*makes fart sounds with mouth* Final Score: 2-1 Canucks in OT
Greetings, citizens! I hope all of you had an excellent Christmas with your family, friends, or whoever agreed to spend time with you. Were you all spoiled with gifts according to your naughty/nice Corsi? Excellent. I’m happy to hear it. Despite my best attempts, my Christmas wish was not granted as once again the Oilers played McDavidless hockey against the heathens that are the Vancouver Canucks.
From where I sit (pantless) there’s nothing more annoying than knowing that the Oilers are trailing the Canucks in the standings based solely on Vancouver’s ability to squeeze out loser points. The Canucks have fewer wins than the Oilers yet they have more points on the board than we do. Getting a win tonight was crucial to not only keeping pace with the rest of the Pacific Division, but also a step towards undoing the injustice of the Bettman points. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be.
The Oilers started off tonight’s game well, taking an early lead in the process, but had their play fall off a cliff in the second period. Vancouver pressed throughout the middle frame, tied the game, and probably should have led after the Oilers gave them seemingly endless opportunities to create offence. Whether it was screwing up easy breakouts or turning the puck over at the opposing blue line, the Oilers did not make this game easy on themselves. They lost because of mistakes and there were a lot to choose from.
This was a winnable game for Edmonton.
Wrap it up like Christmas leftovers.
THE BRIGHT SIDE
- The Oilers had a fairly solid start tonight. I was wondering what they would be like after a few days off but they had legs and played with some jump off the start (outshot the Canucks 13-6 in the first).
- Mark Letestu walked into the slot and roofed his 4th goal of the season like he was some kind of offensive juggernaut.
- Matt Hendricks plays the game hard and it’s nice to see him get rewarded with an assist for his seemingly endless hard work.
- Darnell Nurse hasn’t played against the Sedins many times in his young career but he saw a lot of them tonight, and held his own for the most part. There were a few times Nurse’s decision making looked rushed as he gave away the puck on breakout attempts.
- Cam Talbot kept the Oilers in the game when they likely shouldn’t have been. That being said, I think even he would say he would like to have the overtime winner back. Talbot looks like he’s set to continue his run as the starter with another solid night. Talbot finished with 22 saves and a .917 save%.
- We’re having a Boxing Week sale on all NationGear where you get 20% off just for using the promo code. Check out the graphic for details and head over to nationgear.ca to pick up all the gear that Santa neglected to bring for you.
- At least we got a point?
THE FACE PALMERS
- Elliotte Friedman mentioned Edmonton as a possible landing destination for Zack Kassian. I don’t like it. I’ll never forget about what Kassian did to Sam Gagner and how he refused to answer the bell for it afterwards. It would feel too dirty. Dislike. Abort.
- Luke Gazdic made a bad play on the icing that got his line pinned in their own zone for an extended period of time. Rather than a quick bounce of the boards he sent it all the way and the team paid for it.
- Nikita Nikitin is an all world goat. Rather than walk the puck out of his own zone he makes a backhanded pass to nobody which results in zone time for the Canucks, and the Jannik Hansen goal. I’m dying to know what the Oilers would get for him apart from some kind of invoice.
- The power play was brutal again tonight. They couldn’t get anything done. They scored as much as I did in high school going 0/3 on the night.
- Speaking of the power play, Justin Schultz seems to be doing his best to recreate the Belanger triangle while on the man advantage. Not to mention the fact that Jultz played 27:12 tonight. HOW DOES HE DESERVE THAT MUCH ICE?
- It was a bad night for the Pouliot-Nuge-Eberle line. They were quiet all night, and often found themselves pinned in their own zone.
- How many turnovers did the Oilers have at their own blue line?
- The Gryba/Nikitin pairing gave me heartburn all night.
- Markstrom stole this game for the Canucks. He made some huge saves when they needed them and the Oilers couldn’t beat him. He finished the night with 32 saves and a .970 save%.
