Edmonton Oilers attack ace Zach Hyman was back on the ice today playing with the top power play unit, but not Viktor Arvidsson, Edmonton’s prize acquisition this summer who is still nowhere to be seen.
Said Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch of Arvidsson, “It hasn’t quite healed the way we assumed it would have.”
Tony Brar of Oilers TV reported the following combos for tonight’s game against Columbus:
EDM lines & pairings at Morning Skate:
RNH – McDavid – Hyman
Podkolzin – Draisaitl – Kapanen
Janmark – Henrique – Skinner
Perry – Ryan – Brown
Ekholm – Bouchard
Nurse – Stecher
Kulak – Emberson
Dermott
Pickard
Skinner
My take
1. There are two mysteries around these two players, Arvidsson and Hyman, one with a simple explanation, one without such comfort.
2. Let’s start with the simple matter, Hyman’s lack of scoring. It mainly comes down to bad puck luck, as he’s been getting as almost as many Grade A shots as he did last year when he scored a career high 54 in 80 games. He’s got just three goals in 20 games so far.
3. This year Hyman has 43 Grade A shots in 20 games, 2.2 per game. He’s had 35 Grade A shots at even strength and eight on the power play. He should have 10 or 11 goals just now, based on that quantity of Grade A shots. But he’s got just the three. That’s how the puck rolls at times, even for high volume Grade A shooters.
Last year, he had 206 in 80 games, 2.6 per game, good for 54 goals. He had 153 at even strength, 53 on the power play. That should have translated into about 51 goals for Hyman last year and he popped in 54.
4. I’m not worried about Hyman’s lack of scoring, and I also think it was a major error by Team Canada’s brass not to have him on the team over any number of other forwards.
Colossal mistake.