Pre-Game Report: Edmonton Oilers vs Seattle Kraken

Pre-Game Report: Edmonton Oilers vs Seattle Kraken

Hello Oilers fans, Austin here and welcome to the pregame report between the Edmonton Oilers and the Seattle Kraken. There’s a lot of noise surrounding the Oilers right now. Will they make a trade for another goalender? Some of the names that have been put out there include Tristan Jarry from the Pittsburgh Penguins, Jordan Bennington from the St. Louis Blues. Now, when it comes to Bennington personally, he has to wave his no trade clause to come to Edmonton. Edmonton is on his no trade list. At least that’s what’s being reported. Uh no idea if there’s anything imminent. There’s been a lot of speculation. There’s been a lot of noise from several different media members, not just in Edmonton, but like Elliot Freiedman, Jeff Merrick, David Pgnyota. Like, there’s a lot of different media guys in the NHL landscape right now that are reporting that there’s there’s things happening behind the scenes with the Oilers. I think Stan Bowman for sure recognizes that right now, the goalending situation at this point, maybe it’s just better for the goalies that the Oilers currently have to just get a fresh start somewhere else. Maybe the noise is just too much for these goalenders. There could be a lot of fan pressure and there’s already a lot of pressure on this team in general. You’re supposed to be a Stanley Cup contender. The team kind of stinks so far this season. They just cannot get out of second gear right now. Uh so there’s a lot of different things happening. Who knows? Maybe by the time I’m done recording this video or by the time you see this video, the Oilers will have made a move. But I don’t sense that there’s anything super imminent. But the fact that there is a lot of chatter shows and tells me that the team is definitely actively they’re making calls. Stan Bowman’s doing his job. He’s making some calls. He’s doing what he has to do to improve this team because if they do not improve soon like this is you got to improve now. You have to start stringing together some wins now. Uh the weather this so far this year they have not played good enough. They have five regulation wins that is tied actually no they are the sole possession of dead last when it comes to regulation wins now with just five five regulation wins in 25 games. That is absolutely putrid and the advanced stats do not paint a pretty picture with this club. So in today’s pregame report I’m going to go over the projected lineups. Uh we have we have a couple players to talk about that were recently injured or reinjured. Uh which is very unfortunate and this team’s going to have to really work their butts off now because Jack Rosik, he’s going to be out several weeks. Don’t know exactly what happened. It’s a potential broken hand some broken bone somewhere in his hand is kind of what Jim Mat was reporting. So I I don’t know how accurate that is, but the team’s going to be without Rosik for a little bit. And Casper Kaepern reinjured himself. I don’t know if it’s the same injury, but he was very frustrated coming off the ice from practice the other day. He was banging sticks. They went flying and the poor training staff had to pick them all up. But listen, it’s it’s going to be a tough game. Seattle defensively very structured. It’s going to be a tough one. So, today, like I said, I’ll go over the lineups, stats, keys to the game, players to watch, score prediction. If you like it, hit the like button. If you really like it, subscribe to the channel. I’m just kind of yapping a whole bunch right now. So the projected lines for the Seattle Kraken and the Mton Oilers or I guess for your Oilers against Seattle top line Seavoy McDavid and Heyman. I do like that Heyman is back up in that top six with Rosik out now. You have no choice. You got to play Hyman up back with McDavid here. I think that’s the only real way you’re going to get offense from Zack Heyman. Now I know Heyman was hurt. He’s coming back from that broken wrist. He doesn’t have a goal yet. I think he’s played six or seven games now. Uh oh, I said 67. Ah, six. Stop. Stop that. I stop it. Zack Iman, he uh he hasn’t scored yet, and they’re going to need offense, not just from him, but several different guys in this lineup. Matthew Seavoy, he looks very good next to McDavid. In fact, he was kind of the only one that had a pulse on McDavid’s line against Dallas. Carter McDavid did not look like he was very engaged in that game. We need an engaged McDavid. We need an engaged Dry Cidle. We need an engaged Echo and Bard Nurse. This leadership group have not been leaders lately. We need them to whatever funk they’re in, they got to get they got to snap out of it. And Chris Knobblock’s got to find a way to snap them out of it because it is very frustrating to watch as a fan right now. Second line, Pud Coulson, Dry Cidle, Mapani. Majapani, he’s a he’s a ghost. You never notice him out there. He’s never doing anything good. Uh he has the worst plus minus on the team. I don’t know. I don’t know if I like Majapani in that top six, but who else are you going to put there right now? Especially now that you’ve lost Rosik. Now I know Naen Hopkins is back. He is centering that third line with Henrik and Yanmar. I’m not sure