Edmonton Oilers Talk: The Power of an Unpredictable Powerplay, What’s Keeping Benson in the Lineup, and NHL Rumors!

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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Lowetide.ca

TYLER BENSON

The young winger seems to be pushing ahead of Brendan Perlini, but will need to show some offense in these games to come. If he can, even a little, Benson should be able to survive his rookie year and then push for more playing time.
Tyler Benson is an orphan but is in the lineup and trying to make his way. There are Oilers fans who want Benson to play on a skill line, and if Zach Hyman moves to right wing it’s possible. I expect Benson will need to deliver some offense from the fourth line to make it happen. Tough row to hoe.

BLH’s Thoughts: Oddly enough, Tyler Benson is the only guy on the entire roster trying to stir shit up when he’s on the ice. Not Zack Kassian, Warren Foegele, Zach Hyman, Kailer Yamamoto, William Lagesson, or even Darnell Nurse… It’s the guy fighting for his Oilers career and that says to me that there might be too many comfortable hockey players on this team.

Now, if you’re into the fancies, you’ll look at the local lad’s metrics and they’ll probably make you want to vomit. However, I might add that his .933 PDO might be factoring in.

As for his scoring, maybe it’ll come, maybe it won’t, but one of my favorite 4th line Oilers in recent years, Patrick Russell, couldn’t find a way to bury the biscuit and Tippett still played him.

You’d like Benny to get one, but he’s doing a lot off of the puck too, hence why he continues to stay in the lineup…

Sportsnet

Analyzing what makes the Oilers’ power play dangerous and if its sustainable

…the objectives of a power-play breakout are: bringing the puck into the offensive zone, maintaining possession, and quickly getting in formation… That’s something this Oilers team has thrived at.
They lead the league in face-off percentage in the offensive zone while on the man-advantage.
Edmonton, who leads the lead in percentage of power play time spent in the offensive zone, is also a top-five team in percentage of face-offs won leading to a shot-on net (and seventh in a shot attempt from the slot).
…they don’t need to attempt to regroup as often as other teams.
When they do attempt to cross the blue line, though, they’re quite efficient with a 67 per cent success rate (8th in the league).
…a team has to connect that play with another sequence to get their unit in formation and start firing shots… The Oilers also do this really well; they’re third in breakout success rate that leads to offensive zone possession.
Edmonton’s created the third-highest rate of slot shots per 60 in the league, which is where 60.8 per cent of their shots come from.
…what makes them so tough to defend; there are multiple shooting options who all can drive to the quality parts of the ice.
The fact that any of these players can pass or shoot makes them all the more dynamic. With so many options, and capable passers, the Oilers’ power play isn’t always predictable despite developing some tendencies.

BLH’s Thoughts: I don’t know if there’s much point in doing a deep dive into Edmonton’s PP when they’ve got two MVPs on it, the league’s reigning scoring champion from the blueline, one of the NHL’s leading assistmen, and an elite net-front presence causing havoc in the blue paint. I say that because how many teams will be able to replicate that combination of skaters on one PP in the NHL now or ever again?

The simple fact is, as pointed out above, the Oilers have five different options on the ice at one time and that makes things very unpredictable for the PK unit trying to defend them. Unpredictability is one of the best skills a player or a team can have at its disposal in hockey and Edmonton has it in spades.

Daily Goal Horn

Matt Murray is going on waivers… In his brief time with the Sens he is 10-18-1 with a GAA of 3.35 and SV% of just .892 in 33 appearances. Murray is also winless this season for Ottawa (0-5-0)… One team that may opt to take a chance are the Ottawa Senators.
…according to The Athletic’s Harman Dayal he has not heard that (JT) Miller is actually being shopped.

“I do not believe the Canucks are actively shopping Miller,” he writes. “Vancouver’s still focused on trying to find answers to salvage this season and it’s hard to see how a solution to that would involve the team trading its best point producer.”