Maybe the struggles of the Edmonton Oilers are not complicated at all

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Earlier in this season, a struggling Edmonton Oilers club walked all over the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Some hoped that the worm had turned and that the Oilers were finally on their way. But I worried it was against a not-very-good, not-very-fast Pens club. And turns out, my concerns were valid.

Now, the Oilers head into the break with a 6-2 win over the New York Rangers. And unlike Pittsburgh, the Rangers are a terrific team.

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So, where is that worm now?

That and more in this edition of…

9 Things

9. Seven straight games without a power play goal against for Edmonton. If the fever has finally broken on that special team, then it seems logical that the Oilers power play returns to its former self, post-break. We will see.

8. The struggle we witnessed from the Edmonton Oilers D-core against Minnesota was (among other things) a reminder of just how much this club misses Darnell Nurse…particularly when Nurse is playing as well as he has been for most of this year.

7. Nurse scored a big goal on his return Saturday, and it was short-handed. He is now tied for first amongst active defencemen in the NHL with six short-handed goals. He is not the only Oilers player to make his mark in this way. Paul Coffey had nine shorties…in one season, 1985-86!

6. Vasily Podkolzin hammered home his first of the season Saturday on a nice setup from Leon Draisaitl. It is Podkolzin’s first since 2023. Many of us are impressed with Podkolzin’s play, doing a lot of the little things right and putting in the extra work in practice. Perhaps this breakthrough lightens the load on his shoulders.

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5. Pierre LeBrun at The Athletic reports that Anaheim goaltender John Gibson would waive his modified no-trade clause if the suitor was Edmonton. It is debatable if the 2024 version of Gibson would be an upgrade on Stuart Skinner. I would suggest not. And certainly not at the $6.4m cap hit. Even with a sizeable retention it would be challenging for Edmonton to fit that under the cap.

4. One name among many out there that the Oilers have reportedly kicked the tires on in terms of their blueline is David Jiricek in Columbus. He projects as a better pure defender than Philip Broberg, also is more physical. Jiricek has an excellent shot and vision for developing plays. And he is young and has lots of runway in front of him. He is not, however, as good a skater as the silky-smooth Broberg. Food for thought…

3. If you did not catch the interview with Oilers General Manager Stan Bowman on Oilers Now with Bob Stauffer this past week, you may have missed a significant nugget. Bowman revealed to Bob that “I’ve had several agents call me and tell me that their players want to come to Edmonton. Agents I have talked to say we have to give our list of the few places we can play, and Edmonton is on that list now.” That has not always been the case I this city. And it is a great sign. The more doors open to help Bowman to take this roster over the top the better.

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2. The more I get to watch Ty Emberson the more I like him. I see similarities to an Oiler from the past that I felt the club gave up on a bit too quickly: Matt Benning. Both are right-handed D-men. Both are way more physical than their size might suggest. The two men are an inch of high and less than ten pounds apart. The real key is that Emberson is the better skater and six years younger. If Ty Emberson goes onto play the almost 500 games that Benning has, then we will be glad that Emberson was an Edmonton Oiler. Troy Stecher, Travis Dermott, and Josh Brown are able to contribute in support roles…but I suspect we can agree that none of the three are going to get better. Whereas I believe we can forecast Emberson’s ceiling higher than his present level of play.

1.Is this Edmonton Oilers squad really the Top 8 team as it was touted to be by many at the start of the season? They surely managed a stone-cold lock Top 8 club in the Rangers on Saturday. The problem is that the Oilers at times have also played like a Bottom-16 club. The inconsistency has been frustrating in a season that is no longer “early on.” There are many opinions on the reasons why. Yes, the Oilers are probably a couple key pieces from where the roster needs to be. But they are also not that different from the one that went to Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals last season. And I believe the impact of some of those changes has been overblown.

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For example, a lot of people are saying “we never should have let Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway get away.” I do not disagree with that. Yet neither Broberg nor Holloway were ever (in any tangible way) on the Oilers Power Play or on their Penalty Kill. Their absence this season has zero impact on either special team. And the struggles of both are huge causes behind Edmonton’s slow start.

I also agree the Defence is weaker than it ended last season. I wrote as much after free agency day. Funny, how the absence of Cody Ceci (who many thought was part of the problem, lol), Broberg (who played all of 12 regular season games last season) and Vincent Desharnais (a 6-7D here, and for Vancouver now) made such a difference. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.

In other words, the Edmonton Oilers simply are not playing very well. And, even with some flaws on the roster, they still have a lot more to give. That may seem oversimplistic. And I agree that struggles with yet another head coach are maddening, too.

But that commanding performance against the elite New York Rangers tells me that this group has it in them.

They just need to find it on a consistent basis.

Newly on Bluesky @kurtleavins.bsky.social. On Twitter @KurtLeavins, Threads @kleavins, Instagram at LeavinsOnHockey, and even on Mastodon at [email protected]. This article is not AI generated.

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