The NHL Has An ‘Oiler’ Problem

The NHL Has An ‘Oiler’ Problem

The Edmonton Oilers are now just one win away from returning to the Stanley Cup final after a 4-1 win over the Dallas Stars in game four. We may very well be seeing a Stanley Cup final rematch with Conor McDavid getting his shot at revenge. Now, both series aren’t over. However, this version of the Oilers may even be better than the one that went all the way to the finals last season. So, diving into game four, there wasn’t a whole lot of room five on five. So, special teams became the big difference in deciding the winner. Now, in order to understand how these two teams are trying to expose each other, we got to understand what systems they use. First, let’s step into Edmonton’s locker room and look at the Oilers power play. Now, the pre-cout heading into this game for Edmonton is that Dallas’s PK plays an aggressive diamond formation. They want to pressure you into making bad decisions with the puck. Now, what the Oilers want to do is get Dallas to over pressure to the point where they spread out. So, on the first power play of the game, look at the Oilers. They’re in that traditional 1-31 look. The puck goes to McDavid and once he cuts back, watch Nan Hopkins in the bumper position kick out to the perimeter. Edmonton now has four players on the perimeter and the Stars killers have flexed all the way out to stay aggressive, which leaves a big old space in the middle of the ice here. McDavid can’t get this pass over, but that’s an interesting look. Right after that, the Oilers are going to take advantage on the entry. Perry drops it back to Dryidle and then says, “I’m just going to stand right here, good sir.” Picks off Granland like Prime Shack. Dry Cidle has a clear lane into the zone. Plays a little give and go with Nan Hopkins and bang. The German doctor doesn’t play around in his office. No wind up or anything. Anger is late picking up the pass and anticipating the play. It’s money and the Oilers have a one- nothing lead thanks to a power play goal. Later in the game, however, Edmonton goes back to that same spread look. They’re originally going to get into this two-3 formation. And look at how stretched out the diamond has become for Dallas. Again, watch Djan Hopkins here. That sneaky little devil. Watch his movement. He weaves in and out of the bumper, then kicks back out to the perimeter. Once McDavid gets this puck, Edmonton is in that spread look again. Now, this is a pass that Conor McDavid can make 10 times out of 10. That creates a twoon-one isolation look that they’re always striving for down low at the net. A little cheeky under the stick pass, and Edmonton has another power play goal. Cory Perry gets another one. The guy 7,000 years old still, and he’s scoring clutch goals. Even late in the game as well, Edmonton didn’t stray away from this. They still maintain that spread look and they were perfectly content without having anyone in the bumper slot or middle part of the ice. They know that Dallas’s PK is aggressive by nature. So, if they can lure them out to the perimeter, they can eventually spread them out and find that 2v1 isolation play that is almost good for an automatic goal. Now, if you step into Pete Dor’s office, you need to capitalize on your power play opportunities because you just can’t score five on five in this series. So, let’s look at the pre-scout for the Oilers penalty kill. And the setup that they use is a triangle plus one. Triangle protects the net. The plus one pressures from the top down to keep the play to one side of the ice. Dallas’s power play is more married to the 1-31 setup than Edmonton. But their first power play of the game, they couldn’t even get set up. The entries were an ugly mess. And when they got to the blue line, Edmonton would send two defenders to the corner to pressure the puck carrier. And despite Dallas outnumbering Edmonton on the wall, they just kept losing the battle for a clear. But then we see some adjustments. Dallas has two methods of breaking down Edmonton’s PK. The first method is making the penalty kill collapse with a down low play. Dallas has had a ton of success with this method, especially in game one. They would use quick puck movement low to high to drag the Oers plus one forward down low. Then they kick it back to the point and it would create all kinds of space for them to step in for a shot. So on this power play, Robertson gets the puck on the flank and the bumper spot is taken away. I mentioned the bumper spot because that’s important for later. So book that. Now they try this down low in a crossplay that has worked very well for them in these playoffs. But this is the second power play unit. So Granlin can’t one-time this