Christmas has come early for Oilers fans. On November 30th the Oilers were in last place and on pace for another disappointing season. Fast forward 15 days and the Oilers have won six straight games and are in a playoff spot; sitting third in the Pacific division with 30 points.
It has been quite the turnaround.
Last night Cam Talbot was outstanding in goal and Jordan Eberle provided the offence with a goal and two assists as the Oilers extended their winning streak to six, with a 3-2 win in Boston. Talbot played his second game in a month, but showed no signs of rust, stopping 47 of 49 shots.
The Bruins controlled much of the game, but the Oilers didn’t make any major gaffes, and when they made a mistake Talbot bailed them out. Talbot was very good early, and his rebound control was great all night. He showed head coach Todd McLellan he wants another start, and I’m sure we will see him between the pipes again soon.
Nikita Nikitin played his first game of the season, and didn’t look out of place. He chipped in with an assist, but more importantly he wasn’t a step behind like last season. You can add him to the list of Bakersfield players who have contributed after being recalled. The Oilers continue to receive solid performances from unlikely sources, and combined with consistent scoring from their top two lines they are suddenly right in the playoff hunt.
The Oilers are rolling and Oilersnation is excited about their hockey team (mid-season, anyways) for the first time in a decade. The pessimists will complain they didn’t deserve to win last night, but you shouldn’t. The goalies are part of your team, and when you get bad goaltending and it costs you games you are upset about it, so why not be excited when a goalie steals you a game?
The Oilers haven’t relied on their goalies to win them every game, but I’m sure the players feel much better knowing Talbot and Nilsson can steal them a game. Good teams need good, and often great, goaltending to win and the Oilers, with their young D corps, will need it more often than most teams.
The truth is the Oilers are in a playoff spot on December 15th. That is all you should be worried about. The Oilers are here despite losing numerous players to injury. Connor McDavid (18), Justin Schultz (14), Eberle (13), Nail Yakupov (10), Matt Hendricks (10), Benoit Pouliot and Lauri Korpikoski (8), Rob Klinkhammer (24) and Oscar Klefbom (1+) have missed games, yet the Oilers have climbed their way up the standings.
Only three players have dressed in every game: Taylor Hall, Teddy Purcell and Mark Letestu. Ottawa and Columbus are tied for second fewest with seven. Every other team has at least eight players who’ve played every game and in most cases it is 10+.
I didn’t expect this ascent up the standings two weeks ago, and I doubt many of you did either. It has been completely unexpected and it has rejuvenated the team and Oilers fans. Enjoy it.
The Oilers are still a work in progress. They are still very inexperienced on the blueline, yet they’ve found ways to win six straight games. They aren’t a tire fire in their own zone. They are getting solid goaltending. They have two scoring lines producing, and most importantly they are competitive every night.
The streak will eventually end, especially if the Oilers keep getting
out shot, but they won last night with one line scoring and great
goaltending. Taylor Hall and Leon Draisaitl were very quiet in Boston, I
doubt they are again tonight.
Can they win seven in a row for the first time since March 9th, 2001?
Two weeks ago we would have laughed at the thought of it, but tonight, against a Rangers team who are 2-6-2 in their last ten while allowing 33 goals, it doesn’t seem outlandish.
LINEUPS….
Oilers lineup courtesy of DailyFaceoff.com
Rangers lineup courtesy of DailyFaceoff.com
QUICK HITS…
- Hall and Draisaitl only played 16:00 and 16:13 respectively last night. That was Hall’s lowest total of the season, and only the second time he’s played fewer than 17:54. They had a rare quiet night, and McLellan didn’t try and force feed them icetime to find their game. Both should be fresh for tonight and based on their play this season, they will be hungry to have a bounce back game.
- McLellan ran four lines. Gazdic was the only player under 11:22 and he played 8:29. Wise coaching to not wear out anyone on the first night of back-to-back games.
- Talbot played great, but after 49 shots it would have been a wrong gamble to go back to him. Nilsson will want to rebound after an average night versus the Rangers on Friday.
- Rangers’ forward Jarret Stoll was claimed off waivers today by the Minnesota Wild and he will play the Rangers on Thursday. The Wild have missed having right-hand faceoff guy in bottom six after letting Kyle Brodziak sign with St.Louis.
- Stoll was very impressed with the improved play of the Oilers from previous years, especially the top line last Friday. “They are playing great. Hall has slowed his game down and is making more plays. That Draisaitl kid is good. He made a great move on me late in the game avoiding OT,” Stoll said after the game last Friday.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING…
Alain Vigneault spoke with the media following the Rangers morning skate today (NYR)
- On who is being called up, “we are going to call up Brady Skjei, we just have to wait for 12 for cap purposes. He will be in the lineup tonight.”
- McDonagh to the right side, “McDonagh will move to the right side.”
- Where will Skjei play, “at this time we will probably move Marc with Ryan and then there will be interchanging of the other four depending on how they are playing and who is coming on the ice for Edmonton.”
