This in from Oilers announcer Jack Michaels, the lines and d-man pairings from this morning’s Edmonton Oilers practice, with one of Edmonton’s top d-men Jake Walman finally returning to the line-up and the Oilers with, yet again, a new set of lines.
Podkolzin-McDavid-Draisaitl
Mangiapane-RNH-Roslovic
Savoie-Philp-Frederic
Howard-Henrique-Tomasek-
Ekholm-Bouchard
Nurse-Walman
Kulak-Emberson
Skinner
My take
1. The Edmonton Oilers usually give up about 12 Grade A shots per game. In the past four games they have given up 15 per game. That’s a significant increase, indicative of defence in disarray. The biggest problem on defence is the d-men themselves, who are making mistakes at a high rate and leaking Grade A shots against. The only d-man who isn’t leaking profusely is Mattias Ekholm, who has been the Oilers best player to start the year.
2. As a group the Oilers d-men made about 1.55 major mistakes on Grade A shots against per 15 minutes of play. This year that has shot up 1.87 per game. The defensive play of a number of key defenders has hit the skids.
Darnell Nurse has from 1.41 mistakes per game last year to 2.35 this year, Evan Bouchard 1.72 to 2.07, Brett Kulak 1.58 to 1.73, Ty Emberson 1.46 to 2.17 and Troy Stecher 1.4 to 1.5.
Only Ekholm has improved from 1.72 last year to 1.24 this year, a strong number for a d-man facing tough competition, where one or two mistakes per game on Grade A shots is the norm.
3. Of course the season is young and the sample size is small. But rates of such mistakes only decrease with concerted action. This defensive slump has to end and the Oilers coaches and d-men have to find a way to end it.
GrA dmen
At the Cult of Hockey
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