2019-2020 Edmonton Oilers

[-Vintage Canuck-]

Who had predicted the Oilers would be starting the season with a record of 6-1-0?

[PhillipBlunt]

20 minutes ago, -Vintage Canuck- said:

Who had predicted the Oilers would be starting the season with a record of 6-1-0?

Mark Spector.

[JM_]

I'm more surprised by the Ducks tbh. Oilers gonna find a way to be Oilers soon enough. 

[HKSR]

2 hours ago, Jimmy McGill said:

I'm more surprised by the Ducks tbh. Oilers gonna find a way to be Oilers soon enough. 

Not if they keep playing for their coach.  Tippett is the reason the Oilers are playing the way they are.  You can see their systems are very structured right now and their top end talent is doing the rest.

[JM_]

1 hour ago, HKSR said:

Not if they keep playing for their coach.  Tippett is the reason the Oilers are playing the way they are.  You can see their systems are very structured right now and their top end talent is doing the rest.

I don't see it lasting much longer. Tippett is playing the one card he has an other coaches will figure it out sooner than later imo. 

[aqua59]

6 hours ago, -Vintage Canuck- said:

Who had predicted the Oilers would be starting the season with a record of 6-1-0?

What will matter is their final record. what was Vancouver's starting record last year?

 

They sure have a nice start but it means nothing if there's no consistent play.  

[GritGrinder]

On 10/15/2019 at 12:06 AM, amplified0ne said:

Well Mike Smith finally showed up with a gifted goal.  He's good for at least half a dozen of those a year.  They basically don't have any goals from players outside their top 6 through 6 games and once teams start rounding out their defensive structure that will be bad news for the oilers if they can't generate any offense from their bottom 6.

The same could be said for the Canucks. Sutter is the only player outside of the Top 6 with a goal and he scored both of his when they weren't even needed in the Kings game. McDavid and Draisaitl have scored 11 of the Oilers goals which is 38% of their goals so far, whereas the Canucks have 36% of their goals scored by Miller and Edler so far. Canucks have 6 goals from their D the Oilers have 4 goals from their D. The 2 teams are actually more similar than people care to admit.

Edited October 17, 2019 by GritGrinder

[Alflives]

4 minutes ago, GritGrinder said:

The same could be said for the Canucks. Sutter is the only player outside of the Top 6 with a goal and he scored both of his when they weren't even needed in the Kings game. McDavid and Draisaitl have scored 11 of the Oilers goals which is 38% of their goals so far, whereas the Canucks have 36% of their goals scored by Miller and Edler so far. Canucks have 6 goals form their D the Oilers have 4 goals from their D. The 2 teams are actually more similar than people care to admit.

Oilers look really good.  Tippet has them all playing on the defensive side of the puck.  A lot of those goals came off playing D side of the puck.  Then they get odd man rushes.  I think the Oilers and us make the playoffs, and Calgary and Dallas Miss. 

And the Leafs will miss too.  The infighting in Loser Leafland will be epic.  

[Guest]

Oilers beat Pittsburgh 2-1 yesterday but they should have lost the game as Pittsburgh had 50 shots and outplayed them. 

 

They have to stop relying so heavily on McDavid, Drai and Neal, and the fact that they have to keep coming from behind to win games. If they can do that, they will do will this season. If not, they will be just like most other years. 

[The_Rocket]

Oilers playing some very unsustainable hockey from the surface. Out shot, out chanced, playing comeback all the time, high shooting percentages for drai and Neal, riding top players for most of the game, and relying on 37 year old mike smith to steal them games. Pp is slowing down, depth scoring is still not there, and one major injury could derail a whole season. 
 

it will be interesting to see if McDavid and Draisaitl can drag this team to the playoffs, kicking and screaming the whole way

[aqua59]

On 11/3/2019 at 9:05 PM, The_Rocket said:

Oilers playing some very unsustainable hockey from the surface. Out shot, out chanced, playing comeback all the time, high shooting percentages for drai and Neal, riding top players for most of the game, and relying on 37 year old mike smith to steal them games. Pp is slowing down, depth scoring is still not there, and one major injury could derail a whole season. 
 

it will be interesting to see if McDavid and Draisaitl can drag this team to the playoffs, kicking and screaming the whole way

You make a strong case. See last nights OT loss. I'm loven it. 

[Lancaster]

They'll probably make the post-season like they did a few years back.  Maybe they can even pull out a series win against another team, but it's the play-offs that a team's deficiencies will be exposed.... and the Oilers has lots of them.  

Since 2017, what has changed with Edmonton?  Nothing really.  They won against SJS because Draisaitl was playing like a man possessed.... with huge contributions from Letestu and Maroon... both of whom aren't even on the team anymore.

 

I for one hopes that Edmonton makes the post-season... so they will believe they legitimately are close.   Thus they will only tweak their roster going forward, forever spinning their wheels (like the TML).  

 

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Lancaster said:

They'll probably make the post-season like they did a few years back.  Maybe they can even pull out a series win against another team, but it's the play-offs that a team's deficiencies will be exposed.... and the Oilers has lots of them.  

Since 2017, what has changed with Edmonton?  Nothing really.  They won against SJS because Draisaitl was playing like a man possessed.... with huge contributions from Letestu and Maroon... both of whom aren't even on the team anymore.

 

I for one hopes that Edmonton makes the post-season... so they will believe they legitimately are close.   Thus they will only tweak their roster going forward, forever spinning their wheels (like the TML).  

 

There's no way they make it. All they underlying stats show they aren't legit. 

 

If McDavid or Drai gets injured, there are done. 