how much hopes I have for that third line being able to produce any kind of offense. Henrik, he’s not very fast at skating. Nan Hopkins, he’s never been a fast skater, but he’s the two-way responsible player. Yanmark, he skates fast, and that’s about all he does. He’s out there and doing 12, 13 minutes of cardio every single night. I’d like to see a goal for Mr. Yanmark. There’s got to be something. Something’s got to be in that tank for Matias Yanmark. Otherwise, maybe I would consider throwing Yanmark on waiverss and bringing up someone from Bakersfield to fill this role because I I telling you right now, Ike Howard could not be a worse option than Matias Yanmark. Even Quinn Hudson could be a good option. Roby Arventi, he could be a good option. Uh I don’t know. I I don’t know what you’re going to do with some of these guys. Uh same with Curtis Lazar on the fourth line. I don’t know what he even offers. I don’t know why he’s playing ahead of a guy like David Tomasekk who I thought looked great on that fourth line with Clattenberg the other night. Clattenberg of course his first NHL goal against Dallas. He’s on the fourth line with Trent Frederick Curtis Lazar and Tomasekk he is the odd man out. It looks like he’ll be the healthy scratch. This lineup is not official. This was at practice today. So we’ll see uh what what they go with before puck drop. On defense you have Ekhol with Bard. And if I see this defense pair specifically stand around in front of the blue paint and don’t take any any forward out near their goalender, I might I might have a full-on crash out. I might just turn into the Joker. And it’s not just these two. It’s these two were pretty bad against Dallas, but Nurse was also very bad against Dallas. Alec Regula, listen, I liked him in training camp. I liked the first couple games of the season that he played. Since Regula has come back from injury, he cannot be in a top four role. Alec Regula is struggling. He is playing way above what he’s capable of. He should be on the third pair and in very sheltered minutes right now. Do not like that he’s still being given second pair duties with Darnell Nurse because Regula looks lost and Darnell Nurse also looks lost. But the the big thing here is when a puck is thrown towards Steuart Skinner or Calvin Picker, not sure who’s getting the start, if there’s a rebound, we need defenseman to be hard on those forwards. make them work their butts off to get those rebounds. Right now, opponents have it so easy. You throw a puck on net and you crash the weather’s crease and they’re not going to do anything. All the defenseman do is just stand around and then the forwards are just waiting along the half wall for an outlet that’s never coming to them. They are way too easy to play against. Uh this team’s got to they’ve got to be much better. This is brutal hockey. Third pair of Kuak with Emerson. I think the best defenseman over the past few games for the Oilers has been Ty Emerson. And that’s that’s not a good sign. And that’s no disrespect to Tai Emerson. Love the player. Um but yeah, if he’s your best defenseman on any given night, there there’s big problems here. Eko and Bousard have to start leading the way. Uh Nurse has to also start leading the way. He had one good game after being kind of called out by the media and fans and he’s kind of reverted back to his just kind of lay lay on the ice and do nothing. So I don’t know. I don’t know. I we don’t have the answers. The players don’t have the answers. Uh injury updates. Philp still in LTI. Wman likely not playing until sometime next week. Rosik is out for several weeks and Casper Kaepern, I don’t know what the timeline is on him. Now, when we get to the stats for both clubs, the Seattle Kraken, they are 116 and six this season. They are third in the Pacific Division. They are 5-3 and two in their last 10 games. But the Seattle Kraken, make no mistake, they do not give up very many goals, but they do not produce a lot of goals. In fact, they’re one of the lowest producing high danger chance teams in the entire NHL. They do not generate a whole lot of chances. They are winning games off the backs of their goalenders. And you know what? That’s what happens when you have a good goalie. Sometimes they can steal you games. Seattle’s goalending has been fantastic. Their power play ranks 19th. Their penalty kill ranks 30th. Goals per game also ranks 30th, but goals against per game this season ranks second, second best in the league. Expected goals for for Seattle at five on five, they rank second last, 31st. Shots forward percentage is third last at 30th. and then say percentage is first at five on five. Seattle Kraken, this is not a good team, right? In the NHL, every team is, you know, technically good. You’re You have to be good, right? You have to be good to play in the NHL is what I’m saying. I’m not trying to take anything away from Seattle’s record so far this season, but Seattle is a team that I would I’m not a betting man. This is a team that’s going to regress at some point. They are going to fall down the standings. they are going to collapse down the standings because the way they play, the amount of chances that they give up compared to what they are generating, it’s unsustainable. They don’t produce nearly enough