The Oilers Are Getting Something They've Been Missing...

There are a lot of things to look forward to when talking about the Edmonton Oilers, whether that's Devin Levi looking to be a true number one starter or Connor McDavid in that top line continuing to dominate at 5-on-5, or perhaps just the Oilers getting some much-needed help from a few players returning from injured reserve. Welcome back to Oilers Digest. I am your host, Joseph Greco, and in today's video, we're going to be looking at yesterday's performance from the Edmonton Oilers, and in particular, Devin Levi, who delivered his best outing as an Edmonton order as the Oilers collected a 4-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings as we can see here although they scored four goals to one the Oilers were chasing a lot of the game they did limit the amount of high danger shots that Devin Levi faced but I do believe that Devin Levi was the story of this game 39 saves on 40 shots he that even that one goal that was allowed it wasn't even his fault McDavid and Draisaitl failed to clear the puck and a miscommunication at the blue line resulted and the LA Kings scoring a goal their one and only goal on the night but Devin Levi was incredible Evan Bouchard again on the score sheet Connor McDavid continuing to dominate and as we can see here not much in terms of point total from anyone else outside of that top line the top line literally did everything McDavid drives the goals in and obviously Evan Bouchard with his contributions as well another typical night for the Oilers which is heavy reliance on that top line and as I mentioned they did win four to one but the game itself wasn't as pretty as it has been in the last few games i thought the oilers were heavily outshot by the los angeles kings which is not ideal considering how lackluster the king's offense is when you look at their forward group as well as a lot of their point totals in the last few seasons but the la kings were looking for their first regular season win this year and ultimately they did not get that taking a look at devin levi stats here again just incredible last night against the la kings again 39 shots on sorry 39 saves on 40 shots it was his best performance yet as we can see here since that game against the LA sorry the Vancouver Canucks he has progressively gotten better and better which is something that is a little foreign when it comes to Oilers goaltending especially when you look at Tristan Jarry who's someone who has shown consistent regression in net you look at Devin Levi who's earning his confidence sorry gaining his confidence and earning the trust of his coaching staff and his defensive teammates obviously 31 shots against the Anaheim Ducks and the team gave up 40 shots against the LA Kings so that is a little bit of an underlying issue I would say at the moment for the Oilers giving up too many shots to weaker level of opponents especially when you look at the Los Angeles Kings Devin Levi did his job he made a lot of saves for the Oilers last night I thought his rebound control was the best we've seen up to this point but still needs a little bit of work I think Devin Levi needs to kind of settle down sometimes he's a little too sporadic for someone of his size considering he's a little bit he's six feet but he's still a little smaller than the typical goalie so there's a lot more to compensate when you overreach or over commit to a play or lose control of a rebound but obviously Devin Levi gives a lot of credit to his teammates indicating that he felt that the team did a very good job of boxing out and there was not many tips on any screen shots so they gave him a great lane to see the puck and obviously I do agree with Devin Levi I felt like despite the shot total being 40 shots on goal for the LA Kings I felt like not a lot of those shots were extreme high dangerous chances and a lot of them were kept to the outside from the blue line or outside of his crease so a lot of easy saves made for Devin Levi in that regard but again sometimes we would see goaltenders in an Oilers uniform failed to make the easy saves and give up five goals on 40 shots so a very encouraging sign from Devin Levi I've been very impressed by his play and I feel like if he continues to build confidence you know he I said it before the season started I think it'll be his net in Edmonton and I I do feel as though he they haven't really been tested by a tough opponent I think their toughest test is going to be coming later this week against the Utah Mammoth which we will get into but obviously Connor McDavid believes that Devin Levi did a good job holding them in there because after the first period the Oilers looked a little flat the game didn't get away from them they because of the fact that they didn't give up any high danger chances but the Oilers failed to really sustain any offensive zone time and get any extreme scoring threats after that first period in my opinion so something to monitor for the Oilers something to improve on obviously again still a lot of time left to develop and grow within the season I think for Devon Levi moving forward he just needs to try and continue to track the puck through traffic obviously he's a little bit of an undersized goalie it is something that he's going to have to continue to improve on I think it's a matter of understanding how to direct his rebounds a little better I think his rebound control as I mentioned was better yesterday but still needs a little bit of work I think it's a matter of when you give up those rebounds you want to try and get them into the corners make it easier for your defense to kind of just clear it out of the zone as opposed to allowing second chance opportunities and obviously as i touched on already it's just a matter of resetting for the next chance so if you do give up that rebound or if you overcommit your reach and you're too sporadic as we've seen him be at times it's just a matter of resetting and getting calm and composed again but again Devon Levi full credit to him very impressive performance yesterday i think he is one of the reasons as to why the Oilers won and this has been a familiar story when he's in net where he's giving the team a chance to kind of just go out there score two three goals and walk away with a win which is something that unfortunately the Oilers haven't had in net in the last few seasons now alongside Devon Levi was yet another Connor McDavid night where he drives his offense and he drives that top line to a win Connor McDavid has been incredible to start the season I mean you're talking about a player who night in and night out is collecting three four points a night obviously yesterday we saw an impressive four-point game plus twos that's another underrated aspect of his game he has only been on for i believe one five on five goal against all season long and he's just been unlocked a new level uh Bob Stauffer touched on the fact that he seems a lot more happy and content with the team and the energy surrounding the locker room so he's playing it like he's a little more loose a little