Blues 4, Oilers 1 post-game Oil Spills: There’s no such thing as an easy win
By Cam Lewis
5 years agoWith the Canucks and Blues lined up on the schedule, it looked like the Oilers had four easy points ahead of them. But welcome to the NHL — there’s no such thing as an easy win. Even against the worst teams in the league, you need to show up to earn two points.
What happened…
The Blues took a 1-0 lead halfway through the first period when David Perron (because of course since he’s a former Oiler) rushed down the wing and fired a wirster past Cam Talbot. You have to give Perron some credit, this was a nice shot.
The Oilers would tie the game halfway through the second period when Jesse Puljujarvi took a pass from JJ Khaira and fired a one-time snap past Jake Allen. It wasn’t the prettiest goal, but it’s great to see Puljujarvi getting into the mix offensively. Getting shots on net is never a bad thing.
And then this happened. It kind of came out of the blue (no pun intended) to the shock of everyone. I was at the game and it all of a sudden there was like a five-minute delay and the Blues randomly have a goal. Nobody knew what was going on or what was being reviewed and then the ref comes to centre ice and said we have a good goal. It was shocking the Blues were just able to continue to shove Talbot into the net until the puck went in.
The Blues went up 3-1 early in the third period when Vladimir Tarasenko sniped a power play goal past Talbot. Even though the Oilers were only down two with a full period left to go, it immediately felt like the game was iced after this was scored.
By the numbers…
The worst and most disappointing made evident on the shot chart (and your eye test will surely validate this) is how the Oilers simply didn’t put their foot on the gas in the third period. They came into the third down 2-1 and quickly went down 3-1 thanks to that Tarasenko power play goal, but the Oilers only managed to get six shot attempts towards the Blues net in the period. The Oilers allowed nearly as many high danger chances against than they managed just shot attempts towards St. Louis’ net in total while the Blues were defending a lead.
Thoughts…
- I don’t even feel like diving into that weird go-ahead goal St. Louis was given because I feel like it undeservingly distracts from how bad that effort was last night. I do concede the team has had a busy schedule as of late, playing every second night for the past few weeks, but you need to put out a better effort against a horrendous team like the Blues. St. Louis had been allowing nearly four goals against a game the past month and the Oilers were barely a threat at all last night. They looked slow, sluggish, disengaged, didn’t win races to pucks, didn’t make good passes, and just didn’t look like the team we’ve come to see in the Ken Hitchcock era. A dumb goal like the one the Blues got last night really shouldn’t even be a factor because you should be scoring four or five goals against this team.
- One game I did like was JJ Khaira’s. Despite the fact his penalty in the final few minutes was a bit of a nail in the coffin (let’s be serious, they weren’t doing anything anyway) he was one of the few players playing with a consistent effort and edge last night.
- The power play was a nightmare last night. The Oilers got four chances in the second period and couldn’t do anything with any of them. It’s pretty clear the team misses Oscar Klefbom in this area because Darnell Nurse simply doesn’t have the same vision and ability as he does at the point. I’m not sure who else you’d throw there, though I wonder if five forwards is the way to go until Klefbom is back. I mean, can you just toss a rookie like Caleb Jones into that role? He moves the puck well and quickly, but that’s a big ask for somebody with little experience at the level.
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