Edmonton Oilers Talk: There’s No Better Indicator of Edmonton’s Inner Growth Than This…

This is your TL/DR (too long, didn’t read) summary post where excerpts are taken from the best of the best when it comes to Edmonton Oilers blogs. BLH gives you his two cents on the latest posts being published in the Oilogosphere! Including those from Lowetide.ca, The Athletic, Oilersnation, The Cult of Hockey, Copper N Blue, Oil on Whyte, and more!

The latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation comes from all of the internet’s top sites like Spector’s Hockey, The Fourth Period, NHL Trade Talk, The Hockey Writers, Sportsnet, and TSN just to name a few!

If you’re short on time but want to keep up with the day’s Oilers news, you’ve come to the right place!

Give us a follow on the socials!

Edmonton Sun

Nobody’s perfect, but life is good for the 5-0 Edmonton Oilers

We will continually be reminded that it is way too early to make any sort of judgement (which is kind of funny because there is no way in hell anyone would be saying it’s way too early to make any sort of judgement if the Oilers were 0-5), but we can safely say this is going to be a solid team.
Perhaps there is no better barometer of the team’s inner growth and evolution than the fact that McDavid is on an insane point tear and it’s almost being lost in the shuffle of what everyone else is doing.
This is the second time in three years the Oilers went 5-0 out of the gate…
When it happened 2019-20, it laid the foundation for a very good regular season (37-25-9, including a 4-10-1 slump in December) before the pandemic derailed everything.
They have already scored 23 goals in five games, employing an Incredible Hulk style: They’ll be on their heels early on, to the point where it looks like they might be in trouble, then they turn green, rip the shirt, score a couple on the power play and run away with the night.

BLH’s Thoughts: I don’t know any pundit who’s ever said that one should ignore a 5-0-0 start, but I do think there are instances in the past where one could point out a hot start to a year that ended poorly. That said, these wins are of the utmost importance to bank because there are going to be sections of the season that aren’t so schedule friendly to Edmonton. For example, after the big boys get back from China, what kind of shape do you think they’re going to be in?

The Oilers need to win as many games as they can as early as they can in order to give themselves a bit of a buffer for down the line.

The Hockey Writers

3 Takeaways From Oilers’ Hard-Fought Win Over Golden Knights

Oilers’ Top-6 Unstoppable

Hyman recorded his second consecutive two-goal game on the road, putting him at five goals in five games to this point.
The captain is up to six goals and 13 points in the Oilers’ first five games, a ridiculous pace.
He (Puljujarvi) still has eight points in five games, which looks like a certain breakout season already.
Nugent-Hopkins has seven assists in total, two at even strength, four on the power play, and one shorthanded. Where can’t he produce?
Draisaitl has been a beast as usual for the Oilers. As expected, he is second on the team in scoring with four goals and 11 points…

Key Momentum Changes Between Oilers & Golden Knights

The Golden Knights took their first penalty of the game 8:15 in, and the Oilers proceeded to strike a mere 22 seconds later, tying the game at one goal. The Golden Knights had looked pretty dominating up until this point, and one offensive zone penalty cost their team the lead.
The Oilers killed off the long 5-on-3 penalty kill and momentum shifted back to them after that hard-fought effort. The untimely end of the period put an end to the momentum.
The third and most important momentum shift in favour of the Oilers was after they had gone down by a goal just over a minute into the second period. Tippett decided to do what he always does when Edmonton is in need of some offence or momentum in a hurry — put the big guns back together… Just minutes later, Tippett put the top-6 back to normal for consecutive shifts that saw each line score a goal to go up by one.

Bouchard Moves Up, Benson & Sceviour In

Tippett decided to reward Evan Bouchard with more minutes on the top defensive pairing with Nurse… He was calm and looked right at home playing more minutes and against the opposing team’s top players.
Kyle Turris and Brendan Perlini were replaced with Tyler Benson getting into his first regular-season game of the season and Colton Sceviour… They were noticeable when they got their chance and needed to be to stay in the lineup and get more playing time.

BLH’s Thoughts: I did not mind Benson’s performance one bit. He looked every bit a 4th liner as one looks. To that end, Evan Bouchard looked like a top-pairing defender as well.

Do the Edmonton Oilers have the best top-six, NEH! Top-nine in the NHL right now? They just might.

Spector’s Hockey

THE ATHLETIC: In his recent season predictions for the St. Louis Blues, Jeremy Rutherford expects Vladimir Tarasenko will spend the entire season with the club.

NBC SPORTS CHICAGO: Charlie Roumeliotis yesterday observed scouts/representatives from 15 different NHL clubs attended Thursday’s game between the Chicago Blackhawks and Vancouver Canucks at the United Center. “Anaheim, Arizona, Boston, Buffalo, Calgary, Florida, Minnesota, Montreal, Nashville, N.Y. Islanders, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Tampa Bay (2) and Winnipeg.” Center Dylan Strome, the subject of recent trade speculation, played his first game of the season.