GDB 45.0 Wrap Up: Most of that wasn’t nearly as fun, Oilers fall 4-3 in Canadiens rematch

THE BRIGHT SIDE

• @Connor McDavid tied things up (1-1) after Caleb Jones hit him with a stretch pass that sent the captain in alone where he was able to pull off a nice move in tight and lift the puck up and over a helpless Jake Allen.
• @Ryan Nugent-Hopkins got on the board (4-2) in his first game back from his concussion after McDavid found him in the slot with some space and he ripped it into the top shelf. The goal came on a beautifully executed play but it was too little too late.
• @Jesse Puljujarvi now has goals in three straight games (4-3) as he was able to cash on in before the buzzer as the Oilers were trying to complete the comeback.
• The penalty kill took care of 3/4 of Montreal’s chances with the man advantage and I think that’s pretty solid given that the goal they did allow came on that horrible call on Draisaitl. I’m giving the boys a pass here.
• @Caleb Jones picked up the assist on McDavid’s goal and I wanted to give him props because he’s very clearly looked much more comfortable over these last couple of weeks. Will it be enough to keep him in the lineup now that Dmitry Kulikov is ready? We shall see.
• Do you love knowing that the Oilers won 64% of the faceoffs? Of course you do.
• When you have the two best players on the planet, the only option is to make a t-shirt that reflects their brilliance. Shine bright, boys. Pick up the Dynamic Duo tee here.

THE FACE PALMERS

• @Artturi Lehkonen got the Habs on the board (1-0) in the dying seconds of the first period with a beautiful backhander that he ripped up and over Smith on the glove side. To be honest, it was almost surprising that Montreal wasn’t able to get anything done earlier than the final minute of the frame because they were by far the better hockey team in the first.
• Only 11 seconds after McDavid tied the game, @Josh Anderson restored the lead (2-1) after he drove the puck wide, cut towards the middle, and snapped a shot past Smith low on the blocker side. I’m not going to lie to you, I had stopped paying attention by the time Anderson scored his second goal of the game and made it a 4-1 score.
• @Tyler Toffoli extended the lead (3-1) after he was in the perfect place at the perfect time to knock a rebound past Smith after Archibald turned the puck over with a weird own-goal shot.
• That was a very rough first period for the Oilers as they were heavily outworked, out-chanced, outshot (13-4) and ultimately outscored. No bueno. We knew the Habs would be hungry after the way they lost a couple of nights ago but the Oilers need to find a way to counterpunch during these storms.
• It was no surprise to see @Mike Smith back between the pipes and looking to build off of Monday’s impressive showing in which he locked down his 16th win of the season, but it was simply not meant to be for the veteran. Despite his best efforts, Smith didn’t have enough fingers to plug every hole in the dam and he just couldn’t bail his team out from their many mistakes and it was obviously costly in the end. Smith finished the night with 27 saves and a .871 save%.
• @Zack Kassian was helped down the tunnel early in the first period after throwing a hit behind the Habs net and that was obviously not the start he wanted, especially after playing what I thought was easily his best game of the year on Monday. The broadcast crew speculated that it might be a Charley Horse but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
• The Oilers were outshot the Habs by a 31-25 margin and I feel like the Corsi Gords will be unhappy with the way this went down.
• It was prison rules out there because the refs were not calling anything at all. I mean, how many cross-checks was Shea Weber allowed to throw without having to spend any time in the box. Then again, these same refs also started calling nonsense BS in the third period so who the hell knows what’s going on… again.

SCORING SUMMARY

#GOODCONTENT

WRAP UP PRESENTED BY SHERWOOD FORD THE GIANT