At five-on-five in October, Mattias Ekholm was outscored 14-7, while Evan Bouchard was outscored 11-5. In November, Ekholm and Bouchard have outscored their opponents 8-6. Progress.<\/p>\n
When your best players start playing better, the rest of the team often follows suit. The Oilers\u2019 depth players can\u2019t lead them offensively, and now that the top dogs are producing points, they just need the depth forwards to chip in. It shouldn\u2019t be difficult to get more production from the bottom-six forwards in the next quarter than it was in the first, because they did not produce very much.<\/p>\n
Adam Henrique and Noah Philp (14GP) each had two goals. Isaac Howard had two goals before being sent down to Bakersfield<\/a> while Matt Savoie had two, but one came with him playing with McDavid, where he will start the second quarter. Trent Frederic, David Tom\u00e1\u0161ek (14GP) and Curtiz Lazar (8GP) each had one goal. Mattias Janmark<\/a> had zero in four games. The bottom-two lines need to be more involved offensively this quarter, and, in theory, they might be able to create more now that the top-two lines look steadier with the return of Hyman and the emergence of Roslovic.<\/p>\n The entire team needs to be better defensively at five-on-five. The Oilers were outscored 50-36 in the first quarter. The Colorado debacle, where they got crushed 8-0 at five-on-five, made the numbers look worse, but they were still outscored 42-36 in their other 19 games. Their play at five-on-five has been poor.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of it has to do with playing 60 minutes,\u201d said Kris Knoblauch. \u201cI think we have had stretches, not that long, but a period or a stretch where we have played well, but there haven\u2019t been many games where we liked the effort from the whole team. We need to be more engaged, have little more intensity and energy to find that push for longer stretches.\u201d<\/p>\n In Philadelphia they dominated the first 35 minutes, but then the Flyers were able to come back and force overtime. In Columbus they started slowly, made a valiant comeback, but came up short. In Carolina they had a great start, got up 2-0, but blew that lead, before winning in overtime.<\/p>\n Even when they\u2019ve started well, they\u2019ve struggled to hold leads or control the pace of play. It is rare to control an entire game, but the Oilers have seen more peaks and valleys this season than steady, solid play. They need to be able to regain momentum rather than allow the opposition to regain it and hold it for 20-30 minutes at a time.<\/p>\n \u2014 The Oilers only played three games in the first quarter where they outscored their opponents five-on-five. They outscored the Rangers and Flyers 1-0 and Utah 5-3. They had seven games where they were tied five-on-five, and 10 games where they were outscored. Last season they outscored teams 34 times and were tied 14 times and were outscored 34 times. Their five-on-five game, both offensively and defensively, must improve in the second quarter and beyond.<\/p>\n \u2014 McDavid registered his 742nd assist in Carolina in his 732nd game. He\u2019s averaging over one assist\/game in his career. He is now tied for 50th all time in assist with Denis Potvin (1,060GP). If he produces 56 assists in the final 62 games this season he will finish the season 36th all time and pass the likes of Jari Kurri (797 in 1,251 GP), Guy Lafleur (793 in 1,126), Peter Stastny (789 in 977), Mats Sundin (785 in 1,346), Brian Leetch (781 in 1,205), Jean Ratelle (776 in 1,280), Vincent Damphousse (773 in 1,378), Teemu Selanne (773 in 1,451), Chris Chelios (763 in 1,651), Nicklas Backstrom (762 in 1,105), Bernie Federko (761 in 1,000), Claude Giroux (761 in 1,282), Doug Weight (755 in 1,238) and Larry Robinson (750 in 1,384).<\/p>\n Only 14 players have 1,000+ career assists, and McDavid is poised to become the 15th in a few seasons.<\/p>\n \u2014 The McDavid to Draisaitl combination is tracking to become the greatest duo on game-winning goals in NHL history. McDavid assisted on Draisaitl\u2019s game-winning goal in Carolina on Saturday. It was the 44th time McDavid has assisted on a Draisaitl game winner. That ties him with Bryan Trottier (44 assists on Mike Bossy GWGs) and now they trail Nicklas Backstrom (51 assists on GWGs by Alex Ovechkin) and Henrik Sedin (66 assists on GWGs by Daniel Sedin).<\/p>\n \u2014 It was also McDavid\u2019s 46th overtime point which is now second most behind Sidney Crosby\u2019s 48.<\/p>\n \u2014 Leon Draisaitl set a new Oilers\u2019 record for most GWG. It was his first this season, but the 73rd of his career. He passes Glenn Anderson and McDavid who each have 72. McDavid and Draisaitl will battle for this record for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n \u2014 Draisaitl also became the fourth player in NHL history with 20+ overtime goals. His 20th ranks him fourth behind Brad Marchand (21), Crosby (24) and Ovechkin (27).