SCORING SUMMARY
| 1ST PERIOD | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 12:55 | EDM | Mark Letestu (4) Wrist shot – ASST: Lauri Korpikoski (3), Matt Hendricks (4) | 1 – 0 EDM |
| 2ND PERIOD | |||
| 03:37 | VAN | Jannik Hansen (11) Wrist shot – ASST: Henrik Sedin (24), Daniel Sedin (21) | 1 – 1 Tie |
| 3RD PERIOD | |||
| NONE | |||
| OT PERIOD | |||
| 04:01 | VAN | Jannik Hansen (12) Slapshot – ASST: Matt Bartkowski (7), Jacob Markstrom (1) | 2 – 1 VAN |
BEST OF THE TWEETS
@OilersNation He’s Zack Kassian. #ZackKassianCharacterProblems
— Late Fiennes (@MrMikeEaton) December 27, 2015
Schultz just made one hell of a defensive play. This is not a typo nor am I on drugs. Great play.
— Ryan McByks (@IAmByks) December 27, 2015
Oilers power play still suffering from tryptophan.
— Rascal Gas (@rascalgas) December 27, 2015
Why is Adam Oates all over this telecast. He looks like Ray Liotta and I don’t trust either of them #HNIC
— Wanye (@WanyeGretz) December 27, 2015
@OilersNation I sure hope someone made a GIF of Friedman flicking that card at Kypreos.
— Higgs-Distortion (@Higgsdistortion) December 27, 2015
@OilersNation For the love of Gord, would someone just get Sedin a donut pillow so we can stop hearing about him standing? #Hemorrhoids
— David Smitten (@DavidSmitten) December 27, 2015
@jsbmbaggedmilk Of course the guy who gets his head busted open is the hero. Of. Course.
— Kyle Eldstrom (@KEldstrom) December 27, 2015
THE NORTH X NORTHGRETZ PODCAST
This week we welcome Chris the Intern back and the boys talk Oilers playoff hopes, the return of Jordan Eberle, Stamkos to the Oilers, and we have a contest to give away FREE STUFF!!
As always you can follow North x NorthGretz on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and subscribe to the podcast on ITunes!
PREVIOUS EPISODES
- Episode 1 – Is This Thing On?
- Episode 2 – Where Are The Guests Bro?
- Episode 3 – Chip Wars 2015
- Episode 4 – Neon Leon
- Episode 5 – Ya Jinked It!
- Episode 6 – Nation Battle Royale
- Episode 7 – The Brownlee Christmas Spectacular
This team is in desperate need of Klefbom and Davidson returning. 27 minutes for Schultz is beyond unacceptable
Another putrid performance by RNH and Eberle.
Nuge and Ebs are playing like they know they’re gone by the end of the year.
The way they are playing they are not tradable.
6M contracts for another 4 or 5 years are not easy to move.
Ok dudes I have been reading this
Blog for 6’years and have NEVER posted
Just could not stay silent any more. So what I want to know is WTF that is WHY THE F$&@!’ Are they still playing Schultz
On the power play I just don’t get it ?
Agreed! If I were chiralli I would have Tmac dragged in front of me and ask him that exact fking question?
T-Mac….is simply along with his Crew of assistants ammasing evidence like everyone else is.
The lack of any impactfull contact for 60 minutes was obscene…..the lack of any identifiable “supported” secondary offense was pitifull at the NHL level, the bizarre tactics in the o-zone were nonsensical and broken.
There was no attempt to push the river or win the game, everything revolved around line matches and shutdown focuses devoid of any offensive impetus.Players were getting caught on long shifts all game because of the line matching over-focus.
The PP is obviously being absolutely screwed up by some over or under-riding influence….T-Mac had a respected PP in San Jose,maybe he needs to audit it and remove anything he didnt bring from the Sharktank with him.
I really must say “belly-laughs heartily” that I have never seen such a screwy-Louie System focus before…..lol….it was like watching a piss-drunk Oildrop wearing one-eyed one legged man with a hand tied behind his back “competeing” in the Finals of an ass-kicking contest.
I guess we can fairly say no one is “showcasing” players priming them for trades with efforts like this from the Coaching staff.The more the Oilers lose and less offensive statistical “fluff” they produce the higher the price of required assets they will face, and the lower their asset buying power will be.
Ciao.
Dellow….Fee…JW…T-Mac in that order….lol.
Just wait….it only gets better.
Schultz is to blame! He didn’t score a hatrick! What a bum!
