THE BRIGHT SIDE

• Leon Draisaitl scored a huge shorthanded goal in the second period to give the Oilers a goal they desperately needed. Up until that point, the team looked like they were coming out of a coma and it was Connor and Leon that got the boys on the board and into the game. Draisaitl converted a perfect 2-on-1 pass and cashed in with the captain to open the scoring. Fun fact: Draisaitl has more shorthanded points than power play points.
• The Oilers were down by two goals and it was the Ryan Nugent-Hopkins line that got greasy down low and knocked home an ugly one. Cammalleri and RNH both took a hack at the puck in the slot with the latter putting it home for his 11th goal of the season.
• Connor McDavid has had some kind of flu twice in the past month and yet somehow he still has 33 points on the season. Imagine if he had been healthy? The Captain is heating up.
• The fourth line was really solid again tonight. They had their cycle game going, were banging and crashing, and were easily one of the best lines again.
• The Oilers were great in the faceoff circle, going 61% on the night. A strong effort from all of their centremen.

THE FACE PALMERS

• The Oilers only had seven shots after 20 minutes. That’s not anywhere even close to near good enough against the Philadelphia Flyers.
• Jordan Weal scored a power play goal midway through the second period (on their fourth chance of the night already) off of a really nice passing play by the Flyers. They threw the puck around with precision and Weal was there to cash it in from the doorstep.
• Surprise, surprise the Oilers gave up the puck at the Flyers blue line and they took it back the other way to score a goal and give themselves a 2-1 lead. To make matters worse, Brossoit should have had the Weise shot from the high slot, but the whole sequence was a comedy of errors. The turnover started the play and the lack of a save finished it.
• Kris Russell tried to throw the puck across the ice at the Flyers’ blue line (SURPRISE!) and Philly was, once again, able to turn it down and beat Brossoit at the other end of the ice. After the giveaway, Raffl was sent in alone and he made no mistake to give the Flyers a 3-1 lead.
• After having a tough third period against the Flames, Laurent Brossoit needed a bounce back night and he got some of it against the Flyers. He was square to the shooters, did a pretty good job of controlling his rebounds, and looked a lot quieter in the net than we’ve seen over his past couple starts. Unfortunately, he let in another gross goal that ended up being costly as the Oilers ended up needing that one back. Brossoit finished the night with 29 saves and a .906 save%. I won’t blame this game on Brossoit — the team in front of him was awful for most of the night — but he has to make some saves. I wonder how long Chiarelli is going to wait before making a move?
• Another night, another round of blown special teams. The Oilers allowed one power play goal on four Philadelphia chances and got absolutely zip done with their power play. At some point they will try something new, right?
• Speaking of the penalty kill, what is with the weird ‘T’ or ‘L’ formation that the Oilers are running? What have they got against the box? Diamond? Anybody?
• By the way, what is a penalty anymore? Both teams got weirds calls against/in their favour tonight. The inconsistency in refereeing is remarkably consistent.
• I really didn’t want to eat beets tonight. Not against the Flyers. Not against the team that literally just ended a 10 game losing streak. Gord dammit. #BeatCast on my Twitter.

SCORING SUMMARY

#GOODCONTENT

REAL LIFE PODCAST