'I always hated it': NHL expert blasts Edmonton Oilers for major tactical fail
This in from ESPN's Ray Ferraro, perhaps the sharpest commentator in hockey, his assessment of the failure of the Edmonton Oilers to cleanly move the puck out of their own end in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
On The Ray & Dregs podcast, Ferraro noted the Oilers often attempted to lob the puck out, only to lose possession in the neutral zone and have the pounding Panthers come right back at them.
'That high flip has become a tactic around the league,' Ferraro said. 'And I always hated it because we finally get the puck, and now it's like we're on the punt coverage team. Right? They flip it up, we go down, they've got the puck again. Like, why can't we pass it out? And if Edmonton's D can get back to make a first clean touch, I think their first play has got to go up the middle of the ice. You rim it around the boards, and Florida just snuffs it out. Like, (Edmonton needs to) get back quick as you can. Maybe that open spot is the middle of the ice, and that backs off their D. And if it doesn't, then you can go to the high flip.'
Ferraro added: 'But it's not easy, right? Like Florida is not going to give you any time to do it.'
1. To check the validity of Ferraro assessment I went over zone exist in the first period when the Oilers were most on their back heal against the Panthers.
Florida built up a 2-0 lead in the first period on two even strength goals, the second one coming after the Oilers failed to advance the puck, Edmonton's Mattias Ekholm whiffing on a clearance and Florida charging right back into the Oilers zone to score.
2. I looked at every time the Panthers or the Oilers gained possession of the puck when they were in their own d-zone.
If they made a clean break out play — which included any d-zone clearance that went deep into their opponent's end and gave the clearing team a chance to forecheck effectively — they got a passing grade.
If the puck was picked off in the d-zone or neutral zone leading to a quick counterattack, they got a failing grade.
3. Florida made clean exits on 26 out of 40 attempts, a success rate of 65 per cent.
4. Edmonton made clean exits on 26 out of 53 attempts, a success rate of 49 per cent.
5. That's a significant difference between the two teams. That's a major advantage for the Panthers.
In building their 2-0 lead, they relied heavily on effective counterattacks, while thwarting Edmonton's attempt at the same. This led to more offensive zone time for the Panthers and led directly to one goal.
6. So what to do?
The Oilers have seven d-men who can move the puck. But Troy Stecher struggled most to move it against Florida in Game 5.
John Klingberg is a sound passer of the puck and more creative than Stecher. The Oilers should likely go back to him.
Ekholm also had his struggles, so maybe move him back to pair up with Evan Bouchard. Darnell Nurse and Klingberg would be one other pairing, with Brett Kulak and Jake Walman rounding things out.
These d-men can all make a pass. They can all skate with the puck. They're full capable of beating the Florida forecheck, even as the checkers come in fast, hard and dirty.
Lobbing the puck out or rimming the puck around the boards didn't work will in Game 5. Not one lob or rim worked to move the puck out under possession in that key period. The play can work as a last resort, but they also fly in the face of Edmonton's strength, quick advancement of the puck to fast forwards like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
It also strikes me that Edmonton's centres might provide a bit more support in the d-zone, working with the d-men to advance it, something Florida excels at, a three-man unit pushing the puck up ice, two d-men and usually the centre helping out.
7. The key to this series is whether Edmonton's d-man puck movement can get the best of that fierce Florida. forecheck. If Edmonton can, they will launch dangerous counterattacks and be more able to dump the puck in places where Oilers forecheckers can create havoc, either winning the puck or hammering on the Florida defenders.
It's time for Edmonton to launch it's own blitz of passing, skating and hitting.
Florida is at their worst in their own defensive half of the ice. They can be exploited with stretch passes for breakaways.
