Tag Archives: Nashville Predators

Edmonton Oilers, Edmonton Oilers Post Game Report, Fancy Stats, NHL, Walter Foddis

Post-Game Analytics: St. Louis and Nashville

After the first 2 games, I’m sure there are OIlers fans disappointed with the lack of goal production (and wins), but I want to assure the Oilers faithful that–so far–this is not the same Oilers team of previous season (or the season before that, and so forth). The team made much-needed changes to management and coaching, as well as making acquisitions such as Connor McDavid, Top-4 defenseman, Andrej Sekera, and the New York Ranger’s former backup goalie, Cam Talbot. Coach Todd McLellan is developing the team from the ground up and there will be growing pains. I believe that based on his success in San Jose and internationally, that he’s clearly demonstrated that he is a successful coach and for that reason, he’s ready to take on the task of molding a competitive team. Rebuild 3.0 (or whatever it is; I lost count) is a work in progress and despite the losses, I’m liking what I’m seeing from an analytics perspective. I also like what I’m seeing when watching the game, besides the giveaways that lead to goals.

Randomness Influences Goals & Wins

Because of randomness is a major statistical factor in NHL goal-scoring, assessing a team’s progress using goals plus shot metrics (a.k.a. Weighted Shots) is a more reliable measure of future performance. There is also significant randomness in winning any particular NHL game; with 38% being one of the widely accepted estimates. Hard to believe for the average fan, but that’s the nature of statistics. The numbers are not always intuitive, but they are what they are. I think there would be less hair-pulling among fans if they accept the reality of statistical facts then to deny or dismiss them. First fact: There is a lot of luck in winning a hockey game! Second fact: Weighted Shot (and shot attempt; a.k.a. Corsi) differentials at even-strength (5v5) are the strongest predictors of a team’s performance in the regular season, as well as the playoffs.

Of course, despite the luck factor in any single game, a team can improve their chances at winning over the long-term.  What’s the best way of doing that? Simply put, generating more shots and suppressing more shots, especially quality shots. If a team out-shoots their opponents more often than not (assuming league-average goal-tending), over time, they will win more games than they lose. The Oilers have been unable to accomplish this positive shot differential over the last 9 seasons. This season, though, we may see this shot tide turning.

Predictive Strength of Shot Metrics

Split-season analysis (i.e., using half of a season to predict the remainder of the season) has shown that shot-attempt differentials (SAT%) and Weighted Shot differentials (WghSh%) are better predictors than goal differentials. Goals are important, but because of randomness, just because a team is scoring more goals does not mean they are generating more shots than their opponents. The team could simply be getting lucky with unrealistically high shooting percentages (e.g., Calgary Flames’ shooting% last season and the Colorado Avalanche’s shooting% the season previous). Any time a team is shooting way above the mean (i.e., 8% shooting efficiency at 5v5) in any season, we can expect their shooting% to regress toward the mean the next season. We sat that with Colorado last season and Toronto the season before that. We can also expect to see that regression to the mean with Calgary this season.

With that preamble out of the way, this leads me to how I will be evaluating the Oilers progress at this early point. In this post-game analytics, I will comparing key shot metrics from the games against St. Louis (Oct. 7/15) and Nashville (Oct. 10/15) to their respective 2014/15 season series numbers. Specifically, I will compare Weighted Shots (WghSh%; 1 point for goals, 0.2 points for shot attempts); Shot Attempts (SAT%; blocked, missed, and shots on goal), Scoring Chances (SC%; as defined by war-on-ice), and High-Danger Scoring Chances (HSC%; i.e., shots from the slot area). As usual, all my data originates from war-on-ice.

[table id=17 /]

Progress?

If we look at offense (Weighted Shots – For) from both games, and compare each game to their respective 2014/15 series, we see little difference, as indicated by the progress indices. (Improvement is indicated on the Progress Index with a plus sign, both for offense and defense. Needless to say, worsening is shown with a negative sign.) On offense, it looks like nothing has changed. The defensive metric, though, shows some improvement. But this improvement is hard to grasp because the Weighted Shot figure incorporates shot attempts and goals; wherein goals are weighted 5 times more heavily than shot attempts. What does +1.4 mean? Frankly, I couldn’t tell you.