<\/p>\n \u2014 Stuart Skinner won his 105th career game as an Oilers and is now fifth all time behind Andy Moog (143), Tommy Salo (147), Bill Ranford (167) and Grant Fuhr (226).<\/p>\n \u2014 Hyman\u2019s 11 hits in Carolina set a new regular season high (previous was seven), and that is the fourth most by an Oiler behind Darnell Nurse and Jujhar Khaira (12) and Adam Larsson\u2019s 13 in 2017 v. New Jersey.<\/p>\n \u2014 McDavid registered the 139th three-point game of his career on Saturday. He ranks 20th all time and is one back of Ovechkin. Only three players (Gretzky, Lemieux and Marcel Dionne) had 200+ games with 3+ points. Sidney Crosby is currently fifth with 188. He and McDavid could join this rare club.<\/p>\n \u2014 Here are the five-on-five numbers for Nurse, Bouchard and Ekholm with and without McDavid and Draisaitl.<\/p>\n Bouchard<\/p>\n TOI<\/p>\n GF-GA<\/p>\n SF-GA<\/p>\n W\/ 97 & 29<\/p>\n 99<\/p>\n 5-3<\/p>\n 68-29<\/p>\n W\/ 97<\/p>\n 98<\/p>\n 3-7<\/p>\n 42-42<\/p>\n W\/29<\/p>\n 70<\/p>\n 4-2<\/p>\n 42-28<\/p>\n W\/neither<\/p>\n 79<\/p>\n 1-5<\/p>\n 40-37<\/p>\n Ekholm<\/p>\n TOI<\/p>\n GF-GA<\/p>\n SF-GA<\/p>\n W\/ 97 & 29<\/p>\n 91<\/p>\n 6-4<\/p>\n 61-27<\/p>\n W\/ 97<\/p>\n 96<\/p>\n 2-7<\/p>\n 39-48<\/p>\n W\/29<\/p>\n 69<\/p>\n 3-2<\/p>\n 36-23<\/p>\n W\/neither<\/p>\n 85<\/p>\n 3-7<\/p>\n 51-37<\/p>\n Nurse<\/p>\n TOI<\/p>\n GF-GA<\/p>\n SF-GA<\/p>\n W\/ 97 & 29<\/p>\n 40<\/p>\n 1-1<\/p>\n 13-13<\/p>\n W\/ 97<\/p>\n 70<\/p>\n 5-3<\/p>\n 33-28<\/p>\n W\/29<\/p>\n 86<\/p>\n 6-2<\/p>\n 49-53<\/p>\n W\/neither<\/p>\n 179<\/p>\n 0-10<\/p>\n 55-75<\/p>\n Nurse has actually had the most success with McDavid, while all three have struggled away from 97 and 29, and Nurse plays twice as much away from them. All three need to be better away from 97 and 29. This quarter Nurse and Bouchard need to reduce the glaring giveaways.<\/p>\n Savoie-McDavid-Hyman Ekholm-Bouchard Skinner<\/p>\n The Oilers\u2019 forwards lines are starting to take shape with the return of Hyman. When Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Kasperi Kapanen return the Oilers should have four solid lines and some good competition for icetime. Bottom six forwards who produce or don\u2019t get outscored five-on-five will likely remain in the lineup.<\/p>\n Doan-Thompson-Tuch Samuelsson-Dahlin Ellis<\/p>\n Rasmus Dahlin returned to the lineup on Saturday after taking a leave to be with his fianc\u00e9e, Carolina Matovac, as she recovered from a heart transplant. His return sparked the Sabres as they ended a five-game losing streak with a 5-3 victory over Detroit. Dahlin logged over 27 minutes and chipped in with two assists. The Sabres trailed 4-1 before Josh Doan scored late in the second period and they scored twice in the third to tie it, before Mattias Samuelsson scored the OT winner.<\/p>\n The Oilers are 1-2-2 in their last five trips to Buffalo, and all five games have ended in 3-2 scores. The Oilers last win in Buffalo was March 7th, 2023, when Connor McDavid scored twice and set a new career high in points with his 123rd and 124th points. He would finish that season with 153 points.<\/p>\n Photoshop by Tom Kostiuk<\/p>\n GAME DAY PREDICTION: Edmonton was 2-7 on Mondays last year including their loss in Buffalo. They defeated Columbus last Monday and the win again tonight, 4-2.<\/p>\n OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: McDavid picks up the 340th multi-point game of his career, which means he\u2019s tallied 2+ points in 46.4% of his regular season games. Wayne Gretzky (55.4% of 1487 GP), Mario Lemieux (54.2% of 915GP), McDavid (46.4% of 733GP), Mike Bossy (43.3% of 726GP), Marcel Dionne (38% of 1348 GP), Sidney Crosby (36.4% of 1371GP), Peter Stastny (36.4% of 977 GP), Phil Esposito (35.6% of 1282GP) and Guy Lafleur (35% of 1126GP) are the only players with multi-point games in 35% or more of their games played.<\/p>\n NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Matt Savoie scores against his former team.<\/p>\n ARTICLE PRESENTED BY bet365<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They\u2019ve had a busy schedule, and their first quarter was average. They went 9-7-4. On a per-game basis,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-290477","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Podkolzin-Draisaitl-Roslovic
Mangiapane-Henrique-Frederic
Janmark-Philp-Lazar<\/p>\n
Nurse-Walman
Kulak-Regula<\/p>\n
Rosen-McLeod-Quinn
Greenway-Kozak-Krebs
Dunne-Ostlund-Malenstyn<\/p>\n
Power-Bryson
Byram-Timmins<\/p>\n<\/p>\n