Milan Lucic Contract Will Come Back to Kill Oilers

December 16, 2021 Post a Comment

Tyler Benson had two shots, drew a penalty and had a scoring chance last night in Buffalo, also sent a screamer of a pass for Colton Sceviour that he veteran couldn't catch up to on a night when Edmonton was a goal behind at the final whistle.

Benson, along with Stuart Skinner (another solid game) and Ryan McLeod are young players pushing for the NHL. They are vital to Edmonton's future, because the pipeline needs useful and inexpensive players always. Can any of these three men occupy a prominent roster spot? First they have to find their way as NHL regulars, and that's this season.

THE ATHLETIC!

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WHAT TO EXPECT IN NOVEMBER

At home to: SEA, NAS, NYR (Expected 2-1-0) (Actual 3-0-0)
On the road to: DET, BOS, BUF, STL, WPG (Expected 3-2-0) (Actual 1-2-0)
At home to: WPG, CHI (Expected 1-1-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
On the road to: DAL, ARI, VEG (Expected 2-1-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
Overall expected result: 8-5-0, 16 points in 13 games
Actual November results: 4-2-0, eight points in six games
Oilers in 2021-22: 10-3-0, 20 points in 13 games

The Oilers have lost two of three on the trip, and that's not ideal. The final home game against the Rangers had some bad habits and the losing on the road followed. We haven't seen the return of good habits, so the inconsistency is likely to continue. I have Edmonton with half of their expected points for the month already in the bank, so there's a little room here for some wobble. I see the Chicago, Dallas and Arizona games as prime opportunities for victories in the coming two weeks. I don't see St. Louis or Winnipeg on the road as being great chances for a struggling team, but a tighter defensive effort at five on five would be welcome.

GOALTENDER

Stuart Skinner stopped 20 of 23, .870 on the night and all three GA were high danger. He has a .902 save percentage and a 3.10 GAA. I think we can call him Laurent Brossoit 2.0 at this point and upgrade if necessary. If Edmonton brought in John Gibson next season as the starter, could Skinner fill the backup role?

DEFENSE

Darnell Nurse-Evan Bouchard played 18:03, going 12-9 shots and 0-1 goals. The GA was Cozens second goal of the game, Nurse lost possession deep in the Buffalo zone, McDavid was re-entering the zone and Draisaitl (who was covering for Nurse) got caught flat-footed. So it was jailbreak, Skinner made the first stop, Bouchard couldn't move the puck from the slot and Cozens cashed. Nurse had three shots, Bouchard none on a quiet offensive night for this pairing, they are 6-6 goals at five on five this season.

Duncan Keith-Cody Ceci played 11:13, going 2-5 shots and 0-2 goals. Keith made a cross ice pass that didn't find McDavid, and the counter by Buffalo was too much for Edmonton and the Sabres scored. Keith gets killed on the fast break turnover, needs to avoid causing them. Ceci bobbled a puck at the opposition blue, and that resulted in a clear breakaway and that's all she wrote. This pairing has been solid, but there's no doubt Edmonton did not benefit Friday night from their work. They are now 10-11 goals at five on five for the season. Keith and Tyson Barrie spent 3:18 together and went 6-0 shots, keep that in your back pocket, we may see it again.

Kris Russell-Tyson Barrie played 8:46, going 7-6 shots and no goals. Absolutely less chaos with these two than Koekkoek-Barrie, despite 1-2 HDSC's. Barrie had eight shots on goal for the night, that's not necessarily a good thing as point shots are by definition low percentage.

Philip Broberg had two more assists for the Condors last night, he has nine assists in 11 games so far this season. Broberg is fantastic in the AHL at this moment. No idea about recall.

LINES

There were many lines.

Perlini-McLeod-Foegele: 6:01, 5-2 shots, no goals, 0-0 HDSC.
Draisaitl-McDavid-Puljujarvi: 5:31, 8-0 shots, no goals, 3-0 HDSC.
Nuge-Draisaitl-Yamamoto: 5:07, 2-1 shots, no goals, 0-0 HDSC.
Hyman-McDavid-Puljujarvi: 4:55, 2-4 shots, 0-1 goals, 1-1 HDSC.
Benson-Ryan-Sceviour: 4:13, 4-4 shots, 0-1 goals, 1-1 HDSC.
Benson-McLeod-Foegele: 2:37, 2-0- shots, 0-0 goals, 0-0 HDSC.
Hyman-Nuge-Puljujarvi: 2:04, 0-1 shots, 0-0 goals, 0-1 HDSC.
Draisaitl-McDavid-Yamamoto: 1:51, 1-2 shots, 0-1 goals, 0-2 HDSC.

The McLeod line (Perlini and Foegele) is 6-3 shots in just over eight minutes. That's a sliver of time, but it's worth throwing out there again on Sunday.

Hyman-McDavid-Puljujarvi seems a little off lately, not sure what Tippett will do. You can see why he checks down to Leon-McDavid-Puljujarvi even though they didn't score at five on five last night. I don't have a solution, but this line has played 89 minutes together and has an expected goal percentage of 59 percent while showing just a 4-5 goal differential so far. I think Tippett has to stay the course.

Nuge-Draisaitl-Yamamoto all had HDSC's at five on five, Yamamoto drew two penalties and the line has played 91 minutes together five on five. The results are 44 percent shot share and 7-2 goals this season. I think this line will hang together, at least until Zack Kassian returns.

Benson-Ryan-Sceviour played little together but have some success. Who knows if the line ever sees the light of day again, but men like Benson developing is an important franchise priority.

WHO MAKES IT AS AN NHL PLAYER?

Years ago, we learned how that if three promising defensemen are pushing for the NHL (Taylor Chorney, Cody Wild, Jeff Petry) then you can bet on one to make it, really make it, and anything more is gravy.

I'm not absolutely sure any of Ryan McLeod, Tyler Benson and Stuart Skinner will play 200 NHL games in their careers. I would bet on McLeod over the other two, he's the Petry here. Skinner is probably the Chorney. Long way to go.

CONDORS DEFENSEMEN UP TO DATE!

Broberg's points have come on special teams (six PP, 1 PK) and you can't assume he'll ever see an NHL power play. The even strength goal differential is heading in a good direction and that's a very good sign. Broberg was -2 after four games, +2 since then. As you can see, there is separation here from guys like Lagesson (who was responsible for the 1-1 goal last night along with Marody) and Samorukov (who is still getting into regular season mode after his pre-season injury).

Broberg is going to be recalled. Will it come before Samorukov? Niemelainen? Don't know. I think we can say Lagesson is not playing the kind of game that will earn him a recall at this time.

Milan Lucic Contract Will Come Back to Kill Oilers

Source: https://lowetide.ca/2021/11/13/discovery/

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