Oilers Thoughts: Savoie showing he belongs on the top line, Podkolzin rising as a fan favourite, and Nugent-Hopkins to take on a bigger role with Draisaitl out, and more<\/p>\n
When news broke that Leon Draisaitl<\/a> would be out of the lineup for the remainder of the regular season, I think everyone in Oil Country<\/a> went through their own mini stages of grief, before the reality set in that it would take a team-wide effort from the rest of the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> to fill his shoes.That said, Elliotte Friedman<\/a> recently shared that GM Stan Bowman said the German superstar is expected back at the end of the regular season, but the team will still need everyone to step up in the meantime.<\/p>\n And so far, so good sans Draisaitl, with five different scorers and all four lines pitching in to beat the San Jose Sharks 5\u20133 in the last game. With that in mind, this edition of Oilers Thoughts will focus on a few Oilers who\u2019ve stepped up as of late and will need to keep elevating their game.<\/p>\n Matt Savoie looks right at home on the top line.When Ryan Nugent-Hopkins returned to Edmonton for personal reasons before the final game of the Oilers\u2019 recent four-game road trip, Matt Savoie<\/a> was moved up to the top line against the St. Louis Blues. Since then, he\u2019s looked smooth and slick on the first line, making the most of his opportunity.His chemistry with Connor McDavid clicked almost immediately against the Blues, finding his captain in stride multiple times, playing fetch, and had chances to score himself. That said, McDavid talked about his recent chemistry<\/a> with the youngster, \u201cI\u2019ve been getting the puck in great spots because of him. Getting the puck off the wall isn\u2019t an easy thing to do.\u201d He added, \u201cHe seems to do it really well.\u201d<\/p>\n Matt Savoie has played with Connor McDavid on the top line over the last two games, and since then, they\u2019ve combined for a pair of goals at 5v5.<\/p>\n The chemistry is real. <\/p>\n Here are some of their best plays together from the last two games.<\/p>\n That chemistry continued two nights later against the Nashville Predators<\/a>, with a couple of nice give-and-gos and quick plays, one of which resulted in Savoie scoring the game-winning goal, finishing off McDavid\u2019s saucer pass on a 2-on-1. Adding to his point total, he also picked up an assist last game against San Jose on Zach Hyman\u2019s insurance marker.<\/p>\n Overall, according to Natural Stat Trick, the line of Savoie\u2013McDavid\u2013Hyman has combined for three goals at five-on-five over the last three games, giving up none, with scoring chances 24-14 in their favour.<\/p>\n With Draisaitl out of the lineup, the Oilers need a solid go-to line, and Savoie, who has three points in three straight games, has added another dynamic layer alongside McDavid on the top line, amplifying the captain\u2019s ability to make dangerous plays at warp speed.<\/p>\n Max Jones makes the most of his limited fourth-line minutes<\/p>\n Max Jones has played in just ten games this season, but he\u2019s been very effective in his fourth-line role, averaging 7:44 of ice time per game.<\/p>\n He scored a big goal last game against the Sharks<\/a>, which was his first game-winning goal as an Oiler, and he has recorded three points overall this season. That said, each time he\u2019s been recalled from the Bakersfield Condors<\/a>, he\u2019s brought a jolt of energy to the fourth line, using his 6-foot-4 frame effectively and throwing 27 hits this season.Notably, his 20.97 hits per 60 minutes rank third on the team, behind Connor Clattenburg<\/a> (five games played) and Colton Dach (three games played).<\/p>\n On top of that, his underlying numbers are positive. He\u2019s played 77:16 minutes this season, and while he\u2019s been on the ice, the shots are 32\u201325 in the Oilers\u2019 favour, and high-danger chances sit at 13\u20137.<\/p>\n Overall, when Jones is on the ice, he helps tilt the ice, generate momentum for his team, and has been almost exactly what you want from a fourth-line player.<\/p>\n The Nugent-Hopkins, Dickinson, and Roslovic line has potentialWith Savoie elevated to the top line recently, the Oilers had to find a spot for Nugent-Hopkins against the Predators on March 15th, and they placed him on a line with Jason Dickinson<\/a> and Jack Roslovic. While they didn\u2019t score, their underlying numbers were strong, going 6-3 in scoring chances and 4-1 in high-danger chances.Against the Sharks, from my view, they were one of the Oilers\u2019 best lines in the first half of the game, really controlling play off the cycle. Very early in the game, with pressure down low, they forced former Oiler John Klingberg<\/a> to take a holding penalty on Roslovic, giving Edmonton a power play.Moreover, they had stretches where they controlled possession in the Sharks\u2019 zone. In one instance, Dickinson won a draw; they played fetch for about 25 seconds, went low to high, and then Roslovic faked a shot and slid the puck to Jake Walman<\/a>, who just missed the net by inches. Later in the second period, after Roslovic almost scored on a near breakaway, the Nugent-Hopkins\u2013Dickinson\u2013Roslovic trio cycled for almost 40 seconds before the Sharks finally cleared the zone.However, it wasn\u2019t all smooth sailing for that line, though \u2014 Dickinson had a turnover in the first period that led to the Sharks\u2019 first goal. But the line bounced back, combining for a tally of their own, with Dickinson winning the draw that led to Connor Murphy\u2019s goal<\/a>. That said, after the Sharks\u2019 third goal, it seems the coaching staff split that line for whatever reason, but I\u2019d like to see more of them together moving forward.