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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ESPN
Why the Edmonton Oilers are different this season — or are they?
- There’s a swagger to these Oilers, if they do say so themselves. Time will tell if that’s the difference-making quality they’ve been looking for.
- The problem is at even strength, where the Oilers are very much the same team. After 17 games last season, the Oilers had scored 38 goals and given up 41 at even strength; this season, they have scored 37 and given up 39.
- One player who faced the Oilers recently acknowledged that “structurally, maybe they’re a bit tighter … so they can recover from mistakes faster,” but added: “those two guys are the focal point so what’s changed there?”
- One longtime analyst said there was a different demeanor in training camp from the leadership group: “It was like, ‘No more BS; it’s time to put your big boy pants on.'”
- …it can’t just be the Connor and Leon show, especially if Tippett decides to load up with them on the same line in crunch time, like last postseason.
“You dedicate your game plan to shut those guys down and then force everyone else to beat you,” said one NHL veteran.
- Ask around enough about Edmonton and a theme emerges about a team that can be its own worst enemy.
“They adjust their game to the level of their opponent,” one Western scout said. “Not all the time, but it still happens. That won’t work long-term. But the way they recover from those mishaps more often now, it seems like they know it.”
BLH’s Thoughts: I was worried that the team is still playing to the level of the team on the other side of the ice because that’s bit them in the asses for years and years. It seems like the team is still working this out of their game.
The other thing that needs to be worked out of their playbook is the reliance on Leon and Connor to do all of the scoring. Hyman, Puljujarvi, Nuge, Yamo… Where have the goals gone boys?
Man, I don’t know if I should be jumping for joy that Edmonton is playing the Coyotes tonight or if I should take a pass on watching this one considering how many times the Oilers have shit the bed against a team sitting in the basement of the league’s standings…
The Athletic
NHL Future Power Rankings: Projecting the 2024-25 standings
- 13. Edmonton Oilers – I think the weighting system we used does a very good job at projecting most teams given their particular strengths and weaknesses. I don’t think it works with Edmonton. Using the “eye test,” the Oilers should be much higher. The farm system is just OK and they got dinged on market, but Connor McDavid is Connor McDavid and he likely will draw people to that team in a way a typical Edmonton team wouldn’t.
BLH’s Thoughts: Do you think in three years that the Edmonton Oilers are going to be a team that barely scrapes into the playoffs?… I don’t, but if they are, you can be sure that their big boys might be looking to join teams who are a little higher up the food chain at that point seeing as their contracts will be coming to an end around then.
The Hockey Writers Rumors
- Head coach Dominique Ducharme has confirmed that goaltender Jake Allen is back for the Canadiens and will start on Wednesday night when the Habs take on the Washington Capitals. Allen has been medically cleared to return to the team after suffering a concussion on Nov. 13 in Detroit.
- As per Elliotte Friedman, who appeared on The Jeff Marek Show, he wonders if Islanders’ GM Lou Lamoriello is trying to trade for a young defenseman with term. Friedman notes, “If he’s doing anything, I wonder if that’s what he’s looking at”.
- With news that goaltender Mike Smith was moved to long-term injury reserve, there were questions about just how bad his injury is and whether or not surgery would be required. Jason Gregor and Ryan Rishaug of TSN tweet that as of now, surgery is not in the plans, and the Edmonton Oilers shouldn’t be without their starter for much longer.
- According to Ben Kuzma of The Province, the Canucks have been contacted by the Wild and asked about the availability of forward J.T. Miller. Kuzma suggests winger Jordan Greenway be dangled by the Wild as a sweetener in the trade but the Canucks may ask for a second-round pick in addition to Fiala to get Miller out of Vancouver.
