Edmonton Oilers Coach Gets Out Blender

By Kurt Leavins |

It may seem a little soon, to some, for Edmonton Oilers coach Todd McLellan to get getting out the blender with his lines and D-man combinations. After all, the team is only a single game into the brand, new NHL season. And even though it was a loss, there were lots of good signs in that Blues game.

But blend McLellan did, at practice today. He had showed surprising restraint during training camp, by (for the most part) sticking with line combinations most of the way through. And why not? After all, those games didn’t mean anything in the standings. And one of the main virtues of doing so is that McLellan has not just seen these combinations for a game or two. They have been together for a few weeks. It has been long enough to assess whether the combo’s have chemistry, and whether the lineup has balance over-all.

As we have seen with past Edmonton Oilers teams, you CAN do all of this over the first 10 games of the season. But what if the result, a poor start, is what costs you a playoff spot? And it can. Instead, by structuring things the way that he has, Todd McLellan has bought his team a 9-10 game head-start on a re-set. Whether it pays off or not remains to be seen. But you can see the method in his madness. Here’s how it looked, in Nashville today:

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FORWARDS

FIRST LINE – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Taylor Hall, Teddy Purcell. No one has seen Taylor Hall and Connor McDavid REALLY click since BioSteel camp. And when you think about it, they are very similar players. They may NOT compliment one another. Whereas Nugent-Hopkins and Hall have history. And I was unsure of 2 rookies on your #1 Line.

SECOND LINE – Connor McDavid, Benoit Pouliot, Lauri Korpikoski. Neither Pouliot nor Korpikoski are selfish players, and are good retrievers. They are also veterans, which may be very good for McDavid. Having said that, this is really a spot for a healthy Jordan Eberle. Or, until he IS back, another shooter…like Nail Yakupov.

THIRD LINE – Anton Lander, Nail Yakupov, Anton Slepyshev. We did see this European trio in training camp, and saw them good. And Todd McLellan has said that he thinks Lander and Yakupov have chemistry. I can see the logic of keeping Lander and Yakupov together, since Eberle’s return is sure to push Yak back here anyway.

FOURTH LINE – Mark Letestu, Matt Hendricks, Rob Klinkhammer. The 4th Line was really quite effective in St. Louis, and Luke Gazdic appears to have gained a half-step in the off-season. But you don’t lose much (if anything) by inserting Klinkhammer, and he needs to play, too. This is a switch I’m fine with.

DEFENCE

1ST D-PAIR – Oscar Klefbom, Justin Schultz. This pair was decent in St. Louis. The Blues are a team that could have made life miserable for Justin Schultz, but he really did hold his own. Klefbom looked like he is just back from injury, but on the other hand, you also saw glimpses of a top-pairing D-man. Glad they remain together.

2ND D-PAIR – Andrej Sekera, Mark Fayne. While these 2 veterans were far from good against the Blues, it is typical to give men of this maturity some time, and the benefit of the doubt. On paper, the pairing should work, and they may just need the reps. Again, like the consistency here.

3RD D-PAIR – Andrew Ference, Eric Gryba. Hmmm. I thought Reinhart and Gryba did very well against a big, heavy Blues team. I can’t think this is a pairing based on merit. It is more likely that Ference, like all players, needs his reps, and as a left-handed shot, would pair well with Gryba.

EXTRA PAIR – Griffin Reinhart, Brandon Davidson. At some point, Davidson needs in, too. But his spot on the 4th pairing is not quite as surprising as Reinhart’s. As I said, most of us “saw Reinhart good” in St. Louis. And neither of his penalties seemed egregious enough to warrant a benching.

EXTRA FORWARD – Luke Gazdic

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What do we read into this? Well, for one thing, it WAS just practice and the coach could just be auditioning combinations. If that could be true (and it certainly could be), then it is just as likely that the coaching staff could re-assess these new combo’s after practice, go back to the original plan, or to the drawing board for yet another new one.

Either way, we’re not seeing anything that could stick Todd McLellan with a tag that reads complacency.

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