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Edmonton Oilers: Milan Lucic Is A Perfect Bottom-6 Forward

By Warsame A

CALGARY, AB - NOVEMBER 17: Milan Lucic #27 of the Edmonton Oilers skates against the Calgary Flames during an NHL game on November 17, 2018 at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. (Photo by Gerry Thomas/NHLI via Getty Images)"n
CALGARY, AB - NOVEMBER 17: Milan Lucic #27 of the Edmonton Oilers skates against the Calgary Flames during an NHL game on November 17, 2018 at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. (Photo by Gerry Thomas/NHLI via Getty Images)"n /
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Has Milan Lucic thrived as a bottom-6 forward under the helm of the interim Edmonton Oilers head coach Ken Hitchcock? Or is their no expectations at all for him?

For the Edmonton Oilers, they have seen better days since letting go of Todd McLellan and hiring Ken Hitchcock to steer the team in the right direction. McLellan has had many issues on how to handle this team, mainly his in-game adjustments, lack of creativity on offense especially on the power play and his head-scratching line changes.

It was those inconsistencies that hurt the Edmonton Oilers last year and hampered them the first two months of the season. Some players have benefited from it like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Ty Rattie and Alex Chiasson. Those players made some leap under his tenure but not enough for them to get over the hump.

There was one player that fell off the radar under McLellan’s tenure, and that was Milan Lucic. When he arrived in Edmonton, he was known to be a 20 goal scorer with a championship pedigree. But the most important intangible he brought to the Edmonton Oilers was that he was a grinder and can help slow down a top-6 line in any given night.

Within the last three seasons with the team, his goal production and offensive consistency wholly diminished and the only thing remained was a hefty bad contract that seemed reasonable so many years ago.

What Todd McLellan couldn’t do was adjust to what he saw that was happening to Milan Lucic. But he wasn’t able to do that, and it was one of the many reasons he lost his job. But with Ken Hitchcock, Milan Lucic has been thriving as a bottom-6 grinder without having any expectations to be a 20 goal scorer he once was years ago. He has looked a lot more relaxed and focused on focusing on one task he’s good at being a disturbance to the opposing forwards.

Whatever happens with Milan Lucic moving forward under the helm of Ken Hitchcock, know that the only expectations placed on him are only to do his job and let his teammates handle the rest.

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