Pre-Game Report: Edmonton Oilers vs Washington Capitals

Pre-Game Report: Edmonton Oilers vs Washington Capitals

Hello Oilers fans, Austin here and welcome to today’s pregame report between the Emmonton Oilers and the Washington Capitals. Last year the Oilers went into Washington not long after that four nations break and got absolutely thumped by a score of 7 to3. So they’re going to be looking for a little bit of redemption I would think. But the Oilers this season they remind me of those kids that really struggle to blow air. You know those kids that are trying to blow out candles on a birthday cake or they’re trying to blow bubbles and all they’re doing is just kind of spitting everywhere and they’re not actually efficiently blowing air out of their mouth. That’s what the Oilers remind me of. That’s what it’s like watching them. It is very frustrating right now in oil country. Uh many fans, including you at home. Uh there are fans out there that want the coach gone. There are fans out there that want Bowman gone. There are fans out there that want uh multiple players traded or players brought up from the AHL. And to an extent, everyone’s feelings are valid right now. I totally get what you’re going through. Uh, obviously here in Oil Country, we have gone through some crazy ups and downs over the past several years. Uh, I did a couple videos. Uh, yesterday’s video was a day after discussion, and I kind of discussed why I thought this year’s start was different than the last couple of years. Now, of course, the last two seasons, the Oilers slow starts, but they end up going to the Stanley Cup final. They end up having great regular seasons, second and third in the Pacific Division, over 100 points, blah blah blah. This year’s different though. the underlying metrics do not point to the Oilers being able to get on track this season. If they’re a playoff team, maybe they’re a wildcard team, and that’s even if they get there. And but but but the good news is, right, it is only November 19th. There is a lot of time to get things sorted here. So, in today’s pregame report, I am going to go over the projected lineups. Uh lots of changes to the lineups, which is no surprise. Chris Knobblock with his line blender. We will talk about it. I’ll talk about the stats for both teams, keys to the game, players to watch, and score prediction. Let me know all of your thoughts and your score prediction down in the comments section below. Hit the like button if you like today’s video. Subscribe if you really like it. Let’s jump into the projected lines versus the Capitals. On the top line, you’re already going to notice a big change here. Jack Rosik in place of Zack Heyman with McDavid and Seavoy. Now, the logic here, at least in my opinion, is Rosik has been scoring. He’s been producing a whole bunch and he deserves a look with Conor McDavid. That I do not disagree with. Right. I I think we can all agree Jack Rosik outside of McDavid and Dry Cidle has been Mton’s best forward all season long. So Rosik gets a look on the top line. That’s fine. No worries. Seavoy, he still gets to get that look up there with McDavid. Although I do think Seavoi’s probably going to run out of real estate here, but they don’t have a lot of other options to play next to McDavid on that top line. On the second line, you have Pud Coulson with Dry Cidle and Majapani. Now, Andrew Majapani did have an assist the other night uh against the Sabres. He got like one shift with Leon Dryidle and got an assist on a Ros goal. So, Mapani gets bumped up to the second line, although many of us agree Mapani hasn’t quite worked out the way we thought he would. Again, there’s lots of time to turn the season around for a lot of these players. Historically, we know a lot of these players that are struggling right now will likely be able to turn things around and play much better. But right now, it’s very frustrating. Majapani is going to be on the second line with Leon and Pod Coulson tonight. On the third line, this is where Zack Heyman went. Zack Kyman on the third line with Adam Henrik and Trent Frederick. Now, for me personally, I don’t see this as a demotion for Zackman. More so a let’s try and get Trent Frederick on track here. Let’s try and give Trent Frederick a kick in the butt and try and inspire his physicality and his grit and his tenacity because Zack Heyman next to Frederick that like there’s no excuse for Trent Frederick at this point, right? Heyman is going to be banging bodies all night. Trent Frederick, it’s up to you now. Are you going to respond? Are you going to pull on the same rope as Zack Heyman? And of course, Adam Henrik, he’s the two-way center on that line. Henrik, I think, has played okay this season. Not like he’s had very good linemates, though. He’s been stuck with boat anchors like Trent Frederick all year. So, we’ll see what that third line can do. I also think Zach Heyman adds a little bit of scoring touch to that third line. The bottom six desperately need something. So, I won’t be surprised to see Heyman move up and down the lineup as the night progresses. And then on the fourth line, well, you’ll see only two forwards, Yanmar and Tomasek. It’s because Lazar and Philp are both gone the remainder of the road trip. Chris Knobblock announced that they both have upper body injuries and they will not play on the rest of this road trip. the Oilers with a lack of available cab space to call anyone up right now. There’s some big decisions that Bowman and and co are going to have to make here because there are players in Bakersfield that are knocking on the door. And Quinn Hudson is one of them. Eric Fzen put out a tweet. I’m just going to show everyone. Prospect Quinn Hudson, undrafted, notched a goal and two assists in a 5-2 win for the Bakersfield Condors last night. Hudson now has five goals and 12 points in his last five AHL games. That is a 2.4 points per game pace. Uh obviously Quinn Hudson, he has been absolutely lighting it up down in Bakersfield. He’s looked great. And ever since Ike Howard has gone down to Bakersfield, uh the Condors are producing. Ike Howard has four