GDB 46.0 Wrap Up: Oilers @ Panthers
By baggedmilk
9 years agoI think 14 people saw the Oilers win that game. Final Score: 3-2 Oilers in the shootout.
The annoying thing about watching the Oilers go on the road is seeing how empty some of these other arenas can be. To make matters worse, Florida is having the kind of year that a fan base could get excited about. What I wouldn’t give for the Oilers to be in the playoff hunt. What I wouldn’t give for meaningful games in November. It’s nothing short of amazing that Oilers fans still pack (mostly) Rexall Place despite the fact that we’ve all lost a decade since their last playoff experience. It’s amazing, and shocking, and makes the Oilers one of the luckiest sports franchises on the planet.
Anyway…
I’ll tell you one thing, the most interesting race of the season won’t be for the Calder, or the Stanley Cup, it’ll be for who finishes dead last and guarantees one of Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel. With Buffalo losing again tonight, and the Oilers picking up another point in the standings, we’re in for a hell of a race for the bottom. This year has everything the Crosby sweepstakes didn’t have, an actual race to the turd house of the NHL. The Crosby draft came off the heels of a lockout, the McEichel reward will go to the franchise that showed 82 straight games of ineptitude. This is history in the making.
We wrap.
THE BRIGHT SIDE
- The Oilers have lost 17 games by 1 goal, this season. That’s excellent progress for the #Tank2015 movement.
- Jordan Eberle’s breakaway goal showed the kind of hands that he’s got. This was Eberle’s 12th goal of the season, and took over the team lead in that department.
- Matt Hendricks scored a shorthanded goal (his 6th) on a beauty feed from Boyd Gordon. If only everyone on the team worked as hard as they do. Hendricks is having his best season since 2010-11 with the Capitals.
- The Oilers broke a 14 game losing streak on the road.
- I liked seeing Nail Yakupov in the shootout. Todd Nelson gets a ribbon for finding ways to build confidence for his players. He ended up having the winning goal in the shootout.
- Viktor Fasth kept the Oilers in the game all night. I’m sure he would like to have the Gudbranson goal back, but he gave the Oilers a chance to win. Fasth finished the night with 35 saves and a .946 save%.
THE FACE PALMERS
- There were about 15 people watching the game at the arena tonight. What a hockey market Florida is.
- It’s annoying to see how Florida surrounded their young talent with veteran players. The Panthers went out and got a lot of guys with Cup winning experience.
- Erik Gudbranson scored his first goal in 39 games. The Oilers are, once again, the most generous team in the NHL.
- Taylor Hall needs to keep his stick swinging in check. TayTay was visibly rattled when things weren’t going his way, and I think he needs to keep that in check.
- Two points in the standings are counterproductive to the #Tank2015 movement.
BEST OF THE TWEETS
Are you hilarious? Show me. Tweet your nonsensical ramblings to @OilersNation and @jsbmbaggedmilk for your shot at landing in the GDB Wrap Up.
SHAMELESS FACEBOOK PLUG
Normally I use this space to plug a sponsor, talk about a contest that’s coming up, maybe announce a new NationGear design (new designs coming in February), but today I would like to make a plea for friends. The truth of the matter is, we don’t have as many friends as we would like. To be honest, there are times when we feel like we’re being picked last in dodgeball – it hurts to be lonely. That’s not to say that we don’t have any friends. In fact, we have over 800 fine friends, but we’re greedy and we want more. What the hell am I rambling about? Our Facebook page.
Like the OilersNation Facebook page by clicking here. On said page, we’ve got some exclusive content and contesting ideas to keep the rest of the season as fun as possible. Take a minute, like the page, and make Wanye happy. This whole “lack of friends” thing has really been weighing on him.
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