St. Louis

To help give this improvement some clarity, we need to unpack shots from goals. Thus, examining shot attempts, scoring chances, and high-danger scoring chances becomes useful.  We see that offense has improved as measured by shot attempts (SAT-For), relative to the season series, by 6.3 shot attempts/60 min. Moreover, their defense also improved by allowing 3.6 fewer shot attempts per 60 minutes. Combining these figures, we see an improvement of +4.8% in their SAT differential. That is a very good sign. If it was around 2%, let’s say, I wouldn’t be doing a happy dance unless this improvement was consistent across 20 games. But not all shots are equal. How about the quality of shots?

War-on-ice analysts have developed a refined metric of shot quality, which they refer to as Scoring Chances. The definition is quite long, so I’ll refer you to this link if you want to understand what it entails. In short, Scoring Chances have a higher chance of going in the net than simply shot attempts. Looking the progress indices, here we see that the Oilers improved both in offense (+3.6/60) and slightly on defense (+1.5/60), which results in an improved Scoring Chance differential of +5.3%.

Finally, we look at the highest quality shots; those shots that are generated from the slot. Again, if you follow the war-on-ice link above, you’ll see a diagram of the slot area. The scoring rate from the high-danger zone, if we just factor in shots on goal (excluding missed and blocked shots), is 20%! On average, a team scores on 8% of their shots on goal. This helps explain how Tampa Bay was the highest scoring team last season. They easily lead the league in shots from the slot with 25% above league-average. In generating offense, the Oilers performed slightly worse relative to the season series (-2.5 high-danger scoring chances/60). In contrast, defensively, the Oilers allowed 5 fewer high-danger scoring chances per 60 minutes.

Overall, then, the Oilers’ offense improved both in terms of shot volume and to a degree, in shot quality, except for high-danger scoring chances. Defensively, they showed improvement in all 3 shot metrics. True, in the game itself, the Blues outperformed the Oilers on all these metrics, but the upshot is that relative to their former selves, the Oilers peformed better. That’s something. Isn’t that what we ought to aspire to in life? To better our current selves relative to our past selves?

Nashville

How about the Nashville game? Again, the Weighted Shot metrics show little change to offense with a slight improvement on defense. But if we examine shot metrics, we see a different and, dare I say, optimistic story. In generating offense, the Oilers outperformed their season series on every metric: shot attempts (+4.6/60), scoring chances (+5.3/60), and high-danger scoring chances (+3/60). That’s what I expected with McLellan. In his time with the Sharks, they were not only one of the best power-play teams, they were one of the best offensive teams. (Of course, it helps to have an elite playmaker like Joe Thornton.)

How about defensively? Again, relative to last season, the Oilers improved by allowing fewer shot attempts (+6.0/60) and scoring chances (+5.6/60).  However, the Oilers did allow more high-danger scoring chances (-3.7/60).

Overall, the Oilers shot attempt differential (SAT%) improved by 4.9%, their Scoring Chance differential (SC%) improved by a whopping 11.6%, and their High-Danger Scoring Chance differential (HSC%) remained about the same (+0.3%). As a bonus, the Oilers actually won two of the shot metric battles in the game: SAT% = 52.5% and SC% = 54.3%. 52.5% is actually the playoff “magic” number. Teams who average a 52.5% shot-attempt differential have a 90% chance of making the playoffs. (Not to mean I believe the OIlers are a playoff team, but I thought this was an interesting tidbit to share.)

Summary

Despite the losses, then, I think these metrics show that the Oilers are on the right track. The everyday fan wants to see wins, which is understandable, but the solipsistic focus on wins can blind us to what is happening on the ice. What we’re seeing is that the team has performed better defensively, and importantly, independently of goaltending (more on goaltending below). They appear to be doing a better job at suppressing shot attempts and scoring chances, although they are still weak when it comes to allowing shots from the slot.

Offensively, the Oilers showed signs of improvement in both games, especially the Nashville game. McLellan seems to have a system in place that is helping them generate more offensive opportunities. If this continues, we will see the goals coming. Our bad puck luck cannot continue forever. Looking at the player stats of the Nashville game, Hall was on fire with 7 scoring chances! (5 is a high, Ovechkin-like number, so 7 is exceptional.) The McDavid/Yakupov tandem also looked good  and during their brief time together (TOI=6:23), their line had a shot-attempt differential of 66.7% (8 for; 4 against). I’m curious to see if McLellan keeps them together. I’ll be at the game in Dallas tomorrow (Oct. 13/15) and I’ll be rocking my Hall jersey. Hope to see McDavid pot his first one. That would be memorable.

Goaltending?

