The Edmonton Oilers are back in action tonight against the Carolina Hurricanes following a 4–1 loss at the hands of the Dallas Stars. While this was a not-great outing from the team, it came following a very good performance against the Nashville Predators. In that game, the Oilers looked like a playoff team. They got a goal from Connor McDavid, two from defenceman Brett Kulak, and a strong performance from Calvin Pickard in net. Darnell Nurse had a fight as well, that changed the momentum in the game.
Even though the Stars game wasn’t perfect, it felt like things were beginning to turn around for the team. The lines were slowly starting to gel, even with McDavid and Leon Draisaitl together on one line. There was also yet another good game from the third line, which has been one of the better storylines around the team this season.
However, the Oilers have once again gone and changed their lineup in tonight’s game against the Hurricanes. Here’s how they’re lining up:
Separating McDavid and Draisaitl
The biggest change that the Oilers have made from last game to this one is to separate McDavid from Leon Draisaitl. The dynamic duo had been together the last two games, and the team won both of those games. Playing against the very deep Carolina Hurricanes, this decision makes a ton of sense logically, but for the team that was starting to gel like this, it does beg some questions.
Splitting up Skinner-Henrique-Brown
In splitting up McDrai, the Oilers could have kept part of the forward group as it was, but instead opted to rework the full group. Elevated to the top line in Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who has zero points on the year to play alongside McDavid, and fellow zero-pointer Zach Hyman. Both are hoping to catch fire alongside McDavid.
However, instead of just swapping Nuge with Draisaitl, the Oilers elevated Jeff Skinner to the second line, swapped Derek Ryan to the third line, and moved Adam Henrique down to the bottom line. The line of Skinner, Henrique, and Connor Brown has been one of the few bright spots this season for the Oilers, and that one is a headscratcher. In last week’s Sunday Census, 88.5% of poll respondents felt this was the team’s top line this season, and for good reason. This line had incredible chemistry, their underlying numbers were fantastic, and were finally a depth line that looked good.
Henrique will now play with Corey Perry and Vasily Podkolzin, which is fine, but a bizarre decision for the team to make. Podkolzin feels like the piece that doesn’t fit right now, having started with nearly every forward so far except for McDavid and Hyman. The team will be hoping to see similar chemistry form with three brand new lines, but to expect it in the first game together as well as while playing a tough team like the Canes is a big ask.
Blueline changes as well
The Oilers are also making changes to their blueline. The top group remains the same of course, with Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard remaining as one. Bouchard leads the NHL in shot attempts this season at 5v5.
However from there, the Oilers moved everything around. Darnell Nurse moves to his off-side, and will play on the right with Travis Dermott, who was scratched last game. Kulak remains on the bottom pair and Troy Stecher moves down to join him there.
This leaves Ty Emberson as the extra defenceman. He wasn’t great in the loss versus the Stars, but he was far from the worst Oilers’ blueliner. It’s plausible they are giving him the night off to watch and grow his game, but we all have flashbacks to Oilers defencemen over the years that were unceremoniously left on the shelf for no good reason and then were traded only to turn out far better on other teams.
It’s too early to worry about this with Emberson for sure, but this is definitely something to watch going forward.
Does Knoblauch have it right?
This is the first full season for Kris Knoblauch and the Oilers are going through very similar motions as they did early last season before he was brought on. The team lacks the fight that took them to the Stanley Cup Finals last season and simply do not have that swagger right now. Hopefully these changes spark something in the team that has struggled so far this season, but making this many moves runs the risk of not allowing chemistry to naturally develop.
Tonight’s game will be telling to see if the Oilers can make things work with their group or if there may need to be moves made to shake up the room.
