Monday Musings: Oilers need to fix their defensive issues and a look at the Turtle Division
The Edmonton Oilers started the second half of the season like they started the first half — with a home loss.With 40 games remaining, the Oilers, like most of their opponents, are still looking for some consistency. They’ve yet to win three games in a row, and if St. Louis wins in Chicago on Wednesday, Edmonton will be the only team without a three-game winning streak this season.Their inability to play well and win for three consecutive games is concerning, and if they weren’t in the Turtle Division — A.K.A. the Pacific Division — Oilersnation would be much more concerned.The Pacific Division has one team, Anaheim, that has won even half of its games played. The Ducks have won 21 of 41 games played.Edmonton is lucky to be tied with Vegas for first place, although the Golden Knights have two games in hand, while Anaheim is one point behind Edmonton with a game in hand. The Oilers, despite their subpar play, are still in a great position to win the division. It’s wild. Edmonton has had one solid 10-game stretch all season. Here’s a quick look at how they performed in 10-game sequences thus far:4-4-2 5-3-2 4-4-2 7-3 0-2*From December 11th to 29th they went 7-3 and outscored teams 36-26. In their first 30 games they were 13-11-6 and were outscored 104-99. They’ve started their fifth stretch of 10 games with two losses, both on home ice, and have been outscored 11-4. Just when it looked like they might be turning a corner, they blew a tire and crashed hard into the ditch.Their biggest issue has been allowing goals against. Inconsistent goaltending combined with porous defensive coverage, horrific giveaways, unacceptable net-front coverage and too many lost battles has led to Edmonton sitting 29th........