Admittedly, there’s been some eye-rolls and slumping of shoulders with Zach Hyman, as last season’s 54-goal scorer tries to have just one puck find the back of the net through the first six Edmonton Oilers games this month.
Fourteen shots on net, nary a celebration.
But, slow starts are the norm for Hyman.
While Hyman had a career-high 18.6 regular-season shooting percentage last season and kept it up with 17.7 in the 25 Oilers playoff games (16 goals on 90 shots), he’s usually a pedestrian starter.
Last season as the Oilers stumbled out of the gate, Hyman had two goals (at Nashville and Philadelphia) on his 16 shots through the first six Oilers games. Exactly the same story (goals and shots) in 2022-23 when he finished with 35 goals.
An 18.6 shooting percentage is unsustainable for just about anybody in today’s NHL except for teammate triggerman Leon Draisaitl, who has a gaudy career 18.2 (350 goals on 1920 shots). In the last four seasons, he’s 19.8, 21.1, 18.9, and 23.1.
In Hyman’s case, he has 203 goals on 1,499 total shots in his 10 NHL seasons, with about 90 per cent of the goals and shots around the blue paint where he has squatter’s rights.
He was robbed once by Jake Oettinger’s pad in Dallas on Saturday, getting off a good shot as he spun but not getting the puck up against a goalie who covers the bottom of the net better than 90 per cent of the NHL goalies.
Hyman normally has around 13 per cent shooting to goals efficiency. So, this season’s ZERO is disturbing, but…
Auston Matthews only has two goals in his first 28 shots in Toronto.
OK, Sam Reinhart, who had 57 goals last season, hasn’t had a drop-off. He has five goals in Florida’s first seven games, maybe flying against the theory that last year’s 57 was an out-of-body experience.
If you want affirmation that Hyman will most likely turn it around, he had four goals in his first 12 games leading up to the firing of Jay Woodcroft, and 50 in the next 68, missing two regular-season games.
Wouldn’t you know?
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins only lost two of 15 faceoffs in Dallas, but one of those two to Roope Hintz was turned into a Matt Duchene power-play goal in the last 30 seconds of the middle period.
Luck of the draw, eh?
His loss on the faceoff was rare, but Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner was beaten cleanly from 30 feet to give the Stars the first goal of the game.
Nugent-Hopkins has been a more productive left-winger than a centre over the last few years, and while his career faceoff percentage is only 44.6 on exactly 9,700 draws over his 887 league games, he’s currently 63.6 per cent on his 44 faceoffs.
He’s taken the fourth-most Oilers faceoffs.
Draisaitl has had a team high 103, winning 67 for 65.1 per cent.
Adam Henrique is next with 76 (the only one under 50 per cent at 47.4) with Connor McDavid at 73. Derek Ryan has taken 41.
On second thought
Do you think the Oilers would like that Nick Bjugstad for defenceman Michael Kesselring trade back? Pretty good chance they would like a do-over today.
Bjugstad, while a good fit here in the 2022 playoff run to the Western Conference Final against Colorado as a right-shot faceoff guy and a big body presence, signed back in Arizona a few months after the trade.
And Kesselring, behind fellow right-shot defenceman Vinny Desharnais in the Oilers organization, has become a mainstay on the Utah blueline. He got the OT winner against Boston on Saturday, has four points in six games, a team-best plus-minus (plus 7), and even got into a spirited scrap with ex-Oiler Sam Carrick (Rangers) recently and more than held his own.
Kesselring would be on the Oilers blueline today, with his two-thumbs-up progression after they took a flier on the six-foot-five defenceman in the sixth round in 2018. He needed work on his lateral mobility and being tougher in front of the net, but he’s got it now.
At the time of the trade deadline deal, it seemed a small price to pay to get Bjugstad, though.
“They wanted Kesselring, specifically,” said former Oilers GM Ken Holland, whose buddy David Oliver, former Oilers winger, had watched Kesselring a lot as Utah’s Western pro scout and clearly had some input in the trade.
“Kesselring was blocked here. We’ve got (Evan) Bouchard and Desharnais,” said Holland at the time, knowing he also had Philip Broberg, who could play both sides.
Now? Kesselring’s in Utah, Desharnais is in Vancouver, and Broberg is in St. Louis, with five assists and six points (plus 6) in his first six Blues games as a second-pairing left defenceman.
This ‘n’ that
Nugent-Hopkins and Viktor Arvidsson haven’t scored yet and aren’t shooting enough, just nine shots each…
It’s probably time to rejig a one-for-15 power play (Draisaitl goal). Either they give the second unit a full minute, not 30 seconds, or they swap out people on the first unit. Maybe Corey Perry, who has made a living standing in front of goalies on power plays, takes Hyman’s net front for a while. Maybe Jeff Skinner (four points), stoned by Oettinger in the dying minutes when it was 3-1 in Dallas, deserves a look on the top unit…
The Penguins, here Friday night, are bringing three goalies on their Western Canada trip, including the struggling ex-Oil Kings’ Memorial Cup winner Tristan Jarry, who has a $5.75 million AAV but is off to his worst NHL start (.836 save percentage, 5.47 goal average in three games). Joel Blomqvist and Alex Nedeljkovic, recovered but rusty after a lower-body injury are also on the trip….
The Bakersfield farm team is 2-0-1 through their first three games and with too many veterans, jockeying AHL rules that say you can only dress five vets (320 pro games) in a game. On the weekend, the AHL team sat defenceman Ben Gleason in Ontario (Reign) and blueliner Josh Brown at home against San Diego in an OT loss. Not ideal…
After sitting for the first five games, Ex-Oiler Kailer Yamamoto finally got a game with Utah, playing 11 minutes in Utah’s OT win over Boston on Saturday…
While Calgary looking for a right-shot centre, the Oilers could use one too unless they bring up Noah Philp, who has two points in the first three Bakersfield games. The Oilers are using Arvidsson, a normal right-winger, on right-side draws to help out Ryan.
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