A goal, my kingdom for a goal. Assuming Connor Brown is a fan of Shakespeare, that’s probably what he screams in his head every time he misses a scoring chance. We have seen the Edmonton Oilers turn the biggest corner they’ve ever turned. Oilers’ Twitter is a happier place to log onto since late November. No rational person could or should nitpick a 13 game winning streak. But with so many La Bambas being played, this struggling forward has sadly still been the elephant in the room.
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Brown signed with Edmonton this past summer at the request of Oilers captain Connor McDavid. They were both teammates on the Erie Otters in the Ontario Hockey League during their junior hockey days. The decision to sign him was echoed by McDavid’s former agent and Edmonton’s new CEO of Hockey Operations, Jeff Jackson. He was also a former teammate of Zach Hyman‘s when they both played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and his playing style was considered Zach Hyman Lite. This season, he was coming off a 2022/2023 campaign that saw him play only the first four games for the Washington Capitals before a knee injury kept him out of the remaining 78 games, and the Capitals didn’t make the Playoffs either. In Brown’s defense, an entire calendar year without putting on skates is a painfully long time. It was only fair at the beginning of the season to expect a lot of rust in his game before he got comfortable. Many weeks later, though, having recorded just three assists, I understand how difficult it is to remain patient and justify his performance bonus of $3.25M, counting against the salary cap next season if he’s still having a hard time producing. That performance bonus was reached when Brown played in his 10th game of the season against the Tampa Bay Lightning on November 18th after being sidelined with another injury.
His play right now is reminiscent of former Oiler and fan favorite Jesse Puljujarvi. He is very good on the forecheck, and he is defensively sound. He does every positive thing on the ice except score. If his life depends on it, he will not put one puck in the back of the net. When I watched the Oilers live in Montreal, he made a really good physical play to give himself a breakaway on the penalty kill. Goaltender Sam Montembeault came up huge that night in a losing cause for the Canadiens. He had a really good 2v1 rush chance on Saturday night against the Flames, but goaltender Dan Vladar came across and made a great save. Vladar was the reason Calgary didn’t lose by more than three goals. We thought Brown finally scored on December 10th at home against the New Jersey Devils, but it was called back and deemed no goal due to goaltender interference. His immense lack of goals is not for a lack of trying. He’s had two 20 goal seasons, three 30 point seasons and one 40 point season in the NHL. There is a player there, and he surely has to get even one goal eventually. Every Oilers fan is badly cheering for him to do just that.
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Who knows, maybe after this article is published, he will start scoring, and I will look foolish for posting this criticism. We could perhaps see him produce even better in the Playoffs. A good postseason can very often forgive a bad regular season. When he finally does get that first goal as an Oiler, the entire bench will erupt and be happier than him. For now, at least appreciate the little things on the ice that make him effective, which I pointed out earlier in this piece. What can Brown do for you? It does more than you sometimes think.
ITR 49: For Real This Time – Inside The Rink
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