Veteran Oiler d-men at heart of worrisome trend

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To get the Edmonton Oilers to win the Stanley Cup, they need almost every player from the bottom of the roster to improve the trend and at least bring their B-games, if not their A-games.

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This didn’t happen last playoff season, mainly due to injuries to key players such as Leon Draisaitl, Nurse Darnell and Evander Kane. As the playoffs progressed, the performance of these major players fell, which could have given the Oilers a Stanley Cup victory.

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This year, the Oilers are a pool team that has entered the last three weeks of the regular season. Players still have time to heal and fight better. There is still time for the dive players to catch the ball.

This rehabilitation and performance shift is crucial to the Oilers, which makes me two important veterans, Mattias Ekholm and Brett Kulak. They have been casting people lately, and Ekholm must be due to illness and injury.

Last year, Ekholm played hockey in the playoffs and played at high level this season until he was hit by illness and injuries in late January and early February. Since then, he has been in and out of the roster due to injury. His drama slumped sharply. He fought much faster throughout the ice. His contribution to the attack was provided little.

Kulak’s depression is even more mysterious, with no reports of injury, but he has stood out in a lot since mid-January.

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Kulak was a playoff performer for three consecutive years, playing the best hockey at the time, but for the past two and a half months he has been leaking Class A shots and has caused less offense in the offense.

Since 2010-11, Hockey Worship has made video reviews on all Class A shots of oilers and dealing with oilers.

This year, Kulak has made a solid start in this, especially on defense. If D-Man makes only one mistake per game, resulting in a uniform A-level goal, he will play a great defensive hockey. We’ve seen high-level defensive performances from a few seasons like Adam Larsson and Kris Russell.

In his first 46 games, Kulak had only 1.25 mistakes per game (even 15 minutes of strength). That’s fine. He and Ty Emberson are a solid, reliable pairing.

But in his last 27 games, Kulak made 2.24 mistakes per game. Any D-Man makes more than two mistakes in each game struggles defensively.

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Ekholm has 2.32 errors in each of his last 12 games (since being sick and injured).

In other words, two formerly reliable oil D-Men are now leaking, such as sinking ship defense. Their crimes are also especially Ekholm.

not good. Not even close to good.

Edmonton needs these two guys to play well in April, May and June. If that didn’t happen, the chances of winning the cup were greatly reduced.

But there is hope. As mentioned, the nurses last season were poor in the playoffs, mainly due to injuries. He played the best hockey this year. He is doing better, moving the puck faster, hitting the puck, not running much. Yes, he still lingers at times, but he locks it, kicks it off in that rocking chair, and usually dominates his opposition. Not surprisingly, starting from last playoff season, the Nurse’s Class A shots per game have risen, from -1.51 and even Class A full-level A shots per game in the playoffs to +0.03 this year.

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During their downturn, Ekholm had -1.44 per game and Kulak was -1.12 per game.

The nurse turned around while in a healthy state and apparently he gained a deeper understanding of how to make the most of his talent stack in the game.

I suspect that all Ekholm needs are healthy. I also doubt Kulak will have a solid partner in third place, and he will also do his best in the playoffs.

Still, I’m worried here. The Nurse’s game was a major limiting factor in last playoff season. Edmonton has struggled to overcome any repetition of multiple players, especially key players.

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