THE BRIGHT SIDE

• Ryan Spooner opened the scoring for the Oilers as he found himself some open ice and smashed home a one-timer off of a perfect feed by Leon Draisaitl. Spooner’s second goal with the Oilers was a big one as it put the Jets back on their heels a little bit after opening the first period with all kinds of pressure.
• Darnell Nurse got his fifth goal of the season by charging towards the front of the net in search of a rebound. Fortunately, the puck bounced in off his foot and even upon review, it was shown to be a good goal and the Oilers were back to within one. As it turns out, Darryl loves scoring in Winnipeg!
• Jujhar Khaira got his second goal of the year in a similar fashion to Nurse’s goal in that he drove to the net and had the puck bounce in off of him. Jesse Puljujarvi threw the puck into the slot and got a friendly bounce in off JJ to tie the game up at three goals apiece. Gotta love those greasy goals.
• Alex Chia’s son gave the Oilers their first lead of the night after he parked himself in front of the net on the powerplay and kept his stick on the ice, creating the perfect target for McDavid. The thing I like about Chiasson is that he plays a simple game and is finding ways to contribute with greasy goal after greasy goal.
• What a night for the captain, huh? Connor McDavid’s first assist on Darnell Nurse’s second period goal gave him 300 points on his career. That point made him the second fastest Oiler behind Gretzky and the 18th fastest player in NHL history to get to 300 points. McDavid wasn’t done with a lone apple, though, as he added another on Chiasson’s powerplay goal and likely should have had more if he had some luck go his way.
• After getting blanked on the scoresheet with the man advantage for nearly 20 straight times, the Oilers have scored powerplay goals in back-to-back games and I am a big, big fan. The boys finished the night at 1/2 on the PP.

THE FACE PALMERS

• The Oilers were up by a goal but ended up taking a tough penalty, giving the Jets a chance on the powerplay that they would make good on. Mathieu Perreault grabbed the puck in the corner and walked it past Nurse and was able to feed the backhander past Cam Talbot.
• Moments after Perreault tied the game at one apiece, Matt Benning couldn’t clear the Oilers zone and the puck ended up on Dustin Byfuglien’s stick. From there, he got a lucky bounce after his shot from the boards bounced in off Kevin Gravel’s skate. Bad luck goal for sure.
• The Oilers only let Patrick Laine score because they’re trying to help inflate his upcoming contract to put the Winnipeg Jets in cap trouble. I get it.
• Mark Scheifele tied the game up at four after he wandered into the slot with waaaaay too much space and ripped a one-time shot past Talbot. Wheeler was posted up behind the net and fed the puck out front to an open Scheifele and that’s a bad combination if you’re trying to hang onto a lead.
• Josh Morrissey won the game for the Jets in OT immediately after McDavid hit the post at the other end because that’s the way these things seem to work in sports. Frankly, I think Talbot should have had that shot and I’d expect him to say the same thing.
• That third period was UGGGGGGGGLY. Wow.
• Unfortunately, the Oilers needed perfection from their PK tonight and they didn’t get it. I’m not saying that allowing a single goal against is the worst outing you’ll ever see — it’s not — it’s just that they needed to be perfect. Edmonton finished the night at 1/3 on the PK.
• The Oilers were HEAVILY outshot tonight (40/26) and a lot of that came in the third period.
• Cam Talbot looked really good in his last two starts so I was very interested to see how he’d follow that up after getting the last couple of games off. From where I blog, I saw an up and down night for the goaltender, meaning that he made some huge saves that kept the game close but also allowed a couple of goals that he definitely should have stopped. At the end of the day, the Jets got a lot of shots on net (17 in the third period) and Talbot should get some credit for getting the Oilers a point, but he should also take his part of the blame for losing the second. Talbot finished his night 35 save and a .875 save%. At the other end, Hellebuyck finished with 22 saves and a .846 save%.
• Jason Garrison only played 8:59 tonight and I wonder that means we’ll see Caleb Jones soon? Tomorrow? Too soon?
• The Oilers were not good in the faceoff circle again tonight, winning only 47% of the draws they took.
• I was having so much fun making myself cocktails after wins lately, but that got RUINED tonight. RUINED! #BeetCast coming up in a few minutes and you can join in the conversation over on my Twitter account.

SCORING SUMMARY

#GOODCONTENT

REAL LIFE PODCAST