Edmonton Oilers Talk: Fan Experience at Home Opener “Incredibly Uneventful” Cries Prominent Oilers Pundit

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Oilersnation

First Impressions: Good and Bad

Zach Hyman had a strong game all over the ice… He and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had identical stats. When on the ice at 5×5 they outshot the Canucks 9-4 (69.2SF%), their scoring chances were 10-0 (although I do believe Natural Stat Trick is way too generous on scoring chances for all teams) and they had an 88.6xGF%.
Cody Ceci and Duncan Keith were a solid pair. Ceci sprung Kailer Yamamoto for a breakaway with an excellent cross-ice pass through the entire neutral zone. Ceci and Keith didn’t give up any high danger scoring chances and moved the puck efficiently.
Warren Foegele was dogged on the puck. His speed, size and tenacity should be a nice complement with Zack Kassian, who Dave Tippett said will play Saturday. I liked Foegele’s play in traffic and on puck battles.
Derek Ryan won 62% of his faceoffs… He reads the play very well and he and Foegele finished he game with a 65xGF% and 61.2xGF respectively.
Brendan Perlini only skated 5:37 so it is hard to do much. But in the limited time he wasn’t overwhelmed or in trouble.
Evan Bouchard had a really strong game in his first as a guaranteed, regular every night defender. He played a total of 22:07, behind only Darnell Nurse (32:24), Leon Draisaitl (24:40), Connor McDavid (24:18) and Tyson Barrie (23:04)… He logged 6:01 on the PK with Nurse and they didn’t allow a goal, and 4:19 of that was against the Canucks first PP unit.
At 5×5 Bouchard and Kris Russell had a strong night posting a 60SF%, 71.9xGF% and 78.5SCF%. Bouchard logged 11:19 with Russell and skated 3:51 with Nurse.
The Oilers pre-game ceremony. It was incredibly uneventful.
The pre-game intro had no hype. No excitement. The irony is the Oilers were welcoming back fans in the building and thanking some health care workers, but then the Oilers thanked them with no actual hype video. Nothing. I was shocked.
The in-game entertainment needs to work with the fans to create a fun, exciting atmosphere. You can’t just rely on the fans to get excited, or for the players to be the sole entertainment. I hope Saturday’s pre-game is better. Get the crowd excited.

BLH’s Thoughts: Man, it really is something when a team has primary, secondary, tertiary, and, quaternary waves of attack. Also, when’s the last time the Oilers had 64% success rate on faceoffs? The team didn’t have even one player with a faceoff percentage under 50.

Now, with all that in mind, were the Oilers that good or were the Canucks that bad?

At this point, how can one even question the quality of fan experience somebody is going to get at an Edmonton Oilers game? Of course it was going to eat shit on opening night. OEG has invested tons into everything BUT the fan experience and I’m not surprised that folks would stay away given the choice. It’s as if the organization is happy to tell the fans that they’ve got the chance to see the best player of this generation and if that’s not enough, don’t bother paying the ridiculous sum to come to the arena.

The club has to bring somebody in to completely revamp whatever strategy it currently has (which has to be none considering what we witnessed on opening night). Steal whoever is doing the games in Vegas or Nashville and give them a million bucks to transform the fan experience in Edmonton so at least it’s fun to overpay for an average tasting beer and burger.

Like I said the other day, I’ll probably never ever pay full price to watch a live Oilers game a Rogers Place again for more reasons that I care to give at this point in time. Maybe if fans continue to stay home and complain about this stuff the team will actually do something about it…

The Athletic

How the Oilers’ new-look second line wears down opponents and makes a difference: ‘It’s all work-based’

With due respect to the cromulent Dominik Kahun, the Oilers’ season opener Wednesday night made it crystal clear how vital the upgrade to Zach Hyman within the team’s top six.
The trio hemmed the Canucks in their zone for much of the night in the 3-2 shootout win. The Oilers also led the Canucks in shots 16-7 when they had both Hyman and Nugent-Hopkins on the ice with both teams at full strength.
The scoring chances favoured the Oilers 10-0. Shot attempts and scoring chances were 15-9 and 9-2 for Edmonton, respectively, when Yamamoto was skating.
Bouchard had a 60 Corsi for percentage and 68.4 expected goals percentage. He was his usual composed self with the puck and appeared more decisive without it than normal.
Bouchard routinely played ahead of defensive veteran Kris Russell on the penalty kill, too.
… it was the second line that tilted the ice for the Oilers.

NHLRumors.com

Shawn Hutcheon: Neely on a potential contract extension for Patrice Bergeron: “I think he wants to, and rightfully so, see where he’s at at the end of year. … I’d certainly love to see him continue, but we’ll see where it goes.”

Matt Porter: Neely said that the door for free agents Tuukka Rask and David Krejci remains open, but added: “we’ll see what happens … That remains to be seen for both of them.”

Amalie Benjamin of NHL.com: Boston Bruins president Cam Neely said yesterday that they hope to have a contract extension in place for defenseman Charlie McAvoy soon.

Andrew Gross: New York Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello wouldn’t comment about any negotiations with coach Barry Trotz about a contract extension.

Darren Dreger: New York Rangers forward Vitali Kravtsov is generating interest… Have been told that he is willing to play in the AHL with a different team and that he would consider a one-year contract extension around what his qualifying offer would be for next season.