puck because he’s a left-handed shot. However, that down low play causes Edmonton to over collapse. And now it is panic time for the Edmonton killers. The plus one flexes out aggressively for the block that creates a seam right in the middle to attack and Robertson goes top bunk knocking over all the peanut butter. Now, if we go back to that bumper play that was originally taken away, that’s important because the second method to exposing Edmonton’s PK is using the bumper to change sides. With the top forward on Edmonton’s PK doing their very best to take away that crossseam threat, Dallas can use the player in the bumper as a path to change sides. Watch here as a plus one flexes out to take away that pass to the other side of the point. So Harley zips it over to the bumper. He kicks it over to Granlin and again it’s panic at the disco. Edmonton over collapses and Dallas almost bingo but no cigar. Once this play starts cooking for the Stars. The plus one on Edmonton’s PK starts anticipating it and it opens up the lane for the crossseam pass. Now going back to the Robertson power play goal, we saw that Edmonton was very conscious of that bumper play and took it away. So, Dallas adjusted again by using movement to open up that same bumper play. You can see basically that they would form almost a triangle threeon-one situation where one or two Dallas players would be in motion to make this play available. Dallas got some great looks with this play, but they ultimately fell short. Edmonton’s two power play goals to Dallas’s one was enough to be the difference. The Oilers add two empty netters and are now just one win away from going back to the Stanley Cup final. Now, there’s a couple storylines going into game five. First, the biggest one is that Oilers Zack Heyman is out for the season after taking this hit from Mason Marchmond. It was announced that he had surgery and he’s not going to be back. That is a huge hit to the Oilers lineup, but you can bring in the big guns and get Jeff Skinner in there. The playoff weapon himself is ready to go. As for the Stars, their scoring woes have just been way too much. Their offense has gone completely dry. And as much as this can be blamed on Dallas’s star players, you got to give credit to the Oilers five-on-5 play as they’ve been defending incredibly well in this series. Not to mention, Stuart Skinner has somehow turned into prime carry price. Also, the new Shrine Nan Hopkins has caught fire in these conference finals. He has nine points, two goals, and multiple points in all four games. Offensively, he’s producing, but where he’s at his best is away from the puck. He’s such an intelligent player. It’s the little things that he does when he doesn’t even have possession that make him so effective. Just watch here on this rush play. He defers to McDavid. Then look at this tiny little tie up on Duchain just having the awareness to slow him down. That extra second gives McDavid that room to make the play. It ends up being a great a chance because of that tiny play by Nan Hopkins on the back check. Just being in the right spot, understanding where the play is going to be. And even on the forche where he’s all alone, he’s the only guy solo job working hard creating turnovers, making Edmonton extremely hard to play against. His play with the puck is evident in his production. But it’s these little details that make him one of the better two-way forwards in the game, and it’s showing right now. However, what I think makes this team even more dangerous than they were last year is their depth. Last year, for the first time in the McDavid era, I thought their depth was the best it’s ever been. But honestly, with how this current group is playing right now, this team may be even better from the top to bottom and they’re missing arguably their best defenseman in Matias Ekhome. So, what did you think of game four? Do you think Edmonton closes this out in five and heads back to the cup final or do you think that Dallas finds a way to claw back and get even in this series? The numbers suggest that this series will likely fall in Nemonton’s favor. Shocker. It’s 3 to1 them, but anything can happen. Anyways, drop a comment down below. Leave your thoughts. And if you want to see more NHL playoff breakdowns just like this one, you can check out our game four breakdown of Carolina versus Florida. You can watch it before game five, after game five, whatever you prefer. We cover it all on this channel. So, make sure you turn on notifications and subscribe so that you don’t miss a thing.

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We break down game 4 of the Edmonton Oilers vs The Dallas Stars and how each team tried to expose the other for the win.