points in two games. At some point, these kids are going to be coming up. They’re going to be pushing the vets like Frederick. They’re going to be pushing Ganmark, Tomasek, Henrik, and that’s a good that’s a good thing, right? But we have a coach that likes to play his vets over kids. We have kids that will likely come up from Bakersfield and play six or seven minutes a night and not quite make the difference offensively because of a coach like Chris Knobblock who has been very frustrated in how he’s utilized his younger players. But it is a good sign that at least in Bakersfield right now, the kids are producing. Quinn Hudson is someone to keep an eye on. He is likely the first call-up option for the Oilers when and if they do call anyone up. Now on defense, you have Nurse with Bousard. Oh my goodness gracious. This is going to be a chaotic defense pair. I don’t know how much I agree with this defense pair, but you have to change something. None of the defenseman this season are really performing as expected. Um, Darnell Nurse obviously has been under the microscope for the past few days here and for the past few weeks. And for some Oilers fans, basically since the day he signed his contract. Uh, there is some talk Elliot Freriedman did mention that Darnell Nurse, the noise might be starting to get to him in in oil country. Now, what does the noise mean? It can’t be from the media cuz nobody in media is is, you know, picking on Darnell Nurse. It is the fan base and we’ll have to see how Darnell Nurse responds here, right? Nurse is a player that last season was pretty effective. And when Nurse is on his game, he is a very good defenseman. I would argue he’s one of their best defenseman when he is playing his game, which is being mean. We don’t see Darnell Nurse being mean very often. Uh the physicality and using his feet to skate out of trouble. Right now, Nurse, he’s just in no man’s land every single shift. I don’t know what’s going on here. I don’t know where the regression has come from. Every single defenseman on Edmonton has regressed in some capacity, whether it’s a point regression or just regular five on five play if you care about the advanced analytics. Every single defenseman on this season has taken a massive step back. Now, is that a Paul Coffee situation? Because coffee is no longer behind the bench. I don’t know. It it’s it’s easy to point the finger and be like, “Oh, well, every defenseman stinks now and Paul Coffey’s not coaching anymore. Therefore, there’s the correlation.” That is the reason. I think there are more reasons than just Paul Coffee, but I think losing Paul Coffee has had a bigger impact on the on this defensive core than many fans would like to admit or even the media as well. On the second pair, you have Ekholm with Koulak. Not sure how I feel about that. Kulak has played on his off side, his off hand, I guess you should say. I should say he’s on the he’s on the right side shooting left-handed. Uh for Brett Kulak, obviously this is a position that he can play in. He was put in this position a few times last year next to Darnell Nurse. Um so we’ll see how they do tonight at Kman Koulak. Koulak, I think we’re starting to see potentially father time here taking an effect on his game. We’re starting to see maybe just an overall regression in his play as well. which is which is sad because I love Brett Kulak and playoff Brett Kulak is one of a kind. We love playoff Brett Kulak but we’ll see how Echo and Koulak do tonight. On the third pair you have Jake Wman with Alec Regula. Wman finally gets to play his strong hand here on the left side next to Alec Regula. We’ll see if that helps. And then Ty Emerson because the team is going 11 and seven tonight. Uh he is the seventh Dman. He’ll get his rotations up and down um the D pairs. We’ll see how they’re rotated tonight. Steuart Skinner Stew gets the start. need a 900 save percentage from Stu because the Oilers are undefeated when they get a 900 save percentage. They are 6-0 when this team gets a 900 save percentage. Let’s take a look at the stats for Washington. They are 98-2 on the season, eighth in the Metro, 35-2 in their last 10 games. They rank 30th on the power play, 26th on the penalty kill, 24th in goals per game, but second in goals against per game. They actually have the best goalending in the league. And their expected goals for percentage of five on five also ranks second. to their shots forward percentage ranks fourth. So you take a look at Washington power play struggling, penalty kills struggling, they’re struggling to score goals just in general. But then you take a look at the underlying metrics and you’re like, uh-oh, is this a team that’s ready to explode and go on a big run here. Reminds me of the Oilers of a couple years ago where the team was struggling to get wins, but the underlying metrics were very solid. Washington right now, they’re getting the best goalending in the league. Logan Thompson, likely the team Canada starter in the Olympics. He has been phenomenal for the Washington Capitals. Um, and if they get going at five on five here, if they start finding a way to put the puck in the net, a guy like Alexe Pro is someone that I’m pointing at here who only has five goals on the season. Last year, he had 30 goals. So, there are players on Washington that are underperforming right now. We’ll have to see how that translates into the game tonight. But if Washington keeps doing what they have been doing, which is dominating possession, dominating shots on goal, dominating high danger chances, the puck’s going to eventually start going their way and they’re going to start producing a whole bunch. And the Oilers could be in for a world of trouble tonight if they are not ready for that. The Emmonton Oilers right now on the power play, they rank third. On the penill, they’re ranked 12th. Their special teams have been fantastic. Goals per game, they rank 18th. Goals against per game, they rank 28th in the NHL. Their expected goals for at five on five ranks 23rd. Not good. That’s bottom 10. Shots four percentage ranks 10th. Which means again, if the expected