With Oscar Klefbom, Darnell Nurse and Brandon Davidson taking regular shifts on the Oilers blueline this season, I figured this might be some sort of record in the league. What I wanted to find out specifically was what proportion of a team’s defence core’s minutes have been given to players 24 and under so far this season.

My guess was that the Oilers would be near the top of the list. And of course I was wrong. They’re actually 10th in the league.

Full article is at The Copper & Blue.

Cam Talbot’s first 10 games as the Oilers starter haven’t been great as he’s currently holding a 89.3% adjusted save percentage. Of the 25 goalies who have played a minimum of 350 minutes at even-strength this season (roughly eight games), Talbot ranks 23rd, only ahead of Sergei Bobrovsky and Chad Johnson(Source: War on Ice)

Before I get into this further, a couple things I want to note:

• The Oilers need Talbot to provide average goaltending. Doesn’t have to be elite. Just average. And the average adjusted save percentage among goalies with more than 1,300 minutes (roughly 30 games) last season and the season prior were 92.2% and 92.3% respectively.

Full article is at The Copper & Blue.

The top two lines have been playing extremely well for the Edmonton Oilers. The top line has taken on the top line of opposing teams while the second line led by Connor McDavid, has been producing at an elite rate. Unfortunately, the rest of the forwards have struggled to produce, often getting outshot by opponents and barely generating anything in the offensive zone. Anton Lander has been singled out a number of times now this season by fans and the coaching staff, and for good reason. Following a successful career in the AHL, and showing well in a full-time role last season, the Oilers signed him to a two year, one way contract to solidify the center position. Personally, I was thrilled for the player as well as for the Oilers who have long struggled to have four reliable pivots at any given time.

Thirteen games into the season, it’s a good time to ask what the issue is and really if there are any remedies. By eye, Lander has struggled gaining the zone and often losing puck battles. Expectations of his actual point production should remain modest, since he notched 20 points in 38 games last season, with just over half of those points (11) coming at even-strength.

Full article is at The Copper & Blue.

Before the season started, I put together some high-level targets that I thought the Oilers should aim for.  Things like possession, shooting percentage and save percentage (all at even-strength) served as preliminary, high-level metrics that could be further explored as needed. I used the performance of the Oilers’ division rivals from around the same time last year to come up with these targets and made minor adjustments accordingly.

First off, a quick look at how they did in the first month compared to the targets I established.

Full article is at The Copper & Blue.

Right now the Pacific Division is pretty pathetic. Six of the top eight teams in the western conference are from the Central Division. When it comes to adjusted Corsi For%, only LA and San Jose are in the top eight in the west. The rest of the Pacific division teams have so far been below average when it comes to possession and goals.

Full article is at The Copper & Blue.

My colleague here at C&B Scott Reynolds put together an insightful post yesterday comparing previous teams that mustered 6-7 points in the first 10 games and had goal differentials similar to what the Oilers have this season. The good news, as Scott found, is that teams have bounced back from poor starts to at least compete for the playoffs. But before holding out hope for the 2015/16 Oilers, I decided to look into some of the high level performance metrics including possession, shooting percentage and save percentage (at even-strength) for these comparable teams in their first 10 game segments (Source: War on Ice).

Full article is at The Copper & Blue.

Todd McLellan was pretty furious following the game against the Capitals on Friday night, and for good reason. The club was outclassed by a better team at home, making far too many mistakes in the neutral zone and defensive end. The Oilers allowed 13 high danger scoring chances at even-strength, with all four even-strength goals against coming from that area.  That’s almost double the average number of shots that come from the high danger area in a game (thanks to rickithebear for that tidbit).

For reference, high danger scoring chances are the ones taken from the slot and low slot, as demonstrated below (Source: War on Ice).

You have to understand why McLellan may have been a little annoyed after the game and at the media availability on Saturday (Source: 630 CHED). Fact is, he’s had a history of getting a higher proportion of high danger chances in games and ensuring that the opposition is limited. He regularly finished in the top five league-wide when it came to the overall quanity of high danger shots and often had a high proportion of those shots. Here’s how he did compared to the rest of the league and, as always, I included Edmonton for fun.

Now it’s early in McLellan’s tenure as Oilers coach, but here’s a game-by-game look at the count of high danger scoring chances, for and against, at even-strength.

Why might the Oilers be struggling again? A lot of the poor defensive coverage, which was really exposed against Washington, comes down to the personnel on the roster. Oscar Klefbom and Justin Schultz were dreadful in that game, but so too were some of the forwards who didn’t do enough to prevent passes getting into the slot area. The Capitals consistently drew the Oilers in, or moved them out of position with strategic passing, creating numerous lanes to send the puck to the net.

If the Oilers intend on becoming an elite team, they need to employ qualified NHL players who can read and react to plays more efficiently. What they have right now is ot good enough. And until they bring in experience and skill to the back-end, this will be another development year.

Full article is at The Copper & Blue.