{"id":514452,"date":"2026-03-21T05:07:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T05:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/514452\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T05:07:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T05:07:29","slug":"when-will-edmonton-oilers-move-away-for-defence-pairing-that-is-sinking-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/514452\/","title":{"rendered":"When will Edmonton Oilers move away for defence pairing that is sinking them?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Segment review: Games 61 to 70<\/p>\n

Not all d-man pairings work. Exhibit A right now is Edmonton\u2019s third pairing of Spencer Statsney and Jake Walman.<\/p>\n

Both Stastney and Walman have had successful pairings with other players, such as Stastney with Ty Emberson this year , and Walman with John Klingberg in the playoffs last year.<\/p>\n

But in 138 even strength minutes this year with Walman and Stastney paired up, the Oilers have scored two goals and given up 10, a 17% Goals For Percentage (GF%).<\/p>\n

Compare that to Darnell Nurse and Mattias Ekholm, seven goals four, four against, for a 64 GF%.<\/p>\n

Or Ekhholm and Evan Bouchard, 71 goals for, 52 goals against, a 58 GF%.<\/p>\n

Or Stastney and Emberson, eight goals for, six goals against, a 57 GF%.<\/p>\n

Here is a list of the main Oil pairings of existing d-men on the team, ranked on their expected goals for percentage (a shot quality plus-minus metric).<\/p>\n

\"pairings\"<\/a><\/p>\n

pairings<\/p>\n

In this segment of 10 games, the Oilers were pulled down in part due to iffy goaltending in about half the games,\u00a0 but also from shoddy defending in a number of matches, with Stastney and Walman leading the way.<\/p>\n

Overall in this past segment, Games 61 to 70, Edmonton had five wins and five losses, with one loser point. They were out-scored as a team by six goals, 32 for, 38 against. But they had decent Grade A shot metrics, 17.5 for per game compared to 14 against per game. With better goaltending they would have had one more win, but not to be.<\/p>\n

\"team\"<\/a><\/p>\n

team<\/p>\n

On an individual level, Matt Savoie and Mattias Ekholm played their best hockey of the year in this 10 game segment, crushing at even strength when it comes to Grade A shots plus-minus.<\/p>\n

Struggling in this same category these past 10 games were Adam Henrique, Kasperi Kapanen, Emberson, Stastney and Walman.<\/p>\n

\"Grade<\/a><\/p>\n

Grade A<\/p>\n

The same trends were seen when it comes to player grades, with Ekholm, Leon Draisaitl and Connor Ingram leading the way, and Walman, Emberson and Stastney taking up the rear.<\/p>\n

\"Player<\/a><\/p>\n

Player grades 61 to 70<\/p>\n

At the Cult of Hockey<\/p>\n

Edmonton Oilers down another forward indefinitely, as big winger gets more bad luck<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018Did Knoblauch watch the same game?\u2019: Oilers fans turn on Edmonton coach after hard loss to Panthers<\/a><\/p>\n

LEAVINS: Oilers soundly defeated 4-0 by their old Stanley Cup Finals foes: Cult of Hockey player Grades<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Segment review: Games 61 to 70 Not all d-man pairings work. Exhibit A right now is Edmonton\u2019s third…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5125],"tags":[1586,1502,2663,1809,198,146,5300,425,5,3144,691,4812,370,10563,868,38,4,24,3591,8686,48081,4702],"class_list":["post-514452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton-oilers","tag-adam-henrique","tag-brock-faber","tag-connor-ingram","tag-darnell-nurse","tag-edmonton","tag-edmonton-oilers","tag-edmontonoilers","tag-evan-bouchard","tag-hockey","tag-jake-walman","tag-john-klingberg","tag-kasperi-kapanen","tag-leon-draisaitl","tag-matt-savoie","tag-mattias-ekholm","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-nhl","tag-oilers","tag-rogers-place","tag-shaughn-butts","tag-stastney","tag-ty-emberson"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116265436086645353","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}