The Edmonton Oilers are not seeing enough offensive production from the forwards who should be producing the most. Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins are all players you’d expect to be putting up a large number of points in the postseason, particularly in clutch situations. Overall, that just hasn’t been the case.
Taking into account their whole offensive output, collectively, they have only scored 12 goals through three games against the Anaheim Ducks in this first round. The Ducks, however, have the most goals for in the playoffs at 16.
Let’s break down who the franchise expected more from going into this series.
Connor McDavid
Coming off the regular season, McDavid led the league with 138 points. So why such a drastic change in production? It could be due to a potential injury from game two. The centre had left the ice briefly in the game after a collision with Mattias Ekholm. Since then, his play has simply been off.
Well, more off than it was before. In the first two games McDavid, for just the 23rd time in his 99 career playoff games, was held pointless. He did get two points in Game 3, but they weren’t anything impressive. Even going back to the regular season, McDavid has only gone two straight games without a point once this season.
The goal was scored on the power play and was deflected into the Ducks’ net off of defender Pavel Mintyukov’s stick. The goal was assisted by Leon Draisaitl, who has honestly been par for the course in the series so far.
Leon Draisaitl
The German-born player currently has six points in the postseason. The same number he sported through the first three games of the playoffs last year. His line has the most production on the team. He has been unproblematic so far in the playoffs.
Draisaitl is primarily centring Vasily Podkolzin and Kasperi Kapanen. Between the three of them, they have 14 points. Demonstrating not only Draisaitl’s ability to impact game control, but also good line depth.
That depth is something the Oilers have struggled with in past years, with the majority of their previous scoring coming from the pair of ‘McDrai’. Now that those two are largely separated in these, we’re seeing Draisaitl’s ability to set up plays and amplify the skill of others on his own.
The Top Line
Moving back to the first line of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Connor McDavid – Zach Hyman. Two first overall picks and the line still only has five points in the series. Nugent-Hopkins was brought back to the top line going into game three, after spending some time on the third line with Josh Samanski and Jack Roslovic.
These three players were the top line in last year’s postseason and a huge part of the reason they made it back to the finals.
Looking to the left wing, Nugent-Hopkins has two points, both of them in an Oilers loss. His impact in the playoffs has been rather minimal. That’s not necessarily unusual for him, as he tends to be a less showy player. What is unusual is the fact that he’s struggling to assist McDavid in getting on the scoresheet.
Nugent-Hopkins’ only assist in the series was a secondary assist on Hyman’s goal in game two. Looking at the Oilers’ first-round series, Nugent-Hopkins and McDavid had combined for a total of four points. Not something you’d expect from the forward with the third-most points on the Oilers during the regular season.
On the right wing is Zach Hyman, who has just one point in the entire series, a goal in game two. Hyman isn’t necessarily the most aggressive player when it comes to scoring on his own, but one thing he does do well is get pucks on net and capitalize on chances in close.
In his 103 career playoff games, there have been only six in which Hyman did not register a shot on goal, most of them in his early career. During this year’s regular season, he averaged 2.96 SOG per game, which resulted in 31 goals. So the ability is there, they just aren’t getting through, and with McDavid being out of sorts, Hyman must start connecting on the chances he is seeing, or creating more of his own.
This is Hyman’s tenth straight year in the playoffs. He is typically a calm player and definitely a veteran presence. The Oilers would benefit from him showcasing that a little more.
Young Depth is Shinning
With the stars of the Oilers roster all generally underperforming, we’re seeing a lot of depth and young talent attempting to fill the space. The two most obvious being Vasily Podkolzin and Kasperi Kapanen, who both have four points.
One player I anticipate will continue to impress, however, is rookie Josh Samanski. He came into the lineup for game two, replacing Adam Henrique and scored a goal in his NHL playoff debut.
Proving that the Edmonton Oilers do have young depth, and it’s beginning to positively impact the game for them. Making a difference when the typical big guns might not be.
The Oilers have been clearly struggling so far in this first round against the Ducks. And other than the second (or maybe now de facto first) line led by Draisaitl, the most important players on the team are, quite frankly, the ones contributing the least. If they are to turn the series around, they need to find a way to rebound. And fast.
