GDB 3.0 Wrap Up: Oilers crash and burn, Jets win 5-2

6 years ago

Breaking News: Shocking defensive zone coverage leads to losses on the scoreboard. Final Score: 5-2 Jets

After Saturday night’s loss to the Canucks, the Oilers needed to have a much better effort and attention to detail if they were going to beat the Jets. Edmonton took seven penalties in their last time out and it’s awfully hard to win at the NHL level if you spend nearly a period shorthanded. They also gave up too much defensively and those are the kind of details that end up making all the difference in tight games. The Oilers needed to pay more attention to those Xs and Os if they wanted to keep the winless Jets in the gutter they’re digging for themselves. At the start of the night, things looked good but then the milk went bad on this one in a hurry.

This game was a weird one because the Oilers played well enough to probably win but didn’t really deserve to at the same time. The frustrating thing about it was that the Oilers played pretty well in the offensive zone but were an absolute trash fire in their own. How often were the Jets able to walk into the slot with red carpet treatment? Frankly, there were times where you’d think the goal of hockey was to clear the widest space possible for your opponent to take the puck through. At the end of the day, the Oilers aren’t going to win many hockey games if they continue to allow that many Grade A chances on their own net. Even though there were things to like about this game, the mistakes far outweighed the positives and the Oilers find themselves on a two-game losing streak.

We wrap.

THE BRIGHT SIDE

Leon Draisaitl got the Oilers on the board with his first goal of the season and it came a time when things were looking bleak, late in the second period.
Less than a minute after Draisaitl scored to put the Oilers on the board, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins followed that up with an absolute beauty for his second of the year. He took a perfect pass from Darryl into the slot, got the puck up in a hurry and beat the goaltender. Great play from start to finish. RNH was easily one of the Oilers best forwards tonight.
It was good to see Anton Slepyshev back in the lineup. After seeing how well he played in the playoffs, I’m hoping that he can take another step forward this year and provide the team with some secondary offence. He’s a big guy with a good shot so here’s hoping that he can pick things up where he left off. He didn’t have the best game but he’ll need some time to bounce back.
Of the defensive pairings, Nurse and Gryba were the most consistent throughout the night. Sure, they may be up against weaker opposition but they played a simple game that suited them relatively well.
Despite giving up two goals, the Oilers had a really good first period. They generated all kinds of shots and chances but they just could not bury anything. Had they kept that up for 60 minutes then we probably wouldn’t be talking about a loss here.
At least not having any games until next weekend give the Oilers plenty of time to practice. They need it.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

THE FACE PALMERS

Not a great shift by Russell on Scheifele’s first period goal. Russell was scrambling and it created chaos where there should have been none. Even though the Oilers were dominating the period to that point, it was the Jets that opened the scoring.
Edmonton got caught running around in their own zone and some good puck movement from the Jets left Kulikov wide open to walk in on Talbot.
Nik Ehlers was basically allowed to go from coast-to-coast without too much interference as he walked into the zone unimpeded and beat Talbot to the stick side. As if that wasn’t enough, the Oilers gifted the Jets all kinds of defensive zone time and they were able to do as they wished for Ehlers second goal in 1:09. To add insult to injury, Ehlers completed the hat trick in the third period. Ugly all around.
Not the night Talbot wanted after his last start in Vancouver. That said, I’m not pinning all of the Jets goals on him either because there was not much going on for defensive coverage in front of him, but there were definitely a couple that he would like to have back. Talbot finished the night with 38 saves and a .884 save%.
Bad night for Russell and Benning. They were a mess more often than not and it gave the Jets too many chances to walk in and do as they wished.
The Oilers were 46% in the faceoff circle tonight. Not awful but needs improving.
What are the Oilers doing with Yamamoto here? He got about five and a half minutes in the first two periods and didn’t have a chance to do anything until he was moved into the top six late in the game. It doesn’t make sense to have him playing on the fourth line. Why not send him down and let him get rolling on his junior season?
I’m not sure how the Oilers only got two power plays tonight but that was a thing. Seems like the refs missed quite a few of those slashes to the hands but maybe it’s just me.
Tonight was Drew’s first appearance of the season doing colour and I can’t say that I missed him. Sorry, Drew. Happy Thanksgiving.

SCORING SUMMARY

1ST PERIOD

TIME	TEAM	DETAILS	SCORE
08:56	WPG	Mark Scheifele (3) ASST: Dmitry Kulikov (1)	1-0
16:27	WPG	Dmitry Kulikov (1) ASST: Nikolaj Ehlers (1), Blake Wheeler (2)	2-0

2ND PERIOD

TIME	TEAM	DETAILS	SCORE
12:53	EDM	Leon Draisaitl (1) ASST: Connor McDavid (1), Patrick Maroon (3)	2-1
13:33	EDM	Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (2) ASST: Darnell Nurse (1)	2-2
16:48	WPG	Nikolaj Ehlers (1) ASST: Jacob Trouba (1), Connor Hellebuyck (1)	3-2
17:57	WPG	Nikolaj Ehlers (2) ASST: Blake Wheeler (3), Mark Scheifele (1)	4-2