I joined host Emily Fitzpatrick on the CBC Edmonton News on Thursday evening to talk Oilers and discuss the loss against the Winnipeg Jets. Clip is here and starts at the 13:45 mark: CBC Edmonton News (2017, December 28)
Couple notes:
- We spent some time on the shot metrics from Thursday night, and how much the Jets dominated. The Oilers really hung in there thanks to that lovely shorthanded goal and the stellar play of Cam Talbot. I thought the rest of the team was poor and they’ll need to be a lot sharper for Friday’s game against Chicago. Game stats presented were pulled from Natural Stat Trick.
- I also showed how each line did against the Jets, using the four centermen as proxy’s.
- Even though the team played poorly, the Oilers should continue running the three scoring lines. It’s been largely effective over the last 12-13 games, and one bad game shouldn’t derail the coaching staff’s strategy. I did a short write-up here last week.
- Something I found very concerning last season was how poorly the team fared when McDavid was not on the ice. So far this season it’s been a different story, largely because the talent is a little more evenly distributed across three lines.
- Without McDavid, the team has been above 50% when it comes to Corsi For%, and we should expect that to improve over time with Draisaitl and RNH’s line doing alright. What also stands out in the graph above is that when McDavid’s on-ice numbers slide below 50% (probably because of the illnesses he had), the team’s overall numbers remained respectable because of their depth.
