THE BRIGHT SIDE

• Just like last game, Leon Draisaitl scored again on the power play with an empty-net tap-in during the first period. After a tight scramble at the net, Connor McDavid slid the puck over to Draisaitl who made no mistake. This is Drai’s 30th goal of the season and a career high for him. The guy is living up to his giant contract pretty well so far don’t you think? Darnell Nurse got an assist on the goal as well, who also has a career-high 27 points this season.
• Thankfully for us, the Chicago Blackhawks continued to take penalties in the first period giving us a 5-on-3 immediately after Draisaitl’s first goal. It took a handful of seconds into the two-man advantage for McDavid to dish it over to Draisaitl to pot his second powerplay goal of the period. It was a classic McDrai connection and gave the Oilers the lead for the first time in the game. Nuge got the second assist as well!
• Two forwards who I thought stood out quite a bit for me tonight were Alex Chiasson and Ty Rattie. Rattie’s been playing really well since being on McDavid’s line but still can’t seem to score any goals. He had a couple really good chances tonight but continued to get robbed by Cam Ward. I’d call him a little snake-bitten at the moment, but hopefully, that changes soon. I’m still expecting to see preseason Ty Rattie sometime this year!
• Please ignore the entire third period when reading this next point, but I thought Oscar Klefbom looked pretty solid in his first game back. No one really knew what to expect from him, but he looked fairly patient with the puck and didn’t show any issues keeping up with the play. He played just over 20 minutes tonight which was a lot more than I expected to see out of him.

THE FACE PALMERS

• Tell me if you’ve heard this story before: The Oilers take a penalty in the first two minutes of the game and give up an early shorthanded goal. Sound familiar? Well, it also happened tonight. We NEED to start games better.
• Connor McDavid took Brad Malone’s stick to the face in the second period and I’M REALLY GETTING SICK OF SEEING CONNOR GET HIT IN THE FACE. Fortunately, he was okay and didn’t miss any ice time, but the boys have to be careful!
• Drake Caggiula was flying all over the ice tonight while playing alongside Toews and Kane. I’m super happy for him but at the same time, I will never forgive Chiarelli for trading him for Manning. Also, it doesn’t sound like the Oilers gave him a video tribute? I know he didn’t do a TON here but we were his first NHL team and I was definitely expecting a little something.
• After a failure to clear the zone and mishandling in the high slot, the Blackhawks took advantage and Hayden scored to tie the game up at two. After playing fairly solid throughout the second period, it didn’t take a big mistake for the tables to turn.
• Just a couple minutes after the Hayden goal, the Blackhawks come up the ice and Dylan Strome snipes one upstairs past Talbot from the top of the circle. Strome has been red-hot since he got traded from Arizona and he definitely showed it tonight with that shot.
• Literally a minute after the Strome goal after the Hayden goal, Patrick Kane scored the Hawks THIRD unanswered goal off of a weak rebound from Talbot. Things got out of hand real quick and all of a sudden the Oilers lead turned into a two-goal deficit. Not cool, boys. To kick us while we’re down, Andrew Shaw was standing directly on Cam Talbot in the blue point prohibiting him from making the rebound save. See below for a picture. The Oilers challenged it for goalie interference but it didn’t fly with the refs which I don’t completely understand. To shake things up, Hitchcock pulled Cam Talbot and replaced him with Mikko Koskinen.
• After giving up another early goal, Cam Talbot was absolute fire throughout the first and second period. He was the reason we maintained a lead throughout most of the game. Unfortunately, after a few bad bounces and poor plays, Talbot let three goals past him in a row which gave Hitchcock no choice but to give him the hook. I feel for the guy, he was playing so good and in a matter of minutes, it went down the drain.
• Please don’t make me write this… but shortly after the Blackhawk’s third goal of the period, Drake Caggiula finally scored a well-deserved goal passed Mikko Koskinen. Caggiula planted himself in the high slot and one-timed a pass through the goalie. Caggiula was buzzing all night long and honestly, I wasn’t surprised to see him get one against this former team.
• We had our very first jersey throwing incident of 2019 tonight, and it happened right after the third-period collapse. There’s a video of it below. Listen jersey throwers, I know you’re pissed at this team, but throwing your jersey on the ice is a huge slap in the face to the players, who are working their asses off to try and win games. If you want to protest management for putting us in this horrible situation then find another way than insulting the players.
• With eight minutes left in the third period, Kahun scored the fifth unanswered goal for Chicago to put them up by four goals. Did I mention the Oilers entered the period with a 2-1 lead?
• I think the Face Palmers section has gotten long enough… but the Oilers only took four shots on net in the third period, where the Blackhawks scored five goals.

SCORING SUMMARY