[MikeBossy]

The Leafs have some great writers doing great fiction stories for them but ol Spector takes the cake - love this article (Oilers are 12-5-2 and riding the scoring of three players and they have a foundation of winning? for what 19 games? My fav comment is Ethan Bear is a Top 4 defenceman haha - again after 19 whole games?)

https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/oilers-built-winning-foundation-beneath-mcdavid-draisaitl/

 

Oilers have built winning foundation beneath McDavid, Draisaitl

 

At its most basic level, it is the little things that big things are built on top of that make or break a hockey organization. The mundane foundation is an absolute necessity, if the goal is to build an inspiring, exciting masterpiece on top.

The Edmonton Oilers have done it backwards, up until now, with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl among the various star players who operated without the safety net of a properly built organization underneath.

Today, at long last, it seems like that net is in place; that Edmonton has poured a proper foundation on which a functional National Hockey League team can be erected. Both in the micro and macro sense, the reason Edmonton heads into Tuesday’s game at San Jose in second place in the Western Conference and the (nearly) wire-to-wire leaders in the Pacific Division this season, is because they are doing the small things properly.

Like developing the right way. Like improving the goals against. Like (yawn) winning more faceoffs.

Yes, Draisaitl and McDavid are first and third in NHL scoring as we speak. But recall a year ago, when all of McDavid, Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Darnell Nurse (and a few others) had career seasons statistically, yet the Oilers were not close to being a playoff team.

This isn’t basketball, where four really good players guarantee a level of success. The Oilers proved that last season, and are proving it again in 2019-20 by showing us what things look like when putting a foundation underneath their superstars.

 

Properly run organizations are supposed to spit out a prospect or two from the depths of the draft — not just turning first- or second-round picks into NHL players. Along comes Ethan Bear, a fifth-rounder in 2015, who is drawing some Calder Trophy love.

Bear is already a Top 4 NHL defenceman — a right-hand shot with exceptional puck retrieval skills. Here is a 22-year-old new-age defenceman who should be an anchor on Edmonton’s blue-line for the next decade, drafted in Round 5.

Organizations with sufficient, professional roster depth have players on the American Hockey League roster who are ‘tweeners’ — players who have proven they can play in the AHL and are not there specifically for development, but as the 24th and 25th players on the NHL roster. In the past, whenever an injury occurred the Oilers were calling up some kid who hadn’t even proved himself at the AHL level, and was seldom able to help in the NHL.

Now, that call-up is an 800-game veteran like Sam Gagner, or Colby Cave, who has played less (61 games) but possesses the NHL skills a fourth-line player requires. Neither are overwhelmed at the promotion, and both have actually helped when they come up — a whole new experience in Edmonton. On defence, Caleb Jones is officially over-ripe in Bakersfield, and will allow Evan Bouchard to remain in the minors should a D-man go down in Edmonton.

A successful NHL team hits on the odd European free agent signing. While neither of defenceman Joel Persson, who is 25, nor winger Joakim Nygard (26) are superstars, both have made this NHL roster better. If we can assume that the two Swedes will get more comfortable as they pile up some games in their new environment, not only will they help the Oilers win now but they buy time for young, drafted players to be in AHL Bakersfield, rather than being rushed into the NHL.

Sexy? Not at all.

Efficient? Well, the Oilers aren’t a great team, but tonight marks the quarter pole of the ’19-20 season and they are not showing signs of folding their tents.

 

Between Bear and Persson, the Oilers have survived losing defenceman Adam Larsson in Game 1 of the season. That injury would have crippled the Oilers a year ago.

On the ice, this is an organization that ranked dead last in the NHL in penalty killing over the past five seasons. Today they are fifth in the league (85.7 per cent), another area that fans of the good teams often take for granted.

They are also fifth best in the NHL in goals allowed per game (2.47), evidence of a team that is getting vastly better goaltending. Among NHL goalies with at least eight starts this season, Mikko Koskinen (.928) ranks sixth in saves percentage, while Mike Smith (.926) ranks eighth.

It’s a pretty simple: Good teams get good goaltending, and while Smith has come in and stopped pucks, his value in allowing Koskinen to play less doubles his worth.

So, five-on-five, the Oilers are not dominating, but they are surviving. What puts them over the top is the fact they are winning the special teams game on most nights.

Edmonton’s power play success rate (29.1 per cent, ranked second) and penalty killing rate (85.7 per cent, ranked fifth) adds up to 114.8. That is highest sum in the NHL, ahead of Boston (114.4), San Jose (112.5), Washington (109.4) and St. Louis (109.1).

Goaltending, some bottom six acquisitions like Riley Sheahan, Josh Archibald and Markus Granlund help there, even though the three have added almost zero offence. What they have done is keep games close long enough for the stars to win them for Edmonton.

There are enough goals in this lineup to get to three most nights. There always has been.

Now, they can keep the other team to two.

That’s a whole new ballgame in Edmonton, one we haven’t seen for a long while.

[aqua59]

I have to this. As much as I hate everything Oiler one has to admit they got the best of the Calgary Flames in the off season. 

 

As Craig Button points out Calgary ends up with 3 players the Oilers didn't want anymore for good reason. 

 

Top of the list, that bone head Lucic. We all knew last year watching Edmonton that this guy was done. I watched his little so called dust up with Ryan Reeves the other night and i have to laugh alone with Reeves. Lucic can't even fight anymore. He's pathetic.  

 

Cam Talbot? Are you kidding me? Another red light Rasico. 

 

I think the third was marginal defenceman. 

 

Now Edmonton at least at this point is hanging in there admirably.

 

Calgary can't seem to buy a goal.