The Edmonton Oilers head home from a withering road trip.
And while they pulled up a goal short of a win on Saturday night, by anyone’s measure this stretch was a roaring success. The Oilers arrive home with the same number of points as the Pacific leading Vegas Golden Knights.
Meanwhile, their General Manager Stan Bowman is already hip-deep in post-season roster building.
That and more in this edition of…
9 Things
9. The Oilers are 12th in the NHL in hits taken (930). It should be no surprise that many of the teams near the top are the best teams in the league (Vegas, Dallas, Florida) as they have the puck more. More on this in a minute…
8. We will get into the John Klingberg acquisition in a moment. The addition is tough news for Troy Stecher who has turned in a solid performance, often in a second-pairing role. But if Stecher is your 7D and Josh Brown is your number eight, that is solid depth.
7. Going into Saturday’s NHL action the Oilers boasted the #1 power ranking in the league according to Moneypuck (60.25%). Their Expected Goal ranking at even strength was also #1 (55.8%), as was their Expected Goal ranking on the power play (54.64%).
6. Leon Draisaitl’s two goals on Saturday left him with thirty-three, atop the National Hockey League’s goal scoring race with a six-goal gap. That is a fifty-nine-goal pace for Leon. On top of that impressive fact, consider the two markers against the Canucks: He was at or below the goal line by the time both pucks went in. Astonishing.
5. Adam Henrique’s offensive statistics are not quite at his traditional career levels. But I am not especially bothered by that. For one, he is not playing with Top 6 linemates. But more notable to my eye, Henrique does not cheat at all for offence. The details in his defensive game are impressive. And the coach no doubt sees that, too, as no one starts more shifts in the Oilers’ defensive zone than Adam Henrique. Related, he is 55% in the faceoff circle this season. That is above his 5, 10 and 15-year averages on the dot.
4. Ty Emberson leads the NHL in Hits Taken with 117 (Natural Stat Trick). It is not at all unusual for defencemen to be near or at the top of these rankings. And I admire the hell out of Emberson’s willingness to go into the hard areas and to take a hit to make a play. But as time wears on, his exposure in that way could also lead to durability issues. I would not want Emberson to change the way he plays, per se. After all, his ruggedness is part of what makes him “him.” But I well remember a coach once having the talk with me about how to better “look after myself” along the boards. I was also a defenceman and not the biggest guy on the ice.
3. Over the last two weeks, the Edmonton Oilers have flown over 13,000 kilometers, playing eight games across four time zones. That distance is not counting the miles on top of that in buses and other transport to and from airports, hotels, and arenas. Before anyone gives me the old song and dance about “high paid athletes have to rise above that”: The body does not care how much money you earn. They get tired just like we do. How many of us have sat in an airport exhausted, yearning to get home and into our own beds? Despite Saturday’s narrow setback, the Oilers have enjoyed one of the best road trips in franchise history despite the grueling travel schedule (and not to mention the quality of competition).
2. I do not disagree with the two match penalties handed out at the end of Saturday’s game. But both of them happened as a direct result of an amateurish officiating performance by Wes McCauley (normally the best ref in the NHL for my money) and Chris Lee. A poor night of refereeing overall and they lost control of the proceedings at the end. The non-call on Conor Garland prior to the cross-check by Connor McDavid was infuriating. The NHL seems to just love it when McDavid promotes their game. And Connor is pretty generous with his time, considering what he has to put up with on the ice game-in and game-out. Maybe it is time he started saying “No.” Other superstars in this league face comparable challenges. Do not wonder why the National Hockey League is not in the same league as the NFL, NBA, or MLB. The NHL takes its stars for granted.
1.The Oilers placed newly acquired defenceman John Klingberg on Injured Reserve Saturday afternoon. The 32-year-old, 6’1 veteran has been out since last year when he only managed to play fourteen games for the Toronto Maple Leafs. His hip surgery was to correct a problem that clearly eroded his game to the point where one of the best offensive D-men in the NHL a few years ago had become a shadow of his former self. But when he was good? He was good. Klingberg’s best year was 8-59-67 in 82 games for the Dallas Stars in 2017-18. And that was hardly “one-and-done.” Klingberg has scored 412 points in 633 career regular season games and 39 more in 69 post-season appearances.
But that was then. This is now. While this is a low-cost bet there is certainly risk. The Oilers do not know how Klingberg will respond to the physical demands of playing in the NHL every day. And neither does Klingberg. It would be practical to expect a period of time where Klingberg is getting up to speed, regaining his timing and reacclimatizing to the demands of the job. That is why the signing makes more sense now than later.
Here is how Head Coach Kris Knoblauch sees it: “I think we want a player that is going to play to our strengths, moving the puck out, some offensive contributions”, and “who can ultimately move the puck, (sic) is smart…and that’s our guy”. Many anticipated an add of a heavier, shut-down man. Clearly, management and coach see differently.
Does Klingberg have the raw tools and smarts to make the Oilers a better team? I do not think there are many questions about that.
Rather, the concern is whether Klingberg’s 32-year-old, post-surgery body, allows him to be even close to where he used to be.
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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