GDB 10.0 Wrap Up: Oilers @ Wild

THE BRIGHT SIDE

• Connor McDavid and Nail Yakupov are hot fire together. They both extended their point streaks to six games with their first period assists on the goal by Taylor Hall. I swear to Gord that I am going to run out of words to accurately describe how amazing Connor McDavid is at playing hockey. Someone buy me a thesaurus. 
• Did I mention that Connor McDavid is amazing?
• Taylor Hall continues his excellent play despite what the haters think. He scored his fourth goal of the year on the power play off of a nice play by ConYak. Hall later made an even nicer play on his assist to Pakarinen. 
• When Rob Klinkhammer went down Iiro Pakarinen filled in on the top line with Nuge and Hall and looked good in the process. He scored his first goal of the season off a beautiful dangle and dish by Taylor Hall. All world play by Hall, and a great finish by Little Buttcheeks. 
• Darnell Nurse settled in nicely in only his third NHL game. The knock on ol’ Darryl was that he was a bit scrambly sometimes but he looked good tonight. He didn’t try to do too much, played a steady game, and made excellent passes to get out of the defensive zone. Having mobility on the backend opens up a whole new world in OilersNation, not to mention the Nurse bomb he dropped on Dubnyk for his first NHL goal.
• Can we all agree that Cam Talbot was a monster pickup for Peter Chiarelli? On the first two Wild goals Talbot was screened and the second two goals were a result of poor defending against the cycle. He was solid throughout the night (the stats won’t show how good he actually was) and gave the Oilers a chance to win. Talbot finished with 24 saves and an .857 save%. 
• The North x NorthGretz Podcast kicks off next week! Follow myself, Jeanshorts, and Chris the Intern as we explore all the best of the Nation Network in 35 minutes or less. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and on Soundcloud. New episodes will be up every Monday so plan your lives accordingly.

THE FACE PALMERS

• Brutal start by the Oilers. You can’t spot a trapping (read: boring) team like the Wild two goals less than 10 minutes into the game. Also worth noting that you can’t give up two goals in under a minute either.
• Every time I see Devan Dubnyk I can’t help but wonder how things would have gone if MacT didn’t throw him under the bus before his last season as an Oiler had even started. Granted, it all worked out in the end (McDavid), but it was tough sledding for both the Oilers and Dubnyk through the 2013-14 season. Regardless, it annoyed me to see Dubnyk get the win tonight.
• The Oilers really had no answer for the Wild’s cycle tonight. Whenever they established themselves in the Oilers’ zone the defense struggled immensely to break things up. 
• Ryan Suter had two goals all year, last year. He had two tonight. I call shenanigans! 
• Speaking of shenanigans, what’s up with the Oilers sticks tonight? During the third period alone I could have sworn that they broke a half dozen sticks. I know Darnell Nurse is a beefcake, but Nugey? Shenanigans.
• With the Oilers having injuries on the back end they need veterans like Sekera and Fayne to step up and play bigger, tougher minutes. Body position is very important and on the first goal their bodies were positioned right in front of Cam Talbot. 
• I don’t know what game the refs were watching but I find it hard to believe that they only saw three infractions all night (two PPs for the Wild, one for the Oilers). Matt Dumba connected with a headshot on Lauri Korpikoski in the first period and didn’t even get so much as a glance from the officials. Did the Oilers get the replacements for these past two games or what?

SCORING SUMMARY

BEST OF THE TWEETS

CONYAK 2015