- On McDonagh on the right side, “he hasn’t had a lot of it but seemed alright. I know that with Team USA he did play on the right side and seemed very comfortable. I don’t foresee that being an issue tonight.’
- “He played real well, didn’t have an issue with it.”
- On Brady Skjei, “he has been very impressed with his overall skating ability, the fact that he competes real hard. They see him as a good defensive type defenseman who has the ability, because of his skating, to jump up into the attack when the opportunity is there. Young player going through the process has played real well and will get his first opportunity tonight.”
- On Jarret Stoll, “we aren’t there yet and will see what happens. I know Jeff has been talking to his agent and we will see what happens.”
- “we are going to try and protect the front of our net better than we did in that game. There is no doubt that this team is on a roll and playing with confidence. They have skill and speed up front that make them very challenging, pretty good number of goals right now. We will have to be at our best tonight, this team is one of the better teams in the league right now and we will have to be real good.”
- On Brady Skjei again, “I liked his training camp but you could tell that he needed some games in the AHL to improve his overall game. He has done that, he will get a first opportunity tonight and we will see how he does.”
TONIGHT….
GAME DAY PREDICTION: Ride the wave for another night. The Oilers make it lucky seven with a 3-2 win.
OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: With four goals and seven points in his last five games, Eberle keeps rolling and scores his eighth of the season.
NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Schultz has no goals in 17 games, and only one in his last 36 going back to last season. He hasn’t scored a powerplay goal in 111 games, but he breaks both droughts tonight and scores on the PP.
DAY 11: MONTH OF GIVING
Thank you James for your great bid of $4,000 on the awesome entertainment package from The Brick.
Today: Package #1
- $1,000 in Hughes Gift cards to be used for fuel or car washes.
- A signed game used Taylor Hall stick.
Package #2
- 20 tickets to an Oil Kings game this season.
- 20 Hot dogs and pop
- A guided pre game tour of Rexall Place – a peek behind the curtain on
our final season at Rexall - Team signed jersey (or a specific player jersey, autographed)
-
Post-game photo with
the player of their choice
You can bid by calling 780.444.1260 or text 101260 between 2-6 p.m. today.
Thanks in advance. All proceeds will help out The Christmas Bureau and Operation Friendship Seniors Society.
Recently by Jason Gregor:
- GDB 31.0: Klefbom injury creates concern
- GDB 30.0: Honouring Sather
- Thursday Thoughts: Khaira, Reinhart and more
- GDB: Win one for McLellan
- Nilsson making most of his opportunity
- What a difference a week makes
Anyone else sick of the sportsnet feeds? beginning of the games audio was just awful.
Slats WAS building a Possesion/Transition focus like LAs ….lol….now he has changed it up???LOL….Mac-L should be proud as he is being emulated now….lol….they are trying to beat us at our own EXACT game….lol.JW should be FEASTING ON THEM TONIGHT.I know I will be soon….lol.
MOMA2
Oilers out shot again. Let me count the ways we can blame that on jultz!
Does anyone have a preferred goal scorer from the Oilers?
Uhhhhh… anyone? Does it matter? =/
Uhhhhh….yes if you are a smartass trying to be oppositionally defiant and pick someone who will play more shifts …lol.
But no it doesnt matter who you choose within reason.
Your original question makes no sense. If we’re agreed that the most desirable outcome is an Oilers win, your question only has merit if, for example, Nilsson scores so the Oilers get five points for win instead of the normal two.
If a 2pt win is a 2pt win is a 2pt win, it matter not who the goalscorers are.
It matters greatly if you know the Players inside out….lol….for example that slapper from the 1/2 wall has to be NUGE like I said….not PROCESS THINKING JUST LISTEN VERBATIM or dont bother…..lol.
Ebbs should snap one or 2 shots 5-hole because he is in the Tenders head now,and because Ebbs release is so pure when he is asked to find a spot for you,ask him,then let him do it.
Dre” should also be looking top cheeze back-hand,cookie jar even though its hard to get it up with that paddle of his…lol.
You simply asked who we’d prefer to see score a goal. If your question had been something the lines of who we all think this type of game favours, from a scoring standpoint, then a little bit of what you just wrote makes sense.
I still can’t understand why you think it’s important that player A scores over player B.
Time to quit the luudes, my man.
If the playoffs started after last night’s games, the Oilers would be up against the Coyotes. Who in the hell would’ve ever called that one???
Ha…lol…Nugey almost nailed them with their own bread and butter….lol….the support man needs more upspeed motion to get to the puck first….right idea though…lol.Nice pushback.
The Oil need to adjust their fore-check a tad…use extended backchecking pursuit because they are wanting to skate the puck up-ice as much as they can,and they are greenlit to transit as many zones individually carrying the puck as your structure will let them.
The puck carrier is engaging their structures and playactions in the o-zone and all you need to really do is chase down that puck carrier hard and long off the forecheck so you are naturally on the puck carriers tail and you can get between him and his upspeed support so your d-men have less worries.
Seperate the puck carrier on your blueline ASAP…the general idea is to not allow the puck carrier to initiate their offense,easy peasy.
