Can the Call-Ups Carry Edmonton to Another 2pts? (Farewell Mrs. Lowetide)

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GM22: Panthers @ Oilers

Who’s Hot for Florida

#19 Matthew Tkachuk – four goals and three assists in his last half dozen minus one to go along with 17 shots in that time frame. Evander Kane isn’t in the lineup to cool this guy off, so I’ll be very curious as to what his behavior will look like.
#5 Aaron Ekblad – Florida’s franchise player has four goals and four assists in his last ten games but also watch out for his d-partner, Gus Forsling, as he has nine assists in that time too.
#13 Sam Reinhart – Three goals and three assists in his last five games from Florida’s 2nd line has him on this list.

Who’s Hot for Edmonton

#2 Evan Bouchard – Got his first two goals of the season in an epic comeback win vs. the Rangers the other night. Will the ketchup begin to flow now that the cap is off the bottle?
#18 Zach Hyman – 19 shots in his last five games and only a couple of goals to show for that and the hard work he’s been putting in. It won’t be long before he scores another.
#13 Jesse Puljujarvi – Stats-wise, JP couldn’t be any colder, but effort-wise, I don’t know if I’ve seen a player put in so much effort and physicality and not come away with a point to show for it. The hockey gods have really got it out for him and he’s doing his damnedest to shove it right up their asses. Hopefully, for everybody’s sake he can get himself a goal or an assist tonight.

BLH’s Thoughts: At the time of writing, the rosters haven’t been posted and so I’m left wondering if Tyler Benson and Jimmy Hamblin will be in the lineup or not. If so, they’re going to add a different dimension when they hit the ice. Benson is a bit of a buzzsaw now and Hamblin is a waterbug in the style of a younger Derek Ryan. Now, with how Woodcroft has been deploying his young players, who knows if they’d even get that much ice time, but here we are speculating about it nevertheless.

According to Daily Faceoff, the Panthers have 4th line grinder Nick Cousins up on its top line with Sam Bennett and Matt Tkachuk. Not sure why they’d do that instead of Carter Vergaeghe and his 7 goals in his past 10 games… I suppose they’re thinking of spreading out the offense a bit by keeping Vergaeghe with Lundell (remember when ppl said this guy couldn’t skate?…) and Sam Reinhart.

Florida’s bottom six could be slightly menacing with the likes of Ryan Lomberg, Patric Hornqvist, and Colin White providing some grit.

But if you look at Florida’s defense, you might think that McDavid and Draisaitl should rake in the points. Forsling, Ekblad, M. Staal, Montour, Gudas, Mahura… That group doesn’t exactly get you shaking in your boots and when you combine that with the records of the Panther’s goalies in their last five games…

Bobrovsky: 0-1-0, 6.92 GAA, 0.735%

Knight: 1-1-2, 3.21 GAA, 0.906%

This should be two points in the bag for Edmonton but with that said, the Oilers have been hit by the injury bug at the worst time. McLeod and Yamamoto are officially gone for the week, Foegele is banged up, Leon isn’t 100%, I’d be shocked if Broberg was fully healthy. So their bottom six will be relying on a huge effort from the call-ups and extra forwards and that produces a worrying question mark if Woodcroft’s top line goes quiet in the face of Florida’s gritty game.

I feel like Edmonton can win this but I’m not fully confident because they tend to shit the bed against teams they should beat. It’s the first game back from an east coast roadie too…

Oilersnation

Monday Mailbag

Did Holland make a mistake by hiring Woody?

“You can’t be serious. Since Woodcroft was hired Oilers have 5^th highest points% in NHL and the 2^nd most wins. They also went to the third round of the playoffs.” – Gregor

Is Philip Broberg enough of a change to settle this D down or do you think Holland should be making a move earlier than expected?

“You can’t expect a young player with 24 games of NHL experience to “settle down” a defensive group…” – Brownlee

Curious to hear the panel’s thoughts on young Klim Kostin?

“I think Klim Kostin adds a flavour to the bottom six that it’s been missing, and I bet the edge he plays with keeps him around.” – Baggedmilk

What do you do with Evan Bouchard?

“It’s been a struggle at times for him. It happens. People tend to forget he’s still young in D-man years — 23 with 123 NHL games.” – Brownlee

How concerned is everybody about the way these first 20 games have gone?

“I wouldn’t be overly concerned as the Oilers are ahead of Calgary and four points behind LA with two games in hand.” – Gregor

BLH’s Thoughts: Holland didn’t have to hire Woodcroft and he could’ve hired Barry Trotz or Mike Babcock. But he took a chance on Woody and Manson and I’m okay with that. At the same time we have to be prepared to go through the ups and downs that a rookie coach goes through.

Broberg isn’t settling anything down. That’ll come down the stretch when Holland acquires a veteran top-four defenseman. Who this year’s Duncan Keith will be is a mystery but I’ve got my eyes on John Klingberg. I hear that the Oilers think they can get him for a couple of mid-round picks and a prospect like Rafa Lavoie. I think they’re wishin’.

Klim Kostin came up and played like a bat out of hell, but things have slowed down for him and I think we’re seeing the true player now. He’s got the tools but not the consistency. His physicality might keep him up though.

Evan Bouchard, before his brace against the Rangers, was putting up very good analytics that suggested it was only a matter of time before he’d break that slump. So here we are enjoying the peaks and valleys of a young dman. Watch how the Edmonton media spins this though. Will they praise him or will he continue to be under the microscope so as to include him in subsequent trade rumors as we approach the end of February and early March?

The schedule should start to ease up and with that, in theory, the team should start to post better results. It’s not guaranteed but this team, on paper, looks to be better than their record. The goaltending will need to improve and the team defense will need to be much much better. If those two things are the only things that happen, depth scoring won’t be an issue I feel. However, this team cannot survive if one or none of them happen. McDavid and Draisaitl, as good as they are, cannot carry the entire team for another 60 games into the post-season and nor should they be expected to.

Lowetide

RIP Mrs. Lowetide

She passed away this week after a short and difficult battle with cancer.

BLH’s Thoughts: I’m terrible for words when it comes to people passing on, but I would like to say Thank you, Mrs.Lowetide, for all you did to allow Mr. Mitchell to bring his magic to us daily. Without him a lot of us would be lost in the abyss when it comes to our favorite hockey club. So from the bottom of my heart and with all my love, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Hug your loved ones every chance you get folks. You never know when they’ll be gone.