goals are bottom 10, but your shots percentage is top 10, that means a lot of Em shots are very low quality or of the lowquality variety. As I mentioned in the video yesterday, um, lots of perimeter shots happening here. A lot of shots from the blue line, a lot of shots from the outside. Nobody’s getting into the dirty areas. They need their forwards to start driving those dirty areas. Their team save percentage also ranks dead last this season, 87.59%. Although to be fair, it’s not like the team in front of the goalenders has been helping them out at all. I know there’s a lot of of angst towards Steuart Skinner. I think Stu has been one of the problems this season, but he has not been the problem this season. Calvin Pickard, though, that has been a problem. And the Oilers, they have a backto-back tomorrow. They’re in Tampa. This is not going to get any easier. And if if Calvin Pickard is trusted with the start tomorrow, the Oilers desperately need a win tonight. They have to win tonight if Pickard’s getting the start tomorrow because I’m chalking tomorrow up as a loss if Pickard is in the crease. For the Oilers, their keys to the game, you got to start somewhere, right? If you’re going to turn your season around, take all of the stats up to this point and throw them in the garbage. You have to start somewhere as some sort of clean slate, right? There have been coaches in the past in Edmonton that do like this that used to do seven game samples, right? They would evaluate the team after seven games. Seven, seven, seven. I think that was uh Todd Mlen’s thing. I could be wrong. Maybe it was Dave Tippet. Someone can correct me. But the Oilers right now, try and find a way to wipe the slate clean and start somewhere. Start building your game somewhere. Start building up these players. Start building up your defenseman. Build up your offense. Build up your attack. It’s not too late. It’s not too late to change things for the better here. So, number one, start somewhere, right? Build on something. Maybe it’s a hit. Maybe for Trent Frederick, it’s it’s um you know, pissing someone off after the whistle. Start somewhere. Number two, this also goes in hand handinand here uh with starting somewhere. Show some emotion. And I don’t just mean like physi physically, right? When the Oilers score goals this season, they look miserable. They look like they’re not having fun. Anytime a player scores, they are just stone cold. just they look annoyed and pissed off. I want to see some emotion. I want to see good emotion and bad emotion, right? I want to see some anger. The players on this team should be very unhappy with where they are in the standings and a lot of them should be very unhappy with their own play. Translate that energy into emotion on the ice here. Number three, you’re not going to turn things around unless you start paying attention to the details. Every little detail. Forwards, stop flying the zone. defenseman, cover your man in the uh in the defensive zone. On offense, find a way to work the puck into the middle of the ice. Drive the crease, get some ugly goals, bang some bodies, but the attention to detail has to be there. And for the Oilers, there have been so many passengers this season. Nobody is paying attention to detail right now on this team. For the Washington Capitals, there are three keys to the game. One, they need their power play to start firing. Two, they need their penley kill to get a stop. And three, they need the offense to get going at five on five. I think the Washington Capitals are a better team than their record shows. So, we’ll see if they’re going to start producing here. I am very concerned as an Oilers fan that uh because of Washington’s underlying metrics that the Oilers could be in for a big world of trouble tonight. We’ll see how it goes. Hopefully, Steuart Skinner is up to the task. He’s going to have to be if the Oilers have any chance of winning this game. Players to watch, Rosik and Proush for Jack Rosik. Of course, he has been Edmonton’s hottest player as of late. He has four goals and three assists in his last five games, which is fantastic. And I picked Alexi Pro as my player to watch for Washington because, as I mentioned, he only has five goals this season. He’s only on pace for about 20 or 21 goals. Last year, he had 30. So, that would be quite the step back for him. He is a big big powerful player. He’s 6’6, like 250 lbs is he’s massive. And when he is on his game offensively, he is very hard to stop. And my score prediction here for the Oilers and Capitals, every time I predict the Oilers to lose, they win. Every time I predict them to win, they lose. Well, I’m going to predict a 5-2 Capitals win with a Seavoy goal. I do think Matthew Seavoy, I I’ve been talking about Seavoy in a couple videos now. I do think he’s due to really start producing. He is in the right spots, but I would like to see him get a little bit more into the middle of the ice. He is kept to the outside a decent amount, but he is working his butt off and he is getting to the right spots. Hopefully that translates to a goal for the game note tonight. Both Edmonton Washington have traded series sweeps with each other over the past four seasons. Last season, Edmonton lost 7 to3 in Washington. Let’s see if the team in Edmonton can uh kind of avenge that and play much better than they have as of late. Let me know all of your thoughts in the comments section below. Tell someone you love them before the game tonight. And as always, fight like a kid, fight like Ben. Let’s go Oilers. I’ll see you after the game for the postgame fan reaction. Take care, folks.

Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers continue their longest road trip of the season with a stop in Washington to take on Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals tonight. The Oilers desperately need to find a way to grab two points tonight. They go up against the NHL’s best goaltender so it’s not going to be easy. Austin Hockey breaks it all down in today’s Pre-Game Report! #oilers #edmontonoilers #nhl

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