Ironiclly I think Dellow is a huge driver behind many decisions the oilers make,even in what they ask of players….it was no joke to say Eakins played for Corsi….which would mean something if there was such a thing as Corsi to play for….corsi is made-up garbage…it is an “advanced-stat” which supposedly connects numbers to dynamic sequences which result in goals…it is a hoax…no correlations exist….staistics are the end results of dynamic actions and can never truthfully represent anything more.For christsakes Dallas WAS due to Dellows influences forcing his men to all play specific ways to chase a Wild Goose, they HAD TO MAKE ODD MISTAKES because they were being forced to repeat odd non-linear playactions trying to reproduce dynamics which arent sructurally catalysed in most cases…lol.
Dubnyk LOVES Corsi because Eakins mindless pursuit of the “advanced stats mirage” got him out of jail in Edmonton.
There is NO SUCH THING AS corsi ok kids? Dont even say the word especially not 3 times in front of a mirror or Dallas Eakins will jump out of your mirror and make you chop wood and haul water until you say uncle or swear to never eat another Donut…..lol.
Numbers CANNOT BE USED to reverse engineer dynamic causality….its just not possible…and anyone who tells you different is a Snake-oil salesman trying to work you like a Short-Handled Community Pump….lol.No Dorothy…there is no such thing as Corsi even if you click your heels together 3 times.
Dellow is to blame for Schultzes and Yaks and Nuges and others mishandeling,his BS directly and wantonly harmed their careers IMHO….and still continues to cause mis-valuations and disconnects which are now negatively impacting more players.
Just wait…the fun has only just begun,Dellow almost has the the Oilers on their knees again….all he needs is 5-10 more games of pumping his non-validated advanced stats poison into T-Macs Processes to bury them for the season.Then he can help out with the trades and begin to poison another round of NHL players by proxy as soon as we bring them in.
Nice try NewAgeSys. Niiiiiice try.
I thought the Nation was trying to get rid of people posting under multiple logins?
Do unto others as has been….lol…done to you huh Lofty?
What you said.
Eberle looked worse than invisible tonight. A pure defensive liability and zippo for offense. What’s going on with this guy.
People have thrown around the idea of trading Ebs & Shultz or Fayne for Hamonic & Okposo. I wouldn’t be opposed to that to be honest, acquiring Hamonic for the greater good.
So You guys think that Eberle and Jultz are crap and think you can trade them for Okposo and Hamonik?? Yeah Ok. I’m sure Garth Snow won’t block your number anytime soon. Maybe if Snow has a medical emergency and the Isles hire Steve Tambolini to take his place….
NYI will ever make that trade.
Shultz is no good and Eberle has a contract that cant be moved – 6M with 4 years left.
Canucks haven’t won in overtime yet this year, so of course… Oilers
Kassian also taunted gagner about breaking his jaw when gags returned. Screw Kassian.
I hope Friedman was out in space on that one. Kassian isn’t invited even if he did have something positive to contribute. If an Oiler had beat the crap out of him along the way there would be grounds for a clean slate but that’s not the case. He can flunk out and go party somewhere else.
These players say and do all kinds of horrible sh*t to each other on the ice, its all part of the on-ice psychology and gamemanship.
Sports history is filled with guys who were complete assh*oles – why should fans cares about a guys character – all I really care about is whether the team wins or not.
We all agree Ference is a great person, but I don’t ever want to see him again on the ice representing the Oilers.
By all account Billy Smith was a total assh*le and his teammates couldn’t stand him, but the Islanders would have never won 4 cups without him.
Totally agree. We have been for years and still are too easy to play against. Having a good agitator would help with that.
Also, while Billy Smith was a total A-Hole on the ice, I’ve heard that he was a great guy off the ice. Same with Tim Hunter. On ice behaviour isn’t a window to anyone’s off ice character.
Kassian got under the skins of the Oilers and the skins of the entire Oiler Nation. If he can play well enough to skate in the top 9 I’d love to have him in Oiler silks pissing off 29 other teams. God forbid we have a player who gives the odd face wash and intimidates the other team!
He got into the skin of Oilers nation by wacking Gags in the face with his stick and breaking his jaw. He was let go by Vancouver because he tried to be a goal scorer and was playing soft, defensively weak hockey.
Link below for an interesting NY Times article on Billy Smith:
http://www.nytimes.com/1981/03/23/sports/for-islanders-billy-smith-thr-game-is-a.html?pagewanted=all
Dude was a nutbar – sounds like his only friend on the team was Chico Resch.