MONTREAL — A coach’s problems never completely go away, even when your team is on a franchise record-tying, nine-game heater the way Kris Knoblauch’s Edmonton Oilers are.
He’s had his lines sorted out to the tune of three losses in the Edmonton Oilers last 20 games, but even Knoblauch knows he’s got a $5.1-million dollar player wasting away on a makeshift third line in Evander Kane.
As the Oilers arrive in Montreal for a Hockey Night in Canada soiree on Saturday, it’s an issue that’s finding its way up Knoblauch’s priority list as Leon Draisaitl, Ryan McLeod and Warren Foegele second unit begins to cool.
“With the lines, unfortunately it hasn't been a match with the situation's (Kane) has been in,” Knoblauch said. “The lines are working. (We’re) winning. His ice time is down a little bit, considering he's on second power play and they don't get much time, and he's not killing (penalties) anymore. And now he's on line three…
“Yeah, he's underused right now.”
Kane was Edmonton’s best forward during that early, 15-game spell when they were digging the hole they’ve now almost dug themselves out of. Then he got hurt, and as the team found a winning chemistry he wound up on the outside of the Top 6 looking in.
Sometimes that just happens.
“We've been playing great. We're back in a position where we envisioned ourselves at the beginning of the year — in the postseason,” Kane said when we sat down with him before the overtime win in Detroit.. “We're possibly getting back into the top three (in the Pacific), which is where we believe we belong. We’ve won 16 of our last 19. So, things are rolling.”
But…
When you’ve got a 30-goal man playing on a line with the crafty Derek Ryan, a natural fourth-line centre, and the offensive black hole that is Connor Brown (just three assists in 31 games), it’s fair to say that your investment is being squandered.
Kane has points in just three of his past 16 games (3-1-4). He played a season-low 13:23 in Chicago on Tuesday, and saw 15:27 minutes in Detroit. His line logged an unlucky minus-2 on two goofy goals scored by Detroit — a goalie interference play and a puck of Darnell Nurse’s skate — but then Kane almost had the game-winner with 12 seconds to play, but for the play being (rightly) ruled a hand pass from Ryan.
He’s got 14 goals and 24 points in 37 games this year, still on a 30-goal pace despite this detour through the Bottom 6.
“Obviously I’m not getting the same opportunity as I did in the first part of the season. So I think that's definitely a factor. Wouldn’t help anybody’s production,” said Kane. “When you don’t really play on the power play, and I don’t kill penalties anymore, opportunities are limited. I just have to try to make the most with what I'm getting.
Surely, as a veteran of 890 NHL games, he’s been through this before?
“Nope,” said Kane. “Honestly, I've never had this level of opportunity ever in my career. Not even my rookie year.”
Press Kane on that and he knows this isn’t the time.
“For me right now, less is more — what comes out of my mouth,” he said with a laugh.
OK. If he won’t say it, we will.
On a team that needs every ounce of physicality, burying a 30-goal man who leads the team in hits likely isn’t the best strategy. Knoblauch is well aware of that.
“Without a doubt,” the coach said. “I saw that a little bit when I first got here, the first two or three weeks. He might have been our best player. He was physical, good defensively, just dictating the pace of the game. And then unfortunately, there were some issues with his health.
“He was battling injuries, missing practice time and his game just wasn't what it should have been. Obviously he’s a very good hockey player, and we're going to rely on him quite a bit. He's not playing his best right now. But he's getting healthier, so he's getting better.”
You can add Sam Gagner to the same pile, as a productive player who lost his gig due to an injury. Now he can’t get back in the lineup.
As we get to know Knoblauch and his coaching style, we see a coach who adheres to the “never change a winning lineup” motto pretty consistently. And it must be said: he’s winning, and that’s what they pay a coach to do.
But it’s only January, and (knock wood) the Oilers have remained pretty healthy as a team.
Heck, Philip Broberg can’t get a shot on a defensive corps that has thus far lost just three man game to injury.
So the coach will have to figure it out, if the physical nature of the sport doesn’t figure it out for him.
With four goals and nine points in 18 games, Gagner deserves a spot in the lineup ahead of a few guys. Including Brown, whose good work on the penalty kill is the only thing between him and the press box these days.
And Kane? Ken Holland signed a 30-goal man to compliment one of his elite centres, and keep the flies off them at the same time.
Neither of those objectives will be met with 14 minutes of ice time on the third line.
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