It’s never a bad day for an Oilers win!
Despite the Jets playing almost all of their NHL regulars tonight, the Oilers kept their perfect preseason run going, improving to 3-0 with a 4-1 win on the road.
The Oil came out of the gate sluggish and were outshot 11-4 in the opening frame. They spent a strong majority of the first period in their own end and given the fact that Winnipeg hit three posts in the first ten minutes, Edmonton was lucky to only be down 1-0 after the first 20 minutes.
They responded very well in the second period. Mark Letestu tied things up early and then 13 seconds later Zack Kassian found JJ Khaira who finished off a 2-on-1 to give the Oilers the lead.
They kept up the pressure and after Kailer Yamamoto had a goal waved off (the refs said he kicked it in, I disagree), Jussi Jokinen deflected one in with his skate and this time it actually counted!
A clean third period allowed the Oilers to escape with the victory despite not playing the majority of their key players.
Let’s wrap this one up.
THE BRIGHT SIDE
- Those white jerseys are sweeeeet! I love them! *insert fire emoji*
- They rebounded extremely well in the second period, throwing 13 pucks on net, after getting four shots in the first.
- Mark Letestu is out to prove that last year was no fluke. He tied the game with his third goal of the preseason and continued to be an impact player on both the powerplay and penalty kill.
- Even though it’s the preseason, Jason Gregor showed that he’s in mid-season form, correctly predicting that JJ Khaira would score tonight. Gregor touched on it in the GBD, but he’s been great throughout training camp and continued that solid play tonight, scoring a goal and drawing a penalty. He looks much more confident with the puck compared to last year.
- My expectations for Jussi Jokinen weren’t high by any standards, but he really impressed me tonight. He set up Letestu on the powerplay then deflected one home with his skate. He also drew a penalty. A solid performance from the veteran forward.
- Kailer Yamamoto continued to get better as the game went on. He created a few really nice chances, most notably a near miss by Jokinen. One thing that stuck out to me is that despite his size he isn’t afraid to go to the tough areas. Whether it was right in front of the crease, in the slot or down in the corners, you saw #56 there. He also had a goal waved off that looked like it could have gone either way.
- An unselfish play by The Nuge as he set up Yamamoto for the empty netter, the second of the preseason for Kailer on just a great “bro move” by RNH.
- Not only does Yohann Auvitu have the best name, but he was also the Oilers best d-man tonight. He quarterbacked the power play very well and showed off his strong shot a few times. He also came back to break up a 2-on-1 during the second period. An all around strong night from #81. He’s making a very good case to be on the roster come October.
- Matt Benning made some good physical plays. His ability to play solid minutes this year is very important given Sekera’s absence. He looked good tonight.
- Nick Ellis came in halfway through this one and shutout the Jets.
- Patrick Russell wore #52 and had a strong performance. He skates well and isn’t afraid to throw around his body, which he did tonight. He was almost rewarded with a goal in the third as well. The 24-year-old played in Bakersfield last year and I expect him to be solid down there during this upcoming season.
- The refs didn’t call absolutely everything, which was refreshing. The game had a good flow to it for the most part.
- Special teams were both good. They went one-for-three on the powerplay and killed off four of the Jets’ five chances.
THE FACE PALMERS
- To say the Oilers got off to a slow start would be an understatement. The Jets hit two posts and got a goal within the first 10 minutes.
- It took a whole 4:45 to see our first slashing penalty *groans*.
- The team was scrambling almost the entire first period, struggling to get the puck out of their own end and not generating much in the offensive zone. It was tough to watch.
- Laurent Brossoit did not look comfortable. He only gave up one goal but he got bailed out by four goal posts and bobbled a fair amount of pucks.
- Chris Kelly had a couple of turnovers and other than that, he was more or less invisible to me. I think his performance tonight hurt his chances of making this team.
- They played well but did get some help from the goal posts (the Jets hit six). They gave up too many “Grade A” scoring chances in my opinion.
Good #content
No Talbot, no McDavid, no Draisaitl. No problem! #OILERS WIN! OILERS WIN! OILERS WIN!
