Connor McDavid is Two Games Away from Potentially Breaking One of Gretzky’s Cherished Records!

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!

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Edmonton Sun

OILERS NOTES: McDavid never stops working on his game, even his skating

He’s the fastest skater with the puck, maybe ever. And face-offs aren’t always the end-all-and-be all. He was 44.9 per cent coming into the season and had the puck all time. But he’s at 52 right now, and proud of it.
The Edmonton Oilers captain, who has five straight muiti-point games to start the season, two off Wayne Gretzky’s record in 1983, refuses to stand still.
McDavid seems on a mission to shoot more this season — just as Wayne Gretzky did when people told him teams were taking away the pass to Jari Kurri. And he scored 92 goals.
Mikko Koskinen (83 saves in 88 shots) with three Ws already, will get the start against the Flyers, obviously, off his excellent work in the Oilers cage.
Brendan Perlini and Kyle Turris, who sat out in Vegas last Friday for Tyler Benson and Colton Sceviour, could be back on the fourth line with centre Devin Shore against the Flyers.

BLH’s Thoughts: It’s funny, this whole article seemingly stems from a video clip TSN’s Ryan Rishaug posted on Twitter that shows McDavid going through an edge/puck control drill with David Pelletier. What’s more interesting is that Jesse Puljujarvi did the same drill just as well as Connor did and Zack Kassian was next in line. Where’s the article praising Jesse and Zack’s ever expanding work ethic and obsession to improve their games?

McDavid working on agility and puck handling post practice. Arguably number one in the league already at both. pic.twitter.com/P1TyLii939

— Ryan Rishaug (@TSNRyanRishaug) October 25, 2021

As for that record of Gretzky’s (most multi-point games to start the season (7)), I think there’s a really good chance that Connor takes that record just from the simple POV that his team’s PP is about as unstoppable as one can get and if the Oilers score with the man advantage, McDavid’s getting on the scoresheet.

So, there’s a chance that 97 doesn’t just beat it the record, he very well may obliterate it.

Oilersnation

A Look at the Oilers’ Hot Start

If the Oilers only win 48.4% of their remaining games, like they did two seasons ago, that would be a disappointment.
If they go 40-32-5 they’d finish with 95 points, which equates to winning only 52% of their final 77 games.
They are allowing too many shots at 5×5. They are 29th in shots against per game at 5×5. They aren’t giving up loads of quality chances (more on that in a moment), but they do need to reduce the shots against.
Edmonton ranks 19th in shots allowed from the slot, eighth in inner shots and seventh overall in shots form the slot. They have done well limiting chances from the most dangerous areas on the ice.
Jesse Puljujarvi, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl have the highest shots against/60 among forwards in the top three lines. That will come down.
Ken Hitchcock always felt the best time to be hard on players was when the team was winning. “They can handle constructive criticism better,” he said. “When you are losing you have to try and pump them up while mentioning weaknesses.”
As mentioned the team isn’t horrible defensively, with 15 skaters posting an xGF% of over 50%, but their 5×5 goals against and shots against need to drop as the season progresses.
They’ve allowed two goals against/game thus far. Of the 10 goals (5×5) they’ve allowed in their five games, four came against the Ducks.
Edmonton needs to be around 1.80 (goals against/game), or lower, to be considered a top-12 team defensively.
Duncan Keith and Cody Ceci have only started 8.5% of their shifts (static starts, not on fly) in the offensive zone… It is something to monitor, but I won’t be surprised if the Keith/Ceci pair continues to hover around 40% (d-zone starts).
…we could see two teammates with 130 points for the first time since 1996 when Jaromir Jagr and Mario Lemieux did it.

BLH’s Thoughts: Bob Stauffer (630CHED) reckons this club is a 50-win team this year and right now, Edmonton, even with their apparent flaws, looks like a Cup contender. Those teams are usually 50 game winners season-to-season.

But as I’ve said so many times recently, I don’t put a lot of stock into the wins or the stats any of the teams are putting up right now. It’s way too early in the year and a guy could catch his skate in a rut, blow out his knee, and that would be that. I mean are the Blue Jackets a Cup contender right now? What about the Sharks or the Blues? Even Ottawa and Detroit are looking competitive…

It’s fun to look at the metrics early on in the year because they’re usually outrageously leaning one way or another and we like to project things out (#OnPace) to give ourselves an idea of what to expect, but not whole lot sustains from game five to game 75.

NHL Trade Talk

Can Rangers Do With Kravtsov What Oilers Did With Puljujarvi?

One of two things is bound to happen here. Either Kravtsov becomes another Lias Andersson situation and is eventually moved when the organization feels the time is right, or the Rangers can do what the Edmonton Oilers did and find a way to make the player more comfortable, eventually bringing him back with a fresh start and a renewed energy to succeed.

Blackhawks Should Trade Marc-Andre Fleury if They Won’t Compete

The veteran goaltender is in the final year of his $7 million contract. Before joining the Blackhawks, he considered retirement because he wasn’t keen on playing outside Vegas, where he had built a home, a life, and was hoping to retire. It took some time, but he took to the idea of moving to a new city and trying to make it go in Chicago. This is probably not what he signed up for.

NHL Reporter Claims Price Wanted to Leave Canadiens This Offseason

In Simmons’ recent Toronto Sun article, he slips a line in about Price’s standing with the Canadiens and noted that the player actually wanted to leave the Canadiens before the news was learned he was taking some time away.

“This may be completely unrelated to Carey Price’s current personal situation, but more than one hockey person was convinced this summer that Price wanted to be chosen in the expansion draft by the Seattle Kraken but remained in Montreal instead…”