EDMONTON — Mattias Ekholm was asked about the merits of a team that’s stumbling along as clumsily as his Edmonton Oilers are, yet is still collecting enough points not to be buried out West. He acknowledged, and we paraphrase, it’s better than the alternative.
Then Ekholm added: “Conversely, a real good team will come out of this thing and get firing. That’s what we’re looking at.”
By the time Ekholm’s head hit the pillow that night, his Oilers had been boot-stomped 5-1 by the last-place Buffalo Sabres. The Oilers ranked 31st in the National Hockey League in 5-on-5 goal share, and had four regulation wins in the first 21 games of their season.
Pathetic? Complacent? Poorly constructed? Over the hill?
Pick your descriptor — the Oilers have been an awful hockey team for most of Q1.
“Part of it is us understanding that we’ve played a lot of hockey in the last two years, and we can’t just coast through the regular season,” Ekholm said. “You’ve got to fight. It’s a hard league, and you can’t just put your skates out (over the boards) and think that you’re going to win games.
“It’s on us veterans and leaders who have been on this team for a while now. We’ve got to understand that it’s not just going to come to us.”
Most Encouraging Development: The pickings are slim.
The brightest star has been free-agent addition Jack Roslovic — he’s been Edmonton’s best winger, ranking third on the team in goals (seven) and fifth in points (15). A great pick-up at $1.5 million, he looks excellent next to Leon Draisaitl.
Rookie winger Matt Savoie has been a nice surprise and looks like a nice prospect, though five points and a minus-6 in 21 games isn’t exactly Calder Trophy stuff.
After that, there have been far more underachievers than the opposite.
Most concerning development: Where to start?
The newcomers, where Andrew Mangiapane has been a bust, with a team-worst minus-15?
Trent Frederic, who has ghosted his new team since arriving at the trade deadline last season? In 44 games as an Oilers (playoffs included), Frederic has 2-3-5. He has just one point in 21 starts this season.
Evan Bouchard, who took about 18 games to find an acceptable level of defensive play? He’s tied for fifth among NHL defencemen with 16 points, but is still a minus-5, worst among the top-40 scorers on defence.
David Tomasek, the long-shot, 29-year-old European who has been healthy-scratched for six of the last nine games? He has three points, is a minus-7, and will have a hard time holding a roster spot when one of Kasperi Kapanen or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins returns from injury.
Darnell Nurse, who doesn’t play tough enough, hasn’t defended well, and doesn’t have much else in his game that even remotely justifies being a $9.25 million defenceman? He’s a huge part of this team, leading the Oilers in 5-on-5 ice time. When he’s this undependable, the Oilers won’t win many.
“We defended really well last year — one of the best defensive teams,” head coach Kris Knoblauch said this week. “Right now, we’re just OK at that. If you want to be a really good team, we’ve got to be better defensively.”
Top-six forwards: Grade C.
McDavid and Draisaitl have 54 points between them. They’re always going to be OK offensively.
Nugent-Hopkins had a great start, a point-per-game in 16 games, though a minus-11 tells a different tale. Roslovic has been fantastic.
Mangiapane brings the grade down, and missing Zach Hyman for all but two games this season is also a big factor.
Bottom-six forwards: D-minus
The steady Adam Henrique was anchored with Frederic and Mangiapane in a 5-1 loss at Buffalo Monday, while the fourth line of Noah Philp between Mattias Janmark and Curtis Lazar gave the Oilers nine forgettable minutes.
There is no identity here, no toughness, no offence, and overall, a team that’s been top-five in the NHL in rush attempts in the last three seasons ranks 15th this season. Yecch.
Defence: F
This is supposed to be a unit that could stabilize another Stanley Cup run. A veteran group that is pressure-tested, not too old, and should provide the foundation for a team that can feel safe in taking some chances offensively.
“It starts with our defensive zone, for sure,” Ekholm said. “Limiting chances and goals against. I know we have firepower to score goals — I’m not too worried about that. I just want to make sure that we come back to a defensive game that we can be proud of, and limits us having to score five or six goals to win a game.”
Instead, it’s been a season of botched break-outs, opponents standing unmarked in front of a hapless Oilers goalie, of Connor McDavid being abused by opponents who face zero pushback, and a top-four that’s been lost more often than found in Q1.
Bouchard’s travails have been noted; Ekholm’s game has been spotty at best; Nurse may be having the worst start of his career, and Jake Walman has been all over the place — but not in the right place nearly often enough.
Do they miss defensive coach Paul Coffey? You be the judge of that.
Goaltending: F
What other grade would you give two goalies who have forged the worst 5-on-5 saves percentage in the NHL (.876), and the second-worst in all situations (.865)?
Yes, with the play of the team in front of them, getting their stats into the middle third of the NHL would be a Herculean task for Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard. But if ever a team need someone to step up in goal, the Oilers are that team.
Pickard’s play is particularly disturbing. His .830 save percentage is dead last among goalies who have played seven games or more. So is his goals-against average (4.17). You can’t get any worse than worst, and suddenly GM Stan Bowman — tasked with fixing the issues with his No. 1 — has backup problems as well.
Skinner has been merely OK, which won’t cut it again this season. Flashes of “good enough” are erased when the inconsistencies return. In the end, an .889 saves percentage is just more of the same — and the same isn’t good enough for an Edmonton team that needs more to get over the top.
Quarter Mark Awards
MVP: Jack Roslovic
Most Improved Player: Matt Savoie
Best Defensive Player: N/A
