November 22, 2023 /

2023/24 Edmonton Oilers GM18: Oilers @ Hurricanes- 3P2W – Oilers Saviour Returns!!!

Hey y’all! Welcome back for another season of Edmonton Oilers hockey! I’m BLH and I’ll be giving you the skinny on today’s game!

If you’re new here and are wondering what 3P2W means, well, it stands for Three Players to Watch and seeing I’m as lazy as I am, I figured we’d shorten it to 3P2W.

So with that out of the way, let’s talk a little bit about what’s been going on lately in the Oilogospehere and then get into the player’s I’ve put under the spotlight for today’s matchup!

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Random Pontifications

  • I don’t have a lot to glean at the moment but I feel like the Oilers will make a trade for a goalie soon regardless of if Jack Campbell “finds his game” or not in Bakersfield.
  • The feeling I get when I talk to my sources is that as much as the roster feels that they let Campbell down, he still needs to be moved and for somebody with some cache brought in.
  • While this sort of acquisition will help, I don’t think it’s going to help as much as everybody thinks.
  • Hell, look at Georgiev in Colorado, he’s played 15 games and won 10 of them all the while with a GAA of 3.08 and a SV% of 0.888!
  • It’d be nice to have Connor Hellebuyck, right? Well he’s got a stat line of 13gp, 2.91 GAA, .897 SV%.
  • The oft-mentioned Jusse Saros has played 14 games and won only five of them he’s running a 3.22 GAA to go with a .882 SV%.
  • So you see, the Oilers went with the easy fix and that was to fire Jay Woodcroft. Now the next move is to clean the cupboards out to get rid of Jack Campbell AND clean the next GMs cupboards out to acquire another goalie.
  • The fact of the matter is, they need to focus on upgrading the team defense and I’m not just talking about the dmen. The lack of good two-way forwards up and down Edmonton’s lineup is painfully obvious.
  • I mean, if Ryan Mcleod isn’t going to score, then he should be elite defensively or being taught how to be the next Guy Charbonneau.
  • Nuge doesn’t have to score another 100pts, he just needs to emulate Jere Lehtinen.
  • And if the organization can’t wrap its head around the fact that there will NEVER be another 80s Oilers run and gun dynasty, get rid of the guys making the important decisions.
  • For a team to be successful they have to have a steel spine. The middle of the roster has to be elite.
  • Edmonton is halfway there. They’ve got three potential centers if they run 97, 29, and 93 down the middle. They’ve got Nurse, Ekholm, and Bouchard in their top-4; they just need another unmistakable top-four RHD. Rasmus Andersson or Colton Parayko would be fantastic in that role.
  • But whatever happens before Xmas here, if anything, will only patch up a part of the problem in Edmonton. They’ve got to play sounder team defense and once they start disallowing so many chances off the rush and in the high-danger areas, the wins will come. They’ll get more counter chances and this is a team that should be able to capitalize on those with all of the high-end talent it has.
  • I think this is an invaluable lesson everybody is learning right now and that being the fact that they’ve been using a crutch all this time. The crutch being Connor, Leon, and the powerplay. Take those three things away and we’re left with a lottery team.
  • Wouldn’t it be ironic if the first round pick that belonged to the Oilers in this years draft ended up being used on a guy named Eiserman?

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Three Players to Watch for the Bad Guys

  • #37 Andrei Svechnikov (0g 5a 5pts) – Carolina’s elite sniper is yet to score this season. So I’d bet he gets his first against the Oilers.
  • #20 Seb Aho (5g 10a 15pts) – Aho has three goals and four assists in his last five games. He always gets his name on the score sheet when Carolina plays Edmonton.
  • #23 stefan Noesen (4g 6a 10pts) – Is Noesen the highest scoring 4th liner in the league right now?

The Hurricanes are 3-2-0 in their last five but it seems like their offense is struggling a bit in that time frame. Maybe Edmonton could capitalize on that.

Three Players to Watch for the Good Guys

  • #27 Brett Kulak (0g 0a 0pts) – Welcome to the top-pairing, Brett! This is intriguing to me. Kulak can skate but he’s mostly been used as a 2nd pairing of bottom pairing dman. There’s a part of me that wonders if something good may come of this though. I don’t remember seeing him and Nurse getting any time together before.
  • #13 Mattias Janmark (0g 0a 0pts) – Does he make it through this game without getting hurt? How effective is he going to be after all this time off?
  • #74 Stu Sklnner (4-6-1, 3.39, .873) – Man, the pressure this guy is under must be insane. He has to have a good game here. It’s not even an option anymore but I told you at the beginning of the year, he was going to regress. Hopefully Jeff Jackson goes out and gets him a good veteran netminder to help ease this trials and tribulations of his second year but also spark a competitive fire under his ass so as not to get too complacent.

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CategoriesArmchair GM Beer League Hero Edmonton Oilers NHL Rumors

TagsCarolina Hurricanes Edmonton Oilers Edmonton Oilers Game day Edmonton Oilers News Edmonton Oilers Rumors NHL NHL News NHL Rumors

Beer League Hero Written by:

I'm the Beer League Hero! I am from Camrose, Alberta but I make my home in Taipei City, Taiwan. I've been through the ups and downs and the highs and the Lowes, the Bonsignores and the McDavids, the Sathers and the Eakins but I'll never leave my Oilers, no matter what! They're with me until the end and then some. GO OILERS GO!