GDB 22.0 Wrap Up: Can’t stop won’t stop, Oilers keep rolling with 3-0 win

3 years ago

Special teams are life. Final Score: 3-0 Oilers

Tuesday night’s comeback win for the Oilers had to be the most fun I’ve had during a regular season game in a very long time. Does anyone disagree? From start to finish, that game was a rollercoaster for the emotions and having our boys come out on top with a much-needed win after falling behind by an early field goal was incredible to watch. Even so, you’re not likely to win many hockey games when you fall that far behind, and I was looking for the Oilers to come up with a much better start here in round two. And while the boys certainly came to play and pushed the pace right from the opening faceoff, they weren’t able to beat Demko despite a handful of grade-A chances and it allowed the Canucks to hang around in a tie game. The effort was there, all we needed was the execution.

Heading into the second period with bagels on the scoreboard, the Oilers really didn’t need to change much apart from maybe throwing more pucks on net and crashing the crease to try and find some garbage. When you’ve got a goalie battle going on as we did between Smith and Demko, it just felt like the kind of night where it was going to take a greasy one to even get on the board, ya know? Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait long for the Oilers’ powerplay to end the stalemate with a crease-front goal from Chiasson to grab themselves the lead, but it honestly didn’t feel like one goal was going to be enough to win either. And with Demko making it nearly impossible to add much in the way of insurance, the Oilers needed to have to find a delicate balance between pushing for more offence and shutting things down if they were going to lock down a fifth-straight win.

In the end, the Oilers chose both routes as they were not only able to tack on some insurance with a second powerplay goal but also get the stops they needed to keep the door shut. All-in-all, this was an incredible team win for the Oilers and yet another flavour in the ways that they’re able to win hockey games. Very impressive stuff and two more huge points.

The wrap.

THE BRIGHT SIDE

@Alex Chiasson opened the scoring for the Oilers on the powerplay (1-0) after Nugent-Hopkins found him with a pass at the top of the crease and he followed it up with a spin-and-shoot motion that beat Demko low on the catch side.
@Jesse Puljujarvi gave the Oilers a little bit of insurance with a powerplay goal of his own (2-0) that came from the side of the net after the big Finn collected the rebound and tucked it through a scrambling Demko. Honestly, there is nothing on earth that I love more than seeing this guy have some success because his joyful attitude is infectious.
@Connor McDavid put the final nail in the Canucks’ coffin when he popped in an empty-netter near the end of the third period.
@Mike Smith was back in the crease for the Oilers and looking to keep his perfect record alive in the series finale against the Canucks and he was very sharp once again. I don’t know what’s going on with Smith right now but he is playing about as well as any of us could have ever hoped and I am happy to say how wrong I was about him getting this much work. From start to finish, Smith was rock solid between the pipes and finished the night with 32 saves and his second shutout of the year.
Was everyone else as pumped as I was to see @Ethan Bear back in the lineup after spending the last few weeks on the injured reserve. As expected, Bear didn’t play as much as we’re used to which makes sense in his first game back (14:13 TOI) but he still did plenty of those same little tricks with the puck that make him a wonderful defenceman to watch.
I think it’s fun to watch @Evan Bouchard navigate the early days of his NHL career because he’s already starting to polish the skills he has in his toolbox that will ensure he has a long and productive career.
@Gaetan Haas appreciation post!
The Oilers’ penalty kill was excellent and deserves a bunch of love for coming up with four huge stops at critical points in the game.
Not to be outdone, the powerplay came through with a pair of goals (2/5) that were obviously the difference in the end.
You absolutely knew that I was going to write about the Oilers winning 57% of the faceoffs.

THE FACE PALMERS

@Thatcher Demko was pretty annoying and I feel like he’s directly to blame for me losing a bunch of my prop bets.
My frustration with the Oilers’ willingness to pass up excellent shooting opportunities to try and force in another pass knows no bounds. Fin.
A year ago today, we landed in Vegas for the second Nation Vacation and it’s sad to think about how much has changed in the 12 months since.

SCORING SUMMARY

#GOODCONTENT

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