Last minute Oilers News, reports, updates heading into Oilers Vs. Flyers

The Edmonton Oilers have announced a few injury updates including one update regarding Matt Savoy and what his return plan could look like once he starts to get healthy as well as Tristan Jarry getting the nod in net for the Oilers tonight against the Philadelphia Flyers as he looks to keep things rolling after a few impressive starts. Welcome back to Oilers Digest I'm your host Joseph Greco and in today's video we're going to be looking at tonight's game against the Flyers but before we get into that we got a few injury updates from Mike Babcock to the media Just a moment ago and one surrounding Matt Savoy and his potential return plan. He spoke to Bob Stauffer and the rest of the media and indicated that Matt Savoy is going to need a few games in the minors and then he will be recalled and will be full time with the Oilers. I think a lot of people immediately overreacted to this. I don't think it's that surprising. He missed the entire offseason, the entire preseason. He's a young player. So this is something that you typically see from young players. You take advantage of the ability to kind of let them Get a few games in the minors for conditioning, get back to speed, and then you see him get called back up. So nothing too concerning there. It is finally positive to see some news surrounding Matt Savoy and when he is expected to be back, or at least an idea of what things could look like. So now we know. He's not going to be in the lineup right away. We did get the original idea from Stan Bowman that it would be mid-November, and then Babcock said end of November. So today is November 11th. We are approaching that mid-to-end November area. We have yet to really receive a return update regarding Matt Savoy. In fact, Mike Babcock says he asks himself the same question every day. He'd like to see Matt Savoy on the ice, but he has yet to receive any clarity surrounding Matt Savoy, which is not ideal considering, as a head coach, You should be receiving some summer Communication regarding a player who's certainly going to be in your top nine, a player who's going to certainly be on your penalty kill units, and you don't have any updates. I'm not sure I fully buy into that. It would be nice to have a little bit of clarity and honesty. This is something that the Oilers have done all season long. We're not getting clear injury updates or a consistent message. And then he added saying, you know, the coach has nothing to do with the return dates, they told me. As the head coach, again, you should know when players are coming back. All in all, very positive to see the fact that they at least have a plan in motion for when he returns. But we don't know when, we don't know what he's, is he skating on his own? We have no news surrounding that, which is somewhat disappointing. And again, we're looking at a player who certainly adds value to the Oilers lineup. 18 goals last season, 37 points, a plus six in all 82 games. But specifically when you look February onwards after that Olympic break. He looked to be real comfortable and confident in the National Hockey League, really started to string together some consistent games. And he is someone who is going to add some depth scoring to a lineup that is in desperate need of guys outside of Draisaitl and McDavid to start potting in some goals. So scored 18 last year. He'll come back, and if he could produce similar, despite the fact that he missed a lot of games, that is a huge add, especially considering this is a guy who at 5-on-5, undoubtedly. The team scores more goals when he's on the ice at 5-on-5, and 5-on-5 scoring has been a little bit up and down for the Oilers so far this season. Now, quickly before we continue on, we also did get some updates in the last few days regarding Janmark and Frederick Anderson. So, first of all, Matthias Janmark was skating. at practice the last few days and he's been skating as a defenseman as opposed to a forward. That's typically what you see when guys are a little bit ways away, but they're able to kind of compete and still play in practice. So some good news surrounding Matthias Janmark and then some news regarding Frederick Anderson. Seems like there's no update timetable. Haven't even discussed a return for Frederick Anderson yet, which all in all is not surprising. I said all offseason that we might not even see this guy really play for the Oilers until as it gets closer to the playoffs. Still don't fully understand the signing, but I guess it was a good fallback option if they thought Jari and Devin Levi would not work. I just think reaching for an injury-prone goaltender like Frederick Anderson might not have been the best idea, but no harm, no foul. He's just sitting around doing really nothing at home. Moving on, we have some updates regarding tonight's lineup against the Philadelphia Flyers, including Colton Dock, expected to make his return to the lineup after missing a few games due to an illness. Additionally, it looks like Connor Murphy missed the practice the other day, will be in the lineup tonight against the Flyers. So let's take a look at what the lines could look like. Obviously, at this time, we do not have full clarification regarding whether or not Jake Wallman will be in the lineup. Considering he was in Connor Murphy's spot at practice yesterday, I would assume the fact that Connor Murphy, who is good to go tonight, will be taking his usual spot in the top four right shot, and we will see. Jake Wallman, yet again, another scratch, healthy scratch. Once again, not ideal for Jake Wallman or the Oilers organization's first year of a $7 million deal. It's getting harder to justify playing him. It's getting harder to watch him play. And if that's a contract you want to move, considering the fact he's been healthy scratched so many times in such a short span of games, you really make it impossible to start to move off him. But taking a look at the overall depth of the team. Doc Dickinson and Frederick, I like that line. I like that dynamic. Colton Doc and Frederick can certainly start to bring a little