Tuesday morning on the Dustin Nielson Show (TSN1260), former NHL GM and now TSN hockey analyst Craig Button was a guest and the topic de jour was… Surprise surprise! The Edmonton Oilers and what the hell is wrong with the team right now. This was Button’s response,
It’s a hot mess.
Last year, we know that they had an unbelieveable powerplay, right? 5v5, where 80% of the game is played at, they weren’t very good and they were one of the worst defensive teams in the league last year and there’s reasons for that. There’s reasons for optimism when you’ve got Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, there is.
But successful NHL teams aren’t made up of very few players and when you start to look at the core part of your team and you start to say, “Oh! The PP is really good and it was really good last year and we dined out on in.” If you want to keep relying on just the PP, sooner or later reality is going to catch up to you and that’s what’s happening to the Edmonton Oilers.
Their blueline is, and I’ll put this into question/comment form, they have one top-three defenseman and you can decide if he’s a two or a three. He’s not a #1 and that’s Darnell Nurse and after that have a collection of maybe a #4 and a whole bunch of 5/6 depth defensemen. You’re not going to win in this league with that kind of defense and that defense continually shows it. They can’t get the puck up the ice, they can’t handle speed, they create all kinds of challenges in their own end. They’re extended far beyond their capabilities and when you’re playing good teams with talent and skill, they expose the weaknesses in it and to me, that’s the biggest area.
Ethan Bear doesn’t play last night, Caleb Jones doesn’t play last night, so you put in Kris Russell, a really good competitive defenseman who’s a bottom-pair defenseman. You put in William Lagesson, he’s a bottom-pair defenseman.
So we talk about not moving the needle. Yeah, they’ll get in there and they’ll compete and give you everything they’v got, but their defense is simply so sub-par that it all eminates from there in my view. We know what the forwards have done or haven’t done but you can’t get out of your own zone.
The Oilers after the first period, and remember they had a lot of shots on the PP, 5v5 they got obliterated. They got obliterated by the Montreal Canadiens and if it wasn’t for Mikko Koskinen, they would’ve lost that game 8 or 9 to 1. He had to make one big save after another.
The blueline, that’s a big problem for them.
Button’s thoughts on taking Ethan Bear out of the lineup,
You put somebody else in there, it doesn’t upgrade the defense. And that’s the problem for the Edmonton Oilers. They don’t have options. They don’t have players that are ready to come in there to contribute on the blue line.
So you take Ethan Bear out, you feel that he needs to take a step out, that happens, but Dave Tippett’s options… I don’t even know if they’re limited, that might be a compliment. He doesn’t have options. He has one body in for another body and I’m not trying to be critical of the players, they compete and play hard. There’s nothing wrong with William Lagesson or Kris Russell, they get in there and they give you everything they’ve got. They just can’t play up the lineup significant minutes in significant roles. They just can’t, they’re not good enough.
This is what I’ve been saying. People want to throw our prized prospect, Evan Bouchard, into the lineup and I’m wondering why? The retort is almost always the same, “He can pass the puck and that would help keep the other team out of Edmonton’s end.” To which I say, if that was true, what are Bear, Jones, and Barrie doing in the lineup then? Do you figure adding another player whose M.O. is offense to a team that is sorely lacking in defensive talent is going to help?
I noticed Ian Cole was traded today and I wonder if he would’ve been a good add to this team? I mean, if the forwards aren’t going to come back to help (maybe a problem with adding so many skilled offense-first players) in the d-zone, the best plan of attack would be to find some really good defensive d-men.
Next, Button talking about the Oilers forwards,
In an ideal world, Zack Kassian is not a fit with Connor McDavid. He just isn’t. So this becomes something out of necessity. Dave Tippett is trying to do things out of necessity. He’s not doing things out of desire, he doesn’t have any depth, he doesn’t have any depth of scoring.
James Neal is out, who helps the PP make no mistake about it. Oscar Klefbom is out and that scales all the defensemen up. I understand that, but the depth of the Oilers is so woefully weak.
Personally, I don’t mind Kass up with Connor. He’s skilled enough to stick, but if Jesse Puljujarvi was up there, I wouldn’t complain.
The man says it how it is and I have to say, I’m thoroughly enjoying Button’s commentary these days. He’ll rip anybody and any team and it’s right off the cuff. Do I agree with everything he says? No, but I find my entertainment satiated after I listen to his takes.
How about you? Do you agree with his opinion of this Oilers team? Let us know in the comments below!
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