Oilers Takeaways: Observations midway through pre-season

Skyler McKenzie and Mark Scheifele both scored twice as the Winnipeg Jets beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-3 in pre-season action.

We all realize what pre-season records are worth, right? Well, just in case you’ve forgotten, here’s the cautionary tale:

The Edmonton Oilers went 6-2 in the pre-season last season. And you know what happened next.

So as we look at where the Oilers are at the halfway point of this pre-season — with a tidy 3-1 record — think “small picture.” Think about individual players, about particular positions. Don’t paint the record, which has three home games left before the Oilers jet to Europe on Saturday evening, over top of anything that might happen after their season opener versus New Jersey in Gothenburg, Sweden on Oct. 6.

“I would solely evaluate our team on concepts, on work, on commitment level. On the casualness versus seriousness,” head coach Todd McLellan said before the weekend. “I’ve liked the first week.”

Our take, having talked to many of these players, is that the lessons learned a year ago were not taken lightly.

“Just talking with the guys a little bit over the summer and even how we left things at the end of the year,” Connor McDavid said, “seeing how guys have come into camp and the week or two leading into camp, you can just feel the group, how motivated we are.”

Here’s a walk through camp, at the halfway point:

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Cam Talbot’s back

The best news comes from the most important position, as No. 1 goalie Cam Talbot has looked mega-sharp, absolutely focused on making sure last year was an aberration rather than a new norm for the Oilers goalie.

Many of Edmonton’s issues last season revolved around its goals against, and though team issues existed, the goalie is always going to be the biggest factor in keeping pucks out of your own net. If Talbot can get his save percentage back up to .919, that will give Edmonton a chance to make enough other things work — special teams, team defence — for a playoff run.

“I want to be better than that,” Talbot said.

A whole new level

It should not go unmentioned that McDavid appears on a personal mission here. This is his team, with his face on the end product, and he didn’t like the way last season went.

It very much appears as if he has spent a summer promising himself that the real Oilers will be the 103-point team of 2016-17, not the 78-point team of last season. He is faster, by all accounts, and smarter at age 21. And at least in the words we hear, he has taken a step as a leader.

“We know where things went wrong,” he said, “and we learned from that.”

It is entirely possible that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who can skate and who thinks the game at McDavid’s level, could help make McDavid more dangerous than he’s ever been before. That would be scary.

Mikko Leakko?

The backup goalie isn’t a big deal, everything revolves around the starter anyhow, right? So if Talbot isn’t excellent it won’t matter how the No. 2 guy plays. Correct?

Well, sort of. Here in Edmonton, the backup goalie has been a hot topic ever since cash-strapped general manager Peter Chiarelli spent $2.5 million on a one-year deal on the entirely unproven Mikko Koskinen, a 30-year-old whose only NHL experience came in four games with the Islanders some eight years ago.

Well, through two pre-season starts, Koskinen had allowed eight goals on 40 shots. That’s an .800 save percentage.

Gulp…

With perhaps one more start for Koskinen this week, and Al Montoya in the fold at $1 million, when will the Oilers start girding for Plan B by giving Montoya some prep time? Montoya requires waivers, and though it’s unlikely he gets picked up, if he’s better than Koskinen this fall will Chiarelli be forced to farm out his $2.5-million backup? Koskinen does not require waivers to go to the AHL, but that’s a moot point, with that salary.

Farming out this player would be a big pill to swallow for Chiarelli.

Right-wing power

Before camp, McLellan called all his right-wingers into a meeting, and laid down the opportunity before then. On a team that opens with 49-game vet Ty Rattie as its top line right-winger, anything is possible. So Rattie, Jesse Puljujarvi, Kailer Yamamoto, Tobias Rieder and Zack Kassian all took note.

As of this writing, Yamamoto has four pre-season goals and has outplayed every one of those hopefuls except perhaps Rattie, who looks a great fit as a finisher with McDavid and RNH, both centremen. Through four games, it seems implausible that Yamamoto — a first-year pro who turns 20 on Saturday — would require further seasoning at AHL Bakersfield. In fact, he may yet steal Rieder’s spot next to Leon Draisaitl, having the shown the ability to kill penalties along with his power-play work.

Meanwhile, Puljujarvi appears to have taken a step, giving the Oilers — at this point — three check marks on a right side that was a huge question mark heading into camp.

This position is a major weakness. If it becomes a strength, that is a major development for Edmonton.

Bouchard a Keeper?

The scales will tip on Evan Bouchard this week, and when he gets a few NHL games in the first two weeks. So far he looks like he’ll stick in the top six, but then again, so does Ethan Bear, another right-shot, offensive D-man.

We still need to see Bouchard against more NHL-laden lineups, but the reality that both he and Bear are very close to being NHL players bodes well for a blue line that dearly needs some offensive punch.

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