— PS.FiveCups (@peteroiler11) September 21, 2017
Proof that good coaching matters: #Oilers B teams winning vs #fLames and #Jets near starting lineups. #InToddWeTrust
— Scrub64 (@Scrub64) September 21, 2017
@Condors look pretty good. Nice win over the @NHLJets tonight! #NHLPreseason #Oilers
— Don (@towel39) September 21, 2017
So we're calling Jokinen 'Juice' right guys? @OilersNation
— Big Oilers Guy (@oilerfansince97) September 21, 2017
Damn! Khaira learned how to score! #Oilers pic.twitter.com/FBb5HekRJG
— David Sampson (@Davey_the_Red) September 21, 2017
If Mark Letestu keeps this up I'm going to have to create more celebration GIF's for him this year. #oilers #nhl pic.twitter.com/8QRmBOOKbg
— VisuallyBetter (@Isuckatpicking) September 21, 2017
Hahaha the Jets are trying to score with their sticks. That's so 2016. #Oilers
— Andrew Grose (@GroseAndrew) September 21, 2017
If "Losing your live stream connection" was a person, 64% of #Oilers fans would punch that person in the face.@OilersNation @Isuckatpicking
— NHL Oilers Stats (@NHLOilersStats) September 21, 2017
I need to borrow Gregor for a visit to Vegas…
Funny, I thought LB looked calm. Every goalie gets lucky with goal posts once in a while. I didn’t see these bobbles you spoke of either. JJ looks awesome. Kassian, JJ and Letestu are going to do some damage this year.
Question, does Jack Michaels ever actually describe what’s going on on the ice? He never shuts up with his stories about players or other things. Can’t stand him.
JM knows stats and can talk hockey! Lets hope he nevers comes up with LB looked calm or JJ Lois awesome…
to each their own but i really enjoy him. I notice he goes on tangents when there isn’t anything pertinent to say about the ongoing play.
You noticed wrong.
First game of the 2016-17 season v.s. the flames he had to cut short an anecdote to make the call on Maroons – and Oilers, first goal of the season. He wasn’t calling the play on the ice, he and Bob were waxing poetic over Lance Bouma.
It wasn’t a stoppage; no return from a commercial break – just Jack and Bob making sure everything they’d googled during the day wasn’t going to waste.
I’m fine with their indulging in idle trivia and small talk during a slow game, or whatever.
But it’s painful to hear play going on in the background as Jack gives out the last five seasons’ stats for the other teams forth line winger and the fourth d-mans plus-minus and point totals since his days playing for some obscure coach in some NCAA market that no one listening to the broadcast has ever heard of or cares about.
He’s no Rod.
There shall only ever be one Rod.
The worst is the first ten minutes of the game. Between Oilers Now; the pregame show and the Face-off show we get the starting lineups and any and all other trivia we could want.
But what does Jack do???
He proceeds to repeat all and any information that – were one truly in need of it and had not been able to listen to the radio all day – could be easily obtained on the internet.
Meanwhile, the play goes on as he repeats already well-hashed over trivia while managing to bring up anything and everything else he googled during the day that has nothing whatsoever to do with what is going on on the ice.
It’s time for the ultimate cheese Ukrainian SCTV telecast from Rogers place. Jabba the Hut, Jack Michaels (Han Solo) and Tommy the Man Boy. Coming to you live from some broke down van in the Rogers place parking lot. Matching purple suits.
I don’t mind jack…😔
I disagree, he is fantastic… I live out of market & don’t get many games on TV, so this is my only connection.
I have lived all over this country & have listened to hockey on radio in many markets. For sure, Edmonton has been extremely lucky with Rod Phillips & Jack Michaels. I think JM is very skilled at shifting between the play & the banter.
The latter is really needed in a radio broadcast to add a bit of colour. You could be listening to Canuck games or Calgary, their radio guys stink… The Winnipeg guy, on their first time around was also very good, (I forget his name) “And Esssssenzzaaaaa, the saaaaaave.”
Used to listen to radio broadcasts all the time. Now I prefer to listen to the opposition’s broadcasts. Sorry Can’t listen to JM.
Yamomoto: Looks good, but needs more time
Khaira: Looks ready for a spot
Jokinen: Looks really good and has some chemistry with Nuge, that bodes well for the depth
Flames prospects: Suck
fLames lost to Vancouver 5-3…. I was under the impression they had depth. I believe fLames fans are going to learn the true meaning of “regression”. Lol
Yeah. We’ve been hearing the same old story from them all off-season. “Without McDavid, the Oilers have nothing”, “Our team is better at every position”, blah, blah, blah.
Its ironic that the fLames have laid 3 “coilers” in a row.
The best part about that to me is the flames announcers during the Edm@Cal game went on about how awful the Canucks B-squad was going to be.
Just wondering where all the phlegm’s trolls are? Usually you can’t swat them away with a newspaper.
I for one will not be complaining about slashing penalties. I would love for the refs to call the rule book, it would open up the game so much. I can handle 3 months (or longer) of more penalties while players adjust.
Especially in the playoffs the slashing and cross-checking needs to be called; Getzlaf and Kesler would have received no less than 500 minutes in the playoffs alone if they called them all.
