GDB 12.0 Wrap Up: Oilers sloppy from the crease outward, fall 6-2 to Stars in second straight loss

1 year ago

It hurts. Final Score: 6-2 Stars

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I said it this morning in the GDB and I’ll say it again here now: I still hate the Dallas Stars. I don’t care that decades have gone by since the Oilers and Stars used to meet every year in the first round of the playoffs, I’ll be carrying that grudge with me until the day I die. And even though the two teams meeting today had absolutely nothing to do with those from 20+ years ago, a loss to the Stars still stings worse than others, and so I needed the Oilers to come alive in this matinee even if the historical numbers for afternoon games are not in our favour. So when the Stars opened the scoring with a quick one by Pavelski, I could almost hear the collective groan from Oilers fans everywhere. It was one of those starts when it almost seemed as likely that the Oilers would pass the puck to an opponent as they were to a teammate. But as the period wore on, the boys started to get their legs moving a little bit and the result was a handful of really nice chances off the rush that Wedgewood (or a post) handled to deny them the tying goal.

Heading into the second period, there was a whole lot of room for improvement from an Oilers perspective, and the first item on my to-do list was for the boys to stop giving the puck away. Just as important was the need to get the next goal and avoid giving the Stars any breathing room. Unfortunately, a blast from Colin Miller put Dallas up by a pair only six minutes in with a blast from the point that was 1000% stoppable. What we didn’t know at the time was that this goal would only be the start of a dreadful period of hockey for the Edmonton Oilers that saw them give up three goals and look about as sloppy as they have all season. Even when the boys got themselves on the board with a PP goal to make it a 2-1 game, it’s not like they were buzzing around and looking like a team that was on the verge of coming back. Starting with a rough day for Campbell in net, the Oilers weren’t anywhere near good enough from the crease outward and the Stars ended up picking them apart mistake by mistake.

Staring down a massive hole with not a whole lot of time left to solve the problem, all I was looking for the Oilers to do was win the third period. Even if they just did something to make the game interesting it would be an improvement over what we watched for 40 minutes. I don’t think that was too much to ask, ya know? So when Darnell Nurse cut the lead to two goals in the opening moments, I thought that maybe we’d be in for an entertaining finish. The bad news is that the Dallas Stars didn’t care about what we wanted, erasing Darryl’s early goal only 20 seconds later. Things didn’t get much better from there either. I mean, unless you consider Jamie Benn wrapping up his hat trick and nailing the coffin shut on an embarrassing loss to be your idea of a good time. For me, this loss is about as frustrating as it gets not only because I hate losing to the Stars but mostly because of the way it happened. Whether you point your finger at what happened in net, the shoddy defending, or the mountain of giveaways that happened throughout, there aren’t many positives to take away from this one and maybe it’s a good thing the Oilers are hitting the road so that they can reset and get this train back on the rails.

The wrap.

THE BRIGHT SIDE

The game is over now.
Leon Draisaitl pulled the Oilers to within a goal (2-1) with a power play snipe from his office near in the circle. After battling with Ryan Suter in front of the net, Draisaitl settled back into his office and teed off on a pass that RNH slid right into his wheelhouse.
Darnell Nurse pulled the Oilers back to within two (4-2) after he found a lane, jumped up into the play and took a pass from Puljujarvi in stride before shelving his shot up and over Wedgewood. The goal also marked Nurse’s 200th NHL point as well as Puljujarvi’s 100th point for the assist.
Derek Ryan has looked really good lately and it was a shame he couldn’t score on that first period breakaway because that came at a time when the game was still up for grabs. Either way, Ryan has been playing well lately and I wanted to give him a shout out for the effort.
Congrats to Jesse Puljujarvi on registering his 100th career NHL point with the assist on Darnell Nurse’s third period marker.
I am happy to report that the Oilers were able to score one goal on six power play chances. That said, we obviously needed more.
I will celebrate winning 50% of the faceoffs but only for a millisecond.

PRESENTED BY BETWAY

THE FACE PALMERS

Joe Pavelski opened the scoring (1-0) with a tap-in at the goal mouth after Hintz found him with a perfect pass that he simply had to guide into the open net. Six minutes into the game, the Oilers were chasing again.
Colin Miller put the Stars up by two goals (2-0) with a slapshot from the point that beat Campbell cleanly through the glove. I don’t know if the puck went through Campbell’s glove as they were suggesting on the broadcast or not, but that’s a tough goal to give up regardless of how it ended up in the net.
Jason Robertson restored Dallas’ two-goal lead (3-1) with a short-side shot that hit the post, bounced off Campbell’s back, and into the back of the net. For me, this was another puck that Campbell needed to stop because it’s not like he didn’t have a clear line on the shot.
Shortly after the third Stars goal, Jamie Benn put his team up by a field goal (4-1) after Jason Robertson basically dangled Campbell from behind the net only to lose the puck in the crease, leaving his captain with a tap-in. Benn added a second goal (5-2) early in the third period on the power play after a blocked point shot took a friendly bounce right onto his stick with an open cage to shoot at. Benn completed the hat trick (6-2) only a few minutes later after he broke into the Oilers zone on an odd-man rush and rifled a shot over Campbell on the glove side.
The NHL site has the Oilers listed with seven giveaways but there’s no way that number can be right, can it? I refuse to believe it with the way they were dishing out turnovers all afternoon like it was a charity bake sale.
Another game, another time when the PK couldn’t keep the opponent off the board. The Oilers allowed two goals on three chances when down a man. Not near good enough.
I’m not going to lie to you guys: this was a rough game for Jack Campbell. While he was fine enough in the first period, the wheels really fell off from there as Soup got tagged with at least three goals that he’d want to have back. As much as there are a bunch of us trying to defend the guy, it will ultimately be up to him to turn his year around because it has not started off well. Campbell finished the afternoon with 30 saves and a .833 save%.
Kailer Yamamoto may never score again. The snakebite is real and I feel for the guy.
Same with Warren Foegele, actually.
Outshot 36-30 and that makes it a run of games in a row where this has happened.