GDB 22.0 Wrap Up: Oilers @ Hurricanes
By baggedmilk
8 years ago
What happened tonight was the NHL equivalent of a shart. All you can really do is change your undies and move on. Final Score: 4-1 Hurricanes
Coming into tonight’s game all I could think about was how these solid efforts had to start turning into wins. They HAD to. In years past, the Oilers would lose games because they were just awful, but this year they’re losing despite playing well. It’s like the Hockey Gods are taking our dreams and hopes and rubbing them all over their dirty junk, and then making us pay for it. From where I sit, the Hurricanes are nowhere close to being as skilled as the Capitals are, so matching the effort from Monday night should have locked in a win, right? RIGHT?! *sigh*
Is there any team in the NHL that can make a “winnable” game look as awful as the Oilers? I haven’t seen one. It’s not like tonight’s game started off poorly either. The Oilers actually came out hard and grabbed an early lead which should have gotten them started down the path to victory. Instead, what we saw was the Oilers stinking and the hockey gods playing every dirty trick in their repertoire. Want a linesman to take out a player? Done. Team beats the goalie on multiple occasions only to hit the post? You’ve got it. If the Oilers didn’t have bad luck they’d have none at all.
For me, this had to be one of the most disappointing games of the year. For the past few weeks we’ve been rattling off reasons the Oilers look better but just haven’t been able to squeeze out the wins. Tonight, the Oilers looked awful, and nothing at all like the team that played the Capitals two nights ago. For chunks of the night, they made the 26th place Carolina Hurricanes look like they were contenders. It goes without saying that this was an ugly hockey game. There are no moral victories, and no lessons to be carried forward from this one. On the bright side, it’s still early enough that we can get drunk and don’t have to go to bed angry.
Like lettuce – we wrap.
THE BRIGHT SIDE
- Benoit Pouliot scored his fifth goal (100th of his career) off of a Nugey wrister from the half boards and a nice little play, to maintain the zone, at the blueline by Nail Yakupov. Both of those guys needed to get some points and I was happy they started it off tonight. As an added bonus, Nugey’s goal came on the power play which desperately needs to get going.
- Yak got his 100th career point on the assist that came from Nuge’s power play goal.
- The Oilers power play scored for the first time in what seems like forever. The PP went 1/4 on the night.
- The penalty kill was solid again in it’s only opportunity, albeit against the Hurricanes.
- We won the Corsi (53/47)! The Oilers outshot the Hurricanes 31-27. The “bright side bar” is getting pretty low.
THE FACE PALMERS
- The Oilers power play dropped from fourth (24.0%) to 17th (18.8%) over the last five games (1 for 19). The PP needs to get rolling if they’re going to turn moral victories into points in the standings. Luckily for the Oilers they were able to cash in on the PP tonight.
- How many times have the Oilers allowed a goal in the final minute of a period? Instead of taking a lead into the first intermission a bad bounce allowed the Hurricanes back into the game. Nail Yakupov left the game, and did not return, after he was tackled BY A LINESMAN off a faceoff at centre ice. C’MON, REALLY!? Post game, Nick Kypreos said that he’s hearing that Yak’s injury isn’t overly serious but you should take that with a grain of salt.
- I think that late, first period, Hurricanes goal rattled Anders Nilsson a little bit. He didn’t quite look like himself until the well into the third. I’m not going to say that Nilsson is at fault for all the Carolina goals but I’m sure he’s not happy with them. He wasn’t as sharp tonight as he was against Washington (not entirely his fault) and I wonder if we’ll see Cam Talbot on Friday night. Nilsson finished the game with 23 saves and an .885 save%.
- Jordan Staal hadn’t scored a goal in eight games so it made sense that his streak of ineptitude ended against the Oilers.
SCORING SUMMARY
| 1ST PERIOD | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 07:34 | EDM | PPG – Benoit Pouliot (5) Deflected shot – ASST: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (10), Nail Yakupov (10) | 1 – 0 EDM |
| 19:44 | CAR | Jordan Staal (4) Wrist shot – ASST: Andrej Nestrasil (1) | 1 – 1 Tie |
| 2ND PERIOD | |||
| 10:16 | CAR | Elias Lindholm (3) Snap shot – ASST: Eric Staal (9), John-Michael Liles (3) | 2 – 1 CAR |
| 16:41 | CAR | Jeff Skinner (5) Tip-in – ASST: Justin Faulk (9), Kris Versteeg (12) | 3 – 1 CAR |
| 3RD PERIOD | |||
| 19:09 | CAR | Andrej Nestrasil (2) Snap shot – ASST: Justin Faulk (10) | 4 – 1 CAR |
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