Edmonton Oilers<\/a> and Vancouver Canucks rolled out this week, sharing 27 goals over two wild nights.<\/p>\nWe wondered if Edmonton could maintain its offensive prowess as Mike Babcock\u2019s vaunted defensive structure was applied. Well, we still don\u2019t know the answer to that one, do we\u2026?<\/p>\n
Things we (think we) know<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t forget, the Oilers are trying to replace 21 minutes a night from Darnell Nurse. Evan Bouchard has to step up (he has), Mattias Ekholm has to refuse to show his age (so far, so good), and another well-paid veteran, Jake Walman, has to be part of the solution as well.<\/p>\n
Shakir Mukhamadullin was over his head this week. He\u2019ll be replaced by Ty Emberson for Saturday\u2019s game against the visiting Seattle Kraken (Sportsnet West, Sportsnet+, 7 p.m. ET \/ 5 p.m. MT). But Walman has to replace some of Nurse\u2019s ability to skate the puck out of trouble, present a strong front at the offensive blue-line, and take a bite out of the leadership void left behind by Nurse.<\/p>\n
Through two games, Walman has stepped to the head of the line of those who we wonder about, if faced with the Wrath of Babs. It\u2019s time to take a bigger role for this veteran No. 3. So far, he hasn\u2019t been up to the task.<\/p>\n
Evan Bouchard was on the ice 12 goals in this home-and-home series. Only two of those were scored by the Canucks. On Thursday, he was on for five \u2014\u00a0all scored by Edmonton \u2014\u00a0and leads the NHL with eight points through two games.<\/p>\n
That is 8.4 per cent of his total from last season (95 points), when he became just the tenth defenceman in NHL history to record 95 points or more.<\/p>\n
Things we (think we) know<\/p>\n
If he becomes one of only seven to hit 100 points this season, and simply avoids The Big Mistake, it might be impossible even for the biggest hater to not vote for him in Norris Trophy balloting.<\/p>\n
Of all the bad defence and sloppy play exhibited by Edmonton in its first two games, Edmonton\u2019s game settled when Bouchard stepped on the ice. Plus-5 with seven of eight points coming at even strength is hard to punch a hole in. Particularly for a guy who averaged 25 minutes per night in front of that level of goaltending.<\/p>\n
There is only one reason why Edmonton\u2019s goalies weren\u2019t letting in goals when Bouchard was on the ice: the other team didn\u2019t have the puck. And that\u2019s how Bouchard defends the best, with possession.<\/p>\n
And no matter what they tell you in the post-game interviews, you can\u2019t fool \u2018em.<\/p>\n
They know it may be impossible to overcome the current goaltending situation in Edmonton. They know Tristan Jarry\u2019s confidence is made of crepe paper, and that there may be a goalie in young Devon Levi, but they\u2019ll ruin him if they don\u2019t provide an environment in which a hockey city doesn\u2019t turn on the 24-year-old.<\/p>\n
They know the goaltending stinks right now. They\u2019re pro hockey players. They\u2019ve all played in front of good goalies and bad ones.<\/p>\n
They know. They always know.<\/p>\n
Things we (think we) know<\/p>\n
Of all the things that have gone wrong through two games, the fact Edmonton\u2019s calling card \u2014\u00a0explosive offence \u2014\u00a0is intact despite numerous injuries \u2014\u00a0and the Oilers accrued three of four points \u2014\u00a0is the basis for patience.<\/p>\n
If one of your problems is, \u201cWe\u2019ve got to play better when we\u2019re leading 8-2,\u201d well, that\u2019s not a bad problem to have.<\/p>\n
But the goaltending issue burns. Jarry is the biggest disappointment, because he was supposed to deliver a \u201cbounce-back\u201d season. Now, he\u2019s one leaky performance away from a dressing room losing interest in him, because at this level if you\u2019re not helping the team, you\u2019re hurting it \u2014\u00a0and Jarry hasn\u2019t helped a lick since he came to town.<\/p>\n
As for Levi, he\u2019s young, and still has a relatively clean slate. He gets a chance to prove that he can\u2019t play, or preferably, that he can.<\/p>\n
I start Jarry on Saturday versus Seattle, because Levi did not do anything to command back-to-back starts. His rebound control and ability to read the play simply abandoned him in Vancouver, as did his teammates once it was 8-2.<\/p>\n
But if Jarry gives up another five on Saturday, things could turn for the young Levi. Opportunity becomes pressure mighty fast when the veteran guy you share the crease with crashes and burns.<\/p>\n
Imagine being 24, having 40 NHL appearances under your belt, and looking across the room at Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl knowing that you\u2019re the guy their Stanley Cup chances revolve around?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDMONTON \u2014\u00a0Things We (think we) know. Series V, Volume III. There is high-event hockey, and then there is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":["post-919079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919079","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=919079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}