Love to see JJ clicking. Here’s hoping he can bring some of that offence in to the regular season.
Yamamoto’s got to go down this season right? He needs a year to get…
Well he’s not getting much bigger, is he? He’s sure been an exciting yet poised player so far. It’s a shame JP wasn’t in the lineup tonight. Jelly’s gonna leapfrog him if he doesn’t manage to show something this PS.
Tank the next game. Perfect in the preseason’s bad luck. GO OIL!
It’s a good tactic of the mighty Oil to make sure our opponents know their new goalies are terrible before the start of season and crush their collective spirits. In other news the Utica Comets beat the godless Flames.
Sluggish starts are ok in an away home in preseason, that’s what these games are for! Get rid of the rust.
Nuge 3 points , joki 3 points …. beat the jets and shames best lines and their starting goalies,
Our team rocks. This is real. Save $ for playoffs 2018. I’m buying tix for home opener now
*away game
Nice win. Good to hear Jokinen looks good. Another bargain signing for Chia.
Jussi J all the way. He will be a solid depth player for us this year.
I think it is fitting JJ changed his number to #16 this year.
He reminds me of a jack of all trades player like Jarret Stoll.
great job Oilers B team on beating the Jets A team (thumbs up)
So Jesse Puljarvi is not ready is not ready by the sounds of it. not surprised, we can be patient, but this means we have to send Paka down so that Pulj has a finnish buddy to hang with. Suddenly we have room for one more forward.. Jagr or Iggy folks? who’s it gonna be??
also I think Auvitu knock Gryba down to the seventh D spot.
Klef Larrson
Nurse Benning
Auvitu Russel
Booya
Don’t think I’m comfortable playing Benning ahead of Russell just yet. I think we need to see more of him before giving him a top-4 spot.
I like benning 5 on 5 better but Russell on the pk
I envision the second and third pairings getting relatively equal ice time. We’ll have to see who from our defense shows improvement this year. I’m hoping Nurse takes a big step, although I expect a more modest improvement from him.
I dunno boys…. I said it about Leon a few years ago that he wasn’t ready. I’m scared to have Brossiot in the cage. A lot of my co workers disagree but I think we should get a more solid back up Goalie like Jose Theodore or even Halak. I havent researched their salary requirements but im not confident in our back up Goalie.
I am. He will be fine. Besides, he’s really only needed for 12-15 games and I think he can handle that. He did have a .928 save % in the few games he played last year, so he has shown some ability to get it done.
JOSE THEODORE?
IS IT 2003?
He retired like 5 years ago man, where have you been ?
hahah my bad lol I must have been sleeping when I wrote that
Halak went like 7-1 or 7-2 down the stretch for NYI last year and is still signed there. With NYI trying to resign John Tavares I highly doubt he’s available.
Why do all the writers and all the commenters only notice the good things khaira does? He still does mess up a lot, but it’s like you all want him to succeed so bad that you pretend it didn’t happen.
Case in point, he should know by now that he has to keep his stick away from opponents hands area, but instead he takes a needless offensive penalty by slapping the guys hands, this lead to winnipegs only goal on the ensuing PP.
I’m cheering for JJ to, but let’s not ignore his mistakes and try to keep a balanced perspective.
Of course he makes some mistakes, he’s a 4th liner. And I don’t remember anyone saying he’s a perfect player, and their analysis of him is within the perspective of a 4th line player. If he was auditioning for a top-6 spot, then I could see the concern.
Disagree 100% everyone is adjusting to the crackdown on slashing. Look at the amount of slashing penalties being called this pre season. Gotta give players time to adjust you spend years doing something than all of a sudden it’s a penalty. Give him time to adjust.
Oh this is so confusing JJ AND JJ are both playing great!! Auvitu is a pleasant surprise. Yamamoto looks determined to force his nine game window.
When Chia traded for Korpikoski I was expecting/hoping for a 40 point season from him.
With Jokinen, I know he will put up 40. Could even do 50.
I’m not going to be wrong this time. Love the way Finns play the game.
I’m not sold on Pulju yet , want him to spend a full year in AHL and called up near the end
@Tyler – you DO realize that they are calling all these slashes to make the players adjust and actually play within the rulebook, right?
Yamamoto has me thinking about speed. Not just foot speed, but hand/eye, stick, and even speed of thought. It could be that his game will just translate to the pros – and if it does, maybe he makes the team? blasphemous I know…
9 games feels possible with Slepy and Pulj where they are.
it won’t happen…
also – here’s hoping Jesse Puljujarvi can play half as well as he does in EASports.