GDB -2.0 Wrap-up: Saskatoon into this post-game recap, would ya?

6 years ago

Oilers win in Sasky. Ice cold Pilsners for everybody. Final Score: 4-0 Oilers

As the pre-season winds down, I can’t help but look for an imaginary fast forward button that takes us directly to the home opener. I know that we’ve only got one game left but it still seems like an eternity before the season kicks off for real. As much as I’ve been waiting for hockey to come back over these last few months, the pre-season isn’t quite doing it for me anymore. I’m ready for primetime. I got the itch and now I need the scratch. It’s almost like an over the pants handy after you’ve been scoring for real — it’s fine but it’s not the same, ya know?

Impatience aside, tonight’s rematch (AND VENGEANCE!) against the Hurricanes meant that not only is the pre-season winding down but that the Oilers are 6-1 heading into their last tuneup game on Saturday night. Even though pre-season records don’t really matter, you always want to be on the right side of .500 regardless of whether it matters or not. With that in mind, it was nice to see the Oilers redeem themselves after the lacklustre effort that we saw on Monday night. I was at that game and pretty much everyone (a few guys excluded) looked like they were going through the motions, just killing time until October 4th rolls around. As a whole, the team looked much better tonight and the scoreboard reflected it.

Frankly, when the Oilers play their game they SHOULD beat teams like the Hurricanes and that’s exactly what happened tonight. Solid game all around. Fist bumps, orange slices, cold ones for all. Nice job, everyone.

We wrap.

THE BRIGHT SIDE

Hell of a goal by Zack Kassian. I don’t know about you guys, but I have a feeling that Kass is going to have a big season for the Oilers. Disallowed goals be damned!
Milan Lucic finished off a really pretty tic-tac-toe play at the side of the net for the Oilers second goal of the night. Really nice puck movement by Edmonton and a shout out to Lucic for getting the puck from skate to stick before banging it home.
Beautiful goal by Connor McDavid on a 2-on-0 break with Drake Caggiula. Connor pulled out the ol’ Charlie Conway triple deke and finished in a way that only he can. He followed that beauty up with another as he potted his second of the night almost immediately after putting the Oilers up by three. Great night for the captain.
Laurent Brossoit was rock solid and made some huge saves throughout the night. He made some big stops in close, especially in the the first and second periods, and that kept the Oilers in the lead. Brossoit finished the night stopping all 30 shots he faced as he was arguably the best Oiler tonight.
Leon Draisaitl had a really good game. He was all over the puck and seemed to control the play almost every time he was on the ice, often setting up his linemates with all world chances. He may not have registered as many points as he deserved but he was all over the ice.
I still think that Yamamoto should get sent back to junior after nine NHL games but he’s certainly not going to make that decision an easy one. He was really good again and made some really smart plays at both ends of the ice.
I assume Kris Russell hates his body because he was laying down to block shots in game six of the pre-season. Say what you will, the dude competes.
Actually, I thought both Russell and Benning were solid . Both guys were sound defensively and moved the puck effectively.
I dug the feature Oilers TV played about Darnell Nurse in the first intermission. It was a solid look at his journey to the NHL and it was interesting to see the ups and downs that led him to this point.
Only one pre-season game left to go until show time. No more streams unless you’re playin’ swords with the fellas.

THE FACE PALMERS

Enough with the streams already. There are 48 Sportsnet channels and you’re telling me none of them can show the Oilers game?
The microphone on the stream kept cutting out which leads me to believe that Jack and Bob were swearing like sailors. Why else would there be no audio for extended periods of time?
Since tonight’s game was in Saskatchewan I was hoping to see more ads for Pilsner. The Green Diesel waits for no man.
Not a great start to the second period for the Oilers. They looked really sloppy in the first 10 minutes and were lucky that Brossoit was on his game because their two goal lead could have evaporated rather quickly.
The Oilers depended on Laurent Brossoit too much at times tonight. There were plenty of Grade A opportunities right at his doorstep and the team was lucky that their goaltender was sharp in those moments.
There were some pretty weak penalty calls , and I wonder how long the refs are going to call things as tightly as they are right now. Will this continue into April or May? I’ll believe it when I see it.
I assume the Oilers got some kind of discount on the graphics that showed up on screen ? They had the score wrong for a while, no power play clock, and the Broadway Cafe probably deserved better than the banner they got at the end of the periods.

SCORING SUMMARY

1ST PERIOD

TIME	TEAM	DETAILS	SCORE
01:49	EDM	Zack Kassian (1) ASST: Chris Kelly (3), Yohann Auvitu (1)	1-0
13:16	EDM	PPG – Milan Lucic (1) ASST: Leon Draisaitl (3), Connor McDavid (5)	2-0

2ND PERIOD

TIME	TEAM	DETAILS	SCORE
No Scoring

3RD PERIOD

TIME	TEAM	DETAILS	SCORE
10:30	EDM	SHG – Connor McDavid (2) ASST: Drake Caggiula (3), Kris Russell (1)	3-0
12:02	EDM	Connor McDavid (3) ASST: Ryan Strome (2)	4-0

#GOODCONTENT

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