Now is the time. Game 6 is the moment.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
38 minutes ago
- New York Post
Panthers manage to re-sign Brad Marchand, Aaron Ekblad after Stanley Cup triumph
The Panthers have re-signed two of their key pieces from their most recent Stanley Cup run, managing to squeeze them in under the salary cap. With the help of their state not having income tax, Florida re-signed forward Brad Marchand and defenseman Aaron Ekblad on Monday, a day before the start of NHL free agency. Marchand, 37, signed a six-year contract with a $5.25 million average annual value, while Ekblad, 29, got an eight-year contract with a $6.1 million AAV. Advertisement Ekblad, who likely could've commanded significantly more on the open market, was the No. 1 overall pick by the Panthers in the 2014 NHL Draft and has been a stalwart ever since, going from Calder Trophy winner to helping the team to back-to-back Cup wins and three straight Cup Final appearances. Aaron Ekblad lifting the Stanley Cup Getty Images The 11-year veteran, a two-time All-Star, is also the first-ever Panthers defenseman to reach 300 points in his career. Advertisement Marchand was also with one team for his entire career until the Bruins traded him during the 2024-25 season to the Panthers. The Athletic previously reported that the Bruins were interested in a reunion with Marchand if he reached free agency, and that the Maple Leafs were potential suitors. Marchand was part of the Bruins team that won the 2011 Stanley Cup in his second year in the league. And he was a huge reason the Panthers were able to repeat this season, putting up 10 goals and 10 assists in 23 playoff games. Advertisement Brad Marchand in game 5 of the Stanley Cup NHLI via Getty Images The Panthers were also able to re-sign Conn Smythe winner Sam Bennett to an eight-year, $64 million deal. The band is back together in South Florida, and a dynasty could be in the offing.
New York Times
41 minutes ago
- New York Times
Depth NHL free-agency targets: The 12 best players on the secondary market
In the flat cap era, the secondary free agent market was a robust source of talent that clever NHL teams mined systematically to flesh out their depth. Under general manager Bill Zito, of course, the Florida Panthers became the poster team for this strategy. Year after year, Zito's Panthers made a point of scooping up bought-out talent (Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Nate Schmidt, Alexander Wennberg) and aggressively targeting non-tendered restricted free agents (Anthony Duclair, Rasmus Asplund, Jesper Boqvist) in unrestricted free agency. These additions haven't always been needle-moving difference-makers for the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions, but they've filled useful roles and deepened the Panthers' lineup over the years. Advertisement The Panthers, of course, aren't the only team that's benefited from trawling the secondary market for depth value. The Dallas Stars (Sam Steel), Washington Capitals (Dylan Strome), and Boston Bruins (Morgan Geekie) are among the teams that netted surplus value with clever, bargain-bin shopping in this aisle of the free-agent supermarket. This year, the secondary market is mirroring the overall 2025 free-agent class. There were fewer buyouts in the first window this June than there regularly were during the flat cap era. With more cap space in the system, meanwhile, there were far fewer high-profile restricted free agents who didn't receive qualifying offers by Monday's deadline. The result is that this 2025 secondary market class is a shallower group than we've seen in previous seasons. That's likely to be a trend going forward in the cap growth era. There are still, however, some interesting names that will now be headed to the open market on July 1. Here are 12 of the top secondary market options for NHL teams to consider in the free-agent frenzy. The Philadelphia Flyers declined to tender 24-year-old forward Jakob Pelletier his qualifying offer ahead of Monday's deadline. A skilled playmaker and 2019 first-round pick for the Calgary Flames, Pelletier crushed the QMJHL in the two years that followed his draft season and had a successful showing for Canada at the World Junior championship in 2021. Then Pelletier turned professional and absolutely dominated the AHL level as a 20-year-old. At that point, he looked poised for future stardom. Pelletier's progress, however, has stalled over the past few seasons. Not only has Pelletier struggled to translate his production to the NHL level, he's been used sparingly at centre (his natural position). There's a real chance now that Pelletier tops out as a tweener: a dynamic AHL scorer who lacks the speed to win in transition and on the perimeter at the NHL level, and lacks the size and gumption to produce in the dirty areas of the ice. Advertisement Pelletier, however, is still young enough to have some developmental runway remaining. He'll need to be more consistent and more willing to pay the price in front of the net to stick at the NHL level, but he remains a worthwhile, affordable gamble in unrestricted free agency based on his hockey IQ and connective