The Edmonton Oilers are fighting an uphill battle and Kris Knoblauch and his coaching staff continue to make things difficult on themselves. In the post-practice scrum Knoblauch specifically said to not focus on the D pairs they were running but here is the practice lineup.

Draisaitl-McDavid-Hyman
Podkolzin-RNH-Arvidsson
Kane-Henrique-Brown
Frederic-Janmark-Perry

Klingberg-Bouchard
Nurse-Emberson
Kulak-Walman

Pickard
Skinner

Pickard will get the start tonight. The Oilers managed only two goals against the Kings in Game 2 with McDavid and Draisaitl playing together and yet we are once again going into Game 3 with those two together and a mashup of other players with very little proven history of producing together. Knoblauch is getting his lunch taken away by Hiller in this series.

Let's first talk about the thing that everyone is talking about; the goaltending. Stuart Skinner has been absolutely brutal since the playoffs began, and for quite some time prior to that as well. The team in front of him has not done him any favours, that is very true as well but at some point you need your goalie to bail you out; even once, and Skinner just has not done that. Pickard deserves the start tonight because quite frankly, what is the other option?

Evan Bouchard is playing himself out of a long term deal and right now I don't think the organization is going to have a choice but to bridge him. I still firmly believe Bouchard is a player that is part of this core group moving forward and every stat out there points to McDavid and Draisaitl being more effective when he is on the ice. That all being said his lack of effort and brutal turnovers have hurt this team bad this year. This is probably the worst contract year I can recall seeing of a player.

Jeff Skinner appears to be a healthy scratch once again and by this point I just wish the guy the best on whatever his next team is. Skinner is 4th on the Oilers in 5 on 5 goals despite playing the 10th most minutes among forwards. Right now the Oilers could certainly use a player who has shown he can score goals regardless of the line that he is on but Knoblauch continues to play guys like Henrique and Podkolzin who have done absolutely nothing in this series and for a long stretch of time before that.

Evander Kane looked exactly as should have been expected in his first game back; like a player that hasn't played in a year. It was nice to imagine him coming out of a cannon and laying the hurt down but it was quite simply unrealistic. The Kane and Henrique duo were a black hole of offense last year, I am sure things will be better now.

If this entire blog sounds like an admission of defeat than you are right on the money. This Edmonton Oilers team is likely playing injured, not just hurt and are trying to figure out chemistry on the fly and Knoblauch quite simply is not a good coach if things aren't going well. Throwing out two of the best players in the NHL and hoping for the best has proven to be effective 90% of the time, year after year but with a gassed roster this entire team looks like they have nothing left in the tank.

I'll end with a bit of positivity; a win tonight and the Oilers are only down 2-1, a situation they have been in plenty of times before. Win both games at home and suddenly it's a best of 3. The Oilers have the horses at the top end to get that done but they need at least one or two other players to be jumping in there with them and right now we aren't seeing it.

Thanks for reading.

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