When the Oilers decide to commit, they are a Cup contender |
You would go crazy trying to figure out why the Edmonton Oilers’ range of play has been so volatile this season.
Some games they look like a team destined for the draft lottery, and others, like last night, remind you why overlooking them to make another deep playoff run is foolish. The Oilers controlled the play at five-on-five against one of the NHL’s better five-on-five teams. Edmonton outshot Utah 23-13 in 54:29 of five-on-five play.
Edmonton played a solid game defensively. The only five-on-five goal they allowed was an unlucky double-deflection own goal that ricocheted off Darnell Nurse, then Connor Murphy, before fluttering into the net. Tristan Jarry stopped 17 of the other 18 shots he faced. He didn’t have to be spectacular, just solid, and he was.
Edmonton scored five goals for the second time in four games without Leon Draisaitl. I’ve long argued scoring goals isn’t a concern in Edmonton. Some will overreact to depth scoring, but the Oilers’ main issue for the past decade has been limiting goals and high-danger chances. When they commit to the latter, the former becomes easier, and Edmonton has had stretches where they’ve proven to be a sound defensive team.
The Oilers have the talent to be good defensively. Adding Connor Murphy and Jason Dickinson gave them two players who take pride in their defensive play. Rookie Josh Samanski has played a very responsible and mature game defensively. When the Oilers’ top players commit to a consistent, committed defensive game, we see games like last night. We saw this two weeks ago when they won in Vegas and Colorado, and even in their OT loss in St. Louis, where they gave up very little for the first 52 minutes of the game. The Oilers are capable of shutting down teams.
We saw it last year in the playoffs after they stumbled out of the gate, allowing 28 high-danger chances in their first two games against LA. They went 12-2 in their next 14 games over LA, Dallas and Vegas and averaged 2.36 goals against per game. They were even better against Vegas and Dallas in........