Oilers man games lost to injury, depth, and line blenders

 #Oilers #OilersNation
We all know the Oilers have had the most man games lost to injury in the league, but it's been mostly top players, especially the second line that has included Eberle, Pouliot, McDavid, Yakupov, and now Nugent-Hopkins, coupled with Oscar Klefbom being out for the rest of the year.

We bloggers like to speculate on the game-day lineups and this year has been one heck of a blender. Let's look at what the forward lineup was supposed to be at the start of the season compared to today.

Original:
Hall - Nugent-Hopkins - Eberle
Pouliot - McDavid - Yakupov
Korpikoski - Letestu - Purcell
Hendricks - Lander - Klinkhammer/Gazdic

The team has called up Slepyshev, Pakarinen, Khaira, and Yakimov and traded for Kassian who was called up recently.

Ideal:
Hall - Draisaitl - Purcell
Pouliot - McDavid - Eberle
Yakupov - Nugent-Hopkins - Kassian
Hendricks - Letestu - Pakarinen

Injuries to McDavid and Nugent-Hopkins tried Hendricks at centre on the 2nd line, but now McLellan is going to try Pouliot at centre.  I think this is a bad idea.  He's not the fastest on skates and don't think he'll be able to get back in time end to end.

Current:
Hall - Draisaitl - Purcell
Klinkhammer - Pouliot - Eberle
Kassian - Letestu - Pakarinen
Hendricks - Lander - Yakupov

I want to now put some metrics to this.  If we took the Ideal lineup and gave each line and player a point value based on the line value he should be on and position with a -1 one if he's off position on the same line (say a winger playing centre or a winger on his off-wing), we can compare how far off the team is from an ideal situation to the current.

Ideal is:
1st Line (4 x):  4 + 4 + 4     = 48 / 48
2nd Line (3 x):  3 + 3 + 3     = 27 / 27 
3rd Line (2 x):  2 + 2 + 2     = 12 / 12
4th Line (1 x):  1 + 1 + 1     =  3 /  3

Current is:
1st Line (4 x):  4 + 4 + 4     = 48 / 48 (+0)
2nd Line (3 x):  1 + (3-1) + 3 = 18 / 27 (-9)
3rd Line (2 x):  (2-1) + 1 + 1 =  6 / 12 (-6)
4th Line (1 x):  1 + (-1) + 2  =  2 /  3 (-1)
Total off ideal lineup:  -16

I'm going to start with that, because each line total seems to match with goal total comparisons in a way.

But for argument's sake, if we didn't use the line multiplier:
1st Line :  4 + 4 + 4     = 12 / 12 (+0)
2nd Line :  1 + (3-1) + 3 =  6 /  9 (-3)
3rd Line :  (2-1) + 1 + 1 =  3 /  3 (+0)
4th Line :  1 + (-1) + 2  =  2 /  3 (-1)
Total off ideal lineup:  -4

Yeah, I think I like the line multiplier better.  What do you think?  Just trying something new here.