At our last Oil Check, things weren’t looking great for the Edmonton Oilers, causing somewhat of a panic across Oil Country. The Oilers had just been spanked 9–1 and were looking at an upcoming seven-game road trip, which had disaster-waiting-to-happen written all over it.
The Oilers bounced back alright from the loss, winning three of the next four games, albeit all in overtime. Three straight losses after that, including a 5–1 spanking by the Buffalo Sabres, started to set the alarm bells off.
The Oilers finished off the road trip and this eight-game segment with a hard fought 2–1 overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning and then an emphatic 6–3 win over the hated Florida Panthers.
Going 4–3–1 certainly isn’t bad, and the team is now tied for the second wild card spot. But the team still hasn’t been playing at the level that many fans expect them to be.
Win in 60 minutes? In this economy?
The Oilers have won 10 games this season, but only five of those have been in regulation time. That’s right, if the Oilers won a game, it is a 50% chance they won it in overtime.
Those five regulation wins are the second fewest in the entire league, tied with Calgary, Vancouver and Philadelphia, and just one more than San Jose and Nashville.
Yes, a win is a win, three-on-three overtime is always a fun watch—especially with Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid on your team, and Jack Roslovic seems to thrive in it too—but in the event a tiebreaker is needed in the standings, that lack of ability to finish an opponent off in 60 minutes is going to bite the Oilers in the butt real hard.
The Bouch is back
Evan Bouchard got a lot of flak at the start of the season, but he is one bright spot over the last stretch as he has started to find his game again. He scored 10 points in the last eight games, bringing him up to 20 on the season, good for fourth in the league among defencemen.
For all the noise about his defence, Bouchard was also a league-best +11 over this stretch, never having a single game with a minus rating.
Having Bouchard getting back to speed is a huge boon for the team and hopefully the rest of his teammates can get on track just like he has.
Goaltending issues yet again
Yes, goaltending is still an issue, and it’s basically the same problems that it has been in every other Oil Check (although Stuart Skinner had above 0.900 in three of his six games, which ties the three games of over 0.900 performances he had in his first 11 games so…progress?).
Maybe the team management is finally about to say enough is enough, and if that is the case hopefully they can pull the trigger sooner rather than later.
New and old whipping boys
Darnell Nurse has been a whipping boy of the fans basically ever since he signed his massive eight-year $9.25M a year contract, and his performance this year isn’t helping his case. There has been speculation around the interwebs that the “noise” is getting to him and he may waive his No-Movement Clause, but that likely is just a daydream for all of his non-fans out there.
But like Stuart Skinner, while the knives are always sharpened and ready for Nurse the second he makes a mistake, he hasn’t been good enough to warrant much defending against the criticism. At the end of the day, whether there is noise or not and regardless of his contract, the Oilers need Nurse to be better, period. With Jake Walman getting injured against the Lightning, that need becomes that much more dire.
The new whipping boy is another guy who signed an eight-year deal this summer, Trent Frederic. Frederic wasn’t the most impressive in last year’s playoffs, but the excuse was that he was recovering from injury.
However, it has been more of the same this year for Frederic, who only has two goals and no assists on the season. The thing that is most grating on fans is the lack of physicality/edge/jam that was promised with Frederic. Yes, he is second on the team in hits this year with 62, but honestly, I would have never believed that until I looked it up.
He did get into two fights over these last eight games, and also scored a goal, so perhaps he is finally getting back to form. But like Nurse, with great contract comes great responsibility, and right now Frederic hasn’t been holding up his end of the bargain.
Bet like a pro here with Bet99—Ontario’s go-to for elite odds and nonstop action. And outside Ontario, Canadians bet better here with Bet99—bringing top-tier odds and action from coast to coast.
What’s next for the Oilers
The next eight games see the Oilers play the Dallas Stars, Seattle Kraken twice, Minnesota Wild, Winnipeg Jets, Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs. While the last set had the Oilers on the road for seven of eight, this time the Oilers are at home for six games, including a five-game homestand.
That is four playoff teams plus a Buffalo team that just destroyed the Oilers, so the team isn’t going to get a whole lot of rope to continue to figure out their game.
Maybe some home cooking will be good for the team, although with the fans getting pretty restless, it may not be as friendly confines as usual. That being said, this Oilers team is only three points behind where they were after 24 games last season, and they then rattled off six wins in the next eight games. The year before that, they were two points behind where they are this year and then won five of their next eight. So clearly, the Oilers are about to start heating up again just like that, right? I’m pretty sure that is how this works.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
2 Comments