Photo credit: The Athletic
NHL Executive reveals Oilers biggest weakness in new interview
This year's playoff run for the Edmonton Oilers is clearly cup or bust. In the ninth year of McDavid's career though, some NHL executives still aren't convinced the Oilers are even a real contender.
Chris Johnston of the Athletic recently interviewed NHL executives and scouts from around the league to assess playoff teams, and the Oilers were ranked 5th among playoff teams based on their assessments. The executives raved about the Oilers star power in McDavid and their forward group as their biggest strength, but the consensus was defence and goaltending are still questionable. Specifically, the scouts mentioned a weakness in the Oilers best defence pairing. Executive 2: «The easiest way to shut down the Oilers is preventing McDavid from picking up steam in the neutral zone. The way you prevent McDavid from picking up steam is to mess with the way they do their breakouts and (defensive zone) exits. That starts with their retrievals. Ekholm, good f—ing player, but he can't make plays on his backhand and Bouchard won't retrieve the puck (in the corners).»
The anonymous scout from another team emphasized using this strategy to completely kill the Oilers ability to generate puck movement to their star players, which worked to great success. Still, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl strike feet into the heart of their opponents.
The agent: «I feel in the last 12 months he's (McDavid) become more (dialed in as a leader). Early in his career, he (McDavid) was very shy. I feel like he's just locked in right now and guys like him or MacKinnon or Patrick Mahomes or prime Tiger Woods, I just think you're at the mercy of them. He's the most terrifying player I've ever seen.
The executive's criticism of Ekholm and the Oilers is truly frightening because of how specific and public it is, and if there's any truth to it, teams will find out and use the strategy. What's reasssuring however, is that it definitely hasn't been the Los Angeles Kings using this strategy. The Oilers are officially set to take on LA in the first round of the playoffs after knocking them out for two straight seasons. Hopefully the Oilers can continue their dominance, and maybe even learn from this weakness identified in Ekholm's game.
| POLL | ||
April 19 | 526 answers NHL Executive reveals Oilers biggest weakness in new interview Have you noticed this weakness from Ekholm and the Oilers? | ||
| Yes, he can't play the puck on a backhand | 123 | 23.4 % |
| No, haven't seen it | 171 | 32.5 % |
| No truth to this at all | 161 | 30.6 % |
| See Results | 71 | 13.5 % |
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