GDB 16.0 Wrap Up: The Milk’s Gone Bad

7 years ago

Remember your happy place. Final Score: 3-1 Rangers

I don’t know about you guys but I was still salty about the way the Oilers gave up points in their last game against the Rangers. I mean, who leaves Rick Nash open in front of the net with like 90 seconds left to go in the game? Sure, the puck took a lucky bounce right to Nash’s stick, but that doesn’t matter. The Oilers left points on the board, and tonight’s game was their chance to try and get those back. For the second time this week, the Oilers have a chance to face an opponent on the second night of a back-to-back and, unlike the game against Dallas, Edmonton really needed to take advantage. The Rangers played last night in Calgary and they were also starting their backup goalie. Ah well, who needs to take advantage of things like that, right?

With the coming week’s schedule looking as tough as it does (Ana, LA, Dal), the Oilers desperately needed a win tonight against a tired Rangers team. To do that, they were going to have to be ready to play for all three periods and find a way to not give up a goal in the first and last two minutes of the hockey game. While they accomplished the latter the former is seemingly easier said than done. Apparently, the Oilers have a burning desire to force themselves to rally during hockey games because they coughed up another early goal, just 1:20 into the first period. The Rangers are good enough without spotting them a one goal lead. As it turns out, the early goal didn’t really matter in the end because the Oilers keep finding ways to shoot themselves in the foot.

Even with the mistakes, the chances for the Oilers to get back into the game were there but the finish was not. Edmonton generated a bunch of shots and chances they couldn’t beat Raanta more than the one time. To their credit, if there’s one thing the Oilers are great at it’s making backup goalies look like they’re in line for the Vezina. While they were able to fire off 39 shots, many of them were unscreened with the rebounds uncontested. It was a busy night for Raanta but I don’t think it was necessarily the toughest night. Even though there were some nice moments tonight, especially in the second and third periods, those moments were wasted by the ~~soul sucking~~ momentum killing mistakes that the Oilers gave up. At the end of the day, the Oilers may have won the Corsi but they failed to take advantage of another opportunity to steal points from a tired team, and their losing streak is extended.

These two wasted games against Dallas and New York could be even uglier when we remember that the Oilers are now going on a California road trip.

Wrap it up.

THE BRIGHT SIDE

Andrej Sekera hadn’t scored a goal in 45 games (likely because shinpads are always in the way) but he got a big one tonight. Sekera finished off a pretty passing play by Pat Maroon and Connor McDavid to pull the Oilers back to within one goal at the end of the first period. Sekera was, for me, the best Oiler defender tonight.
I missed Zack Kassian. The big man was moving tonight, and he did a good job of using his size to his advantage. Kass had a couple great chances to score, including a breakaway attempt early in the first period. Needless to say, Kassian was a welcomed addition to the lineup.
Tyler Pitlick has been a real bright spot this year. The guy hustles, plays a simple game, and earns every minute he gets out there. Who know how long Pitlick’s run will last but I’m enjoying it while it’s happening. Good for him. How many of us were surprised he even got a contract this past summer?
Not a “lights out” night for Cam Talbot, but I don’t really blame him for the loss either. The team in front of him allowed the Rangers to get multiple, prime scoring chances, and, frankly, the outcome could have been much worse if not for Talbot. He may not have been great but he wasn’t bad either. Taldad finished the night with 24 saves and a .889 save%.
Connor McDavid hasn’t scored a goal in eight games, the longest drought of his young career. That’s bad. But even though Connor isn’t scoring, he’s still producing and he got another assist tonight. It’s funny that Connor’s “struggles” still come with him being a productive part of the team. If only the other centres could get some of the same.
The Oilers outshot the Rangers 39-27.
The Oilers went 53% in the faceoff circle.

THE FACE PALMERS

*searches priors wrap ups for bullet point complaining about the Oilers allowing an early goal, copy, paste*
Not so fun fact: the Oilers have been scored on within the first two minutes of a game in five of their last seven games. Horrible stat no matter how you put it.
For the first time all season, Todd McLellan pulled Jordan Eberle off of McDavid’s line and replaced him with Tyler Pitlick. Ebs has been getting hammered in our comments section lately, and McLellan seemingly agrees that his play can use an upgrade. Another tough night for Eberle.
Nuge with a horrible giveaway at the blue line and Grabner walked in alone for a breakaway goal. The Oilers were pushing for the comeback and Grabner scored to put the Rangers up by two goals, and that mistake hurt. RNH has to be better than that.
Milan Lucic has to get going. The guy needs to be more consistent or else he’s never going to get himself back onto Connor’s line, especially not with the pace Maroon is going along at.
Leon Draisaitl has two points in his last 11 games and that’s even with him playing against the other team’s second and third pairings. Both he and Nuge need to produce if this team is going anywhere.
The Nurse-Gryba pairing got caught on the ice for a couple of goals. They weren’t the only issue on the back end tonight, but they did get hit with more goals against than any other pair.
The Oilers needed their power play tonight, and, again, they were let down. Although the first unit was able to get some good zone time and possession they weren’t able to get any finish.
The Rangers are a really quick hockey team and they used that to their full advantage tonight. The Oilers often got caught puck watching and the Rangers found themselves with some excellent scoring chances. Credit where credit is due, that’s a very good hockey team.

SCORING SUMMARY

1ST PERIOD

TIME	TEAM	DETAILS	SCORE
01:20	New York	Michael Grabner (9) ASST: Kevin Klein (4), Rick Nash (4)	1-0
13:18	New York	Dan Girardi (3) ASST: Kevin Hayes (8), J.T. Miller (10)	2-0
18:45	Edmonton	Andrej Sekera (1) ASST: Connor McDavid (14), Patrick Maroon (3)	2-1

2ND PERIOD

TIME	TEAM	DETAILS	SCORE
14:35	New York	Michael Grabner (10)	3-1

3RD PERIOD

TIME	TEAM	DETAILS	SCORE
No Scoring

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