Oilers 4, Devils 1: Eat it and move on

The effort was there but the execution certainly wasn't in the final game of a West Coast road trip.

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A few observations from New Jersey vs. Edmonton:

Meier’s struggles continue

Erik Haula missed the game due to an upper-body injury, which I believe to be a hand issue following a slash against the Flames.

Whatever the case may be, Lindy Ruff needed to shift some things around in his absence and elected to move Timo Meier up to the top line. It didn’t work.

As I’ve alluded to in the past, Meier just doesn’t seem to mesh with Jack Hughes. The latter’s on-ice metrics are down across the board when playing with Meier and we saw that once again in Edmonton.

Meier posted a 22.96 xGF% alongside Jack Hughes before rightfully losing his spot to Alexander Holtz.

Meier continues to look like a fish out of water on a nightly basis, especially when with Hughes. That combo has simply not clicked.

There is no cohesion or symmetry whatsoever. It feels like Meier is always in the way, as much as anything, and that he doesn’t have the puck in shooting positions enough for his style (yet takes away opportunities from Jack at the same time).

I understand it was the end of a road trip against a good team. Even good players can have off nights under such circumstances.

But I think it says a lot Holtz and Hughes immediately showed chemistry and controlled nearly triple the xG share over the same period of time as Meier did with Hughes.

It feels like there is no good place in the lineup for Meier right now. Putting him on a line with Nico Hischier is the obvious fit – and best one for him statistically – but Ruff would have to break up the Ondrej Palat - Hischier - Jesper Bratt line and he’s understandably been hesitant to go down that path because of how well they’ve played.

Meier is a big-time problem right now, which is something I didn’t envision writing for another five or six years.

Effort was there, execution was not