Analytically, goal tending is almost impossible to evaluate over a few games. Still, by the eye, Talbot has looked solid. One metric that I will be tracking is high-danger zone saves. Analysis by Stephen Burtch (unpublished; so I’m taking his word on Twitter) has shown that this save percentages from this zone are the most reliable over time. Thus, it appears to be a good indicator of goaltender ability. Against St. Louis, Talbot saved 5 of 6 high-danger shots and against Nashville, he stopped 7 of 9. Combining both games, he stopped 12 of 15 for high-danger zone save% of 80%. How did our goaltenders do last year against these teams? Scrivens and Fasth had a combined high-danger zone save% of 78.8%. A small improvement by Talbot, but as I mentioned, it’s still too early to evaluate. But even a 1% improvement is meaningful. Extrapolate that to 6 high-danger shots/game over 60 games, that’s 360 shots and saving 1.2% more of these is 4 fewer goals. For the record, Talbot’s high-danger save% last season was 86.17%, which ranked him 8th overall.

One thing I failed to mention is that St. Louis and Nashville were two of the best teams last season from the toughest division, the Central. They finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively, in the Western conference. In fact, St. Louis tied Anaheim with 109 points, but was relegated to 2nd place because of they had one fewer win, which didn’t go to shootout.  In other words, these are elite teams. If the Oilers can show improvement against the best teams in the NHL, regardless of the losses, I’m left feeling hopeful.

Thanks for reading. Please leave any comments or questions below.

Walter

Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Zach Laing

Game Two Preview: Oilers @ Predators

GAME TWO VS NASHVILLE

TALE OF THE TAPE:

Game: Edmonton Oilers (0-1-0) @ Nashville Predators (1-0-0)

Location: Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tennessee

Time: 5:00 PM MT

Where to find it: TV – CITY, FS-TN, Radio – 630 CHED

Edmonton Oilers Preview:

After suffering a tough loss in the first game of the season at the hands of the St. Louis Blues, look for the Oilers to come out strong and bounce back. Oilers Head Coach put the lines in the blender, and are giving Connor McDavid a look alongside Benoit Pouliot and Lauri Korpikoski.

For the Oilers to win tonight, they need to capitalize offensively and start the game strong – two things that didn’t happen during the Blues game. Cam Talbot starts his second game in a row, and had a fantastic debut vs the Blues, stopping 28 of 30 shots in the 3-1 loss.

The otherside:

Nashville also changed its lines at practice following a 2-1 win against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday. Calle Jarnkrok moved to the top line with Mike Ribeiro and Filip Forsberg, and James Neal skated with Cody Hodgson and Viktor Arvidsson, who scored his first NHL goal. Rinne, who made 25 saves, is expected to play again for the Predators, who don’t play back-to-back games until Oct. 31- Nov. 1. After two games at home, Nashville begins a three-game road trip Tuesday against the New Jersey Devils. – oilers.nhl.com

Line Combos c/o Daily Faceoff:

Oilers:

Taylor Hall – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Teddy Purcell
Benoit Pouliot – Connor McDavid – Lauri Korpikoski
Anton Slepyshev – Anton Lander – Nail Yakupov
Matt Hendricks – Mark Letestu – Rob Klinkhammer

Oscar Klefbom – Justin Schultz
Andrej Sekera – Mark Fayne
Andrew Ference – Eric Gryba

Cam Talbot

Preds: 

Filip Forsberg – Mike Ribeiro – James Neal
Colin Wilson – Mike Fisher – Craig Smith
Viktor Arvidsson – Cody Hodgson – Calle Jankrok
Eric Nystrom – Paul Gaustad – Gabriel Bourque

Roman Jose – Shea Weber
Mattias Eklhom – Ryan Ellis
Barret Jackman – Seth Jones

Pekka Rinne

Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Ryan Robinson

The Day After Yesterday

2 Comments

I’m going to start this off by happily exclaiming it only took ONE REGULAR SEASON GAME for McLellan to move Taylor Hall off of Connor McDavid’s wing…. ONE!

I distinctly remember pontificating upon this in my Edmonton Oilers Season Primer.

I’ve got a bone to pick off the bat here. Taylor Hall and Connor McDavid do not have any chemistry and they should end this little experiment. Nail Yakupov had more goals assisted on than Hall did in preseason and they were on completely separate lines. Hall can’t even keep up with McDavid on the ice. 97 is way ahead of him all the time but then again in Hall’s defence (which I’m rarely speaking in) he’s way ahead of everyone but the difference being Hall is supposed to be on the same wave length given the amount of time the coaching staff have had them together for.