Wow…imagine if every nhl coach knew what you know!
Nice sneak behind everyone by Hall.
Elite sneak.
Wicked shot.
Seems like hall is a lot more humble these days
maybe its just his weirdly cordial celebrations
He’s become a professional.
looks like ill stop looking at oilersnation this game
hate when theres a bunch of people chirping each other and not even commenting on the game.
Yea, it’s the usual suspects every article. It’s getting really annoying.
Then tell your buddies to stop hating on schultz for no reason and then bringing my name up. Clearly trolling at its finest. Because I’m 100% sure you are referring to me.
I really like how Davidson is playing, like the panel just discussed, doing a lot of little things correctly.
Much better second, but far from the best I’ve seen them play. We are getting out-worked in the physical aspects way too much.
Win or lose, I love that the Oil don’t seem to cash it in when down, unlike the last sooo many years.
Big third boys, this is winnable !
Yep!! Way more exciting to watch the oilers this year.
When is Connor back?
I can’t imagine how hard it is to win back to back games in the NHL… in Beer league it is hard… and that is div 7 beer league… I mean… 9 in 10 guys in div 10 have beer guts…
Go hard guys.
*Cracks beer with his beer league sherwood PMP 5030 coffey curve*
What!!!?? A cross check to the neck isn’t legal?? Staal sure looked shocked!
Can you imagine if our PP was clicking?
This is frustrating…
The Oilers could consider bringing their upspeed man into play in the n-zone having him pick it up mid-zone and blast by everyone N/S…drop it back.
Look for the sympathetic rebound,break into their zone on the right side,then let the puck carrier simply keep alive wherever he wants to go waiting for his backdoor man….then let him shoot LOW FAR LEFT POST ONTO THE GOALIES RIGHT FOOT…FORCE A TOE SAVE REBOUND TO THE UPSPEED MAN,vary your timing but dont dawdle,just work it steady.They use it,they used it on you tonight,its simple and we have guys like Hall and Nuge who consistantly gain the zone….so now insted of them shooting….just cruise for 1.5 seconds waiting for your backdoor support WITH A MN LLOKING DEFLECTION IN FRONT AS WELL,then take the controlled hard shots.
End them now.
The Rangers are trying to give us this freakin game!! Get a pp goal for tits sake!!
Tmac is a fking idiot. Why the fk is he playing plugs like letestu and korpokosky on the PP???
Oh, I don’t know, maybe to change things up a bit?
It’s not like our top guys have been lighting it up…
Well, who else can he use? I understand that PP has been bad for the Oilers but other than the first unit that who else do you have left on second unit? It shows the damage without the entire offense line.
Only keep one man right in front screening you are collapsing to tight and are all on the inside isolated from juicy rebounds from those nice point shots on net…drop the 2ndary support back 3-4 feet from the paint so they can pick up rebounds from point shots,and keep those point shots coming.Just keep ONE active man in front.
Tell Nurse to keep blasting them in as quick as he can like he is doing.
Time to focus on holding pucks and driving them to the net looking for PP action,try to cut it to the middle from the wing make them cross-over,we need a PP and we need to get low and hard and make em grab us….Ebbs do it to em old school your bread and butter move,take em wide.
Taylor….bul it in bud….no worries just drive it there and let your instincts do the rest.
Time to get greasy….steady is good but its greasy time.
It is worth it to drive their Goalie….fight for it guys.
What’s the deal with lander and horrible penalties at the worst possible times?
If this guy couldn’t win a face off, I have no idea why he would even get a sniff at pro hockey.
If our PP was on the same level as our PK, we would be scary…
Hits break free more pucks than stick checks when the chips are down….hit everything in sight across the board to finish er up boys.Opne ice,the boards,jack it up,work for it.
Well, streak has to end at some point, still a good stretch of wins without Pou-McD-Yak. Also, Klefbom is hurt, and Pakarinen is also got hurt by blocking a shot.
The Jultzer with no goals, no assists, no hits, and one shot on net.
#bradleysbrokendreams
Broski, your hashtag actually made me lol.
And do you ever comment on hockey? Or is being a troll also your thing? Probably feel like a big boy when you sit behind your computer eh chum?
Lol that’s cool troll. I’m ok that he wasn’t on the ice for a goal against. It’s funny that me liking schultz bugs you guys so much. Hahahahaha
Wait…what… They lost?
TRADE THE MALL!!!!
FIRE EVERYONE!!! TIME FOR A REBUILD !
Good nights work fellas…..now we know where we stand…and its in dam good spot…..now rinse and repeat the streak ….no worries….3’s…6’s…9’s…all is good and you are moving forward…excellent.
There is no shame in tonight you just re-set your bar to exactly where you needed to put it,now go home rest up and get ready to spring-back….rinse and repeat.
Except they’re going to Chicago, not Edmonton.
Put the pipe done, mate. Maybe sit out the next couple of plays?
I rarely if ever post but I’m pretty sure Bradlypi and pkfam is the same person. How else can you by seeing eye and advanced stats defend him? Family member? homer? Troll? jock licker?