GDB 16.0 Wrap Up: Oilers can’t hold off Lightning as the winning ends at three games
8 months ago
All good things must come to an end, including Edmonton’s winning streak.
On Saturday afternoon, the Oilers visited the Tampa Bay Lightning, falling 6-4 to the perennial Stanley Cup contender. This loss brought their record to 5-10-1.
Let’s take a look at the Oilersnation’s Player of the Game, as well as things worth mentioning.
Oilersnation’s Player of the Game: Derek Ryan
The Oilers’ bottom six hasn’t produced a bunch this season, but that changed Saturday.
Early in the game, the Oilers took a penalty. However, it was Edmonton that capitalized on the opportunity, as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins made a nice pass to Ryan who had his stick hooked on the breakaway but still managed to beat the Tampa goaltender.
His second goal came in the crease, as Warren Foegele made a strong move to the net. The puck laid in the crease, when Ryan just poked it in to give the Oilers a 3-2 lead.
Ryan has been reunited with Foegele and Ryan McLeod. The trio always had positive play in the 2023 playoffs, and I was a bit surprised they weren’t together to start the season.
These were Ryan’s first two goals of the season, and he now has three points.
THE WRAP UP IS PRESENTED BY BETWAY
Things worth mentioning:
Stuart Skinner’s run of three straight games with a .900 save percentage or better is over. It wasn’t a great game for the 25-year-old netminder, allowing some weak goals while also getting some unlucky bounces. He allowed five goals on just 23 shots, giving him a .783 save percentage.
The Oilers have had 40+ shots six times this season (including this game), and have lost all six games. That is just an awful statistic, as it shows that Edmonton is dominating games and is being let down by either goaltenders or the inability to finish.
James Hamblin scored his first career goal in the National Hockey League on a broken play. The 24-year-old got the puck near the faceoff dot and fired it glove side for his first goal and his first point.
Evan Bouchard scored his fourth goal of the season, giving him 16 points in 16 games. However, he was also solely to blame for Tampa’s second goal of the game, as he made a pretty bad pinch that led to a Nikita Kucherov goal. In this case, Bouchard taketh and Bouchard giveth.
Edmonton got away with taking five penalties Wednesday against Seattle, but Tampa punished them. Two of Tampa’s six-goal games on the man advantage in four tries, including a goal on an abbreviated power play that was about 20 seconds. Edmonton had five opportunities themselves and failed to cash in on the man advantage.
The Oilers were the better team Saturday, but goaltending and penalties let them down. They’ll stick around in Florida and face off against the Panthers at 5:00 PM MT on Monday. Let’s hope they can pick up the win in that game.
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