bit of energy to that third line. You hope Dickinson can kind of start to find a little more consistency in his game down the middle, win some key draws. Frederick, try and use his size. Obviously, for Trent Frederick, he could use this as an opportunity to... showcase himself and bring his value because in my opinion, Trent Frederick is getting a top nine look for one reason and one reason only, and that is for the case of showcasing himself and earning a spot in the lineup. So as of right now, only one goal and one point on the season. And if you take a look at Trent Frederick's minutes, it has been lackluster to say the least at sometimes getting five to six minutes per game, a high of nine minutes a game in that. On that fourth line and then sometimes being a healthy scratch and I thought we have seen moments where Trent Frederick looks to be finding his game, being physical, being physically engaged, you know, certainly compared to last year I do like where he's shooting from shooting a lot more within around the crease, creating a little bit of chaos but obviously the goals haven't really come the points haven't really come and just as a line with the guys he's played with the results have not really came for Tristan Trent Frederick sorry. Super discouraging, but he's getting an audition on this third line. And I think the reason is because as this team starts to get healthier and healthier, if Trent Frederick can't find his game, he could easily become the 12th to 13th forward for this team. I say that. With my opinion, firmly well being that Alex Formington and Owen Michaels are seeing way too much ice time. Owen Michaels' play has regressed heavily. His face-off percentage has regressed. His penalty killing is literally among some of the worst in the National Hockey League statistically. And Alex Formington, in my eyes, literally does nothing but skate fast. So not a fan of that. And obviously, one of the big underlying issues for this team, or not really underlying, one of the big obvious issues for this team is depth scoring. You take a look at that bottom six. No one really there is contributing outside of Colton Dock, but he did that in a top six role. And if you take a look here at the stats, the team is the best team in the National Hockey League with Connor McDavid on the ice. And the second he steps off the ice, as we could see here in the bottom left of the chart here, the team instantly, quite literally, becomes one of the worst, if not the worst teams in the National Hockey League. That is way too drastic of a dip in play when Connor McDavid and Drysdale step off the ice. So whether you're Mike Babcock and you look at that and you start to say, you know what, when Savoy comes back, maybe I try and spread out McDavid and Drysdale. I don't see that happening. It seems like Babcock is a fan of running the two together. So I don't even want to consider that. You look at the bottom six and you need, need, need someone to step up and start to play. I know you need guys to be reliable defensively. And a lot of those guys in the bottom six, with all due respect, are certainly reliable defensively. Michaels, Formington, Joseph, Frederick, Dickinson, all smart defensive players. But we need to see goals. We need to see all these, some of these guys need to be in the 10 to 15 goal range. That's the fact of the matter. None of these guys are even scoring at a 10-goal pace. They're scoring at like a 5 to 8-goal pace. So we need to see some more contributions. You're taking on the Philadelphia Flyers tonight. Good opportunity to maybe just get the bottom six scoring against the team that is certainly desperate and struggling at the moment. As mentioned, Tristan Jarry is expected to get the nod against the Philadelphia Flyers per Mike Babcock. And obviously, if you take a look at Jari's recent starts, he's really started to find a groove. In his last three games, you're looking at someone who's collected two shutouts and then had a quality start against the New Jersey Devils. Despite the loss, I thought he had a great game. He really was the reason as to why the Oilers even walked away with the point. So you're seeing now against the Devils, and then you saw it last game out with Devon Levi against the Rangers. On Monday night, you saw Devon Levi is the sole reason as to why they got two points. So now you got Tristan Jari and Devon Levi both stealing games, having great starts. So you see if you can keep the confidence in Tristan Jarry. You give him a team that is desperate in the Flyers. They have obviously got some issues with the coaching staff. They've got issues with Matvei Michkov, maybe wanting out of a contract and wanting a fresh start elsewhere. You saw some of the guys, including Michkov and Nick Seeler, going at it on the bench against the Canucks. The Canucks is causing that team to have some issues, so something to monitor there in terms of the opponent. Definitely a team that is just trying to get going, but Tristan Jarry is someone who's really, really been a little bit of a surprise in the last, I would say, four to five games for the team. Save percentage is .902, two shutouts, really starting to string together some consistent games. And obviously, if you take a look at some of his success against the Flyers in the last four meetings between Jari and the Flyers, Jari has had some really, really strong numbers. So looking to keep that going for Tristan Jari, looking at the bottom six to try and find some sort of goal scoring or contribution against a weak Flyers team. I said it a few nights ago when they faced the Canucks. This is a team like the Flyers. You're closing out a homestand before you head to Toronto on Saturday night. Win this game. Go for three straight wins. You're at home. Win this game. Before you head out on the road and face a Leafs team that is really on the downslope as well. So you can start to try and just pick off some easy wins if you're the Oilers. But that's all I have for you guys in today's video. If you enjoyed, make sure you give it a thumbs up, subscribe if you're new, and I'll catch you in the next video. Toodles.