Blue Jackets vs. Oilers - Team Lineup Value Metric (LVM) at 86%

#McDavid #Oilers #OilersNation

Back from the story-ridden John Scott All Star weekend, Pacific Division teammate Taylor Hall netted two goals and an assist.  Hall has been slumping on his two-way play lately, so let's hope he bounces back.  Wait, we know he will.

With that, Connor McDavid finally returns to the lineup after a long clavicle recovery and as I predicted, he will centre Benoit Pouliot on his left and for the first time, Jordan Eberle on his right. We expect big things, right?  With McDavid back, I'm bumping up Yakupov to a 3 rating because we know he can play on the 2nd line with McDavid. I'm giving Korpikoski some leeway here as he is supposed to be a 3rd line winger although his defensive two-way game aren't great.

With Justin Schultz being ill (again?), it's likely that waiver wire pick-up Adam Clendening slots in with a 1 rating.  To me, Sekera still isn't a true #1 pairing guy, Fayne is an ideal 3rd pair shut-down although he's improving to be an ideal 2nd pair, but pretty much the rest of the defense, are 3rd pair guys.  When Klefbom and Davidson return, I'll rate them both a 3.  Nurse has got to step it up or if Reinhart plays better, don't be surprised to see Nurse sent down to Bakersfield.

I'm now also adding in goalies which get a multiple of 5.  Talbot has been playing much better than average lately. An average goalie (in that .900-.910 range) would be a 3 and Talbot has been keeping the Oilers in the game, so I'm going to rate him a 4 for now.  Nilsson would be a 2 as his numbers are below average, but he's no Scrivens.

So here are today's LVM (my new Lineup Value Metric).

FORWARDS
4 x ( Hall(4)    + Draisaitl(4) + Purcell(3) ) = 44 - 48 = -4
3 x ( Pouliot(3) + McDavid(4)   + Eberle(3)  ) = 30 - 27 = +3
2 x ( Yakupov(3) + Letestu(1)   + Kassian(2) ) = 12 - 12 = +0
1 x ( Korpik.(2) + Hendricks(2) + Pakarinen(1))=  5 -  3 = +2
                                           TOTAL 91 - 90 = +1

DEFENSE
4 x ( Sekera(3)  + Fayne(2) ) = 20 - 32 =  -8
3 x ( Reinhart(2)+ Gryba(2) ) = 12 - 18 =  -6
2 x ( Nurse(2)   + Clend.(1)) =  6 -  8 =  -2
                          TOTAL 38 - 58 = -20

GOALIE (NEW)
5 x Talbot(+4) = 20 - 25 = -5

Current: 91 + 38 + 20 = 149
  Ideal: 90 + 58 + 25 = 173

149/173 =  86%

Seems about right, doesn't it?