The Elephant In The Room Of The Stanley Cup Ambitions Of The Edmonton Oilers? I've Been Listening To Interview Of Edmonton Hockey Boss Jeff Jackson, Coach Jay Woodcroft And Team Leaders Connor McDavid And Leon Draisaitl, And The Thing I'm Not Hearing Much About Is The Most Important Issue For The Team, How To Become A Superior Shut Down Defensive Team, How To Move From A Mediocre Defensive Team To An Elite One. Last Year Edmonton Gave Up 256 Goals Against, 3.12 Per Game, In The Regular Season, Making Them Just The 17th Best Team In The NHL In That Regard. The Oilers Led The League In Goals For With 325, 3.96 Per Game, But They Were Leaky On Defence For Much Of The Regular Season, And That Came Back To Haunt Them Against Vegas. Las Vegas Was Not Only Able To Score Key Goals Against The Oilers, They Were Able To Score A Lot Of Goals, 3.7 Per Game. Only Four NHL Teams In The Regular Season Gave Up More Than 3.7 Goals Per Game, And They Were All Terrible Teams, Montreal, San Jose, Columbus And Anaheim. Edmonton Was In That Same Territory Against Vegas. On The Attack, The Oilers Are Like A Five-star Restaurant, Capable To Serving Up The Most Delicious Of Treats. On Defence, Watch Out For Food Poisoning.

Cult of Hockey

Published Sep 10, 2023 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 4 minute read

Goalie Stuart Skinner (74) and Darnell Nurse (25) of the Edmonton Oilers, dive to cover an open net in front of Jonathan Marchessault of the Las Vegas Golden Knights in Game 6 of the second round of the NHL playoffs at Rogers Place in Edmonton on May 14, 2023. Photo by Shaughn Butts /Postmedia

It was a shambles, a mess, and it’s the elephant in the room of the Stanley Cup ambitions of the Edmonton Oilers.

I’ve been listening to interview sof Edmonton hockey boss Jeff Jackson, coach Jay Woodcroft and team leaders Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, and the thing I’m not hearing much about is the most important issue for the team, how to become a superior shutdown defensive unit, how to move from a mediocre defensive team to an elite one.

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Last year Edmonton gave up 256 goals against, 3.12 per game, in the regular season, making them just the 17th best team in the NHL in that regard.

The Oilers led the league in goals for with 325, 3.96 per game, but they were leaky on defence for much of the regular season, and that came back to haunt them against Vegas in the playoffs.

Las Vegas, a good but not great attacking team, was not only able to score key goals against the Oilers, they were able to score a lot of goals, 3.7 per game.

Only four NHL teams in the regular season gave up more than 3.7 goals per game, and they were all terrible teams, Montreal, San Jose, Columbus and Anaheim. Edmonton was in that same territory against Vegas.

Notably, in the four games the Oilers lost to Vegas, the Oil gave up at least four games in each.

That’s not good. Not even close to good.

On the attack, the Oilers are like a five-star restaurant, capable to serving up the most delicious of treats, the most magnificent of concoctions. On defence, watch out for food poisoning.

For a team with this kind of talent, their defensive play last season was, ultimately, unacceptable. But they paid for it. It cost them a win in a series where they were the better team. It likely cost them a Stanley Cup.

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Any talk of Edmonton getting better then, any talk of this team changing things up and finding a way to win the Stanley Cup, needs to address that elephant in the room, their defensive mediocrity.

I’m not yet hearing much talk of it in pre-season interviews with the players and coach Jay Woodcroft.

Perhaps Woodcroft is keeping his plan for defensive improvement to himself.

He likes to keep his future plans and strategies to himself. As Woodcroft told Bob Stauffer of Oilers Now this week, “In terms of giving away information (to other teams), not a big fan of that.”

Fair enough.

But Woodcroft did study opposing teams this summer to learn a few things. “In terms of the gaining of information, in terms of our study and your work and your ability to pick things up the way other teams do something successfully, that’s a skill. That goes part and parcel with the amount of work you do in the summer time, which we do a lot of.”

In his first year with the team, Woodcroft said he and asst. coach Dave Manson focused on improving the backcheck. In the second year, they looked at adding ways to grind out more goals in the offensive zone.

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Now they’re looking at adding a few more things, Woodcroft said, without elaborating.

For the 2023-24 Edmonton Oilers, chopping 50 goals against off their total of 256 goal against last year should not only put Edmonton at the top of the NHL standings, it should set them up to play shut-down championship defence.

Much has been made of Edmonton’s iffy goaltending by Stuart Skinner in the playoffs and by Jack Campbell in the regular season. Of course, these two have got to be better.

But, as I see it, the big issue isn’t goaltending so much as it’s defensive structure.

Simply put, at key moments in big games, the Oilers run around too much in their own zone, try to do too much, and end up allowing wide-open shots in front of the net. This is what sunk them against Vegas.

You could say that the problem here is the players, that they simple didn’t execute Edmonton’s man-to-man defensive system with enough focus and intensity, that players failed to cover for their teammates, failed properly read the game. There is some truth to that notion. But perhaps the issue is the Oil’s defensive scheme needs to be simplified, with less of an emphasis on aggression on the puck all over the offensive zone, and more of an emphasis on covering off and shutting down the slot area.

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In opposition to the Oilers and their man-to-man defensive system, Vegas played a zone, most often keeping two d-men and their centre in front of their own net, not allowing Edmonton many easy shots from there. It worked brilliantly to thwart Edmonton. It was a simple tactic but it stopped the Oilers in key moments.

Woodcroft got out-coached against Vegas when it came to defensive strategy. I don’t expect that to happen again. And I expect with a simpler defensive system focused on keeping d-men in the defensive slot and limiting the most dangerous of opposition shots, Skinner and Campbell are going to have higher save percentages, Edmonton’s going to cut down on goals against, and the Oilers will finally establish the solid foundation the team needs to have success in May and June.

Make sense? How do you see it? If I’m wrong, where am I wrong?

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