I guess the Oilers Head Coach has been watching the same games I have, and in a more specific manner I talk about it here:

How long until we see Hall reunited with Nuge and Ebs? I’d say sooner than later, especially if Hall doesn’t produce right away. Sorry I’m kind of all over the place here.

Of course Eberle is still hurt but when he comes back he’ll be reunited with Hall and Nuge.

Now it all seriousness I didn’t expect it to take a single regular season game for the two to get separated, I thought Todd McLellan would’ve given them at least a week but the Oilers were eaten alive in the possession department last night which wasn’t a surprise.

Here’s a quote from McLellan after today’s practise:

“In particular, I’m not sure that Taylor and Connor have connected real well, even throughout the exhibition season,” says McLellan.  The two have combined for just one goal in their games together so far, with Hall tallying in the pre-season against Vancouver

Let’s check out a War-On-Ice chart or two from last night’s game.

For the purpose of possession the red boxes are bad and the Blue ones are good.
Here’s how the Blues fared against the Oilers in the possession game.

The Blues really took the Oilers to task after the first period and who’s kidding who? Everyone expected this to happen. I was however a tad surprised that the Oilers didn’t score a single goal on their own. Their only tally came off an own goal bank shot even Mike Massey would’ve been proud of. I thought with Brian Elliott in net they would’ve gotten at least one.

Friend of the blog Ryan Robinson (@ryandlace) released another of his Oilers Vlogs wherein he touches on a few things from last night’s game including Teddy Purcell. I completely agree with Mr. Robinson in his assessment of TP, butter soft and well deserving of the Golden Plunger award.

I was listening to the Oct.5th episode of Oilers Now! when frequent caller and uber Oilers fan K-Jam called in and asked this question:

K-Jam: Do you think the Oilers would be listening if there were people calling about Purcell or Fayne? Do you think that would be of high interest to the Oilers?

Stauffer: I certainly think they’d be listening if someone called about Purcell at this stage

That’s a pretty big tell from Stauffer in my opinion. He leaves Fayne out of his response but includes Purcell. This is one of Bob Stauffer’s ways of letting things out without actually saying them directly. Don’t try to rack your brain as to who would take the maritimer off the Oilers hands. Purcell’s ticket is way to big and the snails that live in my garden move faster than him. But Bobby Stauff works for the team and has his ears to the ground, so if you ever want to know what the Oilers “might” be thinking of doing or who they “could” be interested in; listen to Oilers Now! and try catch on the little subtleties.

Skip ahead to 15:00 to listen to the conversation between K-Jam and Stauffer below.

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Personally I was pleased with the team’s effort. I was jacked with the performance of the 4th line though and if you go back up and look at the charts from War-On-Ice you’ll see they dominated their opponents in the possession game. The caveat being the Blues 4th line might not be that great…

I’m looking forward to tomorrow night’s game vs. the Predators as I’m hopeful for another consistent high energy game from the Oilers. Do I think they’ll win? That’s a tough call. Maybe Pekka Rinne will get hurt or Shea Weber will trip over his own beard. One thing is for sure, Connor McDavid and the boys have their work cut out for them…

-BLH (@beerleagueheroe)

The Beer League Heroes Merch Shop is still offering some SWEET shirts, take a moment to browse what we have to offer. Surely there’s something there for yourself or a loved one. I know recently our customers have been all over the kid’s shirts with the 97C design on the front. It’s a cute option and a great way to show off one’s love for vintage hockey; not only that but it’s one of the few shirt options that come in the new Oilers 3rd jersey color, the other being our long-sleeve shirts.

Edmonton Oilers, Merch, NHL, Prospects, Rob Cooke, Rumors

Oilers Firsts.

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There are seventeen days between now and the official opening of the 2015/16 season. The young stars tournament held annually in Penticton to me are when things really start to get exciting. This is our first chance to see some of these budding young players in actual games with physical contact. More importantly this is the first time we will get to see Connor McDavid play against someone other than his own teammates in a non-contact game. While I am not discounting his 5 goal performance in the Billy Moores cup it was just a prospect game which obviously presents little in the way of a challenge for Connor.

Thinking about Penticton and all the excitement that will surround the bustling little city gets me to thinking of all the Oilers firsts that we are going to witness this coming season, both for young McJesus and the Oilers in general. The first goal of the season, the first multi-point and multi-goal games of the year. The first time we see hats rain from the sky in celebration. The first pugilistic event of the season, good or bad it’s going to happen soon enough people. The first time the boys bring home the clean sheet and how long into the season will we be forced to wait to see the boys in blue victorious? One final thought I just had, hopefully not the final one ever by the way, was will the Oilers be the first team in NHL history to have four 1st overall picks score for one team in one game? Wouldn’t that be something to see!