offense to make up for this. The goalending will eventually start to tire out or fail them. And when it does, Seattle’s going to fall down the standings very quickly. If you’re the Oilers, this is an opportunity. This is a big opportunity to take advantage of a team that does give up their fair share of chances. The Oilers power play this season ranks third. Their penalty kill is down to 21st now. was ranked 13th against Dallas. They give up three power play goals against the Stars. Now it’s 21st goals per game, ranks 15th. Goals against per game, an abysmal 3.72, which ranks 31st. Expected goals for not much better. They ranked 25th. Shots forward percentage ranks 10th. Good job, Edmonton. That means you’re just throwing a bunch of muffins on net from from long distance. And their team save percentage at five on five. It’s well documented. It is dead last. The Oilers 70 and1 when they get a 900 save percentage. The team has not been playing good enough for their goalenders, but their goalenders have also not been playing good enough for their players. Right? This is this is a a circular issue. The players aren’t playing good. The goalies aren’t bailing them out. It’s causing the players to not play good. It’s causing the goalies, right? See see what I mean? This is a full team issue top to bottom in this organization. It is not on one single player. I know I’ve been hard on the goalies and I have had a lot of fans talk to me and be like, “Hey, you can’t just blame the goalies.” I’m not just blaming the goalies, but the goalending has been, I would argue, Edmonton’s biggest weak link for the past couple of seasons. And now, now that the team isn’t generating a lot of offense, and now that the team is also not playing very responsible defensively, the goalending is being exposed even more for what it is, below average. I It’s It’s not good. It’s bad. The whole team’s bad. Everything about this team is bad right now. I hope they can pull out a win and try and get some positivity going in oil country cuz uh the the discourse in oil oil country over the past couple days it’s not good. We we need we need to start turning it around and being positive a little bit more. Uh for the Oilers there three keys to the game. My apologies. I’m kind of stumbling on my words. They need to play with emotion. They have to protect the houses and protect the crease. Protect your goalender pack mentality. And please make some saves. You connect on all three of those keys. I think the weather is going to come out with a win. Seattle Kraken. If they’re going to win this game, they got to stay structured. They are very structured in the neutral zone. Uh they have to stay disciplined. Their penalty kill is abysmal. You do not want to give the Oilers power play any chances. And number three, capitalize on mistakes. Capitalize on the mistakes that the Oilers will inevitably make. Whether it’s a poor breakout pass, whether it’s a defenseman that’s being caught, um pinching, whatever the case is, Seattle, capitalize on Edmonton’s mistakes. My players to watch, I’m going Leon Dryidle for Edmonton, Jordan Eber for the Seattle Kraken. Of course, Seattle is without Jaden Schwarz in this game. So, the Oilers, just like against Dallas, Seattle’s without one of their best, if not their best forward here. Can you take advantage of this, please? Can you take advantage of this? Now, when it comes to my score prediction, you know what? I know fans don’t like it when I predict Emmonton to win, but I’m predicting an Oilers win. I’m going 4-2 Oilers. And I’m going to another Clattenburg goal. I think Clattenberg, there’s something there. He’s got some kind of momentum going. I like the energy that he’s bringing. I like how he plays on that fourth line. And uh I like the heart and soul that Clattenberg has brought to this team. And if he ends up being the best player again tonight like he was against Dallas, we’re going to have very tough conversations about certain players in Edmonton after this one. Game note, the Oilers rank dead last in regulation wins this season with five. Oh boy. And now I don’t really care how they get the win tonight. If it’s in regulation, that’s good. I would prefer that. But at this point, find a way to string together wins. If it’s regulation or not, I don’t care. Just find a way. I want that W after the game. So, thank you all so much for watching. I’ll see you all after the game for the postgame fan reaction. No live stream for this one. I was going to uh but I’ve decided to change my mind. I’ll probably do a live stream or two next week during their home stand. I think that would be kind of a better timing for me. So, live stream sometime next week. Whether it’s against Minnesota or Winnipeg, I haven’t decided yet. We’ll figure that out together. Uh, hit the like button. Subscribe if you’re not yet subscribed. Tell them that you love them. And as always, fight like a kid, fight like Ben. Let’s go Oilers.

The Oilers make their second trip to Seattle looking to find SOMETHING positive to build on before their upcoming 5 game homestand. Austin Hockey has you covered with today’s Pre-Game Report including projected lines, stats, keys to the game, and much more! #oilers #edmontonoilers #nhl

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