Defensively fragile Oilers need to find solutions in a hurry

On Nov 7, 2024

EDMONTON — “Expletive!!!!”

The pissed off voice rang out from the catacombs surrounding the Edmonton Oilers dressing room, breaking the post-game silence and summing up the Edmonton Oilers collective head house higher than any interview ever may.

The Oilers had simply blown a 2-1 third-period lead to division rivals Vegas, sloppily giving up the game-winning purpose at 19:11 of the third when Noah Hanifin was left alone to stroll in and rating — regardless of the Vegas Golden Knights being outnumbered 4 to two in the Oilers zone.

Within the sport’s ultimate minute, a defensive breakdown for the ages.

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“We can’t have somebody walk down when we are four-on-two in the D-zone,” defined Mattias Ekholm, who was on the ice for the purpose. “Plain and simple.”

Ekholm was overwhelmed cleanly in a puck battle by Ivan Barbashev. Evan Bouchard, as is his wont nowadays, discovered the exact spot on the ice the place he was precisely zero assist to his accomplice. Two forwards failed to understand that Hanifin was the one risk till it was too late, and goalie Stuart Sinner couldn’t give you the circus save.

“Plain and simple,” as Ekholm mentioned.

The Oilers are extraordinarily plain nowadays, and the solutions are clearly not easy.

How did these Edmonton Oilers find yourself with a subterranean 59.5 per cent penalty kill (worst in the NHL)? How is a proficient staff like this tied for useless final in taking pictures proportion (7.1 per cent)? What’s with a powerplay that’s ranked twenty seventh?

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What the hell is happening right here?

“If I knew that,” Ekholm promised, standing at his dressing room stall, “I’d stand up right in here and tell them what’s wrong and we’ll fix it, and there we go. But hockey is not that easy.”

It’s not that they’re so unhealthy. It’s that the Oilers are soooo removed from being any good.

Defensively, they’re fragile. A multitude, actually.

The goalie lets a softy in most nights, and definitely did that on the 2-2 purpose, a crippler for a penalty-killing unit that’s begging for saves and simply not getting sufficient of them.

When the opponent raises their stage, as Vegas did in Interval 3, the Oilers don’t match it. Proper now, they’ll’t match it.

The opposite night time in Calgary the Flames pulled their goalie whereas shorthanded and trailing by one. It was a hearth drill in Edmonton’s finish, regardless of the very fact it was de facto five-on-five hockey, a testomony to how fragile this staff is.

“It’s just some details that we’re missing and right now, obviously, we need all the details possible,” mentioned head coach Kris Knoblauch. “When the pucks aren’t going in for you, you’ve got to be able to play good defensive hockey. I thought we started off playing pretty good … but as the game went on, that’s when I thought our details dropped.”

Connor McDavid returned from harm solely to go pointless, on a night time the place the Oilers scored twice on two of the rarest tallies you’ll see: Brett Kulak’s first-ever deflection purpose on a shot by his defensive accomplice Darnell Nurse, and a Zach Hyman purpose after the strangest bounce of the yr off the top boards.

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A unicorn and a fluke. Two objectives is all you get — in eight of 14 video games they’ve scored two or much less.

“Tonight. we just work, work, work. It takes a lot to put them in. right now,” mentioned Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who’s as ice chilly with one purpose in 14 video games as the remainder of this crew. “I’m feeling like I’m still creating stuff and getting my looks. It’s not going in. I know I’m going to keep my head down and keep working, and I expect the same from this group.”

The facility play would possibly win them some video games, however alas, it seldom will get out of the holster. In eight of 14 video games, they’ve drawn two penalties or much less, which tells you they’re not even notably harmful at even power.

“We are going to have to work a little harder to get some more (power plays),” Ekholm mentioned.

They’ll have to work tougher at a lot of issues, as a result of the statute of limitations on a Stanley Cup hangover is definitely quickly to expire.

Fourteen video games in and the Oilers are 6-7-1, with the worst house report in the Nationwide Hockey League, at 2-5-1.

Wakey, wakey, gents.

The season began a month in the past.

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