That’s a lot of season highlights and they could all happen within the first two to three weeks of the season if things break right finally for these boys. With all the excitement that this train of thought is giving to Oilers fans the world over it is time to make some predictions. I want to hear from as many of you as possible too. Let’s all make our best guesses o all the topics above. The prize will be nothing more than bragging rights but you will get to hold your head high knowing that you somehow pulled a guess out of your ass that actually turned out to be true. I know if I am right I plan to laud it over everyone for as long as I possibly can and if not then I will erase all trace of this conversation having taken place and vehemently deny any and all predictions.

With that being said let’s get down to business and start with the guessing.

First goal of the season/ first goal for Connor McDavid

The first goal of the season will come in St. Louis on October 8th. I think everyone knows that by now. If you don’t then what the hell man? You really need to straighten out your priorities! As you can see I added in McDavid’s first goal as well because 95% of the excitement this off-season is directly related to this amazing young man. And now for the official proclamation, (drumroll please) the player that will score the first goal of the 2015/16 season for the Edmonton Oilers will be…..

The crowd won’t obviously go wild and bras won’t rain from the sky for our very own baby Nuge when he lights the lamp midway through the first period in the Scottrade center. That will unfortunately have to wait a week until the very same Blues will visit Rexall to open the final season of the old barn. Young Connor will light the lamp for his first goal of the season in his second game as a pro. He will score a highlight reel beauty streaking off the wing to beat Rinne. Yeah I know that is a pretty detailed prediction but this is the big leagues folks and if you wanna play with the big boys its time to put on your big boy undies, yeah the ones your mom laid out will be fine, and get to guessing!

 

The first multi-point and multi-goal games of the season/ McDavid as well.

There is an immense amount of talent in the Oilers top six, hell there was a lot before we added Connor. The phenom just pushed us even higher. Obviously with that amount of firepower it will be a little harder to accurately predict who will be the first to register a two or more point game and a two or more goal performance. Since there is a fairly decent chance that these both don’t occur on the same night we will make separate guesstimates for both. The first player to record a multi-point game will be…

Again the award goes the Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. The first multi-point game of the season will in fact be the season opener in St. Louis. Nugey will contribute a goal in the first period as we already determined but he will add an assist on a Jordan Eberle third period goal as well to take the honors. Connor will have his first two point night against Dallas in the 3rd game of the season.

The first player to score more than one goal is something altogether different and I really don’t see this one going to RNH. Nuge is more of a playmaker than a sniper and because of that he will prefer to pass the puck more often than not. The winner of the award for first multi-goal game goes to….

Hallsy is still our best offensive weapon for the coming season and adding McDavid as his center is only going to take the speedster to new heights. It won’t take very long for Hall to bulge the twine on more than one occasion in a game. I’m guessing that he completes the task in Dallas against the Stars on the 13th of October. Dallas bled goals last season and with relatively the same D-corps and same starting netminder could see the trend continue this year. Dallas’ saving grace is that for as badly as they give up goals they are also able to find the back of the net more often than nearly any team in the league. Hall will score twice that night and both will be off of passes from Connor McDavid. Goals are obviously a tad bit harder to come by than assists in the NHL so it will be a little longer before Connor is able to see the red light go on twice or more in a game. Although I don’t think that he will have to wait that long and will manage to accomplish the feat in the Battle of Alberta game on the 17th of October.

 

First Hattrick of the season

The first time that the heavens will open up and hats will pour from the sky will be a truly glorious event to behold for the thousands in attendance and the hundreds of thousands if not millions watching on television at home. Should it occur on home ice you can guarantee a delay in the game while all the errant hats are rounded up and removed from the ice. Even on the road most other teams fans realize how special a three goal performance is and will generally litter the ice with more than a few sun blockers. How long will we be forced to wait to see this wonderous occurrence? Well if my guess is right it shouldn’t take that long at all! The first player to record a three goal game will be…

 

The first time that we will see hats raining from the sky will in fact by off of the stick of our young saviour Connor McDavid. Not only will the future of the franchise be the first to score a hattrick this season, which is wonderful news in itself, but he will do so in his first multi-goal game of the season too! That’s right folks. I predict that the first time we see the threepeat will be on the 17th of October live on CBC Hockey Night in Canada against the hated Flames. Calgary has been our most hated rival for virtually the entire time that the Oilers have been in the league and it usually means that the players are even more amped up to play than normal. Connor in a normal game will be a formidable player to watch but when he elevates his game to compete in the BOA he will be virtually unstoppable. Good news for Edmonton fans, not so good for Dougie Hamilton and Mark Giordano.

