THE BRIGHT SIDE

• @Zack Kassian got the Oilers on the board with a hard working goal at the front of the net that saw him fight off his man, track down Caleb Jones’ rebound, and hack the loose puck across the goal line. Up until that point, the Oilers looked dead in the water and all I could do was hope that Kassian’s goal would give his team a little bit of life. Midway through the third period, Kassian wasn’t finished as he banged home a second goal, again as a result of his own hard work and positioning. Unfortunately, Kassian’s night ended early after he ended up taking a dumb penalty in the third period and getting himself ejected, leaving his team down a man that they desperately needed.
• @Ryan Nugent-Hopkins pulled the Oilers to within a single goal on the power play after the Oilers had some wonderful puck movement around the Hurricanes’ zone that got them moving out of position. It was RNH’s first goal after coming back from the hand injury that kept him out of the lineup for a couple of weeks, and I’m hoping that it will open the floodgates for him a little bit.
• Connor McDavid factored in on all three of the Oilers goals and took over the league lead in scoring. It’s a shame that we’re unable to celebrate a strong offensive performance because of a total disaster around him.
• @Caleb Jones got his first point of the season with an assist on Zack Kassian’s second period goal. By my eye, Jones has played relatively well this season and I was happy to see him get another chance with Joel Persson being re-assigned to Bakersfield early this week. I know there are times when he looks like a rookie and that he still makes the odd mistake or two, but I can’t help but feel like there is a tonne of potential with this kid.
• I’m looking for silver linings so I’ll just mention Ethan Bear’s puck skills because they make me happy.
• We outshot them? Yay? (36-32)
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THE FACE PALMERS

• @Sebastian Aho scored for the Canes early in the first period when Teuvo Teravainen gave him a one-touch pass to the side of the net where he had a wide open corner to sink the puck in. Koskinen did the best to get across, but even his 12-foot legs weren’t enough to handle this one. Aho added a second goal in the third period, this time a power play marker, that acted as the final nail in the coffin that was the Oilers’ chances.
• @Nino Niederreiter put the Hurricanes up by a pair with a power play goal that, once again, featured a fine display of puck movement that ended up with a perfectly placed shot-pass to the front of the net.
• In the dying seconds of the first period, @Ryan Dzingel put the Hurricanes up by three goals after his snapshot beat Koskinen low to the blocker side (3-0).
• Local boy, Jordan Martinook, added the Hurricanes’ fourth goal of the night and gave his team back the lead (4-3) that they dropped after the Oilers came roaring back from a 3-0 deficit.
• Are you surprised that @Dougie Hamilton scored from centre ice? By that point, I wasn’t.
• @Mikko Koskinen was back between the pipes tonight for his 17th start of the season, and I was looking forward to seeing him keep the good times going. I was at the game on Friday night and Koskinen was fantastic, so I was hoping for the same level of performance from the big man against the Canes. Unfortunately, that is not what we got from ol’ Mikko on this evening. Instead, Koskinen was tagged for six goals, including an embarrassing fake dump-in attempt from Dougie Hamilton that caught him cheating towards the corner. Needless to say, this was not his night in net and a game that he’ll want to forget as soon as is humanly possible. Koskinen finished the night with 26 saves and a .812 save%.
• @Leon Draisaitl did not look like himself tonight and I would like to know what that’s about. I know he got an assist, but someone else had to notice it too, right? While with Nuge on the second line, he looked nothing like the guy that was ripping the league up early in the season and I’d like for him to get back on track… please.
• I’m curious what @Sam Gagner has to do to stick in the lineup? For a team that is starving for secondary scoring, you’d have to think that having him in and playing offensive minutes would be a boost over some of the other bottom six guys, no? I’m just throwing that out there.
• The Hurricanes went 3/4 on the power plan and that special teams success was the difference. The Oilers’ PK has been great all season, but tonight was not one of those nights.
• Along those same lines, the Oilers needed more than a 1/5 effort on the power play. I know it’s weird to complain when they ended up with a special teams goal, but they needed way more than the one to counter the lack of kills they were getting at the other end.

SCORING SUMMARY

#GOODCONTENT

BEAR SEASON TEE