chychrun's ice time went up a minute, while oel's icetime went down two minutes. oesterle's ice time went up a minute. goligoski's icetime remained unchanged.
from this i deduce not only that the coaches thought chychrun played better, but that they though oel played less well.
given oel is the captain and has seniority rights to the pp, one might speculate they went easy on him.
What did the NHL schedule look like last season? Was it nice and spaced out? Lots of off days and practice time? Or do you think teams tried to spread things out and keep guys fresh?
Chychrun got to play with Goligoski who has a high hockey IQ but can also actually skate with and without the puck and can actually pass the puck. He contributes. He’s far from dead weight.
And what about OEL’s partners? Jason Demers absolutely fell off a cliff in terms of effectiveness. He’s not an NHLer. Not even close. He was horrendous.
The other was Ilya Lyubushkin who is a fine 3rd pairing D and cycle buster. He falls to pieces with the puck on his stick, and apart from chipping it out, he can’t move the thing even a little.
Even Nik Hjalmarsson just gave up last season. Just went through the motions and is now going to retire. Has major personal issues going on and could not have cared less about playing hockey for the Coyotes. Completely checked out.
All of this is to say one thing: If you’re basing your opinion of OEL on his ice time, rather than watching his team play games, your opinion of OEL just isn’t worth much.