Gagner has struggled at centre since his return ...
The Edmonton Oilers have fallen apart in the past three games, not surprising given that many top performers are either out or hurting, while other top players, such as Jordan Eberle, Jeff Petry, Andrew Ference, Mark Arcobello and Boyd Gordon, are in mini-slumps.
In the "out or hurting" category right now we have Taylor Hall, Ryan Smyth, David Perron, Jesse Joensuu, Justin Schultz and Devan Dubnyk. Each of those players would have helped the team if they had played or played fully healthy the past three games.
Even as the Oilers have struggled to win with such players injured, the team has managed to create 240 hard shots on net from the slot area this year, while giving up 239 such hard shots. That's not a bad accomplishment at all.
In the past three games, however, the Oilers have been outchanced terribly by the Los Angeles Kings (20 to 10), Detroit Red Wings (17 to 4) and also by the Toronto Maple Leafs when the game was close (15 to 10, with the Oilers outchancing the Leafs 10 to 1 in garbage time, after Toronto was up by four goals).
Overall, outside of garbage time, the Oilers have been outchanced in the last three games 24 to 52. That is a terrible bit of performance, and it's no surprise the Oilers have been out-scored 11 to 1 in these three games.
All season players like Eberle, Petry, Ference, Arcobello and Gordon were helping to carry the Oilers in the scoring chance department, but in the last three games, they've gone from good-to-excellent to mediocre-to-atrocious.
For example, in his first 12 games, Eberle chipped in on 4.2 scoring chances per 15 minutes of even strength play and made mistakes on just 1.1 scoring chances against per 15.
In the last three, however, he's chipped in on just 2.3 chances for per 15 and made mistakes on 2.3 against. That's a poor ratio for a winger, especially for a top attacking winger. Perhaps Eberle is nursing an injury, as he recently missed some practice time due to injury.
The same nasty little trend is seen with Petry. In his first 12 games, Petry chipped in on 2.8 scoring chances per 15 and made mistakes on just 1.7 against, an excellent ratio for a d-man.
In his last three games, though, Petry has chipped in on 2.0 per 15 and made mistakes on 3.1 against. Those are close to the numbers we saw from Ryan Whitney in 2012-13.
Not good. Not even close to good.
You can compare other players in the following two charts, the first being the last three games, the second before the first 12.
If the Oilers were gong to weather this storm of injury, they absolutely had to have players like Eberle and Petry step up, not fall apart.
At the same time, Sam Gagner has been ineffective at centre, often looking too gassed to properly backcheck, while Boyd Gordon has also started to leak chances against. Arcobello has been mediocre on the wing.
Perhaps until Gagner is in full game shape, he should be on the wing, with Arcobello at centre, where he did quite well in his first 12 games.
Eberle, meanwhile, had little chemistry with Nail Yakupov, so it's likely best if that experiment is over. Was it just me, or did you notice Eberle and RNH a bit reluctant to move the puck to Yakupov? That's what I saw a few times.
Me, I'd go with RNH, Eberle and Gagner on the top line, with Yakupov and Jones on the second line, and Arcobello at centre. Hemsky and Gordon have worked well together on a third line.
Can Gagner play left wing on the top line? Well, RNH hasn't slumped and should be able to pick up the slack as Gagner's game conditioning improves. Links from NHL Rinks Tencer: This is not how the rebuild was supposed to go McCurdy: a failing grade for every Edmonton Oilers player in loss to Detroit Staples: Portrait of the coach as a rapidly aging man Matheson: Krueger finds no pleasure in Oilers woes Ireland: It's going to get "really uncomfortable" for "disconnected" Oilers MacKinnon: Oilers are "playing scared"
The Edmonton Oilers have fallen apart in the past three games, not surprising given that many top performers are either out or hurting, while other top players, such as Jordan Eberle, Jeff Petry, Andrew Ference, Mark Arcobello and Boyd Gordon, are in mini-slumps.
In the "out or hurting" category right now we have Taylor Hall, Ryan Smyth, David Perron, Jesse Joensuu, Justin Schultz and Devan Dubnyk. Each of those players would have helped the team if they had played or played fully healthy the past three games.
Even as the Oilers have struggled to win with such players injured, the team has managed to create 240 hard shots on net from the slot area this year, while giving up 239 such hard shots. That's not a bad accomplishment at all.
In the past three games, however, the Oilers have been outchanced terribly by the Los Angeles Kings (20 to 10), Detroit Red Wings (17 to 4) and also by the Toronto Maple Leafs when the game was close (15 to 10, with the Oilers outchancing the Leafs 10 to 1 in garbage time, after Toronto was up by four goals).
Overall, outside of garbage time, the Oilers have been outchanced in the last three games 24 to 52. That is a terrible bit of performance, and it's no surprise the Oilers have been out-scored 11 to 1 in these three games.
All season players like Eberle, Petry, Ference, Arcobello and Gordon were helping to carry the Oilers in the scoring chance department, but in the last three games, they've gone from good-to-excellent to mediocre-to-atrocious.
For example, in his first 12 games, Eberle chipped in on 4.2 scoring chances per 15 minutes of even strength play and made mistakes on just 1.1 scoring chances against per 15.
In the last three, however, he's chipped in on just 2.3 chances for per 15 and made mistakes on 2.3 against. That's a poor ratio for a winger, especially for a top attacking winger. Perhaps Eberle is nursing an injury, as he recently missed some practice time due to injury.
The same nasty little trend is seen with Petry. In his first 12 games, Petry chipped in on 2.8 scoring chances per 15 and made mistakes on just 1.7 against, an excellent ratio for a d-man.
In his last three games, though, Petry has chipped in on 2.0 per 15 and made mistakes on 3.1 against. Those are close to the numbers we saw from Ryan Whitney in 2012-13.
Not good. Not even close to good.
You can compare other players in the following two charts, the first being the last three games, the second before the first 12.
If the Oilers were gong to weather this storm of injury, they absolutely had to have players like Eberle and Petry step up, not fall apart.
At the same time, Sam Gagner has been ineffective at centre, often looking too gassed to properly backcheck, while Boyd Gordon has also started to leak chances against. Arcobello has been mediocre on the wing.
Perhaps until Gagner is in full game shape, he should be on the wing, with Arcobello at centre, where he did quite well in his first 12 games.
Eberle, meanwhile, had little chemistry with Nail Yakupov, so it's likely best if that experiment is over. Was it just me, or did you notice Eberle and RNH a bit reluctant to move the puck to Yakupov? That's what I saw a few times.
Me, I'd go with RNH, Eberle and Gagner on the top line, with Yakupov and Jones on the second line, and Arcobello at centre. Hemsky and Gordon have worked well together on a third line.
Can Gagner play left wing on the top line? Well, RNH hasn't slumped and should be able to pick up the slack as Gagner's game conditioning improves. Links from NHL Rinks Tencer: This is not how the rebuild was supposed to go McCurdy: a failing grade for every Edmonton Oilers player in loss to Detroit Staples: Portrait of the coach as a rapidly aging man Matheson: Krueger finds no pleasure in Oilers woes Ireland: It's going to get "really uncomfortable" for "disconnected" Oilers MacKinnon: Oilers are "playing scared"
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