Edmonton Oilers Talk: Who is Matching Mario Lemieux’s Records in 2021?

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The Cult of Hockey

Leon Draisaitl takes over NHL scoring lead, Edmonton Oilers 5-2 over Nashville: Cult of Hockey Game Grades

MIKKO KOSKINEN . 8. Stopped 31 of 33 shots, although his mates did a pretty good job of keeping the high-danger chances to a minimum… Koskinen is 6-1-0 on the season. Came into the game with a .933 SV% and improved on that!
CONNOR McDAVID . 8. 2 more assists tonight.
LEON DRAISAITL . 9. Another big performance.
RYAN NUGENT-HOPKINS . 8. Nugent-Hopkins is off to just a terrific start to the season… The Nuge was good on the PK, too, with 3:04 of work…although he did lose the draw on the 4-2. Leads the NHL in Assists with 13.
CODY CECI . 4. Not his best effort… Crushed in shot metrics 5v5 to the tune of 15-25, 37%. Certainly not all bad, but he’s been much better.
DEREK RYAN . 4. Very effective on the PK in 2:13 of work. But lost the possession battle quite properly 5v5. Finished the night between Shore & Perlini.
KRIS RUSSELL . 4. I thought a saw the veteran D-man struggle some, early.
DEVIN SHORE . 7. Played well and was elevated to the 3 ^rd line with good results.
TYSON BARRIE . 7. Has really settled his game down defensively after a wobbly start.
KAILER YAMAMOTO . 6. Yamamoto scored his 2 ^nd goal in as many nights with a high, Hard wrist shot after a pretty feed from Nugent-Hopkins.

BLH’s Thoughts: It was good to see some of the guys who’ve been on slumps lately put the puck in. Jesse has been fighting it and same with Killer, so good for them. Devin Shore is in good form right now, the confidence is high and he earned his promotion to the third line. I wonder what Ryan’s deal is and if he’s carrying a knock because he’s be the recipient of some painful looking spills this past week.

Mikko’s just shoving it in the Edmonton media’s face right now and it’s glorious!!!

It was actually a couple of Predators that caught my eye last night. Mikael Granlund and Mattias Ekholm were really good despite the scoreline. Ekholm was playing like the entire Oilers team kicked his dog or something and Granlund was so dangerous in Edmonton’s zone. Did Ryan Johansen play last night?

Sportsnet

Oilers’ early-season accolades are mounting, but focus is on that silver trophy

Connor McDavid is the best player in the world. And he’s not even leading his own team in scoring.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins isn’t sure if he’s streaking or slumping — he hasn’t scored a goal yet, but he’s leading the entire National Hockey League with 13 assists.
The power play has been the NHL’s best for two years running and is killing it again this season at 46.4 per cent through nine games.
Draisaitl may just be the second-best player in the game today, as lethal from his spot on the Oilers’ power play as Alex Ovechkin is from his in Washington.
Draisaitl (9-11-20) is the first player to have 20 points in the first nine games of a season since Mario Lemieux back in 2002. Like, who is matching Lemieux records, in 2021?
As a team the Oilers are now 8-1 after dispatching of the pesky Predators, perched atop the Western Conference, trailing only the two unbeaten clubs — Carolina and Florida — in the league standings.
The Oilers are 15-5 in their past 20 home games, while McDavid has a point in every game this season. He is working on a 17-game scoring streak, going back to last season (12-28-40).
Edmonton’s third line has a goal in seven of the team’s nine games this season.

BLH’s Thoughts: Oilers fans can bask in all of this early season success, but I still think it’s fair game to wait until the end of the month to start getting excited. I’ve yet to see a consecutive performances where Edmonton is far and away the better team. I don’t know if the PP will go on a dry spell this year, but if it does, can the Oilers’ 5v5 scoring save their butts?

The Hockey Writers Rumors

…it will matter to (Tomas) Hertl if he scores as performances like the one he put on Tuesday evening are only going to raise his value ahead of this year’s trade deadline. He’s a pending unrestricted free agent and he’s paused talks with the Sharks about a possible extension. That has opened up speculation he could be on the move.
The Maple Leafs got positive news on Tuesday as Ilya Mikheyev was on the ice for some solo practice… Mikheyev was expected to be out eight weeks after he underwent surgery last month on a broken thumb.