Edmonton Oilers Talk: Olympic Line Combos, Adjusted Pacific Division Standings Predictions, and NHL Rumors!

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How does Edmonton’s start compare to the rest of the Pacific Division?

Thus far, Edmonton has been the best offensive play-driving team in the Pacific Division and is currently top 5 in the league.
However, Vegas has also excelled in this facet of the game; their strong results have come despite numerous injuries. Players like Nicholas Roy and Evgeny Dadanov have stepped up and have been solid offensive play-drivers so far.
Calgary has shined at generating quantity, but have been pretty average in creating high-quality chances. Los Angeles is the opposite; their high-quality chance results are 1st in the division… Vancouver has been below-average in both.
Calgary has thrived defensively under Darryl Sutter’s system, as they’ve been among the league’s best shot and scoring chance suppressors in the league.
Vegas has been the league’s worst defensive team so far… Alex Pietrangelo has had a dreadful start to this year. With Pietrangelo on the ice at 5v5…
As for Edmonton, they’ve been relatively high-event when it comes to scoring chances. One of the numerous reasons for this is a poor start by Tyson Barrie, but Edmonton’s bottom 6 hasn’t helped either.
McDavid, Draisaitl, and Hyman have been scoring at a lofty rate and are among their best finishers. Nugent-Hopkins, however, has struggled in this facet of the game.
San Jose has capitalized on chances at a higher rate than any other team in the division. This is mostly due to the goal-scoring success of Dahlen, Hertl, and Karlsson.
Every team in the Pacific Division has had at least above-average goaltending, with the exception of Seattle, who’ve had the worst goaltending out of every team in the NHL thus far.
Vancouver has received the best goaltending in the division, as a result of strong play by Thatcher Demko. Los Angeles and Calgary don’t rank far behind either, as Jonathan Quick and Jacob Markstrom (respectively) have vastly improved their play as opposed to last year.
Mikko Koskinen has had an exceptional stretch of games in the absence of Mike Smith for the Oilers. Following a poor campaign last year, Koskinen currently owns a 0.917 SV% and a 2.0 GSAx in 8 games.
To say that Edmonton’s power play has been good so far is a massive understatement. Their Goals For/60 is close to double the 2nd best power play in the Pacific.
Most of the rest of the Pacific have been above-average on the power play. Both Calgary’s and Anaheim’s PP have seen a significant improvement compared to last year. It’s strange to see two defencemen in Kevin Shattenkirk and Cam Fowler lead the Ducks in PP points.
Vegas remains the only team in the league without a power-play goal.
The Oilers’ penalty kill also ranks pretty high in the Pacific, just behind Calgary when it comes to GA/60.
Vegas ranks dead last in the league in both shot attempts against/60 and expected goals against/60 while short-handed.

BLH’s Thoughts: I’d have to say at this point that the Oilers are the CLEAR favorites to win the Pacific Division with the Flames not far behind. The competition will come for 3rd place and if you’re to take the first ten games of the as any indication, the San Jose Sharks might find a way to sneak in.

That said, I think the Sharks winning 3rd place is a longshot because at some point Vegas is going to smarten up and get their game together and I do wonder if Vancouver might get their game sorted in the next month or so as well.

Edmonton Sun

OILERS NOTES: Hyman still in running for a Canadian Olympic team spot

Edmonton Oilers winger Zach Hyman is on the 50-man list of Canadian players for the Olympic team and his early start, with seven goals in 10 NHL games, is helping his cause.
Hyman can play left or right-wing, which doesn’t hurt his Olympic chances, although Canada has a long history of loading up on centres and playing some on the wing.
The only two natural LWs on the team, for sure: Brad Marchand and Jonathan Huberdeau. On RW, they might have centres Nate MacKinnon and Patrice Bergeron playing on the top two lines, with Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby in the middle.

BLH’s Thoughts: Hyman has certainly impressed early on and Hockey Canada hasn’t been averse to bringing along some two-way character forwards in the past, namely Ryan Smyth and Chris Kunitz for example.

They’ve also taken duds like Rob Zamuner to the Olympics, so the sword cuts both ways. Although, I think we can all agree that Hyman is a much better player than Zamuner ever was…

If Hyman does go to Beijing, I’d like to see him on a line with McDavid and Crosby because they say that Sid is an all-star grinder and when I watch Nuge, Yamamoto, and Hyman get on their horses in the cycle, they’re fantastic. I reckon Connor thrives a lot when he’s got linemates who are really dominant in the muck.

Spector’s Hockey

LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL: Ben Gotz examines the salary-cap crunch facing the Golden Knights following their acquisition yesterday of Jack Eichel from the Buffalo Sabres.

LAS VEGAS SUN: Justin Emerson believes the Golden Knights can shed around $3 million by “moving off” Jonas Rondbjerg, Jake Leschyshyn, Michael Amadio and Ben Hutton. A $5 million winger such as Reilly Smith or Evgenii Dadonov could become a cost-cutting casualty.

TSN: Pierre LeBrun reported Buffalo Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams denied rumors the Calgary Flames offered up winger Matthew Tkachuk as part of their offer for Jack Eichel. However, he said the Flames came very close to landing Eichel as one of the few clubs willing to acquire him presurgery.

LeBrun said the Carolina Hurricanes kept tabs on the Eichel trade talk but the Sabres wanted promising forward Seth Jarvis or forward Martin Necas as part of a package return.

The Arizona Coyotes were also interested in being a third-party broker to absorb part of Eichel’s cap hit in exchange for a draft pick but the Golden Knights were able to do it on their own.

THE ATHLETIC: Hailey Salvian heard from sources that, at the time of ESPN’s report listing the Flames and Golden Knights as finalists for Eichel, the question wasn’t which team would get him but when he’d go to Vegas…

Salvian believes the Flames’ interest in Eichel confirms they’re in the market for a center. She wondered if they might turn their focus toward San Jose’ Tomas Hertl. He’s slated to become a UFA next summer and wouldn’t cost as much to acquire as Eichel.