Post-Game Talk: A Sixy Win

[Duke74]

He has young kids, that could have played a part and it might be what's effecting Nuge now. Fatherhood, first timers especially, can be hard on some guys in terms of physical and mental adjustment. Just a thought...

Hopefully Connor and Leon wait till retirement to start their families.

 

[McFlyingV]

Couldn't agree more re: the puck retrievals and zone exits. He was not just bottom of the Oilers, but amongst the bottom 5 dmen in the whole league in those stats if I am remembering it right. For a team that really needs to get and retain the puck that type of player is a big liability.

Exactly. I don't have access to the stats anymore, but he was dead last on the Oilers in both categories by a lot which is saying quite a bit when you had a guy like Desharnais on the team.

Here's the best I could find for him from this season so far.



As you can see his puck retrieval ability is non-existent and that is exactly why Nurse-Ceci didn't and couldn't work. Nurse is a far better defender of the rush and excels when he can play a rover style game joining the rush and using his speed on the back track to prevent odd man rushes. The biggest problem with Ceci on his other side is teams could just exploit the dump in to Ceci's side and at even the first sign of light pressure he would just turn the puck over and now Nurse is stuck with zone defending which isn't a strength of his. A good puck mover who can skate, and who can ideally break up opposing teams cycles is the ideal partner for him, and it's why Kulak has worked this year. He has the skating, puck moving, and size to do all of those things.

Kulak is also, however, the perfect partner type for Emberson. That is the type of D they should be targeting. Someone who is 6'1-6'2 or bigger who can skate and move the puck, and who is big enough/physical enough to disrupt the cycle. If they have some offensive skill great, but that would just be an added bonus for a defence that has 3D capable of putting up 40+ points, and in Bouchard's case much more.

 

[McFlyingV]

Oilers broke the Rangers, interesting.

Trouba was an absolute pylon against the Oil like he always is.

He's also Draisaitl's bitch.