Eight games ago, our last Oil Check was a positive one, and it appeared that the Edmonton Oilers were on their way to yet another midseason turnaround and heat up for the stretch run.
In a way, I guess a turnaround did happen, but in the opposite direction.
The Oilers then proceeded to drop the next two games, including an ugly 6–2 loss against Pittsburgh, where they let in three goals in a 38-second stretch just three minutes into the game.
The team did win the next three games, starting with a roller coaster 6–5 overtime win over Washington, but would subsequently lose the last three games before the Olympic break, making them 3–5 for this stretch. There is definitely worry in Oil Country about the Oilers’ play recently, and Leon Draisaitl’s post-game interview after the loss to Calgary was about as raw and unfiltered as it can get.
Let’s take a look at some of the stories that came out of this roller coaster of a stretch.
Evan Bouchard: the world’s most polarizing defenceman
You probably heard Evan Bouchard’s name a lot recently, which has to do with him having a pretty great stretch of hockey. He has 15 points in the last eight games, including scoring a hat trick and adding assists on the other three Oilers’ goals against Washington. That puts him second in the league among all skaters in that time frame, five points behind Nikita Kucherov. 12 of those were at even strength as well, showing that Bouchard wasn’t just feasting on the power play.
The discourse around Bouchard also increased in light of the upcoming Olympic Games, since Bouchard was not picked for Team Canada. While nobody outside of the management room truly knows why Bouchard was passed over, the most obvious reason is worries about Bouchard’s defensive play. This has led to back-and-forth fights between Bouchard supporters and Bouchard non-supporters. The supporters point to the fact that he is one of the best point-producing defencemen in the playoffs in NHL history (he holds the NHL record for most assists in one playoff run and has 81 points in 75 career playoff games), while the non-supporters will pull up a few clips of Bouchard making defensive errors.
I won’t get into the snubbing of Bouchard again, but I think it is safe to say that Bouchard does not actually deserve the amount of vitriol and derision he gets, especially from some Oilers fans. If there is one bright spot in the last stretch, it has been Bouchard.
Put me in coach!
As will tend to be the case when a team is not performing, the coach’s seat appears to be getting a little hot. When your star player straight-up mentions the coaches as needing to be better, like Draisaitl did, then it has to be close to scorching.
Earlier this season, the biggest criticism of Kris Knoblauch was his blending the lines a ton, which didn’t seem to be conducive to building chemistry. There was also concern about him not playing young players like Matt Savoie and Isaac Howard enough.
Now, it seems like any forward not named McDavid, Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, or Zach Hyman is unlikely to see much ice time in the third period of a close game. Those four each averaged over 20 minutes a game these last eight games (with McDavid averaging over 24 minutes!), with the next forward, Kasperi Kapanen, playing 16 minutes a night, followed by Jack Roslovic and Vasily Podkolzin at 14:46 and 14:44.
An interview Derek Ryan did after Dave Tippett was fired in 2022 and Jay Woodcroft was hired has been making rounds again in light of this ice time issue. Ryan stating that everyone getting a chance and opportunity to chip in under Woodcroft gives them confidence seems to be pretty applicable today. Ryan did, in fact, say something similar again recently that the depth players need a role and a chance.
Obviously, the team is still going to live and die on the backs of Draisaitl and McDavid, but it’s a long season and continuing to ride them this hard is not a recipe for long term success. This isn’t basketball, where you can be fully carried by a player or two. You need the entire team to be going, and not playing players isn’t a way to do that.
Goaltending or defence, which comes first?
The goaltending has not looked great recently, with both Tristan Jarry and Connor Ingram posting sub-0.900 save percentages over the last eight games.
Since that is a brand new duo from the previous Stuart Skinner-Calvin Pickard tandem, it begs the question of whether it is actually the defence that is the issue. Maybe not necessarily the defence corps, but the team defence in general.
The Oilers allowed 36 goals in the past eight games, the most in the league. They also had the worst penalty kill, at just 54%. From the eye test, it certainly appears that the team is not playing a tight game defensively and making pretty avoidable mistakes that end up in the back of the net.
On the other hand, the 26 shots against per game they were allowing was the 12th best in the league, and the shot differential of 8.3 is the highest. The fact that the Oilers were just 2–5 in games where they outshot the other team seems to suggest the issue is more with the goaltending.
But it really is hard to tell, frankly. As Draisaitl said, both the defence and the goaltending can (and need to) be better.
What’s next for Edmonton?
There is now a 20-day Olympic break. As the Oilers only have three players going to Milan, that means the rest of the team will have a chance to rest and reset (although many of those players probably aren’t all that tired given the playing time issues mentioned above).
The Oilers return with a three-game road trip in California, then come back for a two-game homestand against the Ottawa Senators and Carolina Hurricanes. Their final three games before our next Oil Check are on the road again, and are a gauntlet where they face Vegas, Colorado and Dallas.
Things could get out of hand pretty quickly, given the Oilers are just one point above both the third place in the Pacific (Seattle) and the second wild card spot (Anaheim), who both have games in hand.
There is a roster freeze during the break, meaning we won’t be seeing any moves. However, that doesn’t apply to coaches, and so one has to wonder what the management is thinking in that respect. I wouldn’t count on a firing just yet, but where there is this smoke…
In any event, at least everyone can take a step away from the Oilers for three weeks and instead focus on the Olympics and redirect our angst and ire at that management group for essentially just bringing back the 4 Nations roster instead of actually picking the best players.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
