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Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

Welcome to the Neno's Place!

Neno's Place Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality


Neno

I can be reached by phone or text 8am-7pm cst 972-768-9772 or, once joining the board I can be reached by a (PM) Private Message.

Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

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Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

Many Topics Including The Oldest Dinar Community. Copyright © 2006-2020


    Edmonton Oilers

    jedi17
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    Posts : 10738
    Join date : 2013-02-20
    • Post n°1

    Edmonton Oilers Empty Edmonton Oilers

    Post by jedi17 Fri Feb 03, 2017 9:36 pm

    G54 Oilers vs Hurricanes: Lucic Struggling To Score
    February 3, 2017, 2:02 PM ET [143 Comments]
    Matt Henderson
    Edmonton Oilers Edm Edmonton Oilers Blogger • RSS • Archive • CONTACT
    Well that wasn’t very fun. The Oil were blanked by the Preds last night and the only good news is they can’t think about it for very long because there’s another game tonight. Thankfully the game was better played than the one against the Wild, but mental lapses very early and very late in periods killed the Oilers. The 2nd goal was a complete and total breakdown in the defensive zone. The first was a gamble gone wrong and a helluva shot by Arvidsson.

    Any time McDavid goes 2 games without a point the ears perk up, because he’s never gone 3 games without a point in his career to date. I think he takes it as a personal failure when he doesn’t get onto the scoreboard, which is part of the internal drive that has taken him to the top of the NHL. Draisaitl and Maroon have been his most effective linemates this season, but Maroon is slumping and there may be a growing desire to put Draisaitl back to centre. 

    The issue with moving Maroon away from McDavid is that nobody else has shown that level of chemistry. Pouliot has looked OK in spot duty at the top this season, but the eye test only goes so far without goals being scored. Moving Draisaitl to center should give Lucic a huge boost, but then there’s a gaping hole on the top line. These past few games may tip Chiarelli towards picking up another 3C or a top 6 RW before the trade deadline. Either way, it’s clear that while the team is good, it can improve.

    One of the things that has been overlooked this year, amongst all the congratulations for the huge step forward that that team has taken, has been Milan Lucic’s abysmal 5v5 scoring. I would like to hope that he is merely experiencing the down first year that seems to happen to a lot of free agent acquisitions. I mean, I am actively hoping that’s what it is, because the Oilers have committed a lot of dollars to Lucic, who is scoring 5v5 like Matt Hendricks.

    No, but seriously. The Hulking Oiler forward is scoring at a rate of 1.05 Points per 60 minutes 5v5 this year. Matt Hendricks has a rate of 1.06 Points per 60 minutes. Benoit Pouliot is getting raked over the coals this year and his is 1.04 Points per 60 minutes. This is definitely not what the Oilers were hoping to get when they signed Lucic. 




    In the 3 years prior to this one, over 3400 minutes of 5v5 hockey, Milan Lucic scored at a rate of 1.92 points per 60 minutes. So Edmonton was expecting their big free agent pick-up to be significantly more of an impact player and they had every right to expect it. Now, he wasn’t a great fit for McDavid because I think there was a pretty big speed mismatch, but hist top 3 centers over those previous 3 years were Krejci, Toffoli, and Kopitar. No offense to Caggiula, but his quality of teammate has dropped significantly while on the Oiler 3rd line. 

    I anticipate that by next year Lucic will be firmly on the 2nd line (because the Oilers will move Pouliot), but he has more to give this team.

    LINEUP

    Talbot starts in net despite the back-to-back

    Maroon McDavid Draisaitl
    Pouliot RNH Eberle
    Lucic Caggiula Slepyshev
    Hendricks Letestu Kassian

    Klefbom Larsson
    Sekera Russell
    Davidson Benning

    Talbot
    Brossoit

    OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME

    1) Played The Right Way. The Carolina Hurricanes play the game the right way. Their problem is very much that they lack high end offensive skill. Despite being a top 10 club in 5v5 Shot attempts, Unblocked shot attempts, and Shot percentages, they are below the playoff cutline. They have scored just 131 goals this season as a club and a quick perusal of their roster leaves one very uninspired. That said, this is a well coached team. They aren’t a complete wreck, spending oodles of time in their own zone. Edmonton almost certainly out-skills this group, but they can expect a fight. 

    2) Break Outs. Edmonton is having a significant problem moving the puck out of its zone these past couple games. There were points when –and I’m not naming names- a certain Oiler defender wearing number 4 and hailing from Caroline Alberta was facing single forechecker pressure and was immobilized by it behind his own net. It resulted in slapping the puck around the boards, which was collected by the opposition and brought back in for a scoring chance against. The Oilers have Klefbom, Sekera, and Benning who can all pass the puck pretty well and they play on 3 different pairings. Larsson, Russell, and Davidson need to take some ownership of their passing plays and be better. To go with that, the forwards need to support those three a lot more. If it means coming back deeper when you see Russell out there, then so be it. 

    3) Aha Aho! The Hurricanes are legitimately excited about their young, teenage winger Sebastion Aho. He was taken 35th overall in 2015 and went on to score a point per game last season in the Finnish league. As a smaller player (5’10”, 176 lbs) and a rookie in the NHL, he’s picked up 15-15-30 on a Hurricanes team that doesn’t score. This is a huge win for the Canes and a player to watch out for tonight. Everyone wishes their 2nd rounders turned out this well. If Edmonton gets into a speed game then this is one of those few players on the other side of the ice that can become extremely dangerous. 

    Puck drops tonight at 5:30 PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet 1. Game On!
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