What. A. Shellacking!
The Edmonton Oilers are the first team in the Vegas Golden Knights’ history to put up 7 goals against them! They’re also the first team to put up 8 goals as well. lol.
Overall, I thought the whole Oilers team played well and it’s hard to pick players who didn’t play well when Edmonton won the game 8-2 but Yohann Auvitu wasn’t great. Sometimes he handles the puck like it’s a hand grenade and other times he’s passing the puck like it’s an egg. Like Jokinen, we’ll touch on him next, I can’t see where he fits on the roster and I wonder if he’s the next to go with Andrej Sekera due to come back soon.
THE TRADE
A couple of hours before the game tonight Peter Chiarelli pulled the trigger on a deal with the LA Kings dealing struggling veteran Jussi Jokinen for Mike Cammalleri.
First off let me say that this is the way you right a wrong. The Jokinen gamble didn’t pay off and Chiarelli found a way to correct it.
Now, I will warn you that if you didn’t like Jordan Eberle’s lack of backchecking, you’ll hate Cammalleri’s… When he’s not scoring he’s not doing a whole lot else. So let’s hope he’s scoring more often than not.
At first glance, you can’t help but dig the trade. Both players make similar money and are winding their careers down on whatever team will take them. What you will find separates them is that Jokinen has VERY good possession stats and Cammalleri never has… Ever.
https://twitter.com/DennisTFP/status/930655055287525376
“We made this trade to improve our shooting. Mike’s always been an effective offensive player with his shot and ability with the puck,” Chiarelli said prior to Tuesday’s game. “At the end of the day, improving our offence will obviously take a collective effort but will be given an opportunity to help improve it.” – source
The stats analysts are pointing to the return of Kyle Clifford and Marian Gaborik as possible reasons and that Cammalleri’s fancies are wretched compared to those of his teammates and the player he was traded for.
I’d offer that Cammalleri has never really been a “glue guy” in the past and speculate if that had anything to do with it. I mean he did have 7pts in 15 games, so it’s not like he was underperforming.
Now with the Oilers putting up an 8-spot on Vegas, who will come out of the lineup for Cammalleri? Is there an urgency to put the 35-year-old veteran in right away? I think it’ll be Pakarinen that does come out for him after seeing the Finn get buckled by a point shot in tonight’s game.
FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED
- The Oilers are coming back to life.In their last 10 games, the Oilers are above .500… FINALLY!
On the Oilers most recent road trip they scored 8 goals, add that to the 8 goals they scored tonight, that’s over 3 goals per game and in a 3-2 league, you need that.
We knew it was coming, well those who are like-minded with me knew it. The team couldn’t go as long as they were without scoring more than 1 or 2 goals a game. The goals (and the wins) are going to come now and I think the team will be a +.500 team for the rest of the year.
- McDavid vs. Nugent-Hopkins: Who’ll score more goals this year?You wanted to know who was going to replace Eberle’s goals? We asked this when Hall was traded and it was Maroon that covered the difference last year. Somebody always fills the void. Now, it might not come on your timeline but the goals always come.
But at this point the top three for Oilers scoring looks like this:
McDavid – 9
Nugent-Hopkins – 8
Maroon/Draisaitl – 5 - Oscar Klefbom and JJ Khaira post good numbers for a second straight game2pts for each of these beauties! Things are really turning around for both of these players after starting the year out slowly.
With those 2 pts, Klefbom overtakes Kris Russell (What?!}) as the Oilers’ leading point producer on the back-end.
- Edmonton’s out of the basementWith that 8 goal explosion, the Oilers climbed from 31st in the NHL for goals for into 25th says ESPN.com. Good timing eh?
- Don’t look now but…Connor McDavid had 3 pts tonight and has jumped into a tie for 6th place in NHL scoring according to the un-updated stats page on ESPN.com.
Next up the Western Conference-leading St.Louis Blues are in town and they were just the recipients of a 7-4 beatdown from the Flames. I imagine they’ll be in a touchy mood and the Oilers will need to make sure that the tandem of Jaden Schwartz/Vladimir Tarasenko see very little of the puck or else they risk getting lit up.
One saving grace might be the Blues’ PP and PK are sitting 20th and 21st in the league respectively. The Oilers could really do themselves a favor by taking advantage of them there!
Until then you should head over to the BLH Teepublic page and take advantage of the sweet SALE that’s going on at the moment! Click the images below to check out what we’ve got!
