I guess Edmonton’s last week’s matches against Dallas and Nashville could be called some kind of shocks. In the first mentioned, the captain, the brightest star of the sport and the front line leader of the team Connor McDavid couldn’t handle the back hair in the middle area. The captain changed the skating cold to the slide coolly with the result that Roope Hintz completed the match winning goal.
A couple of days later it was Leon Draisaitl turn. Edmonton had gotten off to a moderate start to Saturday’s early evening game and was leading 1-0 when the German superstar’s motivation to fight back ran out. Nashville Filip Forsberg thanked and acknowledged the levels of the game. Edmonton lost the game.
And now we remember that Edmonton, which entered the season with championship goals, had a 2–5–1 record before the Dallas match. Before Saturday 2–6–1.
You would have thought that the superstars in the captaincy would have put it all together. No.
This is only a few weeks after the duo had strongly emphasized in different media during the training season that they were tired of losing. Pelleily’s time was over as Edmonton went in pursuit of its first championship in 34 years.
The lead players broke in November.
– That’s a star cult, ‘s ice hockey expert Ismo Lehkonen he says, sounding like he’s not surprised at all.
– In Edmonton, the legality of five-a-side playing has never been important. It’s not the most important thing for the team, the media or the fans. What matters is who scores. The most important thing is who leads the point exchange, who makes the hat trick and when someone scores five points. This is what it is there, Lehkonen continues.
Many who closely follow the NHL are ready to agree with this view. In the big picture, we have an extraordinary story about a club that cannot succeed even with two mega stars. There where Wayne Gretzky, Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane, Jonathan ToewsBoston and Los Angeles from last years’ dynasties already won in the opening round, Edmonton has not come close.
McDavid will turn 27 in January, Draisaitl will turn 29 next.
As a result of the latest collapse, even a place in the playoffs is behind the work and pain for the club that was promoted as a championship candidate. The back distance to the playoff spot is already eight points.
– The whole organization lives in star cult blindness, Lehkonen states.
It’s unbelievable that Edmonton is completely incapable of learning from their mistakes year after year. Game-wise, the team seems to have no identity or plan – let alone discipline. The Oilers are an undisciplined team that plays on both sides of the puck like there’s no tomorrow.
Huge numbers of superior attacks have been created against Edmonton this fall as well. The team doesn’t seem to value the legitimacy of winning hockey. Players are more interested in their own power points. The head coach Jay Woodcroft will pay for this at his workplace, which once again raises the old question: when will the leading players start to bear the responsibility?
On the other hand, how could McDavid and Draisaitl insist loudly when even their own back hairs are not done?
– This is a good question. It doesn’t matter who draws the x’s and o’s on the board if the players have no morals. Edmonton players are constantly stealing from the game in search of luck. The majority of offensive attacks in the NHL come to Omi, when there is a draisait-like look to see if someone else will go to Omi, Lehkonen downloads.
Huge casting defects
Ultimately, the responsibility for the disaster lies with the club management. During the season, the Oilers were even promoted as a champion candidate, even though the team already had significant casting defects from the start.
The all-experienced boss of the sports side, the GM, is responsible for these failures Ken Holland.
In four years, Holland has not been able to build the depth for the team, which is required to win the championship. And not enough high-quality defense equipment. The construction of the team has been characterized by an opportunist’s approach, where blind attacking has been thought, or rather hoped, to be enough to win the trophy.
In addition, Holland signed a five-year contract as a goalkeeper in the summer of 2022 by Jack Campbell with. The value of the contract was no less than 25 million. That is, for a 30-year-old goalkeeper, who had played one season as a starting goalkeeper in his career, and even then averagely.
– It was an open-ended agreement from the beginning. It’s hard to understand what Holland, a former goaltender who also played in the NHL, thought about it Riku Helenius sigh.
The expensive contract itself put the mediocre goalie in a tough spot in a hockey town where goalies have been eaten alive in the media in recent years.
– It seems that the contract was made as a result of rather weak player monitoring. The starting points were difficult from the start, another former NHL goaltender Karri Rämö comp.
The end result has been ugly to watch. Both Campbell and Stuart Skinner have been the weakest goaltenders in the NHL this past fall. The team’s save percentage is the weakest in the league. Skinner has allowed seven hits over the expected goal. The reading is the highest in the series. Campbell (-3.8) is ninth weakest in the same statistic.
On Tuesday, Edmonton placed Campbell on the transfer list, where he can be picked up for free by any team. If he doesn’t pick up, the Oilers will soon have a five million dollar goalie in their farm.
– Goalkeepers haven’t been successful there in any way. Much more would have been needed. There hasn’t been a single big save in difficult moments, which is of course a problem. At the same time, it must be said that goalkeepers are always made scapegoats there. Nobody succeeds behind that team, Helenius downloads.
– For some reason, the world of values of that team has been really badly shaken. There is something seriously wrong with the culture there, Helenius continues.
Rämö mostly finds it amusing that the goalkeeper was allowed to leave first.
– By changing Veskar, you are trying to change something, even though the problems are somewhere else. Neither of those goaltenders are the ones you go out with to beat the pitcher. But they are also not the reason why Edmonton is doing so badly. That club culture should be completely changed.
Helenius believes that Edmonton has done itself a disservice by treating goalies badly.
– It’s a worn record for them that goalkeepers are blamed. They can see if they will ever get a top player there on the free market. Who wants that as a free agent. The idea is always that the team would otherwise be good, but when the goalkeepers.
What next?
There will probably be more changes if the team’s course does not correct in the first place.
– Everyone understands that head coach Woodcroft’s life as a coach in that club is really short, says Lehkonen.
The level of captain McDavid right now is particularly worrying in terms of coaching. Ten (2+8) points in nine matches, combined with a total lack of joy in the game, suggests that the coaching management has lost the dressing room. McDavid’s statistics for the early fall are almost the weakest of his career.
– Could it be that McDavid has looked around in the booth and concluded that this group will not provide the necessary push. Of course, he plays very well, but nowhere near his best level. Does he see when the puck falls on the ice that damn hockey is fun. Can’t see, Lehkonen thinks.
Changes are coming, but will there be enough of them and on enough levels?
In the latest Ikan änäri podcast, we talked about, among other things About Jack Hughes and About Elias Pettersson and why can’t intentionally harming an opponent be eradicated from the NHL?