Edmonton Oilers: Analyzing the Carolina Hurricanes Win

The Edmonton Oilers blew out the Carolina Hurricanes 7-3 last night at Raleigh, North Carolina.

Just by looking at the 7-3 score, the Edmonton Oilers laid a massive beatdown to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday Night. It was something that wasn’t expected out of this team especially on how they have played lately.

A lot of their games have been either closely contested or ugly losses on their part. So it was refreshing to see the Oilers having this type of performance against a team that has also endured a whirlwind of a season. It’s hard to envision seeing them performing like that again because there were some circumstances at play here.

It seemed from the midway point of the second period that the Carolina Hurricanes in a sense just lost a lot of their competitive fire in the game. That was completely strange as they were in the game and kept it close for nearly 30 minutes before the Edmonton Oilers scored two more goals to keep the game out of reach.

Hurricanes goalie Scott Darling was left hanging by his defencemen all night long, and it was surprising that he wasn’t pulled by the end of the second period by his coach, that was a mistake that cost them the game.

Credit

One thing you’ll need to credit Todd McLellan and the Edmonton Oilers is the experimental lineup changes they have done the past month. Shifting Milan Lucic to the third line and having Drake Caggiula play alongside Leon Draisaitl was a huge move that paid off in this matchup against the Hurricanes.

That Draisaitl line had the most impact as both Caggiula, Draisaitl and Pontus Aberg each scored a goal and tallied up to 5 assists for the night. That right there is something to keep an eye on if the Oilers want to play that lineup again.

We can see the Edmonton Oilers maintain this aggression progressing forward on the competitive side of things. It’s hard to imagine them scoring 6 or 7 goals per game for the remainder of games they have on the schedule.

But the lineup changes they have made will need to stick to show the media and the fanbase that they are trending in the right direction. If they can show some improvement on the power play or playing consistent defense to give Cam Talbot some breathing air to do his job, the Edmonton Oilers will be just fine.

The next opponent that the Edmonton Oilers will be playing against is the Ottawa Senators on Thursday. We’ll see if they can make it two in a row.