playmaking ability alone. Jones is a talented puck-moving, left-handed defender with some actual bite to his game, despite being somewhat undersized. Just 24 years old, he dominates at the AHL level and has been serviceable in sheltered minutes across 115 NHL games with the New York Rangers. Jones wasn't tendered his qualifying offer on Monday, so he'll be headed to the open market in search of a new opportunity this week. He's a worthwhile bet for a team that needs mobility on the back end. In fact, Jones' only real drawback is based on his profile. Jones is 5-foot-11 in a league that prizes size on the back end, and he isn't dynamic enough offensively to be a first-unit power-play quarterback on a high-end team. There just aren't many left-handed defenders playing top-four minutes around the league that aren't star offensive producers, and the exceptions — Samuel Girard and Matt Grzelcyk, for example — are standout defenders in a way that Jones hasn't proven at the NHL level in his career. Kaliyev is a one-dimensional scoring winger with a rocket of a shot. He can beat goalies clean from a distance, which is a valuable skill, but the rest of his game can be frustrating. Kaliyev is a subpar skater, below-average defensively and doesn't contribute much when he isn't scoring. He profiles as a tweener: he isn't talented enough to stick in an NHL team's top six, and doesn't have the foot speed, defensive acumen, forechecking or physicality that teams look for in a bottom-six contributor. Advertisement However, Kaliyev is young enough that he could still be worth taking a chance on. Injuries hindered him this past season, but he scored 14 goals with the Kings as a 20-year-old rookie, and 13 goals and 28 points in 56 games as a 21-year-old sophomore in 2022-23. Perhaps Kaliyev could follow a similar path to Daniel Sprong, a similar one-dimensional sniper, who scored in the 18-20 goal range for two seasons for Seattle and Detroit. Those teams leaned on him as a heavily sheltered bottom-six scorer who could help on the power play. At 38, Vlasic is no longer the shutdown beast he was in his prime. You'd have to go back to pre-pandemic times to find the last evidence of him playing competent top-four minutes. Making matters worse is that he's dealt with injuries over the last couple of years. With that said, perhaps there's still a world where Vlasic can be a depth No. 7 defender. A fresh start on a non-lottery team could rejuvenate his game. He can still kill penalties and could also be a valuable leader and mentor for younger defensemen. And his next contract will likely be so cheap that if it doesn't work out, you can always bury him in the minors without any salary-cap implications. Traded as part of the Andre Burakovsky cap dump to the Seattle Kraken, and then bought out at a one-thirds rate due to his age, Joe Veleno will hit the open market as a 6-foot-1, 201-pound center who is a very strong skater with decent defensive instincts. Veleno only has 81 career points in over 300 career NHL games, and at this stage of his career, he's unlikely to have even a middle-six offensive ceiling. Given his combination of size, athletic traits and positional versatility, however, Veleno could be an interesting, low-risk gamble for a center-needy team. It's wild how quickly Kurashev's stock fell in Chicago. After scoring 54 points in 75 games riding shotgun with Connor Bedard in 2023-24, the Blackhawks decided to shift Kurashev to center and have him lead the second line to start this season. The 2C experiment was a total failure. Kurashev looked a step behind at center; he couldn't produce offensively away from Bedard, nor could he reliably defend. Chicago later tried reuniting Kurashev with Bedard, but that didn't work either. The Blackhawks were outscored 34-14 and controlled only 41 percent of expected goals during Kurashev's five-on-five shifts. By all accounts, this was a disastrous season. Advertisement With all that said, Kurashev has shown enough flashes earlier in his career that a team could be willing to roll the dice on him as an inexpensive bottom-six winger. Klim Kostin is a big-bodied forward with real one-shot scoring skill. Despite his massive frame and deceptive finishing skill, Kostin has an inconsistent defensive motor and isn't quite as physical and assertive as he could be given his frame. In San Jose last season, Kostin battled through a lower-body injury that cost him much of the second half of the season. He wasn't tendered a qualifying offer by the Sharks, and will be able to test the open market. At the end of the day, despite the fact that Kostin hasn't managed to continue to develop after his promising stint with the Edmonton Oilers a few years ago, there aren't too many 6-foot-4, 230-pound wingers that can shoot the way Kostin can. That makes him intriguing at a low dollar amount, at the very least. Sheary has thrived as a complementary scorer for most of his career. The diminutive 5-foot-8 winger possessed the speed, energy and intelligence to complement top-six players. Before arriving in Tampa Bay, he was a consistent bet to chip in with 15ish goals and 35-40 points, with nearly all of that production at even