The Edmonton Oilers find themselves down 2–1 in this first round series against the Anaheim Ducks. If Game 3 is a preview of what’s to come then frankly they have no chance whatsoever. The title of this article is “five major flaws that could end the series,” but it could just as easily have been 15. It would be faster to list the things that are going right for the Oilers, but I’m in no mood to do that so here are the five things killing the Oilers right now:
Egregious defending as always
Problem number one for the Oilers is their defending. If they were doing everything else well this would still be enough to lose them the series. The third and sixth goal, and to a degree the second goal, are just poor coverage. One of the first things a defenceman learns is that defending the front of the net has very little to do with the puck. You don’t worry about the puck, you worry about the man. Make sure his stick is not on the ice, make sure he is not within three feet of the goalie, make his life a living hell so that he never wants to come back to the front of the net.
Not everything can be blamed on the defence though. On the sixth goal, both Edmonton defencemen lose coverage from poor play, but Connor McDavid needs to be back to help out faster on that play, that’s it’s own problem though.
Plain and simple, Anaheim just looks like they want the puck more than Edmonton. They are winning the puck and positioning battles, and it has allowed them to score easy rebounds. It’s been said a million times on the broadcast, Anaheim is too skilled to play a weak defensive game against, they are young and fast and right now they want to win more.
Bad turnovers from everyone
I hate to harp on the defencemen—they aren’t solely responsible for this Game 3 loss—but the poor decision-making and the laissez-faire attitude with the puck when they’re the last man back or when they are making the first pass of the breakout is just not good enough. It is a sin they have been guilty of stretching back further than this season. Evan Bouchard needs to set a better example for the defencemen. He will garner considerable Norris Trophy votes this year, and as a Norris Trophy contender, he needs to step up and play with more urgency. It seems like the other defenceman are regressing in his direction and they will not win like that.
With his offensive skill, if Bouchard could cut that part out of his game he would be guaranteed to win the Norris this year and would be a front runner most years.
No hard forecheck
When the game started, the Anaheim players looked like they were fired from a cannon. They were hitting hard and the forecheck was punishing. In comparison, the Edmonton forwards looked like a 98-year-old getting their reflexes tested by the doctor.
Anaheim slowed down to a degree as the game wore on. It’s hard to keep up that pace for 60 minutes, and Edmonton did briefly show a smidgeroon of life, but it was too little too late. Actually it was more like too little and only for three minutes.
Anaheim is doing a great job of containing McDavid, and again, that’s its own problem. There were times in that game when they are a little harder on him than Edmonton should be accepting. You need to retaliate for that, but you can’t take a bad penalty. So what do you do? You dump the puck into Anaheim’s zone and carry a head full of steam directly into Jacob Trouba’s chest when he picks up the puck. It isn’t necessary to take revenge on anyone specific in order to show that you should be taken seriously.
None of Edmonton’s stars are showing up
I’ve touched on it already, but Edmonton’s best players are not showing up. It appears that McDavid is not 100% healthy. It’s easy to believe that because he isn’t looking like himself at all right now. Anaheim is having way too easy of a time containing him. Beyond that he just seems snake-bitten. A golden chance on a one-timer from Matthew Savoie that he missed by a mile, poor passes, reduced speed—he just isn’t quite himself.
Leon Draisaitl has looked solid, and his line is the only bright spot for the Oilers right now. With McDavid under the weather, the Oilers need Draisaitl to step up in a big way. He’s putting up points, but he needs to take over the game in a very McDavid-like way in order to turn this series around.
Bouchard had two assists last night but was a -3, which brings him to -6 in this series. He just needs to be better defensively.
Zach Hyman has never really been one to take over a game,but he has played with a lot more fire than he has been so far. The Oilers could use his passion as an example right now.
Lack of momentum and energy
The Oilers can’t hold onto a lead to save their lives so far this series. In Game 1 they dropped a 2–0 lead, but were able to reclaim it for the win. They got off to a lead in Game 2 before letting Anaheim score three unanswered and never fully recovered. Even when the Oilers mounted a comeback, they couldn’t hold onto that momentum for long enough.
Now in Game 3 they held the lead twice, once at 1–0, and once at 3–2, before going fully to pieces and losing 7–4. That can generally be blamed on the bad defence. How can you expect to hold onto momentum when the opponent is getting a two-on-one every three minutes?
The general lack of energy is also to be blamed for this. The team, with the exception of a couple players, mostly Vasily Podkolzin and Kasperi Kapanen, did not deserve to hold a lead at any point during this game. Even when they got lucky, they didn’t change anything. They didn’t energize themselves even one single watt.
Anaheim is the younger team, and right now they’re making Edmonton look ancient. If Edmonton has any hope of winning this series, they need to inject a little adrenaline into their game.
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