 

The First Fight/ Will McDavid fight?

The first fight of the season isn’t included as an important seasonal milestone as the rest we are discussing but this is still a contact sport and sooner or later tempers will flair and fists will fly. The only question is how many games it is going to take before we have a couple willing combatants? My guess for the player to drop the gloves and earn a 5 minute trip to the sin bin is going to be…

Matt Hendricks. We all know and love the guy for what he brings to this team and he seems to be a very well-respected vet by the younger guys on the team. Hendy is never going to be a dynamic offensive dynamo but what he does bring is a willingness to do all the little things and the work ethic to handle the tougher zone starts. Another great thing about Hendricks is his willingness to stand up for his teammates. He will definitely be the first guy to come to the defense of his team and I think we will see him drop his mitts if not against the Flames then on the very next night against the loathsome Vancouver Canucks. Will McDavid fight this coming season? I really doubt it, I m fairly certain he will be under fairly strict instructions to keep his gloves on and let others handle the physical violence when it is needed.

 

First shut-out of the season?

We have a new starting goalie this year in all likelihood. Cam Talbot is basically being gifted the job barring a horrendous camp from him or an absolutely amazing one from either Scrivens or Nillson. Smart money is that we will be seeing the ghostbuster mask belonging to Talbot in between the pipes far more often than the other two goalies combined. Even then just because you are getting the majority of the starts doesn’t necessarily mean that he will be the first to record a perfect game. The first goalie to record a shut-out this season will be…

Just kidding! There is pretty much no possible way that the first shut-out isn’t going to Cam. He is hopefully the future in goal for the Oilers and will want to establish himself as a bona fide starter sooner rather than later. My prediction is that his first one will come against the Detroit Red Wings on October 21st. Seeing as it will be only the second home game of the season after five out of the first six games are on the road should make for a very raucous crowd and a great time for Cam to show what he has to the Oilers faithful.

First win of the season?

Last season the Oilers played and lost the first five games of the season. They could only manage to earn one point out of the possible ten. A rough start to be sure but after the first five game skid the Oil managed to put together a fairly successful little streak winning the next four straight to nearly end the month of October. Edmonton only managed a 4-5-0-1 record in October last season and didn’t earn a win against a Western conference team until December 7th against Todd McLellan and his former team the San Jose Sharks. Not exactly awe-inspiring now is it. For the Oilers to show that they are a much improved team and that they will not again be the basement dwelling team that was nearly unable to beat any teams in their own conference they will need to set the tone early and what better way to do that then to walk into Scottrade Center in St. Louis on opening night and leave with their first two points of the season? That is right peeps, I am predicting that Edmonton, on the strength of the aforementioned RNH two point game, will slay the dragon right out of the gates and not only win their first game but do so against one of the big baddies from the West that they had so much trouble with in seasons past. Edmonton wins the game 3 to 1.

 

Will all four first overall picks score in one game?

I am not 100% positive but I am reasonably certain this would be an accomplishment that has never occurred in the NHL before. How cool would it be to see all four of these young stars light the lamp in one game? If it happened at home the roof would come off of Rexall in a quick hurry I can guarantee you that! The odds of something like this happening have to be fairly long. I can’t imagine a lot of people contacting Vegas to lay money down on a long shot like this. I completely agree that there is a better than good chance that this doesn’t happen. Not only this year but ever, but what kind of predictions would these be if I didn’t at least make a guess on the subject. My guess is that the Oilers will light up the Maple Leafs on November 30th in Toronto and show Leafs Nation exactly what they are missing by not having Connor. Couldn’t happen to a better group of fans! Leafs fans have always considered themselves the center of the hockey universe so what better place to make history than right there in the ACC.

I want to see your predictions now people. Who will score the first goal of the season? When Will Connor score his first? First multi-point and multi-goal games? For Connor? First fight, first shut-out and first win for the team? Let me know what you think in the comments. Hit me up on twitter, @cooke_rob, and send me your answers. I want to hear from you!

Be sure to check out Cooke Designs for the latest in Oilers designs and products and let me know if there is any special requests or issues that you have. If you have ordered from the store please tweet me a picture with your fresh new gear!

 

Cheers

Rob