Three Things About The Opposition

This season we figured we’d reach out to our friends in the Pacific Division and ask them to tell you and us three things about their team for the upcoming season. It could be any three things, but we wanted them to inform you about the Flames biggest rivals in the NHL.

In this installment Jeff Chapman (@NewWaveOil) of Copper & Blue was kind enough to give us three items about the Oilers that we should find interesting.

1. A healthy Connor McDavid will dominate the score sheet again. We are entering the fifth year of Connor McDavid’s time in Edmonton, and he’s going to absolutely rip it up. There’s a significant chance that he will again play significant minutes with Leon Draisaitl on the top line, which will help contribute to a lethal one-two punch.

2. Goaltending is a huge question mark. The Oilers are rolling the dice in net with Mikko Koskinen and Mike Smith. Koskinen was handed a three year deal as Peter Chiarelli’s last terrible thing he did, while Mike Smith is coming off of a poor year with Calgary. In order for the Oilers to have any chance at the playoffs, they’ll have to put up something gaudy like a .920SV% between the two of them.

3. The bottom six will need to contribute more than recent history has shown. Ken Holland went to market in early July and signed several free agents to play in the bottom six. The question here is: can they contribute? These are actual NHL players that Holland acquired, which is a lot more than can be said for recent years. Will it be enough to help move the needle towards the second season?