Philip Broberg is emerging at the perfect time for the Edmonton Oilers.
Philip Broberg is emerging at the perfect time for the Edmonton Oilers.
EDMONTON -- They are down, but not out.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIVkxQS08zs[/embed]
There is plenty of time for the Edmonton Oilers to get back into their series against the Florida Panthers. They are down 1-0 in the series after a 3-0 loss on Saturday night.
Many fans are up in arms about the return of the Darnell Nurse and Cody Ceci pairing. However, I agree with Kris Knoblauch's assessment of the situation.
Knoblauch mentions the discrepancy between scoring chances against and actual goals against. According to NatStatTrick, Nurse and Ceci only had two high danger scoring chances against (HDCA). However Nurse contributed to six high danger scoring chances for (HDCF), and Ceci added to four HDCF.
Yes, the Panthers scored twice while Nurse and Ceci were on the ice. It's also true that the Oilers had more opportunities to score with them on the ice than they allowed.
Enter Philip Broberg.
Broberg had himself a great game. He had many great shifts where he escaped pressure from the Panthers and executed a clean breakout. The below tweet is one great example.
Watching this clip should give the Oilers confidence in Broberg playing more minutes. What stands out to me, is his back hand pass through traffic that lands on the tape of his teammate.
Broberg is the one player who has continually elevated his play when the competition increases. For last night's game he was on the ice for two HDCA against and five HDCF. Broberg played 17:55, which suggests he could play in a second pairing role moving forward.
The most likely move is to pair him on his off side with Nurse. This is the move that I would expect to happen for Game two.
It's not out of the realm of possibility for the pairings to get completely reconfigured. Mattias Ekholm with Ceci, Nurse with Broberg and Brett Kulak with Evan Bouchard could also be considered.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmvrMXKJDz4[/embed]
Or another radical idea, Bouchard with Broberg. They can either go with what worked before, or go with something different. One way or another, the next game should be different.
After all, what's the worst that could happen?
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