<\/p>\n A line of three NHL veterans combining for 36 seasons of experience, with a mix of defensive savvy and offensive skill, who have shown signs of reading off each other well, could have real potential as a solid playoff line.<\/p>\n Vasily Podkolzin is climbing the fan-favourite ladderSometimes it\u2019s hard to find adjectives to describe Connor McDavid\u2019s play \u2014 words like \u2018insane,\u2019 \u2018incredible,\u2019 \u2018tremendous,\u2019 and \u2018extraordinary\u2019 barely scratch the surface sometimes. And with how Vasily Podkolzin<\/a> has played this season, I\u2019m almost running out of adjectives for him as well. I\u2019ve been overusing words like \u2018solid\u2019 and \u2018hardworking,\u2019 but now I can add \u2018fan favourite\u2019 to the mix.<\/p>\n All three of those words perfectly describe him. His play has been absolutely solid, he\u2019s incredibly hardworking, and as a result, he\u2019s become a fan favourite in Edmonton, and it\u2019s easy to see why.<\/p>\n Then you add a scoring touch, like the goal he scored last game. When you add it all up, I\u2019d imagine the Oilers are going to see an uptick in Podkolzin jersey sales down the stretch for the playoff run.<\/p>\n That said, touching on his goal from last game, if you follow my writing, you\u2019ll know I\u2019ve conducted a series of interviews with Podkolzin\u2019s skills coach, Ned Lukacevic<\/a>. In one of the earlier interviews, I asked him what he worked on with Podkolzin last offseason, and he mentioned<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cHis shot accuracy. He has a powerful shot, and he is pretty accurate.\u201d He added, \u201cWe also practiced his release \u2014 if he can get it off in 0.34 seconds, it\u2019s hard for the goalie to react.\u201d<\/p>\n Like anything in life, practice makes perfect, and Podkolzin\u2019s goal last game is proof that practice has paid off.<\/p>\n And in Oil Country, a city full of blue-collar workers, with people who know hard work when they see it, Podkolzin\u2019s continuous hard work to improve his craft is one of the many reasons he\u2019s become so beloved by Oilers fans.<\/p>\n Oilers will lean heavily on Nugent-Hopkins in Draisaitl\u2019s absence<\/p>\n Losing Draisaitl until the end of the regular season is a definite blow, but as the clich\u00e9 goes, opportunity knocks for others, and one of the players the Oilers will lean on most is none other than Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.<\/p>\n When news broke on March 17 that Draisaitl would be out of the lineup, Nugent-Hopkins said before the game against San Jose<\/a>, \u201cHe\u2019s one of the most elite players in the league, and it\u2019s not like one guy can step into his shoes. We kind of talked about it this morning \u2014 it\u2019s a collective thing with our group, and everybody\u2019s going to need to pick up a little bit of slack.\u201d<\/p>\n Nugent-Hopkins didn\u2019t waste any time stepping up and taking on some of that slack, scoring the Oilers\u2019 first goal last game, playing 20:37 minutes, and posting a team-best 71.43% in the faceoff circle.<\/p>\n People forget that the Oilers have RNH ready to go at a moments notice if Leon goes down<\/p>\n On that note, one area where the Oilers will rely on the 32-year-old to play an even larger role moving forward is on the power play. Normally, on the first unit, he gets the third-most puck touches among the forwards, behind McDavid and Draisaitl, but going forward, the play will run through him more often.<\/p>\n We saw that last game against the Sharks \u2014 he was moving all around the zone on the man advantage, looking like classic \u2018Nuge,\u2019 distributing the puck fluidly. In the first period, he set up in \u2018Draisaitl\u2019s office, McDavid found him, and Nugent-Hopkins buried his 18th goal of the season from the German superstar\u2019s signature spot.<\/p>\n Also, stepping up in the wake of one of the team\u2019s elite players being out of the lineup is no stranger to the Oilers\u2019 vet. Last season, when both Draisaitl and McDavid were out for several games last March, the Burnaby, BC, native rose to the occasion \u2014 playing more minutes down the middle and even scoring a hat trick<\/a> with the dynamic duo sidelined.Nevertheless, the Oilers will be counting on him to rise to the occasion once more. As Baggedmilk recently put it<\/a>, \u201cFor the longest-tenured Oiler, this is a big moment where he needs to step up and be the next man up.\u201dARTICLE PRESENTED BY bet365<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oilers Thoughts: Savoie showing he belongs on the top line, Podkolzin rising as a fan favourite, and Nugent-Hopkins…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-547504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547504","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=547504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}