GDB 66.0 Wrap Up: Oilers @ Flyers

8 years ago

As Chris the Intern said, “MAROOOOOOOOON!” Final Score: 4-0 Oilers

The last time Connor McDavid played against the Philadelphia Flyers he fell, ran into end boards, and broke his collarbone. You know, just in case you hadn’t heard. By the time the game started I was tired of that storyline, but if there is one thing that MSM love doing it is banging home a narrative. I honestly felt bad for Connor McDavid for how many questions he had to answer about the injury considering it happened months ago. I felt even worse for Brandon Manning after finding out that was getting death threats on Twitter over Connor’s broken angel wing. Some of you people have no chill. It’s a game. Relax.

Death threats aside, I did think that the Oilers were cursed, for a minute, when Taylor Hall went crashing into the end boards and was slow to get up. I don’t know what it is about the Philadelphia Flyers but they seem to hold some kind of death card that causes Oilers players to go crashing into the boards. We were lucky this time. Little did Ghost Bear know that Taylor Hall is NHL gumby and his limberness saved him from incurring any serious harm. Luckily, the Philly boards curse was as irrelevant as the Flyers’ hopes in this hockey game. The Oilers played another solid road game (penalties aside) and extended their winning streak to three games. This was a very good hockey game for the Edmonton Oilers.

Speaking of said game, wasn’t it weird to see an Oiler player wearing #19 and not having a feeling of dread that things are likely to go horribly wrong? It was refreshing, and I honestly didn’t remember what that felt like. From where I blog, #19 is a fantastic hockey number and I am glad to see that it will have a new life with newly acquired mountain man, Pat Maroon. Maroon did his best to make #19 great again as he scored a goal and caused the kind of mayhem that Oilers fans have been missing for years. Now I’m not saying that Patrick Maroon will be Hulk McDavid, but it is nice to see the big man causing a ruckus.

If the type of game Maroon had tonight can be a semi regular thing I don’t think it will take long before Oilers fans fall in love.

Wrap it up.

THE BRIGHT SIDE

This is one of the feistiest Oilers games that I’ve watched in a long time. For once the Oilers have some big men in the lineup and they threw their weight around. Not only were there hits, but the Oilers didn’t back down from the Flyers for one minute, and a lot of that can be attributed to some of the new guys.
Connor McDavid has to be the fastest player in the NHL. Taylor Hall is very fast, and Connor is even faster than that. It’s insane to think that he may one day get faster. Lordy.
Nail Yakupov scored his sixth goal of the season by driving to the net and banging home Connor McDavid’s rebound. Strange how Nail Yakupov (complimentary player) provides more offense when he’s playing with offensive players. ConYak is back!
Taylor Hall scored a huge goal (his 21st) tonight to put the Oilers up by two goals. Hallsy earned that goal by flying into the Flyers zone to pick up the breakaway puck, scoring while falling, and crashing into the end boards. Huge effort by Taylor Hall.
I thought Patrick Maroon had a hell of a debut in his first game for the Oilers. He threw the body around, put himself in the tough areas of the ice, and scored his first goal (fifth of the year) as an Edmonton Oiler. Maroon was banging and crashing every time he was on the ice. Refreshing player type for this franchise. Great game.
Lauri Korpikoski scored his seventh goal on a great shorthanded effort by both he and Mark Letestu. Those two, along with Hendricks and Lander, earned their pay tonight with some stellar PK work.
What can you say about how well Cam Talbot is playing right now? He was rock solid again, and didn’t give the Flyers anything. Which is amazing considering how many power plays they had. It will be fun to see how good Talbot can be behind a competent (future) Oilers defense. Talbot was perfect tonight and finished the game stopping all 35 shots he faced.
For as bad as it was to give up seven power play chances, the penalty killers — largely Talbot — were also perfect.

THE FACE PALMERS

What is it with the Philadelphia Flyers and our skilled players crashing into the end boards? Taylor Hall slammed into the end of the rink tonight and he was lucky to get out of unscathed. Not to mention, what was Ghost Bear doing diving for the puck and taking out Hall’s skates?
I can’t be the only one that thought the refs made weird calls tonight, right? I could have sworn that Claude Giroux called a penalty in the second period.
The Oilers took way too many penalties. They gave Philly SEVEN chances on the power play. Ridiculous. They were lucky that it didn’t come back to bite them in the ass.
Todd McLellan briefly benched Jordan Eberle for a lack of effort in the first period. Eberle doesn’t have a great reputation among some Oilers fans for his effort coming back to the defensive zone. It seemed like the silver fox noticed the same thing in the first.
It must have been weird for Sam Gagner to see Zack Kassian as an Oiler, right? I know Sam isn’t here anymore but you’d have to think it’s weird that the guy that broke his jaw is now on his former team.
Speaking of Gagner, the Flyers had three former Oilers on their roster tonight. (Nick Schultz, Sam Gagner, Chris Vandevelde?.
The Flyers were 69% in the face off circle. That’s ugly.

SCORING SUMMARY

1ST PERIOD
11:20	EDM	Nail Yakupov (6) Wrist shot – ASST: Connor McDavid (20), Jordan Eberle (20)	1 – 0 EDM
2ND PERIOD
14:22	EDM	Taylor Hall (21) Wrist shot – ASST: NONE	2 – 0 EDM
16:11	EDM	Patrick Maroon (5) Snap shot – ASST: Adam Pardy (2), Brandon Davidson (7)	3 – 0 EDM
3RD PERIOD
11:59	EDM	SHG – Lauri Korpikoski (7) Snap shot – ASST: Mark Letestu (10)	4 – 0 EDM

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