GBD 50.0 Wrap Up: Oilers drop 6-3 stinker against Blues
5 months ago
There’s winning, there’s losing, and there’s whatever that game was.
There will be no Oilersnation’s Player of the Game, because the Oilers decided that it’s October all over again with that performance. If you didn’t watch the game, lucky you, as the Oilers fell 6-3 to the St. Louis Blues.
If you did watch the game like me, well, we’ll get through this together.
THE WRAP UP IS PRESENTED BY BETWAY
It didn’t start off great for the Oilers, as the Blues jumped out to an early lead, with the Blues’ player getting a lucky bounce and slotting it home. That didn’t impact the Oilers, though, as Leon Draisaitl scored a power-play goal to tie the game.
It looked like the Oilers had all the momentum, as their next power play featured two open looks from Zach Hyman in his office, but Jordan Binnington stoned Hyman twice within a minute. The Oilers managed to pull ahead with a garbage goal from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in the final minute, his third goal in two games.
At the dying breath of the first period, the Blues scored with no time left (the clock had just run out), a precursor to what was to come. Just over a minute into the second period, the Blues tied the game and scored another three goals in the period to jump out to a 5-2 lead.
Corey Perry scored his first goal as an Oiler after Edmonton killed off nearly six straight minutes of penalties (we’ll get there). Perry also tried to spark the team when it was 4-2 with a fight, but it didn’t do much to galvanize the team. Despite the goal to give the Oilers hope, it wasn’t enough as the Blues closed out the game, especially with Brandon Saad, who still plays hockey, scoring an empty net goal.
So what went wrong? Well, the penalties and the penalty kill was a huge problem. After the Vegas game on February 6, the Oilers had killed 40 of 41 penalties. In their next three games, they had given up five goals in seven attempts. Edmonton killed off the first two penalties they faced, but allowed two goals on the ensuing two penalties to dig their hole. They did however, kill off six penalties.
After the first period, where the Oilers had three power plays to St. Louis’ one, the Oilers took seven straight minors, while the Blues kept it clean. Vincent Desharnais, who had been playing great prior to the St. Louis game, took half the penalties, including an elbowing penalty with an additional unsportsmanlike call.
It doesn’t help that Connor McDavid has an assist on nine of Edmonton’s last 10 goals. Yes, McDavid had another big night getting three assists and the Oilers still lost. On top of that, the Oilers had 39 shots, but most of their shots after the first period were low-quality scoring chances. It was really reminiscent of how they were playing in October.
With a Los Angeles Kings win, they move within three points of the Oilers, with the latter having a game in hand. Edmonton will return to action on Saturday at 1:00 MT to take on the Dallas Stars, who decimated the Nashville Predators 9-2 on Thursday. It’s not going to get any better, and the Oilers will need to make an impact move at the deadline.
As always, you can follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Threads @Brennan_L_D.
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