Steady as she goes makes sense for Edmonton Oilers, with Holloway, Kulak, Ceci, Desharnais, Kane and Ryan all stepping up
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This in from Tony Brar of the Oilers media network, news that Evander Kane and Adam Henrique are not on the ice for Edmonton’s practice this morning.
We all know Kane is playing with a sport hernia so that’s no surprise he’s getting extra rest. As for Henrique, he got banged up last game so again no surprise he might need a day off.
If he can’t play, the Oilers are now blessed with solid depth on the wing. Connor Brown finished up strong this season .He can fill in for Henrique or any other winger.
I’m not saying that Brown would be placed on the top line instead of Henrique but that he’ll take a roster spot. Some forward, such as Foegele or Holloway, can be moved up.
What makes the most sense for the Edmonton Oilers just now? Steady as she goes. How so?
1. There’s no need for major change on the Oilers forward lines, as coach Kris Knoblauch has already been making changes based on performance, moving up Evander Kane to the second line, Dylan Holloway to the third line, while moving down Warren Foegele steady, and replacing Sam Carrick with Derek Ryan. All the moves line up with what we’ve been tracking at the Cult of Hockey in terms of each player’s contributions to Grade A shots for and mistakes on Grade A shots against. Foegele is struggling so far in the playoffs, while Kane and Holloway are crushing it, as is Derek Ryan.
2. Ryan was also one of Edmonton’s best forwards in the playoffs last season. On a line with Ryan McLeod and Foegele, he was highly effective. It’s no surprise to see him rise up once again this year.
3. Things are more dicey on defence where Mattias Ekholm and especially Darnell Nurse have had their struggles, leaking too many Grade A shots against and at a much higher rate than they did in the regular season. But the five games against the Kings is a small sample size, and both players also had their strong moments in the game, in particular Ekholm on the attack. With Nurse, as always, the need is there for him to keep things simple and safe, mainly by limiting his aggressive pinch plays up ice, where his risk-reward judgement often seems to be off. Unless it’s a 90-10 play in his favour, he should hold back on such forays. He’s at his best when he plays a structured positional game. In fact, he can be excellent if he sticks to that.
4. The good news on defence? If you drill down into individual performance, Evan Bouchard, Brett Kulak and Cody Ceci are all playing well right now, and Vincent Desharnais is holding his own. The Kulak-Desharnais pairing is solid, so it doesn’t make much sense to change up the pairings at this point either.
5. This is the third year in a row that Kulak has raised his game in the playoffs. His combination of excellent skating and safe/steady decision-making seems to be the right mix for this time of year. He doesn’t try to do too much but what he does do, he does well, sometimes exceptionally well.
As for his partner Desharnais, he’s not nearly so jumpy and iffy as he was last year in the playoffs. He is now another OIler who is not trying to do too much, such as blasting opposing players threw the boards every shift. He’s playing a smart, more restrained physical game and focusing on staying on the right side of his check. It’s working for him.
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