Wednesdays With Austyn - 02/17/21
It has been a rather quiet week for the Oilers. Only two games played and only being able to muster a record of 1-1. Pulling off a very impressive win against a Montreal team that has cooled off since their hot start. In addition to that they lost to Winnipeg (6-5) in what has been their most exciting game of the year. The Oilers also play tonight in the rematch against Winnipeg before back to back games against Calgary so we have quite a few matchups to look forward to.
2nd Line Changes ? Ennis - Draisaitl - Yamamoto ?
Late in the third period against the Jets we saw Ennis get promoted to a top six role. He has absolutely earned this job with his strong outings recently. I touched on Ennis in last week's blog and it seems he has continued his excellent play. He has the potential to be an incredibly dynamic forward. The main thing he offers to Edmonton is his ability to score goals. Thus far he has 1 goal and 3 assists all of which have come in his last five games. As he continues to round into shape look for him to pile on a couple more goals as he is not afraid to shoot the puck. He is gradually looking more like the forward we traded for last season.
An opportunity for Ennis to play alongside Draisaitl and Yamamoto certainly could not hurt. The second line has not looked like last year's best second line in the league. In the last five games their stats are as follows:
Yamamoto: 1-0 -5
Draisaitl: 1-3 -1
Kahun: 0-2 -5
Draisaitl & Yamamoto averaged roughly a point per game when Yamamoto was inserted into the lineup last year. Kahun was the obvious choice to fill the Nugent-Hopkins slot because of his friendship and chemistry with Draisaitl. At times they have looked solid but for the most part they have been extremely lackluster.
Kahun ultimately is the player who should be getting demoted because of his inability to gain any offensive momentum (as cited above) and his lack of overall hustle on the defensive end and forecheck. On top of his overall poor play he was the individual who gave away the puck in the Oilers own zone leading to the game winning goal for the Jets. Hopefully, he can find his rhythm soon because he was looked at as a great value signing in the offseason.
It is not yet confirmed that the lineup changes are official. It was rumoured that Tippett had been having these three (Ennis, Draisaitl and Yamamoto) on the line together. This would be a welcomed change that has the potential to ignite the 2nd line and cure their offensive woes.
Why We Shouldn’t Overreact to Waivers
Recently, this topic has been getting me riled up. I am a frequent twitter user and when James Neal was placed on waivers there were numerous times where I would become so frustrated with the trolls on twitter. Mainly, from Flames fans saying that “they won the Neal-Lucic trade”. They concluded that they won the trade because Neal was placed on waivers. The waiver system has changed completely this season because of the taxi squad. Players are placed on waivers for a variety of different reasons this year and it is in no way indicative that a player is playing at a minor league level.
For those unfamiliar the taxi squad is essentially a group of players who are still practicing with the team and remain with them in case there is an outbreak. This is new to this season and helps the players so that they are not sent down to Bakersfield and having to wait 14 days before returning to the Oilers. They are able to quickly bounce back and forth between the taxi squad and being dressed. The issue is in order to be sent to the taxi squad you must be placed on waivers. Hence, the copious amount of players placed on waivers this year. It also led to the third string goalie debacle that the Oilers had at the start of the season.
The perk of having a player like James Neal on the taxi squad is that it offers immediate cap relief to Edmonton. This is the main reason the Oilers sent him there instead of an alternative player. It is also extremely unlikely that a team claims Neal because of his large contract. Although, If someone did claim him I wouldn’t be mad.
As the season progresses we will see the same players be placed on waivers. Chiasson, Neal, Ennis, Khaira, Shore, Nygård and Russell are probably a few of the names that will go through the waiver wire monthly. There is no reason to overreact to any of these names because the likelihood of them getting claimed is slim and they aren’t a huge loss to the organization. In fact if some of them do get claimed that might be better for the organization (I.e. Russell, Chiasson and Neal).
The main point of this section is that the Flames still lost the Lucic-Neal swap and there are two main reasons why:
Lucic has to be protected in the expansion draft and cannot be placed on waivers. If he could be placed on waivers the Flames organization most certainly would.
James Neal is still a superior player than Milan Lucic and offers more to any organization. Both players are past their primes and don’t offer much to any team currently however, I give the edge to Neal.
Obviously, I am looking at this through a bias lens and am aware that many Calgary fans would disagree with me. I am open to hearing counter arguments however, bringing up Neal being placed on waivers is not a strong case. If this was a “normal” season I highly doubt James Neal would be sent down to Bakersfield at this point in time.
Jujar Khaira's Strong Two Weeks.
I have been very critical of Khaira’s game in previous posts but, two strong weeks is more than enough for me to finally write something positive. Jujar Khaira has turned back the clock and looked like the strong defensive bottom six center the Oilers need. He has looked absolutely spectacular both defensively and offensively these past two weeks and deserves some praise.
Looking at the sample size of his most recent five games he has 2 goals 2 assists and a +5 rating. The most important stat out of all those is his plus/minus. His ability to not be a negative net value on the ice is incredibly valuable. It is exactly what we need out of our bottom six. We need them to be able to have a positive plus minus or at the least breakeven. I have complete faith that if they are able to do that then the top six lines should be able to take us to the promised land. Khaira has gone above and beyond and added depth scoring and creation that the Oilers were desperately searching for.
Khaira has shown these past two weeks that he is more than capable of being an everyday bottom six player. The only question I have for him is will he be able to keep it up consistently? If he can consistently be a net positive for the Oilers than I am all for him staying in the lineup. He has been a very pleasant surprise and I will be expecting big things this upcoming week as we play our rivals from the south twice.
Hump Day Hyperbole
Ok, so this week has been a rather slow one so let me just preface this by saying I did not know this player existed until my good friend pointed him out to me. He is a player in the Oilers system who is the future answer to all of their goalie problems:
The Oilers Prospect Ilya Konovalov Is the Answer.
I am unsure if his timeline matches the current Oilers but, he has shown promise over in the KHL. I am blindly optimistic that he can lead us to the playoffs and solve the issue of the netminder within the next 3-5 years. The weakness of goaltending has never been more evident than when both Koskinen and Smith fumbled the bag on Monday. Failing to give any support to the Oilers offense. The 22 year old Konovalov is the answer.
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