Edmonton Oilers Talk: “The Oilers have become a two-line team again…”

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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The Athletic

Oilers have 5 areas to improve after subpar 5-game trip

History repeating with the bottom six: …not one of the nine forwards who’ve spent time in the bottom six this season has a positive goal differential at five-on-five. Not one.
- The Oilers have become a two-line team again, especially when they’re trailing.
- Ryan, Kassian and Foegele have all been outscored decisively at five-on-five lately. Ryan is at a woeful 13-3 deficit overall.
The Bad Goal Blues: Koskinen’s other two starts, against the Bruins and Jets, saw him let in a dreadful goal each night. He whiffed on a point shot from Brandon Carlo in Boston and let an Adam Lowry shot from well out squeak by him in Winnipeg.
- Koskinen has let in a few stinkers this season, and his save percentage has now dipped to .910. He was pulled heading into the third period against the Jets…
Five-on-Five Woes: The Oilers were outscored 15-11 at five-on-five during the trip. They allowed three such goals in each of the five games.
The Duncan Keith and Cody Ceci Rollercoaster ride: Turnovers and poor defending — in their zone, off the rush and at the offensive blue line — were especially notable in the Buffalo and Winnipeg games. The Oilers were outscored 4-0 with Keith on the ice and 3-0 with Ceci at five-on-five in those two contests.
Evan Bouchard’s Lull: Tippett mentioned after the St. Louis loss that the Oilers need to be harder in front of their own net, calling it the team’s “biggest improvement needed.”…
- He (Bouchard) failed to take his man, Vladislav Namestnikov, on the second goal against in Detroit. He let Vladimir Tarasenko have his way in front for a tap-in marker to tie the score in St. Louis. He didn’t tie up Mark Scheifele’s stick in front, and the Jets centre tipped in a point shot.

BLH’s Thoughts: Peaks and Valleys, baby! I was definitely expecting them with Bouchard, but not so much with Ceci and Keith. That might speak to the increasing rumors regarding a left-shot defenseman. Maybe the club is looking for somebody to put on the 2nd pairing alongside Cody Ceci so they can move Keith down to the third pair…

As for Edmonton’s bottom six, do you think the guys on those lines reckon if they can just saw off the other team’s offense and leave their own team’s scoring to their mates in the top-six that they’ll be good to go? I mean, surely there are NHL players who really pride themselves on being really good 3rd or 4th liners, no? I’m talking about the Archibalds and the Sceviours in Edmonton and the Lowrys in Winnipeg or the Blake Colemans, Barclay Goodrows, or Yanni Gourdes from last year’s championship winning Tampa Bay Lightning team…

Does anybody else who listens to Oilers Now get the feeling that Ken Holland might be looking to improve the roster via internal promotion? I’m hearing Bob Stauffer bring up Dylan Holloway’s and Philip Broberg’s names almost daily and that gives me the feeling that Holland might prefer to get a look-see at those two before making any significant trades.

The Hockey Writers

Oilers’ Future Bright With 3 Top-Scoring Prospects

The Oilers drafted Carter Savoie 100th overall in the 2020 NHL Draft. Savoie is smaller at 5-foot-9, but he’s been a proven goal-scorer at every level
- This season, he’s off to a blistering start. In 10 games, he has 10 goals and 17 points. His 10 goals rank second in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCCA) scoring, and he’s tied for sixth in points. On Nov. 13, Savoie scored two goals in 20 seconds, becoming the third-fastest player to score consecutive goals for the Denver Pioneers.
Russian-born Matvey Petrov was selected by the North Bay Battalion as the first-overall pick in the 2020 Canadian Hockey League (CHL) Import Draft… In July, Petrov was selected by the Oilers 180th overall in the 2021 NHL Draft.
- He was impressive in his Ontario Hockey League (OHL) debut, recording a hat trick, one assist and eight shots on goal. He continues to impress with 12 goals and 21 points through 16 games. His 12 markers rank third in OHL scoring, which is a spectacular feat considering it’s his first year playing full-time on a North American-sized rink.
The Oilers selected Xavier Bourgault 22nd overall in the 2021 NHL Draft from the Shawinigan Cataractes of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL).
- He leads the QMJHL in both goals and points with 15 goals and 30 points in 16 games (1.8 P/G). He had a hat trick most recently on Nov. 13, and he was named the QJMHL player of the month for October. His tremendous start should garner serious consideration for Team Canada at the World Junior Championships in December.

BLH’s Thoughts: Great starts for all three of these wingers means Oilers fans everywhere are already getting their jersey retirement banners ready.

I keed! Simply put, if you’re going to be a legitimate NHL prospect, you’ve got to dominate at the junior, collegiate and minor pro levels.

Now, the jump from junior and college to the AHL is quite large and sometimes the production doesn’t follow or it takes some time to catch up. Take Kirill Maksimov and Rafa Lavoie for example, Maksimov was the definition of a sniper in the OHL but he couldn’t piss a drop in Bakersfield and Lavoie scored at will in the QMJHL as well as the Allsvenskan and yet, this season, it hasn’t translated at all.

So, we’ll keep an eye on these talented young men with the only kind of hopes Oilers fans know, unrealistically high. Get those hall-of-fame plaques ready!

NHLRumors.com

James Nichols: The Fourth Period had earlier reported that New York Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello could wait until closer to the NHL trade deadline to make a move… Avalanche defenseman Sam Girard has had his name enter the rumor mill.
Andy Strickland: NHL Player Safety head George Parros is one name that has been linked to an executive position with the Anaheim Ducks.
Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic: Speculation has Filip Forsberg‘s agent J.P. Barry possibly meeting soon with the Nashville Predators about a contract extension for the 27-year old pending UFA. He’s in the last year of his deal.
Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic: Forward Eric Staal is still skating in Minnesota and hasn’t given up on the idea of playing this season.
Jesse Granger of The Athletic: One, not too painless, way for the Vegas Golden Knights to get under the salary cap whenever Jack Eichel is ready to join the Golden Knights lineup is to send Jake Leschyshyn and Jonas Rondbjerg to the AHL, waive Michael Amadio and Ben Hutton, and trade pending UFAs forward Reilly Smith and defenseman Brayden McNabb… That would put the Golden Knights $300,000 under the cap ceiling with a 21-man roster.
Allan Mitchell of The Athletic: If the Oilers turn to the trade market at some point for a goaltender, options could include Thomas Greiss (Detroit), Jonathan Bernier (New Jersey), Marc-Andre Fluery (Chicago), Anton Khudobin (Dallas), and Braden Holtby (Dallas).
- Potential current/former Detroit Red Wings trade targets could include Danny DeKeyser (Detroit) , Dennis Cholowski (Washington) and Luke Glendening (Dallas).