GDB 57.0 Wrap Up: Jets @ Oilers

8 years ago

BOOOO power play. Final Score: 2-1 Jets in the shootout.

When the Leafs were in town the Oilers started out that game as though they had no interest in playing, let alone winning. They were lucky that their goaltending was solid and that the team they were playing was absolutely awful. If the Oilers were going to beat the Jets tonight they were going to have to be better in every single way, and they would have to get good goaltending. The Jets may be a bad team right now, but they’re not Toronto bad and Edmonton had a hard enough time with Toronto bad so, needless to say, tonight was going to be a challenge.

Thankfully the Oilers looked like they were actually expecting to play a hockey game tonight. Their start was night and day compared to the one against the Leafs. Though the Jets were able to sustain pressure at times, they weren’t able to get the puck to the slot for many high quality scoring chances. They found a way to bend but not break in the defensive zone. The bigger problem was that they weren’t able to generate many scoring chances of their own, both at even strength or on the power play. If the Oilers couldn’t generate a chance off of the rush their offensive game was basically non-existent. They couldn’t cycle the puck, and had a hard time entering the zone.

In the end, I blame tonight’s loss on the special teams. Firstly, the power play couldn’t get it done, again, and this was another one goal loss that could have gone the other way had the PP been able to score. Second, the Oilers took way too many penalties and it took minutes away from their skilled guys. I don’t know how many times the power play has let this team miss out on points in the standings, but it doesn’t make sense considering the talent they can throw over the boards. And it’s not like the power play is getting truck loads of chances — they’re hardly able to get set up at all.

There was a point left on the board tonight and that’s a story that’s being replayed all season.

We wrap.

THE BRIGHT SIDE

Connor McDavid makes me happy. There are no words to describe how much more I enjoy watching Oilers games with him in the lineup. It was a quieter night for Connor, but I’ll never get tired to watching him fly up and down the ice.
Laurent Brossoit was rock solid in his first start since the end of the last season. He made a bunch of great saves, and you can’t help but wonder how much more time he’ll need (if any) in the AHL. Brossoit finished the night with 32 saves and a .970 save%. He was fantastic.
Matt Hendricks came up with a clutch shorthanded goal (his third) to tie the game up and get the game into overtime. The Oilers could use five more guys like Hendricks.
Sekera played over 24 minutes of solid hockey tonight. He is easily the Oilers best defenseman right now.
Taylor Hall was much better tonight than he has been over the past few games. He was generating more chances than he had in the three games prior.
The penalty kill was great again, killing off all six attempts it faced.

THE FACE PALMERS

Why can’t the Oilers hit the net? Seriously.
The Oilers were dominated early in the second period. I guess the Oilers had planned on really testing Brossoit because they stopped playing early on in the middle frame.
I wish I knew how many times the Oilers gave up the puck at the Jets’ blue line. It had to be close to 10 times. I guess it’s hard to produce offense when you can’t even enter the other team’s zone.
I realized that I don’t remember the last time I saw the Oilers run a successful cycle.
The power play was really bad. You can’t help but think that the Oilers would have a few more wins on the board if they had a decent power play all year. How many one goal games has there been? How many might have gone the other way if they were able to score with the man advantage? The Oilers went 0/5 tonight. Gross.
Another really quiet night for Nail Yakupov. I love the guy but he’s not getting much done. To his credit, he hasn’t exactly been getting handed minutes where you’d expect him to be successful.
I was really hoping Dustin Byfuglien was going to make it to free agency. Lame.
They didn’t test Pavelec nearly enough considering he hadn’t played a game in 12 weeks.

SCORING SUMMARY

1ST PERIOD
NONE
2ND PERIOD
07:15	WPG	Blake Wheeler (15) Snap shot – ASST: Nikolaj Ehlers (13), Bryan Little (25)	1 – 0 WPG
3RD PERIOD
11:00	EDM	SHG – Matt Hendricks (3) Snap shot – ASST: Mark Fayne (3)	1 – 1 Tie
OT PERIOD
NONE

SHOOTOUT
ROUND	EDMONTON OILERS	WINNIPEG JETS
1	Matt Hendricks (no goal)	Blake Wheeler (goal)
2	Jordan Eberle (goal)	Andrew Ladd (goal)
3	Connor McDavid (no goal)

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