True, but earlier in series was more of a discrepancy, and has been as well in entirety of playoffs which is the numbers I was citing. Kulak and Desharnais are seeing upticks in usage in recent games but in the case of Desharnais that is more a problem than solution. Ceci as well has been a problem.
Its a fascinating game tonight as the question is will the Oilers top skill unravel the remaining Vegas D or will Vegas strong forcheck get to say Ceci, Desharnais, Broberg. Even Ekholm, as good as he is has had some wilting under a Knights forecheck.
Oilers need to control puck and consistently establish to win. Vegas need to front foot and have strong effective forecheck pressure to win. But Vegas possibly more tentative tonight without Pietrangelo.
Heres something I key on. Teams that have aggressive intent against us will move and win pucks that are directly in front of them. Those clubs when they play that way challenge us. But teams that see that puck in front of them and hesitate or back pedal, they will lose against us. Look for it. Its one of my reads on how confident any team is playing us. You'll recognize which it is by first period. To wit McLellans hang back strategy killed out some of the pursuit/speed strengths of his team. he essentially had a flies on rice team sit back and be stationary.
If Oilers are successful in making vegas back up a lot tonight the Oilers prevail.
I definitely like the idea of one of McDavid or Draisaitl getting regular shifts vs. Whitecloud instead of Pietrangelo. Especially when McDavid's on the verge of having a breakout game 5on5 if you believe in PDOs and such.
The way I see it, looking specifically at the impact here, here's what we're going to see:
- Ekholm gets some elevation which isn't a concern at all in my opinion as he's close to a number 1 anyways
- Kulak get a push into the 20 minutes realm, something he's done most of the season and had a good game doing so in last year's playoffs. He's also been playing his best hockey as an Oiler in the last month or so.
- Broberg is the biggest concern, but in his limited minutes, he's been decent, so here's hoping he can gobble up 12 minutes or more.
vs.
- Theodore getting some elevation which is probably fine for Vegas, though there's no debate about who's their number one between him and Pietrangelo, unlike Edmonton where there is a bit of a debate.
- Whitecloud getting elevated into top 4. He's been solid in the series, against everyone but McDrai, but now he's going to be facing one of them almost every shift.
- Hutton is a veteran but will be playing on his wrong side, or else they need to go to Brayden Pachel who has even less experience than Broberg.
The biggest concern in all of this is that the game is in Vegas, so they at least have a better chance at controlling the defensive matchups where Edmonton could get stuck non-optimal matchups defensively sometimes.
