Edmonton Oilers Pregame Thoughts

I’m cheering for Ovie, too. I just prefer him scoring lots against other teams.

I read a tweet yesterday morning saying that Alex Ovechkin is now the first player in NHL history to score 200 goals in three different decades. As he’s now inched 13 goals closer to the all-time goals record, we’ve been truly blessed to watch him in real-time. Were it not for 1 ½ lockouts and a pandemic, he’d have already scored #895 two or three years ago and would perhaps be playing to reach 1000 goals. But let’s be honest, Edmonton also made his hat trick on Sunday a little too easy. He had only 1 less shot on net than every Oilers forward combined.

On his first goal, there was no screen or deflection in front of Calvin Pickard. He just skated towards the faceoff dots and shot the puck. Then, while on the penalty kill, no Oilers player is respecting his office. Brett Kulak, whose mostly solid, barely tried getting in front of his shot, but looked scared on the replay. Kris Russell once blocked an Ovie shot with his back, so can you. His third goal was an empty netter from Washington’s zone when the game was out of reach, and Edmonton was just trying to score for pride. He’s one of the greats, nobody does or should dispute that. It’s because he’s one of the greats that our team should’ve played harder against him. Much like with a lot of games this season, not every scoring chance had to be a goal. Ovechkin was scoreless, not even one assist, in a game where the Capitals scored 8 goals and then decided to light us up a day later, because why not?

Both meetings against the Caps were bad losses. The Oil dominated, but couldn’t get a save in the first meeting. Then they were dominated and couldn’t get a save in the second meeting. That’s not the only reason the meetings were bad. Home ice advantage in the Playoffs doesn’t always guarantee success, but when our team went all the way to the Cup Finals last season, that extra home game may’ve helped. Assuming that we’re fortunate to watch Cup Finals hockey again this season, and also assuming that Washington makes it there, we wouldn’t have home ice this time, either. Yes, the Oilers being a top 10 team in the overall standings (top 3 before the weekend) is good. It’s not good enough if they get the fourth home game only once again. Edmonton doesn’t have to pass Winnipeg, but it’d be nice to still have more points than all of the Eastern teams. Being 12 points down on the Capitals now makes that feel impossible. Being outscored 13-6 this weekend doesn’t make me the most excited about the last 3 games in this road trip. The keys to the game are…

Edmonton Oilers Thoughts

Point Race: This season, Nikita Kucherov has 83 points, the third most in the league behind Leon Draisaitl’s 86 points. In the month of February, Kucherov has 8 points in 5 games. Draisaitl has 10 points in 6 February games. Colorado isn’t playing tonight, so these two may look for a big night to pass Nathan MacKinnon for the league lead.

Any Goal Is Good Enough: In the last meeting between these teams, Draisaitl scored on a breakaway after Andrei Vasilevsky made the initial save because the puck went off Victor Hedman’s skate and into the net afterwards. After this past weekend, don’t just look for pretty plays. Dictate offensive play with any, and I mean any, opportunity you can come up with.

Learn From A Giant: The cries for wanting to get another goalie at the Trade Deadline have grown louder. I expect Stuart Skinner will get all three of Edmonton’s next starts, or two of them. Kris Knoblauch has pointed out to the media there are times when he’d like to see his goalie make a save. I once again say that this is the sort of accountability he should’ve gotten earlier in the year. Not to scold him, but to help him learn. He’s tasked tonight with a redemption game against a goalie who won back-to-back Stanley Cups and a Conn Smythe trophy.