’t been playing at his best just yet, but neither has his team. In fact, Leon ended up getting benched in Europe’s last game, only seeing two shifts in the last forty minutes of play. Ralph Kruger said it wasn’t just because of his play, but also to give their other stars some more ice time to try get their wheels moving and to give Draisaitl some rest. (Leon had just finished playing for Team Germany in the Olympic qualifiers earlier this month, in which they successfully qualified for the 2018 Olympic games.)
Either way, I’m sure it didn’t feel good to watch his teammates play and lose from the bench. Leon Draisaitl is also playing alongside his idol, Anze Kopitar, who coach Ralph Krueger stated that “he can now stop watching how [Kopitar] ties his skates,” implying that hopefully he’s past his “awestruck” phase after playing a couple games with Kopitar.

Andrej Sekera

Sekera brings some international experience to Team Europe, playing over 70 games with Slovakia in his lifetime. He is slotted in the second defence pairing behind Chara and Josi, which on paper sounds like it would add some nice depth to their roster with Seidenberg and Streit as well, however the box scores tell a different story. With Europe allowing five goals in the first period of the second game, it’s safe to say that this was a team effort, or lack of effort. 
Andrej Sekera and Leon Draisaitl have one more chance to redeem themselves in the preliminary round against Team Sweden on Wednesday. 
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