Joined Lowetide this morning on TSN 1260 to talk about the past week, including the overtime win against the Flames. We touched on the potential defence pairings, with and without Larsson, and what areas of the roster the team needs to focus on as the trade deadline approaches. Big week ahead with three home games against Arizona, Florida and Nashville, and a Saturday night tilt in Calgary.
Segment starts around the 20 minute mark.
Below are the various defence combinations that the Oilers have rolled with this season at 5v5, sorted by Corsi For% (score and venue adjusted). If the Oilers insist on playing Russell, they have to pair him with Sekera as that’s who he’s best with. Klefbom-Benning looks like a good tandem so far. And I’m also a fan of Gryba-Davidson as the third pair. (Data: Corsica Hockey. Ideal pairings for me: Klefbom-Larsson, Sekera-Benning, Davidson/Gryba/Nurse.
| P1 | P2 | TOI | CF% |
| ANDREJ.SEKERA | MATTHEW.BENNING | 196.36 | 56.74 |
| DARNELL.NURSE | MATTHEW.BENNING | 113.2 | 55.87 |
| ERIC.GRYBA | OSCAR.KLEFBOM | 59.93 | 54.86 |
| ERIC.GRYBA | BRANDON.DAVIDSON | 79.91 | 54.07 |
| DARNELL.NURSE | ERIC.GRYBA | 181.95 | 52.87 |
| ADAM.LARSSON | OSCAR.KLEFBOM | 512.05 | 51.94 |
| KRIS.RUSSELL | ADAM.LARSSON | 137.56 | 47.95 |
| ANDREJ.SEKERA | KRIS.RUSSELL | 416.69 | 47.82 |
| KRIS.RUSSELL | MATTHEW.BENNING | 50.19 | 46.34 |
This past weekend, I also looked into how the OIlers are doing when it comes to generating shots and what the key drivers/drags have been: Volume Shooting – The Copper & Blue (2017, January 14)
And just a heads up that I’ll be on the CBC Edmonton News to chat about the Oilers and the playoff race on Tuesday night. Following that segment, we’ll be doing another Facebook Live session on the CBC Edmonton Facebook page to talk Oilers and take questions from the community.
The SuperFan 