Wednesday's With Austyn Feb 3

Since we last spoke, it has been a very good week for us Oilers fans. The Oilers had a record of 3-1 and have clawed their way back to a .500 record (6-6). Unfortunately, for us we cannot play Ottawa every night but, we do play them seven more times throughout the regular season meaning those are 14 more points we should snatch up. Currently, we are positioned in the 4th seed in the Canadian division. That is playoff bound if they were to start today! Woohoo! Now let me enlighten you on what I saw this week while intently watching all four Oilers games:

Defensive Log Jam

I mean the defensive core of the Edmonton Oilers is borderline pathetic however, I have come to realize that we have too many defensemen that Tippett loves to play. When you look at the defensemen it is clear that Nurse, Barrie and Bear have earned their position as guys that should be played every night. Nurse has become the #1 D and he has played better than I could have imagined. Bear continues to grow however, I believe he is better suited for a 2nd pairing role. Nonetheless, he should still be played nightly. Finally, Barrie had an incredibly strong showing this past week. Demonstrating that he is capable of playing on PP1 and showing us all why we signed him in the first place. I would love to see him play on the 1st pairing with Nurse just to see what he can do with a more competent defensive partner.

Looking at the next three I believe Jones, Lagesson and Bouchard have played their way into those slots. Yes, Bouchard has only played one game but he did look very good. I cannot emphasize enough how good he looked out there. He is a skilled right-handed puck mover who in due time will be able to help out on PP1. He played the bulk of his minutes with either McDavid or Draisaitl and demonstrated that he is more than capable to be out there with the elite Oilers. He compliments them very nicely and needs to be played regularly. Jones has stood out because of his ability to move the puck. This is clearly demonstrated by him posting the third highest CF% of the Oilers defenseman at 52.9% (behind Bouchard [58.8CF%] and Bear [53.7CF%]). Needless to say Jones has earned his spot as a regular on the team. Putting Lagesson over Koekkoek hurt me because of how fondly I have grown of Koekkoek. I have no qualms if they were to cycle these two around because of how young the defensive core would look like if Lagesson would become a regular in the lineup. Lagesson forced my hand by marginally beating out Koekkoek in both CF% and FF%. Be it a very small sample size, it is something that should be explored more through more playing time for Lagesson.

This leaves Koekkoek on the outs along with Tippett favourites Larsson and Russell. I already touched on Koekkoek a little earlier so I won’t go into too much detail but, if you want to see for yourself just take a look at the advanced stats here. Larsson continues to underwhelm and just looks disengaged out there. I assume he realizes his time in an Oilers uniform is slowly coming to an end. Russell just doesn’t provide much of anything to Edmonton this is evident by his 0.6 GF/60. Even though these guys are both beloved by tippett I think it’s time to have them watch games from the pressbox for the foreseeable future.

New Additions Finally Coming Through.

The new faces have finally started to produce offensively for the squad and it is a wonderful feeling. The new additions that I am talking about are Tyson Barrie, Dominik Kahun and Jesse Puljujarvi. They have all definitely settled into their roles and that is shown every game by their energy and more recently their point production.

Barrie this past week has been absolutely electric on ice posting 1 goal and 5 assists. That is exactly why he was signed to be a constant puck mover for the Oilers. He has delivered in a big way for them and lets hope he continues on this upwards trajectory because he could be a real staple for the Oilers moving forward.

Kahun has been someone that I often questioned if he really deserves to play on the top six without any debate. He has shut me up this past week. Not only did he score twice but he also has an impressive +5 and has been a key contributor on the Draisaitl line. If that isn’t enough for you his GF/60 (at even strength) is at a respectable 3.0 however, when you compare that to his GA/60 (at even strength) is an outstanding 0.7 (the best on the team). That creates a differential of 2.3 which is the second best on the team, only behind his German friend Draisaitl. I have had my doubts in the past but it is clear that Kahun is a great addition that allows Nugent-Hopkins to play with McDavid.

Ok, I know Jesse Puljujarvi isn’t technically new but, he wasn’t on the team last year therefore, he falls under this category. Puljujarvi playing on the first line is absolutely where he belongs and I let out a very loud scream when he finally found the back of the net against the Senators last night. You can clearly see how hard he is working everytime he is on the ice he is hustling and making sure Tippett has no choice but to keep him on the top line alongside Nuge and McDavid. If the eye test isn’t enough to let you know that Jesse is proving his worth lets take a gander at some statistics. Puljujarvi has the third highest CF% (55.2) amongst Oilers forwards only behind his two linemates. He is also third highest FF% (54.5) amongst the forward group, once again behind his two linemates. The most pleasant stat of all is that this past week he was able to score two goals. I am so happy for Puljujarvi and it is a pleasure to watch him grace my screen with his energy.

The Power Play is BACK!

Boy, was the start of the season very rocky. I am going to blame that on working out the kinks due to the lack of preseason. This past week the powerplay with Tyson Barrie at the point has looked very lethal. The return of James Neal is actually a welcomed addition because he provides a more competent player than Chiasson to place in front of the net. Neal was able to net a powerplay goal against Ottawa on the 31st. The only negative from the powerplay is that Tippett still seems to be infatuated with the idea that Chiasson is worthy of any power play time. The reality is Chiasson hasn’t even demonstrated that he is worth playing at all let alone on a power play.

The Oilers power play has completely bounced back from their rough start. They rank 10th in the league operating at 27.3%. A number that I believe should continue to slightly increase as this team becomes more familiar with one another. The powerplay has been deadly mainly because of their two stars (McDavid and Draisaitl) continuing to produce at an incredible clip. These two are both in the top three for power play points this year. Finding great complimentary players to play alongside them on the powerplay may seem simple however, it can be tricky to pair them up with players that will maximize their success. The answers this year have been working. Placing them alongside Nugent-Hopkins (duh), one of Barrie/Nurse (both have been rather successful this year) and then the final player can be a variety of options. The best three options are Neal, Puljujarvi and Yamamoto. Tippett seems hesitant to pull the trigger on permanently placing Yamamoto or Puljujarvi on the powerplay which looks like an obvious decision. If this is the case I am comfortable settling with Neal because he demonstrated his ability to be a PP specialist last year.

Hump Day Hyperbole

I am going to go negative with this week's hyperbole because we did have a good week but, there are still some things to improve on. I don’t even know if this one is a hyperbole because of how true it might be but here it goes:

Adam Larsson is not an NHL calibre player.

Like is this a hot take? All I know is he hasn’t done anything to warrant his playing time and looking at how good Bouchard was in his debut yesterday I can only hope that Larsson falls out of the lineup once Bear returns. I would go as far to say that he won’t be in the league next year but lord knows another GM will talk themselves into him and pay him much less than we are now. So, hopefully next year he can be another team's problem. I just do not enjoy watching this man play hockey and don’t understand why Taylor Hall was given up for him. I’m sorry for stating the obvious and reopening old wounds but, it still baffles me to this day.