GDB 24.0 Wrap Up: Oilers @ Penguins

8 years ago

We won? We won! Final Score: 3-2 Oilers in the shootout.

I would be lying if I told you guys that I was exciting about watching tonight’s hockey game. I’m sick right now (as are many people at Nation HQ) and the last thing I really wanted to be doing was watching the Oilers drop a shit on the ice like they have been for the past couple nights. As much as I love my job, the last thing my sickly corpse needed was to watch another beatdown. I needed a miracle. I needed a win.

Much to my delight, my prayers were answered! When the Oilers pulled out to a two goal lead I had just assumed that all the flu meds I’ve been pumping into my system were making me trip balls. Surely I must have be hallucinating. There was no way that this was the same team that played against Carolina and Detroit. After checking with the missus to confirm that my eyes weren’t lying to me I realized that the Oilers had, indeed, shown up to play.

For a minute, I thought I my Dayquil dreams were coming to an end. Why? Evgeni Malkin was a menace to society tonight, and he almost single handedly robbed the Oilers of this victory. The puck seemed to be following him around and it wouldn’t have surprised me if he had scored four or five tonight. I was literally nervous for the final 20 minutes of play. I mean, this the Oilers we’re talking about, and we all have reason to be nervous about games being tied up late. I was sure they were going to find a wing to bung it up.

Fortunately, for all our sanities, the Penguins (Malkin specifically) were unable to complete the comeback and the Oilers closed out the win in the shootout. Who saw this coming?

Wrap it up.

THE BRIGHT SIDE

Shout out to Jujhar Khaira for making his NHL debut tonight. There were a couple times when he looked a little bit nervous, but that’s to be expected, but he was solid out there. A little luck and he would have had his first NHL goal late in the third period. Bonus points awarded for that mo he’s rocking.
Leon Draisaitl has been a well oiled machine since his recall from Bakersfield. He banged home his 8th goal of the season after being in the right spot at the right time, in front of the net.
I have to say that I’m coming around on Andrej Sekera which is a miracle considering he is going to be around for a while. He seems to be settling in and playing better as the season goes on. Is he the #1 the Oilers need? No, but the pairing of Sekera and Nurse have been doing their best to fill the part.
I always love seeing Matty Hendricks pull off the paralyzer in the shootout. He only has one move, but it’s a good move.
Anders Nilsson was rock solid tonight. Nilsson was huge when they needed him, and he did everything he could to get them the win. How about that sequence on Malkin in overtime? Great game. Nilsson finished the night stopping 39 of 41 for a .951 save%
50.5% in the faceoff circle. Could always be better but not as horrible as we’ve seen.
David Perron was held scoreless tonight. The curse loses this round.

THE FACE PALMERS

Where the hell was this team the past couple nights?
Malkin was an unstoppable force tonight. His goal will be on every highlight real there is tonight. The thing that sucks is that we’ll have to watch that goal in the “best goal” countdowns for the rest of the season. How did he follow that up? With an absolute bullet on the power play. Just ridiculous.
Klefbom needs to up his awareness to make sure he doesn’t get pick pocketed like he did against Malkin, on his first goal. To his credit, Malkin is a filthy pick pocket.
Even though they scored on their first power play of the night, the Oilers didn’t get much done from there. On more than one occasion the Oilers were actually out-chanced on their own power play. The power play had a chance to close out the game in overtime, but spent most of their time chasing the puck on account of not being able to hit the net.
How does Leon Draisaitl speak better English than I do?

SCORING SUMMARY

1ST PERIOD
02:02	EDM	Leon Draisaitl (8) Wrist shot – ASST: Taylor Hall (16), Teddy Purcell (9)	1 – 0 EDM
07:30	EDM	PPG – Lauri Korpikoski (3) Tip-in – ASST: Andrej Sekera (8), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (11)	2 – 0 EDM
2ND PERIOD
00:48	PIT	Evgeni Malkin (10) Backhand shot – ASST: NONE	2 – 1 EDM
03:29	PIT	PPG – Evgeni Malkin (11) Slapshot – ASST: Kris Letang (13), Sidney Crosby (10)	2 – 2 Tie
3RD PERIOD
NONE
OT PERIOD
NONE

SHOOTOUT
ROUND	EDMONTON OILERS	PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
1	Matt Hendricks (scored)	David Perron (miss)
2	Jordan Eberle (scored)	Sidney Crosby (miss)

BEST OF THE TWEETS

Talk to me Twitter. Hit me up on Twitter at @jsbmbaggedmilk for your chance at ending up in the GDB Wrap Up.

NEW NATION HATS ARE AVAILABLE

Your first chance to score this brand new Nation Hat will be tonight during our pop-up store at the @pintedmonton #WhyteAve. They’ll be up on the website shortly. #NationGear
A video posted by OilersNation (@officialoilersnation) on Nov 27, 2015 at 11:28am PST

Remember that time in the summer when you wanted to buy a Nation hat but waited too long? Remember how you wanted a second chance to make things right? You’re in luck. We just got a shipment of the fresh lid shown above. Not only do Nation hats make your head 48% sexier, they also make great Christmas gifts. I’m warning you guys that we will sell out of these again, so don’t wait. Order your Nation Hat 2.0 at NationGear.ca.