Yahoo Sports Oilers Badly Need A Bounceback Win Against Senators
Let's try that again.
The Oilers are back in action tonight in Ottawa, one night after falling flat in a pathetic shutout loss to the Montreal Canadiens. They need a win tonight to avoid being swept on their eastern Canadian road trip and falling to .500 through the season's first quarter.
Their opponents, the Ottawa Senators, are in a very similar spot. They sit at 8-8-1, two points behind the Boston Bruins for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference but ahead by points percentage. The Oilers, for their part, are 9-8-2 and tied with Colorado for the final playoff spot in the west.
The Oilers' problem this season is new for them: they can't score. Sure, their team save percentage is just above .880, but they've allowed 3.16 goals against per game, exactly middle-of-the-pack at 16th in the league.
But they've only scored 2.63 per game, and their offensive problems were laid bare for all to see on Monday in Montreal. They weren't just shut down by a good goalie, they were unable to even really threaten the Canadiens offensively. Their powerplay has grown stale and predictable, and they had trouble getting to the middle of the ice and generating rebounds against one of the league's worst defensive teams.
Outside of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, almost no one on the Oilers has been creating offence all season long. Their highest-scoring forwards other than their big two are Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman, and Mattias Janmark, with 8 points each through 19 games. That's just a 35-point pace over a full season, not nearly good enough for a team with championship aspirations.
The Senators, meanwhile, have a golden opportunity as the mighty Boston Bruins don't seem so mighty anymore, leaving room for Ottawa to finally crack the top four in the Atlantic Division and make the playoffs.
But in classic Senators fashion, they haven't quite taken that step. They are, in a word, mid. Their point percentage is .500. Their goal differential is +2. Their xG share is 14th in the league at 50.24%. They've both scored and allowed slightly more goals than expected. They haven't won or lost more than two games in a row all season.
The rebuild is over in Ottawa. The core is all there: Tim Stützle, Brady Tkachuk, Drake Batherson, Claude Giroux, Josh Norris, Jake Sanderson, and Thomas Chabot have all been about as good as expected, though it would be nice if Sanderson wasn't being dragged down by partner Travis Hamonic.
There's no more rebuilding or waiting for next year for the Senators; they need to show right now that they're a real playoff team after years of disaster and dysfunction.
It's only November 19th, but there's a lot on the line for these two teams. The Senators need to prove they can take a step up into the league's upper echelon. The Oilers need to prove they still belong there.
We'll find out at 5:00 this evening, on Sportsnet West.
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