THE BRIGHT SIDE

• I’m super into the HockeyFightsCancer promo happening this month. What the Oilers and Lightning did in pre-game where each of them held a sign of who they were fighting for was awesome.
• Besides the whole two-goals-against thing in the first period, the Oilers played fairly well throughout most of it. All four lines were creating some offensive zone chances and had consistent zone pressure for a few shifts. Rattie, Nurse, Draisaitl, and McDavid all had extremely good scoring chances that were broken up by either a good defensive play or the Tampa goalie. It’s just frustrating we couldn’t capitalize on any of them.
• Darnell Nurse took a one-timer slap shot on goal in the second period and almost knocked Andrej Vasilevskiy off his skates. The guy’s got an absolute rocket. The rebound almost ended up going into the net, but a Lightning defenceman swiped the puck off the goal line. Will we ever see Nurse in the running for the hardest slapshot at some point in his career? I’d like to think so.
• The Oilers first powerplay of the game in the second period was nothing but scoring chance after scoring chance. They dominated the puck for two minutes straight doing everything possible to score, but nothing seemed to go in. It’s frustrating we didn’t score, but I applaud their execution.
• RYAN STROME GOAL! He did it. He finally did it! Strome tallies his first point/goal of the season and finally got the monkey off his back. The third line has done some excellent things in the last few games but has failed to put any goals on the board which was getting infuriating. Strome has played well all season and it finally paid off tonight with his goal. Strome just casually skated the puck end to end, cut to the middle, and fired a hard shot off the post and in. Simple. Brilliant.
• Leon Draisaitl on the powerplay! The Oilers come out hot in the third period with another excellent powerplay. Ty Rattie (who had an excellent night by the way) made a beautiful spinning pass to an open Leon Draisaitl who made no mistake one-timing the puck into the empty net.
• Oscar Klefbom played a little over 26 minutes tonight and I thought he looked really solid. He ended up being a +1 in a 5-2 game which is a pretty big stat for him as well. He’s been a rock for our defensive group this season and I hope his strong play continues.
• Earlier in the third period, Joseph hit Kris Russell in the numbers which made Russell limp off the ice in pain. During his next shift, Milan Lucic targetted Joseph in the third period and laid him out. Then he continued to pumble the little guy into the ice which began a small line brawl. It was exciting and made my blood boil. Of course, Lucic put the Oilers down on the penalty kill, but who cares? That’s the emotion and grittiness we need from the guy.
• In his first game back from injury, I think Ty Rattie had one hell of a game. He was buzzing around the entire ice all night and made a few good plays to set up some scoring chances. Although I wonder what the turnout would have been if Caggiula skated alongside McDavid, I’m perfectly happy seeing Rattie on the top line again.

THE FACE PALMERS

• A bouncing puck in the first period gives Kris Russell a hard time. This put our defence into a spin and Steven Stamkos makes no mistake potting the first goal of the game. He’s the guy that you don’t want to give the puck up to on your own blue line. I was hoping a big Mikko Koskinen could stop the rifle upstairs but that’s a tough one for any goalie coming from Stamkos.
• The speed of the Lightning (specifically Tyler Johsnon) affected us hard and allowed Brayden Point and the Lightning to score a late first-period goal with 25 seconds remaining. This was a back-breaker as the Oilers were beginning to build some momentum at the end of the period.
• The Oilers went down by two in the first period for the SECOND night in a row. If you want to win hockey games that’s not the way to do it. Granted, Tampa Bay and Washington are two very difficult teams to play again, we’ve got to find ways to come out stronger in the first period.
• Just a minute after Ryan Strome’s first of the year, The Tampa Bay Lightning bounced back with their third goal of the game. Yanni Gourde deflected an incoming shot from the point which made the puck bounce SEVERAL times (once) off the ice making it nearly impossible for Koskinen to stop. That’s a tough one to avoid as the Lightning take a 3-1 lead.
• Kucherov and Stamkos did Kucherov and Stamkos things again in the second period giving the Lightning a 4-1 lead. They made a few swift passes in our own end and made everyone on the ice look like pylons, including Mikko Koskinen. That is 4 goals on 24 shots for Tampa Bay and definitely not the Mikko Koskinen we saw in his first three games.
• Andrej Vasilevskiy is extremely frustrating throughout this whole game. I’m not sure whether to put this under The Bright Side or Face Palmers, but the Oilers creating so so many scoring chances and probably would have had three more goals if it was against any other goalie, but Vasilevsky completely shut the doors and crushed all of our dreams tonight. He made some excellent saves, especially during the Oilers power play. Very deflating.
• The Oilers are within two goals of tying the game in the third period and then we go ahead and take two penalties in a row to put us down 5 on 3. The penalties we took were a hooking call from Larsson and a slashing from Benning and probably could have been avoided. We need to be more disciplined when planning a big third-period comeback.
• At the end of the day, Mikko Koskinen let in 5 goals on 35 shots. This is the type of game I would expect from an average backup goaltender, but based on the way he’s played in his first few games, I expected a little more from Koskinen tonight. Granted Tampa Bay is one of the best teams in the NHL, I think Koskinen would have wanted a couple goals back. Talbot will get the start next game on Thursday and I hope he can bounce back strong.

SCORING SUMMARY

#GOODCONTENT

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