more free and a lot more confident i really like i do believe that this is going to be a record year for Connor McDavid obviously maintaining a four-point night every single night is not very sustainable but if we look at what he's done so far early in the season him getting two to two or one points feels like it's like a quiet night at this point so three four or five points a night from Connor McDavid is pretty much what the expectation is as I mentioned when he gets those one two point nights it almost feels like what happened to McDavid tonight he didn't really produce but this guy's flying he's unlocked a new level of his game which is crazy to say considering we're talking about the best player in the world and how he's now unlocked a new level of his game just pure dominance to start the season and he's just embracing and making everyone around him better obviously put Coles in another two goal night obviously scoring on that empty net and getting credited with the game-winning goal against the LA Kings yesterday so put Coles is another player who's continued to just rock for the Edmonton Oilers again I touched on in my previous videos you got this guy for dirt cheap he's under three million dollars for the next two or three seasons and obviously that trade against the Canucks is certainly looking to benefit the Oilers at this point in time so let's hope he can maintain that going forward but I think a big storyline from yesterday is the matter of the fact that the Oilers are going to need a little more from the bottom six in order to really maintain this win streak and this confidence level going forward I think it's just a matter of the top line has been doing a lot of the heavy lifting and the bottom lines especially that third line in my opinion I think the third line has really been struggling as of late I think we do need to see goals I don't expect the fourth line to go out there and score every single night and I do understand that the current second line is most likely the third line uh obviously we're waiting for Nugent Hopkins Hyman Savoy to return which would presumably make that second line but I thought Hollander had a good game yesterday and other than that from depth you know I thought Trent Frederick didn't get enough minutes yesterday um I thought again Matthew Joseph contributing in terms of not point totals he's doing his job on the ice but we need to see some points some goals from that bottom six I think it's just a matter of you do need goals from them you can't just always rely on that top line because they have yet to really play an extreme tough opponent where you know you'll see a game where the top lines cancel each other out and you rely on your depth scoring so I think we do need to see some depth scoring but they at the end of the day the Oilers have just been doing their job they've been doing an excellent job protecting the lead when they have it as we can see here when leading the Oilers are 4-0-1 when tied they're 1-0-1 and obviously they have not even been really trailing too much to speak but when they do they pretty much score every single time instantly as we've seen since last season so I think for the Oilers it's just a matter of finding a way to get contributions from your bottom six and obviously Mike Babcock does believe that there's certainly room to improve indicating that he didn't think at any time last night that they were fantastic he just thought that they did their job and they took the opportunities that were there but I think as I mentioned we need to see a little bit more offensive zone shifts from that bottom six I think the other night when we saw Dickinson's line kind to get a good offensive shift and that immediately resulted in the Oilers scoring once that top line came on so i think we need to see more of that work even if you're not getting the points you need to see that second third fourth line get some heavy offensive zone time make the defense work get that change or get McDavid Draisaitl put goals and literally flying off the boards and then it's going to most likely result in a goal more often than not so i think again even if the goals and assists and points aren't coming just good offensive zone shifts are you really making the defense work and the goaltender work I think it's just a matter of pressure pressure pressure and then that opens up things for the top line and obviously just again you do just want to see some contributions from your bottom six so that is something to monitor obviously taking a look here at the playoff picture right now the Oilers would be versus the Seattle Kraken way too early to say playoff picture but obviously standings wise the Oilers are in a good position here five game win streak 11 points outside of that one ugly home opener against the Vancouver Canucks and that following game the Oilers have been really really solid I think under Mike Babcock and good news is they've been doing it while injured and so now they're going to be having some injury returns coming in to help strengthen the depth especially as I mentioned that second line I mentioned in my last video yesterday that I thought it sounded like Zach Hyman was going to play against the LA Kings moments before the game or a couple hours before the game Mike Babcock said yeah he's not good to go but he's going to be going on Thursday so expectations this time are Hyman tomorrow I think it's just a matter of that the Oilers have put themselves in a position where they don't need to rush back um in order to get players in the lineup and I think that's just what they did with Hyman they didn't feel the need to rush him back get him back in a home game potentially on Thursday so Hyman looks like he's gonna return Thursday Nugent Hopkins doc Savoy and Yamark have been skating but those return dates remain up in the air as I mentioned We've got Utah on the calendar next, an extremely high offensive team with some great young talent, Keller, Cooley, Gunther, Sergachev on the back end They added Wieger, some solid goaltending, and Vemelka So a well-rounded team, well-coached team. They're coming off a victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs last night where they held a late push from the Maple Leafs. So two games, a home-and-home First tomorrow, they'll be at home in Edmonton and then they'll be on the road on Saturday against the Mammoth so looking to try and at least get one of the next two games against the Utah Mammoth try and keep yourself in a good spot in the standings and just keep momentum rolling if you're the Edmonton Oilers but that's all I have for you guys in today's video hopefully we have a few returning Oilers tomorrow in the lineup but that remains to be seen and who is in that that also remains to be seen I do believe Tristan Jari should be getting one of these next two games just to see where he is at after that win against the Sharks last weekend so that's all I have for you guys in today's video make sure if you enjoyed it give it a thumbs up subscribe if you're new and I'll catch you in the next video. Toodles!