

THE BRIGHT SIDE

- Leon Draisaitl scored his 18th goal of the year off of a nice little give and go with Connor in the slot. I’ll admit, when they were first passing the puck back and forth, I swore at my TV until Leon ended up putting the puck home. I would like to publicly apologize to my neighbours for the screaming f-bomb. Big Sexy 2.0 took over the team lead in goals with his second of the night and 19th of the year. Draisaitl one-timed Maroon’s pass cleanly through Gibson’s five-hole for the fourth Oilers goal of the night.
- Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has played much better over the past month and his offense seems to be coming around as well. Nuge scored his 11th goal of the season on a quick snapshot from the high slot that beat John Gibson clean. Is the sudden surge in offense due to the pirate facial hair? We can’t say for sure that it’s not.
- Zack Kassian scored an absolutely beautiful goal after moving his big torso down the ice and finishing off the play with a nice move to his backhand for his fourth goal of the year. For a guy that’s supposed to be a face puncher, Kassian has got some wheels and mitts for a guy in the bottom six, and he now finds himself on a five-game point streak. That’s nice to have, my friends.
- Cam Talbot was the wall Trump hopes to build for the Oilers tonight. He was rock solid and his perfect play gave his team a chance to win the hockey game. When you combine Talbot at his best with four goals worth of run support, you have a pretty good recipe for success. Talbot stopped all 26 shots he faced for his third shutout of the season.
- MCPOINT! Connor McDavid got his league-leading 41st assist on Leon Draisaitl’s second-period goal as he continues his quest for the Art Ross.
- Pat Maroon got an assist against his former team and they had to pay for a portion of it both figuratively and financially.
- Anton Slepyshev has been impressive since being recalled from Bakersfield and he added an assist to his points total. He seems to get better the more he plays and his wrist shot has some mustard behind it. There could be something there.
- Oscar Klefbom played a team-high 22:25 and was a +2 on the night.
- The Oilers killed off both of Anaheim’s power play chances, resulting in a perfect evening.
- No forward played 20 minutes tonight which means that they should have some energy to spare for tomorrow’s game against the Sharks. First place is sight, my friends.
THE FACE PALMERS

- A little bit of a slow start for the Oilers in the first period. They looked tentative and unable to really get much going. Edmonton whiffed on two first period power play chances that could have set them up with an early lead (not that it mattered).
- The Oilers went 0/2 on the power play and had one of the chances cut short when Matt Hendricks was tagged for the hand-on-puck-faceoff thing.
- The Oilers were only 44% in the faceoff circle. I know it didn’t matter tonight, but it’s still an item that needs to be improved.
- I’m nitpicking but the Oilers only got six shots and five shots in the first and third periods respectively. Gibson was generous tonight, but they’ll need to get more shots on net than that in the future.
- I guess it was ‘do literally anything other than go to the Anaheim Ducks game’ night for Ducks fans and I am proud to report that it was an overwhelming success.
- Ryan Kesler *shudders*
- Do you remember who the Oilers got for Andrew Cogliano? It was a second round pick. Do you know who they used that pick on? Marco Roy. *fart sound* Yeah, yeah dead horse – I know.
SCORING SUMMARY
1ST PERIOD
TIME | TEAM | DETAILS | SCORE |
---|---|---|---|
No Scoring |
2ND PERIOD
3RD PERIOD
TIME | TEAM | DETAILS | SCORE |
---|---|---|---|
01:34 | Leon Draisaitl (19) ASST: Patrick Maroon (8), Andrej Sekera (17) | 4-0 |
BEST OF THE TWEETS
To hide the low attendance, the Ducks painted all of the seats the colour of disinterested Angels fans. @OilersNation
— Brett Gitzel (@brettgitzel) January 26, 2017
#BellLetsTalk about the Ducks fan pic.twitter.com/abaHjxnnXg
— TurnTheRedMilePretty (@Pretty__G) January 26, 2017
.@OilersNation – slow start because Maroon was being paid by Ducks for first 15 mins. Now on #oilers payroll – #gooilers #lookout #bigrig
— paul ermantrout (@paulermantrout) January 26, 2017
@OilersNation I don’t know why everyone keeps questioning the #Oilers goalie depth. Talbot, Brossoit, and Russell are the envy of the NHL.
— Higgs-Distortion (@Higgsdistortion) January 26, 2017
“Talbot should be an All Star.” ?☕️ pic.twitter.com/GSY6wFM4sP
— Ryan ?♂️ (@IAmByks) January 26, 2017
@OilersNation I’m honestly starting to get worried about my health this spring!! I’m afraid of how much alcohol we will consume
— Rick Weidemann (@RPW_1832) January 26, 2017
BOOK A TRIP. GET A PIN. ENTER TO WIN.
