Even With McDavid, the Edmonton Oilers Still Can’t Figure It Out

When we launched our NHL expansion team previews I had high praise for the Edmonton Oilers coming off a playoff appearance last year and having the best player in the league in Connor McDavid leading them. They are a young team with a mixture of experienced veterans and a solid goaltender between the pipes, they are fast, and they can score at will. But since the NHL season has kicked off this year Edmonton has been a bust, despite the high expectations set for them by not only myself, but hockey writers, and hockey analysts across the NHL. So why are they so lackluster this season? Let’s discuss.

Slow start: After starting the season with a 3-0 victory over their heated rivals (no pun intended seriously) the Calgary Flames, the Oilers went on to lose four in a row and seven of the other nine games played in October giving them a 3-6-1 start. Even a team with many talented players like McDavid, Leon Draisiatl, Oscar Klefbom, Patrick Maroon, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins can’t seem to dig themselves such a deep hole in the first month of the season. I have mentioned how the U.S.A. Thanksgiving is the benchmark for figuring out who is a contender for a playoff spot, and so far November hasn’t been as good for this team either. Despite scoring three our more goals in a game six times (one game they scored eight) their November record sits at 6-7-1 with their most recent win coming against the Bruins on Sunday night. The team has two more games left in November against the Coyotes and the Maple Leafs, and are currently seventh in the Pacific Division and are a mere five points better than the six win total, Coyotes. December’s schedule for Edmonton doesn’t look easy either with 13 games on the docket including eight games against teams currently listed in a playoff spot.

Goaltending: The Oilers have a -14 goal differential, so is that the offense or the goaltending? I say a mixture of both, but mainly goaltending. Cam Talbot hasn’t had the best start to the year either, last season Talbot finished 42-22-8 logging nearly 4,300 minutes over a career high 73 games rocking a 2.39 GAA and seven shutouts. So far this year Talbot has all nine of the Oilers win but also has 11 total loses (9-10-1) with just a .901 save percentage and a 3.07 GAA with a single shutout. Talbot is now 30 years old and is in his third season in Edmonton after kicking off his career with the New York Rangers, there is no doubt Talbot has earned the right to be a starter but he needs to be better in net, the offense can only do so much. Back-up netminder Laurent Brossoit is now the full-time back up in Edmonton and has a 4-9-2 record in 13 career games started. This season Brossoit is winless in three starts but has a 0-3-1 record in six games played. His save percentage is an abysmal .881 and a 3.31 GAA doesn’t help either. Regardless, Brossoit is young at 24 years old but is clearly not cut to be starter and perhaps not even a reliable back-up, perhaps Edmonton looks for some goaltending help as the season goes on.

The GM: Peter Chiarelli, the man who traded Johnny Boychuk, Tyler Seguin, Phil Kessel, and Joe Thornton in Boston, and has traded Taylor Hall away from the Oilers for Adam Larsson. This guy is a meathead and has done nothing but pork teams that he is at the helm of, just look at the absurd signings this guy has made, Joe Corvo, Tomas Kaberle, Kris Russell, Derek Morris, Jordan Caron, and a massive deal for Draisiatl. Based off recent news out of Edmonton the fans are getting irritated with Chiarelli at no surprise to any Boston fans, he got lucky by having the first pick when he signed with Edmonton in which he took McDavid. Yes, lucky. Rumors as of late have been that Chiarelli may be looking to trade former first pick Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (which if he wants to send him to Boston I love it) but it could just be another piece of who Edmonton thought was going to be the future of this team, gone. In the end, Chiarelli is a poor, poor general manager in the NHL.

So there you have it, Edmonton dug themselves a hole early, have poor goaltending, and an even worse GM putting them where they are in the standings. I still believe Edmonton has enough talent to bounce back as the calendar turns towards 2018, but I think Calgary has proved that they are the powerhouse of Alberta Canada. We shall see though, either the Oilers plummet and end up trading off big pieces or Edmonton comes together as a team and finds their winning ways like last year.

Written by Nick Gendreau