Edmonton Oilers Pregame Thoughts

The boobirds won.

I wouldn’t say I’m 100% on the side of booing players who used to be on your team. But I understand the reasons why fans are doing it. Sometimes when fans boo, it’s not always because they dislike the player(s). It could be a more cynical acknowledgment and appreciation, like, “Hey, I used to cheer for you. But now I can’t; that’s a shame.” Some fans don’t take the leave or why they left seriously, but these players leaving, being our team’s top prospects still in the middle of developing, leaves a sour taste in some fans’ mouths. Dylan Holloway scored a goal in his return to Rogers Place, but our team still won. And Philip Broberg made a brutal giveaway behind his own net resulting in a goal, all is forgiven.

Seeing how some players suddenly perform since the Team Canada news was announced is funny. Zach Hyman scored again, Evan Bouchard made terrific defensive plays, and Stuart Skinner had another solid game in net, outdueling Jordan Binnington, one of the Canadian goalie picks. Darnell Nurse was on the cusp of improving his play before the Ryan Reaves hit and has continued that since returning. But I remember reading a headline that the Team Canada brass considered having Nurse on the team in a penalty-killing role. Was not being invited to play in a tournament the key to polarizing players stepping out of the dog house? Kudos to Troy Stecher, by the way. He took a puck in the ear hole back in Vegas, didn’t have to miss games, and scored the insurance goal after getting a bad penalty. He’s never been a player who scores a lot, but getting his first in over a calendar year was a nice feeling.

Kris Knoblauch revealed after practice yesterday that he hopes to have Viktor Arvidsson skating with the team this week. Oilers fans were never given a timeline for how long Arvidsson would be out of the lineup. The seriousness of his injury or the day-to-day diagnosis was always changing, making his call to be on Team Sweden more confusing. He was having a below start to the season before missing games. The time out may end up being good for him like it was for Hyman; we’ll see how it plays out. There will be one Florida team this week, and the other Florida team next week. The keys to the game are…

How Much Is Enough? If Andrei Vasilevskiy allows four goals, one might think your team would or should win that game. That wasn’t the case a year ago, almost on the exact same day. In Tampa Bay’s last trip to Edmonton, they were outshot 57-24 but won 7-4. Skinner has been getting his groove back in his last few starts, but he can’t horse around against a future Hall of Famer.

Carefully Even Strength: A tweet posted by JFresh showed the analytics of each team’s expected goals against 5v5. The Lightning are ranked 6th with 2.17, and the Oilers are ranked 9th with 2.29. Bad defense is one of the usual narratives surrounding our team. The chart highlights even more how bad Skinner was before US Thanksgiving and how much more of a backbreaker those ill-timed on-ice gaffes are. With loads of offensive talent on both sides, this game might be decided by just one mistake.

Straight To The Point: Tampa’s top line with Nikita Kucherov and Jake Guentzel, centered by Brayden Point, has combined for 39 points in their team’s last ten games. Edmonton’s defense knows what it has to do. But the forwards who’ve been improving their stats recently will need to match the visitors.