strength. Sheary struggled after signing with the Lightning for 2023-24, scoring just 15 points in 57 games. He was waived to the AHL this past season, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's completely washed up. Sheary lit up the AHL with 61 points in 59 games — he scored 21 points more than the second-highest scoring Syracuse forward. He could be worth a cheap, one-year contract. Jacob Bernard-Docker is a right-handed, defensive-minded third pair defender. His defensive impact is legitimate and consistent, provided he's used in sheltered minutes at five-on-five. Bernard-Docker, who also has first-round draft pedigree, has the sort of profile teams are typically keen to bet heavily on. The issue, however, is that he's not especially big, not an especially high-end skater and while he's a genuinely useful defender at even strength, he's yet to really be tested or accomplished as a penalty-killing specialist. If Bernard-Docker had that penalty-killing element to his game he'd profile as a classic third-pair defensive specialist. Advertisement He's a free dart throw for a down-lineup contributor for somebody, and could pay real dividends if he can diversify his defensive game in the right situation. Yamamoto once looked like he'd be a long-term middle-six solution for the Oilers. He had a three-year stretch from 2019-20 to 2021-22 (his age 21-23 seasons), during which he scored 88 points in 160 games, translating to a 55 points per 82-game pace. Edmonton cut bait with him after a disappointing 2022-23 campaign, and he's since bounced around, including this past season, where he spent most of the year in the AHL. It's clear Yamomoto's early career production was inflated by playing with the Oilers' stars, but he has enough tools to contribute as a bottom-six forward. The 26-year-old is small, but he has slick hands, a relentless compete level, wins a surprising number of board battles at his size and has decent two-way metrics. Overall, he's a serviceable depth player who can hold his own playing up the lineup in a pinch. Pontus Holmberg is just a good, solid fourth-line center. The 26-year-old Swedish pivot has been a mainstay in Toronto's bottom six across the past three seasons, and has consistently had a solid defensive impact while pitching in only a little bit offensively in a classic fourth-line role. He's also improved somewhat year-over-year in the faceoff circle. Holmberg isn't the most physical player, but he's got prototypical size for a bottom-six center and is a strong skater. He's also a reliable two-way presence, even if he's not exactly a driver and has some legitimate offensive limitations. Teams in the market for a bargain-bin bottom-six center could do an awful lot worse than Holmberg given how the market is shaping up for July 1. At first glance, Nielsen seems an unusual inclusion for this list. He's a 25-year-old career AHLer who hasn't even produced at an elite level in the minors. However, we've watched him closely within the Canucks organization over the last few years and see the potential for him to be a diamond in the rough as a depth NHL forward. Advertisement Nielsen is a relentless ball of energy. He's fast and tenacious on the forecheck. He's only 5-foot-10, but is built thick and is a physical wrecking ball. Nielsen regularly throws thunderous open-ice hits and probably has more offensive upside than he's shown lately, too, as he was playing further down the lineup on a stacked Calder Cup-winning Abbotsford Canucks team. He has some similar qualities to Antoine Roussel, who carved out a similar against-all-odds NHL career. The Canucks are overflowing with depth forwards vying for NHL roster spots, so Nielsen never got a big-league look. But it wouldn't surprise us if he can develop into an identity fourth-liner. (Photo of Jacob Bernard-Docker and Pontus Holmberg: Timothy T. Ludwig / Imagn Images)
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Patrick Kane Stays With Red Wings On Bonus-Heavy Contract
Patrick Kane returns to the Detroit Red Wings for another year. The 36-year-old signed a one-year contract with Detroit for an average annual value of $3 million on Monday. He avoided becoming a UFA on Tuesday, July 1. Advertisement Kane can also earn up to $4 million in performance bonuses, according to Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic. That includes $2.5 million for playing 10 games, $250,000 for 30 games played, another $250,000 for 50 games played, $500,000 for making the playoffs and $250,000 each for a first-round and second-round win. Patrick Kane (Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images) This past season, Kane recorded 21 goals and 38 assists for 59 points in 72 games. It was the most points he had in a season since his 92 in 2021-22 with the Chicago Blackhawks. In 1,302 career games, Kane has 492 goals and 851 assists for 1,343 points. He also has 53 goals and 138 points in 143 playoff games. He's won the Stanley Cup three times, all with Chicago. His individual accolades including winning the Hart Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award, Art Ross Trophy, Conn Smythe Trophy and Calder Trophy. More to come.
