GDB 57.0 Wrap Up: Good Dog

7 years ago

Who’s a good boy?! Final Score: 5-2 Oilers

With the way Saturday’s crap rocket against Chicago crashed into planet earth, sending cosmic shatnel* throughout the Nation, this felt like a must win game for the Oilers. Our boys in blue have only won once in the last five games and they need to right the ship in short order. Unfortunately, the Coyotes have owned Edmonton for what seems like an eternity and tonight’s matchup was by no means a lock even though the Oilers have won two straight against the garbage dogs. The Coyotes have been one of the better teams in the Western Conference over the past 10 games and tonight was going to be a challenge. Though the Oilers needed to figure out how to score again or they aren’t going to beat anybody.

With McLellan switching up the lines all we could do is hope that something clicked and that pucks would start going in the net. For a team with as many offensive minded players as the Oilers have on their roster you can’t help but wonder why none of them can seem to score consistently aside from a couple guys. The drought continued early as the Coyotes found a way to manufacture a goal while the Oilers sat back, played timid hockey, and fumbled their way through the first period. Things looked grim and Twitter was getting ugly. The middle frame, however, was a different story entirely. I don’t know what Todd McLellan said during the intermission but the Oilers flew out of the gates in the second period, scored three goals, and stole the lead away from Arizona. Whatever the wake up call was from their coach the team seemed to pick up what he was putting down.

Heading into the third period with a lead gave the Oilers an excellent chance to close out the game and get themselves back in the win column. All they would have to do was keep things simple and find a way to limit their mistakes. Amazingly, Edmonton didn’t sit back on their lead but, rather, pushed forward to build upon it. While they still have to work on consistency (Edmonton was a completely different team in the first period compared to the last two), the Oilers played a much better team game than they have in any of the five games since the All-Star break. Although it didn’t look like a win was on the agenda after the way they played in the first period (I’d still love to know what McLellan said in that intermission btw) the Oilers clawed their way out of their scoring slump and found a way to win the hockey game. Those are two big points, my friends.

Wrap we must so wrap we shall.

*see what I did there?

THE BRIGHT SIDE

The Oilers were down a goal and Connor Murphy took a high sticking penalty on Connor McDavid and they made him pay for it. Leon Draisaitl scored his 21st goal of the year off of a nice pass down low from Milan Lucic and Big Sexy 2.0 made no mistake. Draisaitl wasn’t done with the goal, though, as he’s a man that enjoys helping his friends, so he put up two assists as well.
Matt Hendricks crashed the net and banged home a loose puck as a result of hard work and a willingness to get himself to the tough areas. As per tradition, the goal was challenged for goaltender interference, but the call on the ice stood and the Oilers took a 2-1 lead, albeit for 11 seconds.
Mark Letestu gave the Oilers their second lead of the game on the power play with his 11th goal of the season. Letestu took a nice feed from Connor and he made no mistake of burying it on the short side. Nuge didn’t get a point on the play but he was causing a ruckus in front of the net and likely gave Letestu a little bit more space to get a shot through.
Oscar Klefbom took a perfect pass from Anton Slepyshev and he made no mistake with his ninth goal of the season, a shot that beat Domingue on the short side. Klefbom also had two assists on the night to go along with his team-high 25:25 of ice time.
Pat Maroon was banging around in front of the net and he found some loose change right in front of the crease and knocked it into the net from the seat of his pants. Maroon’s goal was his 20th of the season and he continues to build on his career high. What a season for the big man.
Connor was flying around the ice and I love how unsurprising it is. I will never get tired of watching him race past defenders like they’re standing still like he did that on a few occasions against the Coyotes. The miles travelled were not only for style as McDavid registered his 19th multi-point game of the season with two assists, and reclaimed the NHL points lead with 62.
Cam Talbot had a fine night and kept his team in the game when they were playing like garbage early on. Dadbot made some big saves early and late in the game and closed out the win with 23 saves and a .920 save%.
The power play was the difference for the Oilers as they scored two goals with the man advantage and the Coyotes scored none on five chances.
Keep February 24th free on your calendars because the boys at Nation HQ decided that a playoff push party is in order for the first time in a decade. Tickets are now available here and I assure you that you’re going to want to be a part of this one.

THE FACE PALMERS

Jooris got a lucky bounce on his goal in the first period. Jooris beat Gryba to the front of the net and the point shot from Ekman-Larsson took a friendly bounce and bounced in off of him.
That Hanzal is so hot right now. Martin Hanzal found a quiet area of the ice, took a feed from Max Domi, and beat Talbot on the short side. The Oilers were a little bit soft on their coverage but that’s a shot that Cam Talbot normally stops.
How many turnovers are the Oilers going to give up before they figure out to keep things simple? They were just sloppy in the first period.
Too many penalties tonight as they gave the Coyotes five chances on the power play. Luckily, they weren’t able to score or else this night could have ended much differently.
44% in the faceoff circle. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Gregor nailed all three of his game day predictions except for the score (undershot) and I’ll probably never hear the end of it. Burn the witch?

SCORING SUMMARY

1ST PERIOD

TIME	TEAM	DETAILS	SCORE
10:44	Arizona	Josh Jooris (3) ASST: Jordan Martinook (10), Oliver Ekman-Larsson (22)	1-0

2ND PERIOD

TIME	TEAM	DETAILS	SCORE
02:51	Edmonton	PPG – Leon Draisaitl (21) ASST: Milan Lucic (20), Oscar Klefbom (13)	1-1
03:22	Edmonton	Matt Hendricks (3) ASST: Iiro Pakarinen (1), Mark Letestu (14)	1-2
03:33	Arizona	Martin Hanzal (14) ASST: Max Domi (15), Radim Vrbata (27)	2-2
10:24	Edmonton	PPG – Mark Letestu (11) ASST: Connor McDavid (44), Leon Draisaitl (28)	2-3

3RD PERIOD

TIME	TEAM	DETAILS	SCORE
02:43	Edmonton	Oscar Klefbom (9) ASST: Anton Slepyshev (5), Leon Draisaitl (29)	2-4
06:29	Edmonton	Patrick Maroon (20) ASST: Oscar Klefbom (14), Connor McDavid (45)	2-5

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